416 - Tom Waits - Mule Variations - Chris Sullivan
LISTEN + SUBSCRIBE ON SPOTIFY HERE
EPISODE SUMMARY:
Music comes in so many forms that when you hear something truly unconventional it might seem harsh or even overwhelming. Imagine, then, building a career on being unconventional. For Tom Waits, with a voice like gravel in a cocktail shaker and a penchant for telling tales about life's dark underbelly, the conventional path never seemed like much of a possibility, throughout a near 50 year career. Yet the experiment folk and blues rock exemplified in his 1999 album Mule Variations have fueled the growth of a rabid cult fanbase, including actor and musician Chris Sullivan. Chris has mined the raw humanity and gallows humor of Tom's one-of-a-kind songwriting for many of his own roles, including NBC's much-beloved TV series This Is Us, Showtime's The Nick and the Marvel Entertainment film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
SHOW NOTES:
00:00 – Intro
04:30 – Finding your hero on PBS
08:30 – So weird it’s cool
13:30 – 100% singular
19:45 – Unprecedented collaboration
30:45 – Bringing the real world to the scripted world
39:00 – Sticking out in a crowd
45:15 – Connected disconnection
50:30 – Trey Anastasio is hard to impress
56:45 – Losing a limb to the job you love
1:05:00 – A song a day for 30 days
1:08:45 – Educate yourself about the world
1:12:45 – Facts!
1:15:15 – It’s Taser Face!
1:17:15 – Outro
ALBUM STREAM - MULE VARIATIONS:
NEW ARTIST INFLUENCED BY TOM WAITS:
“Ketamine” by Mark Lanegan