The Mr. Bill Podcast

Sierra Bowler, known as Downtempbowl, is a Chicago-based performing and music artist, movement instructor, and computer engineer. Her work blends fusion bellydance, animation dance, and flow arts with experimental sound and technical precision. She is the founder of Mycochanel, a creative project exploring design and identity, and Fine Linez, an all female movement collective focused on fingerstyles, tutting, and hands performance.

FLOW SYSTEMS
NEW MUSIC RELEASE 
NEW MUSIC VIDEO
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Today's guest on The Mr. Bill Podcast is Rob Talbott of Dodge & Fuski and co-founder of Disciple.
Rob's been producing since the early 2000s and came up during the early UK dubstep era, back when scenes were small, MySpace was the main discovery tool, and nothing happened overnight. Dodge & Fuski was a key part of that moment, and Disciple went on to become home to a generation of artists who grew into long-term careers.
We talk about when music stopped being a hobby and started feeling like a job, what it was really like coming up before modern social media, and how slow and unglamorous those early years actually were. We also get into the realities of running a label, balancing creativity with business, and the burnout that can come with doing both at once.
Rob also opens up about stepping away from music for several years, what caused that disconnect, and what it has been like coming back after a long hiatus. We talk about how his relationship with music has changed and why he is enjoying it again now.
This is an honest, behind-the-scenes conversation about building things, burning out, and finding your way back to the thing you cared about in the first place.

Rob Talbott Links

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Brad Sweet is the co-founder and CEO of Same Same But Different Music Festival and Same Same Presents. With a background as a musician and producer, Brad's understanding of the industry has fueled the growth of Same Same But Different from a 400-person gathering to 7,500 daily campers in under five years. This achievement was recognized with a nomination for Best Emerging Festival by X-Live and winning Best New Festival by USA Today.

Brad's approach to festival organization is rooted in empowering passionate, creative individuals with the tools to build and create with as little restrictions as possible. This has grown and fostered a passionate team around the festival and has led to incredibly rich and meaningful experiences for attendees. The team sets the tone and ethos for any festival and a team built directly from the community means that the attendees and the team become a unified force working together to the benefit of the festival.

His personal commitment to create a welcoming, inclusive environment are hallmarks of his leadership style. At the heart of Brad's work is a commitment to building a community that extends beyond the festival grounds, fostering lasting connections and memorable experiences for each attendee.
Brad Sweet Links
 
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Simone 'Funi' Fougnier is a visual artist from Northern Italy, built a 15-year career in the music industry, collaborating with icons like Deadmau5 and Anderson Paak as an illustrator, designer, and motion artist. In 2019, Fougnier co-founded Studio Syro to pioneer unexplored artistic mediums. This vision birthed 'Tales from Soda Island,' an award winning VR animated series for Meta, where Fougnier served as writer, designer, and director. As the field of VR evolves, Funi consistently explores its untapped artistic potential with a host of fresh, immersive projects underway. His last project, 'The Art of Change' was selected in the Immersive section at the 81st Venice Immersive Biennale and won the 2024 XR Experience Award.
Funi Links
 
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Opiuo is a genre-bending plethora of auditory and visual masterclasses. Born in 1984 in rural New Zealand, his parents provided the land upon which music festivals were held. This extremely formative growth surrounded by the early incarnations of Aotearoa's electronic music scene exposed him to the celebration of life through self-expression, dance, and giant sound systems. These experiences shaped so much of who he is & what he stands for today. Positivity and movement at the core of the project, his music is an infectious electronic based blend of funk, soul, psychedelia, and booty-shaking bass. 
Now calling Australia home, Oscar tours his party-starting music throughout the globe. Having spent more than a decade performing at some of the world's most renowned festivals and venues including Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, and Coachella, as well as selling out Colorado's famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre multiple times, he's performed his music in an unimaginably large array of formats. From self-built Orchestras, to collaborating with symphony choirs, touring his own Opiuo Band, and as an immersive solo audio & visual show, his live creativity is limitless.
Taking home the New Zealand Music Award for Best Electronic Album in 2014, his catalogue is vast. Having released 6 full-length albums, 10 EPs, and a myriad of singles and remixes over the last 14 years. In his own words, he is still "just getting started!".
Opiuo Links
 
Mr. Bill Links