Nerd Music Meltdown

After many years, Professor Shyguy is back on the show to talk about his time during the pandemic, new music (including a K.K. Slider take on some classics), streaming, virtual concerts, whether or not MAGFest will happen, Animal Crossing: New Horizons , and more! Get more Professor Shyguy at professorshyguy.website . Professor Shyguy will be performing on Virtua Ongaku on June 27th with past show...

Our first international guest is on Nerd Music Meltdown ! Hailing from Vancouver, British Colombia, we have Josh Pendlebury, who plays guitar for The Runaway Four and runs Bonus Stage Van and the Virtual VGM Fest !  The Runaway Four's take on video game melodies is progressive synth-rock based on themes instead of a specific game or series. We talk about how that came to be, the Vancouver nerd sce...

To kick off the next fifty episodes of Nerd Music Meltdown , Kent brought on an old friend who has been very busy! Travis Vengroff is known to our community as Careless from Careless Juja and previously Random Encounter , but he has also launched the Liberty Deception graphic novel series, multiple audio dramas and musicals, and a plethora of other entertainment. We talk about everything Travis ha...

Can you believe we made it to FIFTY episodes of our Nerd Music Meltdown podcast? We did it and we celebrate and have a special guest: the founder of Mariachi Entertainment System , David Ortiz.  MES is the brainchild of David and a collective of longtime Texas-based mariachi players with a mission to take mariachi to the masses by combining it with beloved video game music to create some incredibl...

Chiptune violinist Aethernaut got Kent's attention big time at this year's Super MAGFest, and now Aethernaut is on the Nerd Music Meltdown!   We talk about playing violin since the age of five(!), making his MAGFest main stage debut this year, how he fell in love with chiptune, how his custom electric violin came to be, the Denver chiptune scene, Sega Master System, and studying Computer Science o...

While we stay at home, GR3YS0N (fka NyteXing) comes on Nerd Music Meltdown with his "Gamer not a Gangster" mentality to share his approach to hip hop and fandom based raps. Plus, we cover his relationship with nerdcore acts such as Richie Branson, getting more recognition this past year, and plenty of hot takes on X-Men, Capcom fighters, Batman, and his favorite comic book super hero Nightwing. Ch...

It has been a wild month for human civilization, but that will not stop new episodes of Nerd Music Meltdown from coming out! We have LEX the Lexicon Artist back on the show and she has a new album coming out.  Alter Ego is the second full-length album from LEX and it drops March 31st. We talk about that, how she has evolved as a musician, touring with mc chris, Schaffer the Darklord, and Super Sma...

Nerdcore's resident Ninja Warrior Creative Mind Frame is back! CMF will be performing at Super Bitfest this weekend in Texas and he also has Dirty 30s and Game Genie coming out. We talk about all of that, his intense Ninja Warrior training and whether or not Fresh Prince is the greatest rapper of all time. Get more Creative Mind Frame at creativemindfra.me . Check out Super Bitfest at superbitfest...

Danimal Cannon will be performing at ONGAKU 20XX on February 29th at The Abbey in Orlando, so it made sense to get him on the Nerd Music Meltdown right before to build excitement. And it will be an exciting show! We talk about what Danimal is up to these days, including his involvement in the video game Just Shapes & Beats and how that has affected his career, plus an update on Armcannon , vocaloi...

We have Joseph Devine from the video game/anime metal band known as Bitforce. They are straight out of Texas and have played everywhere from Game Stop midnight releases to MAGFest and PAX. They have even had tours with the likes of Mega Ran and mc chris, which includes at least one wild run-in with the law that we talk about. Joseph is also involved in running a new nerd music event called Super B...

It's a most glorious day because we have one of the all-time greats of nerdcore hip hop, Schaffer the Darklord ! This will not be an origin story episode, but we will look back on different points of Schaffer's extensive career, what he thinks of his old music and the current generation of nerdcore, The Department of Darkness , life in New York City, pro wrestling, burlesque, touring through blizz...

Fresh off of both MAGFest and AGDQ , Kent sits down with one of the new faces of nerdcore, Super Smack . We chronicle Super Smack's first year, plus we discuss how his background in musical theater has influenced his music, being pulled into nerdcore by LEX the Lexicon Artist, his latest EP Neon Red , and lots of Nintendo talk. Oh, and we definitely talk about that sweet JoyCon jacket. Get more of...

Let's close out the decade strong with video game music composer, audio engineer, and remixer James Landino ! He's produced a ton of great video game remixes and EDM, and he's also engineered audio and music for many video games, including Rock Band 4 and Amplitude HD . We talk about all that, breaking into the game industry at Harmonix, game dev stories, rhythm games, running the Pose Nightclub p...

Seattle's nerdcore duo Shubzilla and  Bill Beats  of  NOIR GRIME just wrapped up their tour with mc chris, and we got them on to talk about how the tour has been going, their new album The Kong Quest , daily writing drills, being on different teams in the Nerdcore VPC , Shubzilla becoming a mom, having a strong support system, and more.  You can find more NOIR GRIME at noirgrime.com . You can also...

EyeQ had a tremendous 2019 and we cover all of that here. We talk about how he blended anime and hip hop and celebrated Samurai Champloo at major conventions like Otakon and MomoCon with Bytes & Beats and how that all came to be. We also talk performing at the Library of Congress and getting the music of Nujabes inducted there. Plus, we chat about Overwatch , Shing02, Fat Jon, why representation m...

We're excited to have the great Jackson Parodi back on the Nerd Music Meltdown! Last time we had him, Jackson was the accordionist for the video game band Random Encounter, which has since disbanded. In the wake of that, Jackson has dominated on both YouTube and Twitch, got put over by Kenny Omega , and will be performing at the upcoming Zeldathon in December. We talk about the end of Random Encou...

Right before Warriors of Light this Saturday, Mege Ran is back on the Nerd Music Meltdown to talk about his love for Final Fantasy and how that led to the creation of one of his most famous albums, Black Materia . What was Mega Ran's entry into the franchise and which Final Fantasy game is his favorite? How did Black Materia change his music career and what can we expect from the remake? Oh that's...

After running his first 5K, Kent interviews one of the most pivotal figures in video game music community, DJ Cutman ! We cover a lot of ground, including the formation of Cutman's music label GameChops , embracing lofi video game remixes years before it became a major trend, Cutman's passion for video game music and why it's legitimate, and tons of philosophy on the VGM business. Cutman has been...

Knight of the Round is a powerful Final Fantasy metal band from the Chicagoland area and they have had quite a year, playing at MAGFest, PAX South, PAX West, and up next the Final Fantasy themed show Warriors of Light in Orlando, Florida. Kent talks with Knight of the Round founder, arranger, and guitarist Justin Taylor about how the band came together, why they dedicated themselves to Final Fanta...

Fresh off of performing at DragonCon, we have Twill Distilled from the super dope nerdcore group Wreck the System on as our guest. We do talk a little about WTS and how she joined, but this episode is mostly about Twill as a solo artist, the evolution of women in nerd music, and her brand new album, INVADER . Twill also opens up about overcoming health issues to make her musical endeavors happen....

On the road to Warriors of Light, we have on the Nerd Music Meltdown the frontlady and founder of Austin-based video game band Descendants of Erdrick , and guitarist in Andrew WK's touring band. That's right, we have Amanda Lepre on the show! Amanda and Kent nerd out for Super Nintendo games for a bit, and then discuss how Descendants of Erdrick came to be, the different incarnations of the band,...

We have one of the hardest-working musicians in the Florida nerd music community, the one man punk rock band, Rhythm Bastard ! (@rhythmbastard) We talk about that, getting inspired to make music from rhythm games, playing the Florida convention circuit, making music for an upcoming wrestling video game, how he feels the furry community is similar to punk rock, and various social topics.  Rhythm Ba...

While Kent was in Dallas, he got to hang out with the incredibly talented Lauren the Flute! (@laurentheflute). Lauren is the frontlady of the Texas-based video game band The Returners and she also is a part of the video game music label Materia Collective. We talk about her role in that, how The Returners came to be, and what game made her a fan of video game music. We also gush about classic JRPG...

We have Billboard-charting electronic musician and producer RoboRob on the show for a fun conversation. He just released his most successful album to date, Kingdom Heartbeats , but he's not finished yet! RoboRob has more music and shows coming and we talk all about that, plus his origins, being dragged into nerdcore, finding love at Nerdapalooza, Beaker cookies, Crayondroids, nerdcore bath water,...

Marc with a C is back on the Nerd Music Meltdown to talk about a whole lot, including his Obscurity shows in Orlando on August 3rd and 4th , his upcoming 20th anniversary of being Marc with a C and what he has planned, making the same Grammy shortlist as Childish Gambino, what happened to Nerdy.fm , and more. It's a great conversation and you can get more if Marc at www.marcwithac.com .  Like what...