Going Off Track

The sought-after bassist talks about growing up as a "stereotypical loner-goth-girl" in a remote mining town in Canada, why she quit high school to move to England and how he she eventually met her childhood idol, Courtney Love and started playing with her live.

The Nada Surf frontman discusses what it was like growing up in New York attending a French-speaking public school, recording Nada Surf's debut album High/Low with the Cars' Ric Ocasek back in 1996 and the genesis of the band's hit "Popular".

Rooney's frontman discusses the existence of ghosts, the possibility of the afterlife and impermanence of the universe. He also tells how his brother Jason encouraged him to pick up a guitar, and about starring in The Princess Diaries as a teenager.

The guitarist for Thursday talks about his time in the band and his second career working on reality TV shows. Jonah manages to take if off track towards The Singularity, Godspeed and YouTube.

The Hold Steady frontman, with guest host Benny Horowitz (The Gaslight Anthem) discusses the musical kinship he feels with Paul Simon, the changes he's experienced living in different neighborhoods in Brooklyn over the past fifteen years and David Foster's Wallace's prescient prediction that virtual reality would eventually mimic "real life" so closely it will be hard to tell the difference.

The Gaslight Anthem frontman discusses his upcoming solo album, why your favorite musician probably still has a day job and his frustration with some aspects of music criticism. Fallon also talks about his love of Tom Waits, why signifiers like "popist" and "rockist" are so ridiculous and why he decided to strike out on his own after spending the past decade with Gaslight.