Three South Portland, Maine Grads Turn Their Music Obsession into Global Podcast

Have you ever had a friend group that only talks about one thing? Maybe it’s fantasy football or Marvel movies. For Anthony, Tony, and Nate, that one thing has always been music — and they’ve been obsessed since high school.

Back in the early 2000s, while most South Portland High School kids were busy with sports or Xbox, these three were road-tripping to every concert they could find in Northern New England. The result? Massive ticket stub collections, drawers stuffed with band merch, and stories of “accidentally” running into artists outside their tour buses (after, of course, waiting there for hours).

They’re self-proclaimed music nerds — so much so that they coined the term “nerdery” for anything related to their obsession. Whether it’s debating on which Queens Of The Stoneage album is the best or collecting random stickers from the sticky floors of the State Theatre on the way out of a show.

With their lives revolving around music — whether it's alt rock, classic rock, punk, hardcore, or whatever — it was only a matter of time before they turned their obsession into a podcast. The result? Podioslave. Yep, named after the Rage Against the Machine/Soundgarden supergroup Audioslave. Nerdy? Definitely. Awesome? Also yes.

Podioslave with Scott Ian and Frank Bello of Anthrax

New episodes drop every Monday with some weeks focusing on a specific topic — like a deep dive into Green Day's American Idiot album for the 20th anniversary, the future of the music industry, or the current state of live music and the concert industry. Other weeks, they bring on national and sometimes local musicians as guests.

Podioslave with Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust

I sat down with Tony and asked him a few questions about the podcast.

How did the idea come about?

Nate and I had been joking about doing a music themed podcast for years. Nate moved to California in the early 2010's and the idea was put on the back burner. Right before the pandemic started in 2020, Anthony and I met at a local brewery and brainstormed 75 or so podcast topics. We sent them to Nate, bought some microphones and recorded our first episode the day the world shut down in Anthony's basement, with Nate on Skype (RIP)

You guys started from scratch. How were you able to expand your streaming numbers to where they are today?

We had no audience at the start. I think the first week's streaming numbers were our three phones, our significant others and maybe Anthony's dad, and Tony's brother.  Fast forward to today, (according to listennotes.com) we're a top 2.5% podcast worldwide, we've been featured on Loudwire, Chorus, Guitar.com, Idioteq, Metal Injection, and more. We've just grinded it out, week over week, putting a new episode out to the world every week for 275+ weeks ��� no breaks.

Podioslave recording in Tony's living room

Was there a moment where you realized, “Okay… people are actually listening to this”?

Right after posting our first interview with Greg Bergdorf - Ep 9 (former lead guitarist of Zebrahead), and then into the Scott Russo convo - Ep 11 (frontman of Unwritten Law) we saw a spike in listens, and they were from everywhere. Australia, the UK, Germany etc. We were kinda blown away. This was late spring/early summer 2020.

Podioslave with Doug Robb of Hoobastank

Podioslave with Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage

Since the whole thing started back in 2020, they've had over 135 guests so far. I asked him to give me "a few"  the biggest and/or most memorable guests they've had on so far. He started and just kept going...

• Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust (Tattoo the Earth Ep 5)
• Sergio Vega (formerly) of Deftones (Ep 111)
• Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage (Ep 115)
• Tucker Rule of Thursday (Ep 92/200)
• Scott Ian and Frank Bello of Anthrax (Tattoo the Earth Ep 4)
• Aaron Bruno of AWOLNATION (Ep 237)
• Sen Dog of Cypress Hill (Ep 241)
• Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D. (Ep 212)
• Doug Robb of Hoobastank (Ep 272)
• P Nut of 311 (Ep 70)
• Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw (Ep 259) 
• Benny Horowitz of The Gaslight Anthem (Ep 99/203)
• Nick Wheeler of The All-American Rejects (Ep 75)

Are the three of you in agreement on a favorite guest? 

I know Anthony's favorite interview was Alex Dunne, guitarist of Crime In Stereo — Ep 201/202 (his favorite band of all time). He spent three hours with us going over the history of the band. We split it up into two parts, and it's easily one of the more interesting and in-depth convos out there about that band.

As far as my favorite, I'm not sure I have one. Nate landing us Greg Bergdorf — and that turning into him coming on multiple times, my wife and I meeting up with him in Savannah a few years later, and genuinely becoming friends with him — that’s been awesome. My favorite episode we've ever recorded was Perfect Songs III (Ep 199) with you, Rob! And Spose. Just a blast to nerd out with you guys. So many laughs.

Nate couldn't pick just one either — it's a tie between famed grunge photographer Lance Mercer (Ep 13) and Jonah Matranga (Far, Onelinedrawing, Ep 117).

Podioslave with Greg Bergdorf formerly of Zebrahead

Their streaming numbers just keep growing, drawing in music fans from around the globe. As someone who’s listened to more episodes than I can count, I can tell you — if you’re a diehard music fan, this one’s a must. You can find Podioslave on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and most other podcast platforms. 

You can also follow them on their socials: 

Podioslave on Instagram

Podioslave on Facebook

Podioslave on X