The Artist's Work Ethic

Al Snow  is a professional wrestler, having portrayed a variety of characters, and best known for his time in the WWE where he was a Tag Team champion, Hardcore champion and European champion. Since leaving the ring, he owns Ohio Valley Wrestling, was a road agent for Impact Wrestling, has acted in a number of films, and has written a book. 

John August is a screenwriter known for writing Go, Big Fish, Charlie's Angels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, Aladdin, and more. He’s also written the Arlo Finch series of novels, created apps, games, and is the co-host of the screenwriting podcast Scriptnotes. John’s the recipient of the Writer's Guild’s Valentine Davis award, and has been nominated for a BAFTA and a Grammy. 

Jason LaRocca is a musician, engineer and scoring mixer. For years he played in The Briggs, releasing albums on Side One Dummy Records, and touring with Bad Religion, The Dropkick Murphys, and Anti-Flag. Since then, he’s found himself producing and mixing scores for film and TV. He’s mixed the scores for Aquaman, Bad Boys for Life, Black Mirror, the upcoming Marvel film Morbius, and a ton more. 

Erik Bork is a screenwriter best known for his work on the HBO miniseries BAND OF BROTHERS and FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, and won two Emmys and two Golden Globe Awards as part of the producing team. He’s sold pitches (and written pilots) at NBC and FOX, worked on the writing staff for two primetime dramas, and written features on assignment for companies like Universal, HBO, TNT, and Playtone. He’s taught screenwriting at UCLA Extension, National University and The Writers Store, and offer one-on-one consulting to writers. His book THE IDEA: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage, or Fiction was released in 2018.

Matt Pryor is the singer and guitar player in The Get Up Kids, and has also released a ton of music solo and with The New Amsterdams. The Get Up Kids are hugely influential, with bands such as Blink 182 and Fall Out Boy naming them as primary influences. They’ve sold a ton of records and toured with Dashboard Confessional, Weezer and Green Day. When he’s not touring with The Get Up Kids, Matt writes custom songs at mattpryorsongshop.com.

Mopreme Shakur is a rapper best known for his time in the groups Thug Life and The Outlawz, both with his brother, Tupac Shakur. More recently he’s been involved in film and TV, and has a slew of new projects coming out, which he talks about at the end of the interview. Coming up next week he’s got an NFT auction in conjunction with Rarible, so go check that out. 

Guerin Swing is an LA based artist and interior designer. His artwork ranges from commissioned art pieces for private clients to custom installations in public spaces. His Artwork has appeared at Regime Contemporary Gallery, West Chelsea Contemporary Gallery, 5 Art Gallery, and Lab. His permanent installations reside at The Edition Hotels -West Hollywood and Tokyo, La Pier Hotel, Hard Rock Hotels, and The Hilton Hotels. 

Marko Desantis is founding member and guitarist of the band Sugarcult and has also played with the bands Bad Astronaut, The Ataris, and the Swingin Utters. Sugarcult has sold over a million records worldwide, and toured the world with Green Day and Blink 182. In addition to Sugarcult, Marko is a DJ and teaches music business at a ton of different schools and colleges. This week Sugarcult is releasing the 20th anniversary edition of their record Start Static, with some new limited edition vinyl and merch and 3 bonus tracks, so go check that out. 

Dean Haglund is an actor best known as Ringo Langly of the Lone Gunmen on The X-Files. He is also a stand-up comedian, specializing in improv. In addition to The X-Files, he played the voice of Sid in Tom Sawyer, and portrayed Langly in the spin-off The Lone Gunmen.

In this episode we talk about how to embrace always being productive, even if you don’t feel like you’re working on something specific….and the recent government UFO report. 

Shane is the singer for the band Silverstein and the host of the podcast Lead Singer Syndrome. Silverstein has sold over a million records worldwide. They’ve toured the world with bands such as Simple Plan, Rise Against, and Story of the Year. 

In this episode we talk about how important it is to stay organized, and make sure you're scheduling time to be creative.