Beginnings

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...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Lindsay Olsen AKA Salami Rose Joe Louis. Originally from San Diego, Lindsay worked in the sciences as a lab tech and made music on the side until Flying Lotus' label Brainfeeder released her third album Zdenka 2080 in 2019, which gave her the courage to pursue music professionally. This was followed up by Chapters of Zdenka the next year, and her most recent,...

On today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Rob Mazurek. Originally from Jersey City, Rob started playing trumpet and cornet in high school after his family moved to Naperville, Illinois. He first learned the foundations of improvised music while studying jazz theory and practice with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, and then became a mainstay of Chicago jazz in the 1980...

On today's episode, I talk to musician John Grant. Originally from Buchanan, Michigan, John moved to Germany in 1988 to study German, but eventually moved back to the States, where he formed the band The Czars, who released seven albums in the 12 years they were together. After a four-year hiatus, John began making music again under his own name, and the five albums he's recorded since have garner...

On today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Zeena Parkins. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Zeena is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices and has essentially "reinvented the harp". Since moving to New York in 1984, Zeena has collaborated with countless musical  luminaries like John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Elliott Sharp and Bjork, recorded over a dozen fantastic albums and collected more acc...

On today's episode, I talk to TV and comics writer J. Holtham. Originally a playwright, J. moved to Los Angeles in the early 20-teens to pursue screenwriting, eventually landing a staff writer position on the show Pitch. Since then, he's written for Cloak and Dagger, Jessica Jones, Supergirl and The Handmaid's Tale. As a comics writer, the final issue of J.'s first miniseries Bishop: War College j...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Isabel Olive AKA Half Gringa. Originally from Carbondale, Illinois, Isabel has been playing as Half Gringa - a nod to a childhood term of endearment as "la Gringa" in her Venezuelan family and her bicultural experience growing up in the United States - since the late 20-teens. Her first album Gruñona was released in 2017 and her second Force to Reckon in 2020...

On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Joey Alison Sayers. Originally from Colorado Springs, CO, Joey has drawn comics for most of her life, but only really started publishing them as minicomics in her mid-20s. This led to many other opportunities, such as her strip "The Machine That Travels Through Time", which ran in Mad Magazine for almost a decade and "Thingpart", which was syndicated in a n...

On today's episode, I talk to comedian and director Bobcat Goldthwait. Originally from Syracuse, Bobcat's career is so full of hyphens that "multihyphenate" doesn't even scratch the surface. From acting in films like Police Academy and Scrooged to directing TV for shows like Community and Jimmy Kimmel to directing comedy specials for folks like Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt to directing his own fil...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Carl Newman. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Carl began his musical career in the early '90s as a member of Superconductor, but it was really with his next band Zumpano where he began to find his voice, a style that would come to fruition with The New Pornographers. Since their first album Mass Romantic in 2000, the band has become one of the pre...

On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics creator Jeff Lemire. Originally from Woodslee, Ontario, Jeff wrote and drew comics for years while working day jobs, until he eventually self-published his book Lost Dogs in 2005. This led to making Essex County for Top Shelf, and since then he's written and drawn a veritable slew of fantastic comics, both creator-owned works for publishers...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Rachel Brown. Originally from Chicago, Rachel attended NYU where they studied film and television. However, instead of ending up in TV, Rachel's life took a different path, and they became enmeshed in the New York music scene. As thanks for coming, they've released dozens of albums, and their latest, You Haven't Missed Much, was released late last year on Dan...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Satomi Matsuzaki. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Satomi moved to San Francisco in 1995 to study film production, but within a week of immigrating, she joined the nascent rock group Deerhoof, and has been a member ever since. In the intervening years, the band has released over two dozen albums, EPs and live albums on labels like Kill Rock Stars and Polyvinyl,...

On today's episode, I talk to actor and comedian Jerry Minor. Originally from Flint, Michigan, Jerry came up doing comedy at Second City in Detroit, Chicago and Toronto before joining Mr. Show for the fourth season. This was followed by stints at SNL, Primtetime Glick, The Daily Show as well as appearances on basically every great comedy from the last two decades: Delocated, Curb Your Enthusiasm,...

On today's episode, I talk to musician Oren Ambarchi. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Oren began playing free jazz as a drummer in the late '80s, eventually moving from there to New York, where he became integrated in the experimental and jazz scene. Oren's collaborations and albums are too numerous to mention here, but he's played with everyone from Sunn 0)) to John Zorn to Jim O'Rourke to Phi...