Beginnings

On today's episode, I talk to musician Emilie Rex and musician/filmmaker Rick Alverson AKA Lean Year. As a musical duo, Emilie and Rick have been making music together for a number of years, and their first self-titled album was released in 2017 to acclaim from publications like Pitchfork and NPR Music. In addition to their musical work, Rick is also a lauded indie film director, whose movies include The Comedy starring Tim Heidecker and The Mountain starring Jeff Goldblum. Lean Year's latest album Sides was just released on Western Vinyl, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to author Lincoln Michel. Originally from Virginia, Lincoln's fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Pushcart Prize anthology and his essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The Guardian and many other places. His debut story collection, Upright Beasts, was published by Coffee House Press in 2015, and his debut novel, The Body Scout, was published by Orbit just last year! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Attia Taylor. Originally from Philadelphia, Attia is a writer and musician based in New York City. She is the founder of Womanly Magazine, a publication dedicated to providing accessible health information to women and non-binary people through visual and literary art. She is also half of the psych-pop band Strange Parts, and has been writing and releasing music under her own name since 2009. Her first full album, Space Ghost, was just released this summer on Lame-O Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Karl Blau. Originally from Samish Island, WA, Karl grew up in a family of amatuer musicians and at first thought he was going to be a fine artist. But by the end of high school, Karl was all in on music, and his band Captain Fathom began playing in Anacortes. It was there he met Beat Happening's Bret Lunsford and a pre-Microphones/Mount Eerie Phil Elvrum and they formed the band D+. Being part of the Anacortes music scene eventually led Karl to joining Laura Veirs' band, to working at K Records' Dub Narcotic Studios, and to write and record dozens of albums of his own since the late '90s, which were released on labels like Lunsford's Knw-Yr-Own, K Records, Bella Union, and though Karl's own recording series Kelp! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Tim McIlrath of Rise Against. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, Tim grew up about an hour outside Chicago in the suburbs where he started playing in punk bands. In 1999, Joe Principe and Dan Wieklinski formed Rise Against out of the break-up of their former band 88 Fingers Louie, and invited Tim to join. Though the early days were tumultuous, they persevered and released the Transistor Revolt EP a year later. And since those early days, the band has risen to international acclaim releasing albums on Fat Wreck Chords, Geffen, DGC/Interscope and their most current album, the Nowhere Generation II EP was just released on Loma Vista in June! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal. Originally from Ohio, Kevin eventually ended up in Athens, GA where he became part of the Elephant 6 collective, a group that included Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and many others. Kevin's music has transformed over time, as his own aesthetic beliefs have changed. Starting off as a Kinks/Paul McCartney-esque surreal indie pop group with albums on Bar/None and Kindercore, morphing from there into electronic pop and then dance pop, the entirety of the band's output given a throughline by Kevin's psyche. Since 2004, Kevin has almost exclusively released albums on Polyvinyl and his latest Freewave Lucifer Fck is out now! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician John Ringhofer AKA Half-handed Cloud. Based now in Helsinki, Finland, Half-handed Cloud started as a home-recording project in Chattanooga, TN in 1999. Since then, John has released almost two dozen albums and EPs, many of them on Asthmatic Kitty and Sounds Familyre. He's also been a member of Sufjan Stevens' touring band, and his latest album Flutterama is out now! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to actor Britt Lower. Originally from Heyworth, Illinois, Britt's first big role was on the short-lived 2010 Comedy Central show Big Lake. This launched her into the world of being a working actor, which included a regular role on Man Seeking Woman, as well as recurring roles on shows like Casual, Ghosted, and High Maintenance. Currently, Britt stars in the Emmy-nominated Apple TV+ series Severance, which is easily one of the best things on TV! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to Eisner and Harvey Award-winning comics creator Mike "Spike" Allred. Originally from Oregon, Mike began his career in comics while working as a journalist. He created his well-known character Madman in the early '90s, and since then has drawn on books like Sandman, Fables, Silver Surfer and numerous others. He co-created two wonderful series: iZombie and X-Statix, and is currently drawing Superman: Space Age and a new X-Statix series. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Casper Kelly. Originally from Burlington, North Carolina, Casper started working at Adult Swim in the early 2000s, writing for shows like Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Squidbillies, as well as non-Adult Swim shows like Archer. He's co-created two series, Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell and Stroker and Hoop, as well as the incredible Adult Swim infomercial Too Many Cooks. In addition to his TV work, Casper is a wonderful short story writer, and his book More Stories About Spaceships and Cancer is very much worth your time! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Victoria Park AKA Pictoria Vark. Originally from Cresskill, NJ, Victoria started playing in bands in high school and then college, eventually becoming the touring bassist for indie rock bands like Squirrel Flower and Pinkshift. A few months ago, her first album The Parts I Dread was released on Get Better Records, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to artist Steve Keene. Originally from the DC metro area, Steve wanted to be an artist from an early age, taking off on a path that eventually led him to Yale art school. But it wasn't until his early 30s that he realized what he actually wanted to do as an artist, and since then Steve has become the most prolific American painter of all time, producing more than 300,000 hand-painted works via his studio/chainlink fence cage where he paints more than 50 paintings at a time.Time Magazine even gave him the moniker of the "Assembly-Line Picasso" because of his unique mass-production painting style. In addition to his affordable mass produced paintings, Steve's also painted the album art for many indie rock bands, including Pavement, The Apples in Stereo, The Silver Jews, as well as many others, and a new book about Steve, produced by photojournalist Daniel Efram, was recently published on Hat and Beard Press! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me o

On today's episode, I talk to musician Kasie Shahbaz AKA Kisskadee. Originally from San Diego, Kasie first started playing music under the name Coyote Run. As Kisskadee though, her first release was just last year, a short EP entitled Ambient Music For Bedrooms. And her first full album Black Hole Era just came out in May on Anxiety Blanket Records, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Joe Rainey. Originally from South Minneapolis, Joe is A member of the Red Lake Nation of Ojibwe people and began attending and singing at pow wows from an early age, as well as becoming a pow wow singing archivist. Eventually ending up in Wisconsin, Joe began guesting with different musicians, working with people like Alan Sparhawk of Low, Bon Iver, Chance the Rapper, among many others. This eventually led to his debut album Niineta, which he composed with producer and artist Andrew Broder and which was released at the end of May on Justin Vernon's label 37d03d! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Shaun Fleming. Originally from Agoura Hills, CA, Shaun started out their creative life as a child voice actor on shows like Fillmore!, Kim Possible and Lilo & Stitch. As a musician though, they first started playing professionally as the touring drummer for the indie rock band Foxygen. Soon after, Shaun formed Diane Coffee as an outlet for their own music, and since then have recorded five albums and EPs, the latest of which, With People, was just released on Polyvinyl! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to comics writer Ryan North. Originally from Osgoode, Ontario, Ryan was on a path to a career in computational linguistics before a small webcomic he started, Dinosaur Comics, launched him in a somewhat different direction. Since then, he's become a New York Times-bestselling and Eisner Award-winning writer whose work includes the non-fiction book How To Invent Everything, the semi-fictional graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, and the so-far-fictional Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comic and podcast for Marvel. He's also written Adventure Time, Jughead, The Midas Flesh and many other comics as well, and his most recent work is another non-fiction book How To Take Over The World! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to composer and singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane. Originally from Venice Beach, California, Gabriel has been making albums for almost a decade and a half, starting with his self-titled album which was released on Family Records in 2008. Gabriel comes at much of his songwriting from a conceptual standpoint - on his 2014 album The Ambassador, he used ten addresses in LA to write songs from the perspectives of characters both real and imaginary, his 2018 album Book of Travelers was based on a cross-country train trip he took, and his first concert work Craigslistlieder set real Craisglist ads to music. In addition to his songwriting, Gabriel has also been commissioned to write dozens of pieces for orchestras, festivals and theaters, and his latest album Magnificent Bird was just released at the end of March on Nonesuch Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Kelly Thompson. After graduating with a degree in Sequential Art from The Savannah College of Art & Design, Kelly began her career as a novelist, penning two books in the early 20-teens, The Girl Who Would Be King and Storykiller. She soon began writing comics with some creator-owned series through Dark Horse and Boom, as well as on the IDW series Jem & The Holograms, among many others. This led to writing for Marvel, where she's written many critically acclaimed and well-loved books including Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Uncanny X-Men, Rogue & Gambit and Hawkeye, among many others! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musicians Kathryn Calder and Mark Andrew Hamilton. Kathryn and Mark have been making music in different bands for years. Kathryn is a member of The New Pornographers, has released three albums under her own name and was in the indie pop group Immaculate Machine from 2003 to 2011. Similarly, Mark's primary band since the mid-aughts has been Woodpigeon, who have released over two dozen albums and EPs since their formation. After a chance meeting in the hallway of a recording studio, the two vowed to form a band together one day, and in the late 20-teens, they did just that! Their first self-titled album was released in 2018, and their latest Parade was just released last week on Oscar St. Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to rapper, academic and politician Mariah Parker AKA Linqua Franqa. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Mariah wears many hats. As an academic, they earned their master's in Linguistics at the University of Georgia in 2017 and are currently a doctoral student in Language and Literacy Education at the University. As an activist and politician, Mariah ran for and won county commissioner in District 2 of Athens, Georgia. And as a rapper, they've released two wonderful albums, Model Minority in 2018 and their latest Bellringer, which was just released on Ernest Jenning Record Co., and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.