What Am I Making Podcast

When author and producer, Matt Berenson first published his list ranking all of the fifteen albums in the R.E.M. canon , I felt one more cosmic connection to him and his fandom for the most famous band from Athens, GA. I was thrilled to read Matt’s piece and see how the LPs stacked up in his estimation. Furthermore, I began to wonder where I would differ and where our ideals on the perfect R.E.M....

Back in August of 2023, I published an essay here at What Am I Making about moving to the small town of Bath in the summer of 1984. I was twelve years old. I did not want to move to a new place. I was sullen and furious.  In an effort to help me with the transition, my Dad pulled out an old history magazine and told me about a bombing known as The Bath School Disaster that took place in the town w...

I stirred up quite a shitstorm with my piece on Spotify Wrapped that was released in early December. My attempt to truly explore the economic realities of digital music streaming, and Spotify specifically, was met with a fair amount of quick rebuke and a small portion of hesitant support. It quickly became one of the most read articles on WAIM thus far and sparked myriad conversations with people...

This past week a federal judge ordered that a confederate memorial be removed from the Arlington National Cemetery. The thirty five foot bronze statue was erected in 1914 by the artist Moses Jacob Ezekiel. A female figure with olive branch and flowing robes stands atop a massive column. Additional figures on the monument include a Black woman depicted as a “Mammy,” as well as a slave following his...

To say that my friends Barry and Abigail Hummel have been supportive is an understatement. They have been fans and champions of my work since I first met them online in the early days of lockdown life. Barry became an early paid subscriber here at WAIM long before I had done anything to earn that support.  The Hummels also welcomed me on their podcast to discuss my new Harborcoat album, and to sam...

At Thanksgiving, I wrote about the challenging nature of the holidays in recent years. Like so many Americans, our family is still adrift in a post-Covid sea of changing holiday traditions. Additionally, we have experienced a significant amount of loss. We lost my Dad in August of of 2020, and lost a beloved aunt just this summer, with whom we had spent every Christmas Eve for decades. It’s been a...

There is a pretty solid chance that you are going to be in a room with a bunch of family this holiday season with time on your hands and nothing but football and food to keep you occupied. Eventually, someone will suggest watching a movie. I want you to be prepared so you don’t have to sit through the same trash you watched last year. You already know and love your favorite Christmas movies. You a...

I had to lean pretty hard on my friend Kevin Alexander when it came to sharing the best music of 2023 with you. The truth is that I am not the voracious consumer of new music that I once was. There are still plenty of new bands and current albums that I enjoy, but I don’t spend time seeking them out the way that I used to.  Instead of poring over blogs, and rehashing a million lists from the inter...

Christine Peffer and Elise Jujuga began passively discussing the idea of opening a bookshop during the early months of the pandemic. With idle time and a series of virtual hiking and book clubs they both belonged to, the pair began to think more seriously about the possibility of a real bookshop endeavor.  Then, the MSU Surplus Store announced they were selling off a literal ton of books for a ver...

Back in August, I posted one of my first installments of the First Four Series on the quartet of rock records that began the career of Brian Eno. Long before he was one of the most sought after producers in the world, and even before he was the Godfather of Ambient Music, Brian Eno was a humble, awkward, rock star. In this podcast special, I walk you through the creation of his excellent first fou...

I first got to know Bill Boyle from his insights and analysis at Stand Up with Pete Dominick. While Bill’s day job is owning a series of parking garages around the DC Metro area, his real genius is breaking down complex information into discernible chunks. I have learned as much from him about the war in Ukraine as I have from any single outlet.  Bill is not a journalist, and would never promote h...

My mother gave me my foundational knowledge of film. She and my Dad fostered a love for cinema within themselves and for their children. I grew up in and around movies. They are in many ways the method in which I first understood some of the more complicated aspects of human existence.  After my Dad died in the summer of 2020, our family formed a movie club in the midst of our collective grief. In...

What Am I Making is ad-free and currently operating wihtout any paywall to keep access open to all of our readers. This work is powered solely by paid subscribers. Please consider a paid subscription today. Ah yes, another episode where I should have been recording a chat over a beer in Southeast Asia with my mother. As we all know, my great sojourn to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand didn't come t...

What Am I Making is ad-free and currently operating wihtout any paywall to keep access open to all of our readers. This work is powered solely by paid subscribers. Please consider a paid subscription today. On this week’s episode of the pod, we try something a little different. Instead of a conventional interview for this episode, I want to share the terrific first installment of the What Am I Wat...

Nate Dorough is exactly the kind of person that I love to spotlight here at WAIM. He’s a dude making shit happen. In his case, that shit is live shows. More than 3500 of them in fact. He currently works as the Michigan talent buyer for the independent production Kickstand. In roughly 20 years of booking shows, Nate has seen the entire landscape change completely. As corporate control has squeezed...

Timmy Rodriguez is a fantastic teacher, and now a fantastic administrator. Like every great educator that I have ever met, he is completely invested in his kids, and the process of public education. Like so many musicians who are great educators that I know, and they are myriad, Timmy is nimble on his feet, and can pivot to navigate the whims and moods of a young audience.  That innate flexibility...

Renee Hall is a survivor. I hate that I have to introduce her that way, but it is an irrefutable fact.  Within the last fifteen years, Renee has seen her mother die of breast cancer, only to turn around and nearly lose her own life in that same struggle. Motherhood came to Renee late in life and as something of a surprise. Of course, she fell in love with being a Mom and set to being the best damn...

Tommy McCord and Danielle Gyger formed the Wild Honey Collective during the early days of the pandemic. Marooned at home, the couple started working on old time tunes with fiddle and acoustic guitar. Soon, they found themselves connecting with musical friends new and old to create a new band. What Am I Making is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider bec...

Maura Quint has been watching the GOP Primary debates so the rest of us don’t have to. Her debate recaps for McSweeney’s are a comforting combination of humor and horror reporting from the front lines of that particular shit-show. Once I got Maura’s update from the first debate, I knew I wanted to have her on to talk about sitting through every damned minute of these things and then breaking it do...

The first time that I invited Matt Berenson on the pod, I was desperate to talk with him about his book, Secret Stars: The Greatest Underdogs of the Rock 'n' Roll Era . For this installment, I wanted to talk about a secret star not included in Berenson’s book; David Berman of Silver Jews, as well as get Berenson’s perspective as a producer on the writers’ and actors’ strikes, and how they’re affec...

Howdy friends. It’s me, Matty C. I am alone again and without a guest, naturally. As the summer wound down and my schedule picked up, I hit a stretch where I struggled to secure interviews in time for the pod. For much of the history of the pod I have worked two, three or even more episodes ahead. Since the tour, I have been no more than a week ahead of schedule, and its left me scrambling a bit....

The guys at the Rockin’ The Suburbs pod have been incredibly kind to me and supportive of my work and my bands. They have featured both the sticks and Harborcoat repeatedly on several episodes of the show. Jim Lenahan was also truly instrumental in helping me find willing hosts for a bunch of the dates on my first solo house concert tour.  Through that encouragement, their pod and their in-person...

When I first began to really mull the idea of a podcast and Substack space, Pete Dominick was one of the first people I reached out to for advice. His suggestion was simple, “Just start”.  In the Fall of 2019, Pete lost his job in corporate media and began a podcast out of a shed he built in his backyard. Sound familiar? In the last four years, Pete has built a community of amazing folks by doing...

Jack Gruber has been around the world and back more than once. In his 35 years as a photo-journalist, Jack has been embedded with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and other far flung spots around the globe. He’s followed teams on their journey to a Stanley Cup, and covered the tragedy of an ensuing celebration gone horribly wrong. He has spent the last twenty years at the USA Today, largely covering...

Heather Frarey has spent her life in record stores. It wasn’t planned to work out that way, it just happened. She landed a job at the legendary Wherehouse Records in East Lansing when she was not yet 16 years old. Through the mid-90s, Heather stayed on the retail front lines as the music industry continued to shift and morph from the CD era through to the age of the internet.  In 2008, The Record...