Creating A Universe

On this episode I am joined by Gideon Ricardo, the Dutch mastermind composer behind Woods Of Wonders The Metal Opera. Gideon is a lovely guy and very humble, especially considering the huge scale of the project he's working with. The debut album 'Lost' has just been released and features over 30 guests! From underground stars in the making to metal legends - the album boasts a truly remarkable cast. I get to sit down with Gideon and discuss how him and his fiance Charlaine put this whole thing together - as well as their goals for supporting artists and making family friendly metal that children can enjoy. It was a pleasure to chat with Gideon and also get to help with releasing his debut outing 'Lost' via Love Anarchy Records. I hope that you enjoy listening to both to the album and this podcast ❤️  

You can check out Woods Of Wonders links here: https://linktr.ee/woodsofwondersofficial  

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy  

Timestamps:

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis

00:57 Overview of Gideon & Woods Of Wonders

02:32 How the project started

04:13 The process for getting the guests

06:14 Incorporating story & dialogue

08:10 Composing the opera & managing the roles

09:55 Discussing the sheer amount of guests

11:28 Gideon's passion for finding lesser known artists

13:37 The Woods Of Wonders story / family friendly metal

18:00 Gideon's musical journey

26:38 How David Akesson convinced Gideon to sing

29:05 The role that Gideon's fiance Charlaine plays

31:10 Gideon's musical inspirations

38:00 The prospect of doing a live show

39:37 What's next for Gideon & Woods Of Wonders

41:02 Final thoughts

On this episode I am joined by French Guitarist & Composer Louis Nas, someone who I am honoured to call a dear friend since meeting around the release of 'The Outsider' EP - from his H.P. Lovecraft inspired instrumental metal project Ominous Conclusions. It was clear to me the moment I came across Louis that he was just my kind of person and after reaching out to express my admiration, we instantly hit it off and became friends. Louis is a remarkable composer & musician who is so dedicated to his craft, it's really been an inspiration to get to know him and I have been anticipating this episode since the very beginning! Now we finally managed to get together to record it and it made for such an enjoyable episode. We talked music & composing, as a means of storytelling - as well some expert theory advice like that Louis shares on his educational YouTube channel. We also spoke about life, daily routines & the continuous pursuit of bettering ourselves. It was a real treat speaking to Louis and I hope that you enjoy listening to it too ❤️

You can find all of Louis' links related to Ominous Conclusions here: https://linktr.ee/ominousconclusions  

And check out his instructional YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCewx9j0OztZ-iNqpcF90y2A  

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy  

Timestamps:  

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis

01:55 Overview of Louis & what he does

03:30 The Outsider EP & how we met

07:50 Louis approach to composing & his inspirations / H.P. Lovecraft

21:00 Community among musicians / finding your tribe online

34:40 Where Louis lives in France & his connection to nature

41:46 Louis' routine / discipline & following your own rhythm

58:50 Ear training masterclass / Louis instructional content

1:07:30 Music theory & guitar practice

1:17:24 Priorities, time management & comparing yourself to others 0

1:38:50 Ominous Conclusions music & what's next

1:44:44 The concept of the upcoming track 'Time'

1:52:23 Closing sentiments

On this episode I'm joined by Erik Rayne, frontman of the Progressive Metal band Tales of Arken. Hailing from Spain, the band refer to themselves as 'Clockwork Metal', due to the inclusion of steam punk themes and aesthetics to their music. Erik is a passionate guy that has been working hard on his music for a long time. Having now solidified a fantastic line up with Tales Of Arken, the band are on the up, with an album and EP behind them and lots to more to come. They recently released an absolutely killer new single 'Allegory' from their next album and are creating some wonderful music videos to tell the story. I really enjoyed getting to chat with Erik all about it. I hope you enjoy listening to it too! ❤️  

Follow Tales Of Arken on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TalesOfArken/

Check out their music on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/3b75nbrv

Check out their videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/talesofarken 

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy 

Timestamps:  

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis

01:09 Overview of Tales Of Arken & Clockwork Metal

05:17 How the Steampunk aesthetic came into being

08:18 Vocals - How all 4 members sing + Erik's training in opera

14:22 How Erik got into music and his journey up until the band

19:30 Reflecting on the years, discussing processes & influences

28:05 The production process for Tales Of Arken

32:25 Hale & Ale joining Erik & Billy to complete the line-up

43:47 Creating the Nautilus EP and how the band evolved

54:40 Concepts, stories & themes for the bands music

57:08 The new single 'Allegory' & the upcoming album

58:58 How the band make their own music videos

1:02:20 The frustration with trying to get heard as a new band

1:05:30 Returning briefly to music videos & the next album

1:07:45 The bands relationship with playing live

1:09:12 Managing expectations / learning from experience

1:20:15 Creating community & making meaningful connections

1:31:18 The difficulty with being a Spanish band that sings in English

1:46:30 Finding your audience / summary & closing thoughts

On this episode of Creating A Universe, I get to talk to Alex from Blood of Indigo about all things Dark Fantasy Metal. It's a very exciting time for the band, who are coming in hot off the back of the release of their debut album 'Dawn of the Shaded World'. I've been following the band for a while and must say I've been blown away by all they've been doing, with all the fantastic illustration & world building, as well as absolutely stellar album - it's safe to say that Blood of Indigo is right up my street. The guy's in the band are really great and so to chat with Alex was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. We went into great depth about their story and all that they're doing, but also spoke a lot about the music industry, as well as some more philosophical takes on it all. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did making it!  

Check out Blood of Indigo's links here: https://linktr.ee/Bloodofindigo  

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy 

Timestamps:  

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis 

01:15 Overview of Alex & Blood of Indigo / The bands inspirations  

06:05 How Alex went from radio host to metal vocalist 

20:00 How Blood of Indigo formed & the roles each of them play / Discussing Memesis  

34:25 Reflecting on the process of the album & the philosophical meaning of it all 

41:38 Storytelling / Blood of Indigo concept & lore 

01:00:39 Returning to philosophy & the process / Fans & Community 

01:12:58 The bands plans moving forwards / Playing live 

01:26:31 Alex's thank you's / Working with illustrator Loren Tyr 

01:36:21 The Dark Fantasy Metal Championship Wrestling Belts  

On this episode, I am joined by Ben Sebastian, host of The Sonic Symphonic Podcast & a fantastic metal composer in his own right. This one gets deep, as we discuss addiction, personality disorders & time spent in custody. Ben has been through a hell of a journey and learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way. It was a real pleasure to get the chance to discuss it with him and there are a lot of takeaways for you to gain from this chat. As well, we also discussed music & community in great detail, both from what Ben is involved in and beyond! Overall I found this to be a great episode and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did creating it :)  

For all of Ben's links, go here: https://artists.magroove.com/lt/bensebastian/  

And for artists looking to submit to The Sonic Symphonic Podcast, send Ben an email at: [email protected]  

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy  

Timestamps:  

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis

01:25 An overview of Ben's musical journey & life story 

05:11 Continuation of Ben's story & why he started his podcast 

10:08 The Rock & Metal community and how our paths aligned 

18:23 Ben's style in curation, reviews & artist discovery 

26:08 Ben's hard reset and his new trajectory 

33:42 Being both unconditional & pro-active / Ben's goals with the podcast 

41:36 Ben's original music & the therapeutic role it's played in his life 

57:48 Ben's Frankenstein compositional style 

01:01:44 Discussing Ben's favourite music & bands (Dream Theater, Cradle of Filth, Epica, Opeth & more) 

01:22:22 Discussing podcasting & what goes into it 

01:30:54 Closing sentiments

On this episode, I get to speak to multi-talented prog rocker Leo Maia - a singer, composer & self-producer of his newly found solo career. Originally from Brazil & currently settled in Canada, Leo began his current trajectory after experiencing a catalytic crisis of health. He spent his recovery writing & learning to produce, whilst creating his first single "Pneumothorax" that tells that very story. He's since released his second single "Sonhos" and goes from strength to strength - at last able to demonstrate his immense talents to the world. It's an inspiring story that brings us up to now, where I got to have the pleasure of chatting with Leo all about it. We also discussed many great topics; such as progressive music, composing, production & jazz! Leo is very knowledgeable about a lot of these things and I felt like I learned a lot from him. Hopefully you will too! Enjoy :)  

Be sure to check out all of Leo's links here: https://withkoji.com/@leomaiaprog  

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy  

Timestamps: 

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis 

01:11 Overview of Leo's story 

02:26 The Pneumothorax story & song 

11:38 Leo's musical journey 

20:20 Leo's experience & approach to singing 

29:20 How Leo learned to produce 

34:13 Writing Prog Rock drums 

36:35 The vibe & story of Sonhos 

41:26 Leo's approach to Progressive music 

46:29 The guest musicians on Sonhos (sax & keys) 

51:40 What's next for Leo (including info about the next song)  

56:49 Leo's approach to writing lyrics 

01:01:37 How music has evolved over time / The spectrum of repetition & variation  

01:06:59 Taking one solo song at a time whilst also doing collabs (+ singing metal) 

01:09:40 Discussing Jazz 

01:14:33 Vinyl records, the album format & Brazilian Prog Rock 

01:21:26 Final thoughts & where to find Leo 

Love Anarchy Links: https://flow.page/loveanarchy

In this episode of Creating A Universe, I chat to Sopranista Pete Rawcliffe about our brand new release together, Urania Fantasia - The Arcane Muse. We discuss some of the process behind creating the character and song for the latest artist from the LovAnaverse Music Universe, as well as chatting about Pete's personal trajectory as an artist and singer. We got into some great topics, as well as some deeper, personal stories from Pete that I found very moving. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and hope you do as much when listening to it!   

Be sure to check out our latest release together. All links related to Urania Fantasia & The Arcane Muse can be found here: https://lovanaverse.com/uraniafantasia/  

Follow Pete and checkout all of his links here: https://linktr.ee/pete_rawcliffe  

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy  

Timestamps:  

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis

01:30 How we met & started Urania Fantasia 

06:46 Overview of Pete's story & the projects he's involved in 

10:36 Pete's strategy - singing on Instagram & networking 

17:06 Community, championing other artists & what it takes to make it 

23:09 Pete's unique vocal profile as a male soprano 

30:48 Writing 'The Arcane Muse' for Pete's voice & the dynamics involved 

34:17 The deeper meaning behind Pete's debut single 'Locked Away' 

41:34 Creating the concept & lyrics for 'The Arcane Muse' and the organic emotion involved 

48:40 The powerful meaning of stories & it's place in the field of music 

52:46 Inspiration from 'The Queen of The Night' / opera & classical music 

01:08:48 Segue into comparing classical with metal / the philosophy of 'progressive' music 

01:14:31 Final thoughts & wrapping up the episode

On this episode of Creating A Universe, I'm back with another solo episode to provide with you some very exciting updates regarding the LovAnaverse Music Universe. As well as getting into all of the new things we have coming during the first half of this episode, I also give some updates from my personal life, including sharing some of the things that are working for me at the moment - which hopefully you will be able to benefit from. We'll be back in two weeks with a very special guest, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this solo episode!  

For all Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy  

Timestamps

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis 

00:45 Overview of LovAnaverse 

01:22 What we've done so far (Yarimā & Flavour Nurse) 

02:38 The teased & upcoming project Black Tongue Bile 

03:27 BIG UPDATE 1: News about a brand new artist 

04:32 The new era of LovAnaverse 

05:30 BIG UPDATE 2: Re-branding LovAnaverse with a new look 06:11 Working with Lindsay Schoolcraft as a mentor 08:30 The evolution of our character design and move into illustrated art 

10:01 Hiring a visual artist for LovAnaverse 

11:24 BIG UPDATE 3: A new video series that will provide a far more immersive experience 

16:00 Behind the scenes content coming from Love Anarchy 

17:19 The Love Anarchy / LovAnaverse community 

19:10 Personal life updates, progress on mindset & daily living 

19:59 The compound effect of positive behaviors / habits 

21:27 My morning routine 23:43 Balancing work & family as a father 

25:12 Reading lots of books / listening to audio-books 

28:30 Information diet - education to entertainment ratio 

30:16 Smoking a tobacco pipe & the rest of my day 

32:17 A summary of the personal topics discussed 

33:58 Closing sentiments for the episode 

Love Anarchy Links: https://flow.page/loveanarchy

On this episode I'm joined by Wana White, lead singer of the Cyber Pop Rock duo 'Ardenite'. The Austrian band from Vienna have been making strides recently, releasing regular singles & music videos whilst building a tight knit community on social media. It was there, on Instagram, that Wana and I got talking - it was clear we had a lot in common and I became very curious about the band's story and all that they have going on. Naturally, I had to get Wana on the podcast to talk about it - and I'm so glad that I did! We chatted about lots of things and there are certainly some important lessons and takeaways here for anyone looking to follow a similar path. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and hope that you enjoy listening to it!

Check out the bands website to find and follow them on social media:

http://ardenite.net

Timestamps:

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis

01:00 Wana's story & forming Ardenite

04:20 Ardenite's style and how it all came to be

07:50 The band's first single/demo 'Love Drug Addict'

08:40 Soul searching, becoming a duo & finding their sound

11:38 Being authentic as an artist

14:18 Embracing all aspects of art & business

19:00 Elaborating on how Ardenite found their sound

24:50 The division of roles between the duo and their creative/production process

32:12 Social media and overcoming insecurities, how Wana challenged herself to do a daily Vlog

38:20 Creating community online, making meaningful connections and supporting other artists

49:13 Music marketing, strategy & helpful resources

56:17 Mindset, perfectionism & seeing the bigger picture

01:06:41 The power of catalogue as an artist

01:15:09 Engaging with the community & the magic of the internet

01:18:49 Ardenite's live performance situation

01:23:08 How the band make their music videos

01:24:34 Where to find Ardenite, their music & merchandise

01:27:27 Wrapping up & closing sentiments

On this episode I'm joined by my good friend, Electro Pop Rock Singer Songwriter Arron Sans. Arron and I go way back, as we used to gig together with our bands back in the day - but Arron's story goes far beyond the times we shared together. Making a name for himself as a rock frontman throughout his youth, Arron already had a wealth of experience by the time we had met. Since then he's stripped things back and taken a more DIY approach as a singer songwriter, creating introspective songs as rich in depth as they are upbeat, catchy & accessible. We find Arron at a very exciting point in his trajectory, as he's just about to release his debut solo album 'Print On Demand' via Love Anarchy Records. We talk about the album, as well as all of Arron's story up until this point so far. It's a great adventure and I hope you enjoy listening to it!  

Check out Arron's links, website and follow him on social media: 

https://arronsans.com/links  

For all other Love Anarchy links including socials, music, blog & services: https://flow.page/loveanarchy  

Timstamps  

00:33 Introduction & Synopsis 

01:15 Arron's Overview of who he is and what he's doing 

05:20 Arron's live show 

09:00 The beginning of Arron's musical journey as a child 

11:14 Joining his first band (The Adored) at university 

17:45 Run in with Virgin Records 

21:30 Re-branding as 'Freedom High' and moving to London 

26:00 Gorilla street gigs and hustling in the big city 

28:30 Dancing on the edge of success and the inevitable turmoil 

34:03 Transitioning the band into 'Call Me Animal' 

37:05 Reaching new highs & the straw that broke the camels back 

39:27 Clarifying the evolution of Freedom High to Call Me Animal 

43:35 Meeting Vinnie Minotto and forming Panic Island 

47:30 Meeting Producer Paul Tipler and recording the first Panic Island EP 

54:05 Parting ways with bassist Terry, who had been with Arron through all 4 bands 

58:38 The big push with Panic Island, it's peaks and it's troughs 

01:08:10 Us meeting and my take on Panic Island 

01:14:09 Panic Island music videos 

01:17:50 Character, egos and the early Love Anarchy community 

01:29:24 Arron's transition to going solo 

01:33:35 The downfall of band-life and re-evaluation of our ways 

01:40:36 Harnessing creativity / collaborating with Belenchuk 

01:44:26 Narrative, meaning & the depth within Arron's otherwise 'light' music 

01:51:11 Growth, mindset & evolution 

01:52:40 Recording 'Print On Demand' with Paul Tipler (Arron's debut album) 

01:55:09 Looping back to growth, mindset & evolution 

02:00:07 Working together - releasing the debut album on Love Anarchy Records 

02:04:15 Reflecting on the journey / Arron meeting his wife Polina Belenchuk 

02:09:36 Closing sentiments, where to find Arron and the 'Print on Demand' album release  

Love Anarchy Links: https://flow.page/loveanarchy