Ladytron have never followed a conventional path to longevity. That’s good, because there isn’t one. This band has worked through cycles - creative surges, enforced pauses, patches of momentum, a hiatus, and reinvention. The unglamorous realities of sustaining a working band across decades. Daniel Hunt has been through these cycles a few times and knows how to press reset. “Every record has its own story,” he says, adding, with understatement, that “every record has to involve someone having a breakdown.”

Generally true, except not this time around.

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The book of the podcast, Riding the Rollercoaster, is now available.

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Ólafur Arnalds reflects on creativity, the changing music landscape, and the deeper emotional connection we risk losing in a hyper-digital world. This conversation unfolds less like a traditional interview and more like a meditation on what music is—and what it could still become.

Arnalds speaks candidly about the role of streaming platforms in his career. Algorithms have elevated his genre (neo-classical) to global visibility, but they’ve also introduced fundamental creative pressures (he recalls feeling compelled to include more “streamable” tracks on his 2018 album re:member, particularly solo piano pieces, simply because of how they perform on playlists). Over time, Arnalds has became wary of how easily those expectations can seep into his own creative thinking.

More broadly, he gently critiques the culture of passive listening. Playlists designed for focus or relaxation often generate vast numbers of streams, yet little real connection between artist and audience. The result is a strange disconnect: access without identity - a sort of weirdly tuned-out form of listening.

So, with host Keith Jopling, this conversation looks to find ways to place music back where it needs to be: nourishing, useful, enabling artist to tell their stories, break down emotional barriers and build community. We discuss how Ólafur's new groundbreaking world tour "Falling Apart Together" aims to achieve just that! We also test some of the themes of longevity as written about in Keith's new book Riding The Rollercoaster: how artists survive the music business to become the legends we love.

Possibly the best episode yet.

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In an era dominated by playlists, TikTok, Reels and Shorts, reduced attention spans and endless content, Karnivool doubled down on the album as a complete statement - the album as the antidote. As Drew Goddard says. “In the age of content, I thought it was even more important to release an album.”

For Karnivool, the album remains more than a collection of tracks. It is a long-form quest (in this case, lasting 12 years), both for the band and the listener. “I struggle with focus,” Goddard explains, “so committing to a long-form thing was important. Something that could hold people captive for a little bit. Stop them in their tracks.”

At this point, it hits hard just how much work goes into the making of an album, especially one as epic as In Verses. With each passing year, Karnivool fans' patience was tested and their expectations, inevitably, notched upwards.

I don’t think anyone will be disappointed, but perhaps it would help for the band to crack on towards the next album…soonish.

Despite the long wait, the band insists they weren’t consciously responding to external pressure. “We weren’t really thinking about the stakes,” Jon Stockman says. “We were so embroiled in the process itself.”

After 12 years, the achievement is not just the record itself. “We’re still friends,” Stockman notes. “We’re still enjoying it.”

In a career defined by patience and precision, simply arriving together for a new album and what many may see as a career-defining tour, may be Karnivool’s greatest artistic statement yet. And that may be an understatement.

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