Arts & Culture

Dan Boeckner on his solo debut album, 'Boeckner!'

XPN | By Raina Douris,

Miguel Perez

Published April 25, 2024 at 9:43 AM CDT

Dan Boeckner's debut solo album, Boeckner!, is stylized with an exclamation point — almost like he's bursting onstage and you're meeting him for the very first time.

But there's a good chance that you've heard Boeckner's music before — the Canadian musician has been in a lot of bands. He's perhaps best known as the frontman of Wolf Parade, but also a part of Handsome Furs, The Operators and Divine Fits.

In today's session, Boeckner reflects on why he's started so many musical outfits over the years, why he wanted to release a solo album now, and how this album is a culmination of everything he's done so far.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

Arts & Culture

Raina Douris

Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She is also involved with Canada's highest music honors: Since 2017, she has hosted the Polaris Music Prize Gala, for which she is also a jury member, and she has also been a jury member for the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.

See stories by Raina Douris

Miguel Perez

Miguel Perez is a radio producer for NPR's World Cafe, based out of WXPN in Philadelphia. Before that, he covered arts, music and culture for KERA in Dallas. He reported on everything from the rise of NFTs in the music industry to the enduring significance of gay and lesbian bars to the LGBTQ community in North Texas.