What Am I Making Podcast

Singing came to Esther Rose almost as early as breathing did. She began by singing harmony with her sisters, often taking the highest portion of their three-part harmonies. As she grew into writing and singing her own songs, Rose slowly learned to transform those beautiful harmony parts into a powerful and melodic lead instrument. It took Esther Rose a few years and more than one locale to find th...

Wesley Stace grew up in a home where excellence seems to have been par for the course. Stace’s parents were both intelligent and talented educators that instilled a love of academia and the arts into all of their children. Wes, for his part, would find his path to excellence through words. After attending a series of noted boarding schools throughout England, Stace entered university at Cambridge,...

Warren Zanes never expected to be a writer. As a teenager, he began a band, The Del Fuegos, with his older brother Dan. Zanes didn’t possess much of a plan, but he rode the rock and roll dream for a few years while it lasted. The Del Fuegos managed to sign a deal with Slash Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. The band enjoyed critical success and found excited audiences across the country. Durin...

Tobin Sprout is an artist in the truest sense of the word. Sprout is an esteemed fine arts painter with a vast collection of gorgeous works that often catalog the magic within the mundanity of everyday American life. In addition to his accomplished visual art, Sprout is perhaps best known for his musical output, most notably as an original member of the legendary Dayton indie rock band, Guided By...

By the time he was in middle school, Pete Ganbarg could spot a hit song. While the rest of his peers were dancing and hanging out with girls while the music played, Ganbarg wondered if what he was listening to was “a hit. Perhaps even more peculiarly, Pete was obsessed with why something was a hit or not. Since that moment, Pete Ganbarg has been fixated on what really makes up a hit song. As he po...

Jessica Dobson began showing off her musical acumen before she could read chapter books. On a car ride as a very young child, Jessica sang along with the radio, as many kids do. However, instead of singing along with the lead melody, Jessica sang her own harmony part with the recording. Her mother was understandably stunned. With encouragement from her family, especially a “rock and roll” aunt, Do...

Dan Nordheim’s amazing podcast Life Of The Record is a treasure trove for record nerds like me. On each episode, Dan focuses on one important album in the annals of rock history. But these episodes are far more than a simple academic rehash of famous records and rock star exploits. Nordheim conducts in depth interviews with the people that made these records to get the truth of where these artists...

Matt Caughthran is a true child of Los Angeles. Growing up on the city’s east side, Caughthran was immersed in the Latino culture that permeated his neighborhood. Within his working class confines, Matt learned to skate at an early age and quickly became fascinated with the world of hardcore and the power of rock and roll. By the time, Caughthran was in his early 20’s, he was already fronting the...

It almost seems that Shana Cleveland was destined to be a singer and a songwriter. Her parents first met when her Dad was playing in a western swing band. Even after their marriage and Shana’s birth, her parents both continued to play in a variety of bar bands and cover outfits. Growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Cleveland had always dreamed of getting out. Her childhood had been happy and filled...

You most likely know Jay Buchanan as the showstopping frontman for the boisterous rock outfit, Rival Sons, He has held that title for the better part of two decades. During that time, Buchanan and his band have built a huge worldwide following, and collaborated with some of the true luminaries within the spheres of Americana and rock music. In recent years, Jay has even dipped his toe into the act...

Will Hermes grew up at the epicenter of cool. Coming of age in Queens during the mid-to-late 1970’s, Will was faced with a binary choice; head east and go out further out on Long Island to find a life of quiet, comfort and suburban tranquility, or head west and venture into the intimidating wild of Manhattan. Without a second thought, Hermes opted for the gritty, mean streets of the city and found...

The legendary band, The Bats, and its bass player, Paul Kean could only have come from New Zealand. Paul Kean grew up in a seemingly out of the way place, and was raised by truly extraordinary parents. Paul’s father was a born performer, and he could often be found at the piano leading the family and guests in song after dinner had finished. He was also an adept ventriloquist, often showing off a...

David Lowery is a something of a renaissance man. He is a singer and songwriter known the world over for his work in Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. Lowery is also an esteemed member of academia, teaching the ins and outs of the music business to students at The University of Georgia. In addition to wearing both of those hats, David has spent much of his time over the last fifteen years working...

Will Worden did his best to follow the well worn path. After high school in Texas, Worden enrolled in the College of Business at Baylor University in Waco. He committed himself to the sales program until he realized he was simply not cut out for office life. Worden abandoned business school and packed up some belongings seeking out a new adventure in Southern California. Will was drawn to Californ...

Club 603 has hosted hundreds of shows since it first began more than fifteen years ago. Known for its intimate and welcoming vibe, as well as its impressive and eclectic history of performers, Club 603 has become one of the premier places to play in all of Baltimore. The stage, such as it is at 603, has hosted a slew of indie-rock luminaries including Luna, Alejandro Escovedo, Pedro The Lion, Crai...

Jason Narducy never dreamed in a million years that he would be the one to get all four members of R.E.M. back on stage together. But somehow, it happened. For years Narducy and his friend and actor Michael Shannon have been playing R.E.M. tribute shows with a crew of Cracker Jack Chicago musicians. In late February of 2025, Narducy, Shannon and company were playing a sold out show in Athens, GA,...

When Bill Janovitz arrived in Massachusetts with his family, he was unimpressed. Halfway through high school, Bill’s family moved from a verdant suburb on Long Island to a rural community in Massachusetts that was a full half hour from a movie theater. With far less stimuli than he had found at his old home, Bill was initially bored with The Bay State, but would gradually change his mind after mov...

Robbie Fulks first arrived in Chicago in 1983 with a pregnant girlfriend and not much of a plan. In fairly short order, he landed a job at the legendary Old Town School of Folk Music on the city’s north side. At the Old Town School, Fulks found a community of like-minded musicians and thinkers. He honed his chops, worked on his original songs, and soaked up the atmosphere. By the time Fulks was re...

David Gedge’s 40 year stint as the main man behind The Wedding Present comes down in great part, to luck. John Peel, the famously powerful DJ from BBC’s Radio One took a shine to the first Wedding Present single, and played the song a whopping ten times on a single show. The power of Peel’s nationwide show and his influence as a tastemaker helped to pave the way for the Wedding Present to get a re...

Frank Turner is a man who largely made a name for himself by mixing pop and politics. Emerging from a youth immersed in the world of hardcore, Turner arrived on the scene as a solo act in 2005 and released his debut EP Campfire Punkrock the following year. Over the course of ten albums, five EPs, and a rash of other recordings, Turner has built a massive international following. His ninth studio a...

After finishing the bulk of recording on his first album, Zach Schwartz was on a flight bound for the west coast praying that the plane would stay in the air long enough to get him safely home. With this record in hand, for the first time in his life, Zach felt he’d made something worthwhile and meaningful. Sitting in his aisle seat on that plane headed for Oakland, he prayed that he might get the...

Sunset Blvd. is a shining example of greatness in American cinema. The story revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of Hollywood’s silent era who has been reduced to living the life of a recluse. Norma’s world is shattered open one day when a budding young screen writer named Joe Gillis pulls his limping vehicle into her garage. Thus begins one of the most tragic, and terrific tales that Holl...

My dear friend and bandmate Jeffery Gower and I recently returned from a splendid three week tour of the American southeast. While Jeff and I had toured together before on long weekends in our band, the Stick Arounds, this was the first time where Jeff would be gone longer than just a few days. And, while I have toured like this several times in the past as a solo performer, I have never done so w...

Mary Chapin Carpenter was working at a temp job in her late twenties one day when the phone rang. After an exchange of hellos, the voice on the other end of the line asked Mary Chapin if she was sitting down. Once she had taken a seat, Mary Chapin Carpenter was told that she was being offered a recording contract with Columbia Records. The news came like a bolt of lightning. For years, Carpenter h...

Chris Slusarenko is a modern day indie rock Zelig. Over the course of more than thirty five years Slusarenko has channeled his unstoppable verve and enthusiasm to propel him to remarkable places. Chris has played in Guided By Voices and in the Bob Pollard side project, Boston Spaceships. For more than 20 years, he owned Clinton Street Video, an independent video store in Portland, Oregon. Chris is...