That's How I Remember It

Alejandro Escovedo is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. As a massive fan, I was very excited to have Alejandro come on and talk about his own memories and how they show up in his songs and stories. We spoke about Mott The Hoople, early punk rock, wanting to be a filmmaker, John Huston, how different producers influenced him, Townes Van Zandt, his imminent memoir, and so much more. A big thanks to Alejandro for taking the time to join me. Please listen and subscribe, we’ve got more great guests coming up in coming weeks!

Scott Z. Burns is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It. Scott is a talented writer/director/producer of films such as Contagion, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Report, The Informant, and more. He’s also a close friend of mine. We talked about his new Apple TV show Extrapolations as well as how he names characters, humpback whales, cleaning otters after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Contagion's resurgence during the pandemic, and hope vs. courage. Huge thanks to Scott for joining me. Lots of great guests coming up, please listen and subscribe!

Kevin Morby is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It, which is a replay of the first ever live version of this podcast. It was recorded during the 2023 On Air Festival at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. Kevin and I spoke about his last record This is a Photograph, writing the record in Memphis, Jeff Buckley, his Sonic Youth superstition, Diane Lane, details he remembers about individual shows, and much more. A huge thanks to Kevin for joining us for such a special show, he was an incredible guest. We’ve got more on the way, so please listen and subscribe!

This week’s That's How I Remember It is a flash episode featuring me and me only. We’re taking a break from guests for a week, so I just wanted to get you caught up on everything I’ve been doing lately and have coming up: live podcasts, the new Hold Steady record “The Price of Progress” and upcoming shows for The Hold Steady and myself solo. We’ll be back with some great guests soon, so please listen and subscribe.

Amanda Shires is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. Amanda is an incredible songwriter and musician. She’s an accomplished solo artist, a member of The Highwomen, and has played fiddle with The Texas Playboys, Billy Joe Shaver, Justin Townes Earle, The 400 Unit, and much more. Amanda’s incredible last record Take It Like a Man was one of the best of 2022. Here we talk about details in songs, Tom Petty, getting an MFA, the role of nature in her songs, and deliberately making songs that are present and rooted in the now. This was a fantastic talk, huge thanks to Amanda for coming on the show. Please listen and subscribe!

Ben Gibbard is my guest on this episode of That's How I Remember It. Ben is the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service, and has written an absolute ton of great songs since DCFC formed in 1997. Most recently, the band released Asphalt Meadows, another great record and also announced a joint Death Cab/Postal Service tour for fall 2023. We had a great talk about van touring before cell phones, going pro as a musician, always finishing writing songs, Scott Hutchison, art living forever, and so much more. A huge thanks to Ben for joining me and for being so thoughtful. I loved this talk, and hope you do too. Please keep listening and subscribe!

Eric Bachmann is my guest this week on That’s How I Remember It. Eric is the lead singer of classic indie rock band Archers of Loaf and has also made music as Crooked Fingers, as well as under his own name. Recently, Archers of Loaf put out the great Reason in Decline, 24 years after the release of their last record. I distinctly remember my first time hearing Archers of Loaf, as well as the first show of theirs I ever saw. We talk about both here, as well as Web in Front, first records, band reunions, legacy, expectations, and so much more. Big thanks to Eric for joining me, this was a ton of fun. Please listen and subscribe, and keep tuning in to That’s How I Remember It.

Welcome back for season two of That’s How I Remember It. I’m thrilled to kick off this season with a conversation with the incredible George Saunders. George has written some of my favorite recent fiction, and his 2022 book Liberation Day is a fascinating story collection that we get into deeply here. We talk about Johnny Tremain, humor in stories, drawing on memories of old jobs, late stage capitalism, gentle revolution, and so much more. We even spoke a bit about songwriting at the end of the episode. I was honored to have such an amazing mind join me here, and I’m so excited to be back with another season of the podcast. Listen, subscribe, and stay tuned for more upcoming episodes.

Katy Kirby will be joining myself and The Uptown Controllers on tour starting next week so I caught up with her on this special flash episode of That’s How I Remember It. Katy was in the parking lot of the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach CA when she dialed in, so there’s a little ambient noise, but that’s life on the road. And perhaps it added to our discussion about learning to sing harmonies, quality of light as a memory trigger, the making of her amazing record Cool Dry Place, the oranges that show up in her songs, and the tour we are embarking on. So cool to speak to one of my favorite songwriters, looking forward to seeing her set each night. Season 2 of THIRI coming up before too long, listen and subscribe.

Today I fly out to start the Uptown Controllers tour this weekend in Odense, Denmark. To celebrate, we’re releasing this flash episode where I have a small chat with Scott Lavene, who will be supporting on most of the dates. Scott is a brilliant songwriter who released one of my favorite records in recent memory, “Milk City Sweethearts”. We talked about the record and the upcoming tour. Check out craigfinn.net for all upcoming tour dates and I hope to see you on the road!

Adam Duritz is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It and I am quite psyched about it. Adam is obviously the singer and songwriter of platinum selling band Counting Crows, and has been making thoughtful and great music for decades now. I met Adam when Counting Crows took THS on tour in Europe/UK in 2009 and was so excited he agreed to do this. We talked about how the details matter so much in songs, each of our first trips to Asbury Park, loving Christmas music, that dog., last year's fantastic Counting Crows EP, bootlegs, and the way that light attaches to a girl. That’s a wrap on season one of That’s How I Remember It; we’ll be back with season two before long. Listen, subscribe, and keep your eye on this space for tour updates, etc. Stay Positive!

Maggie Smith is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It. Maggie is the author of four full length poetry collections, the most recent being Goldenrod from 2021. She also wrote Keep Moving, an essay collection about loss, creativity, and change. Maggie is the author of "Good Bones," a poem that went viral in 2016 and reached a massive audience across the globe; the last line of that poem “You could make this place beautiful” is the title of her forthcoming memoir in 2023. We spoke about writing for yourself first, '80s music, nostalgia as a medical diagnosis, writing as springtime, memorials, saying things out loud when you see them, and a memoir being more of a “tell-some” than a “tell-all.” Great talk, huge thanks to Maggie for joining me. Listen and subscribe to hear even more fascinating guests on That’s How I Remember It.

Tom Perrotta is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. Tom is a fantastic author of at least eight novels, many of which have been made into films and TV series. This includes Election, Little Children, Mrs. Fletcher, and The Leftovers. On this episode we talk about his decision to revisit the Election character Tracy Flick in his new novel Tracy Flick Can’t Win, and his approach. We also spoke about high school reunions, nostalgia, personal narratives, how he uses smaller stories to connect to national conversations, and how TV and film adaptations affect his own relationship with his work. This was such a cool talk; I hope you’ll check it out and subscribe.

That’s How I Remember It is taking a break from hosting guests this week as we gear up for the final few episodes of Season 1. Instead, we are featuring this "Flash Episode," where I talk about the upcoming tour I’m doing with The Uptown Controllers in UK/Europe and North America. Listen up to hear some thoughts on all the dates, the support, the band, and the origin of the band name. Check out craigfinn.net for all the dates and tickets. We will return with an amazing guest next week as we push towards the end of Season 1 in the next few weeks. Listen and subscribe!

Emily Haines is my guest on this week’s That's How I Remember It. Emily is the lead singer and a songwriter in Canadian rock band Metric who have a 20 year career and recently released their powerful new record Formentera. She’s also released solo music as Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton. We talked about writing love songs to friends, searching for a past version of NYC, working out your problems in a song, the '90s, the very many ways you can have your heart broken in modern times, being in a band for two decades, and her performance with Broken Social Scene at Lollapalooza 2006. Huge thanks to Emily for joining, it was a lot of fun and I hope you’ll listen and subscribe.

Allison Moorer is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It, and it’s a great one. Allison is a wildly accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, and author. Beginning her recording career in 1997, she has released 10 albums. In 2019, she published her first memoir, Blood, about her early years and family. Earlier this year, she released her second book, I Dream He Talks to Me, as well as an EP of music she recorded with her son John Henry. We talked about all of this, as well as: memory as a defense mechanism, hiding from life in art, the honesty that shows up in details, and her desire to learn the cello. Huge thanks to Allison for joining us. Please listen and subscribe — we’ve got more great guests ahead on That’s How I Remember It.

John Darnielle is my guest on this week’s That’s How I Remember It. John has been making brilliant music as The Mountain Goats since 1991. Originally a solo lo-fi bedroom project, TMG has grown into a lush rock & roll juggernaut. John has also written four great novels, the most recent being Devil House, which we talked about here. We also talked about activated charcoal, local crime obsession, consciousness of sin, and whether the amazing new Mountain Goats record Bleed Out is their Age of Quarrel. Huge thanks to John for bringing a great conversation here. Listen, subscribe, and stay tuned for more awesome guests on That’s How I Remember It.

Nick Lowe is my guest on this week's That’s How I Remember It. I am thrilled to have one of the all-time great rock & roll songwriters and performers on the show. We talked about the lasting power of “Peace, Love & Understanding,” the way Brinsley Schwarz’s letdown at the Fillmore East may have eventually led to punk rock, touring with Thin Lizzy, “The Bloke” that visits him with songwriting ideas, and the sublime elegance of his later records. It was an incredible honor and joy to spend this time with Nick. Tune in, listen, and subscribe. There are a lot of great guests coming up on That’s How I Remember It.

My guest on this week's That's How I Remember It is Edward “Eddy” Kitsis, who has had a fantastic career as a writer and producer of TV and film. Alongside his partner Adam Horowitz, he has written for television shows like Lost, Popular, Felicity, and more. Eddy and Adam also created and produced Once Upon a Time, which ran for seven successful seasons on ABC, and wrote the screenplay for Tron: Legacy. More recently, Eddy and Adam worked with Steven Spielberg on Amazing Stories for Apple TV. But here’s the twist: Eddy has also been my best friend since 8th grade. We get into the way his memories show up in scripts, how his experience seeing the first Tron in the theater affected the writing on the sequel, Easter candy writing metaphors, the influence of older siblings, '80s concerts, and the mystery of our differing recollections of a Thelonious Monster show from 1994. A huge thanks to Eddy for joining us, this was a really fun episode. Please listen and subscribe, as we have more amazing guests coming up in the next few weeks.

Fred Armisen is this week’s guest on That’s How I Remember It. Fred has accomplished a ton in comedy, TV, and film as a cast member of SNL and creator of shows like Portlandia, Los Espookys, and more. But the story seems to start back when he was the drummer in the band Trenchmouth. We talked here about touring in the '90s, and how that banked a world of memories that he mined to help create his amazing TV series Portlandia. We also spoke about sense memories, early MTV, Tito Puente, the period of his life between Trenchmouth and joining the cast of SNL, and discovering new things about his family history as an adult. Then we tried to figure out why the audience nervously laughs at whatever a lead singer says at a rock show. Such a joy to spend this time with Fred. Please listen and subscribe, and stay tuned for more amazing guests on That’s How I Remember It.