From 2022 through 2023 I did a weekly radio show for Deviant Behavior Radio called “The Mutant Hours.” The show was an excuse to share the music I already loved while also covering discoveries on my end while experimenting with the show. The primary theme of the show was punk, synth, and hip-hop, but would eventually include everything from film scores to J-pop and K-pop. It was kind of like a musical diary that I read through at midnight on a small internet radio station, every week for a couple of years.
There was a lot of care that I put into the visual identity of the show. In many ways, it was a passion project that kept me busy during some dark times and was unabashedly me. Though I am no longer with Deviant Behavior Radio, The Mutant Hours stands out as some of the best design work I’ve done. So I figure why not share what I have in the archives?
The Mutant Hours: The Show
The nature of the show was initially quite ephemeral, for the first year or so the show was aired twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays at midnight PST. Once the show was over, it was gone. I appreciated that and to a degree, I wish I’d never ditched that. However, friends and listeners wanted recordings, so I turned my attention to Spotify and their then-running “Anchor” platform to make a brief podcast version of the show. Usually, this entailed cutting a 2 to 3-hour show down to 45 minutes to an hour.
The podcast would include my interstitial segments such as Mutant Musings, Mutant Mailbag, or Mutant Media. There would also be the night’s intro, closer, and about 5 or 6 featured songs pulled from the set that week. It made for a tidy little show limited to Spotify due to streaming rights, but should still be available.
The first podcast episode included a special promotional image that I had a great deal of fun putting together. I really should print it and hang it up somewhere in my home. It would make for a good portfolio piece as well.
Spotify Podcast Archive
The archive of the show still appears to be on Spotify, so I am pleased that I can embed the playlist here.
The show ended on podcast episode 42, but it was the 77th broadcast of the show once I had started counting them. The shows were numbered for several weeks before I committed to keeping records.
The Mutant Hours Mixtape Playlist
I would also add to an ongoing Spotify playlist of songs featured on the show that I still listen to pretty frequently. It was a running record of the kind of music I played.
It is pretty neat that both of these playlists are still available. I am not sure how long they’ll be out there, but I am hoping at least for a few more years.
The Mutant Hours Show Flier Gallery
Now, let’s check out the gallery of fliers. These were done during the final weeks of the show, but are among my most memorable branding experiments.
The fliers were designed around a theme of collaging that evokes show flyers found for different punk shows I attended and researched. These were the main promotional tools for the show in the final days and they made for a fun collection of images; at times half of the fun of setting up the week’s broadcast was working on the fliers the weekend before the show went out.
I had even planned to start printing them and marketing the show locally by putting them up in all sorts of places. However, the show entered an extended hiatus following the 77th broadcast. It would not return.
A great deal of the material reflects the horror, punk, and synth vibes of the show. I have a soft spot for lo-fi collage aesthetics and I still very much enjoy glancing at these every once in a while.
Other Branding for the Show
I took the outsider punk and horror-core aesthetic pretty seriously in designing the branding for the show. Here is a gallery of some promotional elements.
Among the collection, you’ll find some merch and sticker designs, promotional material for the show, and the first promotion I ever did, featuring Cadaver Pudding. I played one of their albums for the premiere.
Another key element of the later era of the show was that I also tried to find artists on Bandcamp frequently and would spotlight them when I could. I made them a central element of what I did during the last few months.
Will I ever bring back The Mutant Hours?
Part of the origin of The Mutant Hours was because I knew a guy who knew a guy who started a web radio station and had a music license. I do not have access to any of these things now, nor do I have the budget to obtain them.
Believe me, I’ve considered a Mixcloud show, but I cannot justify the cost of something like that. I am open to bringing the show back and almost did before exiting my arrangement with Deviant Behavior Radio. Unfortunately, sometimes things fall through, and The Mutant Hours was a casualty of things not lining up in such a way anymore.
I’ve told myself that when I could comfortably work the costs of such a return into my budget, and have the time for it, I would bring the show back. I am not really in a place for either condition at the moment. But maybe one day you might see the show return.
Anyway, that is just a little visual history of the weird little radio show I did weekly for a couple of years. if you enjoyed the overview, please let me know in the comments. If you want to support me financially to maybe lead to a return of the show, you can always subscribe to my Ko-fi account.
Otherwise, stay weird.
