The Merlin Show

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Merlin talks with Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats about building a sustainable career in independent music, how prolific recording and touring keeps the lights on, and how having the right fan base (and a little bit of luck) makes all the difference.

• Since 1995, Peter has played bass in The Mountain Goats, alongside the band’s founding singer, songwriter, and guitarist John Darnielle. Here’s the band’s bio page.
• The Mountain Goats’ latest record, Get Lonely, is out on 4AD and available on iTunes, Insound, Amazon, and at your finer retailers everywhere.
• Peter’s own site, Five Tools is a lot of fun and includes many of his wonderful photos.
• “Recoupment is the practice, common in the music industry, of claiming an advance provided to an artist back from that artist rather than (or, as well as) from related sources.”
• The beautiful video featured at the end of our segment is for the song “Woke Up New” and it’s directed by Rian Johnson

Video for “Woke Up New” from Get Lonely

Directed by Rian Johnson

Video for “This Year” from The Sunset Tree