Adrian Has Issues

Here it is, folks—the first post-hiatus episode of Adrian Has Issues! Joining me in the co-hosting chair is none other than Eileen aka The LatiNerd. We sit down for a thought-provoking conversation with the co-founders of Oneshi Press: Jayel Draco (Lead Designer) and Lynsey G Editor-In-Chief). Oneshi Press is an independent publishing company with a strong emphasis on community and inclusion. Their latest project is issue #4 of PACK, a vigilante thriller in which 6 stray dogs, and 1 stray man battling crime and corruption in a gentrified Brooklyn. In this episode, Eileen and I have an honest discussion with Jayel and Lynsey regarding the real-life social issues that inform the world of PACK. We explore how themes of racism, allyship and community affect people not just on street level but in the highest levels of government.

This week’s episode finds host Adrian King picking up where he left off on what was the final mini-episode installment. Adrian further elaborates on his role as an artist and seeks to reestablish his personal relationship with the creative process, as well as teasing a future project involving some output from the creative community.

Allison Martin is a trombonist with nearly 20 years of performance experience and a Bachelor’s Degree in music education. Having played as a soloist and in ensembles since her youth, Allison was well on her way as a professional player in orchestra before stepping away from music entirely. After years of studying abroad in Japan, Allison has returned with a renewed spirit and destined to make her mark. Equipped with an expansive skillset and an irreverent sense of humor, Allison’s path eventually brought her into the Video Game Music community with an appearance in the popular “Line Them Up” Paper Mario tribute video. 2022 saw the release of her debut album, See The World, a love letter to exploration and the games that inspired her personal journey including entries from The Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past, Final Fantasy VI and Pokémon. In an insightful and in-depth conversation, Adrian talks with Allison about her personal and creative life and the two cover a plethora of topics including: Creative burnout, the secret genius of informercials and the movies of Neil Breen.

East Bay Area musician and audio engineer Ian Cowell returns! Continuing the conversation from Episode 176, Ian tells the story of how a series of situations involving mistaken identity with another Cowell served as the catalyst for meeting some incredible individuals in the VGM/Synth community. Adrian and Ian also provide their thoughts on the importance of virtual VGM concerts, videogame music covers winning Grammy Awards and the value of content creators beyond the things they produce.

The “Minisode” format was intended to be a more intimate and personal account of Adrian’s thoughts and feelings on pop culture and creativity outside of the conversational tone of the standard episodes. In this final entry, Adrian continues a train of thought that was started in Minisode 10. Adrian attempts to redefine what it means to be a creator and podcaster and the role both play in artistic communities he serves. With this comes a conclusion that will no doubt shape his personal and professional journeys for years to come.

This week’s guest is Ian Cowell, an East Bay Area musician, producer and engineer. His incredible style ranges from synthwave, progressive rock, lo-fi and chip music. He has incorporated them into these truly unique arrangements of original music and videogame covers. Ian has been building a steady following in the VGM community with guitar-shredding prowess and irreverent humor. Ian capped off 2021 with the release of Exceptional Goblins, an exhilarating full-length album featuring arrangements from games such as Yoshi's Island, The Legend of Zelda II and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. What was intended to be a look into the creation of Exceptional Goblins, the conversation between Adrian and Ian quickly veers into a fun and poignant discussion on a number of topics including: Being Dads as well as gamers and normalizing playing videogames on easy/casual difficulty levels.

Grant Henry, known best by his stage name Stemage, is a composer, session player, and audio engineer. He is the creator of Metroid Metal, performed with Viking Guitar and the guitar player for the Emmy-nominated animated series Steven Universe. His credits also include Ikenfell, Chicory: A Colorful Tale and Runner3. Recorded at the start of 2022, Adrian chats with Stemage about his experiences writing the music for the Hextech Mayhem, a rhythm-based videogame set in the League of Legends franchise from Riot Forge (Ruined King) and Choice Provisions (Bit.Trip). Additionally, Stemage lends his thoughts on balancing hired session work and personal projects, the process of creating the Adrian Has Issues theme song and how he’s found inspiration from an unlikely musical source.

On this week's episode, Adrian chats with Allen Brasch, the owner and editor-and-chief of GameGrooves. Founded in 2018, GameGrooves aims to celebrate the Videogame Music community with blogs, podcasts and albums that feature music artists from a number of genres. Allen details the origins of GameGrooves as well as the events that lead up to the company's most successful album to date: A ska tribute to the music for the game Mario Kart 64 entitled Skario Kart, which features music by Skatune Network, Tape Girl & more. Adrian & Allen also provide their thoughts on the ever-evolving videogame music cover scene, their love of Sonic Adventure 2 and the ambitious 2022 Album Challenge.

In this week's episode, Adrian is once again joined comedian and writer Mario Candelaria (Ashes, The Chart, Tales From The Pandemic). The duo start off discussing the inspiration behind Mario's latest comic "Fog Line," but the conversation takes several irreverent yet poignant turns featuring takes on Lethal Weapon 2 and Mad Men & more. Mario also goes on a deep dive into his love for hit R&B singer The Weeknd, irredeemable characters in fiction and celebrating the success as well as failures along the creative process.

Ro Panuganti is a musician who specializes in guitar-driven music in the vein of progressive rock/metal that have become staples within the videogame music community. His covers have ranged from classic game/movie franchises from The Legend of Zelda and Undertale to Frozen and Hamilton. After building a following through these releases and his YouTube channel, Ro embarks on the next leg of his musical journey with a 5-song concept album entitled Project Discover. In this episode, Adrian has a conversation with Ro regarding the EP which draws inspiration from his experiences as a 2nd generation immigrant, Indian mythology and his deep love of videogames. Ro also details how the themes of identity and representation play into the story but also draw parallels to the VGM community and the path to grow as an artist.

On this week’s episode Adrian welcome back Cody Carpenter to the podcast. Cody is a third generation musician and has lent his unique talents to a plethora of projects including the 2018 film Halloween and The Lost Themes trilogy, which he co-wrote, co-produced, and performed with his father John Carpenter and Daniel Davies. In addition to his projects under the pseudonym Ludrium, Cody has been producing and performing a series of fantastic instrumental albums in the vein of jazz fusion and progressive rock. We discuss the inspiration behind the tracks on latest album Memories And Dreams through Blue Canoe Records as well as weigh in on the resurgence of videogame-themed movies and the influence gaming has had on their lives and creative ventures.

On this week’s podcast, Adrian is joined by Eileen Melendez aka The LatiNerd and returning guest, comic book writer/letterer Erica Schultz (Daredevil, Forgotten Home). Erica’s latest title The Deadliest Bouquet from Vices Press focuses on three sisters who are forced to confront a complicated family legacy when investigating their mother’s murder. Adrian, Eileen and Erica examine the book’s themes complete with irreverent yet insightful takes on sibling rivalry, death as well as action movie stars of the 80’s & 90’s.

On this week’s guest is singer/musician/YouTuber Lacey Johnson! Armed with boundless enthusiasm, razor-sharp wit and a monster-slaying keytar, Lacey covers music from games like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and many more. In addition to her YouTube channel, Lacey is also known for energetic live performances that have been making a statement in the Video Game Music community. Lacey shares her experiences with the joys and challenges in arranging music as well as producing videos. Adrian and Lacey also make predictions on what post-pandemic concerts will look like as well as hold an honest discussion on how confronting fear is integral to the creative process.

On this week's podcast, cartoonist Alex Schumacher returns! In early 2020, his semi-autobiographical webcomic "Decades of (in)Experience" through Antix Press had celebrated 200 episodes. Now a year later, Alex talks about the decision to conclude the strip as well as rebrand his other project, the satirical shenanigans of Mr. Butterchips. Embarking on the next phases of his personal and creative endeavors, Alex shares his thoughts regarding the importance of art to evolve and reinforce the idea that it's never too late for new beginnings. For all the latest updates on Alex Schumacher please visit his website alexschumacherart.com.

On this week's podcast, Adrian chats once again with veteran punk rocker Mikey Erg (The Ergs, Worriers) Fresh off the release of his new self-titled solo album, Mikey discusses his "Return to punk rock" and his experience writing and recording a new album in the midst of a global pandemic. Adrian and Mikey also reflect on the absence of live music, share concert-going regrets and the underrated punk prowess of Pearl Jam.

This week’s guests are composers Aivi & Surasshu. They are a chiptune and piano duo, comprised of pianist Aivi Tran and sound designer Steven "Surasshu" Velema. The two have created a significant number of songs for the award-winning Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe and Steven Universe Future. The duo have been making waves for their work on the soundtrack for the indie RPG Ikenfell created by Chevy Ray of Happy Ray Games along with Sabrielle Augustin. The soundtrack features guest artists such as Sammus, Stemage, Renko, Adriana Figueroa and Reckadem. In this episode, Adrian speaks with Aivi & Surasshu about the evolution of their professional/personal relationship, the concept of “Digital Fusion” in music and Ikenfell’s themes of inclusion and normalization of queer characters in storytelling as well as the game’s unique accessibility options.

On this week’s episode, Adrian teams up with Talking Like A Teen co-host Ashley Burgy for a conversation with voice actress Jennifer Hale. Jennifer has lent her voice to a plethora of animated series (Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Powerpuff Girls) and videogames (Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid) and currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most female videogame voices. Jennifer talks about her experiences narrating her first audiobook for Christopher Paolini’s novel, To Sleep In A Sea of Stars and co-writing a song inspired by the book along with Todd Herfindal . Plus, Adrian and Ashley chat with Jennifer about the Mass Effect cast reunion hosted by NerdsVote and the importance of being socially and politically active.

This week Ringo Award nominated writer Frank Gogol returns to Adrian Has Issues! Frank is the writer and creator of comics such as the anthology Grief, No Heroine (which Frank and I discussed on Episode 154) and the critically acclaimed coming of age miniseries Dead End Kids through Source Point Press. In this episode, Frank talks about dealing with the whirlwind success of the original series and approaching writing the follow-up Dead End Kids: The Suburban Job. Adrian and Frank talk about...

This week's guest is Fallon Goskowski. Fallon is a singer, thespian, the founder of Access BOSS...and Adrian's older sister. Adrian & Fallon reflect on what it was like growing up as Blerds to now being parents to both organic and digital children and express their thoughts on what it means to be Black while fighting to exist and be seen in traditionally White spaces.

This week's guest is David Pepose, the writer and co-creator of the Ringo Award-nominated comic Spencer & Locke as well as Going To The Chapel. from Action Lab Danger Zone. As the comic book industry experiences huge shakeups in publishing and distributing, creators like David Pepose are looking to more crowdfunding ventures such as Kickstarter to appeal to a wider audience that might not have the backing of a traditional publisher. Adrian speaks with David about what inspired his latest comic The O.Z., which is described as The Hurt Locker meets The Wizard of Oz. The conversation then shifts into the marketing of said title, as it is David's first Kickstarter comic and he breaks down his experience with a new outlet of potential readers. There's also talk about what the continual shift towards crowdfunding means for the direct market and the future of indie/mainstream comics and coming to the realization that we're not Keanu Reeves (but that's okay).