we’re back with a new episode featuring christophe richard, otherwise known as arrel_ci and note! christophe is a musician and visualist based in austin, texas, but i’ve known of christophe for a VERY long time as he was active at the same time that i was most active during the heyday of nyc chiptune (while i was on the other side of the country). here we talk about artist identities changing over time, navigating the nyc chip scene as both a musician and later an event organizer, and as always, what happened to chiptune

Today’s guest is Noah Lemen, a musician and engineer based in Brooklyn, New York. Noah made chipmusic under the alias kedromelon and also under the name chillbrave as a collaboration with Tate Gregor. I’ve known and been a fan of Noah’s work since the early kedromelon days and his time in the scene coincided with an interesting period of the NYC chiptune scene’s history - the post-Blip Festival NYC scene from around 2013 to 2018. In this episode, we talk about that period of time, the trials and tribulations of using LSDJ as one’s introduction to music making, and how one slowly falls out of making chiptune.

hi! it's been a while! i'm really sorry for the delay and this episode explains a little about what happened! to the podcast, not to chiptune, i haven't figured that out yet (podcast art is me from 2013 at an open mic lmao)

Today’s episode (after a long break) features Jessen Jurado, a visualist and event organizer based in NYC. Jessen has been involved in the NYC scene almost since its beginning, and his enthusiasm led him to organizing and putting on shows and event series - most notably I/O Chip Music, a series that ran as a sort of counterpart to Pulsewave during the heyday of the NYC scene. Jessen invited me to play an iteration of I/O Chipmusic all the way back in 2016 and we’ve been talking ever since. This episode features discussion about the history of the NYC scene, organizing a counterpart to Pulsewave, and what the future of chiptune might be. Correction: In Dannel Jurado's episode, it was mentioned that Jessen Jurado (no relation) was involved with the Reboot chip shows. Jessen would like to clarify that he had no involvement with Reboot.

been a while! this episode will explain it

This episode features Eliot Lash, a game developer, programmer and visualist based in Sacramento, California. Eliot and I have run in the same circles of the California chiptune scene for some time now but we haven’t known each other until fairly recently. I’m always interested in bringing perspectives that aren’t quite the typical musician scene participant and I was excited to bring Eliot on the podcast to provide just that. In this episode we talk about his experiences in the 3rd wave of California chiptune, his game development practice, the effect of physical proximity on one’s interest in a scene and as always, what happened to chiptune.

This episode features Alex Yabsley, otherwise known as dot.AY. Alex is a musician and event organizer based in Melbourne, Australia, whose music is a raw and intense collage of various bass music styles filtered through the Nintendo Gameboy. He’s been involved in organizing shows in Brisbane and Melbourne, helping to organize the Square Sounds Melbourne and Melbourne Chiptune Academy event series. We get into the landscape of music in Brisbane, Melbourne and Australia more broadly, as well as the rise of the Melbourne chiptune scene and Square Sounds Melbourne.

Today’s episode features Michael Raisner, aka Nestrogen. Nestrogen is a musician and recording engineer based in Florida, whose musical work deals with the harsher side of chiptune. While I’m most familiar with harsh chiptune through the chipthrash subgenre, Nestrogen takes a more traditional approach combining live vocals and instrumentation with high-speed Gameboy parts to create a punk and hardcore inspired chiptune sound. In this episode we get into the influence of Nestrogen’s prior musical history on his chiptune work, bridging the gap between the digital and physical scenes of chiptune, and the effect that growing up has on one’s desire to remain in the chiptune scene.

This episode features Liz Ryerson, a musician, game designer and writer. She made Problem Attic, a challenging and thought-provoking game about problematic systems and the ways we navigate through them, and also is the host of the Experimental Games Workshop at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Liz’s work has been foundational in the way I think about art and creativity, and I was so glad to have her on the podcast to talk about her experiences in the chiptune-adjacent OCRemix scene and how those experiences mirror mine in the chiptune scene. Along the way we touch on music scenes more broadly, the shared trajectories of the indie game scene and chiptune, and the role of digital communities in our lives.

Today's episode features Emi Spicer, aka uglymachine. Emi is a photographer, event organizer, and producer based in NYC and has played different roles in many different chiptune spaces throughout both NYC and the world. Her photography work has been featured in numerous venues around the world and she was also an event organizer for the Pulsewave event series. We've known each other for a long time ever since I played (some could say "crashed") a birthday party for her all the way back in the early '10s and we've spoken to each other about many topics in and out of chiptune since then. We get into the triumphs and challenges of organizing Pulsewave, the concept of "waves" of chiptune, and what it looks and feels like to burn out of a music scene. We also get into some sensitive topics such as sexual harassment and abuse so if you're particularly sensitive to topics such as those, listen with caution.

This episode features Michael Bradley, aka Boaconstructor. Boaconstructor is a musician based out of Seattle, Washington that makes chipmusic styled after many different modern dance and hip hop genres such as footwork, techno, juke and trap music. I’ve always been a big fan of Boa’s work as he was never very interested in the videogame aspect of chiptune but rather was very focused on taking these small devices and trying to get them into club spaces, often making music that was indistinguishable from music made on non-chiptune devices. We get into the Seattle scene, the hardships of being a musician focused on club sounds, and the attachment that many chiptune artists and fans had to the videogame aspect of the scene and the effects it had on the community as a whole.

This episode features Frans Twisk and Rocco Wouters, organizers of the Dutch chiptune event series EINDBAAS. Frans Twisk is primarily an event organizer while Rocco Wouters is both a musician and organizer of EINDBAAS. EINDBAAS is the premier chiptune event in the Netherlands and has featured both local and international artists across more than 20 editions. In this episode, we get into the landscape of chiptune in the Netherlands, the highs and lows of organizing an event series, and the relationship between the Dutch scene and the international scene. Frans Twisk can be found at: https://franstwisk.nl/ RoccoW can be found at: https://roccow.bandcamp.com/

Today's episode features Dannel Jurado (he/him), a writer for the website Tiny Cartridge, a labor organizer, and one of the key organizers for the event series Pulsewave, which ran from 2006 to 2020 before going on hiatus during the pandemic. I've long been interested in hearing Dannel's perspective on the NYC and worldwide chiptune scene as someone who organized one of the premier events within the space and was not disappointed, as we get into topics as varied as the heyday of the NYC scene, the role of public transit in chiptune, and the global south's potential for a future chiptune explosion. I loved having this conversation with Dannel and I'm excited to bring it to you.

In this episode we speak to Kalle Jonsson, aka Dubmood. Dubmood is the owner of the netlabel Data Airlines and a prolific musician with roots in the demoscene and more (in)famously a member of the warez and demogroup Razor 1911. I’m very excited to bring this episode to you because one of the blind spots in my personal history of chiptune has always been its relationship with the demoscene, and Dubmood was both very knowledgeable and incredibly understanding about my own relationship with chiptune. We get into the demoscene’s history, the often-antagonistic relationship between the chiptune scene and demoscene, and what chiptune means for us in the present. Music used: Space Town - What Happened to Chiptune Theme Dubmood - Solitude Reference: FastTracker 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastTracker_2 Protracker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protracker Amiga - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga Modarchive - https://modarchive.org/ Trax in Space - https://web.archive.org/web/20010418144833/http://www.traxinspace.com/ Rebels - Chipmusicdisk #1 - https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=3604, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSD8_C4cAHo Schlager - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlager_music Monotonik - https://www.simoncarless.com/monotonik-a-net-label-1996-200/ Micromusic - [micromusic.net](http://micromusic.net/) Microdisko - https://www.discogs.com/fr/label/39227-Microdisko?page=1

Today’s episode features none other than Jeremiah Johnson, aka Nullsleep. Nullsleep was an integral part of the NYC chiptune scene from its inception, as he was one of the first active performing chiptune musicians in the area. He would go on to found 8bitpeoples and later would create and organize the Blip Festival event series, which would later expand to Tokyo and Melbourne. If you have any interest in chiptune today, Nullsleep probably had some kind of hand in it, and I’m so excited to present this conversation about the history and future of chiptune from someone who’s been such an integral part of the scene.

This episode features Matthew Hunter (he/him), aka Mechlo. Matthew has been a mainstay of the Portland and PNW chiptune scene as a musician and event organizer. He helped to run the longest running chiptune festival in North America, Micropalooza, and he was also involved in a monthly event series called Dataport. I’ve always been curious about the Portland (and the PNW more broadly) music scenes because I primarily know them as fixtures of the independent rock and pop scenes and was not as familiar with what electronic music looked like in Portland, so it was great to learn from Matthew about the local scene and about chiptune more broadly.

This episode features Chris Burke (He/him), aka Glomag and Glorified Magnified. Glomag is a prolific musician with works as varied as film scores, original chiptune compositions, and drama horror podcast productions. He’s been active as a musician since the 80s, scoring various low-budget horror films such as Toxic Avenger and Mother’s Day, and began his chiptune work at the beginning of the NYC scene along with Bit Shifter, Nullsleep, Bubblyfish and Minusbaby. In this episode we talk about Glomag’s long musical career, the parallels between 80s horror film soundtracks and chiptune, and his time in the NYC scene.

This episode features Mike D’Errico (He/Him), a musician and Assistant Professor of Music and Computer Science as well as the Director of Music Technology & Composition at Albright College. He also wrote the book Push: Software Design and the Cultural Politics of Music Production, released in January of 2022. We met at a show that we both played at UCLA and I’ve since long been interested in his work that weaves the cultural and political study of music technology with their effects on music making and music scenes more generally. While I’m not myself an academic, I’ve always been keen on perspectives about chiptune that integrate the chiptune scene with other genres and scenes that also deal heavily with technology, and Mike D’Errico’s work does so quite well.

In this episode we speak to Richard Alexander Caraballo (he/him), otherwise known as minusbaby. minusbaby is a musician, visual artist, graphic designer, and photographer based out of NYC, and has had a long history with the NYC chiptune scene beginning in the early 8bitpeoples era. minusbaby’s creative output is as unique as it is cohesive, with elements of his music often influencing his visual art and vice versa. We get into the early chiptune scene in NYC and how minusbaby has blazed his own path in chiptune and music in general. Unfortunately the audio quality for this episode is not up to the usual standard of the podcast as we had some recording difficulties, but I’ve done my best to make everything legible (audio-wise) and the conversation was so interesting that I couldn’t help but put this episode out.

In this episode we hear from Matthew Joseph Payne (he/him), a multi-instrumentalist musician and Twitch streamer who has composed music and performed with The Glowing Stars and The Mineral Kingdom as well as under his own name, recording audio logs and coming up with unique inspiring ways to create music. We have almost completely different aesthetic styles even when chiptune is factored in but I’ve always treasured Matt’s perspective on music and creativity. This episode deals with his history with music and his participation with the chiptune scene, beginning in the Bay Area and ending in Vermont. While this podcast is nominally about the social and cultural aspects of chiptune, I always cherish the opportunity to talk about the nuts and bolts of creativity in music and that’s why I’m excited to bring this episode to you.