Bristol, UK’s Tara Clerkin Trio first came to our attention last year when they received an invitation from the Big Ears Festival to play its 2025 edition, and, upon listening to their 2023 EP On the Turning Ground as a means of introduction, we were immediately smitten. Members Tara Clerkin, Pat Benjamin, and Sunny-Joe Paradiso have synthesized elements of minimalism, dub, and more traditionally melodic genres to create sounds that are simultaneously patient, intimate, and seductive. Hear how songs by Casino Versus Japan, Frederic Galliano, and Durutti Column were formative for them. They’ll be playing this year’s Big Ears Festival on Friday, March 27, 2026.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While to the casual observer it might seem as if New Zealand’s The Beths appeared seemingly out of nowhere in or around the summer of 2023, they’ve in fact been making their extremely catchy brand of indie pop for almost ten years now. The Auckland-based quartet’s most recent album, Straight Line is a Lie, was released last year by Anti-. We spoke to founding members Liz Stokes and Jonathan Pearce for this episode in which they talk about how songs by Rilo Kiley, Ben Folds Five, and The Shins--among others--were formative for them.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Colombia-born singer and musician Lucrecia Dalt began her musical career seemingly suddenly, at least when observed from a distance as a simple biographical factoid: as a civil engineer, she worked in a geotechnical company until giving it up to become a musician. While the exact details of that situation are likely considerably more nuanced, it nevertheless serves as a metaphor for her ambitious and ever-forward artistic inclinations. This is particularly true in her 2021 collaboration with Aaron Dilloway, Lucy & Aaron, which took her work deeper into more fragmented, abstract territory. She continues on this path with her newest release, A Danger to Ourselves, which was released in late 2025. On this episode, she talks about how songs by Rocio Durcal, PJ Harvey, and David Sylvian informed her sensibilities. Dalt will perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN in March of 2026.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.