Muses

Dec 04 2024 14 ep. 57 mins 29
Muses Podcast artwork

Dan Smith (Bastille) and Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) discuss the people in the songs on Dan's new project, Ampersand. Each episode is a conversation about history, music, mythology and popular culture, and how those things overlap.
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Intros & Narrators - LIVE

Dec 04 2024 84 mins  
It's the last episode of this series of Muses: An Ampersand Podcast, and so Emma (You're Dead To Me) and Dan (Bastille) are here to talk about the roles of narrators in art and academia. Can you write about people and communities to whom you don't have personal connection? What are the ethics of storytelling? Where do you start with telling someone else's story? All of these questi

Eslanda & Paul Robeson (Essie & Paul)

Nov 26 2024 61 mins  
In this episode Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) are talking about two of the most accomplished people to have ever lived: Eslanda & Paul Robeson, who inspired Dan's song Essie & Paul, which you can hear on Bastille Presents... "&": https://bastille.lnk.to/ampersandstore.Actor, a singer, activist; doctor, author, manager. Catch the Robeson bug f

Marie Curie (Marie & Polonium)

Nov 19 2024 53 mins  
In this episode Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) are talking about scientific genius and double Nobel Prize-winner Marie Curie, who inspired Dan's somewhat accurate song Marie & Polonium, which you can hear on Bastille Presents... "&": https://bastille.lnk.to/ampersandstore.Rejected by her country, she named her (first) world-changing discovery afte

Julie d'Aubigny, with guest Kelly Gardiner (Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze)

Nov 12 2024 64 mins  
In this episode Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) are talking about Julie d'Aubigny, a renowned seventeenth century opera singer, duellist, fake nun, bisexual icon and probable arsonist, who grew up in the court of the Sun King but who couldn't stay our of trouble with the law for long, and who inspired Dan's song Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze, which

Homework Update

Nov 05 2024 39 mins  
It's time to check Dan's homework! Every week, Emma Nagouse been suggesting to Dan Smith - at Dan's request - a new idea for a song. And after eight episodes, it's time to check in and ask: how is Dan doing?Spoiler alert: you're going to hear clips from Dan's new songs about Sojourner Truth, Echo, Artemisia Gentileschi and Bathsheba. Emma and Dan also answer some listener emails -

KAOS, with guest Charlie Covell

Oct 30 2024 51 mins  
In this spooooooooky bonus episode of Muses, Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) take a trip into the underworld in the company of Charlie Covell - the creator of the Netflix series KAOS, a re-telling of Greek myths for which Dan wrote a song, Eurydice.This interview was recorded before news broke that KAOS would not be returning to Netflix, but they still cov

Oscar Wilde (Red Wine & Wilde)

Oct 29 2024 61 mins  
In this episode Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) talk about Oscar Wilde, who perhaps needs no introduction: literary icon, celebrated playwright, convicted criminal. But how did he go from one to the other, and why did Dan write Red Wine & Wilde - which you can hear on Bastille Presents: Ampersand: https://bastille.lnk.to/ampersandstore - about him?Dan

Zheng Yi Sao, with guest Dr. Leon Rocha (Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her)

Oct 22 2024 63 mins  
In this episode Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) talk about the world's greatest-ever pirate: Zheng Yi Sao, who rose from working in a 'floating brothel' to controlling the South China Sea and China's salt trade, and the inspiration for Dan's song Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her which you cannot hear yet - it's not out until the album "&" is releas

Leonard Cohen & Marianne Ihlen, with guest Nick Broomfield (Leonard & Marianne

Oct 15 2024 60 mins  
In this episode Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) are musing about a muse: Marianne Ihlen, who inspired Leonard Cohen to write many of his most famous songs, such as Bird On A Wire and So Long, Marianne. Their relationship inspired Nick Broomfield's documentary Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, which in turn inspired Dan/Bastille's song Leonard & Ma

Edvard Munch (Blue Sky & The Painter)

Oct 08 2024 60 mins  
In this episode of Muses: An Ampersand Podcast, Emma Nagouse (You're Dead To Me) and Dan Smith (Bastille) are talking about the painter of The Scream, Edvard Munch, the inspiration for Bastille's song Blue Sky & The Painter, which you can hear here: https://bastille.lnk.to/BlueSkyHow did his mental health affect his art? Did his work get worse when he was happy? Was he a Nazi?