The Self Portrait Gospel :: Podcast

Barnes has been incredibly busy all summer long with AFC-related projects and performances, their recent split cassette collaboration with LA-based duo Law, and the transcendental takeover of the beloved Gun Outfit all across the West Coast. But with all the excitement of our present times comes the feverish feedback of the past's poetic prolificacy. Barnes takes us through the process and atmospheric approach of perhaps one of AFC's most beloved releases, 1999's "Circuits". A brilliant body of work that captivates the human consciousness, the album eagerly explores monumental melodies, centuries of cosmic communication, and the fundamentals of folklore magic.
Featuring beloved songs like "Eyes That Shine", Nico's "Desert Shore" classic "Janitor Of Lunacy", "The Grey Funnel Line", and of course "Edward", Barnes walks us through the organic process of working alongside longtime collaborators and creative colleagues Tara "Tikki" Tavi, Joel Connell, Erika Anderson, and several others, to capture the profound purity, and timelessness of this metaphysical masterpiece.

From one end of the shore of some spiritually secluded sanctuary, resides a melodic memory of a time that has long since passed. Where world-renowned National Geographic photographers carefully captured the elemental essence of the natural world, a melodic meditation was eventually born from its atmospheric ashes. LA-based psych pirates and students of the sonic sunset Allah-Las have been creatively conjuring their blissful brand of surf sounds and intimate instrumental breaks for nearly two decades.
A local favorite, and a soothing staple in their community and culture, the Allah-Las have become an incredible institution for their generation's backdrop, while simutaneously representing as a conduit for the melodic magic of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture. We sit down to talk with Miles Michaud about the band's origins, their epic explorations in music, world travel, Bob Dylan's Patreon, the band's latest effort, "Sirenas," which is set for release on the Brooklyn-based label Mexican Summer in late August, and much more.

Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter, teacher, and DJ, Jeffery Silverstein, first came on the scene during his participation in groups such as the Brooklyn-based duo Nassau and Baltimore's Secret Mountains, before releasing his 2020 solo debut "You Become The Mountain." Since living in "Rose City," he has carefully crafted his atmospheric artisry within the cinemtaic cascades of spiritual soundscapes and the liberating landscapes that make up the cosmic country community, and beyond. Following up on his 2023 sophomore album "Western Sky Music," Silverstein returns to the sonic surface with perhaps his most eagerly ecstatic effort yet, 2026's debut on the London-based label Full Time Hobby, "Doggone." 
On this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, we sit down with Silverstein to talk about the unique universe of friends and collaborators he's built in his Pacific Northwest, private press record rarities, finding one's voice, working with muscians like Dana Buoy (Akron/Family), Ryan Oxford (Y La Bamba, Rose City Band), and Devendra Banhart, to name a few, touring London, and Sweden with Bobby Lee, no not the comedian, and much more.

Bulverde, Texas-based singer-songwriter, producer, and beverage connoisseur, Jerry David DeCicca, has been intimatley involved in music for more than two decades, tending the gardens of a creative career that has seen him both on the scene as well as behind it, working with folks such as our mutual friend Ralph E. White, Larry Jon Wilson, Bob Martin, and our main focal point for this episode of The Self Portrait Gospel Podcast, the late great Edward Crane Askew. Having met each other over a decade ago, the dynamic duo not only toured together on the release of 2013's "For The World," but have since secured a friendship that has explored melody, memory, philosophy, and the poetic production of sound.
After a decade between projects, DeCicca and Askew's paths crossed again for what would soon become the legend's last breath of melodic meditation on life and death, 2026's "The Final Painting". A postumous masterpiece that echoes from the artistic afterlife, DeCicca sits down to chat with us about his personal and professional relationship with the late artist, the overall process, and approach to the album's metamorphosis from one song to another, and critical contributions from the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Eve Searls, Canaan Faulkner, Bill Callahan, William Tyler, Ryan Jewell, Dustin Laurenzi, and Fulvio Sigurta. With another single out on June 22nd, the album is set for release on the beloved Drag City on July 31st in all its gripping glory. "The Final Painting" may be Askwe's last album, but the metaphysical mist will soon clear, eventually revealing a body of work that truly stands the test of time.

Longtime friend and cosmic collaborator on such works as 1997's "Thorny Path" and 2024's "Rising Phoenix" Erik Shumpert, and his twin brother Paul first met Snarb in the early 1980s, and would soon all move in together in a tiny, historic abode on Brooks St. in LA county where Barnes had been laying down some of Amps For Christ's earlier works like "Plains Of Alluvial," and "Beggars Garden." Influenced by the West Coast punk explosion, Thorn takes us through the melodic memories of Claremont's thriving community of creative culture, catching some of the most influential acts of the Hardcore/Punk scene, recording the infamous track "Pain Of The Fire," and receiving spiritual schooling from Barnes and his unique universe of electronic ecstasy.