Steph Marziano has produced Sir Chloe’s Swallow the Knife, Jasmine 4t’s You Are The Morning, Vundabar’s Surgery and Pleasure, and Jenny on Holiday’s Quicksand Heart. Additionally, in her early days, she assistant engineered on albums for big names such as The Prodigy, Sam Smith, and Radiohead. Now, she continues to produce and co-write on a wide range of projects, including Hayley Williams’s Grammy-nominated song “Parachute” from the acclaimed 2025 album Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Apart from her technical prowess, what sets Steph apart in the studio (and on virtual calls, frankly) is her ability to make people comfortable; to make them feel heard and like they have something to offer creatively. In this conversation, she reflects on her journey into songwriting, the sounds that inspire her, and what makes someone a “good hang” in audio spaces.

Hrishikesh Hirway is a musician through and through, though that may not be the role that comes to mind when we first think of him. For over ten years, he has created and hosted multiple podcasts, most notably Song Exploder and its Netflix series, for which he has courted such iconic artists as Natalia Lafourcade, The Roots, and Fleetwood Mac to join him as guests and talk shop about their songs, from their most vulnerable early vocals to their final mixed and mastered work. Prior to his podcasting success, he made his own music as The One AM Radio, writing and producing each of his albums himself. With his latest LP, In the Last Hour of Light, produced by Philip Weinrobe [Tape Op #167] and released under his own name, he brings us highly personal songs that showcase his natural storytelling abilities that he has honed through his years of interviewing the greats.

Andrew Sa, in and of himself, is an interesting artist, his talents shaped by his childhood performances at his mother’s karaoke joint then honed through relationships forged in the Chicago music scene as a young adult, all culminating in his debut full-length album American Rough due out June 26th on Bloodshot Records. Add to this that said album incorporates the influences of Mount Moriah alum and revered singer-songwriter H.C. McEntire as well as that of Missy Thangs, former house engineer of Fidelitorium Recordings (Mitch Easter’s place in Kernersville, North Carolina) with the trio’s collective love of Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman, and Patsy Cline coloring the overall tone, and you get something extra special. There’s a crooner sensibility to it, a modern “Countrypolitan” kind of swagger captured using a blend of Fidelitorium’s vintage mics, and also an unabashed queerness communicated throughout. This is an album brought to life in an environment more concerned with care than with power and hierarchies, and while we all agree that it shouldn’t be news for women co-producers and an openly gay man to have helmed such a project, there is an element of pride and authenticity in their having done so as well. The four of us spoke, and joked around, on a virtual call together, and here is the resulting conversation, edited for clarity and concision.

Kito, whose given name is Maaike Kito Lebbing, has a music production career spanning three continents, from Australia, to Europe (London), and to the United States by way of Los Angeles. In that time, she has produced music for many iconic artists, such as Mabel, Jorja Smith, and Empress Of, but 2025 found her landing her first executive production credit on Lily Allen’s much buzzed-about album, West End Girl. We spoke about songcraft, the importance of maintaining a sense of fun while making dance music, and the previous night where she had attended the 2025 ARIA Awards (Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards) with many Aussie music industry friends in Sydney.

Rachel White is an engineer, guitarist, and producer who has lent her talents in the studio to Weezer and Panic! At the Disco, among others (she has even contributed backing vocals to the latter on tour). Now mostly keeping busy as a producer in her own studio space in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, she has worked alongside studio legends such as John Congleton [Tape Op #81], Jake Sinclair, Eva Reistad, Ethan Gruska [#141], and Suzy Shinn [#151]. We chatted about what it’s like to grow up in L.A., seeking out women-led organizations that create opportunities in audio, and, of course, her process and gear.

Clarissa Connelly, the Scotland-born, Copenhagen-based composer, first captured audiences’ attention with her 2018 release, Tech Duinn, and has been creating medieval-tinged multidimensional soundscapes ever since. Informed by her masters' level composition studies at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and influenced by ancient mythologies and holy landmarks alike, Connelly’s work has drawn comparisons to Kate Bush as well as Hildegard von Bingen. With the sonic spaces she has structured since Tech Duinn, from 2020’s The Voyager to 2024’s World of Work (the primary focus of this conversation), Connelly has been moving from exterior to interior sources of inspiration.

Having familiarized myself with the Jason P. Woodbury oeuvre through the years via his editorial home Aquarium Drunkard (to which I sometimes contribute), his funky A/V project Wastoids, and his guest appearances on podcasts including Bandsplain and my very own Wilco Will Love You, it has been great fun to sort the Easter eggs hidden within his latest album, Jason P. Woodbury & The Nightbird Singing Quartet, releasing March 13th, 2026. J

When I first heard about the Resonator Awards in 2024, I had recently interviewed artist/producer SASAMI [Tape Op #157] and production great Jennifer DeCilveo [#161] for Tape Op (the former had signed on to perform, the latter was to receive the All-Star Award), and I was simultaneously thrilled to learn of its existence and gutted to realize that I could not attend. What do you mean We Are Moving the Needle, an organization helmed by legendary mastering engineer Emily Lazar, hosts an award show honoring women, nonbinary, and trans engineers, producers, and artists as well as allies in the music industry as the Grammys continue to (mostly) overlook them?! This might just be the only awards show I care about now!

As a child of Nigerian immigrants, a queer Black person, and a proud advocate for social change, Joy Oladokun has been combating her “constant Little Sister Syndrome” to become a musical force in her adopted home of Nashville, Tennessee. With five studio albums to her name, including 2021’s in defense of my own happiness and 2023’s Proof of Life, she has risen to acclaim by weaving together folk instrumentation and avant-garde elements. Additionally, her albums have featured many guests, including Maren Morris, Chris Stapleton, and Noah Kahan. Oladokun self-produced her latest project, 2024’s Observations From a Crowded Room, highlighting her wide range of skills.

Now based in New Orleans but raised in the Bronx, Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff has crisscrossed the continental United States countless times since the age of 17 – they even spent two years in a hobo band, Dead Man Street Orchestra, touring by freight train. And they're no stranger to the various ways in which artists have to navigate the independent music world: self-releasing records, inhabiting the production space, even founding their own label, Born to Win Records, in 2012.

About ten years ago, New Jersey-born producer and songwriter Jennifer Decilveo pivoted from a degree and career in finance to begin a life in the Los Angeles music scene. Since then, she has collaborated with a multitude of artists, including: Amos Lee, Anne-Marie, Beth Ditto, Bat for Lashes, Ben Platt, Christina Perri, Cold War Kids, Demi Lovato, Fletcher, Hozier, Lucius, Miley Cyrus, Melanie Martinez, and Marina among them. This work has racked up sales, nominations, and award wins.

Kim Deal is the founder and frontwoman of The Breeders, whose landmark album Last Splash turned 30 in 2023. She also spent quite some time playing bass and lending vocals to The Pixies, but she's a massive creative talent in her own right, self-taught and scrappy (before she could even hit the record button, she had to learn to solder cables). With her own inimitable aesthetic as a songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer, Deal continues to make her mark on modern music.

For almost a decade, Meg Duffy has weaved intimate lyrics with imaginative melodies as Hand Habits while also contributing their talents as a guitarist to albums and touring lineups for artists including Kevin Morby [Tape Op #151], Weyes Blood, Sylvan Esso, and more. Their initial forays into home recording, as with their first LP, Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void), have evolved into co-production collaborations, including Fun House with Sasami Ashworth (SASAMI) and Kyle Thomas, as well as their most recent EP, Sugar the Bruise, with Luke Temple [#126]. 

SASAMI, born Sasami Ashworth, has been a sought-after "jack of all trades" in the indie music world since returning to her hometown of Los Angeles following graduation from classical conservatory at Eastman School of Music.