All of our VGMbassy Staff Directory art is created by The Diad. Please check his Twitter page out for more artwork and commissions!
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Ed created The VGMbassy to celebrate video game music and the amazing community of fans that enjoy it. With over four years of podcasting experience on podcasts like PixelTunes Radio and The Impulse Project, he brings a wealth of knowledge about VGM and gaming culture to the table. Ed lives in Connecticut with his wife and two sons and is an IT technician by trade.
Emily (aka KeyGlyph) is a retro gaming enthusiast whose love for VGM began before she was old enough to read. As a grown-up she has channeled that devotion into her work as co-founder of The VGM Jukebox podcast, mixtapeist for The Legacy Music Hour podcast, and recurring overenthusiastic guest on The VGMbassy. She adores robots, good books, long naps, and large mugs of tea.
At 7 years old, Logan may be the youngest VGM podcaster in the community! He shares his dad's enthusiasm for games and music, and loves when he gets invited onto a show, especially if that means that Emily can come over and play too. Logan's favorite video game characters are Yoshi and Kirby and he's currently very interested in Tetris. He also loves doing science experiments at home and taking EVERYTHING apart to see how it works. When he grows up, he hopes to become a scientist or an engineer.
Todd started his love of video games with the NES way back in 198X. He fondly remembers going to school humming the latest Mario or Zelda tune that's gotten stuck in his head, a habit that continues to this day. His quiet voice is a constant challenge to Ed who struggles to adjust sound levels so he can be heard, and he likes it just fine that way. He loves retro and modern gaming and his backlog regularly makes him weep.
Cameron is a hopelessly-nostalgic music enthusiast with a particular fondness for the chippiest of VGM. He is usually lost in thought, but when focused, you might find him channeling residual creative energy leftover from his childhood into various music projects. He fancies himself a novice chiptune composer, and currently strums/plucks strings of various diameters in Plaid Nation Revival and the STP tribute Dumb Love. He has never played a Super Smash Bros. game.
Joe's been a gamer for almost 40 years. From the Atari 2600 and Apple 2 to the Switch and PSVR, he's played them all… or will eventually. He traditionally plays lots of RPGs and open world games, and can't stand modern online gaming (think Fortnite). Lately, he's been really into the Metroidvania craze. His VGM tastes tend towards darker ambient and industrial sounding tunes.
Aaron is a father of 3, a Chip/Indie musician (Dya), part of the Relay Bros chiptune collective, host of video game podcasts Retro Obscura and Genesis Gems, and is also featured on geekbeatradio. One could say he pretty much does it all. A huge fan of underdog and unknown video games, Aaron strives to get the word out about titles the community may have missed… or plays the terrible ones so he can warn us what to avoid! He lives in Texas and has a few chiptune albums that fans of VGM should definitely check out.
Alex is known for his philanthropy towards his favorite VGM podcasts, and as an ever-present fan on social media platforms. He's the administrator of the very active VGM Podcast Fans Facebook group, which is a thriving community made up of VGM fans and podcast hosts alike. Alex calls the great state of Pennsylvania his home, and loves hockey so much that he may marry it one day.
The Diad is a part-time podcast host (The Diad Presents: A VGM Podcast), pixel artist, VGM community goon, and a retro game fan. He is a full-time ne'er-do-well, wastrel, and gadabout. He takes great pleasure in discovering VGM tracks he hasn’t heard before, and is driven to find the next great groovin’ jam. His real world job involves a lot of research, and it spills over into his own podcast stylings.
Cameron is the drummer and ringleader of The Mad Gear, a rough & tumble VGM cover band from the streets of Metro City. He's also a huge fan of VGM podcasts, and has been seen popping up on many shows over the past few years. A videographer by trade, Cam lives with his family in Tennessee, home to the most caves in the United States!
After far too many hours playing Metal Gear Solid, Dan found a way to infiltrate the VGMbassy and relentlessly acted as a Snake-like echo chamber to all of Ed’s questions as to how he got there. Realizing he wasn't going to convince Dan to leave the VGMbassy, he decided to bring him on as a VGMbassador. Dan brings his love of difficult and unique games and their music to the show. When he’s not disagreeing with Ed, you might find him thinking too much about Shadow of the Colossus or thinking about physics in video games.
Gene is one half of the Pixelated Audio podcast. When he’s not working on the show, he’s engaging in some benign trolling in the VGM community. A gamer since the NES days but a late adopter, he loves digging up lesser known games and composers that may not have gotten their due. His taste in music spans a wide range and he is always seeking out new genres to explore.
Trevin is an absurdly deep voiced chip musician that goes by “Jredd” because one time he said his middle name wrong and thought it sounded cool. He’ll defend the validity of “bleeps and bloops” to the death! (Or at the very least until he gets hungry) He’s probably way too friendly for his own good. If you happen to meet him and show even the slightest interest in music he just might rope you into collaborating with him somehow. His favorite styles of music to compose are usually prog rock, funk, and just a hint of jazz. If there’s an open space in a song he’s probably already figuring out a way to shove another solo in there. He hopes you enjoy his music as much as he does!
Justin is a newcomer to the VGM Podcast scene, teaming up with Mike Levy to co-host XVGM Radio. His love of video games & VGM dates all the way back to his childhood in the early 80's. Growing up, he learned to play a number of instruments, with the hidden agenda of trying to play VGM on them, which ultimately culminated in a Minor in Music (Major in Computer Science) and arranging Final Fantasy music for String Quartet for his wedding. Justin lives in Connecicut with his wife, and still looks for games and music that spark a sense of wonder, nostalgia and fun in him.
Michael brings a little international flair to the VGMbassy! His soothing voice and fantastic taste in video game music make his own show, Forever Sound Version, a treat to listen to. He's has been known to write a few chiptunes himself under the name MIBRI, he's part of the demoscene cracking group Hokuto Force, and a member of the band Shy-Talk. Michael lives with his wife in Newcastle upon Tyne in England, and is currently studying music there at the University of Newcastle.
Rob is the “Rhythm” section of the VGM podcast Rhythm & Pixels. He and his best friend Pernell share music, laughs, and a great dose of positivity every Monday. Rob also enjoys creating his own electronic music, baking the occasional artisan loaf of bread, and tending to the horses that he and his wife own. Rob also loves the music from Ristar more than he loves life itself.
Carlos was born and bred in the arcade. He grew up living quarter to quarter, looking for the next worthy opponent in his favorite fighting games. A huge fan of video game music for many years, he enjoys sharing his love of VGM with anyone willing to listen. Carlos is also a connoisseur of Kung-Fu cinema, and shares that love with fellow VGM enthusiasts Matthew and Marty on their podcast Heroes Three where they discuss the many forms of Asian action film. (Fake) Fighting is in his blood. You can currently find Carlos freezing his toes off in the mid-west with his wife and dog, Missile.
Bedroth has loved video games for 30 years and music for even longer. Other than his amazing wife, awesome cat, and tribe of feral children, his passions are music, gaming, and making connections with cool people. He is grateful to have found all three in the VGM podcast community. He has deep appreciation for classic chiptunes and sweeping orchestral fanfares alike and, as a lifelong Nintendo nut, enjoys sunlit drives on Koopa Beach and exhilarating hikes up Death Mountain.
Aka Steen, your three dimensional friend from the internet. He likes games and music and graphics of all kinds. You can catch him playing, making, learning about, and sharing all of these things at twitch.tv/steen3d. Also, he and composer Matthew Sargent host VGJam; a periodic podcast about listening to video game music and composing music inspired by it.
UtopiaNemo, a recovering Sega fanatic, is the resident administrator of Dad Jokes. He is fluent in puns of varying quality, and occasionally suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. He resides in the Great Pacific Northwest, where he can be found imparting his love of 80’s cartoons, great VGM, and terrible puns to his five children, much to his wife’s chagrin.
Chris’s love for VGM began with the sound test in Streets of Rage 2, was fueled by years OC ReMix, and has become a staple part of his life as a long-standing fan and member of the VGM Podcasting community. Having spent years singing in pop punk and post hardcore bands, he’s developed a keen love of all things Falcom and all great RPG battle themes. When not gaming or posting GIFs on Podcast Discords and Facebook pages, he spends his time with his wife and two sons, as well as studying, tasting, collecting, and blogging about wine at WineSleepRepeat.
Ryan is a Sound Designer and Music Composer from Canada. Playing video games were some of his earliest memories and grew up loving the music. Learning a variety of instruments growing up and trying to play all those sweet vgm tunes on them. When he moved out to the farm he decided to stop playing in metal bands and started writing video game music because everything he was writing already fit the bill. Teaming up with Polar Tabby Interactive he was written music and sound effects for Catlandia : Crisis at Fort Pawprint. With more projects in the works but being a full-time farmer and a part-time composer, things take time.
Hammock is the host of KVGM “The Last Wave”, a weekly podcast bringing you the smoothest half hour of video game music. Hailing from the beautiful beachside community of Aqua City, Hammock doesn’t take his hosting gig too seriously, he doesn’t really play video games, nor is he any good at them. But he does play jams…lots of them. And when he isn’t pumping them out like a PEZ dispenser, Hammock can be found digging in the dirt, re-writing history one archaeological site at a time. Or maybe kayaking with his wife in one of Aqua City Island’s many pristine lakes. Or eating a quesadilla.
