Beyond Radio Presents: 8Trax with Manic Bloom


 

The Beyond Radio Presents universe has a new podcast. It is something I am very proud of and excited about. A special and unique way to interview musicians coming from a fan’s POV and musicians promoting other musicians. Let the lovefest begin.

This is the inaugural episode of our artist interview podcast (a two-parter). The title, 8Trax, harkens back to the era of the 8 Track tapes and indicates that 8 main songs will be discussed. The interview style is set up as follows. The artist brings 3 of their lesser-known songs that they love to the table and I do the same. The conversation moves through the stories of these songs and of course, leads down many roads. I felt that proceeding in this manner gets people deeper into an artist while my approach is that of a fan. The remaining 2 tracks are from different artists we wanted the other to hear. I love the idea of artists promoting other artists.

With my weekly personal chart background I have delved deep into many artist’s catalogues. For these indie rockers from Nashville, I charted 20 songs from their 3 records with all but one making my weekly top 20 and 12 of them going to #1. Yes, I am an absolute fan.

Even though they haven’t put out new music since 2015 this year they have been featured on 6 episodes of Beyond Radio Presents so far. A 2-part episode comparing them to major bands of the last 50 years (Queen, Live, Muse, etc.), a most beautiful interview, and snippets from the interviews that became their own mini-episodes.

I explained the premise of 8trax to them and they wanted to be guinea pigs for the pilot episode. Clearly, there was still much to discuss as it is another 2-parter. David, Hildee (Jeff), and Andy are fun, cerebral, spiritual, introspective, and serious (I’m sure the same can be said for the missing members, Jeff and Matt). I consider them a gift unto my life. Most importantly, their music deserves to be heard.

In all over 30 songs were discussed or mentioned and all but one of those can be found on the companion playlist on Spotify and Apple Music.

 
By: Radio Tim 
Sep 26, 2023