Adrian Has Issues

On this week’s episode Adrian welcome back Cody Carpenter to the podcast. Cody is a third generation musician and has lent his unique talents to a plethora of projects including the 2018 film Halloween and The Lost Themes trilogy, which he co-wrote, co-produced, and performed with his father John Carpenter and Daniel Davies. In addition to his projects under the pseudonym Ludrium, Cody has been producing and performing a series of fantastic instrumental albums in the vein of jazz fusion and progressive rock. We discuss the inspiration behind the tracks on latest album Memories And Dreams through Blue Canoe Records as well as weigh in on the resurgence of videogame-themed movies and the influence gaming has had on their lives and creative ventures.

On this week’s podcast, Adrian is joined by Eileen Melendez aka The LatiNerd and returning guest, comic book writer/letterer Erica Schultz (Daredevil, Forgotten Home). Erica’s latest title The Deadliest Bouquet from Vices Press focuses on three sisters who are forced to confront a complicated family legacy when investigating their mother’s murder. Adrian, Eileen and Erica examine the book’s themes complete with irreverent yet insightful takes on sibling rivalry, death as well as action movie stars of the 80’s & 90’s.

On this week’s guest is singer/musician/YouTuber Lacey Johnson! Armed with boundless enthusiasm, razor-sharp wit and a monster-slaying keytar, Lacey covers music from games like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and many more. In addition to her YouTube channel, Lacey is also known for energetic live performances that have been making a statement in the Video Game Music community. Lacey shares her experiences with the joys and challenges in arranging music as well as producing videos. Adrian and Lacey also make predictions on what post-pandemic concerts will look like as well as hold an honest discussion on how confronting fear is integral to the creative process.

On this week's podcast, cartoonist Alex Schumacher returns! In early 2020, his semi-autobiographical webcomic "Decades of (in)Experience" through Antix Press had celebrated 200 episodes. Now a year later, Alex talks about the decision to conclude the strip as well as rebrand his other project, the satirical shenanigans of Mr. Butterchips. Embarking on the next phases of his personal and creative endeavors, Alex shares his thoughts regarding the importance of art to evolve and reinforce the idea that it's never too late for new beginnings. For all the latest updates on Alex Schumacher please visit his website alexschumacherart.com.

On this week's podcast, Adrian chats once again with veteran punk rocker Mikey Erg (The Ergs, Worriers) Fresh off the release of his new self-titled solo album, Mikey discusses his "Return to punk rock" and his experience writing and recording a new album in the midst of a global pandemic. Adrian and Mikey also reflect on the absence of live music, share concert-going regrets and the underrated punk prowess of Pearl Jam.

This week’s guests are composers Aivi & Surasshu. They are a chiptune and piano duo, comprised of pianist Aivi Tran and sound designer Steven "Surasshu" Velema. The two have created a significant number of songs for the award-winning Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe and Steven Universe Future. The duo have been making waves for their work on the soundtrack for the indie RPG Ikenfell created by Chevy Ray of Happy Ray Games along with Sabrielle Augustin. The soundtrack features guest artists such as Sammus, Stemage, Renko, Adriana Figueroa and Reckadem. In this episode, Adrian speaks with Aivi & Surasshu about the evolution of their professional/personal relationship, the concept of “Digital Fusion” in music and Ikenfell’s themes of inclusion and normalization of queer characters in storytelling as well as the game’s unique accessibility options.

On this week’s episode, Adrian teams up with Talking Like A Teen co-host Ashley Burgy for a conversation with voice actress Jennifer Hale. Jennifer has lent her voice to a plethora of animated series (Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Powerpuff Girls) and videogames (Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid) and currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most female videogame voices. Jennifer talks about her experiences narrating her first audiobook for Christopher Paolini’s novel, To Sleep In A Sea of Stars and co-writing a song inspired by the book along with Todd Herfindal . Plus, Adrian and Ashley chat with Jennifer about the Mass Effect cast reunion hosted by NerdsVote and the importance of being socially and politically active.

This week's guest is Fallon Goskowski. Fallon is a singer, thespian, the founder of Access BOSS...and Adrian's older sister. Adrian & Fallon reflect on what it was like growing up as Blerds to now being parents to both organic and digital children and express their thoughts on what it means to be Black while fighting to exist and be seen in traditionally White spaces.

This week's guest is David Pepose, the writer and co-creator of the Ringo Award-nominated comic Spencer & Locke as well as Going To The Chapel. from Action Lab Danger Zone. As the comic book industry experiences huge shakeups in publishing and distributing, creators like David Pepose are looking to more crowdfunding ventures such as Kickstarter to appeal to a wider audience that might not have the backing of a traditional publisher. Adrian speaks with David about what inspired his latest comic The O.Z., which is described as The Hurt Locker meets The Wizard of Oz. The conversation then shifts into the marketing of said title, as it is David's first Kickstarter comic and he breaks down his experience with a new outlet of potential readers. There's also talk about what the continual shift towards crowdfunding means for the direct market and the future of indie/mainstream comics and coming to the realization that we're not Keanu Reeves (but that's okay).

Jono Diener is a musician and comic book writer based out of Flint, Michigan. He’s performed in bands like The Swellers, Baggage, and No Trigger to name a few. Diener put together A Comic For Flint: HOPE released by Source Point Press, and is featured in the anthologies Maybe Someday (A Wave Blue World), and Everything Is Going Wrong: Comics on Punk and Mental Illness in addition to his self-published titles Monster Bounty, and Jetpack Zack. In this week’s episode, Adrian chats with Jono about his comic book writing career and his involvement in THE INEVITABLES, an art/music project which was created by Vinnie Fiorello (Less Than Jake) and Obi Fernandez (Westbound Train) and features artist Liana Kangas (She Said Destroy), designer Devin Watson, artist Fabian Lelay (We Are The Danger) and letterer Cardinal Rae (Forgotten Home). Jono and Adrian also examine the post-pandemic nature of both the comic book and music industries and the challenges of creating while dealing with anxiety.