James Graham (The Twilight Sad) with Rachel Goswell (Slowdive)

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we've got an intense conversation between two friends about loss, mental health, and more: It's James Graham and Rachel Goswell.

Graham is the singer and lyricist of the Scottish band the Twilight Sad, whose first full-length came out back in 2007, and who were part of a scene that included their friends in Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks—the common thread being intense, emotional, heart-on-the-sleeve rock songs. They chugged along for a while there, making great records, and were eventually kind of taken under the wing of the Cure's Robert Smith, who loved their music so much that the Twilight Sad has become the Cure's default opening band. But life hit Graham pretty hard over the past decade, with a seven-year stretch that included losing his mother to dementia and a bout of his own with mental illness. Graham eventually began writing songs about it, and the result is the first Twilight Sad record in seven years, called It's The Long Goodbye. It's not necessarily an easy listen, but it's worth it. Check out "Chest Wound to the Chest" right here.

The other half of today's conversation is Rachel Goswell, best known as the singer of '90s shoegazers Slowdive. Slowdive had a pretty weird trajectory, coming up in the same scene that birthed My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and other big players, but never really getting their due back then. But history was justifiably kind to Slowdive, and they re-formed about 10 years ago, picking up a much younger fanbase in the process—theoretically thanks to TikTok and other social platforms. But Slowdive isn't just playing the nostalgia game: They've released vital new music in recent years, and their latest is 2023's Everything is Alive.

In this immediately intense conversation, Graham and Goswell talk at length about how they first got to know each other, about how they become different people on stage, and about their common bond, having both lost their mothers to dementia in recent years. Like I said, it can be intense, but I appreciate their sincerity and openness, and I hope you do too.

0:00 – Intro

2:19 – Start of the chat

3:40 – On how Rachel & James met

4:55 – Staying healthy & finding connection on tour

11:18 – On daily routines to cope with mental health challenges

14:06 – On musician personas & enjoying tour prep

19:54 – On supporting each other while both their mothers had dementia, and the types of dementia

26:42 – On processing difficult memories & mourning for the future

29:57 – On coping with their mothers' dementia during the pandemic

31:18 – On saying goodbye to their moms

33:17 – On living and working with grief

35:24 – On anxiety & working on mental health

36:25 – On "active grieving"

38:42 – On realizing what matters about art after tragedy

40:21 – On finding hope through connecting with new audiences

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to James Graham and Rachel Goswell for talking. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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