100 Words Or Less: The Podcast

Eric Stenman has spent three decades on the other side of the glass, quietly shaping records for Deftones, Weezer, Thrice, Dashboard Confessional, and Senses Fail, while building AWOLNATION's entire catalog alongside Aaron Bruno since 2011. Before any of that, he was a teenager in Sacramento, self-funding vinyl pressings on his own credit card inside a scene that also produced Deftones, Far, Will Haven, and Death Grips.

Now he's fin...

Mike Morales grew up skateboarding and playing in a power violence band in Lompoc, a small Central Coast town far from any real scene, before those friendships pulled him into Initiate. We trace that path into the band, into writing Cerebral Circus (the record where Initiate let acoustic guitars and huge choruses sit next to their heaviest material), and into what it's like touring with a band now spread across three states. Mike a...

Christine Goodwyne has been building Pool Kids since she was two people short of a band, booking backyard shows in Tallahassee before there was even a name on the flyer. Nearly a decade later, the group has a Hayley Williams cosign, a flooded studio they somehow saved, a hardcore alter ego born as an April Fool's joke, and three albums that trace a path from math-rock tangents to pop hooks, most recently Easier Said Than Done on Ep...

Robin Staps started The Ocean in Berlin in 2000 as a revolving cast of musicians before locking into the band's most stable lineup in 2009. Twenty plus years and seven albums later, the group's blend of post metal, prog, and sludge has taken them from Siberian squats to European festival mainstages, and Staps runs Pelagic Records, the label he built alongside the band that's become one of Europe's key homes for post metal and post ...

Brian Gorsegner has spent his life circling the same scene from every angle. He fronted Night Birds until the band's final show at the end of 2022, books tours for acts like Alice Bag Band, Career Suicide, and Generacion Suicida through his company Wired Booking, and sits on the town council in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. But most people know him as the guy behind Ancient Artifax, the Instagram account turned archive turned boo...

Before Springfield, Illinois had much of a scene to speak of, Ladd Mitchell was already building one, first with Park, then Tiger Tank, logging years on the road during the golden run of early-2000s midwest emo. We talk about joining Park mid-formation and becoming the one constant across four lineups, chasing a deal all the way to a small Santa Barbara label, and what a yearlong nonstop tour actually does to a band. We also get in...

Adam Rubenstein has been making music since he was a teenager in Indianapolis, when he and his bandmates formed Split Lip on Christmas Day, 1989. Drawing early influence from Burn, Youth of Today, and Endpoint, the band became a cornerstone of the Midwestern hardcore scene. They released records on Doghouse before most of them could drive, and landing a track on the landmark 1996 Anti-Matter compilation alongside Quicksand, Farside...

Kevin Hart has been yelling in hardcore bands since he was a teenager, but Public Opinion is something different, louder in some ways, quieter in others. His dad was a DJ, which means music was never just background noise growing up. These days Kevin processes the hard stuff through songs instead of burdening the people around him, and it shows as Painted On Smile is one of the most genuinely self-reflective punk records in recent ...

Rich Gaccione built Providence Vegan Deli into something rare; a business that functions less like a restaurant and more like a community hub, where free sandwiches go to anyone who needs one, touring bands eat for nothing, and the line between customer and neighbor gets blurry fast. We talk about how that philosophy took shape, the hardcore and punk roots that inform everything he does, and the seitan operation that started it all...

This week I sit down with Anthony Lemus, the voice behind Southern California's Stateside. What started as a warehouse job friendship and a shared love of 2000s emo has turned into one of the more exciting bands to emerge from the current hardcore-adjacent scene — and Lemus is the emotional engine at the center of it. We get into how growing up in Southern California's hardcore world shaped him, the deeply personal lyrics beh...

On this episode, I welcome Chad Green from Frozen Soul to the show. We trace his path from growing up around the Texas heavy music community to finding his place in death metal, building Frozen Soul from the ground up, and watching the band become one of the genre's biggest modern success stories.

We also dig into the influence of the Texas hardcore scene on his outlook, the confidence it takes to trust your creative instincts when ...

Jack Murray, vocalist of 156/Silence, joins the podcast to discuss the road that brought the band to where they are today. From coming up in the Pittsburgh heavy music scene to navigating years of uncertainty, Jack reflects on the relationships, community, and DIY spirit that helped shape both the band and his perspective.

The conversation also dives into the moments when it seemed like 156/Silence might not continue, what kept him ...

This week I sit down with Jeremy Walker, co-founder of Fire in the Mountains, for a conversation that goes far beyond festival promotion. Jeremy reflects on the winding path that led him from a life rooted in Vermont to building one of the most unique experiences in heavy music in which a gathering where community, culture, and the natural world carry as much weight as the bands on stage.

The discussion explores the evolution of Fi...

This week Ray is joined by Matthew Dwyer, the voice behind the beloved Texas band Oakwood. For many people, Oakwood occupies a unique place in underground music history of literally playing only 15-20 shows, but having a "comeback" moment that has now turned into something way more real.

Matthew takes us through his life in Texas and the environments that shaped both him and Oakwood. The conversation explores the band's connection ...

Joey Chiaramonte (Koyo) joins the podcast this week for a conversation about identity, growth, and finding your place both on and off the stage. As the vocalist of Long Island's Koyo, Joey has helped lead one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the modern hardcore and punk scene, blending melodic songwriting with the energy and community spirit that shaped him.

In this episode, Joey reflects on Koyo's rapid rise, the unique cu...

More than a decade after his first appearance on 100 Words or Less, Jay Weinberg returns to reflect on a career that has taken him from DIY hardcore basements to some of the world's biggest stages. Ray and Jay discuss the humbling process of ego death, how his perspective on success and identity has evolved over the years, and what it means to rebuild yourself after major life and career transitions. They also dive into Jay's hip s...

Daniel Danger has spent decades building worlds through both sound and image. As a member of The Saddest Landscape and one of the most recognizable artists in underground music, his work has become synonymous with melancholy, memory, and the architecture of loss. Raised in Central Massachusetts by artist parents, Danger's creative life has been shaped as much by DIY hardcore as by late nights spent exploring Sierra point-and-click ...

From growing up in the shadow of Western Pennsylvania industry to helping shape some of the most abrasive and intellectually confrontational music of the early 2000s hardcore underground, Nathan Martin has always existed in the space between resistance and reinvention. In this episode, we dig into life in Greensburg, PA, the strange collision of small-town culture and radical art, early internet-era hacktivism, and how DIY politics...

From the suburbs of Rancho Cucamonga to the deeply personal world of Knumears, Matthew Cole joins the show to talk about the path that shaped both his life and music. We get into growing up in Southern California during the 2000s DIY era, discovering bands like Born Against, and how punk and emo became an outlet while navigating suburban isolation and the Inland Empire/OC show circuit. Matthew also talks about balancing life as a c...