Interview with Garrett Vandenburg

1. What is it like doing the Ceiling Fan?

Well, it's really been a huge kick-starter on my life to get going on making stuff. Before The Ceiling Fan, I hadn't really worked on a lot of media, but because I started working on the show, I learned how to do so many things by necessity. I've now begun to be able to use those skills on other projects and they've been opening up a lot of doors in my life to do lots of new things.  Working on the show has been really great, and I consider it one of the best things to happen to me. I've met so many great people through the show, and have made some incredible friends. From a listening standpoint, it has taken away a little of the fun though. I can't enjoy the episodes the same way as I could before when they're released, because I'm generally too busy listening for mistakes and thinking of what we could have done better. We're constantly trying to improve the show, and we hope that the as we continue to do so, the fans can continue enjoy the show more and more.

2. What's your favourite episode that you wrote?

I actually haven't written that many episodes, but my favorite episode to write so far, was the one I wrote with Kevin recently "A Day in the Life of Phil Jinkus". I feel like it was a really funny episode, and because it was a story inside of another story, it gave us a lot of leeway to have a some fun with the plot. We did some really crazy stuff, and I got to play a new character! I also had a lot of fun writing the first episode of the Intern Aaron series. Originally, me and Loren were going to write the whole thing ourselves, but in the end, Kevin wanted to take it a little bit of a different direction, so me and him re-wrote a bunch of it. 3. What is the most fun part, easy part, and hard part of doing the Ceiling Fan?

I really love writing music for the show, and that can often be the hardest part too. Sometimes I get an idea for a song, or a background score, and I can spend hours trying to figure out what it needs to make it sound complete and actually work for the show. Sometimes I just have to trash the whole thing and start from scratch again. The easiest part it probably editing tracks. I never really found it to be a very hard job. It takes a lot of time, but it's not too hard once you know what you're doing. Or maybe I'm wrong, and I don't know what I'm doing at all, so I think i'ts easier than it is. haha.

4. Do you listen to any AIO fan podcasts or read any AIO fan blogs?

I used to follow the fan casts a little more closely than I do now, but that's only because I've gotten so much more busy recently. The WOD-FAM-OD-POD sounds pretty awesome though from what I've heard of it. The main blog I really like to read other than the Scoop is "The Changing Times". I love that guy's stuff.  He's always got the greatest articles.

5. Do you have any tips for podcasters?

I guess something for podcasters to keep in mind is that podcasts are supposed to be fun. Never let it become a chore to you. If you're just making stuff because you "have to", then you should take a break. You're not going to end up with a good podcast unless you're doing something you're actually passionate about. Sure, sometimes you need to just push through and get stuff done even when you're bored of working on it, but never let it come to the point where you don't like what you're doing anymore. If you're not enjoying yourself, your fans won't likely be enjoying themselves either.

6. Can you give us any top secret info about upcoming ceiling fan episodes?

I can tell you that the next episode (our "live" episode) will feature renegade Nathan Hoobler robots that have taken over the world under the rule of their evil leader Regis Blackbeard.

7. What was it like meeting up with Kevin McCreary to see the AIO Live Show?

It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Kevin and I have been really close friends ever since we started working on the show together, so it was awesome to actually be able to hang out with him for a while. The fans were simply amazing. It felt so great to actually have people wanting to talk to me about the Ceiling Fan and the ScoopCast. I even got to give out a few autographs! It was fun fooling people into thinking I was famous enough to give them an autograph. Little do they know, I'm just a silly preachers kid! I'm not kidding though, we seriously have the best fans ever!  I also had the pleasure of meeting quite a few of the members from the Odyssey crew, and they were all really nice. I met up with Kimmy Robertson, who I already knew from out interview. It was really great to actually talk to her in real life. She's such a fun person! I only got to talk to Nathan a little bit, but I've concluded that he's the nicest person on the planet. I also got to meet Jonathan Crowe and his wife, who were really awesome too!  Man, there were so many great memories from that show... I can't wait to do something like that again. Well thank you for doing this interview, Garrett.  That's all folks.