I speak with director Spencer Glover about his experience with Disney as a participant in their coveted Launchpad program. Selected from more than 2000 applicants, the longtime Nashville filmmaker spent a year in the incubator, honing his skills under the auspices of industry execs.

The experience culminated in his Disney directorial debut BLACK BELTS, a coming of age Kung Fu story you can watch right now on Disney+.

Black Belts went on to win a 2024 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Short Form Series.

Prior to the Launchpad experience Spencer created several films focused on stories that blend genre elements and grounded emotional characters. We met somewhere around 2018 when I was working on the web series version of Morse Code and he had just finished his award-winning film Message Read.

We talk about the launchpad experience, what was good and bad about it, and discuss the phenomenon known as “industry brain” — how in wake of that extraordinary opportunity Spencer has had to learn to resist the temptation to write or direct what the market says it currently wants.

We wax a bit nostalgic for the big budget films we both enjoyed as kids and then Spencer offers his perspective on whether it’s necessary to move to LA to elevate your film career. He himself moved for the Launchpad gig with his partner Kariss and has since stayed.

Finally we talked about the importance of spending your young years as freely as possible. In that context I share a couple stories from my younger years, including the time when I was 21 and drove my VW Bus to the end of an unmarked dirt road in southern Utah, hiked a days’ walk into the canyon and spent 5 days and nights in the with nothing but a gallon of water and five oranges.

Oh to be young.

Find Spencer:

Website: https://spencerglover.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spenceglover.mov/

I speak with award-winning music photographer Michael Weintrob about his unusual path through the visual side of music, and how keeping his head down and his heart open has resulted in one of the most exciting careers in the business.

Michael and I met around 2013. I was instantly struck by his combustible hustle, a kind of leaning forward in life. I was rocking bowties back then (call it my Willie Wonka phase) and… he grabbed me in my native habitat.

I’ve been following him ever since — through his launch of the Instrumenthead series, his installations at Jazzfest in New Orleans, the two exquisitely crafted Instrumenthead coffee table books, and the Instrumenthead Live concert series he produced during the pandemic, which featured more than 70 concerts filmed and broadcast out of the Weintrob studio.

Pivot, move forward, pivot, move forward.

Along the way Michael has cemented his reputation as a go-to live concert photographer for some of the coolest venues in the world: Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Ascend Amphitheater, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Newport Folk Festival, the Barcelona Jazz Festival and Bluegrass Underground.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talked about the evolution of Instrumenthead, from its genesis as a spontaneous idea backstage, to a slowly accruing catalogue of artists and opportunities. How it was anything but an overnight success.

We also share stories of loss and tragedy — Michael going through a cousin’s suicide and the death of my little sister — and how those life experiences changed our perspective and priorities.

I also share a story I’ve never told before about a fated trip to see the Grateful Dead my senior year of high year, and the tragedy that happened along the way.

Throughout, we take a look at some of the artists captured in Weintrob’s camera, and learn why he chose the poses he did. Artists like Derek Trucks, Rhiannon Giddens, Bootsy Collins, Mickey Hart, and… me.

I have a ton of respect and admiration for Michael Weintrob. A guy who not only blazed an original path through a fraught industry of intense competition and constant uncertainty, but who came out of it creating somethingculturally important, historical even.

Website https://michaelweintrob.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/michaelweintrob/

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I speak with author Liz Riggs about the impending publication of her debut novel, Lo Fi out on Riverhead Books June 9. Liz’s publisher was kind enough to send me an advance copy, and from paragraph one I recognized the reverb-drenched setting — the live bands, late nights, broken AC, unravelling yard parties, and half-remembered conversations over hand-rolled joints — as my own.

I was a devoted participant of the world of Lo Fi, namely the post-flood Nashville of the 2010s.

A lot of us hit the clubs, played on their stages, closed down the dive bars. Some remain (The Basement, The Blue Room, The 5 spot) many do not (RIP Mercy Lounge, 12th and Porter, Radio Cafe) but Lo-Fi’s long lines and lazy dreamers was for me an irresistible reminiscence of a Nashville that no longer exists.

Because the protagonist was so well-drawn, I assumed Liz herself worked at a club in town. She didn’t, it turns out. We talk about what she did do, and how her fangirl inclinations (she admits to a teenage fascination with a well know 90s boyband) were easily grafted onto her enthusiastic main character.

I’m always fascinated to hear an author describe her path to publication — everyone’s is different, and in listening to the particulars of one I find inspiration for my own way forward. We talk about Liz’s journey, from writing drafts in longhand, to the nail-biting weeks, days and hours where she awaited her prospective publisher’s final word as to Lo-Fi’s fate.

We discuss her decision to set the story in a time that predates the social-media everything culture of today, and how that absence made it easier to tell a story about criss-crossed communication and the innocence of fledgling love. We compared notes and found some shared ground in our attraction to artists who write their own material, as opposed to those who sing the songs other people make for them.

Finally we talk about what’s great about living in a town with enough neon appeal to be called “It City” by the New York Times, and what’s maybe not so great about that.

If you like books like Nick Hornby’s High-Fidelity, or Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments, you’ll find a lot to love in Lo-Fi. Here’s a link to pre-order the book, and if you live in Nashville Liz is celebrating with a release show June 9 at the OG Basement with performances by Chris Housman and Vinnie Paolizzi.

Find Liz:

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/riggser/

Website https://www.lizriggs.com/

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