From & Inspired By

Director Jared Barel's The Incoherents sees four 40-somethings each mired in some sort of midlife malaise reunite their '90s indie rock band. Written by Jeff Auer, who also plays the lead role of Bruce, the film explores friendships, marriage, and life in general through the eyes of these guys, just trying to play the songs they love. Alex Emanuel, who plays the role of Jimmy, served as music supervisor, and along with Jeff Auer, wrote the original songs the band performed in the film. Emanuel recruited some friends -- guitarist Sean Eden of Luna and drummer Kevin March of Guided By Voices -- to perform on the tracks as well, resulting in a collection of tunes which perfectly capture the era in which they were supposed to have been written. We spoke with Alex Emanuel ahead of the film's release back in April to talk about all of this, and more.

Composer Joe Kraemer has worked on such films as Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Way of the Gun, Jack Reacher, and The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, among many other movies and television programs. He's absolutely aces at blending action themes and emotional resonance. Thanks to his work for author Andrew Cartmel on the Vinyl Detective soundtrack release -- for which he composed the book's theme -- we were able to connect with him for a career-spanning interview, which we conducted way back in February.

In the May Mother's Day installment of Blumhouse Television and Hulu's anthology event series, Into the Dark, Delivered, a pregnant woman’s life is upended when she realizes someone close to her has darker plans for her and the baby. Directed by Emma Tammi, who did The Wind, and starring Tina Majorino, Natalie Paul, Michael Cassidy, and Micah Parker, the episode is creepy as hell, thanks to a really dark turn from Majorino, but also thanks to the score by composer Ben Lovett. Lovett had previously worked with director Tammi on The Wind, but has also done a slew of work with director David Bruckner, such The Ritual and The Signal. We talk about Delivered and Lovett's work with Bruckner, as well the recently-released The Dark Red, out now from Dark Sky Films. There may also be AJ Bowen content.

Director Kathryn Bigelow's 1995 film, Strange Days, stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore. It's set right before the millenium, and borders on the dystopian. The film was an absolute bomb, despite the star power in it and behind the scenes -- it was co-written by James Cameron, after all -- although, in the last 25 years, it's come to be regarded as an underrated diamond in the rough. Several major scenes in the film feature live musical performances, and one such performance early on features the Kansas City hard-rock / post-hardcore band, Season to Risk. Though featured prominently in performance and -- as we'll hear -- being on set for two whole weeks -- the band's song, "Undone," didn't make the soundtrack release alongside such acts as Lords of Acid, Prong, and Tricky. We talk about all of this, and the upcoming reissue of Season to Risk's Men Are Monkeys. Robots Win. with the band's frontman, Steve Tulipana.

It's our 100th episode! Holy smokes! We can't believe it. NBC's hit show Songland's 2019 winner, Katelyn Tarver, released her latest single, "Feel Bad," at the end of March. Leading Nashville group Old Dominion recorded her song "Young," and the Songland-winning track was featured on a Joseph Khan-directed Jeep TV commercial which Tarver also starred as the main character in. Tarver also lays claim to a hefty acting resume in addition to her music career - she recently starred alongside Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in HBO’s Ballers. We talk about all of this in a really great interview.

Author Grady Hendrix is a big time favorite here at the From & Inspired By headquarters. We've interviewed him twice for movie site Cinepunx, and eagerly devoured his books from Horrorstör to We Sold Our Souls, as well as his scripts for movies like Mohawk and Satanic Panic. The man's got his finger on the pulse of what we love about clever horror, and we've been eagerly awaiting his latest book, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, which is out tomorrow, April 7, from Quirk Books. So, it was a real pleasure to invite Hendrix onto the podcast to discuss his new book, as well as the vampire rock which helped influence it.

A celebrated singer/songwriter whose soothing voice has entranced millions of listeners, Lauren Wood has parlayed a variety of talents into a career spanning over four decades. Best known for a pair of adult contemporary smashes -- "Please Don't Leave," a duet with Michael McDonald, and the Pretty Woman soundtrack's "Fallen" -- Wood also saw her music featured in films like Police Academy 3: Back in Training, as well as singing the end title song for the hit NBC sitcom, Just Shoot Me. Being as how Pretty Woman was released on March 23, 1990 -- making the day this episode drops its 30th anniversary -- we couldn't have been more pleased to speak with Lauren Wood about Pretty Woman and her 40 plus years in the music business.

Writer Andrew Cartmel's series of Vinyl Detective novels became an instant favorite of mine after discovering the first installment at Lawrence's Raven Bookstore at the end of 2018. Since then, I've gone on to devour all four volumes in the series of novels about a London-dwelling music afficionado whose business cards state that he can find any record for anyone -- for a fee. They're utterly charming books, and fans of records, cats, and coffee -- such as myself -- will find themselves racing through each installment, each of which is filled with witty banter and fast-paced action. We spoke with Cartmel from his home in London about the books and last year's soundtrack release for them.

Composer Paul Zaza has scored innumerable classic films, from the holiday feelings of A Christmas Story, the reggae-inflected tones of Popcorn, the country-tinged My Bloody Valentine, and the classic slasher tones of Prom Night, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. In recent years, his scores have seen reissue from the likes of 1984 Publishing, Strange Disc, Waxwork Records, and Terror Vision, in many cases bringing these complete scores to a wide audience for the first time. We spoke with the composer about all of this and more earlier this year.

Writer/director Maggie Levin’s My Valentine is the latest installment in the Blumhouse Into the Dark series for streaming service, Hulu. Influenced by some of the biggest pop scandals over the past decade, My Valentine follows Valentine, whose songs and artistic identity have been stolen by her ex-boyfriend/manager - and shamelessly pasted onto his new girlfriend/protégé, Trezzure. Pop songs play a huge part in the film, and they were all composed and performed by Dresage, also known as Keeley Bumford, who -- along with her musical partner, Mark Hadley -- additionally performed the score for Levin's movie. We spoke with Bumford the day My Valentine dropped on Hulu about the film, as well as her work for other programs such as Ever After High and Riverdale.

If you've seen the original 1990 movie, you'll remember that, over the end credits was a hip-hop song called "Turtle Power," relating the plot of the film. It's become one of those cultural touchstones for so-called "90s kids," and I distinctly remember owning the cassingle as a kid. But what of Partners In Kryme, the duo who performed the iconic track? We reached out to the group's MC Golden Voice -- aka Richard Usher -- to talk about TMNT, the group's history, and more.

Siddhartha Khosla is an award-winning film and television composer, and singer/songwriter/producer of the critically acclaimed band, Goldspot. The Emmy-nominated Khosla is best known for his work on the hit NBC series, This Is Us, but he's also composed for Hulu on shows like Marvel’s Runaways and last year's Looking For Alaska. We spoke with Khosla right before the holidays about all of this, and more.

At the end of October, Lawrence, Kansas, art supply store and gallery, Wonder Fair, released two soundtracks for their store. Musician Jade Rose composed an album entitled The Sounds of Wonder Fair, Volume 1, and co-owner Paul DeGeorge and his brother Joe, along with musician Jon Linn, produced Sounds from the Haunted Bathroom. Site-specific soundtracks have been a thing before -- see also Light In The Attic's Japan Archival Series triple LP, Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990, as well as RPM Records' Gypsy Creams & Ginger Nuts - Sounds That Swept The Supermarkets for but a couple -- but we've never had a chance to discuss this sort of thing on the show. We sat down with Jade and Paul at the Lawrence Public Library's Sound+Vision Studio the day after they played a release party for the recordings and discussed how everything came to be, which is why this is likely the best-sounding episode we've ever done.

The label RidingEasy Records has made a name for themselves with a focus on heavy rock 'n' roll. While the label's released any number of modern acts, including Swedish rockers Monolord, the real treat is their long-running series of Brown Acid compilations. The label, in conjunction with curator Lance Barresi of music shop, Permanent Records, compiles and releases some of the best undiscovered heavy rock from the '60s and '70s. It's always a joy to read through the press releases for upcoming iterations to see what nuggets the next installment will bring. For the ninth trip, RidingEasy did a really deep pull for the last track on the compilation. Per the press release: "This band came into our lives while watching the cult horror film Effects. The film is entertaining to say the least, but the star for us is a very short clip of background music in a scene where one of the characters is looking through a stack of bondage polaroids. As the photos are being flipped through, a boombox blasts a Pentagram-esque

Musician Josie Cotton came to the attention of thousands of teenagers with her appearance in the 1983 comedy-drama, Valley Girl. She not only performed in the iconic prom scene, but had three of her songs used on the film's soundtrack. After 1995's Frightened by Nightingales, Cotton took a break from recording for over a decade, returning in 2006 with the album, Movie Disaster Music. She's released two more new LPs since then, including the collection of b-movie soundtrack cuts, Invasion of the B-Girls.The last few months have seen Josie Cotton not only releasing a lost album from 1986 -- Everything Is Oh Yeah, originally intended to be the follow-up to Cotton's sophomore LP, From the Hip -- but also, a brand new single, "Ukranian Cowboy." We spoke with Cotton about all of this and more by phone a couple weeks back. Tracklist:Josie Cotton, "Johnny Are You Queer?" (Convertible Music)Josie Cotton, "He Could Be The One" (Convertible Music

Many know Richard Patrick as the only static member of the band Filter. Prior to the formation of Filter, Richard cut his teeth in a band called Nine Inch Nails. In addition to hits like "Hey Man Nice Shot" and "Take A Picture," Filter's music has been featured in everything from Tales from the Crypt's Demon Knight to Spawn to The X-Files -- both the series and the movies.Filter's platinum-selling 1999 sophomore album, Title of Record, recently received a deluxe double vinyl reissue through Craft Recordings for its 20th anniversary. We spoke with the band's frontman and singer via Skype about all this and more. Tracklist:Filter, "Hey Man Nice Shot" (Short Bus)Filter and the Crystal Method, "Can't You Trip Like I Do" (Spawn OST)Filter, "One" (The X-Files: The Album)Filter, "Thanks Bro" (Songs in the Key of X)

This year, the Orange County ska band, the Aquabats, celebrates their 25th anniversary. In that time, the band's sound has grown to encompass more than just the third wave ska sound, embracing rock 'n' roll, electronic music, dance tunes, and so, so much more. The even had their own TV show, The Aquabats! Super Show!, which ran from 2012-2014, and was recently revived via Kickstarter.The Aquabats' frontman, Christian Jacobs -- also known as the MC Bat Commander -- was also one of the creators of the smash Nickelodeon kids' show, Yo! Gabba Gabba!, which itself incorporated a ton of music to teach and entertain youngsters and their parents.It was a big thrill to sit down with Jacobs before the band played a show at Kansas City's Uptown Theater with Reel Big Fish earlier this summer. We spoke about the band's history, Yo! Gabba Gabba!, the Super Show!, and more. Tracklist:The Aquabats, "Super Show Theme Song!" (The Aquabats! Super Show! T

We're back! It's been a relaxing two months off for summer break, but we're glad to be back with a new episode, talking with musician and producer, Don Dixon, about his contribution to the 1988 dark comedy, Heathers. The movie's been getting some hype, lately, what with the Broadway musical adaptation, the TV series, and the Riverdale episode featuring music from the musical, so it seems as good a time as any to dig deep into the darkly-hilarious film. Don Dixon did a lot of production work for indie bands in the early '80s, most notably co-producing R.E.M.'s first two albums, Murmur and Reckoning, with Mitch Easter, as well as three of the early Smithereens LPs. For Heathers, Dixon wrote and produced the song, "Teenage Suicide (Don't Do It)," which is the big hit by the fictional band, Big Fun. It's strangely never seen inclusion on any official release of the soundtrack, and is only available on Dixon's compilation If I'm A Ham, Well You're A Sausage, released on Restless Records in 1992. However, last m

Seattle rock 'n' roll quartet Thunderpussy is all about riffing and wailing. Their self-titled debut — released earlier this year on Stardog Records — is a round dozen of killer cuts, but the band also shines in live performance. Replete with costumes, rock jumps, and high kicks, Thunderpussy brings a visual element to its shows that is sorely needed in an age of black t-shirts and beards. It's matched by Thunderpussy's music videos, which play out like mini movies, whether they're narrative or performance-driven.So, it's no surprise that frontwoman and vocalist Molly Sides was chosen as the star of director Robert McGinley's 2017 independent sci-fi actioner, Danger Diva. The movie is about a hard rocking singer coerced into becoming a technologically altered diva by her high billionaire patron. It came early in the band's career, so it provides a really interesting snapshot of the band while they were still nascent rock gods. We spoke wi

Actress and singer Jessie Buckley is having quite a year. In addition to appearing in the surprise HBO hit, Chernobyl, her new film, Wild Rose, is a heartstring-tugging drama which has wit, verve, and no small amount of joy. I found myself tearing up and cheering loudly while watching the tale of a young Scottish singer, Rose-Lynn Harlan, who dreams of making it as a country artist in Nashville after being released from prison.The songs -- a range of covers from the likes of Chris Stapleton, Primal Scream, and Hank Snow -- are executed with passion by Buckley, and it was a real treat to speak with her about the film and her upcoming projects.Wild Rose is out this Friday, June 21, from Neon. Tracklist (all songs from the Wild Rose soundtrack):Jessie Buckley, "Born to Run"Jessie Buckley, "Country Girl"Jessie Buckley, "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)"