I’ve been a fan of actor/writer/producer Nicholas Briggs for a long time now, ever since I first heard the fan-made Audio Visuals from the 1980s that imagined Nick starring in Doctor Who. Many of the stories were better than what was on TV at the time.

Since the return of Doctor Who in 2005, Nick has been the voice of the sinister Daleks as well as many of the other monsters on the show – and since 2006, he has served as executive producer at Big Finish Productions, which produces not only new audio adventures for Doctor Who but also The Prisoner, The Avengers, Dorian Gray, Sherlock Holmes and others.

Full disclosure: Big Finish is one of my addictions, and a sizable piece of my income goes right into their coffers. Even so, I can’t keep up with everything that the company puts out. Some of that is cost, but a lot of it is simply time: I listen in the car, and my commute to work is only 15 minutes each way. I do relish a good road trip when I can really dig into a story or two, but those happen too rarely.

So it was a thrill to get to talk one on one with Nick for a few minutes at last November’s L.I. Who convention. We discussed what makes a good monster voice, as well as his role as Big Finish’s creative mastermind and as the star of the Sherlock Holmes series. Given last night’s sad news about John Hurt, our brief mention of him seems especially poignant.

[I’ll post other interviews from L.I. Who in coming days.]

Since I started hosting The Signal in the fall of 2011, I’ve had numerous guests join me on the air – but I believe Brian Wolff has been on the show the most number of times.

He built a good music career in the Binghamton area and then decided to take the leap to Austin, Texas – a mecca for all kinds of cool acts from blues and country to rock and folk. His blues-rock band Fair City Fire put out a debut album last year called The Simple Truth, with a bunch of great original tunes.

Several of the interviews that Brian and I have done for the show over the past few years have been by phone, so it was great to get him back in the studio with guitar in hand. We had a fun chat covering not only Fair City Fire but his inspirations in Binghamton and what it’s really like being part of the Austin scene.

 

Devinne Meyers and I have been talking about her coming onto The Signal for a while now. Finally it worked out this week.

She played some tunes live, discussed her life and music, and even shared a few album tracks from East Coast Bigfoot (which she recently departed). A fun time. Check it out below – and keep an eye on her for 2017. She’s definitely going places.