Listen: Aaron Lee Tasjan on World Cafe

[NPR]

By Stephen Kallao

Aaron Lee Tasjan has a way with words and on his latest album, Karma For Cheap, he walks a fine line between timelessness and a record very much of this moment. For instance, one of his new songs is called “The Truth Is So Hard To Believe.” It’s easy to think about post-truths and fake news with a title like that as a chorus, but to Tasjan, the song is about something a little more personal. He says he wrote it about the truths you tell and don’t tell yourself – and making the effort to recognize the difference between the two.

If that makes you pause for a second, well so will the sound of Karma for Cheap. The album challenges the notion of what a traditional indie folk Americana artist should sound like. It’s a departure from his acclaimed sophomore album, Silver Tears, and adds elements of jangle pop, psych and straight-ahead rock with touchstones that remind us of The Beatles and Tom Petty.

It was wonderful to hang with Tasjan on the stage of World Cafe Live in Philadelphia and I’m excited for you to hear our conversation. But first, let’s get started with one of the new songs live. Hear it all in the audio player.