Spinning Platters presents: How Did I Get Here?

Zella Day is a singer songwriter that signed to Hollywood Records when she was merely 17, and has been putting out a steady stream of material since then, enough to be considered a "veteran" at the young age of 27. We had a lovely opportunity to talk about what it's like to be making decidely non-Disney music on a label owned by Disney, producing music as a teenager. The conversation ran through e...

We've made it to the fourth season of How Did I Get Here ?!!! And our first guest of a bonafide rock legend- Sergio Dias, founding member of the groundbreaking rock n roll band Os Mutantes. We made a good-faith attempt to cover a 50+ year career in about 30 minutes, but I can already tell you that we could use another 4 hours to scratch the surface of his career.  Os Mutantes are hitting the road,...

It's been a loooong time, hasn't it? Fear not- I will try not to leave you, my loyal listeners, hanging for this long again. And it was worth the wait... This might be the only episode that is- ENTIRELY UNEDITED. I got to speak with noted polymath Jean Grae about, well, pretty much everything. We talked about being highly ambitious from a young age, we talked about her career in music, her jump in...

Alexis Krauss is the lead singer of the popular band Sleigh Bells. Their noisy blend of grindcore guitars and pop beats may not be the most suited for casual radio listening, but it feels me and many others with great joy. I got to speak to Krauss about her time with the pop group RubyBlue, working on a TV show as a young teen, working as a session musician, and how a fateful meeting at a restaura...

Most episodes of this show are with someone that has had a long and storied career. I mean, that's kind of the premise of the show. However, the opportunity to bring Rhian Teasdale of the great Wet Leg, the best thing to come out of the Isle of Wight since The Who's best live album, onto the podcast was too good to pass up. We talked about deciding to pivot from your academic studies to studying r...

Julie Schuchard is the co-founder of Tricycle Records , who have given us records by local acts such as The Hot Toddies, Everyone is Dirty, Andrew St James, Rich Girls, Geographer, and more. She also has done marketing for Battery, Mezzanine, and about a dozen other local venues, has served on the board for the SF chapter of the Recording Academy, and can often be found around town DJing from her...

In this episode I got to talk with Bay Area music legend Chris Appelgren. We talked about many of his bands, including Bumblescrump (sadly not getting into exactly what this word means), The Potatomen, and The Peechees. We also discussed his rising through the ranks at Lookout Records, and even talked about its inevitable decline. And, of course, we talked about his time at Noise Pop, Bold Italic,...

Mo Herms has done pretty much every job in music you can imagine... From record store clerk to radio programmer to journalist to licensing to, well, just imagine it and she's done it. Mo is currently the Music Editorial Lead at 1021 Creative, but we got to talk about all of it. From the first time she fixed a record her sister destroyed to getting hit on by, um, Ike Turner. It was a fun chat, and...

In this edition of "How Did I Get Here?", I got to talk with stand-up comedy prodigy Liz Miele about her career, including getting started at 16 and continuing to nurture that career into adulthood. We discussed her first book, Why Cats Are Assholes , which of course digressed into talking about cat behavior. I even asked some specific questions about my own cat. We also talked about what it's lik...

Maggie Arthur is a Campaign Coordinator for Our Music My Body , an organization that works with music venues and festivals to raise awareness of sexual harassment in the music scene, as well as help work to make those spaces and the people that enjoy them safer. We talked about her early show-going days and the experiences that led to her involvement with OMMB . We also talked a bit about what we...

Mickey Darius is the owner of Broken Clover Records , a wildly eclectic record label featuring acts like June of 44, Enablers, Danielle de Picciotto, and many more. He also is the booking agent for several bands, including The Detroit Cobras, Negativland, and others. He ALSO manages The Lost Church , a 50 person performing arts space in San Francisco. And in his limited free time, he even DJ's a b...

Remember January 2020? It was a time of magic and optimism. It was an election year, and our Democratic contenders were such a supergroup that whoever we ended up with was going to win. The economy was looking up, the music industry was about to have a record year for live performances. That's when Laura Wight and Tom Unish met at a rock club and started talking music. They connected pretty deeply...

Remember how I said a few weeks ago that I'm the 1st season of "How Did I Get Here?" was over? Well, I lied. I didn't lie, but I had the opportunity to snag the very first interview with The Loyal Seas. Who are The Loyal Seas? They are a bit of a supergroup featuring Bay Area-based indie veteran and all-around really lovely person, Brian Sullivan, aka Dylan In The Movies and Tanya Donelly. Yes, th...

Today's guest is rock photography extraordinaire, Paige Parsons ! We talked her first shows, how she stumbled into rock photography, giving away ice cream at concerts , and her current photography project, the PPE Project , which is an effort to give a face to doctors working in PPE. We had a great conversation, that made me really sad that shows are off the table for the foreseeable future.  Paig...

This week's guest is legendary Phoenix-based concert promoter Stephen Chilton, aka Psyko Steve . We talked about how he got his start putting on shows in high school, and how he turned that into a full time job. Or several full time jobs. We also talked about what it's like to open The Rebel Lounge . He is also the Board Vice President of NIVA - National Independent Venues Associatio n , a coaliti...

This episode features one of my earliest music industry mentors, Russell Gatewood . I met him while interning at UMGD while I was in college. We discussed his career as a DJ, how he fell into music marketing, working for the early music tech startup Music Buddha, starting your own business, and so much more. This was a really fun chat, and I hope you enjoy it! The World Famous Rick & Russ show...

In this installment, I got to speak to SF Sketchfest co-founder David Owen about, well, how to put on an underground comedy festival, and what do you do when it's no longer underground. We talked about his first production, his first festival, how he met Cole Stratton and Janet Varney, the other two founders of the festival (SPOILER: It's Talking Heads related, just like the name of this podcast),...

 Our guest this week is Lani Torres, co-owner of Ivy Room , a great 200 cap room in Albany, CA. We talked about her first show, how she fell into working in live music, we waxed nostalgic about the Bay Area show scene, and talked a bit about running a music venue.  Ivy Room is located at 860 San Pablo Ave. Sadly, they aren't doing live music right now due to COVID, but they are open for take out c...

Ashley Graham is the marketing director for The Fillmore and The Masonic. She's also the art director behind those amazing Fillmore posters. In her free time, she's also the advisor to Andrew St James . We talked about her career, of course, and what it's like to land a dream job where you actually get to work with Sammy Hagar. Yes, we talk about Sammy Hagar. We also talked about what it's like wh...

Amy Davidman is one of the partners of The TBA Agency , a booking agency that was formed by a team of booking agents that were all let go of Paradigm Agency due to COVID-19. We had a lovely chat about her start working at The Bowery Ballroom, the shock of being a major player in the NYC music scene in the 2000's but, somehow, not getting a mention in the book Meet Me In The Bathroom . We also talk...

This is an exciting episode... For the first time in the five episode run of this show, our guest is someone that I have never met before! It's Carlos Alazraqui! He's probably most famous for voicing the Taco Bell Chihuahua. Or Rocko, of Rocko's Modern Life. Or as Deputy Garcia on Reno 911. We had a great chat about the Bay Area stand up comedy scene of the late 80's / early 90's. We also talked a...

Clare O'Kane is one of the finest stand up comics to come out of the 2010's SF stand up scene. She's been featured in Viceland's show Flop House , and is a writer on Hulu's Shrill . She's also one of my favorite people in the world to talk with. We had an excellent chat about her decade in stand up comedy, how she programmed her career, and how she fell into TV writing.  You can keep an eye on eve...

Stefan Aronsen is the creator of Balanced Breakfast , which is a group of musicians and music industry professionals that get together for breakfast to discuss how to best help each other reach the widest audience. There are chapters all around the world, and they are meeting online during the pandemic. We talked about how he got his start in the music business and how to Balanced Breakfast manage...

Vickki Acuna has been working in music for years, putting on shows before she was old enough to drive, street teaming for Part Time Punks , running the Box Office at The Echo in LA , and working as the Digital Coordinator for Goldenvoice Festivals in LA, including Coachella & Stagecoach. Now she runs General Election LA , an organization leveraging our darkened venues to help get out the vote!...

Mike Ziemer is the founder of Third String Productions , a popular concert promoter based in Texas. He spoke to us about his humble beginnings as a concert promoter, how, 15 years ago, he learned how to leverage MySpace to help promote your shows and bands, and how he got to where he is today- a social media expert, concert promoter, band manager, record label owner, and owner of a recording studi...