AUDIO OF INTERVIEW
An enormous thank you to tay for cleaning up the audio file!
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Drew: Alright: it's just after noon central standard time on the 22nd of September 2025 and I'm talking with Michael Guy Bowman, who kindly agreed to an interview. Michael is an accomplished musician and performer with eleven albums and countless public performances under his belt. Starting with Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido all the way back in 2011, stretching to Your Majesty last year and Bowmanstuck a few months ago. Of course, he's well-known for his involvement in the webcomic Homestuck's music; most would agree music is indispensable to the Homestuck experience, and Michael's tracks have their fair share of dedicated fans, which we'll get into eventually. Michael, thank you again for taking the time to talk with me today.
Michael: Yes, very glad to be here.
D: Before we get into it, I did wanna make a couple of comments. I was doing my research ahead of time and everything, and on your website there’s an about page. On it there’s this picture of you in a suit sitting in a chair, and if I can say, just want to point out you look very sharp in this image, man. It’s very professional looking.
M: Thank you. Well you know, Alice and I made a little trip to Beijing over the summer, y’know, her, that’s actually where… have I mentioned that my wife Alice, we just got married this year and she grew up there. So, we needed to go do a little honeymoon trip and the obvious place to go was Beijing, so that we could go meet the family. She recommended this photo studio to us, so we have a ton of pictures as a couple in there, and that’s not even my suit. They had racks and racks full of clothes, and for one of the sets they put me in this suit with the great big lapels, which was awesome. I also gave them a photo for reference for like how I wanted my hair, they did the hair and stuff, it was really great.
D: Oh, it looks wonderful. So that’s a rather recent picture then? Wow.
M: Yeah, yeah, just from--we were there in June I guess, wow.
D: Wow. No, it looks wonderful man. And I guess, I also noticed that in your about section, you describe your songwriting as kind of eclectic, which I found amusing, and then you describe your musical style as a blend of retro rock and bedroom pop. And, I’m not very musically inclined myself, so I looked up this latter term, and apparently bedroom pop is about music which has the connotation of being produced in your own bedroom, as the name would imply. Do you actually do that for all your music, you just make it in your bedroom?
M: Well, I make it at home. It moved out of the bedroom ages ago, but there’s lots of, lots of indie, y’know, terms that basically just mean “indie” floating around, but I wanted to pick that specific one just to give people an idea of how indie it is. Um, I’ve seen people refer to this as DIY also, but I think DIY has the kinda connotation of like, um. More–the public setting, like oh, instead of going to a venue or like a stage or something, we threw a concert inside of someone’s backyard, or like a store that doesn’t normally put on shows. But like bedroom pop, while I don’t feel like I’m necessarily doing the kind of material you expect from really like, y’know, quiet vocal and soft pads and synths and a tiny little beat behind it that you might expect from that term, it does accurately describe the fact that I do this on my own in my home.
D: That’s fair, yeah. I mean the DIY aspect of it I had also seen, so I was curious because from what I’ve heard your music sounds professionally produced, like in a studio. That’s pretty cool though.
M: It’s cuz I’m a pro.
D: [laughing] I think that the, um, more independently creative talent is something that’s kinda integral to the Homestuck community at least. You know, we have the unofficial MSPA group that does music and everything, and that’s all very independently oriented, so I think that’s in keeping with the spirit of things a bit. But I did have actual questions, so I guess we’ll get into that now. We’ll start off pretty simple, so first question: how did you get into musicmaking and performing exactly?
M: Oh well, you know, I liked what my parents were doing professionally as I grew up. Mom and dad’s instruments are flute and trombone respectively, and when I was very young they were both still band directors, so I was in the classrooms that they taught in on occasion. I didn’t want to be a music educator like them, but I did get gradually more interested in composing and songwriting during the time that I took the kinds of classes that they would have been teaching at my own school, so I went into things like marching band and I took piano lessons at a very early age, and I did some musical theater too. I guess I kind of like solidified into this idea when I was a teenager, that I was really most interested in songwriting and production and kinda started to take that more seriously when I was out of the house and in college.
D: Okay.
M: Yeah, yeah. Took some influences from like pop music and stuff, got really into listening to records at 13.
D: That’s fair. And I billed myself as not being very musically inclined, which is half of a lie. I’m certainly not musically inclined now, but when I was younger I did also do some of the same stuff, I had piano lessons and I was in marching band and all that, but I don’t like performing in front of people, I assume that that’s a different case for you?
M: Well yeah, I do–I definitely still get stage fright and anxiety but you know, you kinda learn how to work with it, and that’s part of what comes with the territory, but you know I do like performing for people, so yeah.
D: You just kinda roll with the punches and stuff.
M: Yeah, you practice and that shores up some confidence that like, well, whatever happens out there I’ll be prepared for–there’s a teacher that said “set yourself up for the best outcome,” you know, for the best odds for the best outcome, so whatever happens you’ve at least, you know, got the odds in your favor by doing the work ahead of time.
D: Yeah, of course. Do you have any particular inspirations in your work, such as other artists or pieces of media?
M: Well, I think when I was first interested in like actually writing and composing I was probably spending more time trying to unpack the work of Phillip Glass when I was in middle school. I was studying Einstein on the Beach because I was fascinated at what a weird opera it was, and that was the first time I like really went out of my way to pick something kinda all by myself to study, and was like oh, it’s actually pretty simple to compose, especially if it’s just like this crazy mathematical process. And then when I was in high school that’s when I really got into David Bowie.
D: That sounds about right.
M: And–yeah, and then really started listening to pop records seriously, and lots of seventies stuff and new wave stuff, and I had been into like the Beatles and stuff when I was a kid, but I really went back and started listening to it and going like, you know these are like really amazing records and, you know, used the stuff that was online before there was Spotify and whatever. Before there was Pandora there was a service that was called Yahoo Music that Yahoo ran, that was like a streaming service where you could rate stuff like one to five stars and it would give you more stuff you like, and that’s how I got more into like, oh, well this is the kind of records I like. Kind of developed an interest in being an auteur songwriter like a lot of the stuff I was listening to back then. I guess I’m still pretty much on that track.
D: Sure, I mean, the influences that you describe–they make sense, especially since you describe yourself as kinda retro rock, y’know. No disagreement there obviously But, let’s see. So, I actually a couple of years ago managed to catch your Halloween-themed stream, which was actually quite a lot of fun. That made me think: do you have a favorite performance or event that you’ve performed at?
M: Probably the South by Southwest show, that was put together in 2011, there was actually a sort of series of performances, so I was invited to perform as an official artist at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin in 2012. This would have been April of 2012. I didn’t have a band at the time, and I was being invited pretty much just by someone who was a huge Homestuck fan, who I think their dad or something worked for one of the companies that put the thing on, so it was like a complete inside track. But I had no band and I didn’t really know what I was going to try to do live, so I assembled a backing band that consisted of other people I knew through Homestuck, so Erik Scheele, Marcy Nabors, Clark Powell, and then Riki Tsuji who later went on to do some music for Homestuck, who was a friend from Austin actually. And we put on this like series of shows, one was the official show that was at an actual venue, I think it was the Velveeta room. Then like one that really stuck out was like we did a full on DIY show in the backyard, and like brought out the, y’know, brought out the cosplayers and stuff from every corner of Austin. Brought them all to the backyard and threw this big outdoor bash, and that I think ended up sticking out the most of the things we did. It was really cool, because I think there was a sense that as a community these musicians–not even from the same part of the continent–were all coming together to make real the thing that people had only experienced online. And we did not just my tunes, but other people’s tunes too, so like a community effort, and that was a real big deal. It set the standard.
D: Right. It kinda sounds like a big party to be honest.
M: It was a big party. There was a livestream, but it’s lost to the annals of time. Is that how it’s pronounced? Annals?
D: I can never remember myself, unfortunately, but let’s go with it.
M: It’s lost to the buttholes of time.
D: Oh boy. Uh, we’re going–
M: If any of you can find it… yeah. [laughs]
D: Oh man. [laughs] Okay, well, speaking of other performances as well, which I sorely wish that we had any recording of that performance, but we do have more recent recordings of you at the Requiem cafe, and then more recently at Promstuck. To my knowledge, you’re the only prominent Homestuck musician who’s involving themselves in fandom events in such a manner. Do you have any particular feelings about this?
M: Well, you know, it feels weird being out there on my own, but I don’t think most people that are involved in the old Music Team or from the westcoast–I think most people are from pretty much the midwest and the east coast. I would love to see them go out there and just play their stuff, cuz I think they kind of lowball their own value and how much people look up to them and treasure their stuff. Given that I did so many things that like are vocal driven, it’s easy for me to just be like, well, you know, how do I just do this, just acoustic guitar? And show up and crash a convention? You know, so I’ve been able to do that. But the chance to do these things like the Requiem thing, like I put on a whole show, like I really get busy with it and make sure it’s actually gonna be a good show even if it’s just me playing with backing tracks. It’s been a super great opportunity cuz I can tell how absolutely stoked anyone is to have that tangible connection to the material. It no longer feels like some thing that just emerged from the aether, it’s a chance to [laughs] bro down and rock out.
D: Well, speaking as someone who lives near Kansas City in the middle of the Great Plains, I definitely agree with that; there’s almost nothing that happens here of note, if anything. So it would be pretty sweet to see you and other people all form up, you know, kind of in an ad hoc manner and just throw a nice Homestuck-themed party or something.
M: Oh I’d love to. I’d have to find venues and stuff that can put it on, y’know, but now I am starting to get a feel for the idea that if I like really just, you know, made it a goal and could pick out venues in specific places and had like a significant amount of time to drum up interest I could probably figure it out. They planned that Requiem, the very first one, with like one month of announcement and totally sold out day one, and then had people showing up to the place for an entire month, it’s not like there isn’t demand for stuff for people to show up to.
D: That’s a really quick turnaround, just one month to get all that stuff organized.
M: I mean they of course organized the actual like stuff that they were gonna do on the inside probably over a longer time frame but like, one month of lead-in time to pack the house is pretty amazing.
D: Yeah, for sure. I guess as a followup to all of that: are there any other members of the music team that you talk to with some regularity?
M: Well I keep a couple of them posted. The most vocal persons turned out to be Tensei, whose first name I’m not gonna attempt to pronounce cuz I’ve never tried before. [laughs]
D: [laughing]
M: Isn’t Tensei just a nickname? You know, I never thought to ask all this stuff.
D: Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s just a screen name.
M: The things we could work out if we knew each other in person. [laughs]
D: [laughs] The uh–
M: He’s pretty active so it’s–once in a while I’ll chitchat and be like “Hey, did you hear about this?” and he’ll be like “Oh, yeah.”
D: Oh, he’s been an active member from the Homestuck Discord for a long time, I always like talking to him. We actually, when I was streaming a couple of times he’d join me on call and make fun of me, it was, y’know. That was ages ago though, seven or eight years at this point. But nah, he’s a cool guy. But I guess, since we’re talking about Homestuck now: the pilot for Homestuck, the animation, is scheduled to release later this week on the 27th actually. If it’s picked up for production and the opportunity arises, would you like to be involved with the animated series?
M: Oh yes, yes, absolutely. That would be like a big break. I’m a little–I am still a little surprised that there was like, y’know, no info that this was like a thing in development, and that the announcement is like a public announcement, it’s always weird to be the last person to know about something or at least just, y’know, not be treated as an insider. But, I saw the QA or at least a little bit of the QA where they’re saying they’re interested in working in the original music somehow, and that’s interesting to me. That would be a really cool thing to make good on. Especially–you know, not just for myself but because like people are going like “well, that’s like the other missing ingredient to the whole thing,” and they don’t take it for granted.
D: Right.
M: Yeah. And of course everyone wants like, with the amount of like drought of content there’s been, for years, now there’s like the sequel comic and forums and a Discord and all this stuff, and really like bringing it to a major–at least higher budget adaptation is definitely the next step, and it’s getting everybody excited and interested in the whole thing again. That’s a good thing overall, I’d just like to be involved in that some way.
D: Yeah, of course. And I mean, this announcement took us all kind of off guard, y’know. I remember distinctly that first hour afterwards was just this hodgepodge of reactions where people were intensely confused and in disbelief, actually. It’s only 11 minutes long and I get the feeling that they just play their cards close to the chest as it is; that having been said, it still would have been nice for more insiders to know about it, but who can say what the future holds?
M: You know, I’ll approach this in good faith that they’re serious about trying to do the best version of this they possibly can. I think people are just used to the drought, it’s gonna take seeing some nice things happen for people to really believe it.
D: Oh yeah, I mean even with the sequel comic coming out, that announcement–all of those announcements in the last couple of months have been like a deluge in comparison to what we’re used to. But I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to see what happens, right?
M: Mhm.
D: Well, I guess that’s all I had for Homestuck for now, maybe we’ll revisit it in a second, but I guess considering everything that’s happened: if you had a second chance at choosing to involve yourself in Homestuck, would you do anything different?
M: [laughs] Andrew’s been pretty firm about the whole “zero regrets” thing, so I guess I kind of have to be too. I don’t know. Maybe write even more pony music?
D: Oh my gosh.
M: If I had known that was gonna be like the center of culture for a few years maybe. [laughs]
D: It has its fair share of fans, that’s for sure.
M: I’ll tell you this one thing, right. So the early idea: we seed in all these instruments for each of the kids, right? Starting with John on the piano and then everyone else. And then the thing that was proposed for us to work toward that we’re gonna hear, y’know, John play piano and Rose play the violin, et cetera et cetera, and then eventually we’ll hear music that’s like the demos the four children are working on together. That would have been like a cool album concept to work toward? And definitely a way to create a sense of culmination, because there are like themes that are sort of associated with the characters, and the instruments are semi-associated, but it kind of falls apart over time as more and more threads get added to the story. So being able to use the music half of it to tie everything together would have been cool.
D: Yeah no, it adds some serious coherency to the whole thing, y’know? I mean as far as the kids playing music together, there is that album, I believe it’s One Year Older? It’s been a long time since I’ve last listened to it.
M: Oh Erik’s? Yeah.
D: Yeah. And all the kids have their own instruments they’re playing and that kind of ties into what you’re saying I think, but you make it sound more kind of like they’re in a rock band together, or something, right?
M: Right. I mean generally there was this fake band idea that it was like, “oh, y’know, Homestuck’s world will be populated by like groups like Gorillaz,” you know, that are these virtual bands where they’ll be in the comic for a moment and you’ll have the record come out, and it’ll be like if you want to know more about what their vibe is, here’s this product. We semi-did that with Midnight Crew and the Felt and the Squiddles is sort of that, and my first album Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido is sort of an attempt to do that that never really got picked up, because Andrew didn’t really offer any concepts of their own to work into the thing. So it just ended up on a totally weird tangent with these characters that I ended up having to invent myself, because no concepts were ever offered for what I was supposed to be doing. There were probably more ways to do–to satisfy this concept of fake bands that are piloted within the comic and then evolve into music projects that people can go around to the bandcamp and listen to. You know, just the general syncretism between the music and the visuals would have been nice to reinforce that way. And honestly, if we could have just kept recording more and more music and releasing it in general.
D: Well, it’s rare to have that feeling with people where they are just so eager to make more music, y’know? Cuz like very occasionally I’ve felt like making my own and never got very far just because I don’t feel that creative or had no real ideas to work with, but you guys just pumped that stuff out for a long time.
M: Well the comic just gives you so much material. You know you look at like animes and stuff, and a lot of them will just like have boatloads of these records that they put out as part of the franchise. Like I can think back on when I was really really really into Digimon as a kid, I found out that in Japan, did you know there’s like a record for each kid and each Digimon from the show, y’know?
D: So you were a Digimon kid then, okay. [laughs]
M: Oh yeah. It turns out that the great disappointment of being an American Digimon fan is discovering that the Japanese show has different and definitely better music, or at least music that they take way more seriously than the American stuff. There’s a couple of American songs from the show that are good but there’s so much music for the Japanese Digimon franchise and it’s all really really good. And I guess it shows you that there’s ways to explore the themes from a piece of media that’s constantly offering you cool characters and cool designs and cool locations, y’know. I think what we were doing with the project was going like, y’know, let’s find any little thing and make a song out of it. And there is so much material honestly, it felt like the kind of thing that we could just do forever if we really wanted to.
D: Wow. Well, some of us I’m sure hope that it can go on forever, or just as long as possible. But I guess in that vein, as far as your own work is concerned, in ten or twenty years when you’re looking back at your career, what would you like to see?
M: Oh. More and bigger, I guess. [laughs]
D: [laughing] Well, what else would it be, right?
M: Yeah, you know. I’d like to be able to devote more time to music so I can be as prolific as I want to be. Like, at this point I have so many–I’ll have a day where I’ll remember a song idea and go “gee, when did I think of that?” and it’ll be like 2015. So at this point I have like a Google Sheet with the list, any time I remember a song idea I never got around to I put it on the list and go, well, I guess I’m getting to it.
D: So you’ve got a laundry list of stuff then.
M: Yes, it’s very long. It’s kind of like, okay, well when I can find the time to devote a month or however long it takes to really do it right, to this or that song, I guess I’ll get to it. It would be nice to clear the list, it would be nice to do higher concept stuff instead of just like collecting songs around a theme or a vibe. Cuz you know, I do have a background in musical theater and stuff, so I’ve seen higher concept stuff I could do if I had a significant amount of time to spend on it. For me, I guess, what I’d like to look back on is a further development and a chance to, I guess, play live more? To get back to playing live with the band, and maybe like just in general more local involvement, like I like doing the internet thing, but as I’m going out and meeting artists locally, I’m going like hey, well, here are the songwriters, here are the people that like playing. I wanna be around the scenes and stuff where people hang out and appreciate music just because it’s like fun to do, and they get to be part of the rock and roll vibe as opposed to just sitting around online all day. I mean I’ve done so much of that already.
D: Right, I mean it’s a totally different energy. I don’t generally go to concerts, but the few I’ve been to are just insanity. But even–it’s very different even from the Halloween stream I mentioned where it looked like that was extremely technical to organize and make it happen in real time, y’know? Like I’m sure you had lots of bells and whistles going on to make sure that all went smoothly right?
M: Yeah, I think with these shows I’ve been doing between that and like the Requiem shows, and Promstuck, I’ve given myself a month to really get it together that it like, y’know, is really humming by the time I put it up.
D: Right, right. I hope you get to do more live performances and stuff, I mean have you been doing a lot of live stuff outside of the more visible events?
M: Yeah, I’ve done a gig in town playing for a retirement center right now, which is fun.
D: Oh.
M: I already like old stuff and then I, y’know, meet somebody that’s like 95 years old and have to get in their head and be like well god, what do they listen to, like Rosemary Clooney? [laughing] The Inkspots? You really have to think back.
D: Oh man. I’m sure it’s very different, but I’m–that’s really sweet, you just go perform for the retirement homes in your area and stuff?
M: Yeah, well that’s one gig, and then there’s great little open mic scenes. I posted some videos recently of a thing that’s happening at the Lucca Bar and Grill at Benecia, which is starting to mount a songwriter night. I like going to like the tiny stuff like that and just studying honestly, y’know. It’s nice to be around people I think of as like my peers on that sort of thing and go god, well how do they engage with an audience, how do they write songs that keep people involved, what works, what kinda misses people. Like, I have a lot of respect for everybody else that’s doing this stuff, and I kinda just want to learn how to make what I do better, and more engaging.
D: Yeah. Well, I’ve always had this impression of you as being very much a career musician [laughing], and none of this has convinced me otherwise. No, that’s wonderful stuff man. Alright: on Thursday last week you actually released a brand new single: A Beautiful Forever, which features copious amounts of footage from your wedding earlier this year. Which, my belated congratulations to you both.
M: Thank you.
D: Yeah. I’ve actually seen the rest of the footage for that as well, it looked fantastic. It’s clear you put your heart into that song for obvious reasons, and it has this pronounced disco feel that’s really up my alley.
M: Right, well you know, I wanted to do something specifically for my wedding reception. I knew I wanted to perform a piece of music and I wanted it to be personal for Alice, who’s like a huge, y’know, was already a huge fan. So I had to make an original piece and we ended up, I think at every turn where we were working on our own wedding, kind of like veering into these disco balls as decoration. I think we both had pretty much settled in on that as a visual motif. So I was already kind of in the mood for that. I guess when I sat down at the piano in the time leading up to it, with this conscious decision that I was going to write her a song, that was one of the thoughts in the mix, was couldn’t I do something that kind of the dancey upbeat feel that might go into the kind of party music that goes at a wedding, I picked my own playlist for that and everything. But dance music I think is right up the alley for that. So, I like listened to Hot Chocolate and some other soul and disco records from back then for reference when I started to take the chords and lyrics I was working on, set them to an actual produced track and, y’know, really used that stuff as a reference when I was tracking it out. I develop the stuff out of the instruments first and bring it into the program and start arranging around it.
D: Right, okay. You did put a lot of heart into it. And I’m sure it goes without saying, but it seems she likes it as well, right?
M: Yes, very proud of it. In the video I try to include at least one or two cutaways to her at the ceremony, because you know we had our wedding videographers and stuff there, sitting there and just very pleased and very amused at our sweetheart table and friend table. She’s been stoked about it pretty much since. It took a while to get it out because it took a while for us to get footage back and just to even schedule finishing up the track, but it basically is as you heard it all the way back in January. Just, now it’s done actually getting polished off.
D: Right, right. It does look very polished now. No, it’s a lovely new single, and I’m glad you were able to share it with everybody.
M: Thank you.
D: Yeah. Do you have further comments you might want to add about it, just anything you can think of?
M: Oh, just that I’m very very proud of it. [laughs]
D: [laughs] Yeah, no it’s clear.
M: Oh, and people should like listen to it, y’know.
D: Oh, yeah of course.
M: I mean it’s on everything. The video is really good, it’s on Youtube and the video–the video is my edit, but the videographers, the name of the company is Amari Productions, and they’re based out here in the Bay. They’re really really good, they gave me their own wedding video cut that’s just like my private one, but this is… I wanted to do a special public one. So it took a while to go back in. You know, I think they’re really good at what they do [laughing] actually, going through and editing from their footage. I’m like hey, you know, they did a good job working with this. The grading they did is so good, I’m like copying, going like “Oh, maybe I could copy their grading,” maybe I wanna do it my own way, I don’t know.
D: Oh yeah. When I was first watching the footage–Alice had linked me to it, which was very nice of her–I was kind of blown away by how comprehensive the visuals were, they must have a ton of time just making sure everything was set up right and filming it properly, y’know?
M: Yeah, they were with us all day. We had this crazy thing where Alice’s makeup took forever to get done, and we ended up missing a slot where we were supposed to take pictures together. So I don’t know if you know my buddy Scott at all, but we ended up taking up a slot that should have been couple’s photos just goofing around in the frickin’ courtyard together. There’s way too much footage of us just having time to kill and doing dumb poses. Maybe I should post some of it.
D: Yeah, maybe.
M: The videographers were like “touch each other’s faces” and we’re like, “Do you normally ask people to do that?”
D: [laughing] Oh my gosh.
M: “Nah, but you two just seem like good friends.” Like, okay. [laughing]
D: Yeah, just lightly touch each other’s cheeks, that’ll do it perfectly.
M: We did some stupid shit, it was really funny.
D: Well, I’m just glad that everything turned out okay and that you were able to channel your creativity into such a personal project, y’know?
M: Well, I always look back at my stuff and I can remember little bits of my life through looking at it like kind of a scrapbook, and in a more oblique way when I’m doing kind of like more abstract art or stuff where I’m inventing characters or whatever. To do something that’s just like actually with my own life in it, it’s nice to actually commemorate it in a more real way.
D: Yeah, of course.
M: Might show–show my descendants.
D: Yeah, nice treat for the children eventually. Well, that’s great. I’m curious: do you have any upcoming release or events that you’d like to share beyond that?
M: Beyond A Beautiful Forever? You know, at this point I’ve got one thing in the docket, there’s like a song that’s potentially going in an indie game, but like there’s no release date on it yet, so I’m just gonna keep that under my hat. Everything else, I’m trying to figure out how to pace out my personal responsibilities with the rest of my life now with music, and there’s a lot going on actually. This year I think I spent so much time on the live performance stuff, and other things that are going on within the first year of marriage.
D: Right.
M: I haven’t been able to just sit down and do the thing where you just come home every night and just work on music for hours on end and don’t talk to anybody, so it’s hard to get back into the pace of things and plan something like an entire album cycle. So, right now I’m kind of more interested in individual singles and saying well here’s an idea that I wouldn’t necessarily do if I was having to plan like ten other songs to package it with and not release it for months as I develop the thing. I kinda wanna figure out, could I be doing singles that are in styles I’ve never tried before, or could I do collaborations with people I’ve wanted to collaborate with? So generally I’m just kind of looking at what my options are. And also I’m kind of looking at other things that are happening, like trying to move my stuff to physical media. So that takes a little time to develop too. Generally I just kinda want to like, get to all the things that are not finished involving archiving and making my work more accessible to people.
D: Right, right. And with the move to physical media as well, I didn’t buy a physical copy of Your Majesty, but I’ve got my copy of Bowmanstuck sitting on my computer desk right now actually, so–
M: Hell yeah, me too!
D: [laughs] No I mean, people were very excited for that for obvious reasons, but I mean. You know, as far as keeping stuff under your hat is concerned, I’m sure there’s–I mean, even just with what you’ve said there’s so much that goes into organizing it, but I guess I won’t pry you for more details at the moment. I’m excited though, it’ll be nice to see what you make in the future, man.
M: Mhm, thank you.
D: Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now, maybe in the future there’ll be cause to have another interview like this. But the last thing: do you have any music recommendations for your own fans or anything else you’d like to say to them?
M: Music recommendations? Let’s see. The stuff I’ve been listening to lately, I feel like I put so much emphasis on how much I like old music, but lately in the effort to listen to some current stuff, I notice that I have a habit of listening to vibey, sad girl indie pop. [laughs]
D: [laughs] Okay.
M: I really got into the new TOPS record, Bury the Key. Oh, and I really like this lady from England whose name is Laura Groves, she has a wonderful album called Radio Red, I think she just put out a new EP too. She’s really amazing. You know, there’s–I think I’m seeing like a trend toward a synth-driven thing that’s just very chill that I like, and I guess I’m listening to a lot of women doing it. I’m not sure how much more modern I want to make what I do, but when I see stuff like that or hear it, I kinda go like “oh, there’s something there I like.” As far as other recommendations, y’know, my peers, the other musicians from the little Homestuck music team have their stuff up, you might wanna check it out. Did you know that Mark Hadley is still making video games?
D: [laughs] No–I didn’t know that he was making video games in general. Although–
M: You didn’t know that? You know he made that Slenderman game, you remember that?
D: … He made that?
M: That Slender–yeah, that Slenderman game from 2012.
D: The original, you go around collecting pages and shit?
M: Yeah yeah, The Eight Pages or whatever it's called.
D: No way!
M: Yeah, he’s like… [laughing] he’s still around and he’s still making video games. He’s been teasing me like, “oh, I’m working on a thing about a library where you go around collecting books.” And I’m like, hey, this kinda sounds like Slenderman again.
D: [laughing] Well…
M: I guess if anyone was gonna do that, it’d be you.
D: Oh, that’s–that’s crazy man. I mean, that’s not maybe surprising to a lot of people. You know that I’m engaging in a project where I write down everything in the Homestuck community I can think of because my memory is crap, [laughing] so, it’s possible I heard Mark Hadley did that at some point and just forgot, but being told now is still mindblowing. I guess, what you’ve described does sound a bit more like that concept, but still, that’s crazy man.
M: Yeah, he’s still around. You know, I want to boot up the computer that runs Windows around here and try all his games out, because they’re all on Steam, I think his company name is Parsec Productions. He’s still going by AgentParsec like he did back in the old days.
D: Wow.
M: And, yeah. I want to see what he’s up to.
D: Okay. Well, I’ll definitely have to check that out–I never played the original Slenderman game but I’m sure he’s got some other stuff that I’d probably like a bit more.
M: Yeah, full disclosure I was pretty busy back then.
D: [laughing]
M: But it would be pretty nice to check that out.
D: Yeah, alright. Well, thank you very much man. That’s all I’ve got for you today. As far as Michael Guy Bowman is concerned, uh–do you wanna plug your own stuff? Like, where can we find it? I know it’s on Bandcamp of course.
M: Yeah, you can find the links and everything on my website which is just michaelguybowman.com, “a” before “e,” I know that Michael is like, y’know, an unusual name, but it’s very common, people should know that it’s spelled with the a before the e. But yes, it’s spelled with the a before the e. But yes, michaelguybowman.com. You can find links to all the music and stuff, I’ve got a new video up for A Beautiful Forever, you mentioned that. My preference is people stream it on Spotify or Youtube or whatever service I’ve got it up on, and put those microtransactions cents [laughing] in my pocket over the course of years, I guess.
D: Right.
M: But also to buy it and support it on Bandcamp, that’s my preferred vendor for if you want to really like do your part here.
D: Yeah, of course. Alright man, well, thank you again for joining me today, I really appreciate it.
M: Thank you, this was really cool.
D: Alrighty, well, I guess we’re good. That feels like it went really nice.