Homemade Spaceship: Ghost Ride the Spaceship and Cosmic Creativity on the Virtual Sessions 8/3/23

Homemade Spaceship: Ghost Ride the Spaceship and Cosmic Creativity

In this imaginative Virtual Session, The DJ Sessions host Darran Bruce connects with Denver-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Homemade Spaceship (Rob Laverre) to explore his debut concept album Ghost Ride the Spaceship, his creative process, and his vision for music as a personal escape. Drawing inspiration from childhood dreams of space travel and his fascination with Carl Sagan, Homemade Spaceship sees his music as a vessel – a homemade spaceship built from imagination where audiences are invited to join him on a journey beyond Earthly worries.

He explains how the project’s name reflects this ethos, offering fans a sonic sanctuary where taxes, rent, and routine dissolve into soundscapes rich with existential storytelling. His debut album, set for release August 17, blends electronic textures with real instruments like guitar and flute, weaving blues samples, Mellotron tones, and dubstep drops into a narrative arc. From sampling JFK’s moon speech in Kick Dust to creating an alien jam session on Astro Jones, Homemade Spaceship treats the album as a true concept record, complete with a hero’s voyage storyline.

The conversation also covers his live shows, which fuse Ableton-based performance with live guitar and flute, creating an unpredictable, visceral edge. Rob reflects on his influences from Wu-Tang Clan and Tool to Blink-182, his love for anime and video games, and his roots in the Denver scene with landmark shows at Cervantes.

This episode highlights Homemade Spaceship’s authenticity, his cosmic imagination, and his commitment to blending technology, instruments, and storytelling into a truly unique electronic music experience.

Show Notes – 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Homemade Spaceship (Rob Laverre)
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Denver, CO

Overview:
Darran Bruce sits down with Homemade Spaceship to discuss his debut album Ghost Ride the Spaceship, the inspiration behind his name, his live performance setup, and how he blends existential storytelling with electronic music.

Topics Covered:

• Origins of the Homemade Spaceship name and space fascination 
• Concept and creation of Ghost Ride the Homemade Spaceship debut album 
• Sampling JFK’s moon speech and Sun House blues vocals 
• Incorporating guitar, flute, Mellotron, and live instruments in productions 
• Live show setup using Ableton with stems, guitar, and flute 
• Inspirations from Wu-Tang Clan, Tool, Blink-182, and Pretty Lights 
• Views on authenticity vs. fitting in with industry expectations 
• Denver scene roots and upcoming Cervantes headline show 
• Balancing image, music, and social media in today’s industry 
• Personal hobbies including anime, RPG gaming, and archery 
• Favorite anime: Death Note, Attack on Titan, and Naruto 
• Philosophy on energy, connection, and crowds at live shows 

Call to Action:
Follow Homemade Spaceship on Instagram @homemadespaceship and stream Ghost Ride the Spaceship on all platforms.
Discover more exclusive interviews and live sessions at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ sessions presents the virtual sessions. I’m your host Darran and right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and you might hear some jets flying by because it’s Seafair weekend So if you hear some Noises, you know, you’ll blow you away. But anyways, I’m here with Homemade In Space aka Rob Laverre Rob.

How you doing today?

[Homemade In Space]
Doing excellent Awesome, where you coming in from we live Denver Colorado, okay, not too far from Seattle. Yeah.

[Darran]
Yeah, not too far originally from like the Chicago suburbs area I was I was there in 2013 right after they passed The legalization of marijuana and I went to I went to the the cannabis cup and There’s there’s two there was two conventions. They did one of them was the retail side of things so all the people that sold pipes and bongs and paraphernalia and all that kind of stuff was the day before and then they had This fenced off area outside where it was like Cannabis central you got 20 girls on a tent rolling up joints handing them out for free to everyone I was part of a company called Magical Butter and then there was an infuser machine and they infused pork pulled sandwiches The funny thing was nobody nobody could sell I mean they bought this big old thing of pork made these pulled pork sandwiches The thing was so funny was is nobody in that zone could sell any cannabis So you could give away for free But what they did is they sell a pencil for five bucks and then you get a sandwich along with it That’s how it’s and when and when fourth before and imagine

[Homemade In Space]
Like

[Darran]
Yeah, they took these huge needles and they infused the pork with it because they the chef Joey was like they had this chef on board It was just awesome My memory most memorable memory though was and we’ll get into the music side of things in a minute Was they had this area set up and it’s probably about two football fields like as long maybe even longer and wider Two football fields and when 420 hit there was so much smoke. You couldn’t see like Quarter of the way through it was that smoky there It was just crazy and crazy.

[Homemade In Space]
Yeah Terrible at it and Ended up just doing music which is funny. But yeah, I love it there I played I played a cannabis cup of that thing one time and it was it was funny I was uh, they’re handing out all those free samples. You just have the little thing you put over the Whatever.

It was a weird Crazy situation, but it was fun times.

[Darran]
But yeah, definitely definitely, but hey, let’s get back. Let’s get the music stuff here Homemade In Space Yeah, I know you probably get asked this all the time first question out of the gate. What’s the story behind your artist’s name?

Where does it come from?

[Homemade In Space]
so like I Mean so the the cool story I think like I’ll get down to like the actual like events of it But like for me like everyone has something right? They have that one thing whether it’s knitting or playing video games or going on hikes or riding your bike or skateboarding or or whatever It is we all kind of have one thing that sort of allows us to escape from the planet You know escape from earth feel like, you know taxes don’t matter and rent isn’t due and like, you know You’re seeing your happy place, you know and so like Music for that is definitely me and that’s why I just like make sense to name my music project that this is just kind of Like my own little spaceship that I built myself out of stuff that I have lying around, you know And I can go into my own world, you know and stuff like that But the more the more reason behind it Honestly, so like just kind of came came to me one day because I think one of the big inspirations I’ve always loved space I’ve always been obsessed like second I remember the librarian like I checked out like one of the space books and librarians like space goes on forever and I was like What do you mean like for like first grade me and like forever like can’t even comprehend that you know Kind of like messed me up and blew my mind.

So always had a big infatuation with space and I remember I was used to pretend my mom’s minivan was like a Spaceship when I was a kid too and like just like just a whole world of imagination and stuff like that And I was living in Chicago I was like 18 or something like that and my buddy was trying to start a studio and he had all this gear But he couldn’t keep it at his house that he lived at for some reason So he was keeping it at my place loud there stuff like that. I just one day I just felt like man. I mean like my own little spaceship.

I felt like I was back in the van You know and like my imagination my childhood imagination was soaring and I was having so much fun And you know like rent wasn’t due like nothing was bothering me. I was living in the moment, you know and stuff like that. So Yeah, and That kind of it’s just kind of like how it sort of came to be it’s just kind of like this big imaginarium of the thing and You know, it’s always just kind of made sense for me and thought it was just really really You know appropriate to call it the Homemade In Space and I think that kind of like became like a little bit of a term like it’s like let’s hop in the Space beat lab, you know, let’s hop in the spaceship. What are you doing? Like so I lived with the musician Roommate to and stuff like that.

My old friend Noah was like, let’s get in the spaceship for a couple hours I was like our little Homemade In Space man, you know Had a ring to it So yeah, that’s kind of like the forefront story man. It’s just like everyone has a Homemade In Space and it’s like It’s everyone’s a everyone has their own little escape that they have whatever and music’s mine And it’s like so I call that that and it’s like hey, man Hop on my ship and I’ll take you to where I go, you know take you to my happy place and Yeah, and that’s basically it I like to have that sort of vibe with my music I was like I’ve been very existential and like a lot more than club kind of stuff like clubs are fun and all that stuff and I Respect the hell out of the culture and everything that came from it But like I definitely feel like my music is more of like not for the clubs and it’s electronic music That’s a little bit more for like just like you and and speaking of your music

[Darran]
Your new album just came out Electric it’s coming out

[Homemade In Space]
Yes Yes, so it’s uh, it’s essentially my first real album I think I put out like an album like when I very first started the first first nine Crappiest beats I ever made I put out on bandcamp or something like that. So I’m calling this like my debut album Yeah, and it drops August 17th everywhere But I’ve dropped the first two singles so far the third singles coming out in two days And Yeah, it’s called ghost ride the spaceship and Yeah, I’m super stoked first full-length album. The first song I dropped was one of those very existential prettier tunes.

So if you’re more of a fan of I Don’t know. I would say that one’s definitely kind of like a little bit of like sort of like a pretty lights grids meets It’s very soulful I Just went to the Illinium concert here in Washington.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Homemade In Space]
Yeah He’s huge. He had that huge 50,000 person concert here But yeah, I sampled an old blues vocal John our John the revelator is the name of the song It’s old blues artist named Sun House And that’s the vocal in it. So it’s like very soulful I used this like virtual Mellotron on a lot of the on a lot of that track and a lot of those other types of songs in a mellotron For people at home.

It’s a recreation. It’s a virtual version of it because the real versions are like 50 grand if you can even get one But it’s like something that Led Zeppelin used to use and I think Ellen John and like other people like that but you basically press a key on a keyboard and it plays a reel of tape and So you could record whatever you wanted onto the reel of tape. So it’s these very vintage II like flutes and stuff like that I got the flute solo on there been Learning flute over like the past year and a half to add to the beats, which has been really fun I play guitar over my stuff to live and I do a lot of guitar incorporated real instrument type of stuff And you had some really awesome collaborations there too on this album, right?

Um, actually there’s no collaborations on the South I just got quite a few cool collaborations. Oh, I guess I Friend so down in the works. I just dropped a really great remix for Matty O’Neill and we dropped another collab recently My good friend vibe squad I made a really great collab with it’s it’s a Soon a lot better.

[Darran]
I see I read I read that wrong. I missed the has led to part.

[Homemade In Space]
I decided said collaborations Very very much myself Something that I personally It’s like a little bit of a pet peeve It’s like when I go to get to know an artist and they don’t have an album and all their tracks are collabs with other People it’s like well, what’s your sound? What do you give? So I really wanted to give like my fan base to my audience like a real honest chapter of just straight-up me, you know so Yeah, so the first song real pretty you’re right The second song is much more of like a funky of the idea behind it was like if you were partying with an alien and you decided to jam and like make it seem together or something like that, which is Becoming more and more realistic of a thing that could actually happen if you’ve been watching the news I guess to yourself aliens are real love that Yeah, the next one’s gonna be like a really heavy dubstep song So I like to go kind of, you know pretty and you know Also really happy if my live shows definitely was like to kind of start off real heavy and stuff like that And then the last one’s another pretty one. But yeah, super stoked on the album I wrote it with a concept for the first time. So I decided to write like a concept album Something I found in my creative process Through studying like especially like hip-hop and like just past electronic music and stuff like that and then all sorts of other stuff Arbitrary restrictions are something like giving myself restrictions or guidelines when I create has been just like Hugely paramount to my creative process.

So I was doing it kind of here and there with songs And I was like, what if I did it with like a whole group of songs? But if I did it with an album and I’m like, I was like well the dummy that’s called a concept album That’s been happening for years. You know, I also I also invented the affogato the other day I was like, what if I put ice cream in my coffee and someone’s like Yeah, that’s called something already.

So You know so So it’s I’d write a concept album and the concept behind it is sort of the story Which is slightly inspired by me, but I hope it’s kind of more like a universal thing But it’s kind of like this story that there’s a wannabe spaceman. I want a dude who just wants to get away super bad And so he decides to build his own spaceship in his garage and blast off out of there is atmosphere and that’s the first song It’s called kick dust and I sample about a John F. Kennedy moon speech in there So it’s like we must go to the moon and we must leave earth and we have to go It’s an amazing speech and so cool I found so much passion from sampling like in a very I think the words and break a powerful and brazen like speech You know because it was really good And So that was cool and that one’s got a lot of energy and it’s it’s up It’s up tempo and then of course the next part of the story chapter two you go to you finally leave the solar system and you encounter a debaucherous alien named Astro Jones Which is the last one that just released and that’s like if you met it you’re just traveling through space you meet an alien and he’s All like oh you look cool. You look cool like you you want to hang out?

Oh, I make music I make music too much Yeah, I was like, I imagine myself whipping out my flute on the on the spaceship So I played a little flute riff and that’s what how that kind of started I was like, I’m just gonna take a food riff and that’s mainly like just Combination of the the earthly cultures and the outer space cultures, you know

[Darran]
If you had to pick one of your productions as your most favorite one Which one would that be and is there a thought behind it for it to be your favorite on the album or overall? Um, you know, I was gearing that question on the album But why don’t we go bull is there one

[Homemade In Space]
Electric indigo for sure on the album that song came from like a really I was going through some really hard times in my life with just a lot of things changing and happening and you know A lot of crazy substance abuse issues and stuff like that and just this the pandemic really just keep me down and that song I finally wrote that song when I felt like I was turning the corner on everything and it felt like I was finally seeing like a bright light for the first time and stuff like that and I wrote that song in like two hours and it was just done and I was like, this is not going anywhere This is how it is. So I love that song for that a lot. But honestly my favorite song I’ve ever put out is called bill for the wild and I think and it’s it’s just weird and personally, I’ve always battled this whole thing of feeling that I need to fit in versus doing what I want as an artist, you know, because I’ve done what I’ve wanted before and and nobody cares and then like or like for like, you know It’s like or like how do we book you like?

Sorry, you can’t play with the heavy You can’t play with excision, but you also can’t play with Taiko. It’s like come on, you know So like that song is really cool because that song was really organic in the way it was written I actually wrote that with my photographer friend Frankie and he’s like I play guitar and he picks up my guitar and he plays like the most serene cool riff and I’m just like turn on the delays turn on the reverb and then Really quickly we turned it into a really weird song and the whole arrangements weird.

It’s just a minute long intro It’s like a minute long drop and It’s like two and a half minutes, but it seems really long and it’s very beautiful song I think which is which is really cool It’s on my the last song on my last EP. I put out I think almost two years ago now, please abduct me But it’s got built for the wild and that song just has a lot of layers and the way it evolves It’s it’s it’s not really like any other song necessarily that I’ve seen it’s sort of like the genre and I was just really proud of myself To to like kind of just say screw it and put out something On that on the EP that might not fit in or might be weird because I got a lot of like Random fans kind of through Instagram who had discovered that song and they would just message me and be like this is the dopest thing I’ve ever heard and just getting that Reaffirm it from people like hey, you went out on a ledge and did something that you know Be in the dress code or might not fit in or might not necessarily even when you’re giving birth to something that might not necessarily have A home, you know, but like people really love it. People really took it in And yeah, it’s a hundred BPM.

It’s got like a deep house drop at the end Like and it’s a it’s a weird tune, but it’s it’s really special to me and other people have told me It’s really special to them too. So That’s probably the my favorite hidden gem my favorite song I’ve probably put out But uh, yeah, yeah, so Interesting one. Oh I can’t hear you.

[Darran]
I think you’re I did mute because I had a siren going by I was asking you do you play you play the guitar? Do you play any other acoustic instruments and tell us about your live show setup?

[Homemade In Space]
Okay. Yeah So, um, yeah, so I’ve been playing guitar since I was like 12. I was like a punk rocker turned into a metalhead and Yeah, so I’ve always been playing guitar Really technical guitar player I did a lot of My favorite styles like I call it like eight finger tapping kind of where you don’t even really necessarily strong You just kind of like press all your fingers down and stuff like that if You listen to like stuff like animals as leaders and Sean or something like that. You might be familiar But yeah, so playing guitar my whole life I’ve also been playing bass and drums and keyboards, too when I grew up Definitely wasn’t one of the popular kids in high school Definitely was like a big nerd and me and my friends essentially always went to either my friend Ben or Jared’s and I also had an old shed in the back of my house that we turned into a jam space eventually about like We go over to one of our houses and we would play like, you know We were just jam Scott music metal like whatever we were feeling we were emo kids at the time and stuff like that you know, so like Whatever was cool, and we would just go jam.

So we’d always rotate the instruments. So That was really cool, it’s like, oh, you don’t play drums It was like too bad you do now. So we all had to learn all the instruments and then You know graduating high school stuff like that I kind of what I had those kind of under my belt and I got better and better and I got more into music And I ended up working at some studios in Chicago and just being around music all time And I was also playing in a couple bands I had like this post rock kind of band like this explosions in the sky type band I also played in this like hardcore metal band For a while. So always around instruments constantly always doing music Yeah, so always played those guitars definitely my main instrument Pretty trash at piano honestly for how long I’ve been playing I can still edit it and get the point across but it wasn’t actually recently till I think it was like two years ago that I picked up the flute so I started playing that too and that just sort of came to be because I make like I like to think I like to make like a sort of like mystical Post rock hip-hop II kind of like sample based kind of sound Wu Tang is a huge inspiration Marissa for sure and all of his productions and so like I feel like like Lord finesse to premiere all those dudes like really inspired me and Kind of wanted to make a more Spacey hip-hop type sound and I kept finding myself using flute loops off of like splice or various websites and they’re all trash There’s so bad. It’s like dude. I just want a smooth little Ron Burgundy like little thing and you’re giving me this airy like Like sounds like you’re spitting on the mic or it’s like way distorted or something and I was like, you know I’m so frustrated.

I was like, you know, like I’m in my meditation era Like that and I’m just like how do I chant? What do I do about this like and it’s like to learn how to play flute like fifth graders learn how to play flute Like I think you’re you know, 28 year old 29 year old ass to figure it out, you know so Yeah, I just bought one on Amazon and that was my first flute and Just YouTube videos and then recently I started taking lessons. Shout out Maggie.

She’s an awesome flute teacher But yeah, it’s keeping me honest to learning the flute Which is really cool because I feel like I’m as good at guitars I want to get I’m good at piano as I need to be I can play whatever I want on the drums and stuff Like that bass is just like an easier version of guitar to me But flutes like a new challenge and I feel like that really kept me humble And kept me like hard working and stuff like that to kind of start over with the flute and it’s my first real woodwind or a wind instrument and It’s insane because I constantly I’m forgetting the breeze like when I’m playing it on stage and stuff

[Darran]
So what what about this live show setup? It sounds like you’re mixing technology with Yeah, that’s acoustic instruments, correct?

[Homemade In Space]
Yeah. Yeah. So my live show set up what I do So I I perform out of Ableton And I use Ableton for my performance And what I have to do is I have to like split up my songs I have to stem out my songs through a degree So I have stem intros and stem outros is how I do it most of the time so I pick apart parts of the song and I render those out and I put those into separate clips in Ableton and Then when I need to go into the fully mastered Beefy track I have that whole track loaded up and then often I just remove either the guitar or the flute parts so and then I’ll play those live and Do that, but so I just basically go decade a deck B kind of but with lots of different loops in there and stuff like that for each track and kind of like Like it’s kind of like how I feel like regular DJs kind of see a cue point I use these loops Because my songs too, like I said, they’re not they’re not really for the club.

They’re not necessarily really for a Mix, for example, one of my biggest inspirations so I get to go see tomorrow for the first time in like seven years. It’s pretty lights And pretty lights didn’t mix crap man. He was like, here’s my song and here’s the next one Enjoy, you know and I do enjoy like I’m from Chicago Like I said so I’ve seen like Frankie Knuckles perform and stuff like that and and you can’t deny the magic of mixing after seeing an Absolute legend like Frankie Knuckles perform and just in all sorts of stuff and you’re just like what?

How did he get from Whitney Houston to this like why don’t we do it like, you know, so like I Respect that a lot. So I try my best to mix everything and I also like that feeling of a journey, you know Not just sort of like here’s songs. Here’s another song.

Um, I guess I realized my favorite artist I’m obviously out there in your shade. I let the man do what he does because I think he’s like the dawn but Yeah, but like, you know, not really mess necessarily meant to be mixed I think that comes down to like the arrangement to like there’s kind of a lot more going on I’m writing. I like to think that like I like some people write songs and other people write beats and It’s just a spectrum and some people write songs and beats But I think that there’s a difference like a beat is very mixable Starts off with just a kick and it leads in you know with the with the lead and then it builds up as to where Song can just sort of explode out the game, you know Which you which you might not want to do with like, you know, I’m more like club friendly song or something like that So yeah live guitar live flute keeps me honest keeps like the music fresh I feel like and keeps the crowd really excited and I love doing it to you because it makes me feel like I’m on the edge like the crowd is trusting me, especially they don’t know me like I’m trusting you that we have a good time Here and like they’re on edge with me.

So it’s it seems more fair for me to sort of Be on that edge with them like here I want to give you guys music and it’s completely live and I may fuck this up right now or I may mess this up Or whatever and we’re just gonna we’re just here, you know having a good time, you know Talking about having a good time doing shows tell us about the Cervantes headline show. What’s that? Cervantes is like home to me man.

Cervantes is like where I definitely came up if for anyone who doesn’t know as Cervantes is like This venue in Denver and five points and it was an old like casino cabaret and stuff like that that became a venue at some point and They have the other side and they have the Masterpiece Ballroom, right and It was my first shows. We’re at the other side the first show I sold out Was at the other side And I’ve just known All the people who work there and stuff like that since I was you know, like just started doing this thing I got to Colorado and I was like 24 or something like that 23 and And Yeah, I started going there and they had all the best big shows. They did the submission deep dubstep Tuesdays They did all the electro soul We call it retrofuturism when Mike Thunder and like Michael Mannard and then we’re like throwing these parties out there and Yeah, so Cervantes is like home base to me so we’re doing the the main room this time because yeah sold out the other side a couple times and just Yeah doing the main room It’s gonna be awesome.

I’m super stoked. We’ve got a really killer lineup My friend Lucid Vision is doing direct supports and he’s just been alongside me on this journey the whole time He was one of my first friends out here for sure And then I got this dude, Atlanta Pete who is awesome Makes just like really rowdy great great bass music Yeah Really awesome, dude, too. Then I have My friend Louie let down who is just a really dope.

He’s kind of more of a hip-hop rapper, dude And he does like electronic hip-hop stuff and things like that. So he’s he’s uh, he’s on the bill too And then I have one of my students Winslow who is just it’s one of my favorite students because he just makes the most imaginative music And it’s very it’s very cool and different so I was stoked to give him up to give him a shot But yeah, we’re bringing out a ridiculous amount of lasers my friend Vaughn who was actually my first gig out here I played a crazy mountain bass party everything I ever dreamed of moved out to Colorado for we got a bunch of PK speakers And we’re taking them in a truck up to the mountains in this place where we can be as loud as we want And he had just gotten like his first couple lasers like eight years ago or whatever Now he’s got like 15 so And yeah lost my job at Guitar Center the next day After that party, so yeah, but hey, it’s always good to move on from a job at Guitar Center

[Darran]
Here’s here’s something for it Do you think most? Artists should focus more on the quality of music and performance instead of image and outfits.

[Homemade In Space]
I Think that it’s honestly it’s it’s everything man. You can’t choose there like it’s crazy like One of my favorite bands is Nine Inch Nails, and I love Trent Reznor I love the way I would love what he stands for and I can see what he stands for verse how he dresses and how He acts Also, it is a little I think it’s a little overwhelming too, but like being on social media these days and being an artist It’s almost like you constantly have your own TV show and you constantly need to put out new episodes and content And it’s like you don’t have to show yourself I know a bunch of like really great artists who are coming up who like aren’t doing like a you know They don’t know what they look like and stuff like that, which I think is cool but It is like a total package and and you know I would love to like I feel like the staunch musician take would be like it’s all about the music It’s always been about the music you know, but that’s not the same for anything else. It’s not the same for like restaurants I feel like you know it is about the food But like I’m never gonna find your restaurant if it doesn’t look like it appeals to me You know and and other people are just missing out if you don’t make it look like it appeals to them So like us being in the spotlight as artists or content creators or whatever we are nowadays, you know, it’s overwhelming It’s all heck And it’s a lot to keep up with and it’s real tough on the old mental health and all that kind of stuff but I think it’s really important that You as a musician gather your tribe and like for me It’s like really important that like, you know, like I want to gather all the introverted, you know Existential nerdy weirdos and everyone, you know, like we’re all we’re all here man We’re all out here and I can like bring us all together man, you know And so I think it is important that you do put out what you got You know You advertise yourself because because we’re getting into a world with media where it seems like to me at least we’re like Mainstream media and MTV and TRL and the radio and and and billboard.

It’s like nobody gives a crap anymore like, you know, and it’s like no I can like Everyone has Spotify or title or Apple music and it’s like I can listen to whatever I want I can fall into whatever genre I want. Maybe I like witch house. Maybe I’m into you know, golden era hip-hop Maybe I just want to listen to classic rock.

Maybe I’m into hyper pop, you know, but like I don’t have to be spoon-fed

[Darran]
I was just talking with somebody about this yesterday an interview coke beats and we were talking about you know When we grew up we had cuz I mean we had records we had eight track With them went to cassette tapes Then we went to CDs And when you put that cassette tape in you had to carry your bag of cassettes with you if you wanted to listen to one Track here and one day before and then singles came out 99 cent singles finally came out in the 90s Which is nice because then you just play the single track of it and then you can kind of keep from there then CDs came Out and then you got the multi CD player. But once the iPad or iPod dropped That was a game-changer because it gave you the ability and as much more the memory increased on that You could literally go from a rock and roll song to a hip-hop song to a classical song You know and you had your whole musical library in the palm of your hand Yeah, you know and then you go into something now where you go to Spotify and you have the curated playlist You just turn on I want to listen to this and you’re listen artists You don’t even know who they are and they’re coming and going.

Whoa, that blew my mind You know, that’s where it’s really kind of crazy that the progression of music I I don’t know how you are, but I turned I turned 49 this year Okay to actually have vinyl in my hand and Have to put that on or an 8-track in the player to play that that was very short-lived in my day My job went pretty quick right over to cassette tapes But um, you know when CDs hit, you know, you could put a CD on repeat and that was kind of cool But if you got the massive player like I was saying, but when that iPod dropped that was just the game-changer like I mean you could like so many different genres and I think you know again with the advent of like you said YouTube or all the all the outlets but not the control that was put there by By MTV the media the news whatever it was. It’s not there So anyone can say I’m gonna pick up a microphone and start singing You know if you went and tried to do an addition or get them even if you made a music video in your backyard put it up To send it over to MTV.

They’re not gonna touch it But if you put it on your YouTube channel I mean we had public access a public access was limited to the county you lived in That’s where I started in television But um now you put it on YouTube and that might go viral and you get a million downloads on tick-tock You know Like it was only what was on MTV or the radio is what all I do for music, right?

[Homemade In Space]
Yeah, and then we got LimeWire in my space and stuff like that I remember my space just like I felt like I was in the I felt like I was truly in the underground Because I could search around this band’s page and listen to this band’s music and then I can look at their top eight or whatever Be like who’s this band’s friends with? Putting out music that no one wants me to find out about but like like you said to like tik-tok, man Like and I think like that’s one of the craziest things in like that’s something like everyone likes to shame tik-tok and stuff like that But like I really feel like one thing that it does allows us to generate our own media You know and and Lord knows if that’s being like Controlled or anything like that, you know, but like it’s like, you know, whatever is popular or whatever is cool or whatever You know gives everyone their little like, you know good brain chemical thing happen, you know Like that’s what rises to the top now and it’s no longer whatever, you know a corporation bought and wants to sell to you, you know, because that’s kind of I feel like the music industry used to happen was like We see potential in an artist We’re going to give them a bunch of money on a loan in advance Right, and then we’re gonna put them to work paying back that and if they make more money than they advanced from us Then we can sign them for another advance even higher and keep making money

[Darran]
And here’s something, you know, we were talking about the social media phenomenon and how people it’s a very tough game to upkeep And this is going more towards your live performance, but it can also apply directly to social media as well Do you become a different person when you get on stage and do you become a different person when you get off stage?

[Homemade In Space]
Yes, a hundred percent Yeah, but when I’m offstage I’m like very introverted and like very reserved and I don’t know. I feel like I’m very nerdy I can be a little goofy. Sometimes I can get a little silly, right?

When I’m on stage like I am like I yell and I like, you know I like to get as like hype as possible and stuff like that and Definitely not like that in real life. I actually before I go on stage my pre my preset rituals I do just like kind of like some air karate and just like jumps in like just like I don’t know just all sorts of weird stuff and just like get myself really hyped and I love to just go out on the stage and grab the microphone and just scream into it and stuff like that and Yeah, so I’m definitely a very different person offstage Than I am on stage I’m definitely only like that when I’m on stage and there’s definitely a wide range of who I am offstage But who I am on stage, I definitely feel like it’s almost feels like playing a character sometimes But the characters the person you always wanted to be kind of in a way like I don’t know it’s a weird thing, you know, but

[Darran]
Well, you know Does a bigger crowd satisfy you more like does it make you go crazier or is there some other magical element that satisfies? You when it comes to playing music for a crowd of people, you know, I love big crowds

[Homemade In Space]
it’s so cool to share my music with that many people at once and like the energy is helpful, but There’s nothing better than a crowd that’s just getting down and freaking out, you know And just it’s just going nuts to your music So if you’re asking me if I would rather choose to play like 5,000 people and everyone’s just kind of standing there Or if I would rather play for like 500 people and everyone’s going absolutely berserk definitely the latter Because that just that’s just like there’s so much energy in the room and I’m a big believer in all that kind of just like you know energy and and shit like that and like to have that to have all these people like You know going nuts and most of my sets are all original too so it’s like it’s so cool for me But like I’ve made this in my little bedroom and now everyone’s going crazy to it on the dance floor It’s like a little point of conception. So like here we are is like it’s so cool.

So Yeah, I love the big crowds for sure. I love those festival crowds and stuff like that But those those small lit rooms are Are just something super super special especially in small towns I feel like is where that happens to like I’ll go out to like, you know, like somewhere in like Kentucky or like, you know or something like that or I was just in food, North Carolina and like there’s a small room and But the people were nuts and they wanted the party so hard and Yeah, they love the music and stuff like that. So Yeah, I think it’s just more about the overall impact that you have on people, you know with your music I hope I was able to take you away from the monotony for a bit and if you’re gonna You know lose your stuff on the dance floor like that’s more worth it to me than just playing in front of a bunch of people

[Darran]
Yeah, now we talked a little bit about your musical past earlier on You know how you grew up with your friends and had to learn the instruments on stuff But who has really been your biggest influence when it comes to your career as an artist and why

[Homemade In Space]
um, so my biggest influence is It’s funny because it’s it’s got to be I had a my best friend growing up Kevin He had an older brother who was like five or four years older than us and Luke was his name and Luke was just the coolest Dude ever he drew dope pictures and his room was all full of crazy shit But Luke got us into in the fifth grade. He got us into Wu-Tang and tool So I got Wu-Tang Iron Flags like this Wu-Tang shit just dropped.

Y’all gotta check this out. He gave us iron flag I remember and rules still and I have favorite songs But Wu-Tang and then shortly after that he was like y’all to check this out, too And he gave us a tool album and like the dichotomy between tool and Wu-Tang clan Has ended me up here because I love the flowiness and the heaviness of tool and like, you know And like how mystical it kind of is and stuff like that and almost mysterious or whatever But like that bounce that there is a had on all those beats and just the style and the tenacity that every member of the Wu-Tang clan You know comes with and stuff like that and that the style from Wu-Tang clan depth and and heaviness from tool I think are probably my two biggest inspirations I’m Personally on another personalization. My other big inspiration is Blink-182 that was like the band that I got into and I just love how much they don’t care how bland and just like aggressive and just like I don’t know I love how Their music is just very simple and direct and almost stupid And I love how unseriously they take themselves, too Which is something I’ve always wanted to carry on into my career is like a fart jokes and stuff like that, you know, yeah But yeah, definitely when it comes to the the electronic stuff and the music that you make now, I think There’s something that’s been burned into my head about the Wu-Tang tool combination

[Darran]
That’s a pretty interesting combination. I grew up with my brothers and they were into punk rock. They were into Black Sabbath they were into Iron Maiden and It was I started I like the pop music.

I like Michael Jackson, you know, I mean, I think they Respected like artists like Michael Jackson or Madonna, you know that pop culture stuff And then they got a new wave and then Nine Inch Nails and that stuff came in But I started gravitating towards hip-hop music as a kid, you know And my first concert I ever went to was the Beastie Boys in 1986 I was 12 years old and I saw the Beastie Boys with fishbone and then a year later they came back and I saw him again at 13 years old with run DMC and So, but my brothers were they were going that constant that crossover album with the Beastie Boys come in It was cool, but I grew up with a very heavy rock influence older brother thing, you know But here I am a gravitated towards rap and then later found myself getting more into electronic music It’s just interesting that that progression that you kind of go through but like you said that tool Yeah that I would literally have Black Sabbath on and then I go to like UTF Oh, yeah Something like hey the kids in the neighborhood didn’t know what to do with me, you know, like Violent fiends in there or something, you know Here I thought we might my father really Put on us. We’d say a musically diverse kind of background He was in the Queen and super tram and you know Those kind of artists and I think those were that really helped define All of our musical palettes in that sense. Yeah Anyways, we moving on if somebody were to write a biography about you.

What do you think the title should be?

[Homemade In Space]
spaceman lost in space Yeah Yeah, the The finite voyage, I don’t know. Yeah something like that. Um, Something about being grimy My friends used to call me the homeless spaceman because I never I was always sleeping on their couches and shit like that And so something about being grimy probably and just like heading towards Heading towards a going on a journey feels like if I was to say anything I feel like my whole life’s just been this Expedition into the unknown, you know as I feel like almost anyone could say But yeah, I think something along those lines of Going on a voyage. I’m a huge Carl Sagan fan, too so like Voyager and all that sort of stuff and the pioneer and all that stuff is Cosmos read so many of Carl Sagan’s books.

He’s a huge inspiration to my whole mindset and stuff like that But something very Carl Sagan II comes to mind, you know But uh, yeah that that’s got to be it. It’s got to be something about just going on a grimy voyage Yeah somewhere which really feels like touring a lot too I feel like I’m in the deep nethers of space when I’m on tour I’m just like Rolling into an airport or a gas station. I’m just like what is going on?

Where am I? Never forget one time I was on tour and I got out of the bus and I walked Into it. I had no idea where I was.

I was in like the middle of Mississippi Where the hell am I but yeah, the Forever voyage. Yeah, let’s call it the Something like that pioneer Pioneer some move to space like a children’s book title or something Yeah, something like that man, it’s been it’s been a voyage it’s been I’ve always felt like some like SpaceX space pioneer I just did exploring new new frontiers in space, but it’s just It’s just my life and I’m loving it every day I’m always on some weird adventure always

[Darran]
You know in space, I mean, I don’t know what how you would prefer space travel but Usually right now we kind of look at our point that space travel would have a lot of technology It would be kind of a spaceship Is that how you would envision yourself traveling through space and time or is this a mind voyage that could kind of? Teleport you from one area and there isn’t a physical Technology needed you’ll see where I’m kind of

[Homemade In Space]
So if I was to write the story the the fictional story, which is what I’m kind of doing with my albums I’m writing this like fictional space story but it’s like Starts off right as you in this spaceship just like a spaceship and it’s just boosting through the galaxy You know, you’re just flying and you got a big window in front I always think of like interstellar and stuff like that.

It’s just like look through space You know just staring out the window or whatever And you know, nothing’s going by and then all of a sudden you see something in a distance Maybe you you end up flying by a giant nebula for a bit. You’re just like holy cow But I’ve always I’ve always imagined the sci-fi twist in the story is that you know You learn to travel space through your consciousness or something like that because as we learn more and more about aliens and stuff like that It’s like the aliens all communicate telepathically. They don’t speak words to each other They’re just like and like there’s been like I watch all the UFO stuff.

I’m obsessed For sure, and they’re all like, you know, it’s like, you know I just thought thought to them and they responded to me and it’s like you can to just Elevate your consciousness out of your body and go travel, you know space time and stuff like that in the fourth dimension So that’s where I see The the book ending but it starts off as like a guy Who just wanted to get off earth and go explore space but ends up becoming a part of the fourth dimension

[Darran]
Essentially, like it’s really it’s really funny. One of my best friends his burner name is space time Space time.

[Homemade In Space]
I love that.

[Darran]
Yeah I don’t I have I’ve never been but I’ve been to a few festivals with them and You know, he’s still really good you got a party with him my my name’s my nickname I got a call is battery pack His space time I’m battery pack my friend we call her switchblade It’s just a great great year 2017 was a fun year Anyways, speaking of technology and where I was going to lead into this with was that Technology moves really fast in the electronic music world. If you can think of something that’s not on the market today But in your vision would be really amazing. What would that be?

[Homemade In Space]
That’s a good question so with technology something that I could Use to make music or something like that, huh? You know, I’m always thinking of that instrument from Futurama So, but he had man it’s like a Sousaphone thing that he plays and it creates but like I’m thinking like what kind of instrument right would be the best possible instrument and So it’s really funny. I remember I thought of this question a while ago and I was like Okay, like well if we were to make the perfect controller like MIDI controller, whatever it was to make music with What would that look like?

And I was like well You should probably make the buttons kind of long and slender because the fingers long and slender, right? and we could lay it out, you know in an even way or something like that and I was like we could even like if They’re gonna be like these Like long slender buttons. We should put looking almost like sneak buttons in between or something like that and I eventually invented the keyboard Which was kind of funny like I got her that once again that already exists but I really The answer I would think about giving is saying something more like a guitar because one of the reasons why I love the guitar So much because of how expressive it is.

I can slide I can bend I can vibrato I can mute I can play hard. I can play soft. I can strum lightly.

I can strum hard I can strum up I can shut down. There’s so many ways to approach one note on a guitar And so I remember my my old man. I remember when I was first learning how to play guitar I was learning how to play black dog right by Led Zeppelin And I was like check it out, I learned black dog and I played it for him He was like you’re playing the notes to black dog, but you’re not playing black dog.

You gotta play it like, you know But yeah, so like Expression in is something really cool and and I would love to say that I’d love to see an instrument like that But they’re really on top of it now with the you heard of the MPE Instruments like the push three or rolly keyboards So there are these insane keyboards They’re very like soft and like you can slide your finger up the key and it’ll do whatever you want You can press one kind of to vibrato or filter or something like that.

You can slide up top I Do envision sort of something more? string based To create music with because I think those strings so I would like to see I guess like an actual answer to this question Would be something like like more of a guitar based MIDI controller But I’m also thinking to like how can we reinvent the guitar in a way where it’s even more playable, you know Ergonomically or something like that? But yeah some sort of MIDI controller that’s like a guitar and they do have some stuff like that But it doesn’t ever really work, right?

There’s jam sticks and I’ve played with one and they’re cool. They’re awesome but there’s just there’s a little disconnect and that might have been my fault on the software or something, but like yeah, and there’s like these pickups you can get that send MIDI, but They don’t always work correctly and stuff like that. So It’d be really cool to see that another thing that I think would be really cool And I actually just thought of this but like So they used to have these on the old rolling keyboards They called them the D beam and the D beam was just that you know, the D beam Yeah, I used to have a 505 on SP 808.

[Darran]
Yeah, those were fun.

[Homemade In Space]
Those are that was a trip Yeah, seems a good time. Yeah, and I want more TV.

[Darran]
I want Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt you go ahead I was gonna say the D beam reminded me out of that scene of virtuosity Where Russell Crowe is playing in the club and he sampled everyone and he put his hand over something. They could change it You know, he could do all this crazy stuff But he was sampling the live noises from the crowd that he was terrorizing to then make the song with but he was controlling with His hand and that’s where I saw the D beam going. I thought it would go out there even further.

[Homemade In Space]
I was super excited Never Controller I know you could But like imagine if you had like some sort of cube or something you stick your hand in That would be like super expressive because that’s one of my favorite things. I Have my six-year-old. I love to just get him on some knobs and I’m like, here’s a riff You just tweak the filter and just be expressive.

And so if we could get into some sort of 3d expressive space that we could just like D-beam from like all sides, you know or something like that that could add a really really cool expressive way Um, even if that was something to like you could plug into any MIDI controller and just be able to express things on that Would be cool because adding that to music is something I definitely like to see more in music Is that and I’m glad you said that that Russell Crowe the virtuosity thing because if you see an image in heaps tiny desk concert or NPR tiny desk

[Darran]
No, I haven’t but

[Homemade In Space]
Yeah, watch it, but it’s amazing She’s insane, but she has a glove and this glove is attached to the software and she can like loop her voice By like going like this and then stop the loop and then play the loop and she can create Reverb by throwing out like two fingers this way and she can create delay by going this way. So she’s almost like Dancing with her hand like it’s like she’s doing the Vogue or whatever but it’s looping and adding reverb and freezing reverbs and all sorts of stuff like that and I’m just like Holy cow, you know that she can just kind of like control that stuff and it really just like makes me think like Like where’s music headed next and I know in the in the mixing because I do a lot I work at a studio to call KMG in Denver It’s an awesome studio and one thing I know about the studio world now It is that everything’s moving to Dolby Atmos sound so in the next like probably ten years You’re going to need to mix in Atmos for almost all your releases, which is going to be crazy because Like that’s an expensive setup to have it But you’re gonna have to bring back the mixing engineer

[Darran]
If you mentioned something about I liked what you said about the cube earlier and be able to grab a cube and manipulate that cube and it reminded me that I spent about from 2021 to even current to last almost two years in Developing virtual reality going in when I’m not developing virtual. I’m not creating virtual I but we launched our first VR nightclub and Four five months ago in a VR chat actually was first in all space But then it was in VR chat but the thought was when I talk with people about that question is What is VR gonna do for the music industry and going in and creating virtual instruments that you can? Bend it this way and do it with this way with your hands and gloves and you’re in that room and you’re you’re conducting an Orchestra you’re doing this But you aren’t having to wear a glove because the motion sensors are tracking your hands while you have the headset on Have anything and you’ll just eventually the glasses and eventually we’ll get contacts.

So now you can have a Thousand different instruments and you can pull up one over here and pull up one over here and scroll just like just like an iPod of making music And your studio you might be limited to 30 pieces of gear or 20 BC air here You could have 10 facts 10,000 pieces of gear.

[Homemade In Space]
Yeah Manipulate in the way you want or even create your own Yeah, create your own instrument would be nuts I’m imagining the context now and it’s like your girlfriend’s trying to talk to you or your partner’s trying to talk to you Babe, are you automating right now?

[Darran]
No, no You make it There was an episode. Oh my god. Well, it was an episode of Not thinking Thinking it’s a black mirror episode Where the guy basically finds out his wife cheated on him because they have this device that records everything they see Yeah That’s kind of gonna be the interesting thing to see When we start getting that Google Glass or our glasses are able to record everything we see And we can go back and play it back.

So that’s interesting, but you know There a little bit I want to ask you one last question two last questions actually three last questions What do you prefer doing when you’re taking a break from music?

[Homemade In Space]
Oh, I just recently got into archery I needed a so usually it’s video games. I’m a huge video game nerd. I just started playing Kingdom Hearts 3 again I just rewatched like a three-hour summary.

I’m a huge nerd. So anime and video games. I just played The Last of Us again I love that game Been playing Diablo a bit But big video game here, but I recently got an archery because I needed something without a screen So I just there’s a there’s an archery range like 0.2 miles from my house That’ll do for a hobby like bucks later. I have a bow and arrow and I’m just shooting these targets and stuff like that And so that’s been awesome. Just like yeah do an archery and getting out I can just go get a target and I can go into the woods and throw it into the woods and just shoot and hang Stuff like that, so that’s been awesome. But otherwise, I’m a humongous nerd What’s your favorite?

No, you said Final Fantasy we’re gonna lead in with that what my favorite like games are Yeah, like Final Fantasy is my favorite Final Fantasy 10 Final Fantasy 7 Final Fantasy 9 Chrono Trigger was huge for me when I was growing up. It was like this old Super Nintendo RPG Yeah, a lot of RPG games like Kingdom Hearts. I like anything with a really good story to it I love the narrative not really into like the Call of Duty and like the grinding for levels like that If it doesn’t have a good story, I’m out.

[Darran]
But yeah, I’m a huge nerd Speaking of stories you mentioned anime. What is your favorite anime top anime? You can watch over and over and over and over and over again Death Note, honestly, I guess no.

[Homemade In Space]
Yeah How crazy the whole philosophy behind it got, you know But really into Attack on Titan, I am just really mad at them. I’m about to read the manga and just They’ve been just holding out on this ending to the story for like two years now, but Naruto is really inspirational to me, too Yeah, a lot of my songwriting inspiration comes from Naruto Like let’s take this little weak melody this little like boy that nobody likes and then become Hokage become giant baseline You know like you remember me that little dinky piano riff in the beginning now, I’m like for serum patches like wow That’s really inspirational to me but yet Death Note, Attack on Titan I grew up on Dragon Ball Z and stuff like that and Outlaw Star and Gundam But like I don’t like Dragon Ball Z.

I look back and I’m like, this is the most poorly written shit I’ve ever seen Goku dies. Goku eats Senzu bean, comes back, gets wished back to life Powers up even more, defeats enemy But yeah, those are my favorite animes for sure Is there anything else you want to let our DJ Sessions fans know about before we let you go? No Local promoters holler at me.

I’d love to come to your town. I’d love to come to Seattle That’s one of my most listened to towns. I know that’s where you said you’re out of Played in Seattle once before but yeah holler at me And I just have this album coming out so stay tuned for the album Ghost Ride the Spaceship It’s my like debut album, debut concept album And I’m really stoked for that I’ve got some tracks coming out of some really cool labels coming out soon as well and some more cool collabs with all sorts of dope people and then if you’re in the Colorado area, please just Come on down and check out the show on August 19th at Cervantes because we’re bringing in loads of production I’m dumping out all the Forbidden IDs that And all the crazy stupid remixes from Cardi B, Led Zeppelin, The Queen to Tyler the Creator and all that stuff So it’s gonna be a heck of a night.

[Darran]
So don’t miss out on that if you’re in Colorado But yeah, I think that’s basically it Awesome, well, you know, we do have an exclusive mix that you’re gonna be giving us here, right?

[Homemade In Space]
Yes. Yes I just have to film that. Yeah, and my my webcam, I did it OBS stopped recording audio Nice I want to thank you for coming on the show.

[Darran]
It’s a pleasure having you I have a little technical difficulty here I’m my mouse my mouse kind of goes on the fritz and I have to unplug it and plug it back in So, yeah, that’s why I keep coming over to the side of the screen here But again, thank you for coming on the show. It’s a pleasure having you will definitely be following back up with you to Follow you and what you’re doing and hopefully yeah, we can see you in Seattle soon By the way, where can people find out more information about you when you what you got going on?

[Homemade In Space]
Also stay tuned to my Instagram my Spotify and Twitter and all that kind of stuff up mostly Instagram Awesome and that’s right below you right there.

[Darran]
It’s home made spaceship at Instagram. All right Awesome. Well Rob, thank you so much for coming on the series.

It was a pleasure having you Yeah on that note don’t forget to go to our website the DJ sessions comm find us on Twitter Facebook Insta Oh wait, no, I got to call it X now. It’s no more Twitter Find us on tik-tok all those places out there. But the best place to go is the DJ sessions comm You can find our mobile app.

You can find 24 hour 24 news stories a day over 600 news stories a month exclusive mixes live interviews Contest giveaways and more and over 2,400 episodes in our library of over 13 years of doing the show That’s at the DJ sessions comm. I’m your host Darran. That’s Rob or Homemade In Space coming in from Iowa I’m used to pointing that way But coming in from Denver, Colorado and I’m in Seattle in the virtual studios for the DJ sessions virtual sessions and remember on the DJ Sessions the music never stops.

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