John Morgan Roderick (born September 13, 1968) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, podcaster, and politician. He is the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band The Long Winters, was a touring member of the rock band

Harvey Danger Harvey Danger was an American alternative rock band that was formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1992 by journalism students at the University of Washington. The band rose to prominence in 1997 with the single " Flagpole Sitta", which was later u ...

, and co-hosts the podcasts ''Roderick On The Line'', ''Road Work'', and ''Omnibus''.

Early life

Roderick was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

on September 13, 1968, the son of Marcia and

David Roderick David Roderick (born 1970) is an American poet from Plymouth, Massachusetts, who taught for nine years at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Previously, he had lectured at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, as the Kenan V ...

. His father was a

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Northwestern United States, Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first President of the United States, U.S. p ...

legislator and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

veteran. His mother was a computer programmer who eventually rose to an executive position working for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Roderick has three older half-siblings from his father, and a sister, Susan. In 1971, the family moved to

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring ...

. In 1973, Roderick's parents divorced and his mother took John and Susan back to Washington state, but returned to Anchorage shortly after. He graduated from East Anchorage High and moved back to Seattle. Roderick enrolled at

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) () is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, an Italian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, the ...

in 1987, but left after two years. In 2019, Roderick graduated with a BA from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

after three decades of undergraduate study.

Career

Western State Hurricanes (1997–1999)

Roderick's first major band was The Western State Hurricanes, which he started while attending the

. The band enjoyed quick success, playing their first show at Seattle venue "The Breakroom" in May 1998. The band split after failing to sign a deal with

Sub Pop Records Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

. Having recorded an unreleased album in the late 1990s, Roderick was prompted by Pete Greenberg to remaster their debut album, ''Through With Love'', which was announced in late 2019 by Latent Print Records. In February 2020, the band regrouped to perform shows, including a recorded performance on

KEXP KEXP-FM (90.3 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys for the Seattle metropolitan area. The station is owned by the no ...

Harvey Danger (1999–2001)

After the disbanding of The Western State Hurricanes, Roderick was offered a spot to play keyboard in popular Seattle band

. Roderick played with the band until they went on hiatus in April 2001.

The Long Winters (2001–present)

Along with former Harvey Danger singer/songwriter Sean Nelson, Roderick founded the indie rock band The Long Winters in the wake of Harvey Danger's breakup. Roderick penned the band's first album, '' The Worst You Can Do Is Harm'', in 2001 and released the album on

Barsuk Records Barsuk Records ( ) is an independent record label based in Seattle, Washington, that was founded by the members of the band This Busy Monster, Christopher Possanza and Josh Rosenfeld, in 1998 to release their band's material. Its logo is a drawi ...

. The band since released two more albums, ''

When I Pretend to Fall ''When I Pretend to Fall'' is the second album by indie rock band The Long Winters. It was released on Barsuk Records in 2003. Track listing # "Blue Diamonds" – 3:49 # "Scared Straight" – 4:17 # "Shapes" – 4:03 # "Cinnamon"& ...

'' (2003) and '' Putting the Days to Bed'' (2006), and one EP titled '' Ultimatum'' (2005). The band still plays shows, playing at the inaugural Upstream Festival in 2017.

Podcasts

Merlin Mann and John Roderick (16507109485)

In September 2011, Roderick began co-hosting the ''Roderick on the Line''

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

with Merlin Mann. On August 13, 2015, he released the first episode of his second podcast called ''Road Work'', with co-host Dan Benjamin. On September 7, 2017,

HowStuffWorks HowStuffWorks is an American commercial infotainment website founded by professor and author Marshall Brain, to provide its target audience an insight into the way many things work. The site uses various media to explain complex concepts, termin ...

announced a new show entitled ''Omnibus'', co-hosted by Roderick and former ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

'' champion

Ken Jennings Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (born May 23, 1974) is an American game show host, author, and former game show contestant. He is the highest-earning American game show contestant, having won money on five different game shows, including $4,522,70 ...

. They pick topics they fear might be lost to history and discuss them. The first episode was posted on December 7, 2017. Roderick, along with Adam Pranica and Benjamin Ahr Harrison, presented ''

Friendly Fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while en ...

'', a weekly podcast about war films that ran from January 12, 2018 to January 22, 2021.

Musical collaborations

Roderick frequently collaborates with other musicians. Along with collaborator Sean Nelson, he provided vocals on

Death Cab for Cutie Death Cab for Cutie is an American rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. The band is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (ke ...

's album ''

Transatlanticism ''Transatlanticism'' is the fourth studio album by indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, released on October 7, 2003, by Barsuk Records. At this point in their career, the group had toured and recorded for nearly a half-decade. With tensions risi ...

''. He also collaborated with

Jonathan Coulton Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970), often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are " Co ...

for Coulton's album ''

Artificial Heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, exper ...

'', released in September 2011, as well as the duo's Christmas album ''One Christmas at a Time''. Roderick co-wrote the song "Poor Judge" on

Aimee Mann Aimee Elizabeth Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyr ...

's 2017 album ''

Mental Illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

''. Roderick co-wrote "Soft Place to Land" for

Kathleen Edwards Kathleen Edwards (born July 11, 1978
) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. Her 2002 debut album, ''

SOCAN Echo Songwriting Prize.

Political career

Roderick became a founding member of the

Music Commission in 2010, appointed to the position by former Seattle Mayor

Mike McGinn Michael McGinn (born December 17, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician. He served as mayor of the city of Seattle, Washington, and is a neighborhood activist and a former State Chair of the Sierra Club. In what was characterized as a "s ...

. In 2015, encouraged by McGinn, Roderick announced his candidacy for

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-la ...

Position 8, one of two city council positions that represent the entire city. He came in third place in the citywide primary, winning 15.90% of the vote.

Personal life

Roderick currently lives in Seattle with his daughter. In 2017, he was honored with the position of King Neptune for the 2017 Seattle Seafair. In January 2021, Roderick posted a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

thread in which he discussed preventing his nine-year-old daughter from eating until she learned to open a can of

baked beans Baked beans is a dish traditionally containing white beans that are parboiled and then, in the US, baked in sauce at low temperature for a lengthy period. In the United Kingdom, the dish is sometimes baked, but usually stewed in sauce. Canned ...

using a manual can opener by herself, which he estimated took six hours. His comments were met with a large outcry on Twitter, and some users began derisively referring to Roderick as "Bean Dad". Following the controversy, the podcast ''

My Brother, My Brother and Me ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'' (often abbreviated as ''MBMBaM'', pronounced ) is a weekly comedy advice podcast distributed by the Maximum Fun network and hosted by brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy. Regular episodes of the p ...

'', which had previously used The Long Winters' song "It's a Departure" from the album '' Putting the Days to Bed'' as a theme, announced that they would be removing the music from the show. ''Friendly Fire'', which was co-hosted by Roderick, went on a brief hiatus before announcing on January 22 that it would not be returning. Roderick posted an extensive apology to his website addressing the controversy as well as his self-described "

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

, hurtful and slur-filled tweets" that had resurfaced at the same time.

References

External links

Interview with John on Mammothpress.com

4-part Interview on The Merlin Show by Merlin Mann

Feature in The Stranger by Jeff Deroche

Interview in The Believer by Litsa Dremousis, June/July 2005

Podcast with Merlin Mann: Roderick on the Line
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roderick, John 1968 births 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American male writers American male guitarists American podcasters American rock guitarists American male singer-songwriters Candidates in the 2015 United States elections Guitarists from Washington (state) Harvey Danger members Living people Musicians from Anchorage, Alaska Politicians from Seattle The Long Winters members The Minus 5 members Writers from Anchorage, Alaska Writers from Seattle Singer-songwriters from Washington (state)