Category Archives: 80’s music

Robert Stark talks about his new novel Journey to Vapor Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark is joined with Francis Nally and Brandon Adamson to discuss his new novel Journey to Vapor Island.

Topics:

Brandon’s review of Journey to Vapor Island(Contains Spoilers)
The cover art by Mark Velard
How listeners to the show will instantly recognize favorite topics when they make cameo appearances in the book or manifest themselves as part of the underlying themes
Internet memes in the book(ex. the men in the frog masks)
The fusion of genres including Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, and Dark Comedy
A disclaimer that this book is not for anyone that is squeamish about sex or easily shocked or offended
Brandon’s observation that the sexual scenes in the book are more akin to the “random battles” in old school Super Nintendo RPGs like Final Fantasy IV
The theme of how central sex is to people’s motivations, and the overall perception of status in society
The main character Noam Metzenbaum who is a socially inept yet intelligent student with illusions of grandeur
The Chads and the theme of the nerd getting revenge against bullies and the popular cliques
Noam’s crush Natalie Bloom and his lifelong obsession with her
The Retro-Futuristic surreal fantasy world in the book; an adult Never Ending Story
The Roger Blackstone character who could represent a Trump-like figure, but could just as easily be a Ross Perot or even Willy Wonka
The outrageous comic elements in the book
The theme of the commercialization of tragedies and the celebrity status of mass murderers
How the book is timely with the ongoing Hollywood sex scandals
The theme of living in ones fantasies and how that shapes the book’s narrative

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews Synthwave Artist Damokles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, Sam Kevorkian, and J.G Michael talk to Swedish Synthwave Artist Damokles. Check out his work on SoundCloud, Facebook, and Future 80’s Records which produces his music.

Topics:

Intro: Into the Future from the new Time Machine album
Damokles’ new 14 track album Time Machine
The Time Travel Theme; Back to the Future
Creating synth music since the 70’s
Influences including Kraftwerk
Favorite songs including Yazoo’s Don’t Go and Don’t You Want Me? by the Human League
Experimentation with synthesizers in the 80’s
Being a DJ in the 80’s and how DJ culture has evolved
Working as a piano bar entertainer
The New Retrowave genre and how it is different from original 80’s synth music
Industrial music
The future of electronic music, the mainstreaming of synthwave, and the need for an alternative to mainstream pop
The pros and cons of producing music online without large corporations
Cinematic influences; sci-fi and horror
The illustrations for the albums
80’s Retrofuturism
Visions of the future and how humans are becoming cyborgs

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark talks to Director Jared Shumate about his film Last Night Out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host J.G. Michael talk to filmmaker Jared C. Shumate about his upcoming horror comedy film Last Night Out which is set to be released on Halloween and will be  available to view online. Check out the Facebook page for Last Night Out, the Official Trailer, and the poster which is available on the Facebook page.

Topics:

Intro: Jerry Galeries’s In For A Long Night which is used for the film and trailer
The basic plot
The horror genre
Dark Comedy with some slapstick thrown in
Jared’s influences ranging from Wes Craven’s Scream to Scooby-doo to David Lynch
The 80’s theme, the New Retrowave genre, and how the music influenced the film
The filming location in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the abandoned lingerie factory, and the surreal atmosphere of forest and ghost towns in North Carolina
The special effects
The actors and characters including a group of teens and two drifters
The plan for a feature length version which might introduce a supernatural element
Jared’s short thriller, The Ramifications
Jared’s Film Noire set in 1946, The Picture Room
Jared’s screenplay, “Otto” which is based on the true story of the outlaw Otto Wood

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu returns to talk about his album Forget & Twin Peaks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, Pilleater, Haarlem Venison, and  filmmaker Richard Wolstencroft talk to musician Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu.

Topics include:

Intro: Xiu Xiu – Queen of the Losers 
Xiu Xiu’s album-  FORGET 
The new Twin Peaks and the show’s finale
Xiu Xiu – Plays The Music of Twin Peaks
Performing at a David Lynch exhibit in Australia
The soundtrack of the new Twin Peaks
Richard’s Xiu Xiu story
Influence from 80’s synth; Depeche Mode, Erasure and Jamie’s cover of Erasure
How music in the 21st Century has become stagnant
Music revenue in the internet era and the importance of live performances
Apocalypse Culture; Peter Sotos
The Gay Marriage vote in Australia
Jamie denounces the Alt-Right
Jamie’s hometown LA and how the city has changed
Animal Rights
Jamie as a pessimistic nihilistic hippie
After Jamie leaves Richard discusses his political and cultural views and his films including Pearls before Swine and his upcoming film The Second Coming Volume II
Richard’s Melbourne Underground Film Festival

Click Here to download!

This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




 

Robert Stark interviews Musician Jody Coombes of Star Noir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, Sam Kevorkian, and J.G. Michael talk to Illustrator, Photographer, Video Game Designer, and Musician Jody Coombes. Check out his music under the label Star Noir on Facebook and bandcamp, and his photography and illustrations on Flickr.

Topic:

Working on video games including Call of Duty and Need for Speed
Cyberpunk games such as Shadowrun and Beneath a Steel Sky
The New Retro Wave and Darkwave genres
The  Cyberpunk genre
How To Make Synthwave Retrowave with Timecop 1983 in FL Studio
The visual component in making Synth music
Jody’s first EP Psycho City
Jody’s first-ever gig in London at the Retro Future Fest
Jody’s illustrations and 80’s Retro-Futurist aesthetics
80’s Action and Horror films
80’s Video Game Arcades; London Trocadero
The new series Stranger Things and the film Drive
Jody’s photography of locations including the UK, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Nova Scotia
Sinofuturism
“Design is not art….. Design is an exercise in psychology”
Robert Stark’s Paintings which fuse Retro Futurist genres
Transhumanism, Automation, and the Basic Income
The Pilot project “Lost Future” about a man who lost his future
Upcoming projects and performances

Click Here to download!

This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews Musician Andy Diamond of Diamond Field

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to musician Andy Diamond of Diamond Field. Check out his work on YouTubeFacebook, and Twitter.

Topics:

Intro: Diamond Field & Rat Rios ‘Closer’ by Luca Discs
The New Retro Wave Genre and Andy’s description of his music as “21st Century ’80s Music”
How Andy started making music in the 80’s and younger artist inspired by the 80’s sound
Collaborations with vocalist including Rat Rios and Nina Yasmineh
The maxi single ‘Closer’ for the Upcoming Album “Closer”
The music video Diamond Field feat. Nina Yasmineh ‘Neon Summer’ filmed in Santa Monica, CA
Andy’s animations and illustrations for Retro Promenad’s Twin Peaks Tribute(Vol I)Vol II, and Vol III
Andy’s songs for the Twin Peaks Tribute including Diamond Field and the Black Lodge Girls ‘Burning Blood’ and ‘The Nightingale’ 
The Soundtrack of the original Twin Peaks and music in the new series including the CHROMATICS
Twin Peaks invented vaporwave
The animated neon in Andy’s illustrations for the series, inspiration from 1950’s signs, and how the neon aesthetic became popular with New Retro Wave
Andy’s Kyle MacLachland story
The Rise of the Synths | A documentary of Synthwave  and the film The Summoner
Outro: Diamond Field + Rat Rios ‘The Nightingale’ (Twin Peaks Cover)

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews Music Composer Dana Countryman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, co-host Pilleater, and Cartrell Payne(The Adventure Kid)talk to music composer Dana Countryman.

Topics:

Intro: How Do You Know When You Fall IN LOVE? from the album Girlville!
Dana’s latest album Girlville! inspired by early 60’s music
Dana’s rediscovery of early 60’s girl groups such as The Ronettes, The Crystals, and The Shangri-Las
The Retro Pop genre
Dana’s album – Moog-Tastic and the Moog Synthesizer
Dana’s collaboration with French musician Jean-Jacques Perrey who was the founder of the electronic genre in the 1950’s
Dana’s biography about Perrey Passport To The Future: The Amazing Life and Music of Electronic Pop Music Pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey
Dana’s interview for the book with Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti who produced Perrey’s albums in the 60’s
Perrey co-writing the music for Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade
Dana’s Cool and Strange Music Magazine
Chicken On The Rocks by Jean Jacques-Perrey & Dana Countryman which was feature on South Park
Dana’s comedy vocal group in the 80’s The Amazing Pink Things
“Jealous Heart” by Dana Countryman inspired by Fountain of Wayne
“Baby, I’ll Be Your Star” by Dana Countryman, a parody of Reality TV
Exotica Music

Click Here to download!
This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews Italian Musician and Artist Dino Olivieri

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater spoke to Musician, Artist, and Web Designer Dino Olivieri from Turin, Italy.

Dino Olivieri has been known for producing some of the most technologically advanced websites. Her creativity is always on display when she’s at work, proving to her clients that she is the very best. These days, she tends to outsource this work and sends it over to an SEO Company Chester. But her music is at the very heart of what she does.

His website is Onyrix and you can check out his work on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, and Youtube.

Uploading content to these social media platforms is a great way for Olivieri to get his music heard from people all over the world and with just a click of a button. His next step should be to consider uploading his songs to music streaming sites like Spotify, and he may want to have a look at getfans.io/buy-spotify-plays to see how he can get more people to listen to his music. The more people that are aware of his music, the more likely he will be at getting discovered, resulting in his career taking off.

Topics:

Intro: Beyond Human
Early artistic inspirations, figure drawing, and aesthetic interest ranging from Italian Renaissance Art to Anime, Vaporwave, and Cyberpunk
Interest in anime, especially the giant robots created by Go-Nagai and Matsumoto’s work such as Captain Harlock
Italian Design
Dino’s Photography of the Italian Alps on Flickr
Early musical influences; early 80’s New Wave and Italo Disco
Influences from and use of classical music in his work
Japanese Composers Joe Hisaishi, Kenji Kawai, Kento Masuda, and Sakamoto
The new Singularity Album which is for a theatrical show created by Director Raffaele Lamorte
Movie Soundtracks; Vangelis’s Soundtrack for Blade Runner
The Singularity album cover; posters for the films Neon Demon and Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange
Dino’s upcoming album which has influences from Synthwave, Retrowave, and 90’s Dance Music
Dino’s illustrated novel “Di Undici Foglie” and his upcoming novel “Legend of the Starlight”
Dino’s video game Over The Net from 1991; comparisons to Leisure Suit Larry
Outro: Sex Surrogates and Jealousy


Click Here to download!
This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark talks to Brandon Adamson about his Compare and Contrast EP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Brandon Adamson about his new EP album Compare and Contrast. Brandon blogs at AltLeft.com and is the author of Beatnik Fascism. His music is available on Bandcamp and iTunes.

Topics:

Intro: Compare and Contrast
How Brandon got into making music in the mid 90s (weird early releases like Birthday Boy)
The meaning of songs on the EP, “Compare and Contrast”
How some lyrics were taken from poems in Beatnik Fascism
The song For a Sunny Day inspired by The Sunrays – I Live For The Sun
90’s Indy music and how the artsy indie music scene seems dead
Influences of 60’s mod bands and 90’s mod revival bands like Majestic
How Brandon never liked or could relate to the Beatles or Rolling Stones but mostly only obscure and forgotten bands from the 60’s
Minimalism in music
Brandon’s interest in the 60’s mod style in music and design
Brandon’s album cover designs and inspiration from 70’s advertisements
Majestic’s Live It Up! album cover design
Songs inspired by 80’s cartoons and commercials
80’s Mall culture, DeadMallsThe demolition of the Metro Center Mall in Phoenix, and Brandon’s interest in the Logan’s Run aesthetic
Beatnik Fascism by Brandon Adamson (review by Pilleater)
Outro: Something Fun a Trampoline

Click Here to download!
This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark talks to Count Isidor Fosco about creating New Retro Futurist Sub Cultures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to returning guest Count Isidor Fosco.

Topics:

Retro-Futurism and it’s sub-genres
Whether Retro-Futurism and fusing past genres can evolve organically or end up being a “cut and paste”
Merging an Aristocratic or Traditional Genre into a Futuristic one
How fusing genres is most effective when there is a distance in eras(ex. Art Deco and Cyberpunk, Baroque and 80’s Retro-Futurism)
How futurism overlaps with the archaic in architecture(ex.Arcology)
Steampunk; Victorian era Train Stations in London, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, and shopping centers inspired by European shopping arcades
The Toronto Eaton Centre in contrast with the Underground City in Montreal, which is more Retro-Futuristic
Why “Decopunk” Deserves to Be Bigger than Steampunk
The Art Deco revival during the New Wave Age
Batman: The Animated SeriesBatman & Architecture, and Anton Furst’s visions for the Aesthetic Of Gotham City(1989)
Alicia Silverstone in Batman & Robin and playing piano in the film The Crush
The aesthetics of Mishima: a Life in Four Chapters and the manga Kaze to Ki no Uta
New Retro Wave, Italo Disco, Falco, and Alphaville’s Forever Young and Big In Japan
The “Vaporwave” Babylon Club from Scarface which was featured in Miami Nights 1984’s Early Summer
How we are in post-post modernism and must rebuild cultures from scratch
Subcultures based on ethnic and cultural identity; cultural and ethnic fusionism(ex.Asian Aryanism)
How the future will either be mass global homogenization or forming new cultures from scratch but there is no returning to the past
Asian and Israeli Aryanism as memes
Count Fosco’s hierarchy of fetishes

Click Here to download!
This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!