This week I’m the guest on Dennis Dalelio’s new podcast entitled The Stolen Hours. Listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
We reminisce about the DIY/indie-rock scene of the ‘90s when I would ambush artists like Liz Phair and Lou Barlow after shows for interviews and compilation tracks for my former fanzine, Flygirl, and independent record label at the time, Blue Bunny Records.
I didn’t realize it then, but these spirited teenage interactions at clubs like CBGB and Maxwell’s in NYC and N.J. were the training grounds for my journalism career.
There was the time I interviewed Doug Martsch (Built to Spill) over the phone, but forgot to turn on the answering machine to record it. Yes, answering machine. I also had an amazing photo shoot with the aforementioned Liz Phair after she played a show at Maxwell’s – or so I thought. Let’s just say that was the last time I failed to correctly load a roll of film into my camera. Whoops.
Dennis was a key contributor to my fanzine back then and we also recorded music on my four-track in my bedroom. We took advantage of an entire snow-week off school one time to make a cassette-only album entitled, “No Cavities, No Frills.” The central song was, “The Road is Melting,” which signified that soon we’d have to go back to school. This was in the same bedroom where we played with G.I. Joe figures when we were nine.
Dennis and I have known each other since we were two, and we grew up on the same street in West Milford, N.J. We’ve also been life-long musical and artistic collaborators. He’s spurred me on in my artistic endeavors, and I in his.
In some ways, this episode of The Stolen Hours Podcast is simply a conversation between two close friends. We also get to hear Dennis discuss some of what spurred him to create the podcast and take up documentary photography.
What’s really cool is that Dennis has been using one of my songs as the theme music for The Stolen Hours Podcast. You can read more about that in my previous blog post here. The song is entitled “Free of this Disease,” and is a machine-driven indie electronic tune. The non-instrumental version is being mixed as we speak and will be released as a single soon. It will mark my first official release in 13 years, and begins a series of new songs I plan to release monthly.
In the latest episode we get into my music and working with drum machines, samplers, and found sounds. We discuss my journalism career, my current creative work for the Archdiocese of Newark, and why I took up flying.
I hope you enjoy the episode and check out the rest of Dennis’ interviews. They are a collection of insightful conversations with known and unknown creators. Guests have included a Hollywood storyboard artist, a travel writer, and a highway evangelist.
One of my favorite episodes is episode 9 (Spotify or Apple Podcasts) which features a great conversation with a retired creative writing teacher colleague of Dennis’. The talented wordsmith reads some of her original poetry for the first time in public. You can read one of the poems on The Stolen Hours Podcast website here.
This is part of what I love about Dennis’ podcast: how it highlights his penchant for encouraging the people in his life to strive for excellence in their work and in their own lives. He also has a knack for discovering interesting and talented artists, including the highway evangelist who creates collaborative art pieces all around the country.
I have to credit Dennis for giving me the swift kick in the butt I needed. Because after he interviewed me, I rushed to get my back catalog up on all the streaming platforms, and to update my website – two things I had put off for some time.
I know I’m not the only person Dennis has inspired, and The Stolen Hours Podcast is a showcase for how he does that, and for how he interacts with his creative community. Dennis has long been a champion of artists.