Beginnings
We all know the stories of how creative people get into the business of creating for a living, but how did they start using their imaginations in the first place? On the Beginnings podcast, writer and performer Andy Beckerman asks well-known and on-their-way-up comedians, musicians, writers, artists and thinkers about their earliest creative acts, their formative childhood experiences, and how they've developed both creatively and emotionally over the years. Beginnings is part therapy, part philosophy and almost all fascinating (95% according to FDA studies).
Episodes
On today's episode, I talk to musician Hutch Harris. Originally from New York City, Hutch's family moved to San Jose, California when he was still a kid. After high school, he met Kathy Foster, and they played in various bands until moving to Portland, where they formed The Thermals. In 2003, they released their first album More Parts Per Million on Sub Pop, who would release their next two albums as well. The next four albums were...
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug AKA Sweeping Promises. Originally from Arkansas and Texas respectively, Lira and Caufield met in college and made music together in a number of different bands before forming Sweeping Promises in 2019. Their first album Hunger for a Way Out was released the next year on Feel It Records in the midst of the early stage of the pandemic and garnered them a great de...
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist and humorist David Rees. Originally from Chapel Hill, NC, David first gained acclaim during the Bush years with his comic strip Get Your War On, which perfectly captured the insanity of the times. In 2010, David started the satirical Artisanal Pencil Sharpening service and followed that up with the book How to Sharpen Pencils. As a TV creator, he hosted Going Deep with David Rees and co-crea...
On today's episode, I talk to musician Elisabeth Esselink AKA Solex. Originally from Voorschoten, Netherlands, Elisabeth eventually moved to Amsterdam and in the early1990s performed in the indie pop band Sonetic Vet, who released one album, Peer, in 1994. She then began to make music on her own as Solex, and in 1998, Matador released her debut album Solex vs. the Hitmeister. Since then, Elisabeth has released numerous albums and E...
On today's episode, I talk to musician Elanor Moss. Originally from Lincolnshire, Elanor grew up in a very creative, devoutly Catholic family and began playing music at church events. She started writing her own music while studying English Lit at the University of York. In 2022, she released her first EP Citrus followed a year later by the Cosmic EP. This garnered her some attention, and her debut album The Knife, The Needle ...
On today's episode, I talk to musician Dan Friel. Raised in Amherst, MA, Dan formed Parts & Labor with BJ Warshaw in 2002. In their decade together, the band released five albums, mostly on Jagjaguwar. While Dan had already been recording albums on his own - his first solo LP was released on the fantastic Massachusetts label Important Records - after the band broke up in 2012, he began releasing albums on Thrill Jockey. Most re...
On today's episode, I talk to screenwriter and podcaster Josh Olson. Originally from Philadelphia, Josh got his start in showbiz as a PA on Masters of the Universe and in 2002, wrote and directed his first film Infested. This gained Josh some attention, and in 2005, he wrote A History of Violence, which garnered him Oscar, BAFTA and WGA Award nominations. He's collaborated with Harlan Ellison, wrote the original draft of the Jack R...
On today's episode, I talk to musician and producer Tony Simon AKA Blockhead. Originally from Manhattan, Tony grew up in an artistic household and started making music when he was a teenager. He went to Boston University for a year, which may not have worked out academically, but did artistically because this is where he met Aesop Rock and began making beats for him starting with 1999's Appleseed EP. Back in New York, he formed the...
On today's episode, I talk to musician Chad Matheny. Raised in Jacksonville, FL, Chad began recording music as Emperor X in 1998. Though he had a deep interest in science and pursued an advanced degree in physics, music was his true calling, and in 2012 he moved to Berlin to tour more easily. Chad has recorded almost two dozen albums and EPs as Emperor X, and his latest Unified Field was just released at the end of June on Bar/None...
On today's episode, I talk to historian and journalist Daniel Bessner. Danny is a true renaissance man, but not in the Danny DeVito sense. As an academic, he is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is also the author of two books, Democracy in Exile and Imperialist Realism and the co-editor of a nu...
On today's episode, I talk to musician and academic Matthew S. Originally from Fresno, CA, Matthew founded the sample-based label Illegal Art in 1998 and ran it under the pseudonym Philo T. Farnsworth for 15 years. In that time, Illegal Art released music from Touch People, Junk Culture and perhaps the most acclaimed of the roster Girl Talk. In 2012, Matthew shut the label down to concentrate on his own music and work as a college ...
On today's episode, I talk to musician and writer Jonathan Meiburg. Born in Baltimore, MD, Jonathan started playing music in the early 1990s in Austin and towards the end of the decade began playing keyboards in Okkervil River. A year later, he formed the band Shearwater with Okkervil's Will Sheff as an outlet for their quieter songs, though by their fourth album Palo Santo, it became primarily Jonathan's group. Since 1999, Shearwa...
On today's episode, I talk to musician Jeff Mueller. Originally from Louisville, KY, Jeff formed the band Rodan in 1992 with his friend Jason Noble, releasing the seminal album Rusty two years later on Quarterstick Records. After Rodan broke up, Jeff formed June of 44, and they put out almost an album a year until they stopped playing together in 1999. Rodan's break-up also blossomed into a new band for Jeff and Jason, Shipping New...
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Ron Regé Jr. Raised in Plymouth, MA, Ron began making minicomics in the late 1980s, and about a decade later, his first book Skibber Bee Bye was published by Highwater Books. For the next decade, he released comics and graphic novels through Drawn & Quarterly, but a frustration with comics changed his aesthetic focus, and starting with his next book The Cartoon Utopia, Ron began to be pu...
On today's episode, I talk to journalist and writer Michael Edison Hayden. Originally from Port Washington, Long Island, Michael started out his career as a playwright before transitioning to journalism during a trip to India. This led to becoming one of the few reporters at ABC News covering far-right extremism, and eventually Michael became a Senior Investigative Reporter and Spokesperson for Southern Poverty Law Center, a positi...
On today's episode, I talk to musician Doug Gillard. Born in Sandusky, Ohio, Doug performed in a number of punk groups in high school, and in the early '80s joined the Cleveland rock band Death of Samantha. After their breakup in 1990, Doug became one of the original members of Cobra Verde, who then became Bob Pollard's backing band on Mag Earwhig!. This led to Doug joining Guided by Voices, who he performed with from 1997 to 2004 ...
On today's episode, I talk to musician Felicia Douglass. Originally from New York City, Felicia studied ballet for a long time before deciding that wasn't the path for her. Some of her old school chums had formed the band Ava Luna, and she eventually joined them. In the twenty years they've been together, Ava Luna has released over a dozen albums and EPs, and their latest self-titled album came out on Western Vinyl just last year. ...
On today's episode, I talk to filmmaker Josh Margolin. Originally from Los Angeles, Josh always aimed his life in the direction of acting and filmmaking. He majored in theater, did improv, including performing in "One Night Stand: An Improvised Musical", which toured all over including an Edinburgh Fringe run, but since he was a kid, filmmaking seemed to be the thing. While Josh has written a number of shorts, webseries and a featu...
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