Performance Anxiety

This week’s guest makes me just want to have fun. No, it’s not Cyndi Lauper. But he did play with her for years. Welcome multi-instrumentalist Knox Chandler to the show. He moved around a lot as a kid, so music really meant a lot to him. His parents told him that he used to hug the stereo speakers when he was a toddler. He studied guitar and upright bass in college. But his cello playing got him j...

This episode of Side Projects features a duo of duos: Charming Disaster and Lung. So naturally, we started the show by discussing musical duos. Somehow we wrapped everything up by talking about sad kazoo music. I don’t know how we got there. It really doesn’t matter because this episode goes completely off the rails very quickly. But that’s why it’s so much fun. We do talk about drum shoes, settin...

Everything about today’s guest is unusual. From writing his first song (which he performed at his high school graduation, unbeknownst to anyone but him) to being in the cast of Stomp before joining O.A.R., to the way he plays guitar, nothing about MikelParis fits into a neat description; with one exception. He’s a great guy! He pursued acting before music and played piano in Europe for a year befo...

This guest never sits still. Welcome guitarist Zak Loy. If you’re in the Austin, TX area, you might know him from any number of bands or projects like Damesviolet, Alpha Rev, Mother’s Anthem, and more. If you like classic alternative rock from the 90’s, you may have seen him playing guitar for the band Live and he was kind enough to take a break during the final stages of his new solo album, Diner...

Today’s guest is Rock ‘N Roll distilled. Welcome Bryan Small of The Hangmen to the podcast. This guy lived the sex, drugs, & rock ‘n roll life until he realized it wasn’t sustainable. Born in Montana and raised in Idaho, Bryan moved to L.A. because his favorite bands were there. From there, every rock ‘n roll story seems to have happened to The Hangmen. There first album was remixed just before re...

Today’s guests, yes guests, are so uplifting. I’d like to welcome Cara Maurizi, Jim Standerfer, Alan Honeycutt, and eventually Ryan Groff; 4/5s of the band Modern Drugs. This band is so positive it’s almost too good to be true. And you know what they say about things that are too good to be true. They usually are. Or they’re Modern Drugs. But all the members of the band truly love and respect each...

Today’s guest is a blast from my past. Please welcome the multi-talented Esther Canata. Esther and I went to school together. We weren’t great friends (she was a freshman when I was a senior and you know how that goes), but we did know each other. She was definitely the “artsy” one in her class. You know every class has at least one.  We reconnected several years ago through social media, which is...

Today’s guest really brings me back. Welcome central Jersey’s finest, Kevin Shields of Detention and Bigger Thomas. Kevin was a founding member of the central New Jersey punk scene that birthed bands like Bouncing Souls and Vision. He talks about what the scene was like, how it developed, and how it changed. He also talks about life before punk. He was in the Coast Guard and traveled all over; whi...

Today’s guest is a sweet soul. Welcome Nikki O’Neill to the show. She’s a singer/songwriter steeped in classic soul music. But her story is not one of coming up in Memphis or Muscle Shoals, Detroit, or even Chicago, where she’s based, now. It’s LA to Sweden with a quick layover in Poland. But we don’t even start this episode discussing music. We find our first piece of common ground in home applia...

Today’s guest makes me feel heavy. If you’re a fan of I Mother Earth, that’ll make sense to you. My guest is Edwin, I Mother Earth’s lead singer. This was such a great discussion, a long time in the making. Edwin talks about growing up in a pretty strict household where his first musical instrument was…the accordion. After ditching that, he started singing in cover bands, playing classic rock like...

Today we’re talking about jazz, eventually. My computer crashed so this is take two! My guests are Mike Baggetta from mssv among other projects and Chris Greene of the Chris Greene Quartet. They’ve both been on the show before. I highly recommend going back to their episodes to get their stories. Today I’ve posed a challenge to these guys. What jazz artist or album should I check out if I like a s...

This guest makes me feel like I’m in a Mark Twain novel. Welcome James Cook of Trashcan Joe. He’s got a new project called Captain’s Audio Project and the two bands are like yin and yang. They both have that old-time jazz feel. But where Trashcan Joe is fun, upbeat, and occasionally raucous, Captain’s Audio Project is a little more melancholy.  James grew up in a very musical family but he’s the o...

Today’s guest was bound to happen. Meet Tex Mosely from Neverland Ranch Davidians. Tex and his band were suggested to me a couple of years ago by my friend Ian. I reached out and we tried to get everything to mesh but just couldn’t make it work. A few years later, here we are.  Tex talks about growing up in Philly and having music all around him. His uncle was a professional bass player. Tex start...

I've wanted to do this episode for a long time; not just the subject matter, but my guests as well. Today I’m talking about making sophomore albums with Vashti Bunyan and Lucy Kruger; two people who have vastly different experiences making their second albums. Lucy has done it twice with her bands Medicine Boy and Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys. But they were both very different approaches from one a...

Today’s guest has the best outlook. Welcome Clinton Jacob of Mr. Phylzzz to the podcast. He’s based out of Chicago but originally hails from Clarksville, OH. Apparently they have quite the gruesome claim to fame. Clinton began his musical career playing in bands that were a little more traditional in their sound and approach, which he hated. But there wasn’t much in Clarksville besides that and de...

This guest harkens back to the original concept of this podcast. And she has possibly the most unusual band setup I have ever heard of. Welcome Maura Pond of Luna Honey. And this band has really captured my attention. They’ve got this new take on the no wave sound that spawned bands like Swans, Rhys Chatham, Theoretical Girls, and others. It’s experimental music that’s really accessible. Maura and...

This guest had me pining for the 90’s. Welcome Kerry Jones from the band Death Doula. If you’re like me, you may be asking what a death doula is. Fortunately for us, Kerry talks about what it is and why she gave her band that name. She played a number of instruments growing up but never sang. She never thought that singing was a talent that she could possess. She learned how to play guitar during...

Today’s guest is a busy guy. He never seems to stop working. It’s Django Haskins from The Old Ceremony. And with a name like Django, your future is basically pre-determined. Music was big part of his parents’ (and therefore, his) lives. His parents were a folk duo and had Django playing classical violin at age five. He’s been in rock bands since the age of thirteen. And that includes while he was...

Today’s guest schooled me…about NAMM, the North American Music Merchants. Welcome NAMM President and CEO, John Mlynczak. Before we get into the meat of what NAMM is and does, John talks about his musical history. Music and music education have always been an important part of his life. He pursued that path from Virginia all the way to LSU; but I won’t hold that against him. He talks about creating...

This guest is not what I expected. Welcome jazz saxophonist Chris Greene to the podcast. I was worried that he’d be a jazz snob but he was the exact opposite. He was happy to teach me what he could in an hour podcast. And that included learning how he got into jazz. It all started to make sense to Chris in high school. He went on to study jazz at Indiana, which is where he started playing in bands...

Today’s guest should be musically jetlagged. But she’s not. Welcome the mononymous Tartie to the podcast. She’s from Melbourne and has recently collaborated with Binnie Klein out of Connecticut for a project called In These Trees. It’s an emotional journey of an album. But before that happened, Tartie went through a whole lot of other phases. She taught herself piano at age six. She also started w...

This guest has reignited my love for the blues. Meet Boone Froggett from Otis. Boone is the guitarist, singer, and founding member of the band. We get disconnected a couple of times in the beginning, but we push through and have a wonderful conversation. He grew up in the same town as The Kentucky Headhunters. That band was hugely influential, not just musically, but attitudinally, if that’s a wor...

Today’s guest makes me feel old fashioned. Or maybe I want to drink an Old Fashioned. Either way I am fortunate enough to have Stella Cole on the podcast! She blew up TikTok with her faithful renditions of the Great American Songbook. She tells me about how she became obsessed with old music and musicals from an early age. But she was always cautious about pursuing music as a career. Like when she...

Today’s guest makes me feel blessed. Her name is Miist. She’s a singer/songwriter with an incredible story. She grew up in China and had no ambitions of being a musician. She would sing songs with her father as a kid but that was really the extent of her musical experience. She moved to Canada where she was an accountant. But a startling cancer misdiagnosis completely changed her life. She bought...

Today’s guest is Dave Trumfio and he makes me feel empathetic…towards robots. Dave and his brother Harry have been in bands together since Dave was 8 years old. Their first band started then and lasted through high school! In fact, at their high school talent show, they managed to snag the final spot so they could play the entire first side of Rush’s 2112 album! Dave also performs an a capella ver...