Talk About the Passion

#84: Point of Entry With Bob Mayo (Pt. 1)

Episode 84 sees Bob Mayo return for a third appearance on the podcast, this time we are talking about the "point of entry" phenomena wherein the first record you hear by an artist orients your idea of what they should sound like. We talk about getting into bands like Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Cheap Trick and Iron Maiden to name a few. When you first heard Judas Priest did you then move backwards through their catalog, or were you there for the beginning of some of these bands? We talk about the new Iron Maiden record and what other bands are still putting out solid records as well as how being a fan of music and a collector informed how he presented the excellent reissues of his band Wargasm. Look for a second episode soon where we get into underground and thrash metal!

#76: Somewhere In Time (A Conversation With Steve Brooks)

Episode 76 is a conversation with Steve Brooks, Steve is best known as the guitar player and singer of bands Torche and Floor. I've been a big fan of both of these bands who play some of the heaviest and catchiest music around. We get into where that inspiration came from to create the music in those bands, starting like a number of my guests, with Kiss, and we end up in the present where Steve gives me an update on what Torche has been up to so far in 2021 (hint: new music has been recorded) Steve was a great guest, as one of my favorite musicians working today I appreciate him taking the time to chat. 

#75: Remember Tomorrow (Another Conversation With Bob Mayo)

Episode 75 is another conversation with Bob Mayo of the Boston area metal band Wargasm. This episode almost serves as a prequel to the first one we did (Episode 27) where we mostly talked about the history of Wargasm. Here we talk about the music that Bob grew up with starting around 1978 with Sabbath and Kiss, hitting the NWOBHM in 1980 and going up to around when thrash metal hit. Bob is a great storyteller and loves talking about music, I'm glad we were able to talk again and plan to do some more episodes in the future. 

#70: A National Acrobat (A Conversation With Chris Johnson)

Episode 70 is a conversation with Chris Johnson. Chris is recording and mix engineer from the Boston area who also plays in the bands Summoner, Deafheaven and Doomriders. We talk about how he got interested in the sound end of music as well as performing music. How he got into the band Deafheaven and what that's has been like. Chris has his hand in a number of different projects and is extremely passionate about all of them which made him a great guest for the podcast. 

#61: Mad World (Another Conversation With Randy Larsen)

Episode 61 is a conversation with Randy Larsen, this is the second time Randy has been on the podcast.You may know him from his bands Cable and Empty Flowers. On this pretty free form episode we have a conversation about various subjects including the ending of Cable, a new musical project he's involved in now as well as a bunch of different bands we go back and forth about. This was a lot of fun and I love talking to Randy about music, especially in a loose format like this. 

#57:Bad Fun (Another Conversation With Keith Bennett)

Episode 57 is a candid conversation with my friend Keith Bennett. This is Keith’s second appearance on the podcast, the first episode (# 14) was an origin story about how he got into music, his bands, most notably The Wrecking Crew & Panzerbastard. Recorded in early April 2020 during the Coronoavirus pandemic this episode starts off pretty dark and then I throw some records at him, the second DYS album, Celtic Frost – Cold Lake, and other divisive albums from our world we talk a bit about those types of records as well as when el established bands would change singers.  I had a great time talking to Keith, his love and passion for this music is deep and real and I’m glad I got to take us there for an hour.

#56: Off To Ruin (Another Conversation With Nate Newton)

Episode 56 is a conversation with Nate Newton (Converge, Old Man Gloom, Doomriders) that took place over the phone in late March of 2020 during the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. We talk quite a bit about how this has affected creative people who create for a living, what he's been doing to stay busy and focused. Nate also talks about the great new Old Man Gloom record and what it was like to play his late friend Caleb Scofield's music with Cave In. This episode has some heavy overtones but as always, Nate is a pleasure to talk to and is a great guest for this podcast. 

#46: It's Alive! (A Conversation With Brian & Guy About Live Records)

Episode 46 is a deep and long dive with my co-hosts Brian Smith and Guy Weatherbee about live records. More than just a discussion of our specific favorite live records, we get pretty loose and open about the live album as an archive of a band at a certain point in time, infamous "fake" live recordings, and we somehow manage to cover everyone from the usual suspects like Rush and Kiss to artists like Dave Brubeck and Sammy Davis Jr. This was a lot of fun to record and there will most likely be a volume two to this one 

#45: God Of Thunder (A Conversation With Chris Giguere)

Episode 45 is a conversation with Chris Giguere. Chris plays guitar in the band Conclave, he has also done time in Tenebrae and Panzerbastard. In this episode we talk about growing up in Blackstone, MA which borders Woonsocket, RI. As the title indicates and as a good amount of these episodes go, Kiss is an early influence on Chris so we of course talk a bit about them, as well as other heavy music, classic rock music and everything in between. Chris made a great guest, he and I have a lot of the same ideas and opinions on music and life so this conversations is natural and sounds like I'm talking with an old friend, when in fact we had just met. 

#43: Loose (A Conversation With Daniel Brockman)

Episode 43 is a conversation with Daniel Brockman. This episode, recorded over the phone, is named after The Stooges song of the same name, the nature of this episode is indeed pretty loose. We don't really get into Dan's former Boston area bands Medea Connection and The Hidden at all but instead focus more on his experiences writing about music, interviewing artists from Danzig to Robyn Hitchcock. Daniel has some unique and fascinating takes on music and I've always enjoyed talking to him about music. His writing has appeared in such places as Vanyaland, Spin and Rolling Stone.