We start out talking about Doug’s sweet rock n roll sweater vest and how he hurt his finger and is now horribly disfigured. Then, we get to work on writing 6 new songs. OK, that’s an over exaggeration. We start ONE new song called, “Come Out Swinging.” But, for some reason, we spell it weird on the whiteboard as, “Cum Oot Swanging.” Don’t mock our creative process!

Doug storms out at the beginning of the episode so Jim and Andris carry on chatting. We recounted our recent experience recording at Encore Studio and talk about Jim and Andris’s two-piece punk side project, Fifty Dollar Famous.

Have you ever wondered how songs get placed in movies, TV and Web shows? Well, you’re in luck. In this exciting episode, we talk with our good friend, music supervisor, BEN HOCHSTEIN.

Ben has extensive experience in music placement and clearance for scripted, reality, and live programming. Some of his career highlights include work on shows for Netflix, Paramount, TV Land, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Bravo, NBC, ESPN, CMT, TBS, the WWE, NBCSN, MTV and more.

If you’ve ever been interested in how we arrange songs, this is a good example. We take different riffs and chord progressions and, through trial and error, put it all together into something that actually sounds like a solid start to a song.

After working everything out, we descend into complete insanity and by the end of the episode, we not only have a new song, but also a brand new crappy TV sitcom.

All in all, a typical day for Red Hot Rebellion

We talk to Nick Tieder, the General Manager of Frontiers Music North America. Frontiers Music was born in Italy in the mid-90s and quickly became synonymous with high-quality rock and metal. While Frontiers has been busy mining the wealth of rock n roll talent in the UK and Scandinavian scenes, signing, developing, and nurturing US bands has become a massive priority for the label. Nick has over 20 years experience and is currently located in Nashville, TN.

Jim conducts an in-depth interview with Songwriter/Producer Friedemann Findeisen, creator of the Holistic Songwriting methodology. 

Friedemann is a best-selling author and a Bachelor of Music. He has written over 1000 pieces of music in a wide variety of styles (listen to the showreel here). He is a frequent guest speaker at conservatories all over Europe.

Holistic Songwriting means no-BS, hardcore songwriting technique for professionals. No more, no less.

We start out again by saying we have no agenda for the episode. Imagine that! Us not being prepared!

But then we decide to play all the new songs we’ve been working on.

We have a series of have serious technical problems that cause us to get completely slap happy. Shit keeps breaking and then the episodes ends in a dramatic finish.

We go back to the woodshed and start working on a brand ass new song. This is a good example of taking different parts and slapping them together, seeing what works, what doesn’t, changing tempos, keys, etc. to make something out of nothing.

Then, everything falls the F apart.

Good times!

We play some music and then, we talk to the King of Partying, Andrew W.K.! Andrew talks about the mystery and majesty of songwriting. Philosophical musings abound! Andrew's new album, You're Not Alone, is a powerhouse of life-affirming party rock anthems. Andrew played almost the entire thing himself! Holy shit! Indeed he is The One Man Party Machine! He is the epitome of DIYing music. A true master.

This is definitely one of the wildest episodes we've recorded to date. We had the extreme pleasure to talk to Snow, you know, the Informer guy. He's a super nice guy and has an INCREDIBLE story. 

Snow is a Guinness Book World Record Holder, a former prison inmate (twice!), a Kiss fan, and a gifted musician.  Our conversation covers all of these points and many many more. 

The big takeaway is: let go, and let it flow!