Today’s guest is “Doom-Chip” performance artist, N6664, aka James Barney. I had heard chip-tune music before (for those who haven’t, it’s a style of synthesized electronic music generated using the sound boards from vintage gaming consoles), but never anything like this. It was discordant, disturbing, and disorienting. My first thought was, “This might not be a good fit for the podcast, shit, he seems like such a nice guy!” However, over the last year I’ve gotten to see James performing live several times, and that re-contextualized everything for me. James’ intention with N6664 IS to sow discordance, disturb, and disorient.
Aside from his music, James and I also discuss his new podcast, ToddCast, a show devoted to celebrating Todd Rundgren. I have to admit I’d never listened to Rundgren before, but after hearing James’ passion for Todd in our interview, I’m definitely going to go back and correct that omission. You can find his show on iTunes or Spotify by searching for “ToddCast Cleveland”.