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Damn the man. Hello. It's great to finally have you on a meet the team. I'm very excited. Thank you. How are you doing?

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I'm doing well today. How about yourself? I'm doing pretty good. Good. Good. How's your eye been?

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Eyes are good. I don't have glasses anymore. Recovering well. I can almost see your face. This is great.

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So some people might know you here as the logistics person, but that's recently changed, right?

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That's right. Yeah. So I'm now no longer in logistics. I'm now a department of just me,

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and I got a new title. What am I? Infrastructure and technical specialist,

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which is a very strange kind of made up term for the stuff I do. I don't know.

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So you're your own boss then? Sort of. Yeah. I don't have anybody to really report to. I mean,

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I'm still technically working under Colton as well while he's still working at the company.

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So what do you do here? What comes along with that title?

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No, it's kind of complicated. There's a lot of weird things. So I guess one of the major things is I

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run tech for the WAN Show and sort of all of our live streams. That's what I used to do a lot. So

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live streaming is kind of my bag from the tech side of things. Infrastructure is also assisting Jake

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with a lot of things, Jake Tyvey. So you're networking your systems administration. I'm doing

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the whole sort of build out for Labs from the networking and server kind of side of things.

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Also helping with the massive amounts of data storage that we have here and keeping all of that

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running. I'm also in charge of the SolidWorks PDM administration, working with the hypervisors and

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the kind of like virtual machines that a lot of different departments use here. I do repairs.

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So repairing all the things that Linus drops or other things that go wrong.

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Somebody took apart a laptop the other day and just sort of gave me a bucket of parts. And so I

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had to put that back together. What else? I don't know. Jeez. I shoot short circuits. I do all sorts

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of other little things. Basically, if you need a hand with something, then I'll come and help you

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with that too. Oh, he was doing some custom design stuff. So Andy wanted some custom cables for the

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cameras. So design a model 3D printed those and I'm putting those together for him as well.

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Lots of lots of different stuff. Oh, that's right. Also tech support. Yeah, for the whole company.

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Pretty much just just me, maybe some Kalinan in there, but he hates it. So yeah, it's a lot of

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stuff. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff. How did you learn how to do all of this? Like, I don't know.

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A lot of experience. Most of the jobs that I've had have always been on really, really tiny teams.

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So a lot of the things I've had to learn myself, I've also just had an interest in tech for a long

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time. So when I was in high school, I did sort of night courses at a local university to learn

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drafting and CAD and that sort of thing. You know, I've worked like the last seven years as the

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technical director of like a very large recording studio. And recording studios are super small

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teams. I think it was just like two of us and the owner and eventually some other people.

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Our studio was sort of set up for recording orchestra. So it was this massive main room.

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And then on the weekends, we would have concerts in there. So you kind of have the main stage

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where the band is and then about 100 people. And we sort of took that from just live concerts in

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there to doing full seven camera live switched live streams, which we then record and do everything

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like that. So I was also the systems administrator for the studio and dealt with all their networking

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and their video editor and like director and lighting tech and so yeah, kind of large mixed bag of

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stuff. Jack of all trades kind of guy. Wow. I mean, it sounds like you used to have like a pretty

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nice gig. Why did you end up leaving that and join us here at LMG? I don't know. You kind of

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the music industry in that kind of world is very difficult. It's not a whole lot of money in it.

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There's not a whole lot of I guess the ceiling for the career is kind of difficult. There's not

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really very many studios and there's not a lot of positions, right? The guy I was training under

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the head engineer there. He's the engineer for 5440 and Backman Turner Overdrive and kind of those

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types of larger bands, right? So that's kind of the education that I got and working with artists

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myself. But like where do you go? You go to a different studio where you have people who have

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been doing this for 40, 50 years who get to do an album, right? And then with the proliferation of

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home recording devices that like you can do it just as well at your home as you could in our studio.

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Like, yeah, you don't get a two to five million dollar treated room. But I mean, that's the problem,

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right? Where do you go? Where do you see yourself? And I kind of wanted to make the shift here because

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I don't know, larger team. I thought my skills were applicable. I applied to be an editor.

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I never got a response. And then, you know, the logistics manager position opened up. And so I

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took that. And now it's kind of turned into something weird. So you know how to edit videos,

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too? Yeah. When I started here, I did a couple of weeks editing short circuits. I did the

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dark plates one for the PS5, which was kind of fun. It's weird. They've got a mark on here

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that seems to kind of help you put it in the right spot. But I don't see a corresponding mark

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on the inside of the dark plate. My broadcast experience actually really worked for that because

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short circuits like a three cam, three camera multicam style thing, which is really off the cuff.

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And so editing those, I managed to get it down to like an eight hour day after a couple of weeks

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to do one of those, which is good. What's the biggest difference you would say between

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here and any other job you had? So I used to wear like 13 different hats at my last job.

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And the issue is when fires would happen, I would have to leave that fire and go fight a

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different fire. And then when I came back, that fire was still burning. And it was just like

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12 hour days, seven days a week, all the time, never stopped. Here, if there's a fire, I can go

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fight a different one and somebody else can come and put that there. So there's a lot more support.

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And each individual person is like not as critical. You know, I'm here to support Jake

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Tyvee and Jake Bellavance. I basically just work with all the jakes. It's weird.

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And so if Jake's having a bad day or something happens to him, I can step in and cover and,

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you know, vice versa. And so having that like support network and the diversification of skills

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is like so nice. It's so much more stressful. I mean, it's still really hard. Like we don't stop.

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But there's just that support, which is great. What's one thing you wish you could do more of here?

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Oh, man. Okay. So I was talking to Colton and a couple other people about this and it ended up

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not being something we needed. But at the studio, you know, we were charged like $160 an hour plus

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room fee plus fees for engineers and all that sort of thing. And so if you go and try and find

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like a cable or something and it takes you five minutes, you've just cost your customer a load

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of money, right? You can't have any kind of failures or downtime or have any inefficiencies,

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right? And everybody here like our video video production schedule is so intense that there's

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not really a lot of time to like sit back and look at procedures or anything like that. And for the

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longest time, I basically just wanted to like make everybody's job easier here. The problem is that

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I don't know, it's not really something that can be fixed or needs to be looked at too intensely.

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And I think they're working on some other steps to fix that. I basically just want to make everybody's

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job easier and their life easier because our schedule is so nuts. What do we do? We make 18

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videos a week or something like that. And so any tiny little issue or failure or complexity that

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doesn't need to be there really, really screws everything up, makes everybody stressed.

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I mean, you already do a lot to help everybody. I try my best, you know, if you have a problem

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with your computer, we want to get it fixed as soon as possible because especially with the editors,

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like, oh man, I couldn't imagine the pressure there. And I can't, I did that. Yeah, it sucks.

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Yeah, working here is hard, but we do good. You do a lot of stuff here at LMG, but you also do a

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lot of stuff outside. Is that correct? Yeah, I do. I mean, there's a lot of design stuff and other

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things like that. I do a lot of OST work and sound effect work for indie games and other projects

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like that. I'm a musician myself. I used to be a touring musician, did a tour of Canada, all that

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sort of stuff before I ended up in the music industry. I've not really done a whole bunch of

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the video stuff. I take product on white for a couple companies. I developed this cute little

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pumpkin pincushion suction cup thing that we've launched on Amazon, which is pretty excited.

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It's like a little jack-o'-lantern. What else? What else? Design games myself, do some programming,

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that sort of thing. Never really been a big artist, so I've always been looking at like,

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what is a concept that I can execute that has really shitty art? And that's always been hard.

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So trying to learn Blender and add some extra skills that I don't have. Yeah, design things,

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working on a modular audio controller system, which has been a hellish project, mostly just

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because the interconnects are like beyond my skill level of electrical engineering.

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So that's been a nightmare. Yeah, otherwise I think that's about it.

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That's all? I do cross-stitch. I'm working on one that says crippling anxiety, and it's got some

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nice like flowers around it. That's fun. I always forget stuff. I mean, just a new flavor of the

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week, every single week, and it's hard to remember. Time isn't a thing, I don't know.

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So if you wanted to, let's say, build a game from scratch, you could basically do everything.

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If the art was garbage, yeah. I mean, because I know how to program, and I know how to

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like game and audio. The only real issue is art, and so my current concept is kind of art light,

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or at least style heavy, and doesn't really focus on like complicated character models or anything

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like that. I mean, doing games as a solo developer anyway is really complicated. My first project

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was a team of three, and it took us five years to make like a 30 to 40 minute experience.

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It takes a hell of a long time, so if you're doing solo development stuff,

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keep it simple, and don't make an RPG ever. Don't do that. What's your favorite memory from the music

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industry? You mentioned that you toured a bunch, as well as making soundtracks and stuff. I actually,

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I still have a signed vinyl for this, so we were working with one artist who came to do a

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concert, and she brought on a guest singer who ended up being the singer for the My Little Pony

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theme song. Our audience is like rather older, so they're like 80 to 85, and they come see this

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folk singer, and you know, that's kind of every single week. This is the audience that we have,

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but there's this one guy who came, and he's like my age, and he's wearing a My Little Pony shirt,

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and comes up and talks to this woman and gets her autograph, and I just thought that was just

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the most beautiful bespoke cringe I've ever been a part of. So I bought their vinyl and had all of

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them sign it, too, so I always keep that close to my heart. It was like, it was magical.

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Yeah, sure, sure. I don't care. What are your passion for text art?

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Oh man, I think I blame my father for that, among other things. But yeah, that was, he used to run

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his own VCR repair shop back in Englandland, and he actually repaired that VCR for Mark. I don't

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know if you saw that video. It's like one of the last people that can do that, and he's always

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sort of worked from home, and so I sort of grew up around having things in pieces and taken apart,

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and like getting brought in on that. And my mother was a, she used to program bank software, right?

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So computers were always there. I think I learned my ABCs on one of those crappy laptops with the

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orange screens, that sort of thing. So always been around computers, and because my father and parents

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kind of knew computers, I was allowed to play with them from a young age, instead of it being

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like a scary box that the kids not allowed to touch. So, you know, if I broke it or installed

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something and got viruses on it, it was like, oh, Dan, you better fix that. And it's kind of where

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you learn, right? So a lot of tinkering growing up, a lot of, I think, just exposure to tech in

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general was a big help. One of the things that really stood out to me when I met you is just

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the sheer amount of different skills. I mean, obviously, as everybody's witnessed so far right

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now, I mean, clearly, you've been able to learn a lot throughout your life. Do you have any advice

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for anybody who might be interested in pursuing a certain hobby or skill? Like something in particular

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or just like, just any, any, any skill, any hobby. Somebody might be interested in, but they haven't,

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you know, put the time aside, or, you know, went full at it yet. Have undiagnosed ADHD. That's a good

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start. I think the next thing would probably be just start small and learn kind of what it is

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you're doing. So I find with any kind of skill, there's like an intended way. And there's always

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like a workflow or a methodology. And I've been trying to apply this with learning Blender,

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because I can do solid works like quite well. That's parametric modeling, and that's way different

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than like artistic style modeling. The thing is that there's like different ways to approach

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a problem that you're trying to do. And having an idea of what you want to do and learning how to do

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that is so much more important than just like, I'm going to make the donut tutorial or something

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like that, even if it's music, or if it's, I don't know, electronics, or, you know, any sort of weird

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soft skill as well. It's you kind of have to have in your brain the goal, even if it's small, or even

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if it's hyper complicated. And then you just start working towards that. You know, when you're doing

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programming or like learning to do programming and stuff like that, a lot of people are like, oh,

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you have to make a calculator. And it's like, no, that's boring and stupid. If you want to have a

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program, if you want to have a piece of music that you want to make, if you want to have anything,

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you need that like, thing to work towards. And then that'll teach you how to Google the problems

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that you're having. You know, if you want to make a first person shooter, that's kind of like, well,

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how do I make a character run around? You got to kind of break it down. So have an idea, even if

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it's big or small, and then break that into smaller chunks, and then learn how to do those

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smaller chunks. And you're going to, it's going to be awful. It's just going to be so bad. But

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you've compartmentalized enough information where you can kind of start smooshing them together

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and get a broader sense, like through the fog of what the final skill you're trying to learn

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actually looks like. And then you can come back from that start with a new idea that doesn't suck,

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and you'll be able to move through it even faster. Very insightful. Now for the important

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questions. Oh my god. If you could be any animal, which one would you be? A lobster. Why a lobster?

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I can't remember the quote. Have you ever seen the movie The Lobster? No. I don't know. Because

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I lived for a long time, and everybody picks dog. Sure. I don't know. I love that movie.

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Yorgos Lanthimos. Yeah, that guy's fucking nice. Where do you get your humor from?

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I think it's a combination of anxiety and Englishness. Maybe. I don't know. Englishness?

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What does that mean? I don't know. In England, compared to America, in America, everybody

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wants to play the hero who says the right thing. And England is much more like the main character

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is the idiot and the fool. So I always like spouting wrong information or saying things that

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everybody looks at me like I'm a fucking dumbass. I just find that entertaining. It makes me smile

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on the inside, even if it maybe ruins the perception of others of me. And it's silly.

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Have you seen that meme where it's like me when I purposely spread misinformation?

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There you go. That's me on my daily life. Anything else you want to say to Floatplane peeps?

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I'm not sure. I'm not used to them. I hope you guys have a good day.

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Well, thank you so much, Dan. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good one.