For Episode 4 of Welcome to the Hen House, we're in the studio in Venice Beach with Amelia Baker, the mind behind the doom folk project Cinder Well. Cinder Well's new album on Hen House Records, A Blooming Body, has been making waves with its depictions of a haunted Los Angeles, songs driven by grief and memory. We talk a bit about her roots in Irish music and how that informed her breakout album, No Summer, but also about how returning to Los Angeles and taking up surfing again has informed the new music she's making. She opens up about her roots in the early 2000s Santa Cruz folk punk scene, forming her own band Gembrokers and touring with seminal folk punks Blackbird Raum.

Enjoy this chat with Cinder Well and be sure to check out her new album, A Blooming Body!

The Welcome to the Hen House podcast is produced by Harlan Steinberger and Devon Léger and probably was recorded at Hen House Studios in Venice Beach. Follow Hen House to find out more about new music coming on the label!
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In 2024 Los Angeles recording engineer/producer and record label director Harlan Steinberger spent ten days at Jacaranda Studios in the outskirts of Blantyre city recording as many Malawian artists as possible. In 2026, Hen House Studios released the first recordings from these sessions as the compilation album Sounds of Malawi, Vol. 1. For this episode of Welcome to the Hen House, we chat via a very long distance Zoom call with Luc Deschamps, the director of the Jacaranda Foundation and Studios where the album was recorded, and Malawian ethnomusicologist Waliko Makhala who helped produce the album. Waliko in particular has led an amazing life traveling all over Malawi trying to preserve and support Malawian musical traditions before they're lost. He's an expert in Malawian music and dance and breaks down some of these traditions for us on the podcast. As Malawi is one of the least-known African nations, it's a real treat to get an insider's perspective on all of the country's beautiful cultures.

The Welcome to the Hen House podcast is produced by Harlan Steinberger and Devon Léger and probably was recorded at Hen House Studios in Venice Beach. Follow Hen House to find out more about new music coming on the label!
https://www.henhousestudios.com/

https://www.instagram.com/henhousestudios/

https://www.facebook.com/HenHouseStudios/

https://www.tiktok.com/@henhousestudios

Sunny War and Hen House Studios go together like Venice Beach and boardwalks? Both Sunny and Hen House have deep roots in Venice Beach and Hen House was Sunny's studio of choice when she released her first major album, With the Sun, back in 2018. She'd go on to release three more albums and an EP with us over the next years and she's a bonafide family member of the label at this point! But before all that, she was just a teen in Los Angeles falling in love with punk music and forming a band with her high school friend Brian Rodriguez. The name of that band? Anus Kings! Now that Hen House Studios has re-released Anus Kings' 2013 album Days of Rain, we caught up with Sunny to talk about the unusual musical roots that inspired her and how Anus Kings paved the way for her future career!

The Welcome to the Hen House podcast is produced by Harlan Steinberger and Devon Léger and probably was recorded at Hen House Studios in Venice Beach. Follow Hen House to find out more about new music coming on the label!
https://www.henhousestudios.com/

https://www.instagram.com/henhousestudios/

https://www.facebook.com/HenHouseStudios/

https://www.tiktok.com/@henhousestudios