This episode of the villin podcast features a conversation with Ira Rat. If you're scanning his solo work, you're going to hear some lo-fi experimental music, but as I learned in our discussion, he's also released music as one half of Neon Lushell, which then led me down a rabbit hole where I learned of other past recording projects including Tape Ends, Black-Eyed Kids, and Vicar Elm. This isn't to mention the labels Drug Arts or Workerbee Records, which speak to another large area of focus for him, surrounding helping others release their own work.

Based in Ames, Iowa, Ira Rat has also leaned in on publishing through his Filthy Loot press, but he's also worked within mediums such as graphic design, video, and performance, in addition to his own writing. Oh, he's also a podcaster, where he's released 20 episodes of his Not Worth Living series, which features a one-sided conversation with other creatives, aimed to feel like eavesdropping on a psychiatrist visit. In our own conversation we talk a little about how that series came to be and what he gets out of it, but along the way we wind through a twisting road of discussion which leads us through topics such as Throbbing Gristle and industrial music, black magick and the esoteric arts, and the paradox of choice and the problematic aspects of having an infinite buffet of media available to us at all times.

(00:00) - Introduction
(01:24) - Manufacturing Scarcity in Art
(03:22) - Greatest Hits
(05:01) - Aleister Crowley
(06:40) - The Aesthetic of Black Magick
(08:14) - Big in Japan / Music Blogging
(09:55) - Experimental Music
(12:43) - Ritual as Performance / Throbbing Gristle
(14:05) - Performing Live / Zines
(16:20) - Exposure to Alternative Music
(20:27) - The Paradox of Choice
(23:02) - Reviewing Music
(25:48) - The Democratization of Music
(27:16) - Ian Svenonius / Disposability of Music
(29:32) - The Value Behind the Search for Music
(32:19) - Letting Go of Personal Work
(35:38) - Filthy Loot
(38:25) - Being an "Artist"
(39:36) - Nurturing an Audience on Social Media
(42:58) - Podcasting
(46:03) - Other People's Creative Processes
(48:53) - Running Against the Clock
(51:36) - Artists Final Works
(53:42) - Overanalyzing Art