Right Brain / Left Field

On this episode of Right Brain / Left Field we sit down with Jason Harris, Co-founder & CEO of Mekanism, one of the top independent creative advertising agencies in the US. Jason is also the best selling author of -  The Soulful Art of Persuasion - a guide to becoming a master influencer. 

Over the course of his career, Jason has helped build campaigns for some of the world’s most iconic brands such as: Disney, Adidas, Ben & Jerry’s, as well as The White House under the Obama administration.

He was recently named to the list of the top 10 most influential social impact leaders and his methods have been studied by the Harvard Business School.

Jason shares his career journey and provides insight on building an award winning agency, creating viral work, channelling David Bowie, and what it’s like to visit the White House and create meaningful work for social good.

On this episode we sit down with entrepreneur, agency founder, and current Design Manager of UX Community & Culture at Google, Mike Buzzard. 

After dropping out of high school, and inspired by his dad’s entrepreneurial spirit, Mike taught himself web development and moved to San Francisco in the early 2000’s to pursue a career in web and digital product design.

Through a fortuitous sequence of what he humbly refers to as naive bumbling, Mike built a global network of talented designers and in 2002 started his own design agency called Cuban Council. 

After a solid 10 year run creating digital products for start-ups and fortune 500 companies, Mike and the Cuban Council design team were acquihired by Google, where in his self-defined role Mike has been steadily influencing the tech giant’s culture shift toward design ever since.

On this episode of Right Brain Left Field we sit down with singer songwriter Josh Ostrander AKA Mondo Cozmo. Originally hailing from Philadelphia - Ostrander and his bandmates moved to Los Angeles in hopes of breaking into the music scene but after years of grinding they were dropped from their label decided to call it quits in 2015.

Convinced that music was his destiny, Ostrander went solo and self-produced a demo under the name Mondo Cozmo, which garnered several hit singles - and then soon signed a record deal. 

We catch up with Mondo Cozmo on the heels of releasing his second full length album - “New Medicine” and talk about staying creative during a quarantine, his career journey as musician and we get an intimate look into his process and the inspiration behind the music.

On this episode we sit down with multi-faceted recording artist Mobley - A true modern renaissance man who single handedly writes, performs, & produces his own music. He also designs his album art, directs his music videos, and even produces his dynamic, one-man multimedia live shows. 

Mobley’s journey begins at an early age - studying violin at the age of five and then learning the trumpet & many more instruments during his teenage years all while living a nomadic lifestyle with his family - before finally settling in Austin to pursue a career in music. 

In our candid conversation Mobley shares his career journey and explains how his constant desire for learning new things fuels his artist vision. 

On this episode we sit down with Rob Young - Founder of O/M Studio, a digital product design company that helps their clients create world-class digital products and services.

Prior to founding O/M, Rob was a design lead at Google and an art director at Apple, where he had the opportunity to work on a variety of emerging digital products and ultimately hone his skills as UX designer.

Find out how a Poli Sci major who attended school in Prague ends up working for indie record labels, dot com startups, and a series of renowned ad agencies before founding his own studio in 2013.

On this episode of Right Brain / Left Field, we sit down with Julia Johnson, professional photographer, and co-founder of JUCO, an acclaimed photo studio known for its distinctive colorful style of fashion and portraiture photography. 

Julia began her career as an Art Director at a San Francisco Ad Agency before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue photography full time and start JUCO with her partner, Cody Cloud. See how her skillset and passion for making images landed them some major ad campaign work as well as iconic portraits of celebrities, music artists and entertainers.

On this episode we sit down with Manny Medina, bass player for singer songwriter Kip Moore’s country western band. As one of the founding members, Manny has been an integral part of the band’s success for 10 years, recording 4 studio albums and touring the world with Kip and crew. We dive deep into Manny’s journey into becoming a professional musician to find out how a Cuban kid from Miami ended up in San Francisco, traveling Asia, and doing a stint in Los Angeles before stumbling into a full-time music career in Nashville TN.

A Quick Note: This interview was originally recorded on May 21st, 4 days prior to the murder of George Floyd. Due to the nature of this tragic event, and all of the events following, we made a decision to delay the release of this episode - and agreed that we should record an addendum to the original interview to help provide context to that conversation and acknowledge our feelings about what has transpired in the last few weeks. We hope you enjoy the show. 

On this episode of Right Brain / Left Field we sit down with show producer, Josh Goldstein – also known by many as BOAC, his stage moniker from his days as music performer and producer. Josh’s career journey spans decades, from his early days as a voice actor, to playing an iconic role in a Star Wars production and ultimately as a musician who produced and recorded several albums and toured the United states and Canada as a hip hop artist. 

On this episode we sit down with Los Angeles based artist and sculptor Meegan Barnes to discuss her eclectic career journey as a graphic designer, illustrator, entrepreneur and ultimately fine art sculptor.  We explore the origins of her art career where she has made a name for herself with her iconic butt sculptures, which straddle the line between art and craft by re-imagining ancient artifacts heavily influenced by modern day pop culture. Meegan dives deep into her process and reflects on her successful 20 year career. 

On this episode we sit down with Zach Schwartz (better known as Zach Rogue), the front man for the Indie rock band, Rogue Wave. Zach has written, produced, and recorded songs that have been streamed millions of times and has performed around the world and on national television. A veteran of the festival circuit as well as the late night talk shows, Zach has carved out a successful 18-year career as a professional recording artist and producer, releasing seven studio albums. He takes us through his journey from recording  his first album after hours in a closed recording studio, to stepping on stage for the first time at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco.