Eddie Argos (Art Brut) Talks with Ezra Furman for The Talkhouse Music Podcast

Two friends and mutual musical admirers compare and contrast their very different ways of making music.

If there’s a running theme in London neo-post-punk band Art Brut’s rock music, it’s rock music. The band’s leader Eddie Argos isn’t just a musician, he’s a big-time music fan. And one of the musicians he’s a big fan of is indie-pop sensation Ezra Furman, whose new album Perpetual Motion People takes inspiration from brilliant, nasal auteurs such as Bob Dylan, the Violent Femmes and Jonathan Richman to make smart, heartfelt music. But his songs are all over the map: sure, it’s indie-pop, but he works in all kinds of sounds: mid-’60s pop, countrified ballads, ’70s glam, doo-wop and sounds from a more recent vintage, like Destroyer and Built to Spill.

Furman and Argos struck up a mutual appreciation society a few years ago when their two bands played some shows together, and it blossomed into a long-distance friendship. With Furman beginning to break through in the United Kingdom, we put the two musicians together for a Talkhouse Music Podcast.

The two musicians found a lot to talk about: the time Furman accidentally got filmed naked, playing live as an opportunity to do something weird, parenthood and its effect on one’s music, the advantages of being pretentious, and why “no” always beats “yes.”

Eddie Argos is the lead singer of Art Brut.

Ezra Furman is a Chicago-based musician whose new album Perpetual Motion People was recently released on Bella Union to critical acclaim. It is outsider music with a pop sensibility, touching on subjects of depression and gender fluidity. You can follow him on Facebook here and Twitter here. His website is here and his page on the Bella Union site is here.