My guest this week is Justin Barnes. Justin is the man behind the band Which Birds, and he’s also been a member of Nuclear Power Pants and (my band) Height With Friends. When I invited him to be a guest, he said he would rather interview me, so that’s what we did.

This interview went down over three sessions. In part one, he asks about my early albums and my early influences. In part two, we talk about my albums Baltimore Highlands and Bed Of Seeds, and the collaborative approach I took to making those records. In part three, he asked about the sense of urgency he heard on my newest album, and I try to explain why it’s there.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Critical Beatdown, by Ultramagnetic MC’s.This episode is hosted by splicetoday.com.

http://splicetoday.com/music/splice-presents-height-zone-world-ep-41-justin-barnes-reverse-interview

My guest this week is Kate Ferencz.. Kate is a songwriter/performer originally from White Plains, NY and now residing in Philadelphia. I got turned onto her music when I played the release party for her Dumb Hearts, Dumb Flowers album, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
We discuss her four solo albums, as well as her band, Evil Sword. We talk about the difference between Philly and Baltimore’s music scenes, and she makes the case for Philly being a better place for avant-garde music (I can’t see it.) She talks about trying to figure out what she wants her show to feel like, and whether or not she’s out to rock the party.

My guest this week is Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. Gregg is an electronic musician from Pittsburgh, PA. We’ve known each other since I played a show in his parent’s backyard in 2000, and I was excited to get a detailed breakdown of his career.

We talk about his early Pittsburgh-based noise band, The Joysticks, and his background in the noise world. He tells me about the first two harsher Girl Talk albums, and the new direction he forged on 2006’s Night Ripper. His breaks down his new ventures as a hip-hop producer, including his recent collaboration with Freeway.

Mike Riley’s art this week is a mashup of Big Daddy Kane’s Long Live The Kane, Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, 2 Live Crew’s Nasty as They Wanna Be, and Cypress Hill’s self-titled debut.

http://splicetoday.com/music/splice-presents-height-zone-world-ep-39-girl-talk-throwing-televisions-at-people-and-launching-fireworks

My guest this week is B Rich, aka Brendan Richmond. Brendan is a tight MC based in Kingston, Ontario. We’re bandmates in the group Shark Tank, and we’ve been friends since 2004.

He talks about growing up in a small town of 500, and his early hip-hop ventures in rural Canada. We discuss the viral success of his song “Out For A Rip,” and the cross-country adventures that followed. He tells me about his recent bout of writer’s block, and how he’s trying to kick his writing back into high gear.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Digital Underground’s Sex Packets. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

http://splicetoday.com/music/splice-presents-height-zone-world-ep-38-b-rich-banned-from-high-schools

My guest this week is Chris Sand, aka Sandman The Rappin’ Cowboy. He’s been on a rapping/cowboy poetry mission since the late 80s, and he’s released twelve albums since 1996. We met during my tour stop in Missoula, MT, and he was nice enough to lay down an impromptu interview.

He talks about growing up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Western Montana, and how hip-hop captivated the young kids on the reservation in the early 80s. He tells me about starting out doing rap sets in Missoula in the late 80s, and learning to work folk music into the mix. We discuss his three year hiatus from music, and and how he returned to the DIY touring world with a new way of operating.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five’s The Message. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

http://www.splicetoday.com/music/splice-presents-height-zone-world-ep-37-sandman-the-rappin-cowboy-once-and-future-king-of-the-house-concert-circuit