Adrian Has Issues

This episode’s guest is musician Mikey Erg, the drummer and vocalist of the influential New Jersey punk band The Ergs! which was formed in 2000. Over the years Erg has performed in a plethora of punk bands including Worriers, The Measure[SA] and The Dopamines as well as The LLC, the house band for The Chris Gethard Show. Recorded on location at Vinyl Paradise in Sayville, New York, Adrian chats with Erg about his latest release entitled Waxbuilt Castles,. The album marks his second solo album, which pays homage to Erg’s musical influences such as The Beatles and Elvis Costello. Erg details his experiences mastering the album at the legendary recording studio Abbey Road in London and reflects on the 15th anniversary of The Ergs! landmark debut, Dorkrockcorkrod.

This week's episode features a conversation with Chelsea Tyler, a Maryland-based musician and the singer/guitarist of the alternative pop band DRMCTHR with Bryan Czap and Craig Perkins. Chelsea describes how both she and the band continued to evolve from the release of their 2013 EP Wonderlust to their full-lenth album Hold Your Love in 2017. Now with the latest singles "Burnin' Up" and "Underneath" released in 2019, the band has emerged with a renewed energy and purpose after a series of personal and professional setbacks. Plus, Adrian and Chelsea share their thoughts on the future of Pop music as well as working to dispel the fallacy of suffering for one's art.

In this minisode of Adrian Has Issues, a music playlist serves as a catalyst for Adrian to reflect on a pivotal moment in his personal life. In turn, this causes him to look ahead to the future and outline plans for the podcast including the addition of The LatiNerd Experience and Talking Like A Teen.

Grant Henry, known best by his stage name Stemage, is a composer, session player, and audio engineer. He is the creator of Metroid Metal, former guitarist for the video game tribute band LONELYROLLINGSTARS and the guitar player for the Emmy-nominated animated series Steven Universe. His latest project is music and sound design for the videogame Bubsy: Paws on Fire! which is available for PC, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch. In this episode, Stemage speaks with Adrian about his unique experiences composing music for both videogames and television as well as hilarious discussions on the 1982 cult classic film Tron, pinball and weird production company logos from the 80s/90s.

David M. Booher is a Los Angeles based comic book writer and screenwriter. Some of his past credits include the sci-fi epics POWERLESS and ALIEN BOUNTY HUNTER, both from Vault Comics. His latest project is an all-ages fantasy graphic miniseries CANTO from IDW Pub. The comic was created by Booher (POWERLESS) and artist Drew Zucker (THE HOUSE) and features the talents of colorist Vittorio Astone (ZOJAQAN) and letterer Deron Bennett (IMMORTAL HULK). Described as "THE WIZARD OF OZ meets DANTE'S INFERNO," CANTO tells a tale of brave creature who sets out into a dangerous in hopes of saving a young girl's life. David made his very first podcast appearance in Episode 98 of Adrian Has Issues. In this episode, David speaks with Adrian about the inspiration behind CANTO as well as assembling the creative team and the steps taken to create an effective pitch to publishers. Plus, there's fun observations on The Lord of the Rings, The Neverending Story and more!

Mustin a multi-instrumentalist and music producer based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He's credited as being a pioneer of the videogame music remixing scene with early contributions to OverClocked ReMix and Project Majestic Mix before founding one of the first videogame music record labels, OneUp Studios, and one of the first videogame music cover bands, The OneUps, who still perform regularly at conventions such as PAX, MAGFest, VCON, and more to this day. Mustin has been featured on CNN and MSNBC, remixed for MC Frontalot and Freezepop, and has worked with the likes of brentalfloss, Mega Ran, and more. In this episode, Adrian speaks with Mustin about his solo album entitled "The World Is Square" from Scarlet Moon Productions. The album is a 7-track videogame tribute album, featuring laid-back "chillout" renditions of songs from Squaresoft games such as Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. Mustin also discusses how the album was inspired by various women in his life plus he and Adrian bond over being gamers as well as fathers.

Young Doctors In Love is a 6-piece indie pop band from Toronto, Ontario. After taking something of a hiatus since the release of their 2014 full-length album “World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band,” band leader Clay Puddester returns with a new lineup for their latest album. In this episode, Clay and vocalist/songwriter Stephanie Matos chat with Adrian about the songwriting process of their new album entitled “…In Love” plus some other fun topics including: Brainstorming ideas for future music videos. The album’s connections to the Thomas Pynchon novel, “V." The timeless novelty of smoke machines and lasers...and much more.

Mario Candelaria is a comic book writer and comedian based out of Philadelphia, PA. Some of his credits include Ashes: A Firefighter's Tale (Z2 Comics), Corktown(Alterna Comics) and Baroque Pop: A Lana Del Ray Fanthology (Red Stylo Media). In this episode, Mario brings Adrian up to speed on all the events leading up to Wrestlemania 35, which includes storylines from WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown and even NXT.

Also in this episode: Kofi-mania sweeps the nation...The rise of Becky “The Man” Lynch...Brock Lesnar is still wrestling, I suppose...And much more!

Janet LaBelle is a singer/songwriter based out of Brooklyn, NY. During her formative years as a teen, she got her start as the vocalist for the New Jersey pop-punk band Avery, which landed her an indie record deal and the band toured nationally and had their music was featured on television shows & commercials. Since those days, Janet continued to grow as an artist and a solo performer, having released a number of EPs: Moon Songs (2010), Blossom & Blue (2011) and Just A Little Rain (2012). Janet has also performed for other bands including Brooklyn’s Sharkmuffin and Jimmy Destri & The Sound Grenade, a project helmed by Blondie keyboardist Jimmy Destri. This week’s episode features Adrian’s conversation with Janet LaBelle, which covers various topics including the songwriting and recording process of her latest EP, 2018’s I Only See You from Loantaka Records as well as New York’s surfing scene and how music can help people therapeutically.

Cody Carpenter is a third generation multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. His grandfather, Howard Carpenter, is a founding member of the Nashville Strings. His father, John Carpenter, is a filmmaker and composer. In addition to contributing music for his father's films, Vampires (1998), Ghosts of Mars (2001) and 2018's Halloween along with Daniel Davies, Cody has composed the full-length scores to projects such as Showtimes' Masters of Horror. In this episode, Adrian speaks with Cody regarding his two most recent albums: 2019’s Force Of Nature, an instrumental jazz/fusion album from Blue Canoe Records featuring Grammy Award-nominated bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Scott Seiver and 2018’s Reflections, Cody’s snyth-heavy solo album under his pseudonym Ludrium. Additionally, Adrian and Cody explore various concepts including: The rising popularity of synth/progressive music, the challengers of touring as a musician and music as a universal language.