Born in Dreieich, just outside of Frankfurt Germany, guitarist Michael Jost (pronounced ‘yoast’), found his way to the bohemian Venice Beach boardwalk, in Los Angeles California, where he now lives and makes music.
Owing to Michael’s unique European heritage, his rigorous classical training, and his 21st Century American experience, you can hear something very different in his passionate, Spanish-style guitar. Michael’s travel companion is Miss Lucy, a Flamenca guitar built by Tomas Delgado of Candelas Guitars. She has a strong character, with a warm and beautiful sound.
Michael has a unique sound. His music is a journey in time and space fueled by his passion for music and his instrument. His influences are very multicoloured and involve different styles, continents and time periods from Paco De Lucia and Stravinsky to Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd.
No two of Michael’s live performances are ever the same, drawing from his recent albums, Zeitlos and California Burning, as well as unreleased songs from his upcoming album, Concierto.
Zeitlos is a timeless and unique blend of acoustic, classical and flamenco styles, entwined with the sounds and soul of Venice, California. His earlier album, California Burning, is a psychedelic fusion of electric and acoustic guitar.
Rae Stanton, co-founder and co-producer of Radio Venice, is an Australia-based lover of music. Her business, Accurate Expressions, has morphed from bookkeeping and systems design, to web and graphic design. She has a talent for turning big ideas into full blown realities, whether it is online or in real life. It’s these skills and more that she brought to Radio Venice: designing the logo, building the website, setting up all the social media channels and creating our YouTube channel. At the production level, she is involved in the weekly programming, handles all aspects of artist bookings, and promotion of the weekly events. All of which is done remotely from Australia, for the love of music.
With the advent of COVID and the implementation of strict isolation laws in the early months of 2020, she took the show to the next level by shifting it to a multi-venue format, allowing us to bring in musicians from all over the world, ensuring continued success during a period heaving with other live streams.
With this new format Rae tunes in every week from Byron Bay, Australia adding co-host to her many hats.
Barry Conley is a professional recording engineer, producer and musician. In his formative years, Barry studied electronic and experimental music composition with Earle Brown (cohort of John Cage) and Morton Subotnick.
Barry’s professional career started with an engineering position at Baby’O Recorders in Hollywood where he worked with George Harrison, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Barry went on to work at Sunset Sound and Paramount Recording Studios with such artists as Miles Davis, B.B. King, Ike Turner, and The Stray Cats.
Barry Conley’s band “The Aliens That Ate Hollywood” was featured on The Desert Sessions volume 6 “Black Anvil Ego” record put out by Josh Homme (Queens of The Stone Age).
While waiting for the members of Cypress Hill to arrive at a recording session for their “Stoned Raiders” record, Barry invented and devised a portable joystick/photo optically controlled analog synthesizer/effects processor named the “OutofControl-atron”. Seven years in the making and played on many records including Black Label Society’s “Mafia”.
Barry currently plays in several combos including Liquid Owsley, Splotch, Spiel, and The Aliens. Barry has been known to do solo “abductions”, sometimes known as “sonic colonics”, with his various Buchla synthesizers and the OutofControl-atron.
Barry currently owns Outer Space, a recording studio in Venice, California where he has recently worked with Luicidal and Robert Trujillo (Metallica).
Barry Conley on Radio Venice
Barry and his Outofcontrol-atron have become a regular feature on the couch of Radio Venice … click here to see all the archived shows
Tonan Ruiz is a local Venice legend. Raised in Mar Vista, his mom would take him to the beach at the Venice Pier. When he was 11 Jesse Martinez introduced him to skateboarding. He started surfing at the south side of the Venice Pier and, after a big sand fight he was eventually accepted at the Venice Breakwater. He started Lost Surfboards, got the Venice Skate Park built and start making art. For the full story, check out the July 2018 edition of Venice Stories “Skateboard Salvation” by Jason Hill.
In November 2015 Tonan joined Radio Venice as co-host, bringing his unique energy to the show. He is a local celebrity and in 2018 was crowned King Neptune alongside his Queen, Beth Allyn.
