Category Archives: Synthwave

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

1980's, 80's music, acting, aesthetics, Blue Velvet, Cinema, comedy, Culture, David Lynch, Film, Film Noire, horror, horror films, J.G. Michael, Jared Shumate, Last Night Out, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, North Carolina, Stranger Things, Synthwave, Theatre, Twin Peaks, Wes Craven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!




Robert Stark interviews Musician Jody Coombes of Star Noir

1980's, 80's music, Absolute Valentine, aesthetics, Art, Asia, Asian Culture, automation, Basic Income, Blade Runner, California, Cinema, Cities, Comic Books, Culture, Cyberpunk, Depeche Mode, Dystopia, England, Film, Film Noire, Florian Renner, FM-84, Futurism, History, Hong Kong, horror, horror films, Industrial Music, J.G. Michael, Japan, Japanese Culture, Jody Coombes, John Carpenter, Las Vegas, Leisure Suit Larry, London, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, Perturbator, Photography, Psychology, Retro Futurism, Sam Kevorkian, Science Fiction, Star Noir, Stranger Things, Synthwave, The Summoner, Transhumanism, Travel, Vaporwave, Video Games, Wilderness, William Gibson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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




Robert Stark interviews Musician Andy Diamond of Diamond Field

 Angelo Badalamenti, 1950's, 1980's, 80's music, aesthetics, Andy Diamond, animation, Art, Cinema, Culture, David Lynch, Diamond Field, Film, Kyle MacLachlan, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, New Zealand, Pilleater, Rat Rios, Synthwave, Twin Peaks, Vaporwave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 Angelo Badalamenti, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, 80's music, aesthetics, Art, Cartrell Payne, comedy, Country Music, Culture, Dana Countryman, Disneyland, Hawaii, humor, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Music, Pilleater, South Park, Synthwave, The Adventure Kid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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




Robert Stark interviews Italian Musician and Artist Dino Olivieri

1980's, 1990's, 80's music, 90's music, aesthetics, Akira, Anime, Art, Art Nouveau, Asia, Asian Culture, Blade Runner, Comic Books, Culture, Cyberpunk, Daft Punk, Dino Olivieri, Europe, Film, Florian Renner, Futurism, Ghost in a Shell, Italo Disco, Italy, Japan, Japanese Culture, Leisure Suit Larry, Literature, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, Photography, Pilleater, Retro Futurism, Science Fiction, Stanley Kubrick, Synthwave, Transhumanism, Vaporwave, Video Games, Wilderness

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


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




Robert Stark interviews New Retro Wave Artist Absolute Valentine

1980's, 1990's, 80's music, 90's music, Absolute Valentine, aesthetics, Akira, Andy Fox, Anime, Art, Cinema, Culture, Cyberpunk, Daft Punk, David Lynch, Depeche Mode, Film, France, Ghost in a Shell, horror, horror films, Italo Disco, John Carpenter, Kavinsky, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, Pilleater, Synthwave, The Summoner, Vaporwave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to French New Retro Wave Artist Absolute Valentine(Bandcamp Site). He is also a manager for Lazerdiscs Records. Check out his SoundCloud, YouTube, and Facebook Page.

Topics:

Intro Song: Bad News from the Police Heartbreaker album
Music background, learning piano as a kid, playing guitar in a metal band, and early electronic work
Influences ranging from Bach, Kavinsky, and Vangelis; similarities between Synthwave and Classical Music
The New Retro Wave genre
Producing music for Lazerdiscs Records and Drive Radio
The Darkwave genre
The Police Heartbreaker album
The Sunset Love album
The American Nightmare album inspired by Horror Films
The album cover designs, Cyperbunk influence, and the color pallet
Anime, Akira, and Ghost in a Shell
The Film Drive
John Carpenter’s Film Soundtracks
Daft Punk and 90’s French House Music
French 80’s music; Space Disco
The upcoming New Retro Wave horror film The Summoner which Absolute Valentine will do a track for
The Roland TR-7, other Synths, and the process of layering Synths
The importance of the intro and outro in Synth Music
The moniker Absolute Valentine
Upcoming Albums, Tracks, and live performances
Outro: She’s a Dancer from the Sunset Love Album


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




Robert Stark interviews Musician Dean Clarke of Brutalist Architecture in the Sun

1980's, 80's music, 90's music, aesthetics, Architecture, Brutalism, Brutalist Architecture in the Sun, Culture, Cyberpunk, Dean Clarke, Depeche Mode, Donald Trump, Economics, England, FM-84, Free Trade, income inequality, Industrial Music, John C. Portman Jr, London, Music, New Retro Wave, Pilleater, Retro Futurism, Synthwave, Vaporwave, Video Games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to musician Dean Clarke. He does vocals and electronics for the band Brutalist Architecture in the Sun based in the UK. Check them out on Facebook and YouTube

Topics:

Intro Song: Love & Science (feat. Paul Humphries from the Concrete Pop Album
Dean’s background in music and his original band 3D the band
Influences from electronic music from the early 80’s including Gary Numan and Tangerine Dream
90’s influences including Front 242, Nine Inch Nails, and Skinny Puppy
The New Retro Wave genre; FM-84
Darkwave
Minimal Wave Records
The hybrid sound of 80’s Synthwave and 90’s Industrial Music, and the trend of fusionism
Performance at Zigfrid von Underbelly in London
Band of the month for Artefaktor Radio
Dean’s vocals, and Cye Thomas who also does vocals for the band
The use of the Korg MS-20 Synth
The aesthetics of the album covers Dean designs, fusing Brutalist and Industrial imagery with bright fluorescent colors
Brutalist architecture, Trellick Tower, The Underground, and Centre Point in London, John C. Portman Jr., and the revived interest in Brutalism
Cyberpunk, the London Trocadero, and 80’s arcades
Victorian era Railway Stations in London
Urban exploration and dead mall enthusiast
Economics and political themes in music
The de-industrialization of the UK
Depeche Mode’s Where’s the Revolution
The marketing and consumption of music on the internet
The band’s new album Post Democracy from live performances


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




Robert Stark, Pilleater, & Richard Wolstencroft discuss Ghost in a Shell

1980's, aesthetics, Akira, Alternative Right, animation, Anime, Architecture, Asia, Asian Aryanism, Asian Culture, Blade Runner, China, Cinema, Cities, Culture, Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Film, Futurism, Ghost in a Shell, Globalization, Hong Kong, Liberalism, Martin Heidegger, Mishima A Life in Four Chapters, Music, Nationalism, Paul Schrader, Philosophy, Pilleater, Political Correctness, Psychology, Retro Futurism, Richard Wolstencroft, Scarlet Johansson, Science, Science Fiction, Sexuality, Synthwave, technology, Transhumanism, Travel, Vaporwave, William Gibson, Yukio Mishima

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, co-host Pilleater, and director Richard Wolstencroft discuss the new film Ghost in a Shell based on the 1995 anime.

Topics:

How it compares to the original film
The plot and characters
The film’s aesthetics, 1980’s retro-futurism, holograms, and cyberpunk
The synth soundtrack
The Robot Geisha scene
The fictional  futuristic Asian city filmed in Hong Kong
Richard Wolstencroft’s experience in Hong Kong and observations on Asian culture
Comparisons to the films Akira and Blade Runner, and William Gibson’s Neuromancer
The Anime Right
The “white washing” controversy about a White actress playing an Asian role
Scarlet Johansson
Takeshi Kitano
Themes of Trans-humanism and Cybernetics
Ray Kurzweil’s Wildest Prediction: Nanobots Will Plug Our Brains Into the Web
The Philosophy of Mind, ‎Gilbert Ryle’s Ghost in the machine, and Arthur Koestler’s Ghost in the machine
Hubert Dreyfus’s views on artificial intelligence influenced by Martin Heidegger
Political messages in the film
“Ghost in a Shell” as a metaphor for the rootless atomized society where people lack any real identity
Richard’s upcoming film The Second Coming Volume II


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




Robert Stark interviews Musician Alex Romane

1990's, 80's music, 90's music, Alex Romane, Culture, democracy, Digital Hardcore, energy, England, Environment, Global Warming, Music, NATO, Philosophy, Pilleater, Politics, Religion, Synthwave, Syria, Vaporwave, War

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to musician Alex Romane. He is a electronic musician and operates Urban Sunrise records. He is known for coming out with the first drum and bass record ever, under the name Apache.

Topics:

Intro Song: Alex Romane – Warrior Princess
Alex’s early background in music, influences from his mother, and basics in classical music and folk music
Alex’s father who was a music producer and brought back tapes of Iraqi Artist during the embargo
Alex’s music career in the early 90’s
How Alex invented the drum bass
Delirious – the world’s first ever Drum and Bass album
80’s synthwave music; Gary Numan and Tubeway Army
Cross over in synth and classical; Techbeat
Writing stories with music
Digital Hardcore and Jungle Music
The Dubstep genre, and other trends in music
The animated visuals on Alex’s website
Alex’s Philosophy; Direct Democracy and the Nature of God
The UK Direct Democracy Party
Alex’s experience lawfully infiltrating the UK Government
Alex’s new album Demokratia, which uses music as a political vehicle, and is a hybrid of hip hop, trance, and techno
NATO and war
Global Warming and Alternative energy sources going back to Henry Ford’s use of Hemp and Tesla’s energy devices


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




Robert Stark interviews Devotional Dave from STRANGELOVE-The Depeche Mode Experience

1980's, 80's music, 90's music, aesthetics, Culture, Depeche Mode, Devotional Dave, Duran Duran, Fashion, Music, Pilleater, Strangelove The Ultimate Depeche Mode Experience, Synthwave, Tattoos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Devotional Dave(Freddie Morales) from the Depeche Mode Tribute Band STRANGELOVE-The Depeche Mode Experience. Check them out on SoundCloud, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter

Topics:

Intro: Strangelove The Ultimate Depeche Mode Experience USA Promo
Tribute bands, how Strangelove-The Depeche Mode Experience got started in 2011, and Dave’s earlier tribute bands Blasphemous Rumours and Sounds a La Mode
Dave’s background in music and his Spanish Synthwave band DESVIO
Influences Growing up in the 80’s besides Depeche Mode including Duran Duran
Their current tour schedule listed at STRANGELOVE’s Website
Capturing the image of Depeche Mode and Dave’s Dave Gahan inspired Tattoos
The release of Depeche Mode’s new Spirit Album
Dave’s favorite Depeche Mode Albums are Songs of Faith and Devotion and Music for the Masses
Early Depeche Mode including Speak & Spell and Get the Balance Right!
Newer Albums including Sounds of the Universe
The Albums Violator and Ultra
Choosing which albums and songs to perform, and playing the songs Depeche Mode doesn’t play anymore such as rush
Meeting Alan Wilder and his departure
Martin Gore
The show April 1st at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara

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