Barnes has been incredibly busy all summer long with AFC-related projects and performances, their recent split cassette collaboration with LA-based duo Law, and the transcendental takeover of the beloved Gun Outfit all across the West Coast. But with all the excitement of our present times comes the feverish feedback of the past's poetic prolificacy. Barnes takes us through the process and atmospheric approach of perhaps one of AFC's most beloved releases, 1999's "Circuits". A brilliant body of work that captivates the human consciousness, the album eagerly explores monumental melodies, centuries of cosmic communication, and the fundamentals of folklore magic. Featuring beloved songs like "Eyes That Shine", Nico's "Desert Shore" classic "Janitor Of Lunacy", "The Grey Funnel Line", and of course "Edward", Barnes walks us through the organic process of working alongside longtime collaborators and creative colleagues Tara "Tikki" Tavi, Joel Connell, Erika Anderson, and several others, to capture the profound purity, and timelessness of this metaphysical masterpiece.

From one end of the shore of some spiritually secluded sanctuary, resides a melodic memory of a time that has long since passed. Where world-renowned National Geographic photographers carefully captured the elemental essence of the natural world, a melodic meditation was eventually born from its atmospheric ashes. LA-based psych pirates and students of the sonic sunset Allah-Las have been creatively conjuring their blissful brand of surf sounds and intimate instrumental breaks for nearly two decades. A local favorite, and a soothing staple in their community and culture, the Allah-Las have become an incredible institution for their generation's backdrop, while simutaneously representing as a conduit for the melodic magic of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture. We sit down to talk with Miles Michaud about the band's origins, their epic explorations in music, world travel, Bob Dylan's Patreon, the band's latest effort, "Sirenas," which is set for release on the Brooklyn-based label Mexican Summer in late August, and much more.

Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter, teacher, and DJ, Jeffery Silverstein, first came on the scene during his participation in groups such as the Brooklyn-based duo Nassau and Baltimore's Secret Mountains, before releasing his 2020 solo debut "You Become The Mountain." Since living in "Rose City," he has carefully crafted his atmospheric artisry within the cinemtaic cascades of spiritual soundscapes and the liberating landscapes that make up the cosmic country community, and beyond. Following up on his 2023 sophomore album "Western Sky Music," Silverstein returns to the sonic surface with perhaps his most eagerly ecstatic effort yet, 2026's debut on the London-based label Full Time Hobby, "Doggone."  On this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, we sit down with Silverstein to talk about the unique universe of friends and collaborators he's built in his Pacific Northwest, private press record rarities, finding one's voice, working with muscians like Dana Buoy (Akron/Family), Ryan Oxford (Y La Bamba, Rose City Band), and Devendra Banhart, to name a few, touring London, and Sweden with Bobby Lee, no not the comedian, and much more.

Bulverde, Texas-based singer-songwriter, producer, and beverage connoisseur, Jerry David DeCicca, has been intimatley involved in music for more than two decades, tending the gardens of a creative career that has seen him both on the scene as well as behind it, working with folks such as our mutual friend Ralph E. White, Larry Jon Wilson, Bob Martin, and our main focal point for this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, the late great Edward Crane Askew. Having met each other over a decade ago, the dynamic duo not only toured together on the release of 2013's "For The World," but have since secured a friendship that has explored melody, memory, philosophy, and the poetic production of sound. After a decade between projects, DeCicca and Askew's paths crossed again for what would soon become the legend's last breath of melodic meditation on life and death, 2026's "The Final Painting". A postumous masterpiece that echoes from the artistic afterlife, DeCicca sits down to chat with us about his personal and professional relationship with the late artist, the overall process, and approach to the album's metamorphosis from one song to another, and critical contributions from the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Eve Searls, Canaan Faulkner, Bill Callahan, William Tyler, Ryan Jewell, Dustin Laurenzi, and Fulvio Sigurta. With another single out on June 22nd, the album is set for release on the beloved Drag City on July 31st in all its gripping glory. "The Final Painting" may be Askwe's last album, but the metaphysical mist will soon clear, eventually revealing a body of work that truly stands the test of time.

Longtime friend and cosmic collaborator on such works as 1997's "Thorny Path" and 2024's "Rising Phoenix" Erik Shumpert, and his twin brother Paul first met Snarb in the early 1980s, and would soon all move in together in a tiny, historic abode on Brooks St. in LA county where Barnes had been laying down some of Amps For Christ's earlier works like "Plains Of Alluvial," and "Beggars Garden." Influenced by the West Coast punk explosion, Thorn takes us through the melodic memories of Claremont's thriving community of creative culture, catching some of the most influential acts of the Hardcore/Punk scene, recording the infamous track "Pain Of The Fire," and receiving spiritual schooling from Barnes and his unique universe of electronic ecstasy.

This episode takes place right in the harmonious heart of Barnes' liberating laboratory at the legendary Folk Music Center and Museum, located in Claremont, California, where he's worked as a luthier specializing in the setup and repair of sitars, banjos, mandolins, and volins, fret replacement and fret dressing of all stringed instruments, neck resets, electronics, and pickup installation for over two decades. Our journey picks up with Barnes telling us about the early releases of AFC, such as the highly influential debut cassette "The Plains Of Alluvial" that came out on the legendary Shrimper label back in the mid-1990s, which has since become a sonic staple in the legend's radical repertoire, as well as 1997's "Thorny Path." With freedom, the overall goal for everything and anything, AFC, Barnes' cosmic connection to science and spirituality collide in an esoteric explosion, making his sacred style seem like something from a time that reflected riches under the ancient sun, similar to a metaphysical mystery in music that only he knows the secret song to.

Having first met the late great David "Cloud" Berman sometime in Dallas in 1984, poetic painter Chris Kysor has been an incredibly important individual in the world of the Silver Jews before they even lifted off the ghostly ground in the 1990s. Friends since high school, Kysor tells us about his dear friend, and poet, the only way he knows how: through his intimate connection and precious friendship with one of the greatest artists of our time. From local concerts where they saw the Cure together, and several of the punk pioneers that were coming through the "Big D" in the 1980s, to Berman's days briefly spent in Austin, the two would eventually reconnect in 1998 while Kysor was living and working in Brooklyn as a painter, and Berman during the Jews' recording of their definitive album, "American Water". The story goes that Berman visited the artist's studio where he first encountered the unnamed painting, which he instantly became transfixed by, and would later call Kysor to ask if they could use it for their next album. Stunned by his dear friend's interest, Kysor happily agreed, and the rest is harmonious history. Neither of the two knew what was coming their way, both personally as well as their careers, but it's the stuff legends are made of. Kysor breaks down the atmospheric anecdotes that make this episode so enduring and a delight to hear, just how "American Water" became so intensely iconic from the music to its fanous cover.

Logtime Providence-based rockers Deer Tick have been releasing aggressively atmospheric, sonically seductive music for over two decades now. Since forming in the winter of '04 as a duo dynamic for McCauley's melodies, the group has spiritually secured a poetic place in the creative cosmos, alongside their peers and critical contemporaries. We had the chance to sit down with McCauley to talk about the band's brand new album, "Coin-O-Matic", which is set for release on ATO Records in early June, and the thriving traditions, historical harmonies, and memories of the mafia that once thrived in New England at that time. With everything that's going on in this country, the madness and the cruelty, Deer Tick hace risen from the artistic ashes since the release of the their 2023 album "Emotional Contracts" to serve the people a delightful dose of splendid songwriting and self-produced purity, but above all, superb storytelling.

Hailing from Claremont, California, a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, Henry Branes (Ranger Barnes, Enid Snarb) first began connecting with the meditative melodies of music through his incredibly talented parents. With a mother who played guitar and a father who was a member of the local collective The Real Jazz Band, Barnes' exciting enviroment eventually led him down the endless path of folklore, melodic mythology, and traditional tunes. Having participated in several groups in grade school and high school, the young industrious musician began to hone his craft during the cultural crossover from rock and roll to punk in the late 1970s, and decided to combine the two in one liberating location, and hasn't looked back since. In this first episode of "When I Didn't Have A Home," An Amps For Christ Podcast, Barnes takes us all the way back to the biblical beginning when he was born in La Verne before relocating to Mexico with his family and siblings, for a few years before returning to California, where he would eventually begin to connect with the spiritual sounds, and tonal textures that would later go on to define the visceral vibrations, and enviromentally epic messeages of LA-based "power violence" trailblazers Man Is The Bastard, and later Amps For Christ. Join us as we unpack the unique universe of all things AFC on this season's first episode, "The End Is The Beginning and The Beginning Is The End", where we initiate the first peel of the Glass Onion before discovering what lurks within its cosmic center.

Born and raised in Princeton, New Jersery, Wilkes relocated to the West Coast with his family, where he would go on to earn a BA at UC Santa Cruz, before eventually deciding to study screenwriting at the American Film Institute (AFI). Having worked as a screnwriter on such cult classics as 1994's "Airheads" (Adam Sandler, Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Chris Farley, and Michael Richards) and "The Stoned Age" (Michael Kopelow, Bradford Tatum, and Clifton Collins Jr.), which was released this past Monday as an exclusive cult collectible Blu-Ray in celebration of 420, Wilkes officially made his semi-autobiographical coming of age tale "Glory Daze", starring a pre-Kevin Smith Ben Affleck, Sam Rockwell, and French Stewart, and has since paved way as a legend in an intense industry that is changing quicker than you, and I could ever fathom. While combining the existential elements of youth, relationships, career, and the brave balance of life, Wilkes may be your new favorite obsession when it comes to cult comedies, and subliminal stoner stories. On this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, we sit down with the veteran screenwriter/director to discuss the old glory daze of long-lasting youth in the 1990s, films legends such as Spielberg, Fincher, and Soderbergh, the never-ending narrative of nostalgia, the impact of AI, and much more.