Laura Veirs Discusses Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra, Promises

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This week’s guest is Portland-based singer, songwriter, author, podcaster, educator and visual artist Laura Veirs, and she chose the 2021 release Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra for her album deep dive. Laura talks about her recent explorations of EDM and how that led her to listening to Floating Points and, ultimately, to Promises. She discusses the elements of Promises that make it an enthralling listening experience for her, as well as how the album has helped to her to reconnect to her own music. That reconnection resulted in the making of Temple Songs (released Aug. 14), and Laura delves into her process of writing and recording songs for the album.

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1:22 Laura’s introduction

2:38 Laura discovered Promises by way of Floating Points’ EDM work

5:06 Laura was also drawn to the album due to her interest in Pharoah Sanders

7:45 Laura talks about the relationship between Sam Shepherd and Sanders

9:32 Laura was impressed by the use of silence and human noises on Promises

14:16 Laura hears some elements of EDM in Promises

17:50 Laura revisits the moment when she decided to pick this album

19:39 Listening to the album sparked a greater interest in Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders

21:53 Promises helped Laura to reconnect with music after a period of burnout

25:00 Laura talks about how she wound up making Temple Songs

27:43 Laura focused on her performances and not on gear when making her album

32:18 Laura explains why she didn’t mix Temple Songs

36:27 Laura talks about the “No Masters” theme of Temple Songs and why she decided not to make that the name of the album

44:41 Laura discusses the upcoming reissued version of the case/lang/veirs album

47:57 Laura talks about her videos and upcoming tour dates

Outro music is from “Arc Still Bends” by Laura Veirs.

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