ifitbeyourwill Podcast #191 • Mull Historical Society

Some artists write songs. Colin MacIntyre seems to collect entire lives. For more than 25 years, the man behind Mull Historical Society has turned grief, small-town stories, oddball observations, and big melodies into one of Scotland's most distinctive catalogues. Along the way he's become an award-winning novelist, playwright, and the kind of creative who somehow makes writing a musical seem like a perfectly reasonable side project. His latest album, In My Mind There's a Photograph, takes memories shared by some of the world's best writers and transforms them into songs that are funny, moving, and deeply human. We talk about memory, storytelling, growing up on Mull, and why the best songs often begin with someone else's story.

http://mullhistoricalsociety.com/

http://www.colinmacintyre.com/

Building on from the critical success of In My Mind There’s A Room, Mull Historical Society take an interesting approach to this new album; combining lyrical contributions from world-leading authors (including Irvine Welsh, Ali Smith and Louise Welsh) with the lush musical creations of MacIntyre to produce 12 songs of interesting textures and emotional leaps. Standout Charing Cross Canyon is a pop perfect, Prefab Sprout-esque tune for 2026 and Wish We’d Taen Mair, with minimal electro over spoken words, showcase the range of ideas and sounds. With a new book out this year, and a musical in pre-production, MacIntyre really is on a creative high. Excellent. NARC

Teenage Fanclub • Day In The Sun • 2026

Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley have been making music together in Teenage Fanclub for 37 years, and while some parts of being in a band have gotten easier with time, the simplest things can still trip them up. According to Blake, “It’s difficult when it comes to, y’know, coming up with a name for an album. Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.”

The Goods • Summer's Almost Gone • 2026

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Oakland, California power pop outfit The Goods return July 22 with “Summer's Almost Gone,” the first single from their upcoming LP Goodbye Summertime, due September 16 on Dandy Boy Records. Less than a year after releasing their debut full-length Don't Spoil the Fun, songwriter Rob Good pushes the project into new territory, folding Beatles-esque psychedelia, jangling folk rock, sunny indie pop, and the melodic punch of classic power pop into something far bigger than what came before. For fans of The Lemon Twigs, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, Young Guv, and The Apples In Stereo, “Summer's Almost Gone” is the first glimpse of an album written during a period of dramatic personal change and creative obsession.

Celestial Skies • Today's Malaise • 2026

Celestial Skies · Today's Malaise

Charlie Ivan Band • 'Of Nothing’ • 2026

 

At its core, Of Nothing is an album concerned with beauty found inside bleakness. Throughout the record, Ivan returns to recurring themes of longing, love, desperation and the strange futility that shadows everyday existence. It also represents a continuation of a lifelong relationship with songwriting. Ivan credits his mother, who is a songwriter herself, with introducing him to guitar and piano, and the music of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Sinéad O'Connor, Radiohead and Nick Cave, at an early age.

Nanaco Sato • “A Bullet Hole In My Ear” • 2026

The recording sessions were almost entirely spontaneous. I brought a collection of poems I had written, chose one according to how I felt that day, handed it to the musicians, and we began playing. There was no fixed plan. We simply trusted the moment.

When I showed them A Bullet Hole In My Ear, I said, “Let's do this one next.” Someone would start playing a phrase, and the rest of us would instinctively follow, as though we were pushing a boat out into an open current and letting it find its own direction.

Looking back, I think we captured both the emotional depth and the landscape of that poem with remarkable beauty and power. Even though we had never played together before, it felt like a real band from the very first moment we met. There was an immediate sense of trust, freedom, and shared imagination. Those days at Maison Rouge remain some of the most inspiring recording sessions of my life.”

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #190 • Nina Winder-Lind

There are artists who make records, and then there are artists who seem to build entire worlds. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, Nina Winder-Lind joins us to discuss Wild Love, a debut solo album that feels both intimate and expansive. From growing up in Sweden and discovering music through Led Zeppelin and a teenage gang of misfits, to finding a creative home with The New Eves, Nina reflects on mythology, poetry, collaboration, and why the most personal songs often become the most universal.

https://transgressiverecords.com/artist/nina-winder-lind/

“The kind of base line is that I am alive… I’m so alive and I’m so grateful for that. You get to do all these things and feel all these things and you’re in a body and you get to express yourself and you have to or you’re gonna explode.

They’re all love songs, really. Romantic love, love for my family, my friends, love for the landscape. It’s about intense emotional entanglement with other beings.”

 

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #189 • General Chaos

Montreal has always known how to make great punk bands, and General Chaos are proving the tradition is in very good hands. Formed when they were just twelve years old, the trio has quickly evolved from local curiosity to one of Canada's most exciting young punk acts. On this episode of If It Be Your Will, Constantin Blondy joins me to talk about Can't Please 'Em All, growing up in Montreal's legendary punk scene, DIY culture, songwriting, Pouzza Fest, and why honesty—not nostalgia—is keeping punk alive for a new generation. 

https://stomprecords.com/shop/cant-please-em-all-general-chaos/

General Chaos is a group of 16 year olds from Montreal. They come out of a city that raised The Nils, The Asexuals, Planet Smashers, Banlieue Rouge, and The Sainte Catherines; bands that kept Quebec punk loud and self-sufficient through decades of change. That lineage runs through “Can't Please 'Em All” naturally. It is not retro. It is muscle memory.

Swapmeet • Bonny • 2026

"An uncommonly magnetic indie rock quartet...one of this year’s most impressive new acts." - Rolling Stone

“The four close friends have found themselves entering a future so bright and open-ended that their lofty ambition for Swapmeet will only rise.” - The Line of Best Fit ★★★★

"A sublime debut from soon-to-be indie stars." - Far Out Magazine ★★★★

SORRY MONKS • Grass Is Greener • 2026

Recorded between March & June 2026, Grass Is Greener is a collection of 12 songs that evoke the golden age of guitar-pop without veering into pastiche. Stop Look & Listen captures the poignancy of Summer turning into Autumn, wrapped in a tune you might swear you heard once on the Ed Sullivan show. Bird of Paradise is Mamas and Papas meets Between The Buttons era Stones. Careful attention was paid to the running order to ensure a cohesive listen from start to finish and the mixes hold up well in both stereo and mono.

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #188 • Max Subar

Chicago singer-songwriter Max Subar joins If It Be Your Will to discuss his stunning debut album, Anything Could Be, released on Merge Records. We explore the quiet power of solitude, trusting instinct over perfection, and how a frozen lakeside retreat became the foundation for an intimate, expansive record. Max reflects on collaboration, vulnerability, and embracing uncertainty, revealing how the album became both a personal transformation and the beginning of an exciting new chapter in his career. 

linktr.ee/maxsubar

Anything Could Be was recorded across ten days of solitude, but featured additional sessions with his brother Sam Subar on drums, Case Oats bandmates Spencer Tweedy (additional drums),Jason Ashworth (upright bass), and Scott Daniel (violin), as well as frequent collaborators Chet Zenor (electric guitar), Kelly Hannemann (piano), and Sarah Weddle (vibraphone, organ, and electric piano). thelineofbestfit

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #187 • Jaco Jaco

Jaco Jaco's music exists in that rare space where groove and introspection become inseparable. Formerly of the Oklahoma indie-rock band Sports, Jacob Theriot has steadily carved out a solo identity rooted in warm bass lines, psychedelic textures, and songs that wrestle with uncertainty without ever losing their sense of joy. On the heels of his new album, On the Levee, Jacob joins If It Be Your Will to talk about leaving behind the only band he'd ever known, rebuilding his life in Philadelphia, finding confidence as a vocalist, and why the meaning of his songs often reveals itself only after they're written. It's a conversation about creative reinvention, trusting instinct over certainty, and discovering that the best records aren't built on answers—they're built on curiosity.

jacoja.co

ifitbeyourwill Podcast #186 • Widemouth

Chicago's Widemouth joins the podcast to explore the friendships at the heart of their remarkable debut, No Gasoline. Mak Carnahan and Jamie Eder reflect on finding collaborators through a simple flyer, writing songs rooted in memory and community, recording with trust instead of perfection, and why the quiet moments between people often make the most enduring music. It's a thoughtful conversation about growing up, staying grounded, and building a band that feels like home.

https://bfan.link/no-gasoline-album

Ostrea Lake • Wild Flowers • 2014

Django Django • Cameos • 2026

 

"Cameos" captures themes of grief, isolation, memory and the fleeting nature of human connections present in the record. "Like a lot of the album, the lyrics are much more inward looking and about journeying through grief and how important people are only there for part of your story,” says Jim Dixon of the band and the single’s lyric writer.

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ifitbeyourwill Podcast #185 • Knife in the Water

Some records don't age—they deepen. Nearly thirty years after Knife in the Water quietly reshaped the edges of alt-country and slowcore, Aaron Blount joins ifitbeyourwill to revisit the landscapes that first inspired the band and the memories that still echo through its songs. It's a conversation about Austin before it changed, music that refuses easy categories, and the strange privilege of watching old songs find new lives in new listeners.

https://www.knifeinthewater.net/

Ada Lea • copycat • 2026

https://adalea.scfm.me/theendisawave

 

For this EP, I wanted to combine songs that were cut from when i paint my masterpiece, as well as the ones I’d recorded a million years ago when I was just a child. It was to test their fragility. How would they behave next to the other? The old and the new? The brave and the haunted? The impression and the finely sculpted. I also decided to mix three of the songs myself (was it a mistake? you tell me…I says). I’ve been thinking of the kind of artist I’d like to be, and how I’d like to see all artists treated. I am most at home when I am creating and performing, it is what I was born to do. These worlds are opposites. 12th house and 6th, 4th & 10th, the story goes on. I can imagine a future where artists are supported by UBI and they do what they want. A kind of welfare for the serious artists that are not afraid to play. It serves the betterment of society to support artists this way. I know there are others out there, like me, that feel little purpose in their life when they’re not working toward making things. But it’s also near to impossible to make things when you are fighting to protect your energy at every turn, feeling burnt out. stereogum

Utopia PKWY • I Knew You Were Trouble • 2026

"Beckmann’s latest project favors hooks and immediacy while remaining delightfully strange and somewhat damaged" 
-Magnet

"‘I Knew You Would Be Trouble’ introduces the project as something melodic and immediate, but still carrying Beckmann’s taste for warped detail and cinematic atmosphere."
-Psychedelic Baby Mag

linktr.ee/mortalprophets

Fuses • Drive It Into The Ground • 2026

Born out of a long-distance correspondence, Sweden/New York-based transatlantic duo Fuses craft songs that feel like signals sent across oceans. Their debut album ,Sawdust in the Transmission out June 26 via Having Fun Records, the rock imprint of Toronto’s We Are Busy Bodies, bridges geography and emotion with a sound steeped in 60s folk rock and classic country. Echoing the timeless jangle of The Byrds, the pastoral storytelling of Fairport Convention, and the bittersweet warmth of artists like Gram Parsons and Jason Molina, the record connects the Swedish urskog with the Canadian muskeg. Lush vocal harmonies and reverb-soaked steel guitar create a sound that is both melancholic and hopeful, timeless yet uncommon.

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Taxi Girls • Midnight Mixtape • 2026

Montreal's TAXI GIRLS arrive with Static, their debut full-length album, out June 26 on Stomp Records. If the first two singles introduced the band, Static is where the full picture develops. Across ten tracks, TAXI GIRLS pull together giant hooks, sharp songwriting, dual-vocal chemistry, and a deep appreciation for the women who made rock and roll dangerous, stylish, and impossible to ignore. There are flashes of The Runaways, Girlschool, Nikki Corvette, The No Talents, and the melodic punch of classic power pop throughout the record, but never as imitation. These songs feel less like homage and more like continuation.

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