About 3 years ago after an Eye Was Once Eaten practice, Matt Stubbs threw out the idea of starting a podcast. Now there are a lot of ideas (some of them rather insane) thrown around during a band practice, but this one actually stuck with me. I have been an avid listener to podcasts for several years now, mostly tech and political conspiracy style shows, but doing one our self seemed like a fun idea. Unfortunately between my family, photography, and being in a band there wasn't much time to try and fit a podcast in.

But first, what is a podcast? The Merriam Webster defines a Podcast as a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet. Audio podcasts are often listened to on a digital audio player such as an ipod, iphone, android device, and even your computer. There are several apps that are dedicated to playing and collecting podcasts like Stitcher, Downcast, iCatcher, Pod Wrangler, and Apple's own Podcast app.

We were probably making fun of Seth's manhood again.

Matt and I kept tossing the idea around here and there but it wasn't until a long car ride home with my wife on the weekend of July 4th, 2013 that I started thinking seriously about it. Somewhere on the flat stretch of 287 between Childress and Wichita Falls, Texas we were listening to a podcast that director Kevin Smith does weekly with his cohort Jason Mewes called "Jay and Silent Bob Get Old". On this particular episode they were doing a Q&A with people in the audience and someone asked Kevin what his advice would be for any up and coming directors. He bluntly stated that the film industry is becoming harder and harder to get into and trying to pull something off even at a low budget is a complete headache. But his advise for now would be to tell people to get into podcasting. He then went on for an hour and a half talking about how easy it was to do and how it was the future of media. Anyone could get "on the air" and rant about anything they wanted to. It struck a chord with me.

That evening when we returned home I went up to one of our local watering holes and met up with Matt and our third partner in crime, Seth Haynes. We ranted and raved about the typical BS we normally do on any given Friday or Saturday night. Music, sports, sex, television, pop culture, and whatever else might fall out of our mouths. As the evening was wrapping up I told Matt that it was time to give the podcast idea a go and that we should add Seth to it. Because 3 is always better then 2, right?

Over the next few weeks we began forming ideas, putting together run sheets, building the website, setting up servers and of course doing test shows which were completely horrible. But the name was something we couldn't decide on. I had purchased the domain The Jerry Jonestown Massacre a few years earlier because I loved the play on words and had hopes of using it with a new country-glitch-blast beat band Matt and I had been talking about creating (like I said earlier, we throw around some insane ideas). Instead we talked about using it for the podcast and it instantly received the green light all the way around. Finally on July 31st we released Show 1 - For Realz Yo, and it was/is terrible, but you have to start somewhere. Since then we have made changes, tweaked the show here and there, added Sir Wil Dumke as our producer, and completely overhauled our home studio, The Temple of Eye.

This week we did our 40th episode and it's been one hell of a ride. What started out as a weekly dysfunctional therapy session and a place where we could document our verbal diarrhea has slowly grown into a show that actually has a fan base and the respect from our local peers. It's been fun watching this thing grow, and we can only hope it continues! We thank each and everyone of our listeners for tuning in each week and going out of their way to support us, communicate with us, and spread the word to their friends! You guys totally rule!

About the shoot:

I've had this idea floating around in my head for awhile now. I was going to use it for a punk band out of California, but they cancelled their shoot at the last minute and subsequently broke up shortly after. So I thought why not use it for us? The goal was to have the various members dressed up in suits, sitting around a table of some sort, and surrounded by vices. The idea being bloody came around after I pitched the idea to the guys. We were also supposed to have a few scantly clad girls hanging around us, but that idea was scrapped just before the shoot. Dark and dingy with a little bit of a Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels feel to it was what we were shooting for.

The final product was exactly what I had envisioned. We are The Jerry Jonestown Massacre.

Big thanks goes out to Brittnie Jones, Aaron Schlottman, and Texas Billiards for letting us use your space early on Sunday morning!

And of course, an extra huge thank you goes to Christina Shepek for making us look all pretty and presentable!

If you haven't listened to the show yet, you can check us out here at www.jerryjonestownmassacre.com or on Itunes, or your favorite podcast listening app.

Thank you all again! We love you!