Beginnings

On today's episode, I talk to musician Tanya Donelly. Originally from Newport, Rhode Island, Tanya founded not just one, but three, incredible 20th century bands. As a teenager in the 1980s, she formed Throwing Muses with her step-sister Kristin Hersh and performed with them through 1991. During this same time, she founded The Breeders with Kim Deal and co-wrote the first album Pod. Tanya left bot...

On today's episode, I talk to composer Doug Bielmeier. Originally from Buffalo, Doug started out playing in indie rock bands before shifting his focus to composition, which he received both bachelors and masters degrees for. His music has been described as an "extension of Xenakis's early electroacoustic tape pieces", and his albums include 2017's Betty and the Sensory World, 2018's Costa Mesa Roc...

On today's episode, I talk to filmmaker J. Blakeson. Originally from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, J. started out making low-budget shorts of his own. This eventually led to him being able to make a slightly larger film, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, in 2009, starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Marsan. Over the next 14 years, J. wrote and directed many other films and TV shows; some highlights inc...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Arone Dyer. Originally from Willmar, Minnesota, Arone began writing songs in high school and even won a contest to perform at the Minneapolis Lilith Fair when she was 18-years-old. But soon after, she developed carpal tunnel syndrome and had to give up playing guitar for many years. After moving to New York, where she took up work as a luthier and bicycle mec...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Nina Nastasia. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Nina began writing songs in 1993 but initially had no real ambitions to be a professional musician. She ended up recording many of those songs with Steve Albini, and they became her debut album Dogs, which was released in 2000. Albini sent the record to John Peel, who championed it on his radio show, and Nina be...

On today's episode, I talk to writer and comedian Jordan Morris. Originally from Mission Viejo, Jordan attended UC Santa Cruz, where he met his future podcasting partner Jesse Thorn, and in 2007, the two started one of the longest-running podcasts still going, Jordan, Jesse, Go! on the Maximum Fun network. As a writer, he's worked on everything from @midnight to Earth to Ned, and has also penned t...

On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Matt Fraction. Originally from Chicago, Matt started out in comics writing for publishers like IDW in the early 2000s and broke into wider recognition with his 2006 series Casanova. This led to both more creator-owned work like Sex Criminals, Satellite Sam, and November as well as stints on Marvel books like Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man,...

On today's episode, I talk to Emmy-winning comedy writer Mike Sweeney. Since childhood, Mike wanted to be in showbiz, but family issues prevented him from pursuing stand-up until his late 20s. Stand-up led to writing on shows like Short Attention Span Theater and Politically Incorrect, and in 1995, he joined the writing staff of the then two-year-old Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In 2002, Mike be...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Marnie Stern. Originally from New York City, Marnie didn't start out trying to pursue music professionally, and her first album In Advance of the Broken Arm came out in 2007 on Kill Rock Stars when she was 30-years-old. It instantly garnered acclaim, and was followed by This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is...

On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Derek M. Ballard. Originally from Mobile, AL, Derek was an artist from the jump. As a storyboard artist, he's written for shows like Adventure Time and The Midnight Gospel, and as a cartoonist, he wrote comics for the wonderful and sadly defunct site The Nib. Most recently, he created a zine called The Shape of Comics to Come, and his first graphic novel Ca...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Will Butler. Originally from Floriston, California, Will mostly grew up in Texas, and after college moved to Montreal to join his brother's band Arcade Fire. The band was a sensation: their debut Funeral is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s, and all of Arcade Fire's studio albums have received Grammy nominations....

On today's episode, I talk to musician and painter Andrew Savage. Originally from Denton, TX, Andrew began playing music seriously when he formed the band Teenage Cool Kids in college in 2006. By the time the group officially disbanded in 2011, Andrew had already been writing music in a new band, Parquet Courts, which he started with his college friend Austin Brown. Since that time, they've releas...

On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Greg Rucka. Originally from San Francisco, Greg grew up in Salinas, California, AKA "Steinbeck Country", and worked a number of jobs - EMT, fight choreographer - until his writing career took off. His first published novels were his Atticus Kodiak books, which were published by Bantam starting in the mid-'90s. Soon after, Greg began...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Fat Tony. Originally from Houston, Texas, Anthony Obi started his musical career performing with a number of different rap groups in high school, but it wasn't until his early 20s that he began writing and releasing albums under the name Fat Tony. Since 2010, he's released over a dozen albums and EPs on labels like Young One and Don Giovanni, and his latest I...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Rod Argent. Originally from St. Albans, Rod became the founder, keyboard player and one of the principal songwriters of the seminal 1960s British rock band The Zombies at the age of 16. While the band only stayed together a little more than half a decade, they became international stars, and their final album Odessey and Oracle is both one of the most acclaim...

On today's episode, I talk to comics creator and TV writer Ben Edlund. While still in high school, Ben began developing the satirical superhero The Tick, who became the mascot of the New England Comics newsletter. After a production error led to them needing a new title quickly, the New England Comics folks invited Ben to create a series around the character. The Tick has had numerous comic runs,...

On today's episode, I talk to musician and actor Will Oldham. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Will was an actor before becoming a musician, appearing in John Sayles' Matewan as a teenager, as well as in films like Old Joy, Junebug and The Guatemalan Handshake, as well as TV shows like Wonder Showzen. In the early '90s, he began playing music as Palace - or more accurately, as different permu...

On today's episode, I talk to writer and musician Geoff Garlock. Geoff has been playing music since high school, first with the hardcore punk band Switchstance, and eventually with the seminal screamo band Orchid, who in their five short years together released ten albums and 7"es, mostly on Ebullition. After Orchid broke up, most of the members started Panthers, who released four albums on labels...

On today's episode, I talk to Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub. Emerging from the Scottish C86 scene of the 1980s, Teenage Fanclub formed out of the ashes of their previous group The Boy Hairdressers. While they immediately garnered positive reviews with their first few albums, released in America on Matador, it was with their third album Bandwagonesque that they broke through...

On today's episode, I talk to musicians Pat Place and Cynthia Sley of Bush Tetras. Both art students, Cynthia and Pat moved to New York in the 1970s and were soon sucked into the music scene. Pat became one of the founders and the guitarist of James Chance and the Contortions, and then in 1979, the two formed Bush Tetras. Their debut 7-inch EP, "Too Many Creeps", was released in 1980 on 99 Records...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Christina Schneider AKA Locate S,1. Originally from Westchester, New York, Christina began her career making music in various projects, such as C.E Schneider Topical, Christina Schneider's Genius Giant, and Jepeto Solutions., and in 2018, she began recording as Locate S,1. She's released three albums, Healing Contest, Personalia and her latest, Wicked Jaw, wh...

On today's episode, I talk to musician and artist Jad Fair. Originally from Coldwater, Michigan, Jad began playing music with his brother David in 1974 as the band Half Japanese. As an art rock group that charted its own path, Half Japanese soon began to be celebrated by tastemakers, and this led to their first record contract. Over the next fifty years, they released over two dozen albums and EPs...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Heather Trost. Originally from Albuquerque, NM, Heather really started taking music seriously in college, often touring whenever she wasn't in class. In the early 2000s, she met her now husband, Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes and joined his fledgling project A Hawk and A Hacksaw, making it a duo. Since that time, they have released six albums, the l...

On today's episode, I talk to writer and podcaster Matt Christman. Originally from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Matt wasn't pursuing anything specific when he started the left political podcast Chapo Trap House with two friends he met online. But the show struck a nerve in the general zeitgeist and turned into a career for Matt. The show has been going strong for seven years now, and through Chapo and th...

On today's episode, I talk to Emmy Award-winning puppeteer David Bizzaro. Originally from Fresno, CA, David moved around a lot as a child. He fell in love with theater, and eventually began working in a field adjacent to that, as a visual generalist, making videos and other things for the live shows of bands like The Flaming Lips. Puppetry, though, was something he came to in adulthood, when he ne...