Advertise on podcast: Identified with Nabil Ayers

August Ponthier came out to the world in an article, messaging their mom the day before it dropped: "I just want you to read it before you react… I hope you can love this about me."  On this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, they trace the whole road there: a nuclear-family childhood in a conservative Texas football town, church school every day, and the "classic recession divorce" delivered in a Baskin-Robbins parking lot at nine years old. August and Nabil talk about remaking family on your own terms: growing up adultified and alone, learning that your parents are just people; jazz school in Denton — the most music-filled time of their life — then New York in 2017 with less than a month's rent and a contact list built by DMing Sofar Sounds artists from Texas; the sister who always saw them.   00:00 "I hope you can love this about me"01:27 A nuclear family in Texas02:40 The recession divorce & Baskin-Robbins06:24 Football town, church school09:12 "A huge fan of divorce"10:55 Jazz school, then New York on a month's rent15:43 Coming out via an article20:42 The sister who always knew22:48 Loneliness, Elton John & the record27:57 "Family is a choice" - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. Read more about Nabil:➡️https://www.nabilayers.com/ - #AugustPonthier #Identified #NabilAyers #ChosenFamily #Queer #NonBinary #Podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two days before Thanksgiving, on the night of Thursday's first sold-out headline show at New York's Roseland Ballroom, Geoff Rickly got off the subway to the news that his nana had died, peacefully, in her favourite chair, logged into the band's website. He played the show.  On this special reissue of Identified with Nabil Ayers, the Thursday frontman traces where he comes from, and why the band became the family he never quite had at home. 00:00 Band as family01:16 An only child in New Jersey03:11 Thanksgiving & the Tofurky review04:06 Interviewing his dying grandfather06:18 The ancestor who survived on rats07:51 "Maybe I'm tougher than I think"09:46 The lost book & the last Rickly13:18 His nana & the Roseland show16:15 Latchkey kid: always alone20:27 What is family? The band. - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. -#GeoffRickly #Thursday #Identified #NabilAyers #PostHardcore #Family #Podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vagabon has lived in America most of her life, and still feels like she's from somewhere else. On this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, she traces why: born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, moved to Harlem at nine when her mother, a lawyer,  brought the whole family along to chase her own ambition, then raised between two worlds in one day: American school by morning, Cameroonian food and language at home by night. It's a conversation about carrying a place with you: the grandmother who ran the school inside the family compound; the all-girls Catholic school she couldn't wait to escape (and the classmates who now DM her about her music — "you were so mean to me"); the guitar her parents gave her for graduating with honours, and teaching herself on Taylor Swift songs before she knew Joni Mitchell existed; going home after fifteen years to find she could still walk the compound with her eyes closed; the 300-strong group of first-generation Cameroonians in New York who speak like her, joke like her, emote like her; and why the stories of oral-history cultures can vanish in a single uninterested generation. Her answer to what family means, consistency, is one of the show's best. And then, for the first time, a guest flips the question: Vagabon asks Nabil, and gets the story his whole book is about. 00:00 "I'm from somewhere else"00:45 Yaoundé to Harlem at nine04:12 Two worlds in one day05:48 Her mother's leap06:51 Catholic school & the ledger of enemies08:48 A guitar for graduating with honours11:33 The grandmother's school & stories that skip13:21 Back home after 15 years15:00 The 300 Cameroonians of New York17:30 Family is consistency — and the question, flipped See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a special reissue from Season 1 of Identified. Hrishikesh Hirway has spent a decade getting artists to take their songs apart. On this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, the Song Exploder host takes his own story apart instead. Growing up the child of Indian immigrants in a Massachusetts suburb, a food-scientist father, a mother with a master's in literature working at Sears, in a family he describes as "four fourths equals one." It's a conversation about what happens when the whole fractures. His mother, the family's anchor and storyteller, losing her voice, and the grief he only recognised he'd been accumulating for years; a run of hard autumns since; choosing not to have kids and feeling the numbers dwindle; the guilt of the prodigal son who chose music over medicine; and the first song he'd written in ten years, born from a dream of her. And through it all, the Thanksgiving his family invented, forty people in a small house, two full meals, and his mother's legendary mango pie, which went on to a New York Times tribute and a Salt & Straw ice cream flavour she never got to see. His answer to what family is might be the show's loveliest yet: a sectional couch, a Friday night movie, and everyone squished in. 00:00 "Four fourths equals one"01:04 An immigrant family in the suburbs02:39 Inventing their own Thanksgiving07:12 Exeter at 1309:15 His mother, the anchor13:49 A shrinking family16:08 Choosing not to have kids20:00 Music, guilt & the prodigal son28:12 The first song in ten years30:50 Mango pie & Salt & Straw32:57 What is family? The couch. #HrishikeshHirway #SongExploder #Identified #NabilAyers #Family #Grief #Podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the peak of her musical career, Dawn Richard lost her city. On this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, the New Orleans-born artist traces where she comes from: born and raised in the Ninth Ward, daughter of a Creole mother from New Iberia and a father who fronted the Allen Toussaint-produced funk band Chocolate Milk, parents who met at 14 and 15 and have been together ever since. Dawn opens up about being her dad's after-school roadie while he played every wedding and funeral in New Orleans; the blue-haired punk kid raised by strict Catholic schoolteachers; turning down a softball scholarship and marine biology to stay and sing; hustling her way onto an NBA dance team just to sing the national anthem; the $200 gamble that got her from a roach motel in Orlando to Making the Band; and Katrina, the storm that took the family's home, her father's baby grand, and every Thanksgiving since, but not the thing underneath.  Guest: Dawn RichardHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiCreative Studio: Palm Tree Island  00:00 "I lost my city"01:09 Ninth Ward born and raised02:26 The golden child & the punk kid03:39 Her father, Allen Toussaint & Chocolate Milk05:11 Her dad's roadie08:09 A standing ovation & the fork in the road09:22 The NBA anthem hustle10:57 Idol, Making the Band & leaving home19:33 Katrina: losing everything21:30 "We fight": what family means - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chad Clark's father was Martin Luther King's lawyer, a man who, as Chad puts it, "changed the 20th century."  On this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, the Beauty Pill and Smart Went Crazy musician talks about what it means to make art in the shadow of that kind of legacy, including the thing he rarely says out loud: he never shared his music with his dad. Guest: Chad ClarkHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Produer: Kieron Banerji 00:00 "My dad changed the 20th century"00:34 MLK's lawyer, the atheist & the reverend02:57 Why he never shared his music with his dad03:42 "I was shot at there once"04:52 The Carter years06:57 Harlem, Philly & the family line09:42 A New York childhood12:03 Arlington, and a hard first13:36 The questions he'd ask his father now16:42 "Songwriting equals girls"17:54 Dischord, Ian MacKaye & the privileged-punk verdict Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. Read more about Nabil:➡️ https://www.nabilayers.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brian Aubert of Silversun Pickups doesn't believe in perfect families, just ones where you feel safe and loved. Everything else, he says, is colouring. On this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, he traces where that idea comes from: a childhood in Los Angeles shadowed by his mother's brain tumour, she was given six months in 1980, and lived sixteen more years, and summers in Kailua, Hawaii, inside a sprawling "calabash" family where nobody's quite sure who's actually related. Along the way: the grandfather who drove around Kailua with "Pearl Harbor Survivor 19" on his car, the great-grandmother with hidden whiskey bottles and four husbands, an engineer father "fascinated and terrified" watching his son on stage, the son who draws the band's merch and sleeps through their sets, and why, for a man who performs for a living, family is the one place you shouldn't have to. Guest: Brian Aubert (Silversun Pickups)Host: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiCreative Agency: Palm Tree Island - Check out our Podcast:➡️https://linktr.ee/identifiedpodcast - 00:00 The myth of the perfect family01:33 "Safe enough to be a jerk"02:30 His mom: given six months, lived sixteen years04:18 Two sets of grandparents, best friends05:36 Pearl Harbor Survivor #1906:54 Gran-Nana Leah & the hidden whiskey08:24 A math man watches his son on stage09:41 Nico, the band's youngest artist14:27 Hawaii: island fever & calabash family20:18 A place where you don't have to perform - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. Read more about Nabil:➡️https://www.nabilayers.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam and Casey Harris of X Ambassadors never meant to be in a band together. They were two brothers making music separately in the same house, until Casey started sneaking downstairs to jam with Sam's band.  On this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, they trace how brotherhood became the band. This is a conversation about family as both anchor and choice: growing up in a small upstate New York college town with a film-publicist dad away on sets for months at a time; the acrimonious split their parents hid from them; Sam growing up fast, partly because Casey, the older brother, is visually impaired, and Casey wondering whether they'd be as close if he could see; the raw recent moment of facing their father's mortality; and why being brothers is exactly what keeps the band from breaking up: "we fight, and then we still go on stage together." Guests: Sam and Casey Harris of X Ambassadors Host: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiCreative Studio: Palm Tree Island. - 00:00 Anchors: why family is why they play01:34 Brothers, 20 months apart02:42 Growing up fast07:03 A father on film sets, months away09:00 The split — and staying a phone call away14:06 Facing a parent's mortality17:36 Nabil on meeting his own father19:12 The band they never meant to start25:15 Fighting, choosing, staying brothers29:36 What is family to you? - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon Ronson joins Nabil Ayers on Identified for a conversation about family, fatherhood, growing up in Wales, finding his identity as a writer, and the strange series of events that ultimately led to his new book, The Castle. Jon traces his story back to Cardiff, where he grew up feeling like a square peg in a round hole. He remembers being dropped off alone at a Specials concert at just 12 years old, pretending to faint so he could get over the barrier, and unexpectedly meeting Terry Hall backstage. He talks about escaping Cardiff for London, discovering journalism, writing for Smash Hits, The Guardian and Time Out, and the unlikely turn that took him into Manchester’s music scene as the manager of The Man From Delmonte and keyboard player for the legendary Frank Sidebottom. Jon also opens up about his family: an often-absent father who later apologized, his parents’ award-winning Welsh hotel, an extraordinary family portrait that went spectacularly wrong, his marriage, and his relationship with his son. And then, there is The Castle... Jon tells Nabil about waking up to a series of alarming texts from his son after he and his friends had been lured to a mysterious castle several hours outside New York. What happened there eventually sent Jon himself to the castle, which crafted the orgins of his latest book. Guest: Jon RonsonHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiProduced by Palm Tree Island - 00:00 Jon Ronson's Son and the Mysterious Castle01:25 Growing Up Jewish in Cardiff03:55 Childhood, Fear and Freedom04:51 Meeting Terry Hall at 12 Years Old07:15 Escaping to London09:18 Leaving Cardiff and Finding Journalism11:39 Jon's Relationship With His Father13:15 The Extraordinary Ronson Family Portrait18:36 Returning to Wales19:03 Getting His First Break as a Writer20:18 Frank Sidebottom and the Manchester Music Scene23:37 Marriage, Fatherhood and Moving to New York25:21 The True Story Behind The Castle28:18 What Family Means to Jon Ronson See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hermanos Gutiérrez never planned to be a band. On this episode of Identified, Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez sit down with host Nabil Ayers to trace where their music, and their bond, actually comes from: an older brother who became a father figure, a younger brother who picked up the guitar just to feel close to him, and the day a roommate overheard them playing and said, "you should be a band." Guests: Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez (Hermanos Gutiérrez)Host: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiProduced by Palm Tree Island - 00:00 How Hermanos Gutiérrez began01:47 Eight years apart03:09 The first time they played together04:06 The name, and the accidental band06:09 Their mother, their father09:21 Their grandfather, Luis Alfredo10:45 Where the music came from11:51 Belonging to two cultures13:42 Grief, and "what is family?"16:57 Passing it on to the next generation - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A brand new and exclusive reissue from the Identified archive, with one of our most fascinating guests, Reggie Watts.  Reggie Watts joins Nabil Ayers on Identified to trace where he actually comes from — a military childhood from Germany to Great Falls, Montana; the house he grew up in and still owns today; and the "ship of orphans" of friends who became his real family. This is a conversation about chosen family and belonging: being a biracial kid and a self-styled outsider in a very white place, finding his people in the 1980s post-punk scene, why SLC Punk still means so much to him, and the surprisingly honest thing he says about grief — that losing his mother "didn't feel the way you're supposed to feel," and what he's since learned about being an "internal processor." Guest: Reggie WattsHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiProduced by Palm Tree Island. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Photographer and filmmaker, Nabil Elderkin, joins Nabil Ayers on Identified for a conversation about his Iranian-American identity, childhood in Australia and the United States, family history, the Baha’i faith, vulnerability, creativity and belonging.  Born in Chicago to an Iranian mother and American father, Nabil Elderkin moved to Australia at three and spent his childhood moving repeatedly between Australia and the United States. Nabil talks about adapting to new schools and communities, experiencing loneliness, becoming guarded, and eventually recognising how those childhood experiences impact adult relationships. Nabil also discusses his Iranian ancestry, his family’s Baha’i background, his mother’s experience of leaving Iran, and his complicated relationship with his American ancestry. Guest: Nabil ElderkinHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiProduced by Palm Tree Island - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, Adam Buxton explores family, identity, childhood, boarding school, fatherhood, parenting, class, and friendship.  The comedian, writer, broadcaster, and host of The Adam Buxton Podcast reflects on growing up with a Chilean mother and British father, navigating privilege, and how childhood experiences shaped the parent he is today.   Adam and Nabil talk about his parents’ remarkable love story, his mother’s early loneliness after moving to England, being sent to boarding school at nine years old, discovering lifelong friendships with Joe Cornish and Louis Theroux, and finding a creative community that became his chosen family. Guest: Adam BuxtonHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiProduced by Palm Tree Island Recorded in front of a live audience at Fiction Studios, London. - 00:00 Intro00:48 His parents’ unlikely love story05:51 His mother’s lonely first years in London09:00 Being sent to boarding school at nine12:12 When friends became family17:00 Finding his creative community20:24 Why he should have gone to art school22:00 Looking back at his family history26:00 Understanding his father’s choices30:24 Becoming a parent himself31:39 What family means to Adam -Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. Read more about Nabil:➡️https://www.nabilayers.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Raised in a house with fourteen family members, Daymé Arocena reflects on how music, ancestry, and community shaped the woman she became. n this episode of Identified, Nabil Ayers sits down with Cuban singer, songwriter, and composer Daymé Arocena for a conversation about family, ancestry, identity, music, and leaving home to pursue impossible dreams.   Daymé reflects on growing up in Havana in a house shared by fourteen family members, where singing wasn’t entertainment—it was survival. She explains how music became a daily expression of joy, resilience, and healing, long before she imagined becoming a professional musician.   The conversation explores Cuba’s conservatory system, discovering jazz, embracing her Afro-Cuban identity, and the responsibility she felt carrying her family’s hopes while pursuing a career in music. She also shares how Yoruba spirituality shaped her understanding of success, responsibility, grief, and ancestry.   From stories about her grandmother—the matriarch who inspired her artistry—to reflections on leaving Cuba, poverty, ambition, and becoming “the wildest dream” of her ancestors, this is an intimate conversation about identity, resilience, and the people who make us who we are.   Guest: Daymé ArocenaHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiProduced by Palm Tree Island Check out our Podcast:➡️https://linktr.ee/identifiedpodcast - 00:00 Intro00:35 Growing up in Havana02:18 Living with 14 family members03:30 Why everybody sang05:45 Discovering music06:24 Cuba’s conservatory system08:36 Finding jazz09:45 Embracing her Afro-Cuban identity11:12 Family, pressure and responsibility13:36 The Yoruba idea of carrying your crown15:30 Realising she grew up poor20:27 Becoming her ancestors’ wildest dream20:45 Her grandmother’s legacy23:00 Spiritual traditions and celebration25:33 Grief, transformation and water26:59 What family means to Daymé See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, Florence Shaw of Dry Cleaning explores family, creativity, artistic legacy, collaboration, and identity. Growing up in South London surrounded by generations of artists, Florence reflects on how family shaped her understanding of creativity long before she became the lyricist of Dry Cleaning.   The conversation explores Florence Shaw’s childhood, her family’s artistic heritage, the Royal College of Art, the Great Bardfield artists, collaboration within Dry Cleaning, creative trust, and the challenges of sharing unfinished work.  Guest: Florence Shaw of Dry CleaningHost: Nabil AyersExecutive Producer: Kieron BanerjiProduced by Palm Tree Island - 00:00 Intro00:48 Growing up in South London02:24 The story of being born at home05:06 Childhood with her brother07:00 Growing up in a family of artists12:10 Knowing her grandmother through her artwork15:15 Family stories are never simple18:03 Learning to collaborate in Dry Cleaning20:30 Why the best work comes from letting go22:15 Family, grief and artistic legacy24:15 What family means to Florence - Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging. Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search. Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going. Read more about Nabil:➡️https://www.nabilayers.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.