Amanda Petrusich Talks with the Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Amanda Petrusich describes herself as a “die-hard fan” of folk music, but not when it feels precious or sentimental. That’s why she loves the Weather Station, whose songs, she thinks, “could take a punch to the face.” A solo project of the songwriter and performer Tamara Lindeman, the Weather Station’s new album, “Ignorance,” focusses on the theme of climate grief: Lindeman was responding to a devastating report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about the consequences of elevated carbon levels for human societies. If that sounds heady, Lindeman tells Petrusich that it may be her heritage. “There’s this thread in Canadian music of philosophical songwriting, and that’s how I like my lyrics to be. I like them to be about ideas as well as stories. . . . Most people want songs that just tell a story; they don’t want the complicated ideas. But I do.” The Weather Station performs “Robber” and “Tried to Tell You,” with Evan Cartwright on percussion and Karen Ng on saxophone. This segment originally aired February 5, 2021.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:11.5	One of the year's most exciting releases in indie music comes from the group known as the Weather Station.
0:21.5	The record is called Ignorance, and it came out early in the year.
0:25.6	But if all goes as planned, the weather station will go on tour with it, starting in September
0:29.7	with Bonneroo, and then the Pitchfork Festival.
0:37.3	One of their biggest fans is our music critic Amanda Petrusich, and she's been singing the praises of the weather station for years.
0:46.5	So my first introduction to the weather station, fronted by the singer and songwriter Tamara Lindemann incredibly, I think, almost a decade ago now.
0:56.7	I am a dedicated diehard fan of folk music in all its varied forms, but for me, a lot of
1:02.9	contemporary iterations of the genre can feel a little precious, a little sentimental, and what
1:08.5	I love the most about Lindemann's work is that it contained
1:12.1	a bit of grit, a bit of toughness. I think the first time I wrote about the band, I said one of the
1:17.0	things that I loved about them was it felt like these songs could take a punch to the face.
1:21.5	There was a time you put your hand on the small of my back. I was surprised that you touched me like that.
1:29.1	But there in your hand was occurring of life I could hardly stand of Stacy.
1:34.4	The Weather Station's new record, which is called Ignorance, is an even bigger departure from that traditional folk sound.
1:42.9	And in some ways, it still resembles the folk music that I love so
1:46.0	much that I know has been a formative influence for her. But in other ways, it just feels like a
1:50.8	whole other universe of sound. Thank you so much for doing this, Tamara. I'm thrilled to talk to you.
1:58.4	I'm such a fan, and I find the new record to just be extraordinary.
2:01.9	It's been such a gift to have during this time. So thank you for doing this.
2:06.5	Oh my God. Well, thank you so much. I'm really honored to do it.
2:10.0	This should be fun. So with each of your records, I feel like I can hear you kind of gently
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.