This interview almost didn't happen, by which I mean that I almost didn't strike up a conversation with Octo Octa after seeing her in a pizza shop and ask if we could do an interview later on. A neat thing about festivals, which actually happens almost as much as marketing materials would have you believe, is the unplanned discovery of new acts in the downtime between the ones you're there for. The young lord Mitch Hatch had just sold me on catching Octo Octa's set a little later on when she walked into Pie Pushers and sat down right beside us.

My interview with Colleen was something of a heat check. I'd just come off three straight interview experiences very close to my platonic ideal (all of which have since been published: Matana Roberts, Stephin Merritt, and the Laetitia Sadier interview from the 6/8 issue). In all the excitement, I'd more-or-less forgotten to prepare anything for Colleen, lesser-known as Cécile Schott (besides a lot of listening to her wonderful 2015 album Captain of None).

Suzanne Ciani could be my grandmother, and maybe yours too. No other interview of mine has been preceded by so much genuine interest in my career plans, how I'd liked school, whether I had a girlfriend - an inversion of the usual interview dynamic that would've been uncomfortable in almost any other scenario. Then again, Suzanne Ciani doesn't exactly go by the book.

A few strange things happened during my conversation with Laraaji. First, about halfway through (at the part where he's talking about Switzerland), he smoothly transitioned into clipping his toenails without ever breaking eye contact. Afterwards, in my car, he spent several minutes questioning me intently about the protective capabilities of some Magic: the Gathering cards that I had left in a cupholder.

Laetitia Sadier refuses to be pigeonholed. While most famous as the voice of Stereolab (and thus, the 1990's in general), she's spent twenty-odd years exploring the full spectrum of collaborative (with Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, Common, and Tyler, The Creator) and individual (albums from 2010's The Trip onwards) creative dynamics, leaving behind a broad body of work united by a single constant: her unmistakable voice.

You started playing the fiddle at 3 – was that a family tradition or something that you just picked up?