[Podcast] Announcing: INNER-STRENGTH CHECK RADIO (+ Your Input Wanted)!
Okay folks, here’s the thing.
For a long time, I’ve felt (known, even?) that one of Inner-Strength Check’s biggest boons could potentially also be a bane, in some respects.
Specifically, I’m referring to everything from our tagline ‘Hobbies. Riffs. Mental Health’ down to our coverage in a given week, month, year, et cetera.
This place was set up from day one to be an avenue to explore a whole plethora of topics - the creative arts, music, gaming, tabletop, mental health, social discourse, and everything that loosely conglomerates under such banners.
Naturally, with music as my primary love and hyperfixation in life (at a level probably akin to/replacing spiritual devotion), not to mention the insane frequency and volume with which the industry produces great creative outputs - the podcast and blog have long been pretty heavily music-centric.
Which is a) totally fine and b) by design.
That said, a perpetual byline through my time spent thinking and planning about what I can do with this site/our various platforms is… lamentation.
Lamenting that I feel, inherently know, there’s some fun and interesting ways we can look at bringing our seemingly disparate categories a little closer together in nerd/music-lover unison.
A massive focus of our site is also promoting everyone from the Big Guns down to underground/independent artists, publishers and grassroots creatives.
Until one day - bah gum, hoss!
slaps knee, does a brain-dance
That’s it! Eureka!
Inner-Strength Check Radio!
(Nope, haven’t thought of a snappier/Dad-pun title just yet).
~~Record-Scratch: Midnight I HATE TECHNOLOGY Update~~
Bad news and good news.
Bad News:
fffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-
I’ve just spent the entirety of my Monday evening fighting multiple video editing programs that don’t want to play ball with audio tracks, and it’s 12.31am. Ergo, I won’t be able to drop our first broadcast on you tonight. Sigh. Grumble.
Look, thank Mutant Christ I’ve got the finishing touches of a Gig Review to work on whilst I tear out my five remaining hairs.
Good:
Ahead of actually publishing the audio version on Youtube/our many podcast audio platforms… I can use words to describe things! Including what to expect from ISC Radio as a project within the Podcast, and some ideas for how you can get involved!
Yay! Not a total massacre! Also good news - Massacre happens to be the name of a sick old-school death metal band, check ‘em out!
Check out the basic rubric of what to expect below, with some more detailed information about additional segments, sections and ideas afterwards.
Almost no one reads much of anything anymore in the Smartphoneocalypse Of Thought: 2025 DLC (my extremely ADHD riddled brain included) but uh bands, if you’re reading?
Tiny hint:
((((This is a perfectly convenient opportunity to send me through any tracks you’d love to see featured in podcast format!)))
Our socials links are down below, email is: innerstrengthcheckmedia@gmail.com .
(SEO spam-bots and Linked In-energy emails will be gleefully ignored/deleted - STOP EMAILING ME ABOUT SEO, lol).
Format:
Video, with accompanying/independently streamable audio track.
Duration: Aiming for about an hour, may do more or less. See how we go. I think 60-90 minutes is a nice ballpark.
Frequency: Honestly dependent on time/energy as I’ll be compiling these solo alongside usual pod/blog-Dad duties. Hoping for weekly, aiming for fortnightly/monthly - we’ll see!
As long as each time I try doesn’t result in the same cavalcade of tech fuck-uppery as tonight SMH
Video (via our Youtube Channel):
Initially:
I’ll be focusing on gaming footage. Furthermore and in alignment with what I discuss in our first broadcast, it’ll be a let’s play type follow-on of a pretty nuts campaign in the game world of post-apocalyptic sandbox-RPG/RTS/cRPG/4X/base-builder Kenshi.
One of the most unique games I’ve ever played, and I have a pretty interesting concept for a strongly-modded playthrough using a custom game start called ‘The Beepist Revolution’. (Kenshi fans will get the reference - for everyone else, Beep is an iconic empty-headed/near-zero stat-blocked insectoid fella who is a poster-boy for the fandom).
Ongoing:
I’m looking at recording/incorporating more gaming footage, and hopefully not just from myself either (gaming creators, fans etc - here’s your opportunity to send me your footage if you’d like to display it!).
I’ve also got an underwater camera with video capacity that needs testing, it is a few days from summer here in Australia and I do live near some pretty picturesque snorkelling/surfing spots. I’m thinking that might be a nice vibe, along with some other footage.
Oh and uh, visual artists/designers?
Remember how I threw in a not so subtle sentence-in-bold hint for our musicians out there?
I’m extremely keen (exceedingly so) to feature visual art if you’d like anything from your portfolio shown for the visual component. Socials, emails, etc. Go on. Get at me/us.
You’ll also make our resident art-expert/RPG-designer Elodie happy (she is similarly very keen to consoom and promote cool art).
Audio:
Introduction/Other Stuff*
Featured Tracks/Artists, Interviews etc.
Outro
*-see below for examples. And a terrible band-name pun.
Broken record but again - y o u r i n p u t w a n t e d; this is for you guys not me!
For the audio component, I’m looking in first instance to use this space to provide airplay for tracks approved by artists and labels.
Ideally, I’ll be looking at featuring singles/approved tracks from upcoming /unreleased albums, EP’s etc, but will naturally mix in some classics, favourites/team favourites, community picks, etc.
Regarding Interviews - any video/audio interviews we conduct will always be released as their own separate ISC Podcast episodes as we’ve been doing already, but I’m not past adding these in to the Radio show either.
I’d also like to flag that if you’re producing something cool like, say, spoken-word, ambient backing tracks, soundscapes etc, and would like those featured - more than welcome. Highly encouraged, even.
Topical Stuff:
…a.k.a Topical Stuff-Storm…?! HEH.
Shit band-name jokes aside, Tropical Fuck Storm are not shit.
They are, in fact, a fantastic Aussie alt/experimental rock supergroup - peep one of my fave tunes by them below, as well as artist links:
I promise I sometimes get to the point. Eventually.
In terms of what topics can be covered, you don’t have to treat the below list as all-inclusive.
Go dive into the scattershot breadth of topics covered in the past near-five-years of existence for an idea - and hit me up if you’d like something covered/discussed on the show!
That said - here’s some ideas based loosely off our Categories (links included on headings where appropriate):
For ISC Radio, I’m thinking similar music news items as per our coverage on the blog but perhaps also not.
i.e. when thinking about the hourly news segment on commercial radio, podcasts etc, it’s often a mix of coverage and in less detail than a full press release.
I’m thinking this is a great opportunity to section into sub-topics as per some recent blog articles: Recent Releases/In Case You Missed It, Upcoming Releases, Tour Announcements etc.
More news from us, more info for you - happy days for heavy/alternative music fans!
Is of course similar to the above Category, but for the hobby/gaming space.
We actually have a couple of incoming new staff members who are looking to specialise in covering more gaming, lore/worldbuilding, tabletop etc, and I feel like this is a perfect opportunity to also let ISC community geeks out there (face it; you’re on a site exploring alternative/heavy music - you’re statistically likely to be a bit of a geek too!) get some updates on the gamer/hobbyist world too.
This is where I also low-key drop the announcement to brave Brady-content-readers (poor souls) that we’re announcing and introducing one of those new staff members tomorrow! Don’t tell the others yet, though. :)
Interviews:
As mentioned above - for those of you who wish to be interviewed on the Podcast/blog but are feeling a bit mic/audio-shy or are just straight up too busy to wrangle meeting times - we’re always open to text/email/message-based interviews if that’s preferable/more comfortable. In the past I’ve narrated some text-based interviews/given additional thoughts - unless feedback says otherwise, I’d be keen to include more of these via ISC Radio.
Staff Updates:
When I say updates, I mean less so ‘mundane details that could’ve been an internal group message’ and moreso fun stuff! i.e. what we’ve been engaging with, consuming or creating of late, and some thoughts around the same. An album/track that won’t leave our craniums, a TV show we’ve particularly enjoyed, one of us randomly picking up Mongolian throat-singing as a new Hobby Thing (hasn’t happened yet - nudges ISC team), etc.
For me, I’d like to utilise this space to talk reflectively about my own ongoing journeys in certain hobbies, discuss my own challenges and successes et cetera. For example - musicianship, writing, reading, talking about some of those long-unspun hobby plates on the ‘someday’ pile, etc.
No one else on the team is beholden to that, but those are just some ideas for extra/ongoing brief Topical Things for the show.
I’d love to call it Staff Infections as the best pun you could damn well find for the category, but the clever folks over at Last Rites beat me to it years ago (a very good heavy music blog, I might add - one of my long-term faves alongside Angry Metal Guy and Heavy Blog is Heavy).
Community Stuff - Your Content, Your Input!
I want to get more of your thoughts in general, people.
I hope that’s been at least subtly evident a couple of times here. I mean c’mon guys, there’s even whole sentences in bold and I typically hate doing that shit.
Treat this section exactly as per above - I’d love to hear any comments, thoughts and reflections (none too big nor too small) about media you’re enjoying, hobbies you’ve picked up or are keeping along with, challenges and successes in your creative endeavours - or just go hard info-dumping on us something random, like a certain novel/title’s lore, trivia-style lesser known facts - anything!
In addition, if you’re a bit gun-shy with jumping on a mic but have something written you’d love to share with the world, I’m absolutely keen to do some reads of creative written work. Maybe stow the 100,000 word novel/provide me an excerpt, but short stories, prose, poetry, Your Lore/Hyperfixation Info-Dump Here always welcomed.
(NOTE: Happy to provide any community-derived content completely anonymously or de-identified, if you’d prefer not have your name used, use a pseudonym, etc)
Our sister-site Musolegion is a great music community, and we often do feedback/discussion focussed activities there, plus post additional reviews and the like. From The Legion is a series on here that’s been oft-neglected; I feel including a spiel in Radio episodes might be a nice demonstration of a creative community in action!
(Please also treat this as a gargantuan house-crushing thumbs-up emoji of approval to submit some stuff around a hobby/creative/interest based community you’re a part of as a participant/mod etc and want to support. Just make sure you don’t tread on toes and get permission first!)
Other miscellaneous idea brain-farts:
Wellbeing Resources:
I’d love to include new finds or insights from ourselves/the community about useful tips and strategies for mental health/wellbeing in general. From productivity apps through to meditation channels, titles, etc to actual clinical/community resources. Things of that nature, with a view to be as international as possible but also likely focussed on Australia, services-wise (unless requested and I go do some social worker sleuthing/you tell me a good resource in your region!).
Giveaways:
Bro, I’m broke, alright? Nothing says ‘unproductive fiscal uses of your time’ like blogging in 2025. I don’t need a pity-party though - my house’s utilities work and I’ve got some income to speak of.
I am thinking about sparing some shekels to do some giveaways for listeners, though! Bandcamp vouchers, Steam gift cards, DriveThruRPG/Itch.io vouchers. Things like that. Yeah, you heard me - free stuff.
Other Misc Filler/Stuff:
Considering we have no financial backing or sponsors/paid ads, I’m instead thinking of doing some fun/satirical/silly Not A Sponsor style fake ads, news updates based around various topics.
Kooky stuff with me narrating different accents (Fallout/50’s Radio Guy, macho military recruiter style etc). I dunno. That part’s just jolly japes really, but fun/silly stuff included here and there perhaps. If anyone needs to be less serious in life most days of the week, it’s metalheads.
And remember - this isn’t an exclusive list!
Socials link below, comments available on here, email above.
Send me your brain-farts.**
** - please don’t send me literal farts. I literally puked after the Possessed gig we recently covered here because some clown let off the most monstrous, fetid, gut-wrenchingly awful mosh-farts I have ever smelt in the pit. No seriously, I nearly vomited on the spot. It was BAD.
That, and don’t risk service-station pies, ever.