Elvis Costello and Michael Leonhart on the Joy In Music-Making

Elvis Costello’s new album, Hey Clockface, veers through all kinds of musical territory: melancholy ballads, spoken word soundscapes, abrasive rockenroll, and songs with an old time jazz flavor. While most of the songs were written in Helsinki and Paris before the Covid-19 lockdown, Costello also collaborated from a distance with New York trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader Michael Leonhart on some of the songs, as he provided words and vocals over music for Michael Leonhart's new material, like "Shut Him Down." 

For this Soundcheck Podcast, the two discuss their ongoing and wide-ranging collaboration and how the spoken word pieces on the Hey Clockface bring in guitarists Bill Frisell and Nels Cline, with Leonhart evoking Aaron Copland trumpet riffs as part of a soundscape. There’s mention of using the Partch instruments, New Orleans swing, big band horn arrangements that are in a Fela Kuti vein, working with rapper JSWISS, and learning to be more daring while being prepared to feel foolish. Costello and Leonhart remind us that there’s joy in the making of music - even the sad stuff. -Caryn Havlik

Some of the music within the conversation (Mostly from Hey Clockface):