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Your new radio show Hall of Shadows - in a few words, what is it
about?
Morality.
Discovering who these characters are under the worst circumstances.
Now how did the show fall together in the first place?
It
happened in stages - in 2014, Kristina (writer/director) [Kristina
Rocco interview - click here] and I released a
show under the same name. Instead of radio drama, we would read short
stories and featured dark ambient composers. We were big fans of old time
radio shows and wondered “what would happen if we made that kind of
thing today?“
Basic question, why radio drama, what makes this medium perfect for your
stories?
Radio
drama gives us freedom. We can tell stories that require little more than
our imagination. I don’t have to worry about budget, CGI, printing
costs, etc. At least until post production advertising.
What are the main challenges of creating an episode of
Hall of Shadows from a producer and sound engineer's point of
view?
I
think one the biggest challenges is getting people interested in a radio
play post 20th century.
By the late 1970’s, this sort of thing was winding down with shows like CBS Radio Mystery
Theater. Another challenge for me is when actors
send me their own recordings (as opposed to me recording them in my
studio). I need to ensure they sound like they’re in the same room
together, when in reality, they’re thousands of miles apart… and have
never met.
Besides being producer and sound engineer, you wear many other
hats on Hall of Shadows - so talk about each of your jobs on the
show for a bit, and what do you enjoy the most, what could you do without?
Hahaha,
someone finally noticed! No, I do spend most of my time editing each
episode. But, I also record, mix/master, distribute market,
design/maintain websites, and communicate with actors and crew. For me,
the one thing I could do without is people on the show who don’t care
about this. Kristina and I treat this like our musical projects - more than
anything else, including talent, is they have to want to be here. We have
a great group of folks involved so far. Most are enthusiastic, promote
like hell and always ask if they can do more. Others refuse to even follow
me on social media, haha.
What can you tell us about your collaboration with Hall of Shadows'
writer/director Kristina Rocco [Kristina
Rocco interview - click here], and what's your collaboration like? Kristina
had the misfortune of marrying me many years ago. We’re mostly known for
our musical career together - we’ve recorded dozens of albums and toured
everywhere. This project is taking us right back to our roots. Like our
music, if she’s writing, I stay the fuck out of her way. If I’m
working the show, she does the opposite. We’re perfect together.
What can you tell us about about then rest of team and talent behind Hall
of Shadows?
Right,
so shortly after deciding to do this thing, a good friend and colleague
reconnected with us (ironically, on social media where we both hate to
be). Within a month, Kristina and I made Carl J. Grasso [Carl
J. Grasso interview - click here] the show’s casting director. He’s doing a terrific job if you can see past the farm
animal fetish. Kidding aside, we love him to pieces. Kristina and I met
because of him. We also have beautiful human beings lending their voice
talent to a new show. We are all on the ground floor of Hall
of Shadows and that makes
things more special. With Hall of Shadows being a horror show, is that a genre
especially dear to you?
Absolutely.
I grew up on American International
Pictures, Subspecies movies and
guttural slamming death metal. In our house, when it’s not Emmet Otter,
it’s Maya Deren.
Do talk about your show's overall approach to horror! My
favorite part of what Kristina does as a writer is her ability to develop
characters wholly within a 12 minute episode. I care about these people.
They aren’t reccurring characters (so far) yet, I invest in their
journey with so little time given. As the producer, I didn’t want to
simply throw loud pop-scares at the audience. No matter what we’re
doing, we always find the heart of a story. The horror needs to come
naturally, otherwise I feel like I’m cheating. You've
also been a writer on some of your show's episodes, right? So do talk
about your those for a bit, and what were your sources of inspiration for
writing them? Kristina
writes the vast majority of the episodes and Carl is writing one story as
of now. I’ve come up with some of the ideas for episodes and also
occasionally rewrite if it doesn’t convey through audio. So much of my
time is spent in editing that I’m grateful I don’t have to write. I
used to write a lot, but these days, I have the attention span of a gadfly
on cocaine. The $64 question, where can
your show be heard? We’re
fortunate to have access to so many partners. You can find them all on
www.hallofshadowsradio.com Any future plans for the show you'd
like to share? And other future projects, in whatever medium? It’s
been a crazy couple of years. My wife was very sick until recently, so
we’re diving into more projects than we can handle to keep busy. We’ll
probably release ten or so episodes of Hall
of Shadows and see where the three
of us are. Carl is also doing a podcast and other things. Kristina and I
are always on the road or in studio with music (whether acoustic or doom
metal). Right now, we’re just loving every second we have in this
chamber of horrors called life.
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Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned) |
The links below
will take you
just there!!!
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Your/your
show's website, Facebook, whatever else?
http://www.hallofshadowsradio.com
http://www.newframemedia.com
http://www.kristinarocco.com
Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? For
the young dreamers out there: Have fun and be grateful - horror fans are
cool as shit. Thanks
for the interview!
Thank
you so much for taking the time to talk with us.
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