The Tone Mob Podcast

What do you get when you mix a family legacy, a near business collapse, and a piece of gear most people treat like an afterthought? Something that refuses to disappear. This week, I’m talking with Danny Songhurst, the man behind The Rock Slide, a company that didn’t just survive but quietly carved out its own lane in the guitar world. We get into how a simple idea, fixing the sloppy feel of tradit...

In this episode, Dan Tremonti shares the full story behind FRET12, from its early days creating The Sound and the Story to building a full-blown music culture brand rooted in community, storytelling, and craftsmanship. Along the way, he breaks down how working with artists evolved into building a loyal fanbase, launching original products, and eventually opening a one-of-a-kind retail space inside...

Jordan Buckley is back for Part 2, and this time the conversation heads somewhere unexpectedly hopeful. After years of noise, pressure, and carrying things that don’t travel light, Jordan talks about what it actually feels like to start setting some of that down. The recent Better Lovers shift becomes less about endings and more about perspective. About realizing not everything is meant to last fo...

Jordan Buckley is back for round two, and what starts as a classic Tone Mob conversation slowly reveals a little more weight under the hood. In this episode, Blake catches up with Jordan about life in Better Lovers, finally taking guitar more seriously, learning from the absurd level of talent around him, and why picking the instrument back up with fresh eyes has changed everything. They also wand...

This week, we’re digging way, way back into the vault for a proper Tone Mob reissue. While I was in Nashville helping move the Stringjoy shop, I needed something special for this week’s episode and decided it was finally time to revisit one of the oldest artifacts in the archive: episode two. Yep, the second episode ever. In this early conversation, I’m joined by my good buddy Chris Benson of Bens...

This week on The Tone Mob Podcast, Blake hangs out with Colt Westbrook of Walrus Audio for a conversation that wanders through guitar pedals, business experiments, digital rigs, tube amps, customer service philosophy, and the delicate art of telling your friends they can’t just show up at the factory and hang out all day. Colt walks through how Walrus has evolved over the years, from the early day...

Steve Sladkowski of PUP joins Blake for a conversation about the strange business of building a life out of noise. This one wanders into the good stuff. The human stuff. The part nobody puts on the laminate. Imposter syndrome. Burnout. Getting older. Learning that rest is not the same thing as quitting, even if your brain, like an underqualified middle manager, keeps sending panic memos in all cap...

RJM’s Ron Menelli: The MIDI Wizard Behind the Pros’ Pedalboards Description Ron Menelli from RJM Music joins Blake Wyland to tell the long, nerdy, wildly practical story behind one of the most essential “behind the curtain” brands in modern guitar rigs. Ron walks through his early days building circuits from Radio Shack notebooks, studying electrical engineering and computer science, and eventuall...

Kris Crummett is on the show, and this one rips. Kris has been in music for basically his entire life and has worked on records by Issues, Sleeping With Sirens, Dance Gavin Dance, Alesana, Jonny Craig, Emarosa, Night Verses, and a whole lot more! If you’ve ever wondered why one record punches you in the chest and another one sounds like it got sat on, Kris explains exactly why. We go deep on his p...

Ian Martin Allison is back, and this episode is a full-on gear-nerd thunderstorm with actual life lessons hiding in the lightning. Blake and Ian go deep on signature basses, the Walrus Mantle DI drama, and the eternal internet question: “Why is this thing expensive if it only has a few knobs?” Turns out, transformers cost money. Craft costs money. Not cutting corners costs money. And sometimes the...

Episode 500, baby. And we brought in Henri Cash (Starcrawler, Plague Vendor, Cash & Skye) to celebrate the only way this show knows how: by diving headfirst into glorious guitar chaos. This episode has everything. Vintage amp obsession. Touring war stories. Studio nerdery. Gretsch evangelism. Voltage drama. Tape machine romance. Mild existential crises about digital modelers. It is a full buffet o...

Steve Rowe from 60 Cycle Hum returns to the show after an eight-year gap, and we immediately time-travel back to the era of wired earbuds, headphone jacks, and recording next to a wall outlet like it’s a survival game. From there, it’s a full spiral through the modern guitar media landscape: audio vs video, why interviews work when “can I talk to you for an hour?” absolutely shouldn’t, and how NAM...

My dude Jason Mays is back, and we get into the real stuff on this one! We talk about wearing 12 different hats (PlayJason, Working Class Music, writing gigs, Orange, a band, and whatever else gets stapled to his name this week), and what happens when “hustle” turns into straight-up burnout. Jason breaks down the behind-the-scenes evolution of Working Class Music, why he started PlayJason as a cre...

Here’s a vintage reissue that refuses to stay buried. This throwback episode with Yvette Young started life as a Patreon bonus… until enough people yelled “this is too good to keep secret” and it hit the main feed, where it promptly became one of the most-listened-to episodes of the whole show. So if you’re new around here, congrats: you just found a greatest hit. If you’ve heard it before, it’s a...

Nashville bassist Alison Prestwood joins Blake for a deep-dive hang that zig-zags through the kind of career that only makes sense in hindsight: a near-miss with Waylon Jennings, a pivotal run with Rodney Crowell, getting the call to jump in with Patti Loveless on a few days’ notice, and why saying “no” at the wrong time can still be the right move. They talk shop on what it really takes to break...

Steve Reis from Does It Doom returns after four years and it’s one of those “wait… you did what?!” catch-up episodes. In the time since his last visit, Steve didn’t just add a couple new pedals to the shelf. He helped turn Woodwright Guitars into a full-on operation with a growing lineup, more dealers, and signature models tied to the heavy universe with names like Matt Pike, Brent Hinds, and Jimm...

This is the last episode of 2026!!! And just for that, I wanted to give you a special look at one of the other podcasts I do, Tape Spaghetti! What happens when one of the biggest bands in the world takes on its industry’s Death Star? In 1994, Pearl Jam was willing to find out. On this week’s Tape Spaghetti, Scott & Blake revisit the grunge-era showdown that pitted a group of scrappy rock idealists...

I caught up with a good chunk of The Allegheny High boys in central Oregon while they were out doing what they do best: making Charles Wesley Godwin sound like a freight train and giving folks goosebumps. We posted up near Bend for a hang that starts off with “are we about to get murdered?” energy… and quickly turns into a full-on origin story: the Beaver County scene that shaped them, jam nights...

On this episode of The Tone Mob Podcast, Corey Congilio returns to hang out and pull back the curtain on what it actually looks like to build a modern guitar career in 2025. We talk about trying to survive the algorithm game without losing your mind, why memes sometimes move the needle more than music, and how Corey is building his own tiny desk style live show right out of his studio – complete w...

This time I am hanging out with Mike Leon, current bassist for CKY, and Igorrr. (Former member of Soulfly, Havok and The Absence.) We dig into how a kid who was obsessed with CKY movies and weird heavy bands ended up actually joining his favorite band, and how that path wound through DIY world tours, insane lineups and a whole lot of van miles. Mike walks through his whole journey: discovering hea...

Guitarist, songwriter, studio owner, guitar designer, Brian May collaborator, and professional bad record deal survivor Arielle stops by the show this week. We get into how a shy, Queen-obsessed kid with doctor parents ended up moving to Hollywood at sixteen, landing at MI, meeting Brian May at a tiny bookstore, and eventually working with him on the West End production of We Will Rock You. From t...

Coheed and Cambria’s low-end wizard, Zach Cooper, jumps on the pod to talk about how “sure, I’ll come play bass on that” somehow turned into 14 years inside one of rock’s most intense bands. We get into the strange chain of events that took him from a random studio call to full-time member status, plus what it really feels like when your life is buses, stages, foreign cities and a rotating cast of...

Chad Jennings of Jennings Guitars returns to the pod after nearly seven years, and a lot has changed — finishes, neck shapes, and maybe even a few philosophical outlooks on life (and trucks). Blake and Chad catch up on what it means to keep building through hard seasons, why gloss finishes and roasted woods are calling his name, and how guitar design can be as much about patience as it is about pr...

Dave Hause returns to teach a masterclass in “being an artist without losing your shirt, or your soul”. We rewind to our last chat in February 2020, the night the NBA shut down while he was onstage, and how that chaos pushed him to build a label with his brother Tim. We get into career math that actually works: why an email list beats the algorithm, the “bullseye” model for fans, and how to releas...

This one’s for the lifers. Guthrie Trapp drops the polite industry brochure in the shredder and talks about building a real career in music. One you can live with and live on. We get into session ceilings, artist freedom, and why “be present to win” beats waiting for permission. Broadway bar marathons? Great for tips, terrible for souls. Social media mirages? Entertaining, not a business plan. Gut...