Hrishikesh Hirway

And my guest today is the best-selling author, Emma Straub.

Her books include This Time Tomorrow, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, and more.

And with her husband, Michael Fusco, she co-owns the beautiful Brooklyn bookstore, Books Are Magic.

I'm so thrilled to have her on because not only is she a wonderful writer, but Key Change is a series about music fandom and identity.

And Emma's newest novel, American Fantasy, is also about music fandom and identity.

That story is set on a cruise ship centered around a 90s boy band and their fans.

But today, Emma's going to tell me her story about her own relationship with the music of the Magnetic Fields.

Stephen Merritt from the Magnetic Fields was just named one of the greatest living American songwriters by the New York Times.

And Emma's introduction to their music was the 1999 triple album, 69 Love Songs.

Thank you so much for being here, Emma.

Do you remember the first time that you heard The Magnetic Fields?

And what were people saying?

Are you the kind of person when you hear hype like that, is your instinct to say, I want to know more about that.

I want to know what everybody's so excited about.

Or are you someone who's like, oh, everybody likes it.

That means I'm probably going to actually make a little bit of an effort not to listen.

Do you remember a moment where you actually heard the band and you thought, oh, it turns out this thing I was maybe avoiding, I do like?

What else were you listening to before you got into the Magnetic Fields?

What were some of your other favorite bands?

And so when you heard Stephen Merritt's voice and you heard him singing, did it feel like something different or did it feel like an extension of that particular kind of love?