Tag: Suz Slezak

Basic Folk – David Wax Track by Track

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

David Wax Museum’s latest album, You Must Change Your Life, is the duo’s magnum-opus. According to Wax it’s “THE record… The one you dream about when you first fall in love with music.” David also recently suffered a near-death experience that has totally rocked him and Suz Slezak, his wife and bandmate. We ask both Suz and David to reflect on the events and its aftermath. It’s surprising to hear the very different perspectives of how the event changed them both.

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We also go through the new record, which is about dealing with love and mortality in a way that they have been building up to over the course of several albums. It’s some of their best writing on life and death and love. There’s also this really thoughtful relationship with Mexican folk music as American artists. It’s something they’ve been doing since they’ve been a band and it’s done so beautifully on this record. It was so cool to go track by track through the album and great to have our friends David Wax and Suz Slezak back on the pod!

Photo Credit: Anthony Mulcahy

Basic Folk – Suz Slezak (David Wax Museum)

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Suz Slezak is one half of the extremely talented, thoughtful and kind folk band David Wax Museum. Suz, along with her husband David, have been touring and performing their Mexican inspired, Americana folk act since 2009. Along the way, the two got married, had a couple of kids and settled pretty finely into the pandemic with bi-weekly and then weekly live streams. All the while, Suz has been living with her bipolar disorder, which has impacted her life in incredibly unbelievable ways.

 

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She’s also been pretty vocal, especially lately, about how she interacted with her brain health, mental health and treatment for both of those elements, which includes her intense journey with medications. Her Instagram is filled with brutally honest posts about the difficulty of finding meds that continuously help her stabilize her brain. She’s also very willing to share stories from the times where it didn’t matter what prescriptions she was on.

On her new album, Our Wings May Be Featherless, Suz is addressing her life from the perspective of a person who is bipolar, a mother, a touring musician and a creative person. She digs into the power of acceptance, traumatic birth, and grief. In our conversation, we talk about what a special musician she is and how she’s been able to cultivate and keep a childlike wonder alive through her playing. This conversation is heavily rooted in Suz’s journey with her bipolar disorder and you’ll learn a lot about her experience, as she is very open. She addresses the choice to share her experiences publicly and how the sharing impacts her. About the album, she says, “I hope you will also hear the way that a song, or any piece of art, can transform haunting pain into sounds and rhythm, allowing it to finally diffuse. I have needed to make this record for a long time. The relief I feel that it is finally emerging into this physical realm for you to enjoy is immense.” SUZ!

Photo Credit: Tristan Williams