the Wikkid podcast
church upbringing gone wrong, depression... and music
About the show
Being raised in a strict fundamentalist Christian group in the 1980s can cause some very predictable problems. Depression can be a Christian teenager's most constant companion despite church promises to the contrary. Dark humour, and even darker music, can help. This podcast is centered around the songs I wrote to deal back then, and what happened when I then picked away at recording workable versions of them for decades.
contact me with questions and comments at [email protected] or on Twitter @WikkidPerson
the Wikkid podcast on social media
Episodes
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Episode 26: A Coming Together of Lives
November 10th, 2021 | Season 3 | 51 mins 24 secs
bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, jay semko, lam, like a motorcycle, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, the northern pikes, therapeutic
An influx of new voices into the podcast is announced, including my elusive sister, my old bandmate Troy, and Jay Semko, singer, songwriter and bass player for The Northern Pikes, and a host of others. Three ways people tend to deal with conflict. Writing songs. A revisiting of what's been asserted by the podcast thus far.
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Episode 28: Vultures In The Sky
November 17th, 2021 | Season 3 | 1 hr 26 mins
bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, jay semko, like a motorcycle, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, the northern pikes, therapeutic
Death In Tiny Spoonfuls: An album/novel concept that centers around entropy, death and impermanence. The value of an outside perspective from someone new. How would your church have seemed to an outsider wandering in? Music production discussion with Jay Semko of The Northern Pikes.
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Episode 27: The Walking Dead
November 24th, 2021 | Season 3 | 1 hr 58 mins
a whole bunch of musings on alcohol, from people who sell it, to people who grew up in farm country where some people applied it hourly., to rock stars who drank too much of it
A whole bunch of musings on alcohol, from people who sell it, to rock stars who drank too much of it, to people who grew up in farm country where some people applied it internally, hourly.
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Episode 29: The Magic Castle
December 1st, 2021 | Season 3 | 1 hr 43 mins
bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic
Do you have a problem with rules, especially ones that have never been put into words? Is Christianity about hiding one's self away in a church to keep spiritually safe? What would Frank Zappa have to say?
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Episode 30: What You Want
December 8th, 2021 | Season 3 | 1 hr 52 mins
bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, jay semko, kim carson, like a motorcycle, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, the northen pikes, therapeutic
A fun one about high school, and what was cool, and why we weren't. Popped collars, Ralph Lauren rugby shirts, boat shoes, depression and all the rest of it.
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Episode 31: Red Sweater
December 15th, 2021 | Season 3 | 2 hrs 19 mins
angel desantis, bible, children of god, christianity, cults, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic
A silly little song, a violent bible reading and a very unfunny revisiting of messed up church attitudes about sex, with Angel DeSantis talking in detail in the middle of the episode about being born into and growing up in The Children of God/The Family, a pedophile sex cult. (warning, this episode contains a trigger warning, and trigger warnings in and of themselves are found to increase stress and alarm.)
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Episode 32: The Voice of Death
January 19th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 56 mins
angel desantis, bible, children of god, christianity, cults, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic
Pleasure, joy and happiness. Targets for offense, shame and "correction"? Why? Is getting annoyed about anything that brings other people joy, but not you, more common than we want to admit? Idols.
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Episode 33: Just A Kid
February 2nd, 2022 | Season 3 | 2 hrs 21 mins
angel desantis, bible, children of god, christianity, cults, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic
Kids these days! Having your perspectives and concerns invalidated in a church circle if you were in your 20s, hadn't got married and had kids. Have modern kids been coddled? (yes). Can we do anything about that? (probably not.) The importance of bike rides. Boredom as the mother of invention, and if there's insufficient boredom?
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Episode 34: Get 'Em Out
February 16th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 35 mins
angel desantis, bible, children of god, christianity, cults, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, jay semko, john douglas, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, the northern pikes, therapeutic
Is evil a thing? Are some people, and do some people do, evil? (What did John Douglas, the man who invented the profiling of serial killers for the FBI think?) When you realize your fear and disgust, respect and acceptance responses are programmed into you.
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Episode 35: Please Come With Us
March 2nd, 2022 | Season 3 | 2 hrs 28 mins
angel desantis, bible, children of god, christianity, cults, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic
Getting the boot or walking away from one's birth culture. Doesn't matter whether you're fundamentalist Christian, Orthodox Jewish, Muslim, Sikh or Mormon... it's quite the mind effword. A bunch of stories, including people who were excommunicated and shunned for being gay. An elaborate music collaboration manages to get the song done two hours before the podcast airs...
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Episode 36: Why Not?
March 16th, 2022 | Season 3 | 2 hrs 26 mins
bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, jay semko, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, the northern pikes, therapeutic
What's it like to experience suicidal ideation? Many people do. Finding a good answer to the question "Why not?" Why does writing and singing and recording about dark thoughts help them go away? Everyone needs to deal with death in some form, from time to time. What works? Jay Semko of The Northern Pikes and I go over songs he's written that tell "a pretty dark story, but with a happy tune." Where was all the bliss supposed to come from, in Christianity? Troy reveals his favourite jokey stuff I've recorded. I record George playing drums in my living room. Singing into the corner of a room. I strum guitars with a razorblade for a pick.
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Episode 37: Disappointed
March 30th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 53 mins
bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, jay semko, kim carson, like a motorcycle, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, the northern pikes, therapeutic
What makes you really feel alive? What makes you feel like you're sleepwalking through a living death? The importance of play. What works when you feel like crap? Where does inspiration come from?
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Episode 38: Friday Night
April 13th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 48 mins
bible, christianity, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, jay semko, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, the northern pikes, therapeutic
If you had a chance to sit down of an evening and have a chat with the residents of a community graveyard, what would you ask them? The Guy Code. GenXers sorry to get everything we always wanted. People who will move heaven and earth to avoid having conversations that need to be had.
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Episode 39: Beware the Cripple (part 1)
April 27th, 2022 | Season 3 | 2 hrs 25 mins
angel desantis, bible, children of god, christianity, cults, depression, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic
It's pretty hard to talk to people when they've got you cast in a different story from the one you feel you're living. Religious groups that split up family relationships. Trying to interact with family and friends from a group that's kicked you out of it. The difference between getting kicked out and leaving voluntarily.
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Episode 40: Beware the Cripple (part 2)
May 11th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 48 mins
bible, christianity, depression, exclusive brethren, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic
Recording cello. With fireworks. An in-depth interview with John, raised in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, the extremist offshoot of my own birth culture, which I have no real trouble calling an outright cult. Also much insight into the Mormon experience, from Natalie. South Park. Emailed drums. Spiritual cripples looking to hobble everyone nearby.
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Episode 41: The Dingo Song
May 25th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 41 mins
bible, christianity, depression, dr. demento, fundamentalism, guitar, hell, home recording, music, music production, parents, plymouth brethren, rapture, therapeutic, weird al yankovic
They're everywhere. You want to do your day, and they want to pull you in, online or uptown, into some kind of lecture, sermon or talk. Putting on the full armour of God and then claiming to be as thin-skinned as the princess from The Princess and the Pea. Friends: The One Where Ross Does Something Problematic. The shameless use of describing one's self in "light" (vs. "dark") and "awakened" (vs. "still asleep") terms. Fellowship: it's all about coffee, somehow, isn't it? (I don't like coffee.) Do digital or organic chipmunks sing better?