Performance Anxiety

I’m joined by the wonderful David Lance Callahan. He’s the guitarist, sampler, singer, and founder of The Wolfhounds and Moonshake. We kick things off by talking about an essay he wrote about Marty Robbins, who happens to be one of my favorite artists. But beyond that, David gives me a great history lesson on a band that should be in the libraries of all My Bloody Valentine or Jesus and Mary Chain...

Nick Vivid hops on the podcast and proceeds to crack me up. He’s a character. He grew up with two turntables and a microphone in his living because his dad was a radio disc jockey. But, as Nick will tell us, that doesn’t always make for the best situation for an up and coming musician. He started off writing song based on hymns from church, as a kid. But soon enough he started playing in rock band...

It's our 250th episode! Christian Dryden of The Ritualists joins us for this one. He never really had that moment where he decided to pursue music. He just always knew that’s what he was going to do. He’s just as influenced by Duran Duran as he is Led Zeppelin and those unique sounds definitely shine through in the music. We also geek out on a band we both love and have seen live in different phas...

I’m joined by Anna Arboles and eventually Sapphire Jewell of the band Gypsum. Anna and I get the ball rolling and then we start over once Sapphire joins us. Gypsum is an interesting band with a great sound. The core of the band met in music school at USC. The entire project started as an informal jam session. The core of the band is made up of the musicians that would consistently show up to the s...

On this episode of Side Projects, I am joined by Alexander Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto of hackedepicciotto and Ellen Southern and Tom Bush from Dead Space Chamber Music to talk about Musique Concrète. We discuss what it is and how each of them discovered the genre and how it has influenced the music they make. They’ve each used some strange instruments to create their own Musique Concrète, inc...

Longtime drummer turned guitarist, singer, & songwriter Matt North graces the podcast today. He’s got such an amazing story that starts with his uncle, the poet laureate Jesse Stuart. His influence on Matt’s life is unquantifiable. As was moving from his hometown as a child. But he found comfort and friendships playing the drums. It was such a help to him that he found himself playing as a profess...

We’re joined by the multi-talented David Heatley from the comfort of his car. He was kind enough to chat with me about his incredibly varied career. Music was very important to him early on. He started a few bands, like The Velvet Cactus Society and The Bischoffs. Both bands were fun, junkyard-y kind of bands. But when David kind of took creative control, he figured his next project should probabl...

This one gets rough in spots. My guest today is drummer Kofi Baker. He’s the son of Cream drummer, Ginger Baker. Kofi talks a lot about the complicated and sometimes frightening relationship he had with his parents, Ginger in particular. He’s completely candid about his first experiences with drugs, which were supplied by his dad. He also describes the period of his life when he was homeless and h...

Guitarist Will Johns is the guest of honor, this episode. I’ve had a lot of guests who have music in their DNA. They really had no choice but to be musicians. Never has it been more true than with Will. Will’s parents were actress Paula Boyd and world renowned producer & engineer Andy Johns. His aunt, Pattie Boyd, inspired some of the most beloved songs in rock and married George Harrison & Eric C...

I will freely admit that I am not an authority on electronica. So I was a little nervous about having Rona Rougeheart from SINE on the podcast. She was very patient with me and walked me through how she got into music, who made the biggest impact on her, and some of the wildest things she’s experienced, like the time Peter Murphy missed a make-up gig in Orlando and she and some band members perfor...

Lyle Hysen’s career in music has been different from most. And as the drummer for the grammatically incorrect Das Damen, he schlepped his drums across the States and Europe. He toured with Screaming Trees and Nirvana before grunge took over the world. The band even toured as Arthur Lee’s backing band for a time. But Lyle’s career would take a left turn when he accidentally started a niche market l...

Guitarist Kevin Armstrong has had an extraordinary career, even though it was nothing like he thought it would be. His promising solo career dissipated pretty quickly after one disastrous gig. But when one door closes, another one opens. Almost immediately after that gig, he got a phone call to do some guitar work. It turned out that artist was David Bowie. The sessions ended with Kevin and David...

Back in the 90’s, I discovered this great band led by James Hall. They were the opener for Maria McKee and I was a fan from the first note. The band’s guitarist was Lynn Wright. But after two albums, they were done; and in the pre internet days, it wasn’t so easy to stay on top of your favorite artists, especially if they hadn’t quite broken into the mainstream.  So I’m beyond happy to have Lynn o...

Kevin Whelan is the guest on this episode of Performance Anxiety. You may remember him from a noisy band from New Jersey called The Wrens. He talks about forming the band with his brother, Greg. Up until his latest release, it was the only band he was ever in! Kevin reveals how The Wrens were once the house band on a ferry boat, and how his mom got them the gig. Once the band was signed, they forg...

I am joined by ⅔ of the band Sweet Justice. Frank Meyer and Bruce Duff regale me with some amazing stories like the time Bruce just winged a KISS solo for the band Redd Kross. There’s also the time that Frank announced to the band that they got a record deal after playing a show of mostly covers. One of my favorites, though, is how they got Cherie Currie to play Cherry Bomb with them during their...

If you’re looking for new music, this is the episode for you. Peat Rains of You Bred Raptors? (with the question mark) is the guest. He’s the kind of guy who started playing bass because everyone else was playing guitar. His introduction to music was a little different than most. His earliest influence was his deadhead pastor father. Immediately after high school, he was signed to a label in a Pen...

One of the best parts about doing this show is discovering new bands that I instantly love. Jaguwar falls into that category. Oyemi Noize from the band joins me today. She was so sweet. She hung in there even though my brain seemed to be in sleep mode. But even though I seemed to struggle, she did not. She talked about how her mom pushed her to be in a band, which ultimately led to her meeting Jag...

This episode embodies the reason I started this podcast. Not only is Ricky Maymi one of the founders of one of my favorite bands, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, but he has so many unbelievable stories to tell. We definitely go off on some tangents here, but every one is fascinating. He talks about how he’s connected to the movie Blow and the band The Tubes. He grew up with music all around him so m...

Ellen Southern and Tom Bush of Dead Space Chamber Music join me to discuss their new album. But it’s not just another rock album. Through our discussion, we all decided that the band is the only one in the dark neoclassical ambient jam band genre.  But how did they get to that point? Was it Ellen getting thrown out of orchestra at school? Or was it Tom’s decision to study guitar at night? Regardle...

I’m so happy to be joined by ambient pioneer, LARAAJI. We take a trip through his vast musical history, beginning with his early musical influences to changing his career path from architecture or engineering to music, to his discovery of the zither in a pawn shop. Even then, his path to music was not a straight one. In fact, it began in comedy at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem. Through perfor...

I was lucky enough to have John Barrett of Bass Drum Of Death join me. He talks about growing up in Oxford, Mississippi and how Ole Miss sports can be very frustrating. After moving into a house in Oxford that ended up being home to several bands and a recording studio for his first two albums, he moved to New York City. That really had an impact on his songwriting, one that some of his fans weren...

I’m pleased to have Ken Andrews from Failure on the podcast. We talk about so much in this episode, like how Ken got into music, how Failure formed, and how the band decided on their name. There is so much Failure in this episode, which makes sense because they just released a new album called Wild Type Droid. But we also go into the space between Failure’s breakup in 1997 and reformation in 2013....

Welcome to the Performance Anxiety Podcast Holiday Special. In the spirit of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I have asked a couple of guests from podcasts past to come back on. Alain Johannes discusses a song of Christmas past that he recorded with his wife Natasha Shneider and Chris Cornell. I’m also joined by Josh Caterer of Smoking Popes to talk about a song he recorded and released this Christmas...

Norman Westberg is my guest today. This episode went to a few places I wasn’t expecting. At first we discuss his entry into music and how he really wanted to play drums. But a photo of Mark Farner from Grand Funk Railroad made him rethink that idea. But he started off playing bass in his bands. Until The Stooges made him realize that he really could play guitar in a band.  This is where we take a...

I am joined by the multi-talented artist Ellen Foley. You might remember her from the musical Hair, or maybe as public defender Billie Young from the 80’s sitcom Night Court, or maybe as the female lead from Meatloaf’s Paradise By The Dashboard Light (or the entire Bat Out Of Hell album for that matter). She talks about a lot more than those highlights, though. There’s moving to NYC from St. Louis...