Bit Depth

Hello, and again, welcome to Bit Depth. I'm Santiago Ramones. I have an album called Hypothetical. Every month, you will hear me break down every element in the next track on the album until I've run out of tracks. There's fourteen tracks, so we'll be doing this for over a year. The first track is Bit Depth. Check out this deep dive into the evolution of my podcast theme and how it...

The Lunar Laugh was a power pop band based in Oklahoma City. Their final album, In The Black , was released on November 3rd, 2023. The album features Jared Lekites (guitar, vocals), Connor Anderson (guitar, vocals), Campbell Young (guitar, vocals), Triston Lightner (bass, vocals), and Levi Sherman (drums, vocals). On this podcast, we heard from Jared, Connor, Campbell, and Levi. We talked about th...

No Justice, No Peace is a one-act opera composed by Chris Prather and co-written by Kenneth Ray Woods and Megan Prather that presents the real-life effects of police brutality on families and communities, specifically following one fictional family. We talked about how the opera began as a 10-minute opera, how it grew into a full one-act opera, the challenges and successes in the process, and our...

Ryan Smith and Nich Allen met doing compost-adjacent things. When Nich heard Ryan play his music, he knew he wanted to play music with him, somehow. They’ve been playing together for some time. They both frequent the Red Dirt Poetry Open Mic , at which I was playing, too. I actually know Ryan through mutual friends, and I went to the same high school as Nich. So we got to reconnect through the ope...

Benjamin Rosfeld is back and we mostly talk about artificial intelligence, but we also end up talking about music. Some things we touch on include ChatGPT, personhood and life, the nature of the algorithms we’re dealing with, free will, ethics surrounding artificial intelligence, video games, music theory and music education, signal to noise ratio in regards to musical interpretation, and more! Yo...

Benjamin Rosfeld is a composer, performer, and listener. Their primary instruments are piano and cello, but they are also an avid electronic musician and has a number of synthesizers, along with a modular synth system they’ve built. You can see them playing around Oklahoma City for various functions such as church services, weddings, etc. but they’re also a DJ and are very involved in the experime...

Rowan Weathers and I discuss love: loving intentionally, passionately, actively, with friends and romantically. We also talked about the dating scene of today, participating in communities, friends, the gray areas of romance and friendship, therapy and what can come from it, and our own queer experiences, including pronouns, nonbinary, labeling (or lack thereof), how we change over time, and much...

Rowan Weathers is a self-proclaimed “Jackass of All Trades”. They draw, do improv, comedy, write poetry and scripts, music- a lot of stuff! Because of this, we don’t just get into the things themselves, but we get into the communities surrounding those things. We also talked about spirituality and religion, morality, and their time doing disability activism. Rowan is a homie and you should get to...

Caleb Collins returns and we talked about comedy in media, metamodernism, how the medium of media affects the message, nuance, and the Taking Back Sunday/Brand New beef in the 2000s. You can follow Caleb Collins on Instagram here: https://instagram.com/fosterbread The song playing at the end of the podcast is “Ain’t Nobody” by The Nghiems: https://open.spotify.com/track/2VgtaHuiXh8YjbKcJcCu9b?si=7...

Caleb Collins is a comedian. He hosts an open mic night at Fair-Weather Friend Brewery on Mondays. We talked about comedy, how he got into it, what it’s like in Oklahoma City, and the usual Bit Depth philosophical mumbo-jumbo. Get to know Caleb Collins! You can follow him on Instagram here: https://instagram.com/fosterbread The song playing at the end is “Kpop Band” by The Nghiems: https://open.sp...

Stefani Heller is a producer, manager, and audio engineer, among other things. She started Heller Music Group, started Women In The Studio, and this is her third time on Bit Depth. We talked about what she’s done since the last time she was on, like working at Castle Row, managing artists, going to law school, and more. There’s some great music business wisdom that Stefani shares on here, so any m...

Uh, oh. We’re getting into the weeds here. exmaxhina and I compare and discuss music production techniques in Ableton Live. We also talked about hearing loss, making albums, fears, goals, and more! You can find exmaxhina and his things here: https://distantether.com/ The track by him playing at the end is “princess parking” featuring Mitzie: https://open.spotify.com/track/6IlncQbnEKFk7hybeO7h2f?si...

“Dark lofi dreams. Fragments of a memory. Producer from Oklahoma City with influences from artists like Bonobo, Emancipator, and trxxshed. From eerie soundscapes to vibing melodies, exmaxhina becomes a prime flavor in a new space. Pioneering a unique sub-culture of low fidelity music, exmaxhina creates “dark lofi glitch”, a fresh take on an already beautiful genre. Jumpstarting "Distant Ether&...

Hello, 2023! Bit Depth is not dead and I’m excited to kick it off with the one and only Jabee! “Jabee is a rapper from Oklahoma City whose music, according to Chuck D. from Public Enemy, ‘has the potential to change the world.’” Now Santiago’s words: He also helped bring Eastside Pizza House to his community, a local pizza place on the East side of OKC. Jabee is one of the most influential rappers...

Chase Hampton, also known by his artist name, Generation Lossless, is a composer, producer, and musician from Enid, Oklahoma. He has been on the podcast before, a long time ago, but a seemingly common theme in this podcast is “getting people on the podcast that have not yet emerged from the Chrysalis.” With his second album, Advertising Films , Chase, and therefore, Generation Lossless, has more f...

Jordan Vargas of Burl is back and we talked about cultural expectations, dealing with prejudiced and racist people, musical opinions, the nature of consciousness, and just taking it easy and not making a big deal out of things that aren’t worth your time or energy. Granted, we’re speaking from a place of privilege, being two cis dudes, but still, it wouldn’t hurt for everyone, including us, to lig...

Jordan Vargas is a musician, songwriter, producer, and Burlian, as in he fronts the band Burl. He also makes and enjoys beer quite a lot. We talked about music, guitar, the music industry and business, spirituality, morality, and beer. Get to know Jordan Vargas of Burl! You can find Burl things on Instagram here: https://instagram.com/buurrl   The Burl song playing at the end is “i just noticed”,...

Jazmin Bryan is a podcast producer at Possibilities, Inc. She’s also a musician at heart, and she aims to bring communities together through education, advocacy, and a reunion of spiritual/healing practices through the arts. This time, Jaz asked most of the questions, so I ended up talking more. We talked about creativity, why we’re not enjoying the big mainstream products like the MCU as much lat...

Jazmin Bryan is a podcast producer at Possibilities, Inc. She’s also a musician at heart, and she aims to bring communities together through education, advocacy, and a reunion of spiritual/healing practices through the arts. We talked about music, podcasting, DJing, community, morality, religion, and more. Get to know Jaz! The music playing at the end is by Jaz, which you can’t necessarily find an...

Warren Realrider, TickSuck, is back and we talked about noise - getting into it, the culture surrounding it, the performance of it, and other stories Warren has about it. I surprised myself with how much I could talk about noise. Enjoy this fun conversation! You can find links to Warren’s stuff here: https://linktr.ee/wrealrider.ticksuck.sound The TickSuck track playing at the end is “my last prop...

Warren Realrider, also known as TickSuck, is a Pawnee/Crow noise artist. I had the pleasure of playing the same night as TickSuck at The Sanctuary and got to experience Warren's cool sounds in person. We talked about visual art, his upbringing being surrounded by art, sound art, Pawnee culture, spirituality, morality, and more! Get to know TickSuck! You can find TickSuck and his things on this...

Chloe-Beth is back and we talked about… chairs? And systems, patriarchy, how religion contributes to patriarchy, The Handmaid’s Tale , Roe v. Wade being overturned and how she feels about it, psychology, and more! You can find her and her things on her website: https://www.chloebethmusic.com/ Her song playing at the end is “Good Will”, which you can listen to here: https://open.spotify.com/track/6...

Chloe-Beth is a singer-songwriter in Oklahoma City who “possesses some kind of innocent wisdom”, which are the words of the person that wrote the bio on her website, and I agree. We talked about music, growing up in church, going to school at ACM@UCO, singing, writing songs, spirituality, religion, Yoga and meditation, and gluten-free science. Get to know Chloe-Beth! You can find her and her thing...

Nicole Poole, executive director of SPARK! Creative Lab, is back and we talked about art as a transformative practice, what music and art is, my background in music education, improvisation, creation, living as an artist, and more! You can find out more about SPARK! Creative Lab here: https://sparklahoma.org/ Bit Depth: https://santiagoramones.com/podcast Music: https://santiagoramones.com/music D...

Nicole Poole is a visual and performing artist, live composer, producer, speaker and educator working across the fields of advocacy, arts and public engagement. She is the founder and Executive Director of SPARK! Creative Lab , a member of Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center’s Performance Committee. We talked about her journey through art, SPARK!, and of course, spirituality. Get to know Nicole! You...