What Am I Making Podcast

I was thrilled to be invited to record a live episode of WAIM at the first ever PodJam in Las Vegas. The invite came to be on the docket a bit later than I would normally like to prepare, but when the chance came up, I knew just the man to interview; Gareth Sever.

Gareth has become a friend through the Stand Up With Pete Dominick Community, the group at the heart of the PodJam event. You can learn all about my wild weekend in Vegas that included the world’s largest weed shop, living for 48 hours without a phone, and more laughter and hugs than a three day weekend could possibly contain. 

We started things off by me simply asking Gareth how he describes himself. That immediately launched us into a conversation about imposter syndrome, and the work that’s required in finding self-confidence. We talked about Gareth’s background as a street performer and how it made him adaptable. He shares that his ADHD is probably a blessing in making him multifaceted, but in his mind it might have also kept him from being truly great at just one thing. 

Eventually, Gareth parlayed his street performing into an accidental career as a dancer, musician, and performer/business owner with his troupe, Buckets and Boards. With his partner Matt, Gareth travels the country performing their original shows that feature music, percussion, comedy and more. They hold regular residencies where they live in Branson, MO, tour throughout North America, and regularly play aboard the Disney Cruise lines to entertain the tourists.

There is a great discussion of limitations and finding a way to present a genuine version of yourself while performing. We discuss the complicated history of tap dance, turning the listening up, and we even get a life lesson from a monk named Pasquale. 

Gareth not only appeared on the pod during the event on Saturday, but he also was a featured musical performer during the evening portion of the program. During his set, he performed a number of original songs written about members of the Stand Up community, and included stories from our weekly zoom hangouts. He opened his set with a ten minute epic called ‘The Ballad Of Pete Dominick’ that musically told the history of the group, some of its more important players, and a whole load of inside jokes. Gareth’s musical acumen and devilish wordplay are a joy to witness in person.

This conversation was such a treat to record, especially in front of a live audience. You will notice a bit of wind noise as we were recording in a tent in the Nevada desert. The audience is not miced up, but you will hear a smattering of laughter and such. I assure you, the contingent in the room was stronger than I would have believed it would be for a 10:00 am taping after a long night of carousing. 

Enjoy this conversation with me and the wickedly talented Gareth Sever.

Cheers,

Matty C

In the winter of 2016, I bought a brand new Chevy Equinox. The car came with all sorts of appointments and accessories I’d never had in a vehicle, including a three month trial subscription for Sirius XM Radio. I was very excited about this perk. As someone who drove 40,000 miles a year, I was thrilled at the idea of always being able to get a Tiger game or NPR on the radio no matter how remote my locale might have been

Not long after I began driving my new whip every day, I discovered something called Stand Up With Pete Dominick. It was a three hour news and pop culture show with great guests and a funny, smart host. Pete and his producers/co-hosts became a fixture in my daily driving. After a time, I began to think of them as something like friends despite the fact they had no idea of my existence in the world.

My daughter Hannah would often listen with me in the car while we drove to one school or another as I ran my cap and gown business. She too began to know some of the folks from the show and even a few of the inside jokes. We’d often talk about the guests that were on, or mention something smart we’d remembered from an interview a few days earlier. Pete and his show had become a small part of my family.

One morning in the Fall of 2019, I tuned into Pete’s show just in time to catch a very important message. That day, would be the last day on the air for Stand Up With Pete Dominick at Sirius XM. I felt as though I had been punched in the abdomen, and unable to catch my breath. The loss of this show as part of my daily routine felt like a sort of death. When I told Hannah she was furious and then we were both just plain sad. I was losing my friends.

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Looking at it objectively, it was ridiculous. I was emotionally vexed at the cancellation of a radio show. I didn't know those people and they didn't know me. Still, I felt bad for the team, and especially for Pete. It was obvious in his sign-off message he was crushed. Again, the pallor of death kept filling the room despite the fact it was “only a radio show”.

A few weeks after the final show, I got an email spelling out Pete’s idea for a new podcast. It began as a semi-regular show with two or three episodes a week right at first. Pete struggled with the new technology of hosting, recording, editing and sharing a podcast. He worked through a steep learning curve without the producers that he used to rely upon at his side.

Within a matter of weeks, Pete was back to hosting a new show every weekday. The format shifted and evolved over time, but interviews of Pete’s esteemed and brilliant guests were always the focus. These days, Pete’s show begins with a news section of fifteen to twenty minutes followed by a long-form interview with guests on topics ranging from world news to climate change, parenting, philosophy, and more. With each successive show, Pete has honed his interviewing skills, his logistical chops, and continued to grow his audience.

When the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Pete and the Stand Up community began convening for weekly hangout sessions on Zoom. A group of listeners would show up to chat with Pete on the topics from the week’s show, and to share things from each other’s personal lives. For weeks after the hangouts began, I kept thinking, “I really should jump on one of these”, but my procrastination or calendar would keep me from joining in on one.

Eventually, I sent Pete an email telling him how much I appreciated the show. I also expressed my admiration for the way he had persevered after losing his high profile gig at Sirius. Not only did Pete respond to the email, but he sent me his number and offered to chat over the phone so we could get to know each other better. During the chat, I was quite nervous. This was someone that I’d admired for years and had thought of as a friend. Now, we were talking to each one on one.

The call prompted to me to join the hangout the following week. Pete welcomed me and even made a point to introduce me to the group. The hangouts were always informative, hilarious, and insightful. Some weeks they would focus on the topics of the day, and then shift the next to week to deeply personal stories about racism, sexism, trauma, ADHD, and so much more. Almost immediately, Thursday nights became reserved for my new set of internet friends.

So many members of the Stand Up community were key to my 2023 tour. I was hosted by five different folks from the community and more than a dozen others made a point to come out and see me on the road. On my jaunts this coming summer, these numbers are sure to grow exponentially. Since I began the Substack, Pete has been a guest on the show and so have many of the members of the community who do their own great creative work. For more than three years now, these folks have been a regular part of my routine, week in and week out. Many have become friends in the real world. The SUPD community has been a true blessing in so many ways.

After months of planning, the Stand Up With Pete Dominick Crew recently got together in Las Vegas for a weekend long event called PODJAM. The two day event would feature live podcast tapings, stand up comedy, live music and a chance for our community to get together in person.

Here is the story of a wild weekend in Vegas that was awe-inspiring, rejuvenating, nerve-wracking, and just plain incredible.

I arrived in Las Vegas - my first time, thank you very much - around 7:30 on a Thursday night and was fortunate to have a ride waiting for me in the pickup lot. It took some doing for me to get to the spot where my ride was waiting, but I eventually found Gareth Sever, a friend from the community and Becca, the son of Cassie Rice, a community member who organized this entire event. More on Cassie later.

We were, of course, very excited to see each other, and as Becca drove us to the hotel where Gareth would be staying, and to pick up our friend and musician Jon Carroll. Both Jon and Gareth would be performing during the musical section of the main show and I was pumped to chat with them about their plans, arrangements, song choices and more. They’re both tremendous performers and I was so excited to be able to watch them do their thing.

After whisking Jon out of the hotel, we made our way to the Air BnB where I would be staying. There was a meet and greet put together by a couple of my housemates and things had already kicked off by the time we arrived. The sensation of walking into a party where I knew everyone and had met almost no one was surreal and profound. I stopped in my tracks for just a moment to take in everything going on around me. I could feel myself smiling.

Slowly, I made my way around the party to dole out big hugs, and introductions, and get to know my virtual friends in real life. Nearly instantly I found myself with a beer in hand and we were off and running. Each time a new guest arrived there were hoots and hollers and more hugs. We caroused late into the evening and I cavorted with the best of them. Despite missing my dinner completely due to flight times and my childlike excitement, and living on East Coast time, I managed to see 2:00 am before I hit the sheets.

I awoke just after 7:00 the next morning with a pounding headache. The lack of a meal on Thursday night had not been an issue at the time, but in retrospect was a terrible idea. Like a true rookie, I found myself hungover on my first morning in Las Vegas. The nausea ebbed and flowed with irregularity and I found myself sweating profusely despite the exterior temperature being quite mild. I chugged down a few ibuprofen, cleaned myself up a bit, and headed down to find coffee.

My housemate Cindy from the Southside of Chicago was already in the kitchen making coffee and cleaning a bit from the night before. We talked at length about her autistic children and the life that she has built around that. While we chatted, Cindy and I discovered that the refrigerator was no longer working. Two other housemates Sandy and Frances came down to that news and we laughed at the luck and enjoyed coffee while shared our lives with each other.

By mid-morning, our last housemate Vikki arrived, and the day began to really move forward. Vikki is a resilient and remarkable woman who has lived a very interesting, but not always easy life. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and is a part-time caregiver for two small granddaughters with Sickle Cell Anemia. Vikki is nothing short of amazing. I had assumed that was the case, but it took just a cup of coffee with Vikki to get the true sense of her strength and resolve. But oh, what love she radiates. Everything lights up around Vikki.

Despite my wonderful morning with these wonderful people I had discovered an issue with my phone. While I could feel alerts vibrating as I got texts and emails, there was nothing visible on the screen but a dark grey background. Despite several attempts at a reset, I was unable to get it to function. Eventually it was time to hit the road. I would have to deal with the phone thing later in the day.

Our first stop of the day was Planet 13, the world’s largest cannabis dispensary. I am sure my mother will recoil at the thought of me going weed shopping in Vegas, but I was with Vikki, so it’s okay. The place is a freaking shopping mall. There is a full-on laboratory, a chocolate making operation that is publicly visible, and starter plants for all types of cannabis.

The shop was packed with customers and set up in very Vegas fashion. Light shows, gadgetry, games, and more gave the place the feel of an amusement park more than “drug store”. Still, it was fun to people watch and take in the absolute circus of it all. The sensory overload was so very Las Vegas.

After leaving the weed shop, we hopped into Vikki’s rental and made our way to the CraftHaus, a German-style brewpub not too far from Planet 13. Driving around the edges of Vegas, I witnessed the massive income inequality that permeates the area. Within what felt like blocks the neighborhoods would shift from affluent to poor to semi-affluent and then back again. It was a see saw of haves and have nots.

We tumbled out of the car ready for lunch and a beer. I was first through the door and could spot immediately that the small beer hall did not hold our other compatriots. A cursory Google search found a second CraftHaus location much nearer to our venue and lodging. Once again, we were back on the road.

Having finally found our crew at the second location, I ordered a Coke, some Bavarian pretzels and a beer brat. The nausea had mostly abated, but I was still wary that the meal might not settle calmly. The headache had also improved but I was sweating like a madman. I managed to get the food down with no issue and quickly began to feel better. A huge glass of water, another Coke, and things were really beginning to turn around for ole Matty C.

After a stint back at the house for some beer and more catching up, we made our way to the venue that Cassie Rice had arranged for us to use for the weekend. When I had heard we would be having Podjam in a tent, I figured we were taking about the sort you’d rent for a wedding or an open house. I was not expecting the four spire circus tent that Cassie and her family own and use for their annual VIVA Fest.

Inside, we found a bar, and an area where community member Cary Williams had brought his entire professional DJ rig from his home near Lake Tahoe to entertain us for the weekend when tapings, comedy and music weren't happening.

Friday night’s agenda was largely built around an interview with author and political commentator Jared Yates Sexton. Jared and Pete had a terrific discussion about the upcoming election, the state of authoritarianism in America today, and whole lot more. It was a sobering, but hopeful conversation that included more than its fair share of laughter as well.

I’d interviewed Jared here on the pod early on, and he was gracious enough to remember me after the show was over. He and I shared stories from our lives in the year since we had last talked. We had both shifted our lives a fair amount in the interim and made plans to talk again for the pod very soon. Jared was also kind enough to share some of his bourbon with me.

The rest of the evening was a party that moved from the venue back to an Air BnB where I continued to forge real-life friendships from this once virtual community. Nearly everyone who arrived in any locale by any members of the group were met with open arms and hearty hellos. There was no point in the weekend not utterly filled with love and fellowship.

The next morning I was up and alert at 7:30. It was sure to be a full day of events at the tent, including taping of the very first live episode of the WAIM podcast. Not only would I be recording a podcast for the first time in front of a live audience, I would be doing so to start the event at a bright and early 10:00 am.

There would be no opportunity for me to get to a T-Mobile store or a phone repair shop before my taping. I would have to roll for a few more hours with a dead phone and attempt to deal with it after my portion of the show was complete. Surely, there would be time later in the day.

I arrived at the tent just after 9:00 and met up with Pete as I walked in. We covered some technical stuff and did a quick sound check. I found my guest Gareth Sever slurping a coffee and sneaking in a breakfast sandwich before we got things rolling. Attendees continued to arrive at the tent and I began to get myself ready for the show.

It was a more than respectable audience for a 10:00 am taping. That made me both excited and a little more nervous. I took a few deep breaths, made sure Gareth was ready and we headed up to the stage. As I settled into my chair, I placed the headphones over my ears and felt just a bit off. I knew that with the lights, the audience and the surroundings, this would be a bit weird as we hit the road. I kept telling myself, “It’s just a conversation”.

I’ll have loads more to say about the interview with Gareth when it posts in the near future, but suffice it to say, it was a hit. The crowd followed along with laughter and attention while we chatted over a wide variety of topics including ADHD, confidence, talent, drive, and a whole lot more I truly cannot wait to share.

For the next seven hours, the tent was full of podcast tapings. JL Cauvin performed his brilliant Donald Trump for a full hour as a part of his show, Making Podcasts Great Again. My dear friends Barry and Abigail Hummel taped an episode of their show, Pops on Hops with community member and musician, Nick Martino. The Hummels then appeared a second time on stage as guests with comedian Ophira Eisenberg for her show, Parenting Is A Joke.

Jared Yates Sexton returned for a taping of his Muckrake podcast, and comedian Christian Finnegan interviewed Grammy winner, musician, and community member Jon Carroll. Despite the fact that so much of the attention was focused on folks from the community, the interviews were fascinating, hilarious, illuminating, and so very much fun. After a brief break for dinner, the main event took place in the evening with stand up comedy from Christina Finnegan, JL Cauvin, and Ophira Eisenberg. Pete also appeared as host and told a few jokes, but largely served as moderator for the evening.

Music took center stage once the comedy finished. Gareth came out to play a number of songs he had written specifically for the event, including a ten minute epic entitled, “The Ballad Of Pete Dominick”. Nick Martino joined on the trumpet. Jon Carroll closed the evening with a set of his terrific originals, including the Stand Up theme song which Jon wrote for Pete not knowing it would eventually become the theme. Ever the one to spread joy, Jon coordinated with a local performing arts school to get a choir of eight students to join him on stage for that theme as he closed the show. Several community members came onstage as well, including darling Vikki Robinson, who has a gorgeous set of pipes. The room was filled with joy as the entire crowd sang along with John and the kids.

The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur. There was conversation, camaraderie, more new people, and loads of laughter. Eventually, the party moved back to the Air BnB and we caroused late into the evening. Around 1:30, my housemates hit the road for home. With other options for a ride later in the night, I opted to stay and soak up the fun for every last drop.

Around 2:30, I emerged from the game room to find that anyone and everyone not staying at this Air BnB had left, save for me. Now, I was without a car and without a phone for an Uber. So, I made up a bed on the couch and settled in for a few hours of sleep.

I was up early the next morning and fiddled more with my phone in a vain attempt to resurrect it. As other folks arose for the day, I was eventually able to snag a ride back to my house to shower, check my iPad for text alerts form the last 24 hours and to maybe get a bit more rest.

Amanda, a community member from Los Angeles was kind enough to drive me the fifteen minutes to my Air BnB. We chatted about her work in the medical education field, and our glowing feelings from the weekend. At the house on Vaccaro Street, I hopped out and bid Amanda adieu. With no car in the driveway, I assumed my housemates had headed to breakfast. No worries, we had been leaving the place unlocked for the weekend anyway.

Until now.

The door was solidly locked and without access to my phone, I had no way to find the door code to unlock it. A wave of panic flew through my body and I raced back to the street to try to catch Amanda. I ran as fast as my fat ass could go to flag her down but it was all to no avail. I’m frequently told how loud I am, and yet not even my booming yell down a quiet Sunday morning street could catch my ride.

I was pretty sure I was screwed. This house was in a neighborhood off the beaten path out in Henderson, Nevada. I wasn't in a spot where I could easily walk to anything, and again with no phone, I could not order a car. My breath began to quicken, my arms became tingly and I felt myself veering straight to a panic attack. Then, I saw a possible escape.

Two doors down, a man had come out to take in his garbage cans. I flagged him down and asked if I could get his help with a very strange situation. Thankfully, Rory was understanding, patient and kind. I asked if he might order a Lyft and I could pay him in cash. He hardly flinched. Rory ordered a car that would arrive in less than five minutes. I handed him a twenty, shook his hand and felt so very grateful for his generosity of spirit.

Another fifteen minutes later and I was back at the house on Cedar where I had just been. I brought my friends up to speed on my failed trip to my place and they laughed at the image of me trucking down the street trying to flag down Amanda as she sped away.

After a few phone calls with my housemates on a borrowed phone, I got wind of the plan for the day and my pal Scott from Tennessee was kind enough to order me a car to meet Vikki and a gang of folks for brunch. As the Lyft driver, my third chauffeur for the day already dropped me off, I began to panic that I was, like the CraftHaus, once again at the wrong location. For a solid ten minutes I stood sure that I was once again stranded with no phone and no idea where to go. The panic began to arrive again. My mind raced for possible solutions. Then, I looked up to see Vikki’s rental and a few of my friends pulling into the lot.

We hit the T-Mobile store after some bacon and eggs. I said my goodbyes to Vikki and Cindy as they headed to the airport. Eventually, I was able to get a new phone at T-Mobile. I had hoped to just have it repaired, but there was no in-house tech. So, $900 and 90 minutes later, I emerged with a new phone and called a car to meet the remaining crew at Able Baker Brewing in downtown Vegas. Below you’ll see the one image I managed to capture of the weekend after getting my phone functioning at the last minute.

After a couple of flights, we sauntered down to a used clothing shop run by Cassie’s daughter. The place was very reasonably priced and had a great selection of men’s stuff, which is not always typical in the thrift store game. I found a very nice Woolrich flannel for $18 that fit well. I paid for it, and made my way outside.

We took a cruise of the strip, found a nice Italian dinner and then Barry Hummel and I settled in for a few beers at the bar inside the Sunset Station casino. It was my first and only time inside a Vegas casino and I was happy to sit and drink with my friend, Barry. We recapped the weekend and marveled again at how lucky we felt to be a member of such a special thing.

The weekend for me was rejuvenating, inspiring, amazing, and life affirming. I’m so thrilled and humbled to have found this group of folks who have become my friends and also my supporters here at his space. I am so excited to see so many of these folks again on my tours this year. And of course, we will still have our regular Thursday night hangouts. I am guessing that we will find those to be even more special in the days following PodJam.

Thank you so much to Pete Dominick for building this community and thank you to the beautiful people who populate it. I am working so very hard every day to build something similar here at WAIM. It’s wonderful to have a template to work from that has been built so beautifully by Pete and the SUPD Crew. I am forever grateful to them, and to you.

Cheers,Matty C

John Tallman didn’t plan to be in a band. It happened as organically as it could have. After having been bathed in the holy water of rock and roll by his older brother, John has spent a life gravitating towards interesting sounds. 

Describing music as a “window to a new world”, rock and roll opened a new door of thinking for young John. He was immediately drawn to the fact that this was not something designed by adults but an entity built by and for young people. 

For nearly two decades now, Tallman has been following the clarion call of jangle pop. His terrific band Half Catholic have been very active since forming less than three years ago. They’ve released an EP and a pair of terrific singles, and it feels as though they are just getting warmed up. 

John and I also dove into the Rockford scene specifically, and spoke more broadly about the state of small towns like Rockford and Lansing that often have a chip on their shoulders and punch above their respective cultural weight class. 

It’s a ranging discussion with an interesting dude still out there on the front lines making great guitar based rock and roll. It might be a dying artform, but John Tallman is going to go down swinging. 

Cheers,Matty C

Jena McShane spent three years getting her website together. As a photographer of more than two decades, she sought to catalog her very best images for an online portfolio. Scrolling through her vast archives often brought her anxiety as she wondered how to best present her extensive body of work.

Going back to her days at Lansing Community College, Jena has eschewed the photographer’s maxim of picking a lane. Instead of opting to focus an entire career in portraiture or storm chasing or landscape photography or shooting live music, McShane shot all of it and more. Now with a vast and varied archive, Jena was an artist struggling to find a way to encapsulate her past and future artistic identities. 

Jena and I chatted at length about how she found the clarity to put her site together and what that did for the confidence she had in her own work. We cover Jena’s early love of disposable cameras, her first mentors, and a journey she describes as “all over the place”. 

We dive deep on Jena’s experiences photographing a summer camp for disabled youth that uses music therapy to enrich the lives of these young people and their families. Recently, Jena was the official photographer for a feature length documentary about the camp. She shares her time on the ground at the camp and what it’s been like to watch it grow.

There’s talk of storm chasing, twisters, and the glory of old black and white. Jena also talks about her recent work shooting live music for the online rock and roll mag Loud Hailer. She also shares her long and deep love for Canadian rock heroes, Rush. 

This is a really fun chat with a woman who is an engaging and diverse artist. Enjoy.

Cheers,Matty C

J Virus is someone I have admired and thought of as a friend for thirty years. J and I were in a band called Third Uncle back in our very early twenties. It was a formative time for both of us, but after the band split up, we saw very little of each other in the intervening years. Over the last couple of years we have reconnected. J’s archive work and my work here have found us once at merging paths and it's been wonderful to have J in my life again. 

J even reached out recently and offered his list for our 13 Films To Get To Know Me Series. His horror laden-list was a big hit and prompted a ton of really fun discussion. We used J’s list as a jumping off point for our discussion. It’s a great segue into a bit of history on J’s youth and how he first came to travel the world. 

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We share similar stories of our granddads hitchhiking across the American west and back and wondering if that is part of where our wanderlust might have originated. There is much discussion of our shared love for Italy, specifically for Rome. We cover my theory on why Prague and Budapest feel like the midwest of Europe and J suggests very wisely that we as Americans have a “Long history of destroying our history.”

There is a harrowing story of what could have been when J was in Thailand with friends during the deadly tsunami. J talks openly about the luck of their simple decision and how it affected not only the lives of J and his fellow travelers, but also a bevy of loved ones back home. We also cover some of J’s discomfort with the idea of travel at this point in his life and figuring out how to best measure the costs and benefits of it. 

Finally, we end on the idea that the adaptability that travels forces us to learn makes us better travelers and better people. J and I share stories of rolling with punches on the road and doing our best to look for the bright side in the darker moments. 

I was thrilled to have this engaging and fascinating conversation with my old friend. Enjoy. 

Cheers,

Matty C

Pete Dominick was an inspiration for me when I began What Am I Making. Before I started publishing, I reached out to Pete and asked for his advice. He encouraged me to begin the work and figure out what it all meant afterward. Pete encouraged me to stay in the moment and to enjoy the process. I took his advice and I ran with it. 

It was hard not to take Pete’s sage wisdom seriously. After all, this was a man who had hosted a national radio show for fourteen years and one day found himself without a contract. In Pete’s other appearances on the pod, we discussed the pain of that job loss in depth. Instead of lamenting his loss, Pete set to work building an independent podcast network. That work has been going on now for more than four years, and has more than a thousand episodes as proof of its own success.

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Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of Pete’s work, at least in my estimation, is the community that he has built around his show. It’s a group of hilarious, intelligent, diverse, and empathetic souls that are a direct reflection of the kind of person that Pete Dominick is, and the sort of people he brings together. Later this month, that community will gather in person for the first time at an event in Las Vegas called the Stand Up Pod Jam. We talk about Pete’s feelings around the big event on the horizon and what it means to him to have built a community like that.

During our chat, Pete and I also discuss the importance of a morning routine and how it has transformed each of our lives. Pete sings the praises of meditation and of journaling. We cover the unfortunate nature of folks preening at the gym and on vacation. There is also a story about how we both use humor as a weapon, but in surprisingly divergent ways. 

Recently, Pete has also stood up to a bully in his local town. We talk about the act of actually being the change in the world that we want to see, and what it takes to make that happen. It’s a moment where Pete has put the name of his show, Stand Up, into action in his own life. 

This is a great chat with a podcaster and interviewer that I admire and appreciate. I am proud to call him a friend and to welcome him back to the show.

Cheers,

Matty C

What did you think of my chat with Pete?

I was nervous to interview Don Dixon. When I first booked the interview I was filled with excitement, but that soon turned to anxiety when I realized that I’d have to play it cool when talking with the man who produced the first two albums by R.E.M..

I’d gotten the hookup from my friend and podcast guest, Jon Carroll who tours with Dixon in Mary Chapin Carpenter’s live band. When I reached out to Dixon, his assessment of the situation was, “Any friend of Jon’s, is a friend of mine.”

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When it came time for the interview, Don made me feel most at ease and within seconds it was like chatting with an old friend. Dixon is a tremendous storyteller, much like our mutual friend Jon Carroll, and has a lifetime of stories from the studio and stage that could easily have filled three hours without breaking a sweat.

Once we got rolling, we careened through Dixon’s musical youth, his early band, The Arrogands, along with learning the studio ropes and the record label game. Don shares his story of meeting a 15 year old Mitch Easter who was forming a new band called the dB’s with Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple. Easter would eventually record the first R.E.M. EP, Chronic Town and worked with Dixon as co-producer on Murmur and Reckoning. 

Eventually, I confessed my love of R.E.M. to Don and he was kind enough to nerd out with me on behind the scenes stories of making those two records. He also regaled me with tales of time in the studio with Guadalcanal Diary, The Smithereens, Tommy Keene, Marshall Crenshaw, and more. 

There is a brief discussion of Sinatra, 12 inch records, and Don’s less than stellar view of vinyl as a sonic format. Dixon also shares his theory on the value and importance of having a great band playing behind a singer, and how songs alone don’t make for hit records. We also chat about how every new record now has to compete with all the greatness that has come before it. 

This is a great chat with a terrific soul who has seen and done so much in the world of music. Enjoy this chat with me and the great Don Dixon. 

Cheers,Matty C

My Mom and I just got home from a two week adventure in Central America. It was a trip that came to be after VISA issues derailed our journey to Southeast Asia last Fall. This sojourn, borne of heartbreak in a Chicago airport, blossomed into an immersive look at a shared colonial past in a trio of breathtaking countries. 

With a cocktail in hand - you can hear the ice cubes clink from time to time on the tape - Ama and I set to rehash the highlights of our remarkable trip together. I had unknowingly ambushed her with the recording setup. I had asked her to come by and have a conversation on the record, but she didn’t realize I meant it literally. Still, she was game and we set to recording.

During the chat, we cover many of the highlights of our adventure, including the El Salvadoran elections, a night in the jungle, the surprising dearth of Americans in Central America, as well as acknowledging a bit of our colonial legacy, both ancient and recent. 

You’ll also get to hear two dear friends that manage to get along on the road incredibly well together. Come share our stories, our impressions, and the joy of our Central American sojourn. Join me and Ama for some travel talk.

Cheers,

Matty C

It’s no wonder Tom Heyman wound up becoming a songwriter. Just minutes into our chat it was clear I was in the presence of a born storyteller, and someone who could feel at ease holding court or chatting effortlessly about anything from politics to prose.

Right out the gate we began talking about Heyman’s brilliant new album, 24th Street Blues, and the genesis of the songs. Tom talks about how he built the record and the unreliable narrator he employs in nearly every tune to tell fictional tales bred from real-life scrapes and bruises. 

We cover his solo work and wind our way back to his great 90s band Go To Blazes. Tom shares the amazing story of the album they recorded live in one ten hour session. It’s still one of my favorite albums, and it’s a treat to get to tell that directly to the dude who made it. 

Tom goes on to shed light on his songwriting process, and we discover that both he and I set out to be storytellers with songs. We also discuss his time as a hired gun for artists like Alejandro Escovedo and Chuck Prophet, and talk frankly about the current economic realities of being an independent artist in the dark days of the 21st century. 

It’s a heartening, and enlightening chat with a true songwriter who is every bit as interesting as the characters he creates.

Cheers,

Matty C

Rolling Stone once declared Peter Bruntnell to be, “one of England’s best kept musical secrets”. England has successfully managed to keep Peter Bruntnell a secret for all this time, even from itself. 

It took someone else to show Peter Bruntnell his own true talent. He began by playing Neil Young and Nick Drake songs in local pubs when a producer noticed his voice and struck up a conversation. Bruntnell describes himself as “comfortable” playing other people’s songs as he began, and may have continued doing nothing more than that until Vic Martin came and asked him if he had any songs of his own. 

Bruntnell soon played his songs for Martin, who was unimpressed. Peter went back to work and began writing more intentionally and with greater care. Eventually, he would emerge with the songs for his first album, Cannibal. 

Nearly thirty years into his recording career, Bruntnell is now on the verge of his fifteenth LP and is still always on the prowl for a better song. In our chat we cover his love for the American midwest and touring with Son Volt as well as how he is now mentoring younger artists the same way Vic Martin and Pete Smith mentored him. 

One English tabloid newspaper with an uncharacteristically decent, albeit it very small, album reviews section was surprisingly on the mark in saying, “He is Britain’s best kept secret for whom the word ‘underappreciated’ was surely invented”. The glossy British music mag Mojo continued very much along the same lines with, “Somehow, some way, this cult and infinitely class songwriter must get his due wider recognition”. He still hasn’t.

Here’s hoping we can unleash the secret genius of Peter Bruntell one listener at a time here at WAIM. 

Enjoy!

Cheers,Matty C