Ira Rat Interview

This episode of the villin podcast features a conversation with Ira Rat. If you're scanning his solo work, you're going to hear some lo-fi experimental music, but as I learned in our discussion, he's also released music as one half of Neon Lushell, which then led me down a rabbit hole where I learned of other past recording projects including Tape Ends, Black-Eyed Kids, and Vicar Elm. This isn't to mention the labels Drug Arts or Workerbee Records, which speak to another large area of focus for him, surrounding helping others release their own work.

Based in Ames, Iowa, Ira Rat has also leaned in on publishing through his Filthy Loot press, but he's also worked within mediums such as graphic design, video, and performance, in addition to his own writing. Oh, he's also a podcaster, where he's released 20 episodes of his Not Worth Living series, which features a one-sided conversation with other creatives, aimed to feel like eavesdropping on a psychiatrist visit. In our own conversation we talk a little about how that series came to be and what he gets out of it, but along the way we wind through a twisting road of discussion which leads us through topics such as his Throbbing Gristle and industrial music, black magick and the esoteric arts, and the paradox of choice and the problematic aspects of having an infinite buffet of media available to us at all times.

Lodge Cove Collective Interview

This episode of the villin podcast features a conversation with Mark from Lodge Cove Collective. On his website, Mark explains his goal for the project was to release original music written, produced, and recorded by himself and some of his friends. Quoting him, Mark writes, "I wanted to be able to put some of my own music out there in the world, and I wanted it to be collaborative because… it’s fun." Related to a spirit of collaboration is one of connectivity, which was how Mark and I first began talking. This episode grew out of a conversation on Threads, which is where he and I have both taken to in the past couple months as a means of trying to recalibrate our social media experience. And we do talk a bit about that — social media — and where we both sit with it presently, but we also talk about a variety of topics focused around the idea of creative success, or identifying personal measures of success relating to creative work outside of financial compensation.

I like how Mark uses the phrase "level setting," when talking about this, and you'll hear more about that a few minutes in, but we also go into depth surrounding his experience with sync licensing and the pros and cons of the current music streaming model before wrapping up by veering off into the world of generative A.I. and what opportunities and challenges that could produce for artists as that world continues to mature. For more, please visit his website, where Mark has written articles expanding on a few of these topics, or Spotify where he's got several playlists of his own you might enjoy. Elsewhere, you can check out more of Lodge Cove Collective's work on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, or hear music from the project on Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify, or YouTube.