Performance Anxiety

The first time I ever heard Vashti Bunyan was as the theme song for the Amazon Prime TV series Patriot a few years ago. But the song was so beautiful, I let it play through every episode. I did some digging to find out more about the song and was surprised to learn it had originally been released in 1966! The more digging I did on Vashti and her music, the more fascinated I became! Why had I never...

Brian McSweeney and Shawn Rios from MIIRRORS were kind enough to join me for this episode. They began this band as a duo, taking their time, writing music together and slowly making this into a unique project. Brian and Shawn recount how they met on a plane and bonded over the second Sigur Ros album. They were both working with different bands but there was definitely something there. When they fi...

This episode began as a cool conversation without much structure with two guys in visual arts who create music as a passion. But it turned into a deeper conversation about the creative processes for both mediums. Kevin Mellon is a storyboard artist for Archer & Hitmonkey, among a lot of other credits. David Heatley has drawn illustrations for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and more in additio...

Songwriter, singer, author, and musician’s advocate Shelly Peiken joins the podcast in this episode. She’s written some of the biggest hits of the past 30 years like What A Girl Wants, Almost Doesn’t Count, Come On Over Baby, Bitch, and so many more. Shelly talks about what got her into music as a kid and how she pivoted from a career in fashion to music. Being a hit songwriter was not straightfor...

Scott Crow…wow! This episode goes everywhere. Music is just one part of the wild story that is the life of Scott Crow. It began growing as the son of George Jones’ drummer. He grew up around the insanity that was Dee-Doodle and Tammy Wynette. So to rebel, Scott got into heavy metal and started playing in bands at the age of twelve. All of this changed when he discovered Mark Stewart & The Maffia....

Let’s give a warm welcome to Angel Ocana, the force behind Forest Circles. Angel grew up in Brooklyn surrounded by a lot of Spanish music that he didn’t understand. So it’s no surprise that when he discovered that his dad was a DJ, he gravitated to the pop music library his father had collected. Angel began playing music as a drummer and in addition to his father’s pop music, he began to be influe...

This is another first for the podcast. Welcome the band Nyte Skye to the show. The band is made up of Nyles and Skye Lannon, a father and son duo who have just released their first album on Sonic Ritual. You may recognize Nyles from the band Film School or from his solo work. We start off talking about Nyles’ early days playing in college bands before taking several years off working in tech for C...

Paul Hiraga, also known as the band Downpilot, is my guest. Like most of my episodes, we discuss how he started playing music. Unlike most of my guests, the guitar he learned to play on was haunted! But, that didn’t deter him. Paul discovered he had a natural aptitude for music theory, In fact he used to get in trouble because he would finish his lessons so fast, his mom thought he wasn’t doing th...

Today we’re talking about music and it’s effect on mental health. And right off the bat, I want to make the disclaimer that neither I, nor my guest Autumn Whitaker, are mental health professionals. This episode is about our experiences and how music has helped us get through some of our issues. We also talk about the effect social media has on mental health, what music we listen to to turn things...

This episode features singer and saxophonist Lora Logic and it’s a wild story. It actually begins with her mother’s escape from her rural Finnish farm upbringing. It shaped how she raised Lora. But it was that farm where Lora felt most happy. She talks about going through several instruments before she fell in love with the sax. And then there’s her creepy sax teacher who made her really uncomfort...

This is a packed show. I’m joined by Lyle Hysen & David Motamed from The Royal Arctic Institute, John San Juan of The Hushdrops, & Keegan Ferrari of An Errant. The show is about tribute albums: when did they start, their explosion in the 90’s, and do they matter anymore. There’s a reason I asked each of these guests on for this topic. This podcast is producing our own tribute album with 12 former...

I’m really excited for this episode. I’m joined by independent music renaissance man, Oliver Ackermann. He studied industrial design at Rhode Island School of Design, founded the bands Skywave and A Place To Bury Strangers, began the effects company Death By Audio, as well as a performance space of the same name. He’s also founded two record labels, the latest being DedStrange. The whole story beg...

Dylan Hicks hops on the podcast to talk about a lot of stuff. He started off taking piano lessons until his piano was stolen. His first real foray into professional music was volunteering at a radio station. In fact, he was just as passionate about writing about music as he was writing music. After years of playing music, he started a family and left music completely to start a career writing. So...

Welcome Ivan Julian to the podcast. We begin, as usual, by discussing what got him into music. But spending a good part of his childhood in Guantanamo, Cuba, on a military base, his answers are a bit different. Fast forward a bit and he talks about meeting Richard Hell and joining The Voidoids, why he left the band, and what came next. One of the things that came next was working with Matthew Swee...

KB Boyce is today’s guest. He’s been playing music since the 70’s in elementary school. In fact, that’s the main focus of our discussion. KB sang and played bass for the NYC based punk band Nastyfacts. Their only release was a three song EP called Drive My Car that came out when they were in high school! The band was together for 8 years and broke up so they could GO TO COLLEGE! That blows my mind...

Welcome to my most punk episode ever. I am pleased to welcome Phil Marcade of The Senders. They have a new double album out called All Killer No Filler. It chronicles, as this episode attempts to do, the band’s nearly continuous history from 1977-2001. But we go even farther back. Phil talks about moving to the US from France when he was a kid. There’s a lot of great stories around forming The Sen...

So today we’re going to be talking about the gear and business sides of music. Ben Kleinman, founder of Ray Raydecker audio cables is my guest.  Ben talks about what music really flipped the switch for him and, not being a musician, how he started immersing himself in music by booking artists. After some misadventures, he started playing guitar and becoming obsessed with gear. All of this fed into...

Today I chat with Elana Justin of Motive Black. Her debut album is dropping and after I had a chance to listen to it, I asked if she would do the podcast. I knew we’d have a great talk about the album. How could we not? It was produced by Nick Rowe who’s worked with Madonna, Vampire Weekend, Snoop Dogg, & Lamb of God, among others; but it also features a duet with Carla Harvey of Butcher Babies, a...

In an usual turn of events, this episode features something a little different. I have 80% of the band Carver Commodore on the show! So that’s lead singer and guitarist Payton Pruitt, lead guitarist Phillip Blevins (who is also a long-time member of the Mason Music family as Assistant Operations Manager), multi-instrumentalist Clayton Christopher, bassist David Smith Jr.. We’ll give drummer Noah F...

Barrett Davis has just released his debut album. It’s been a long time in the making. In fact, he started one of the songs over 10 years ago. But that’s not to say he hasn’t been busy. That’s actually why it’s taken so long for it’s release. Music has always been a huge part of his life. His dad is a blues guitarist who’s played with Marshall Tucker and Jeannie C. Reilly (which should be a podcast...

If you’re like me, sometimes you get obsessed by a band and find out that they broke up several years earlier. You think to yourself, “Where the hell was I”? Well, that happened with my guest, Steven Dayvid McKellar. His first and only band was Civil Twilight. Steven formed the band in Cape Town, South Africa, with his brother Andrew and their friend Richard Wouters just when the country started t...

My guest is Eszter Balint and her story is really unusual. It’s so unusual, in fact, that her latest project is a memoir. She was born in Hungary and lived there until she was about 10 years old. But the rise in communism at that time forced artists who were more avant garde, like Eszter’s family, to leave the country. She found herself in New York City with her immediate and extended family, crea...

David Libert is our guest. And he’s got such a wild story to tell that he actually did write a book about it! His career in music began singing doo-wop with his friends just to be able to hang out and meet girls. But his band, The Happenings, were good. So David went to Tin Pan Alley to convince the industry. He and his partner, Bob Miranda eventually got jobs writing music for a label run by The...

I’m joined by Buffalo, NY singer Jim Crean. Jim grew up around music. His dad was a drummer and really helped Jim form and appreciate for music. But he was also big into sports, which makes sense for a guy from Buffalo. But once he started playing music, he was all in. He started playing bars at a really young age. He’s been putting out music for decades and is a member of the Buffalo Music Hall O...

Welcome back Mark Bingham and Louis Michot to discuss a special project. Louis’ label, Nouveau Electric, is releasing 22 albums from now through most of 2023, documenting 50 years of Mark Bingham. Mark has made a career out of people not knowing what he’s doing. He has been recording music at an astounding rate. And he doesn’t do that to keep it hidden. Mark & Louis talk about how they began worki...