emma withers says new music! : Someone Says!

Sophie MacKintosh Says

Emma Withers — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:06:39 GMT

Sometimes it’s nice to let other people say things, so here’s a series where I ask people I think are interesting / have great taste, 13 musical questions! This week, it’s writer Sophie MacKintosh. I have loved Sophie’s writing since first reading her short story, “Grace,” in The White Review. Her first book, The Water Cure, landed her on the Man Booker…

Lena Dunham Says

Emma Withers — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:14:11 GMT

Sometimes it’s nice to let other people say things, so here’s a series where I ask people I think are interesting / have great taste, 13 musical questions! This week, it’s writer, director, actress, and producer Lena Dunham, a woman who walks the line between wisdom and wit with aplomb, who has given us some of the most generous, clever and funny writin…

Danya Issawi Says

Emma Withers — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 09:33:17 GMT

Danya Issawi is one of the sharpest, most clear-eyed writers I’ve read, not a hand-me- down opinion in sight! When she’s not writing incisive essays on her newsletter, Mish Mashy, she contributes to New York Magazine’s The Cut, covering fashion, culture, beauty, and profiling the people who make those industries tick. Some of her most vital work, though, has been amplifying Palestinian voices. Start with two of her recent pieces: a Dazed cover story on Mahmoud Khalli, the Columbia student detained for his role in the pro-Palestinian campus movement, and a moving piece for The Cut, where five Gazan women tell the stories of the objects they took with them as they left their lives behind. Below she answers all my musical questions and shares her most used playlist, featuring all her favorite songs from the early 2000s.

1. Which fictional character would you love to make you a playlist?

Esther Greenwood from The Bell Jar. Imagine explaining a playlist to her.

2. You’re having people over, what album do you put on?

This is totally contingent on who is coming over and for what. If I’m cooking dinner, I’m doing one of those cliché, old school Italian-adjacent jazz playlists with Tony Bennet and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. They make me feel like my insides are a sweater. If the girls are coming over for drinks or, honestly, any other reason, I’m putting on a playlist featuring all those early 2000s bops we grew up listening to: Suddenly I See, There She Goes, Perfect Day.

3. You decide to send your crush a song/album to impress them with your exceptional taste. What is it?

Must Be Dreaming by Frou Frou

4. A movie with a perfect soundtrack?

Pride & Prejudice or Nemo.

5. A musician whose wardrobe you'd love to own?

Charli XCX.

6. A song or album that has the power to make you more stylish?

Brat. I’m sorry, that’s so basic to say now, but it’s the cuntiest album I’ve ever heard.

7. You can choose the song your greatest enemy will have stuck in their head for the next week. What is it?

Bad Blood by Taylor Swift

8. What’s the name of your most used playlist?

“Got sent to my room but I’m still hyped” - my favorite songs from the early 2000s

9. What’s something you do that has to have music accompanying it.

Getting ready. I genuinely cannot perceive the passage of time and need something to mark it. Music literally helps ground me in the real world and makes me realize things like “Hmmmmm… I told myself I’d get ready in 15 minutes, but I’ve listened to the entirety of Lorde’s new album… something isn’t adding up… perhaps I should be moving more quickly…”

10. Which artist, dead or alive, would you most like to write a song about you?

Jeff Buckley

11. The music collaboration you dream of?

Fairuz and Joni Mitchell

12. The song/album you currently have on repeat?

The Swimming Song by Loudon Wainwright III and God Turn Me Into a Flower by Weyes Blood.

13. You wish you were this song, but the truth is you're probably this song?

I wish I were a Charli XCX song but I’m probably a Father John Misty song.

Tish Weinstock Says

Emma Withers — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 09:46:51 GMT

Sometimes it’s nice to let other people say things, so here’s a series where I ask people I think are interesting / have great taste 13 musical questions! This week it’s Tish Weinstock aka the most famous goth at Vogue, (not her real title, that would be contributing beauty editor) who keeps things witchy in her answers below.

Photo …

Sofie Royer Says

Emma Withers — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 10:02:52 GMT

Sometimes it’s nice to let other people say things, so here’s a series where I ask people I think are interesting / have great taste 13 musical questions! This week it’s Sofie Royer aka the thinking persons pop star, aka one of my favorite artists. She makes high brow music that you can sing along to, sometimes even dance along to; songs that owe as m…

Gillian Orr Says

Emma Withers — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 09:00:08 GMT

Gillian Orr has great taste in music. I’ve been reading her newsletter — probably the best named newsletter on Substack — Slouching Towards Bethnal Green, for a while now, and when I started thinking about this series I knew she was one of the first people I wanted to ask to take part. While her newsletter covers style, life, beauty, culture and motherhood, it turns out that in a previous life Gillian was an arts writer for The Independent, mainly covering music, and reading her answers you can tell she’s someone who listens broadly and really loves music. She loves it so much in fact, that she made her own playlist! I got very excited about the theme and added a few of my own picks and I reckon it’s the coolest playlist about motherhood you’re ever going to find. It has Kelis on it for goodness sake!

Which fictional character would you love to make you a playlist?

Ochuko Akpovbovbo Says

Emma Withers — Fri, 30 May 2025 09:56:34 GMT

Welcome to a new series where I ask people whose substacks/vibes/taste I enjoy, some fun and revealing musical questions! I also ask them to choose a theme for a playlist I create for them. I’m excited about making some hopefully really strange, beautiful, fun, silly and interesting playlists for everyone. To start, I am delighted to have someone who I …