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.