Better To... Podcast with D. M. Needom

Better To... Podcast with D. M. Needom

The Better To Podcast is a place where we'll discuss what was the inspiration for their perspective projects and how it all came about. Sometimes, we’ll take a deeper dive into that moment that placed them on the creative path. On the podcast, we honor achievements, discuss new projects, and reflect on life lessons and the beginnings of the creative journey.

Episodes

August 22, 2025 76 mins

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This Week on the show author David Boop stops by the show to discuss, writing, editing, Star Wars & Star Trek and much more. 

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David Boop is a Denver-based speculative fiction author & editor. He’s also an award-winning essayist, and screenwriter. Before turning to fiction, David worked as a DJ, film critic, journalist, and actor.

 David’s novels run the gamut, such as the sci-fi/noir She Murdered Me with ...

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BettySoo stops by the show to discuss her latest release, If You Never Go Away, Childhood trauma, Life, inspiration, and more. 

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BettySoo’s vocal prowess is a thing of wonder. A world-class instrument of deft phrasing and purity, a voice that knows when to hold back and when to dive in. At her own live shows, taking a verse onstage with friends or singing harmonies in sessions with Austin’s finest, BettySoo sing...

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August 8, 2025 58 mins

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Trigger Warning : Loss of a Parent due to Suicide is discussed. If you are sensitive to this topic please skip this episode of the podcast. 

Lew stops by the show to discuss, finding his voice, moving across country to pursue his dream, his father's suicide, his debut album Fool's Gold and more.

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No Room In Hell’ is a rose-tinted daydream and an embodiment of the whole record,” says genre-defying soul a...

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Crispian Mills stops by the show and we discuss, romanticism of the US and Rock n' Roll, Energy, death, knowledge and more.

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Kula Shaker is Crispian Mills (guitar/vocals), Jay Darlington (Hammond organ), Alonza Bevan (bass) and Paul Winter-Hart (drums), the original line-up who regrouped for the first time since 1999’s Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts.

“We're not embarrassed to admit we still regard America a...

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This week Danny Maxwell, Craig Fort and the band's mascot Tim stop by the show to discuss, their latest release 'Burn Cruise' , ghosts, the psychology behind the music and more.

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Since 2016, Leafblower’s patented brand of psych-tinged post-rock has whiplashed crowds of bobbing heads and pumping fists. The band released a demo, a live set, a single—but all the while, their first full-length has been s...

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Uli Bella from Ozomatli stops by the show to discuss the 30 Revolutions Nationwide Tour, the LA raids, mental health, being a caregiver, Richard Simmons and more.  

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If the city of Los Angeles had a soundtrack, it would be Ozomatli. Since their formation in 1995, the six-piece, multi-genre band has been a cultural force, blending Latin, hip-hop, funk, reggae, and global influences into an unmistakable sound that emb...

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July 4, 2025 56 mins

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Tracy stops by the show to discuss her latest release, Sky Too Wide. We talk about people pleasing, connect over a Helen Reddy song, 'You and Me Against the World', her reimagined song 'Jumping Bean', and so much more.

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Tracy Bonham is a classically trained violinist and pianist turned alternative singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 1996 with her twice GRAMMYTM nominated album, The Burdens of ...

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Luke stops by the show to discuss his musical journey, which started at the age of 7,  how the pandemic changed his life, a separate identity from being a singer/musician, and more. 

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Luke Marzec’s life has always been about music. He picked up the violin aged 7, the sax at 10 and the piano soon after. At just 11, his natural talent earned him a place at the prestigious Royal College of Music (RCM) Junior Department...

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Leonard Goldberg stops by the show to discuss his latest release, A Scandalous Affair, from his Daughter of Sherlock Holmes mystery series. We also discuss how his research career led him to become a writer. We talk about his process and more. 

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Leonard Goldberg is an internationally bestselling author of the Joanna Blalock series of medical thrillers. His novels, acclaimed by critics as well as fellow authors, have...

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Eef Barzelay stops by the show to discuss his latest release, 'Oh Smokey', as well as life, death, and so much more. 

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Eef Barzelay of CLEM SNIDE, some what cheekily. For Eef, the intersection of hope and resignation is the genesis of his tenth album OH SMOKEY

and a focal point of his upcoming tour. “I know fans like the older songs and the covers I've done, so it's really an ever-evolving mishma...

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Vox of the Chameleons stops by to discuss his long career, his evolution, their new record, the world, and more. 

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Having released their first studio recordings in over 20 years in 2024 (Where Are You? of new material and Tomorrow Remember Yesterday which consisted of re-recorded archival tracks), Chameleons have been gearing up the release of their upcoming album Arctic Moon later 2025 which will be their first st...

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Pete stops by the show to discuss The Dandy Warhols, Studio vs performing, when he learned guitar, and more.

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Following a triumphant 2024 with the release of their overwhelmingly critic-hailed twelfth studio album ROCKMAKER featuring Frank Black, Slash, and Debbie Harry, a packed-to-the-gills national tour, and a completely sold out West Coast 30th Anniversary-as-a-band string of dates, Portland’s iconoclastic and a...

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May 30, 2025 80 mins

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Neville Keighley a.k.a. Belouis Some stops by the show, and we step back in time. We talk about touring with Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Queen. The spicy video for Imagination and more.

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Belouis Some (real name Neville Keighley), singer-songwriter from London, released his first album Some People in 1985 on Capitol EMI Records. After initial recording in London, the album was produced in New York by Steve Thomp...

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May 28, 2025 66 mins

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In this episode, Mark Waldoch stops by the show to discuss his new group, The Hallelujah Ward’s, and new album Everybody Swoons. We also talk about how sometimes having a brat moment got him recognized and more.

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Everybody in Milwaukee knows Mark Waldoch. Either they met him working at the legendary Atomic Records, behind a bar at one of Milwaukee’s leading cocktail locales, or most likely singing from the bottom o...

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Ian Dench of the band EMF stops by the show to discuss his upcoming tour, new music, the staying power of the song 'Unbelievable', and so much more, including working with Beyonce.

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 EMF British dance-rock quintet, EMF formed in Cinderford, England, in October 1989. All five original members were veterans of the local music scene before founding EMF, whose name supposedly stood for “Epsom Mad Funkers&qu...

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Steve Smith of the Vapors stops by to discuss their latest release, Wasp in the Jar, their upcoming tour, and their longevity career. 

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Best known for their massive 1980 worldwide hit “Turning Japanese,” The Vapors continue to bring their individually styled brand of music to fans old and new in the form of high-quality live performances and the ongoing development of critically acclaimed new material. 

The band, fo...

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Christian, the lead singer and bassist for The Ritualists, stops by the show to discuss bass playing, the new album Too Pure to Cure, cooking, history, and more.

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NYC-based The Ritualists’ upcoming album, Too Pure To Cure (out now) is a trip. Produced and mixed by GRAMMY-winner Mario J McNulty (David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Prince), the album is packed with the band’s signature mix of goth, glam, and modern rock, a...

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May 1, 2025 66 mins

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Limahl stops by the show to discuss his latest release, how taking a chance with Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran helped his band get a record deal, coming out to his Mum, and so much more. 

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“The original ‘70s track has been a favorite on my 'Evening' playlist for a long time,” says UK music topliner LIMAHL about his reimagining of the classic folk/rock hit “A Horse With No Name” that is released via Chris...

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ROBERT SCHREINER is the author of The Wolves and the Greyhounds, a military thriller/historical fiction novel set in the early months of the First World War.

The novel is based on extraordinary actual events. In August 1914, as war was declared, an entire fleet of German warships stealthily eluded an Allied blockade, slipped out into the Pacific Ocean, and disappeared. The possibility that the elusive German fleet migh...

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April 25, 2025 61 mins

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Frankie and Kelly Maxwell stop by the show to discuss how the band came together, their father and his love of music, their new EP, Red Shelter, sobriety, and more. 

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Shurr Jr is a family power trio that consists of a guitarist/vocalist, Nick Maxwell,  Drums, Frankie Maxwell, and Kelly Maxwell on bass. The siblings’ father, Frank Maxwell, was an Omaha music legend who played guitar in the band Fifth of May in the ‘...

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