If you’re a fan of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, then you already know John Brennan! Long after you’ve forgotten what movies you watched, you’re still humming the legendary theme song he created. But what is John doing NOW that he’s driven away from the Drive-In…? Find out in this uplifting episode of the HorrorFam.com Podcast!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends! Spread the word!! You can also help support our content by becoming a Patron at Patreon.com/HorrorFam

LINKS for More John Brennan:

• John Brennan on YouTube (Including Free Episodes of Yuki & John’s Podcast Buffet): https://www.youtube.com/user/badtechno
• John Brennan on Twitter X: https://x.com/badtechno
• John Brennan on Instagram: https://instagram.com/badtechno
• Yuki & John’s Patreon Buffet: https://www.patreon.com/yukiandjohnspatreonbuffet
• Yuki & John’s Podcast/Patreon Buffet on Twitter X: https://x.com/patreonbuffet
• Yuki & John’s Podcast/Patreon Buffet on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yukiandjohnspatreonbuffet/
• Purchase John Brennan’s Music (Including Songs Featured on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs): https://johnbrennan.bandcamp.com/
• For Anything Else John Brennan-Related: https://linktr.ee/badtechno

FULL Written Transcript: HorrorFam.com Podcast Interview with John Brennan

*HorrorFam.com Podcast Theme Music Plays*

Lauren Spear: Hi, Everyone! I’m Lauren Spear and this is the HorrorFam.com Podcast, episode number 26. And I might sound a little weird today because I’ve got a cold.

Hopefully, if I’ve done a good job, you won’t be hearing any of my gross snot noises because I’m going to try to edit those out.

But you know who always sounds great? This week’s guest: John Brennan!

You may know him as “Bad Techno” or “Johnny Bubba” or “John Brennan and the Bigfeet.” He’s a musical guy. And here he is!

John Brennan: Thank you so much for having me!!

You know, when you said the “gross snot noises,” I was tempted to open with my own gross snot noises. *laughs* But we’ll… we’ll keep it clean! Because nobody likes to be sick. And let’s pretend we’re both very, very healthy right now!

Both: *laugh*

John Brennan: Because I had COVID not too long ago. It was the worst bout of it I’ve ever had!

Lauren Spear: Oh, man. Yeah. It’s not great. *rueful chuckle*

John Brennan: It’s not great this time or… I’ve had it twice before and this was my third time. This time it was all BODY! It was almost like I did a 15-20 hour workout and my muscles were contracting and I couldn’t move. It was horrible!

Lauren Spear: Oh, man. Yeah. Been there.

John Brennan: And then right here — in my sinus cavity — was like somebody was drilling from the inside-out! It was horrible!

Both: *laugh*

Lauren Spear: Well, we’ll keep the gross snot and drilling-through-the-brain noises to be minimum for the headphone listeners.

John Brennan: Yeah! *laughs* That’s right. That’s right.

Lauren Spear: Speaking of podcasts:

You now have your own podcast with Yuki from The Last Drive-In!

John Brennan: Yes!

Lauren Spear: Would you like to talk about that?

John Brennan: Sure! I LOVE talking about it! Because this is a thing that was surpri—

Well, it’s surprising to me that it’s still going on! Because, when we first started, Yuki was sort of… I won’t say reluctant. He was confused a little bit. About why we would do this sort of thing and what we were doing. But as we’ve gotten…

We’re in the 80s now! We have like 80-something. I think we’re up to 88! And we’ve recorded a few now for the future. And Yuki is getting REALLY GOOD on mic and now he’s coming up with suggestions and he’s making jokes. He’s coming up with theories and all sorts of intellectual ideas!

And that’s what I actually love about this thing! Because Yuki, to me, has always been one of the most interesting and singular people I’ve ever met.

No one is like Yuki Nakamura!

John Brennan (continuing): And so, to be able to have allllllllllllllllll of these different conversations recorded and archived for all time is just really amazing to me. Because maybe, who knows? Down in the future, somebody who doesn’t even know who we are will find these discussions and be like, “Who are these weird, weird people?!”

Both: *laugh*

John Brennan: Just talking all this time…! And we don’t really have guests, either! It’s just the two of us talking and saying things. And it’s just been a real pleasure and a journey.

Lauren Spear: I got to listen to a few of the episodes already. And… yeah! It’s you guys talking and sometimes Liz Schack will come on.

John Brennan: Yes!

Lauren Spear: And you cover… You’ve covered a VERY massive range of topics!

I listened to the Hitchcock one and the Candy one…

John Brennan: *laughs* That was Yuki’s suggestion, by the way!

Lauren Spear: Oh, yeah??

John Brennan: Because he knew he was going to sabotage me!

Lauren Spear: *laughs*

John Brennan: And Liz! Because we consider “candy” to…

In America, it’s like “candy” is Halloween candy: Chocolates, lollipops, all that stuff! But Yuki said, in Japan, they have very specific things for what candy is!

Candy is like… HARD candy. You know? The suckers and all that sort of stuff. And he says chocolate is not candy!

Lauren Spear: Oh, yeah!

John Brennan: And it blew my mind!! I didn’t know that!

Lauren Spear: I actually have some Japanese candy! *laughs*

John Brennan: Oh, you DO! See? Those are like the hard candies that you suck on!

Lauren Spear: Yeah. Yeah. *chuckles*

John Brennan: Yeah. Oh! They look great, actually. Those look GREAT!

Lauren Spear: Yeah!

John Brennan: Wow!!

Both: *laugh*

John Brennan: But he… He sort of got me confused! Now I don’t know what candy is anymore!

But that’s the beauty of the podcast!

The thing about Yuki is that even though he’s been in America for longer than he did live in Japan, he still comes from the Japanese culture and can bring these ideas to me as an American-born, you know, sort of average citizen of the United States. He brings these ideas that I would never think of and opens my mind! So many times. And I think I also open his mind too sometimes!

Lauren Spear: Yeah! It seems like!

You guys sort of an equal “Whoa – what??” [ratio]. *laughs*

John Brennan: Yeah! *laughs* “What did you just say?!”

And we TRY not to get crass…

But we do get crass very often. Because it’s just sometimes… When two guys are talking…

Lauren Spear: It’s a lotta Guy Talk. Yeah.

John Brennan: It devolves into Guy Talk!

But that’s why it’s great when we have Liz Schack come on!

John Brennan (continuing): Because even though she’s not necessarily your average female… *chuckles*

She’s got some amazing ideas herself and sort of throws us for a loop as well! It’s GREAT to have a female’s perspective in there as well!

Lauren Spear: Oh, yeah! Absolutely. I think that those episodes are really great. *chuckles*

John Brennan: Thank you so much!

And that’s Yuki & John’s Podcast Buffet! And we called it the Buffet because we do a buffet of topics. Like, seriously! Coming up we’re gonna do nuclear bombs and then the next one is gonna be The Twilight Zone!

Lauren Spear: Oh, wow!

John Brennan: So, we go from, like, heavy, interesting, weird topics that we really… *laughs* SHOULDN’T be talking about! *laughs harder* I mean, we don’t know anything about nuclear weapons! But we’re gonna talk about it.

Lauren Spear: Well, a lot of the people who say they know things don’t, so…

John Brennan: That’s the thing! And, you know, it’s interesting because sometimes when we pick a topic…

We did the agricultural revolution once. And that’s in our Patreon — because we have a bunch of shows that we do on our Patreon that are under the paywall — and that one’s on the show called “The Universe and Human Stupidity.”

Yuki and I study subjects from the standpoint of human stupidity.

Lauren Spear: *laughs*

John Brennan: Because we’re average guys! Y’know? We’re not geniuses, but we’re sort of right in the middle so we discover these things together.

Yeah. And the Agricultural Revolution blew our minds. And the wheel! We did one on the wheel.

So, there’s some really cool, you know… *laughs*

Lauren Spear: *laughs*

John Brennan: It’s also educational!

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: It’s not just fun talk.

Lauren Spear: Also, when you claim to know nothing, you always exceed expectations. *chuckles*

John Brennan: Sometimes! Yeah! And you know what’s funny? Sometimes we start talking about stuff and things just get jarred loose in my mind that I remember hearing someone else say. But that doesn’t always necessarily mean that it’s TRUE, what I’ve heard, but I do bring out the things that I’ve heard. And then Yuki will jam on that.

It’s like jazz! He’s going *jazzy dootity doot noises* and I’m going *jazzy blappy blap noises* and we’re going back and forth playin’ jazz at each other!

Both: *chuckle*

Lauren Spear: You are also still very active with your music. I have you on my Spotify and there’s…

You’ve done so much music!

I think that most of the people who watch this will probably know you as the Music Guy from

The Last Drive-In, where you did…

Lauren Spear (continuing): Gosh. 50 songs? Over 40, for sure.

John Brennan: We… Once I’ve tallied it all up, even with the incidental music, we’ve WELL passed 50.

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: We’re in the 60s! If you take away the incidental music — like the background stuff — then it’s probably hovering around 50.

Lauren Spear: Yeah, that’s what… That’s what I thought!

John Brennan: Yeah.

Lauren Spear: Because, like, you had it [in your About Page/bio] as like, “I’ve done over 40.” But I was like, “I think… I think that’s old.” *laughs*

John Brennan: That was old! That was old!

Lauren Spear: You gotta update that! *laughs*

John Brennan: That was before Season Six.

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: So, yeah, we’re close to… I think I would officially say 50 and leave it at that, even if it’s give or take one or two.

Lauren Spear: Yeah. Including the theme song! Yes?

John Brennan: Yeah. Both themes. The opening and closing theme songs.

Lauren Spear: Which, even long after, like, “What movies did we watch last week…?” THAT song is going through people’s heads. That’s what they’re thinkin’ about leading up to episodes. Getting ready for it. They’re singin’ along.

John Brennan: Wow…

Lauren Spear: It’s the thing that gets people excited when the new episode comes on.

John Brennan: *chuckles*

Lauren Spear: So, you left your mark, for sure!

John Brennan: Thank you so much.

Lauren Spear: It wouldn’t be the same without your work.

John Brennan: I appreciate that.

Because, you know, “Tearing the Heart Out of Saturday Night” — the original Monster Vision song is such a great song. So, it was…

When I was entering into writing “Joe Bob Is Back In Town,” that was in my mind. I was saying, “How can I even come close to this thing?”

And the only thing that I thought of was — and I’ve said this before — is Muppets!

Lauren Spear: I LOVE THE MUPPETS!

John Brennan: Yeah!

The Muppets!!

Lauren Spear: *giggles*

John Brennan: So, I said, “What would top… Not top. But EQUAL ‘Tearing the Heart Out of Saturday Night’ is if there was a bunch of, like, werewolf, zombie, mummies in a graveyard who are Muppets singing in celebration that Joe Bob’s returning to the Drive-In!” Which is right next door to the graveyard!!

Lauren Spear: *giggling, absolutely loving the mental imagery John’s describing*

John Brennan: So, I did that song envisioning all these Muppets going, “Hey, Everybody have you heard the news?”

Lauren Spear: Yeah! Wow. That… That’s awesome!!

John Brennan: That’s what saved the song!

Both: *laugh*

Lauren Spear: Well, I love that. That’s great.

John Brennan: Yeah? *chuckles*

Lauren Spear: That’s kind of like…

One of the things that I always have in the back of my mind — from The Muppet Movie — about how… When Kermit’s talking about how he found a family with all of the Muppets that he’s collected.

John Brennan: Yeah.

Lauren Spear: And that’s kind of what I had in mind when I made HorrorFam.com!

Because my own biological family is just my mom, my dad, me, and my great uncle Ron. *laughs* And then that’s it! So, all of my family is just friends and people I’ve met along the way.

John Brennan: Right!

Lauren Spear: And I just… I wanted to keep expanding my family! *laughs*

John Brennan: Beautiful! What a beautiful thought.

Yeah. It’s like… There’s family that you’re given at birth, and then there’s the family that you choose as you walk through this earth. And that’s a beautiful idea to have this… this medium that you have going on! Where we’re talking to people and maybe collecting friends along the way. And family!

Lauren Spear: I hope so!

John Brennan: *chuckles* It’s beautiful!

Lauren Spear: And I try to help people too. Like, one time, a few weeks ago, I came online and you weren’t there anymore. And I was like, “Where’d he go??”

John Brennan: Who, me?!

Lauren Spear: Yeah, you!

John Brennan: What?!? I’m online every damn day! All I do is share memes and all sorts of crazy things!

Lauren Spear: Well, like…

When you… left.

John Brennan: Ah! Yeah. Yeah.

Lauren Spear: Yeah…

John Brennan: The Great Escape! With Steve McQueen. *chuckles*

Lauren Spear: And then I had to…

Like, you weren’t showing up! And then I had to actually seek you out because I was like, “Where’d he go??” And then I saw like, “Oh, he onto do something new creatively!” And… that’s great!

But I noticed that nobody, er, a lot of other people had the same questions I did, but weren’t as proactive about it. So, I wanted to have you on here.

Since you played such a role in… You know. You’ve shared our articles and things and got HorrorFam.com out in front of people when we were, you know, “baby” and just starting out.

John Brennan: *chuckles*

Lauren Spear: And I wanted to do that same favor for you as best I could since you are also on a NEW creative journey. And starting new things is soooooo… it’s such… it’s so ROUGH!

John Brennan: I’m LOVING it! I’ll be honest, I’ve…

Over the years, even as I was working on The Last Drive-In and Troma, I’ve always worked on my own stuff. And, unfortunately, just because it takes so much energy to make other people’s visions come to life — Lloyd Kaufman, Joe Bob Briggs — I put my own stuff to the side a lot of the times. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t always been working.

I mean, I’ve accumulated over a thousand songs at this point that I’ve either… are in the stages of being recorded, written, or half-written on, like, phone memos. I have all these phone memos where I just wake up out of a dream and *doot-de-doots a short musical riff* sing to myself.

Lauren Spear: *laughs*

John Brennan: So, there’s all of this material that I’ve gathered over the last, I dunno, 15 years that’s now what I’m concentrating on, which is like… Getting it all out of my journals and out of my head and out there into the world. For better or worse.

Because I feel like, if I leave it all in my head, it might drive me a little mad.

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: *laughs*

Lauren Spear: No, no. Genuinely, I think that even if it’s a rough start, it’s so much better… It’s for the best!

John Brennan: Sure!

Lauren Spear: I spent over a decade as a ghostwriter and then…

John Brennan: Wow!

Lauren Spear: Where I… I was completely unseen. All of my work was as somebody else. And it left me with nothing in the end. *laughs* So, yeah. I’ve had to restart my life and career. And I see you. I get having to put other people and corporations and things first.

John Brennan: Yeah. And, hey, sometimes it’s valuable! Because, I mean, look at all the people that I’ve met throughout the years and all of the things that I’ve gotten to do. And, I mean, I love the resume that I’ve put together!

I mean, I could pull from all sorts of things in all sorts of areas.

Whether it be producing, acting, music, whatever!

John Brennan (continuing): All the stuff that I’ve done over the years! Which is very valuable to me at this point in time. And if I hadn’t done those things, then I wouldn’t be prepared to do my own thing now – where I can wear all the different hats and GO and not necessarily have to rely on a huge crew or something like that. Y’know? I can get a lot of things done just through me and maybe a few other people.

And that’s what I’m really excited to do in the next year or two. Is, like, get SO MANY things DONE!

Now, the problem is, all the things that… I’m sure that there’s a lot of creative people out there, or artists, who have so many things that they want to do and then they have trouble CHOOSING the thing to do next.

Lauren Spear: Yeah!!

John Brennan: That’s always been my problem.

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: It’s like, “I wanna write a novel! I wanna write a screenplay! I wanna write a book! I wanna do this! I wanna *scatting noises while using his hands to indicate an overwhelming barrage of more and more creative ideas he could potentially focus on*” And it’s just like… *waves hands in frustration* There’s just SO MANY things to choose from!! That’s… That’s sometimes my hardest thing. Choosing the thing to concentrate on.

Lauren Spear: *laughs in ADHD* Ohhh yeah. For sure. You get, like, overwhelmed by choice!

John Brennan: “Overwhelmed by choice!” Yeah!!

Lauren Spear: Suddenly you’re FREE but it’s like…

John Brennan: Yeah. Exactly.

Lauren Spear: “Okay! I’m free! I can’t wait to do… EVERYTHING.”

John Brennan: Everything!

And, you know, sometimes it… I always battle in my brain about “what if the thing that I didn’t choose is the thing that will get me a HOUSE or something!” Y’know? Who knows what the thing I put on the side… Maybe that was the right thing to concentrate on?

Lauren Spear: Ooh. Yeah.

John Brennan: But that’s not to say…

But it doesn’t matter! It’s all about just doing SOMETHING! The worst thing to do would be to give up and not do a damn thing!

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: So, at least something is happening and that’s where I’m in my happy place.

I’m like, “All right. I got three hours of work done today and I can’t think of anything else today. I’m gonna call it quits.” But the next day I get TWENTY hours of work done! You know what I’m sayin’?

Lauren Spear: Yeah!

John Brennan: So, as long as something is happening every day, that’s all that matters to me.

Lauren Spear: Yeah. You kind of have to go with the ebb and flow of motivation and inspiration. *chuckles*

John Brennan: Absolutely. And, you know, another thing that’s great about the podcast — Yuki & John’s Podcast — is that when I am stuck creatively, on say a project or a song, and I just can’t do it anymore and I’m just not having the right ideas, I pick out one of the episodes and I edit it. And doing that, in itself, is a creative process.

Because sometimes there’s too much, sometimes there’s… We have to add some sound effects. Whatever it might be! So, that becomes a creative thing.

That’s why I love having the podcast to rely on too.

Lauren Spear: That’s awesome.

Oh, um, since this is HorrorFam.com — and you’re wearing a Killer Klowns shirt and everything…

John Brennan: Yeahhhh! From Fright Rags!!

Lauren Spear: Yeah!! *laughs* If it’s not a HorrorFam.com shirt, my husband Frank and I are wearing Fright Rags.

John Brennan: Amazing.

Lauren Spear: But, um… *is feeling sick again and lost her train of thought* Um…

Some of your episodes for the Podcast Buffet are about horror topics.

And a lot of your songs kind of lean into the creepy, scary, you know…

John Brennan: *chuckles*

Lauren Spear: Kooky. *laughs*

John Brennan: “It’s a crazy, kooky show with…” Yeah. Exactly. *laughs*

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

What got you interested in horror and do you expect to be doing more horror-related things with your new projects?

John Brennan: Absolutely! I love horror. I always have loved horror.

Well…

That’s not exactly true. When I was a little kid, I was a scaredy-cat! I couldn’t even watch the “Thriller” episode. Er. The “Thriller” music video! That’s how scared I was.

Lauren Spear: Oh! *chuckles*

John Brennan: But then, later on, I watched some of those… Like Friday the 13ths and Freddy Kruegers and I got over my fear of those because I realized that some of it was more funny than scary.

Lauren Spear: Yeah!

John Brennan: The Exorcist? I still can’t. I can BARELY watch The Exorcist! If I’m alone in the house and The Exorcist comes on… I leave the house!

Lauren Spear: *laughs*

John Brennan: I… I can’t come back! I’m in my 40s!!

Lauren Spear: You could just turn off your TV!

John Brennan: No! I can’t. Because the TV is TAINTED! The Devil is in that TV and I have to wait until the movie’s over to come back. I have a psychological damage because of The Exorcist.

Lauren Spear: Heh.

John Brennan: And I also grew up Catholic, so that’s probably why.

Lauren Spear: Ohh.

John Brennan: But, as far as horror, I have always loved horror since I was a little kid.

I then started to become really a fan, in my teens, of comedies. That’s sort of when I abandoned horror a little bit and started watching all the Ace Venturas, the Dumb & Dumbers, the There’s Something About Mary…

There was that great renaissance of 90’s comedy and I was really into that.

And then I came BACK to horror when I moved to LA and I lived by Rocket Video.

Lauren Spear: Oh!

John Brennan: And I used to rent… They had this AMAZING Cult section and an amazing Horror section! And I was like, “Oh, I’ve never seen House on Sorority Row! I’ve never seen… you know… Black Christmas!” I had never seen Black Christmas until I was in my 20s!!

So, I started renting all these movies. Sometimes the guy at the desk would give me suggestions. One day he warned me against renting Cannibal Holocaust…

Both: *laugh*

John Brennan: But I didn’t listen to him! I was like, “I heard it was a crazy banned movie!” and he was like… He just shook his head and he was like, “You don’t want to go there. But, okay; if you won’t take my word for it.” And… And I kind of regretted it. Regretted watching it.

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: So, I came back to horror in my 20s. And then when I moved back to New York from LA, that’s when I fell in with Troma!

So, I sort of saw that maybe I could make headway into this company that combined both horror and comedy.

So, my two LOVES were sort of intermingled there!

Lauren Spear: Horror comedies are my favorite too.

John Brennan: Yeah!! Me too!

I mean, I love a good scary movie when it’s, like, PURE horror…

But, even in The Exorcist, say… There’s some levity in that movie! There’s some funny…

Lauren Spear: Yeah, a little bit.

John Brennan: There’s some moments.

Lauren Spear: *chuckles*

John Brennan: Yeah! There’s some moments I can laugh at right now! I’m like, “Oh my God!” And I think Friedkin actually meant to do that a little bit.

So, yeah. I love it when there’s a great scary movie that has moments of levity.

OR, a really great comedy that has moments of horror. You know?

Lauren Spear: Yeah! Yeah!

John Brennan: Like Tucker & Dale VS. Evil!

Lauren Spear: Oh!! I love that one!

John Brennan: Great, GREAT horror-comedy!

Lauren Spear: It’s so good.

John Brennan: It’s so funny, but it’s also gruesome and actually quite scary! For not only the people who are being killed, but the two guys who’re just trying to do the right thing and everyone’s dying around them!! *laughs*

Lauren Spear: Oh, I knowwww!! *laughs*

Both: *laughing*

John Brennan: It’s a nightmare scenario!!

Lauren Spear: I also love The Monster Squad, Night of the Creeps…

John Brennan: Yes! Yes!

Lauren Spear: *gestures to John’s shirt* Killer Klowns on your shirt.

John Brennan: That’s the stuff right there!

Lauren Spear: The Frighteners is one of my absolute favorite movies ever.

John Brennan: I just rewatched The Frighteners! I didn’t like it…

Lauren Spear: Oh nooo!!

John Brennan: …when I first saw it. I didn’t care for it! The first time I saw it. Way back when it first came out.

Lauren Spear: Yeah?

John Brennan: This Halloween season, I rewatched it. And I said:

“This movie’s friggin’ AWESOME!”

Lauren Spear: Yeah! *laughs*

John Brennan: It’s AWESOME!

I had forgotten half the stuff that happened in that movie. I forgot that Dee Wallace is the… the Big Bad!

Lauren Spear: Yeah!!

 Oh.

Spoilers!! *laughs*

John Brennan: Oh, yeah. *laughs* Sorry, Guys! Fast forward if you don’t want the spoiler!

Both: *laughing*

John Brennan: But, yeah! That’s one of those movies that I really am glad that I revisited because I don’t know what it was about the first time I watched it. I just wasn’t in the right mindset or something.

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: Yeah.

Lauren Spear: Yeah. I love horror comedies. They’re my favorites too.

John Brennan: Yeah. Absolutely. There are so many. I mean, you could go on and on. Obviously, Evil Dead II is the PINACLE of horror-comedy!

Lauren Spear: OH!! I can’t believe I didn’t even mention it! *embarrassed laugh*

John Brennan: It’s so good.

Lauren Spear: It is. It is. And Dead Alive and…

John Brennan: OHHH! Yeah!!

Lauren Spear: *chuckles*

John Brennan: When is that… They’ve been talking about putting out a new restoration of Dead Alive for YEARS on a Blu-Ray and I just… Where is it?!

Lauren Spear: Yeah. I don’t know!

John Brennan: I actually…

Did you get the Trick or Treat? Synapse films’ Trick or Treat release?

Lauren Spear: Nooo… I don’t have money. *laughs*

John Brennan: Okay! *laughs* Well, when you have money, this might be a great thing! Because this is such an underrated movie and I really love that Synapse put so much LOVE into this movie.

Lauren Spear: I have the, you know, lil $10 Blu-Ray of Trick ‘r Treat. So, I’m not without it. And I have seen it.

John Brennan: Good.

Lauren Spear: We do own it.

John Brennan: Good, good, good.

Lauren Spear: But, no, I don’t have the fancypants version. *laughs* It looks so beautiful though!

John Brennan: I know!! And it came with a poster. I already put it on the wall. It’s over there. I wish I could show you, but…

Lauren Spear: Well, it’s… We’re coming close on time here and I want to make sure everyone knows where to find you so they can follow along with your new creative ventures and your wild journey!

John Brennan: *laughs*

It IS a wild journey!

John Brennan (continuing): You know, it’s like one day I choose one path; another day, I choose another path… And I kind of like that I’m wildly careening through an artist’s life. Because there’s some times when I actually think I made a wrong decision and I should have been a banker! Or I should’ve listened to my parents and been a lawyer! Or a doctor or something like that.

Because it’s… No matter what anybody says, a career in the entertainment industry, or even in the Arts in general, is VERY difficult. Because there’s no clear-cut path forward.

Lauren Spear: It’s incredibly difficult.

John Brennan: Yeah.

Lauren Spear: I dropped out of dental school, so… *laughs* I can kind of… you know.

John Brennan: That’s so…!

Lauren Spear: Every once in a while it’s like, “Hmm.”

John Brennan: What if!

Lauren Spear: “Would I have money now?”

Both: *laugh*

John Brennan: Yeah! Exactly!! That’s what…! *shakes his hands above his head*

Lauren Spear: But I wouldn’t be HAPPY! *laughs*

John Brennan: Right! That’s the thing!

And not only just the happiness — which is totally part of why I do it — but there are also a lot of opportunities in the entertainment industry. Especially in this day and age. When, literally, you and I couldn’t DO this 10 years ago! We wouldn’t be able to do it so beautifully through this wonderful technology that we have right now.

So, things… the level field is being… Er… The PLAYING field is being LEVELED!

Lauren Spear: Yeah.

John Brennan: For artists. Like us! Who wanna share.

Lauren Spear: Yeah!

John Brennan: Yeah! It’s a beautiful time to be alive. *chuckles*

Lauren Spear: It is. I think that’s a good message to get out: That it’s a beautiful time to be alive.

John Brennan: Yeeeeaah! Some — MOST — of us live better than most kings of antiquity.

Lauren Spear: *chuckles*

John Brennan: So, Henry the VIII… He would’ve been trying to eat, like, a muttonchop or something — whatever the hell those things are — and he would look around and be like, “What the hell?”

He would go to my fridge and be like “This is paradise!”

Lauren Spear: *laughs*

John Brennan: “This guy has chicken parmesan? Are you kidding me??”

Both: *laugh*

John Brennan: So… So you said, “Where can people find me?”

Lauren Spear: Yes!

John Brennan: For now, for the time being, until I actually launch my BIG endeavor that I’m working on, I’m just @BADTECHNO on Twitter, Instagram, and allllllllllllllll the social medias.

Lauren Spear: I have…

John Brennan: *looks past Lauren to the sign board next to her* Oh! RIGHT THERE!!

Lauren Spear: Yeah!

John Brennan: That beautiful marquee!

Lauren Spear: *points to it* I’ve got it written down right here so people can see.

John Brennan: That’s so… So, if you go to any of the social medias… I think actually MOST of them? Or go to WWW.BADTECHNO.COM! There’s portals to all my work. I have, like, Linktrees up.

So, I always update my links. I always, like… I’ll put this interview in the Podcast section! You know.

Lauren Spear: Oh? Okay!

John Brennan: All the stuff. I always update and always put the new things that I’m working on there.

Lauren Spear: And I’ll be sure to put all of the links in the transcript for this episode as well. So…

John Brennan: Thank you!!

Lauren Spear: If you go to HorrorFam.com slash John Brennan *points to the sign board again* Spelled like this. With a dash in-between “John” and “Brennan.”

John Brennan: Yeah!

Lauren Spear: Then you’ll be able to READ this whole transcript podcast and get all the links for where to find John Brennan.

John Brennan: THANK you!!

Lauren Spear: Oh, you’re welcome!

John Brennan: Yeah, and

Yuki & John’s Podcast Buffet!

John Brennan (continuing): We put that out for free. Anybody can listen to any of these insane discussions that Yuki and I have.

And then we have the Patreon Buffet — Yuki & John’s Patreon Buffet — where we have like 400 posts behind a paywall of all sorts of things. I mean, all my stuff. My work at Troma, all of the work that I did with Yuki on the side, some of my music videos, all kinds of stuffs!

Lauren Spear: Yeah! That’s awesome.

John Brennan: Yeah. *chuckles*

Lauren Spear: Well, is there anything else that you wanted to talk about?

John Brennan: What do we got? Three minutes?

Lauren Spear: Just about.

John Brennan: Let’s do a… Let’s do a quick Podcast Buffet episode! Let’s pick a topic really quick. Uhhhhhhh… Quantum Physics!

Lauren Spear: Oh my gosh. *chuckles*

John Brennan: What do you know about Quantum Physics?!

It doesn’t matter if you know anything other than ONE thing and we can jump from there!

Lauren Spear: That… I… My mind’s a blank.

John Brennan: That’s interesting because they say that there’s so much blank space between all things that

we don’t even really know what the hell is going on with Quantum Physics!

John Brennan (continuing): Like what’s a “quark?” What’s the… They say the Large Hadron Collider — that thing went on and people are saying it’s ripping holes through the next universe! The neighboring universe? The multi-dimensional things!

We’re in for a really interesting next, I would say, decade to twenty years. Between…

You have the Singularity that’s comin’ where we’re going to merge with machines.

Lauren Spear: Oh, yeah! *chuckles*

John Brennan: They’re experimenting with all sorts of Quantum Physics. They’re learning about Dark Matter. I tell ya they wanna go to Mars! Like, all of these things are happening and we’re in such an interesting time to see all of these technological breakthroughs and historical breakthroughs.

And I’m quite excited to see what happens! As long as it’s not ending in a fiery death in an apocalypse.

Lauren Spear: Uh… yeah!

You just barely escaped that earlier this year!

John Brennan: *laughs* EXACTLY!! Exactly. And that’s what this year has taught me:

It’s all about impermanence.

John Brennan (continuing): So, let’s ENJOY this current moment and look at…

Because it’s not just…

There’s a lot of bad things, and if you dwell on the bad things then you get LOST in those things. But if you can find the good things and concentrate on those things? Life is not that bad!

Lauren Spear: Yeah!

John Brennan: Life isn’t that bad.

Lauren Spear: Not too bad!

I recently did an art project where I showed, like, the Average lifespan, where I was on it, and just… making every week count!

John Brennan: Exactly.

Lauren Spear: Maybe I’ll put that in the show notes too! *laughs*

John Brennan: Yeah! If you CHOOSE the negative, life is negative. But if you choose the positive, life is positive!

Lauren Spear: Yeah!

John Brennan: And even if things are horrible sometimes, you can push through and get to the better times.

Lauren Spear: Aw. Amen!

John Brennan: AMEN!!! *laughs*

Lauren Spear: Well, it was great talking to you, John Brennan, and thank you so much for being here!

John Brennan: Thank you for having me. This was a pleasure!

Images of John Brennan and Yuki Nakamura were provided by John Brennan, movie posters/stills were purchased at CineMaterial, images of the bluray sets were from press kits released by their respective owners (Arrow & Synapse), image of The Muppet Movie scene was purchased via MovieStillsDB with text added by Lauren.