The Tonearm

Today’s episode is a live recording of a conversation Spotlight On host Lawrence Peryer had in Santa Barbara, at the FestForums conference, with American musical treasure, Jesse Colin Young.    Jesse Colin Young has been a pioneer of American roots music for more than half a century and has left his unique mark on the intersecting worlds of folk, blues, jazz, country, and rock & roll...

Today, the spotlight shines on the German electronic jazz collective Conic Rose. Their new, self-released debut album Heller Tag (or, Bright Day , in English), is out tomorrow, February 17, worldwide.   Members of the group who joined our talk included Trumpeter Konstantin Döben, keyboardist Johannes Arzberger, bassist Franziska Aller and guitarist Bertram Burkert. All come from diverse...

Today, the spotlight shines on Janishia Jones, CEO & Founder of Fresh 'N Sassy Productions, a holding company whose mission is to empower and create an ecosystem of safe spaces for women of color in the music industry. Janishia had four main initiatives to tell us about: The Pub Royalty Queen Podcast, The Juke Joint Non-profit Foundation, her consultancy Encore Music Tech Solutions and Market...

Today, the spotlight shines on two companies doing interesting work at the crossroads of music and technology.  In our first segment, we talk to Adam Hasslert, CEO of online digital audio workstation and beatmaking platform Soundation . Every month, Soundation’s online music studio is used by over 100,000 creatives who produce music directly in their web browsers. Focusing on building the nex...

Today, the spotlight shines on musicians Bart Wirtz and Emiel van Rijthoven who perform and record together under the name WAAN (Dutch for ‘Craze’).  WAAN have a new record, Echo Echo , out on February 24 through the Sonar Kollektiv label. As of this recording three tracks have already appeared on streaming outlets and through the band’s bandcamp page. In fact, just hours before we spoke the...

Today, the spotlight shines on author and educator Michael Kuelker, here to talk about his recent book, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils On Record: A Narrative Discography . Michael is a teacher, writer, and reggae radio DJ in St. Louis, Missouri.  The Ozark Mountain Daredevils are an American rock group who first formed in 1972. Hailing from Springfield, Missouri, the band had two major hits, "...

Today, the spotlight shines on the wildly influential post-punk group, That Petrol Emotion. Guitarist and songwriter Raymond Gorman and lead singer Steve Mack joined Spotlight On host Lawrence Peryer to mark the release of the band’s career-spanning box set, Every Beginning Has a Future: An Anthology 1984-1994. Spawned from the ashes of the Northern Irish pop-punk group, The Undertones, the Petrol...

Brigadoon is a global affairs news and information platform for founders + thought leaders with global ambition.  Brigadoon curates the emerging issues and the independent thinkers shaping commerce + culture. Brigadoon sees this curation as global street smarts.  The conversation covers the history of technology and innovation in creative fields - specifically music - and highlights the...

Saxophonist-composer Jeremy Rose leads a multi-dimensional career spanning a dozen releases of original music with collaborative and solo projects across the world, including The Earshift Orchestra, Jeremy Rose Quartet, and The Vampires. Rose is the founder and director of the Earshift Music record label and festival. Rose has performed at festivals, venues, and concert halls throughout Australia,...

Markus Reuter is a music producer, composer, performer, and creative educator with international credentials and a vast discography.  Reuter's work as a recording artist, solo performer, and collaborator spans (and frequently fuses) electrophonic loop music, contemporary classical music, progressive and art rock, industrial music, world jazz, jazz fusion, pop songs, and pure improvisation. Ov...

Duncan Chapman is a composer/musician based in Lincolnshire, UK. Much of his work involves collaborations with a wide range of people creating performances, installations & recordings.  Recent projects include online live-streaming events, curating a concert for the Aural Diversity project, and performing morning music with Supriya Nagarajan at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India.&nbs...

Based in the musical hotbed of Marin County, California, Grahame Lesh is a guitar player and singer-songwriter for Midnight North, Phil Lesh & Friends, & the Terrapin Family Band. A mainstay in the scene centered around Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Grahame has joined such luminaries as The Mother Hips, Chris Robinson, Twiddle, Amy Helm, The North Mississippi All Stars, Neal Casal, Ja...

Nicholas Berkeley Mason, CBE (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He is the only member to feature on every Pink Floyd album, and the only constant member since its formation in 1965. He co-wrote Pink Floyd compositions such as “Echoes”, “Time”, “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” and “One of These Days”. In 2018, he formed a new ban...

Writer John Barry joins us on the podcast to talk his new book, "Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble—The Inside Story of the Man, the Music and the Midnight Ramble." Ringo wrote the foreword, and Roger Waters, Graham Nash and Warren Haynes are among those interviewed. Larry Campbell, who served as Levon Helm Band Musical Director and produced or co-produced Levon's three Grammy-winning solo albums...

Back in the early 70s, drummer Mike Clark and bassist Paul Jackson were best friends living in East Oakland, playing flatbed gigs at Black Panther rallies, and generally raising hell. Cooking was not their forte, so the barbecue joint next door became a hangout. Mrs. Jones (of Everett and Jones) asked them to write a song to promote the spot, and they came up with the first version of ‘God Ma...

Born into a scientific family, music technologist Don Slepian showed both musical and technical talent early in life. He was a tester on the early internet as a member of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Synthesizer Soloist with the Honolulu Symphony and Musical Director of the Honolulu Theater For Youth. He has been presented by WNYC’s “New Sounds” in New York’s Lincoln Cent...

FEMME HOUSE fosters more equitable opportunity for women and gender-expansive individuals in the technical and behind-the-scenes areas of music. They are creating the future producers, mixers, engineers, DJs, artists, and executives of the industry by providing education and scholarships, cultivating community, propagating visual representation, and offering professional development opportunities....

David Carpenter has spent 22 years in media and entertainment. He is an experienced Off-Broadway and Broadway producer, Multiplatform content developer, and has worked extensively in sales and marketing. David is currently the Founder and CEO of Gamiotics, Inc , which is bringing audience engagement technology to the live entertainment market and powering the next generation of experiential entert...

Steven Hall grew up in Scotland in the '60s, singing in church choirs and learning the bagpipes. "I was shy, and wanted to be cool and meet boys and girls, so I taught myself the guitar and learned the songs of The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and Donovan." Steven emigrated to the US at age 15. After high school, he moved to New York where he hung out with artists, dancers, and musicians. There he met...

As a founding member & producer of Orlando-based Hip Hop group, Solillaquists of Sound, DiViNCi first gained notoriety by using multiple drum machines in ways the world had never seen before. His frenetic finger drumming, sonic dynamism & innovative use of music technology have led to stage & studio collaborations with such artists as Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nas, Victor Wooten, MF DOOM, Doug...

We’re excited to feature 4 guests on this episode, where we’re sharing some of the latest trends and innovations in music & tech. Our guests this week are: Jesse Kirshbaum - Dreamstage  Jesse Kirshbaum is an American entrepreneur, talent agent, author, executive producer and dealmaker. The multi-hyphenate creative businessman has made his career focused on the epicenter of entertainment,...

Named for a William S. Borroughs character, Clem Snide first emerged from Boston as a three-piece in the early 1990s, and the group would go on to become a cult and critical favorite, picking up high-profile fans from Bon Iver to Ben Folds over the course of three decades and more than a dozen studio albums. NPR highlighted the Israeli-born Barzelay as “the most underrated songwriter in the busine...

Terry Grant on More Ghost Than Man: "Who is this guy?" and "Where does he come from?" I grew up in and around Cleveland, Ohio. Fell in love with science fiction and film scores as a kid. Mom and Dad listened to Motown and the blues, and so did I. Decided to pick up a guitar at age 15 after realizing that I sucked at baseball. I moved to Nashville at 22, toured as a guitar player for a few years, a...

Sonia Stevenson is Head of Music Patron, a new start-up connecting composers and patrons. Sonia grew up in St Andrews, Scotland. She studied at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and King’s College London, where she gained a Bachelors of Music and Masters of Music.  Her work has spanned many different aspects of the music business. In 2012 she founded her own festival, St Andrews Voices, ded...

Ryan is the Founder and CEO of Marmoset — a full-service music agency based in Portland, Oregon, specializing in music licensing and original music production for brands, film, and TV. Ryan co-pilots Marmoset’s creative teams and spends most of his time studying people and human systems — constantly deconstructing the status quo, pushing boundaries, and searching for a better way to lead and nurtu...