Musician Jack River has launched a new podcast, in an ode to art as activism. To Rebel In The Times is an independent platform talking music, change and the age we're living through.
Jack River - real name Holly Rankin - was inspired to launch the podcast in a stretch of time without touring due to Coronavirus restrictions. The will for change has long inspired her songwriting, she says. But a recent interview with Peter Garrett provided the spark to further examine music's relationship to social change.
"We are living in such a huge time, undergoing intense culture shifts, wrangling the upheaval of old ideas and (hopefully) replacing them with something better."
"With To Rebel In The Times, I wanted to know where artists’ minds are at," Rankin explains. "Especially the artists who have made it their life and art’s work to create change, and why it is so important to them that they use their voice, that they stand up and not only say something, but do something."
To Rebel In The Times' first season - Sounds of Change - brings together Rankin's musical contemporaries on subjects close to their own hearts.
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In episode one, out today, Cub Sports's Tim Nelson talks love and undoing gender constructs. Next week, Alaskan musician and activist John Gouley of Portugal. The Man will discuss Indigenous land rights. And in episode three, Kita Alexander will join Jack River to speak on motherhood and feminism in music.
Australian musicians and performers Briggs, Ziggy Alberts and Alex the Astronaut will join Jack River on the podcast in episodes to follow.
"I want to make a little space for deep conversation," Rankin explains of the format. "And make time to talk about the complexities and drives of change in this time we are living in."
You can stream To Rebel In The Times on Spotify and Apple. And tune into associated Q&As with artists on the To Rebel In The Times Instagram.
