Third Gear Scratch

Ken Andrews gives us a lengthy peek at his life making music with his band Failure, making music as a solo artist vs band, producing and mixing as a living, working with household names like Jimmy Eat World, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and NIN, he details the writing process with Failure and how they use improvisation as a key tool and how to know what to throw away, which turns out to be most of it, we discuss being befuddled by our children's math homework and why it's David Lee Roth over Sammy Hagar any day.

kenandrews.com

allenepley.com

thirdgearscratch.com

Craig Finn is busy. He's busy making and releasing new music with his band The Hold Steady now on No. 8(!) and also with his solo career with 4 LPs under his belt since 2012 and a new collection of odds and ends called All These Perfect Crosses. Now he's even busier in these almost post-pandemic days with a live album they recorded on the release day of Open Door Policy, THS's most recent and maybe finest release and this time they put it out themselves. Allen and Craig swap stories and find out just why he stays so busy, what happens when he hits a creative wall, why did the game of tennis catch him in high school, and what exactly would he do if he weren't making music. 

craigfinn.com

allenepley.com

thirdgearscratch.com

Producer/director Bryan Basham has spent the last 25 years of his life creating content for giant corporations with his production company Adjacent LA, working with iconic directors Jon Landis and Rob Cohen and in short film form like The Death And Return Of Superman with Max Landis, making music videos with Kid Rock, Veruca Salt, Matchbox Twenty, working on the Mr Warmth Project with Don Rickles, rubbing shoulders and sharing sweat regularly with Joan Rivers, Robert DeNiro and Bob Newhart. Now he's on permanent sabbatical in Italy and more recently Albania, still making ground-breaking short films but also teaching English and reassessing his mission in this world and beyond, and rediscovering his love of film. 

bryanbasham.com

allenepley.com

thirdgearscratch.com

The decision Mobley made to start his journey towards becoming a solo artist and literally a one-man music machine on the brink of fame was long but calculated by a man who was class president, valedictorian and a 3 sport athlete and it makes total sense, considering he is the mastermind of his entire presentation; shooting all videos himself masterfully, creating his live elaborate live show and crafting an eye-popping live experience as a single entity on a big stage. He's put this mastery to the test in the CV era with his finest release to date Young and Dying In The Occident Supreme while exploring how to present this material in a medium that is more than a little like dancing in a vacuum. 

mobleywho.com

@mobleywho

allenepley.com

thirdgearscratch.com

Tim Midyett has led a life of music-making with his groundbreaking bands Silkworm, Bottomless Pit and now Mint Mile   with the release of Ambertron, a piece of music that demands and rewards repeated listenings, and we talk his way through the late 80's when Silkworm began, their Matador and Touch and Go years, the realization that they were a kind of perfect secret band for those who know instead of the masses, what it was like to make music after drummer Michael Dahlquists' death in 2005, and why his passion for food has manifested into Midyett's Rub and found it's way into the pages of Bon Apetit. 

Songwriter/singer K Michelle DuBois expounds on how she honed her skills in a the 90's with Atlanta's UltraBabyFat and did the major label do-si-do, then found her self needing to take things into her own hands for her solo career and now upon the release of her finest work yet The Fever Returns, she explains how Dan Dixon is her go-to producer and their unique working relationship, how her life as the daughter of a Nashville songwriting legend Tim Dubois shaped who she ultimately is and how she has only come to terms with that in recent history. 

Front of House Engineer/Audiophile Mark Davis aka Dark Mavis reveals the secrets to enjoying a long life working with hundreds of bands like Shiner, Burning Airlines, White Rabbits, Russian Circles, and Veruca Salt over a 40 year career that has allowed abundant travel to distant lands with bands he loves spreading the gospel of music at a pace he dictates, while maintaining a solid day gig at a record store that keeps him grounded and buried in new music; we also discuss just how he worked his way into Rush's personal hang crew from the '70s till now, and why music itself is constantly springing eternally new for him.

Old Tyme music's coolest reluctant ambassador and troubadour William Elliott Whitmore has not taken his path to success by accident but instead his deliberately economized existence as a one-man show has been his greatest asset not only musically but financially too. Now, as he embarks on fatherhood, he philosophizes about life in on a farm in Iowa, rap's influence on him, why he always toured with metal bands and how the writing for his new record I'm With You (BloodShot) was a bit of a different approach in intentionally exploring alien territory with lyrics and styles. 

Bassist/Sensei/Rascal/Legend Mike Watt blesses the TGS masses with life lessons learned from his years with The Minutemen, Firehose, mssv, The Stooges and his prolific solo career including Spotify vs Bandcamp, the lie of the "good" ol days vs nowadays, embracing tech, music just being music, what his radio show The Watt From San Pedro has meant to him for the past twenty years, how to live a life in the arts by economizing, his lengthy tenure at Columbia Records and why he does what he does. 

Musician Darren Welch is a key stitch in the fabric of the KCMO music scene for the past 30 years as a crooning bassist of The Hearers, In The Pines, DracoMagnet and Amputato while also busying himself in the world of curating vintage gear flea-markets first at CowTown MallRoom, then Holy Cow, a DIY mixed store/venue setting with live music, PBRs and sangria, at Midwestern Music with Matt Kessler of the PedalJets in the CrossRoads, and now with Found Sound, his vintage gear and paraphernalia shop on Grand Ave in KC with partner Cole Wheeler.