The Back Lounge Podcast

Unleash The Archers vocalist Brittney Slayes joins me for Episode 28 of the Back Lounge Podcast! The powerhouse singer talks with me about becoming a Mom, balancing parenting with the band, the new album, upcoming tours, and the drama that recently surround them (and other bands) for utilizing A.I. with their art, which leads to a bigger topic of how people treat each other on the internet.

Vocalist/Producer Chris Harms from Lord of the Lost returns to the podcast for a second time fresh off of a #1 album in Germany, and while preparing the band for the German preliminary show for Eurovision. We spent some time catching up and just talking about random things like learning languages, going to shows, growing up with older technology and being nostalgic about music and TV shows, He also shared the band's experience touring with Iron Maiden and how they look forward to doing it again, talked about the unique marketing for their album "Blood and Glitter", and walked me through the process of how they will compete for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Vocalist Anders Fridén of the legendary Swedish melodeath band In Flames joins us for Episode 21 of the podcast! In Flames is one of the most important bands in the history of the Swedish metal scene, and are known as one of the pioneers of the Gothenburg sound. To celebrate the release of their 14th studio album, "Foregone", Anders joined me to talk about the new album, working with Howard Benson to develop their modern sound, how they found their newest band members, taking vocal lessons, up and coming bands in the Swedish metal scene, attending shows, reminiscing about music that we grew up with, and so much more!

If any of these episodes get me into trouble, this will be the one... Stage Manager, Lighting Tech, friend, and all around awesome dude Andy Shaw joins us for Episode 20 of The Back Lounge Podcast. Shaw and I toured together for quite a few years, and on this episode we sit and recount some of the hilarious tour stories that we remember from our time on the road together.

Guitarist Ville Friman from Finnish melodeath legends Insomnium joins us for Episode 19 of the podcast to discuss their upcoming album "Anno 1696", touring, living in the UK while being in a band from Finland, working with a PhD at the University of York, finding escape and quiet time in Saunas, and much more!

Lighting Director Carrie Heisler joins us for Episode 18 of the podcast to give us a behind the scenes of what it's like to be lighting up the Detroit Redwings and Detroit Pistons on a nightly basis. Carrie recently went viral in the metal community for programming lighting entrances for the Redwings with a lot of popular deathcore, death metal, and grind bands, which is something that has never happened in the sporting world.

Vocalist Kevin Ratajczak from the German metalcore band Electric Callboy joins us for Episode 17 of the Podcast. The band is already back in the studio, and Kevin took some time away from recording to talk with us about upcoming tour dates, the success of their latest album, keeping yourself grounded on tour, what music our kids like to listen to, ancestry, and so much more.

Suicide Silence guitarist and founder Chris Garza joins us for Episode 16 of The Back Lounge Podcast, in one of the most authentic, real, and brutality honest conversations I've ever had with someone in the music industry. We talk about the beginnings of Suicide Silence and how they helped create an entirely new genre, their successes and failures, how they've had to get uncomfortable as a band and work on themselves, their future touring, their upcoming record, and how they refuse to let any band deliver a better show than they will.

Future Palace vocalist Maria Lessing joins in for Episode 15 of The Back Lounge Podcast!

Guitarist/Content Creator Nik Nocturnal joins us for Episode 14 of The Back Lounge Podcast for some discussion on his Trap Metal project, his upcoming album with Termina, recently traveling to New York, creating content, and we had a ton of laughs along the way!

Guitarist Lucas Gabb of UK Metal act InVisions joins us for Episode 13 of The Back Lounge Podcast!

In a last minute episode that I honestly didn't think was going to happen, Christopher Bowes, the brains behind Alestorm and Gloryhammer, joins us for Episode 12 of The Back Lounge Podcast! We started off pretty casual, and the more the episode went on we just started getting off the rails and had a ton of laughs talking about stuff like German Gangster Rap, how weird but amazing tour bus drivers are, getting drunk at country concerts, writing songs for dogs, buying a pet giraffe, and how wild it is for Chris to live in the US now.

Elizabeth of The Charismatic Voice joins me for Episode 12 of The Back Lounge Podcast! This was filmed towards the end of her pregnancy before her and her husband had their child, and we spent some time laughing up parenting stuff since I have a young daughter as well. We also talked about all of her vocal education, traveling, how she developed her YouTube channel, and even talked about some of the daily things we go through creating YouTube content.

Legendary Swedish bassist Peter Iwers joins us for Episode 10 of The Back Lounge Podcast to talk The Halo Effect, running a Brewery and a Restaurant, touring, collecting Star Wars stuff, and more!

Ali Richardson, drummer for Scottish metal act Bleed From Within, joins us for Episode 9 of The Back Lounge Podcast! During our conversation we talking about how Brexit has effected UK bands touring Europe, signing to a new label, people being annoying backstage, meeting your heroes on tour, and a ton of other funny moments!