Tonya J. Long: 0:00

Hello everyone. I am so excited RESET with Tonya here at KPCR 92.9 FM on a beautiful sunny day and KMRT 101.9 FM out of Santa Cruz, and I am so excited to welcome someone really special to me. It's Bryan Fenchel. Bryan the CEO and founder of Starchild Music. We're going to get all into how a crazy name like that evolved. But, speaking of crazy, I will never forget meeting you. Your hair was wider than your hips and you, and for a woman that's, of course, never a good thing, but Bryan had the biggest, boldest but most bodacious hair.

Tonya J. Long: 0:39

Just down the street from here, we were at a tech meetup and Bryan and I met, hit it off and have pretty much worked together ever since, as Bryan has built up and had resets in his life with his company and what he's doing to change the world of music. So what makes Bryan approach so unique is his willingness to challenge, to challenge the norm. Bryan was a multi-instrument musician We'll talk about those days of his fame and glory before he became a tech entrepreneur but he is willing to challenge how we make music and so with that he's created a product with his team that is going to change the way we look at instrumentation and music and our ability to work and partner with that. Bryan, welcome to my little domain, at least for this hour. Welcome to KPCR 92.9. Pirate Cat. It's great to have you here. Thank you, Tonya.

Bryan Fenchel: 1:33

I'm happy to be here and I'm Bryan Fenchel. Yes, I've played many instruments I play trumpet, piano, percussion, I'm a composer and I am the founder of Starchild Music. My background was split between music and tech. I started as a jazz trumpet player, then worked in film scoring and producing and eventually I found myself completely obsessed with the potential of generative music and adaptive systems.

Tonya J. Long: 2:01

Wow, I've never been obsessed with generative music or adaptive systems, but now that I have been part of the development cycles of your product, it makes a lot more sense what that means for the people in our audience who don't even understand what it means to have adaptive music. Can you tell them a little about what St Child does like, what it looks like for the consumer, so that they can wrap their head around it? Otherwise they might be lost for the rest of our conversation, and we don't want that.

Bryan Fenchel: 2:33

So let's first say what is Star Child Adaptive? So that's a new music format that listens back. So music that changes in real time, based on you, your energy back. So music that changes in real time based on you, your energy, your moment. And we're not just building the format, we're also building this really cool player that you can try now, actually, which I think we'll get into later. But what is it like for the user? Like, how does this look? What's it sound? Like Starchild? It's both for fans and artists. And so fans, they can use our player to remix music in real time with no gear, no plugins, just a phone or your laptop. You can shift the genre, the energy, the arrangement, even like the emotional tone of a song, and it's intuitive and expressive. So something you can do on your commute, in your room or with friends. Artists use our pipeline to transform their songs into this new adaptive format, and that means they can release music that evolves. It opens up remix competitions that anyone can participate in and creates deeper engagement with fans.

Tonya J. Long: 3:37

So what's a remix?

Bryan Fenchel: 3:38

What's a remix? Yeah. Is that a mashup? Yeah, it's like a mashup Okay. But we do it a bit differently. The way that we do remixes is we'll take an artist's song and it will go through our pipeline and will automatically generate these alternate versions of the song that a fan can engage with in real time or an artist can engage with and play with their music in this new adaptive format so I could take an opera and turn it into a hard rock score is that what remix means?

Bryan Fenchel: 4:18

that's what a star child remix was start.

Tonya J. Long: 4:20

Okay, so I have. I'm a little influenced by knowing what the product does.

Bryan Fenchel: 4:25

So people like. So we have this pipeline which we call Clara yeah and an artist. If they want to do a release on our platform, they will send a song through our pipeline and these alternate genres will be created based upon the analysis of their song. Yeah, All those alternate genres, those alternate versions upon the analysis of their song. Yeah, All those alternate genres, those alternate versions and alternate energetic levels will be put into our player, which plays star child adaptive format, which is a multi-channel format, what I described and then you can switch between the genres, you can add effects, you can do all these things in real time and create remixes with this. So, like, everything you're doing on that player is recorded and you can save it and now you have a personalized version of that song.

Tonya J. Long: 5:15

So if you've ever wanted a section to be faster or wanted a section to I don't know, have more strings. That's what you're saying you can do. Wow, know, have more strings is that's what you're saying you can do? Wow, wouldn't the artist be upset about that? About you?

Bryan Fenchel: 5:31

changing their music. That's one of the things that that we we want to. We focus on is we want to be right, safe, we want to be ethical, and our whole thing is about supporting artists and they're staying true to their vision. When an artist does a release on our platform, they get to decide how they want their fans to be able to change their music. Okay, exactly, but with an artist, it opens up all these different new options for them. As an artist, they can take it all different types of directions, any way they want. So it's both. Like some artists we spoke to, they are like super into the idea of fans being able to do whatever they want with their music and making it so any fan can do it, not just fans that have production experience and I would be as an artist myself. I was a bit surprised by this. I was like wait, so you don't care if your fan does anything they want with your music, they can speed it up, they can make you sound like a chipmunk.

Tonya J. Long: 6:22

they might with your music. They can speed it up, they can make you sound like a chipmunk. They might take your vision.

Bryan Fenchel: 6:25

Helium balloon version Completely like to the left of what you ever thought the song would do and the artist I was speaking to, Chizuko, was one of our first featured artists. She was like yeah, that excites me, like I want my fans to be able to share and do whatever they want with my music.

Bryan Fenchel: 6:40

I love it Like I love it with it some way emotionally, didn't matter how. But if the audience could connect with it in a way that was even more powerful, because they could personalize it to whatever they're feeling in that moment, that's better. That's the way music should be. That's more like a live performance.

Tonya J. Long: 7:16

Okay, yeah, I have this big word in my head and I can't get rid of it it's transcend. So, like your music, something you compose, it can transcend you when other people get to be creative with it, absolutely. When they're blue because they broke up with their friend and they can make it a blue song, or they are really happy, giddy, excited, they can turn it into a really happy, giddy, excited song.

Bryan Fenchel: 7:45

They can.

Tonya J. Long: 7:46

Yeah, and that's I remember when AI first, when generative AI first hit the streets two and a half years ago and I had a friend that was an executive coach up in Oregon in his 60s and he became a mid-journey nut and he would create I bet he couldn't draw a stick figure with a pen but he could make these crazy images like of my Airstream on Mars with me holding my book.

Tonya J. Long: 8:16

He made these beautiful images. It unleashed creativity in him that he every night he'd sit out by his fire pit smoking a cigar while his wife was on her computer doing other things and he'd make these images of my Airstream, bella, and send these fanciful like steampunk, like genre, and he, I mean, he was consumed by it. And so I can see from what happened with him how people would feel the same way once they are given tools to operate with music in a different way from feel, because they may not have the technical gifts of music reading or, like your technical gifts, playing all those instruments but if they have a tool that you've given them like star child, then they can be involved in the creative process they could go on some other music generation platform and take the output of that some platform that lets you generate your own songs instantly.

Bryan Fenchel: 9:10

There's some of them today that are pretty cool Not ethical, but they're very cool and they could take that and go on our Starchild platform and put it in Starchild format. They'll have all these different genres of it and an interactive experience that they can then release like, either under their own name or they could create some persona. It's very exciting times for people that want to get creative, that don't necessarily have a creative background.

Tonya J. Long: 9:36

Yeah, I love it. I love it, so I can't wait till you. Let me log in and do something.

Tonya J. Long: 9:41

We will not fight about that here, but I can't wait. I honestly can't wait to see it. So let's rewind the clock a little, because you didn't just wake up from a dream and say, oh, I need to build this. You had years as a performer, as a musician, so that had being a multi-instrumentalist had to influence, like how you looked at music technically and you produce music as well. How did that experience in your history shape how you came to see the opportunity to do this?

Bryan Fenchel: 10:17

well, like I said, I've been obsessed with how music makes people feel and, as a performer and composer, I was chasing the moment like that goosebump moment. Yeah, yeah, it's an addiction. And I kept hitting a wall Like music was always frozen once it was released so you couldn't reach into it and reshape it, and I actually wrote this rock opera.

Tonya J. Long: 10:42

You've told me about this.

Bryan Fenchel: 10:43

It's wild, it's an emotional ride. But I realized the format I wanted it to live in. It just didn't exist yet Okay, so I didn't want it to play the same every time. That was the turning point, like I needed to build a format before I could finish the music.

Tonya J. Long: 11:01

Have you done anything with that rock opera have? Oh? I actually don't know the answer to this, so tell all of us it's not available for everyone to experience yet, but it will be.

Bryan Fenchel: 11:12

But I was talking to my co-founder, because my co-founder also has these like expansive creative visions let's give a shout out to your co-founder. Oh star child yizo, his Yizo. His name's Donye, but he goes by Starchow Yizo and a nice man. Yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 11:28

And the Grammys that he has won in his career haven't changed him? No, not at all.

Bryan Fenchel: 11:34

He's become far busier since his latest Grammy.

Tonya J. Long: 11:37

I know I wouldn't notice that.

Bryan Fenchel: 11:45

You would, yeah, as a co-founder. He's down in LA, which is exciting. He's got lots of amazing opportunities opening. So, yeah, so we both have these expansive visions and so I, you know, we've developed Star Child as a format that can you can release these on. If you go, try our player now, you'll see. Yeah, there's really cool music. You can switch stuff around, but I don't want to give too much away. But there will be video added pretty soon as well. Get out, yeah, it's going to be cool.

Bryan Fenchel: 12:07

Oh, my goodness, Because we have all multimedia experiences and we want it to be personalized multimedia experiences in real time. Okay, now you can imagine now that that sounds really cool. It sounds cool to me, it gets me excited. So how did I get here, though, really? So we could take a step back. It's a little bit of just a little window more into this journey. So, like I was in the music industry for a long time myself, that's where I met Donyea if you're looking at this on the podcast, you see the video.

Tonya J. Long: 12:34

He looks very young. I think he came out of preschool performing music, so it's hard to think about you. I did come out of preschool performing music. Oh, prodigy, okay, keep telling us your story.

Bryan Fenchel: 12:48

Yeah, I've been performing since I was five years old oh wow Trumpet and piano and then I was in the industry then. So I graduated high school, I toured Japan and some other places as a jazz trumpet player Super fun Went to conservatory and then I got into the music industry part. I was doing a lot of music production, wrote that rock opera I was talking about and started producing for bigger pop artists and companies like Disney, universal, neo, french Montana. It's a long list and after a while I decided to take a step back from the music industry and I moved to San Francisco to study computer science at USF.

Bryan Fenchel: 13:28

That was when I was 35.

Tonya J. Long: 13:30

Oh, you just look young then.

Bryan Fenchel: 13:32

Yeah, so I had a journey and I was like I'm getting super into VR, ar, I want to learn how this stuff works. I've been using all this production equipment and programs. I've always been fascinated how it works and after I went into computer science I thought I was just making a pivot. I need something different for now. But it became this obsession.

Bryan Fenchel: 13:53

So I was building worlds, playing with interaction, and then I discovered music, information retrieval, mir, music generation all these wild academic subfields that were asking the same questions I'd been asking creatively, which was what else can music do? And that's when it clicked, like my next chapter wasn't about making more songs, it was about building the future they could live in. So it was definitely like this, this identity shift for myself, because I spent all these years calling myself a musician and a creator and oh, I write screenplays and my whole life was just either being in the studio or being at home creating music or my next big vision or something like that. And now I was learning data structures and algorithms in my 30s, along with these 19-year-olds.

Tonya J. Long: 14:51

So at some point you realized that your life was transitioning from being a performer to making music a different way and enabling other people to make music.

Bryan Fenchel: 15:00

Yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 15:01

Was that a moment in time, or was it a blend that got you there?

Bryan Fenchel: 15:07

It was like a gradual shift. Okay, I was what I was forced to stop being a jazz trumpet player at a point in my life. Okay, I got this terrible illness and I lost feeling in my lips.

Tonya J. Long: 15:20

Does that happen to trumpet players? It happened to me From overuse. I didn't know if that was because, okay, it was just a random Bad infection.

Bryan Fenchel: 15:28

Yeah, yeah.

Bryan Fenchel: 15:29

I guess yeah, and I lost feeling in my lips from that infection, because that's where it started and it led to endocarditis and a lot of problems. I was in the best shape of my life and then I was walking around with a cane for months afterwards but I wasn't able to play trumpet anymore the way I used to. So I had to get into other things, and that's when I got far deeper, into music production, even video production, writing screenplays, because I'm a creative person and I needed to still do that. Eventually I was able to play trumpet again, but I'd already expanded this world. I learned so much by going into these different things, and while I was doing that, I got into technology.

Tonya J. Long: 16:08

Wow, not a technology conversation, but I'm going to segue just for a minute over into a radio announcement for one of our KPCR 92.9 partners. Kpcr wants to thank Stephen Cotton Photography in San Jose for sponsoring the Signal Society. Members receive $50 off in-studio headshots and $50 off 60-minute portrait sessions. If you'd like to learn more about membership in the Signal Society, you can hit kpcrorg slash join for more information. So I'm going to swing back to us. Bryan Finchel of Star Child Music here on RESET with Tonya. Let me get it all in and say something really gloomy, but it's something I've recognized in the last few years. Before we did that little station break, you were talking about becoming ill and even being on a cane and I just with your energy. I can't imagine that point in your life, that time in your life. But I had a moment a couple of years ago. I'd taken my Airstream down to the Rose Parade. There's a big rally that happens down there. It's awesome, and Gabby Giffords was the marshal of the parade. You might remember Gabby was a US senator that was shot. I'm going to say eight or ten years ago. There was a shooting. She was involved and she was paralyzed and she's no longer in the Senate just can't manage the physicality of that role.

Tonya J. Long: 17:36

And then I thought about Christopher Reeve and we all know what happened with Christopher Reeve in a horse riding accident and their lives became more meaningful after they had a complete life reset. And this was a couple, and I know it's gloomy, but often out of these terrible life incidents comes like the realization of the new you and who you are now. Gabby's a major like advocate for human rights, I think I wouldn't say gun control, but responsible gun ownership. She supported her husband into politics. Her life changed.

Tonya J. Long: 18:15

It's nothing like it looked like before, but I would say it's more meaningful and more people know who she is. She would just be the senator from Arizona. And Christopher Reeve oh, he would always be the cutest Superman, but he had a much more meaningful life. Michael J Fox same thing. So I'm putting you in a list of people whose life transitioned when a personal crisis happened and all of you you're in a list of four now had the resilience to find your path into something new that was even better than before. You wouldn't know me if you were still playing the trumpet on stages down in LA, that's true.

Bryan Fenchel: 18:55

Yeah, actually I left LA because I don't think I'd still be here if I didn't leave LA. I'm really happy I changed my life.

Tonya J. Long: 19:03

Met Yesenia and Yesenia, sorry, met Yesenia and yeah your life is on the right path, so I love it. You have said in some of your postings and some of the other things that you've done that musing is evolving everywhere except at its core. What led you to question the foundation of music? That was pretty bold to declare music as not evolving.

Bryan Fenchel: 19:29

When I got into music information retrieval and music tech, I realized we had all this amazing innovation Like there's AI mastering, stem separation, adaptive reverb, spatial audio. Oh stop with the terms stop.

Tonya J. Long: 19:43

Dolby Atmos here.

Bryan Fenchel: 19:44

The delivery format right it. Oh, stop with the terms. Stop Dolby Atmos here. The delivery format right. It's still just a static file. Still press play, listen.

Tonya J. Long: 19:50

Oh, that was great, that was amazing.

Bryan Fenchel: 19:52

But that didn't make sense. Other mediums evolved Games, they became interactive, films became immersive, even books became choose your own adventure. And music it's still locked in the past, right. So eventually this kind of became my mission.

Tonya J. Long: 20:10

We, I wanted to evolve music and bring it into this interactive era okay, and this is the leap is big, but it's not like from just driving down the street listening to the radio to this. I've been the Sphere a couple of times in Las Vegas and when things happen like a boom, an explosion, the seats vibrate. It is an immersion for me. I'm not an audiophile and it is an immersive experience. You feel the sound in that environment. And then now the part that's beautiful to me is that you're bringing people into the music because they can help recreate it from their lens yeah, I want everyone to have that experience that I felt being on stage and performing yeah, it's a collaborative experience, a conversation, and now this star Adaptive format brings everyone into that conversation.

Tonya J. Long: 21:06

So you and I are both in AI land. We operate that way, we think that way. A lot of our, a lot of my friends and I think a lot of your friends too, are focused on the newest technologies that are happening. Yet you are also focused on feeling. You've talked about wanting people to feel the music instead of it just being static instead of it and I don't mean static like on a radio, not dynamic. So how do you maintain the human element since AI is coming into everything and people are questioning everything? How do you keep the human element in music while you use AI to make music adaptive?

Bryan Fenchel: 21:49

That's a great question. So at Star Child, we're not chasing automation for its own sake. We're building a system where AI enhances human expression. It doesn't replace it. So every track starts with a real artist. So the emotions, the stems, the intent, that's all human. Our adaptive engine, clara, simply makes those songs responsive, letting fans shift genres, energies and arrangements in real time, without breaking the artistry.

Bryan Fenchel: 22:17

We don't do generic, throwaway generative content. We do expression with feeling and we back that up. Structurally. Our entire system is built around attribution and ethics. So artists are credited and compensated. They stay in control of how their music is adapted and when Remix revenue is generated, the artists get paid. But it goes even deeper than that. So when we use generative tools like alternate genre stems, the AI model creators get a cut of the revenue too, and with some of our partners, it doesn't stop there. They also pay out the data providers who contributed to the training of those models, and that means musicians whose catalogs help power the AI are also compensated. So it's not just about innovation building a new creative economy where everyone who contributes gets recognized and rewarded. And that's how we preserve artistic integrity in the age of AI by making sure every voice, human and hybrid is heard, respected and paid and paid.

Tonya J. Long: 23:25

So is the ethical concern around music just about getting paid? I shouldn't say just because it's fair. That's people's work and what they've done, it should be compensated. I'm asking you the definition or the categories of ethics in music. Is it mostly around licensing rights or are there other ethical considerations in the production of music?

Bryan Fenchel: 23:51

I think a lot about licensing rights. Yeah, of course.

Tonya J. Long: 23:54

What you're building you have to. It's transactional, and there's nothing wrong with that. It has to be figured out.

Bryan Fenchel: 24:00

There's another side too, right yeah, Like when I first started messing around with stuff like Midjourney and these other magical models out there yeah yeah, I thought it was Amazing.

Bryan Fenchel: 24:11

It was so much fun. Just like your friend, I like got lost in it and then I started realizing wait a minute, what about the artists? Who's this stuff is all like based on what's going to happen to their careers, and there's two sides of this, oh wait, but they can use this tool too, and this could help them and they could do stuff way faster. But then it's.

Bryan Fenchel: 24:30

Shouldn't they be compensated for everyone else using their work, that it was trained off their work so if there's an attribution layer and people are getting paid for the usage of this model the actual artists that give the data great. And if these artists can use this to enhance what they're doing or even expand what they're doing, that's great too. But you just got to make sure that there's an attribution layer, so when you're replacing these people's jobs, they're going to benefit from these models as well. I just want to try to keep everyone in the loop. So when you say, like when we say this is ethical, we're saying that we support artists, like what we do at star child isn't meant to replace artists. It's meant to amplify them and help them reach more people or help them expand their creativity. In no way are we trying to replace artists in any way.

Tonya J. Long: 25:22

I don't know, I'm not going to say this well, but bringing people into the creative process, I think, creates not just more visibility but more fans. For me, art and art is a very broad term, but I remember going into my first really big name museums and seeing things that I had only seen on calendars before right and seeing Monet's Water Lilies in St Louis.

Tonya J. Long: 25:47

It's huge, it's an enormous, it's a wall mural. Who knew? And who knew when I went to the Louvre that the Mona Lisa is this tiny little postcard-sized painting? It's a little bitty thing. When you are physically in the presence of visual art, you appreciate it more, you feel like you're a part of it and I think you are allowing people to be part of that creative process. Do you think creativity has a connection to connection? I mean, there's clearly a deeper human need and I'm thinking that adaptive music allows us to curate different experiences with music. You talk about remix competitions. Competitions inherently mean people are facing off, even if it's online or digital.

Bryan Fenchel: 26:45

I guess at its core, music has always been about connection.

Tonya J. Long: 26:49

Really.

Bryan Fenchel: 26:50

Yeah, to ourselves, to each other, to moments in time. But the way we consume music today often feels disconnected, so it's passive and prepackaged. You press, play and that's it. And I think people are craving something deeper and, yeah, these creative tools do enable that. They want experience that responds to them, that feels alive, like just as I'm messing with Midjourney that feels alive, like I can like create art in the style of artists I know and it's dope, I love it. You can do the same thing with star child. It gives them, it will give you some kind of agency. Everyone wants that. Actually, in a world that often feels overwhelming or out of control now, even your music will respond to you and that's it responds to you.

Tonya J. Long: 27:35

Say more about that, because I don't inherently intuitively understand that.

Bryan Fenchel: 27:40

Yeah, that's where adaptive music comes in star child adaptive. So when music responds to you like your mood, your movement, your motion, it becomes a mirror, it becomes a conversation and you're not just listening anymore, You're co-creating the moment and that creates a powerful sense of presence. It helps you reconnect with your own feelings and when shared with others, through remixing, competition or just co-listening, it becomes a way to communicate things words just can't reach. So we've seen it happen in real time People light up when they realize they can shape the music, not just consume it. And that sense of play or ownership of emotional residence, that's what we're unlocking with Star.

Bryan Fenchel: 28:30

Child. Yeah, adaptive music. It's a tech innovation. More importantly, it's a human one, and it meets a deep need to be seen, to be heard and to feel like our presence in the world actually changes something and that something's listening out there.

Tonya J. Long: 28:47

Interesting, interesting. I'm going to do a quick station break. It's the bottom of the hour. Everyone you are listening to RESET with Tonya and with our guest Bryan Finchel of Star Child Music on KPCR 92.9 FM out of Los Gatos, k215 GA 90.5 FM, also in Los Gatos, and KMRT 101.9 FM in Santa Cruz. That was my version of waves.

Tonya J. Long: 29:17

I can't make music with my voice like you can, but you are listening to us from these three radios, radio frequencies. So wonderful to have you here today. I am back to Bryan Fenchel, a friend, a founder, someone that I gosh. Hardly a week goes by the last year and a half that I haven't been talking with you about what you're building and what you're doing. We were talking about the connection that music creates and I questioned how music creates connection, but there's also, I think, quite a bit of collaboration that music enables. That music enables because you've worked with major automotive car companies, you've worked with game platforms, all looking at how to use music and use the ability to modify music to suit their constituents, that that that use their core products. But whether it's fitness brands or developers or whatever the new peloton is going to be, as those evolve, you're looking cross-industry and collaborating on what is next. So how are those cross-industry collaborations important for what you think the future of music looks like?

Bryan Fenchel: 30:34

I think the future of music is Starchild Adaptive.

Bryan Fenchel: 30:37

Raise it up and because we're not just building a product and we're building this new format for music, music that's alive and adaptive, that shifts in real time, that listens back, to make this the new normal, like a new format. We can't stay inside the boundaries of the music industry. We need to work across the ecosystem Game platforms, fitness brands, catalog owners, developers, anyone creating experiences where music can play a deeper, more dynamic role. So we believe adaptive music should live everywhere, like you said, like the next Peloton, workouts, games, wellness apps, social platforms, virtual worlds and to make that happen, it takes collaboration. It also takes community. We're building this with artists, technologists, curators, fans, anyone excited about reimagining that music can be. You know what music can be. It's not a top-down shift, it's a movement, one that invites people to experiment, to co-create and to shape this format with us. And that's how formats become standards, not just like through tech, but through a shared belief that music deserves to evolve. And we're building that belief, that community, more and more every day.

Tonya J. Long: 31:52

That evolution, I think, is based on resets and pivots in the world. I think every evolution is based on. It's pretty obvious when you say it, but people get so agitated or excited, depending on their nature about things changing, and change is what leads us to new things. I know you've done a lot of different things. You've had multiple ventures, you've worked through accelerators, you've done VR work. Did you fail at anything? Oh yeah, that's how I got here. Really, yeah.

Bryan Fenchel: 32:29

Every pivot, every failure. It's been part of the path, and even when it didn't feel like it at the time. So this, like other startup concept I had it was called the StageMark VR. We were experimenting with immersive performance, digital identity, long before the world was really ready for it. Okay, the idea was sound, we are artists performing anywhere that sounds cool, and shortly after we decided that's not for us, burger King did stuff like that, and McDonald's and all these AR companies.

Tonya J. Long: 32:56

I've been early once. It was no fun to watch the rest of the world do my stuff a year after I shut it down.

Bryan Fenchel: 33:04

It was super fun. Actually, I was like oh, finally, that's exactly what we were talking about, but yeah, helping artists perform in 3D spaces, but when we were doing it, the infrastructure really wasn't there yet. But, still we were doing it. The infrastructure really wasn't there yet, but still it taught me how much potential music has outside the traditional stage. It also taught me, like, how important timing is and how you have to build just far enough ahead of the curve to be visionary without getting lost in the fog.

Bryan Fenchel: 33:28

Yeah, I did this really cool accelerator.

Tonya J. Long: 33:30

It's called sound of ai accelerator which I found the sound of music, but the sound of ai, the sound of ai. There's this guy. I have this mental model of julie. What was her name?

Bryan Fenchel: 33:38

skipping through the, the fields in between the mountains sound, the sound of ai listen if you can picture, like valerio, who's has a whole youtube channel called sound of ai. He's like this genius mir scientist okay, all right out in right now he's a barcelona very cool guy, yeah. But so this Accelerator community and momentum, when I needed it and we actually won this hackathon that validated the wild idea I had that I wasn't just a musician trying to play with tech, but now I was a founder building something new, yeah, and I made labs. But like all these different experiences and like accelerators and things, just it just taught me like when you're building something revolutionary, you're not just making a product, you're building new mental models and you're teaching people to see music differently.

Bryan Fenchel: 34:25

And that takes patience, it takes empathy and it takes being okay with things breaking along the way, because I guess just in my life, path broke a lot of times along the way and I learned patience with that and with others. So each chapter refines the mission. It helped me stop trying to replicate the old models and instead ask what's possible now? That wasn't before. And that's how this star child thing was born Not as a reaction to failure, but more as a response to everything those failures taught me about what really matters.

Tonya J. Long: 34:56

I love it. So things happen for you, not as a reaction, but as a response. That's something memorable. I'm going to hold on to that one. So you used the word revolutionary a minute ago and that made me think. This is revolutionary, and not everybody likes change. So I'm wondering. Some people are such purists that any shift in models and processes and the way of being that we have are painful for them. So how do you? And music everybody has music somewhere in their lives, right? Music is not foreign to anyone that's capable of receiving it. So music is out there, foreign to anyone that's capable of receiving it. So music is out there. And I have to think that you've had to basically find ways to balance or to honor traditional music while you're creating something that's completely disruptive. So what have you guys done to honor traditional music so that you can convert those fans into adding new music genres? You're right.

Bryan Fenchel: 36:02

Balance is everything. So Star Child isn't about throwing away the past, it's about building a bridge from what's timeless to what's next. We have deep respect for traditional music, creation, the artistry, the craft, the rights, the culture. I'm not the only multi-instrumentalist on my team. My whole team, we're all musicians, we're all creators on the founding team, every one of us.

Tonya J. Long: 36:25

You're all building a digital product, an AI product, and you're all musicians.

Bryan Fenchel: 36:31

We love music so we're not here to replace that.

Bryan Fenchel: 36:34

We're here to give it a new dimension. So we built Star Child Adaptive to be a format that evolves with the artist's intent, not against it. So artists still create the music, they still control the feel, the flow, the emotional arc. We're just giving them a new set of tools to let their work breathe, adapt and connect in new ways and to allow fans to have this deeper connection with music they already love. And we had already spoke about respecting rights holders, and so, whether you're like an indie artist or a major catalog owner, we make sure your content is protected and attributed and monetized fairly. You can choose how your music is adapted. You decide, like, how fans are going to remix it, and nothing happens without your say. But what we found with, like I said, so many artists is they just don't want to lose control or get left behind. So we've done this platform to empower them, not replace them, and to preserve what makes music human while unlocking what's possible when it becomes interactive. It's not disruption for disruption's sake.

Bryan Fenchel: 37:37

Okay, that's a good statement, it's a conversation between generations of creativity, and we're here to help them speak the same language.

Tonya J. Long: 37:50

We've talked about connection, a little bit about community. What are you most excited about in terms of what this product actually does for humanity?

Bryan Fenchel: 38:03

That's really big humanity.

Tonya J. Long: 38:04

Now all I'm thinking about is Alpha Launch Fine, fine, but humanity could be the first million people that you have. That use it. That's a segment of humanity that you will impact. That use it. That's a segment of humanity that you will impact. So, what are you most looking forward to?

Bryan Fenchel: 38:29

with what it helps shift for those users. I think it's going to make people appreciate music a lot more and to see people realize that feeling that I get when I play be able to play with music, not just play music.

Bryan Fenchel: 38:37

So it's a whole new way to engage, so people can tap into songs and reshape them, live in real time and that sense of control and creative freedom is something most fans have never felt before, and these remix competitions take that to the next level, aren't like traditional remix contests where you download stems or open a DAW and have to submit a file weeks later. This is live, intuitive remixing, just pure expression, like the Starchild player. If you go try it at starchildmusic, you can go experience this and it's like you're playing an instrument, but really you're playing with an artist you love. Right now that's Chizuko, so you probably haven't heard of her yet.

Tonya J. Long: 39:22

But if you go listen to her on there, she's there. I saw the trailer you developed with her. She's cute and her personality. She's just perky and fun and open and she was a great first artist launch for you.

Bryan Fenchel: 39:35

Yeah, she's great and she's an amazing dancer as well as a singer and writer and pianist, so it's good to hear her music.

Tonya J. Long: 39:43

I love it. So I said the word, my magic word community, a minute ago, and you and I have participated in and been part of several communities. We both do a fair amount of networking and connection through the tech communities that we get involved with. I think that you've had community through all your resets. I imagine you as a trumpet player down in LA up till 3 am doing sets every night, but you had a community there, right, that's just how you're wired. And then now you've got a tech community. At different points in time you probably got a dog community to go with ozzy.

Tonya J. Long: 40:28

I'm sure you and ozzy have friends, so those communities have been support systems for you through these various resets, wink, wink that you've had in your life. So what's your advice to others about finding support systems through community? That's a deep sigh.

Bryan Fenchel: 40:54

Yeah, in my life, community has been everything, every major reset in my life, from leaving, leaving LA, going back to studying computer science, or there's always been a community I met and connected with to help support these resets in my life. Because when the people around me change, it's more like I started seeking out different types of people after going through these resets and it really helps Because your life changed. If you're going through your own creative or professional reset, don't try to do it solo. Found yourself with people who stretch you.

Tonya J. Long: 41:27

Oh, yes, and who see?

Bryan Fenchel: 41:28

your transition not as a loss, but more as a reinvention.

Tonya J. Long: 41:33

Evolution yeah, I love it.

Bryan Fenchel: 41:35

So look for communities at the intersection of your interests, where innovation lives, whether it's an accelerator, a Discord group, a writing camp like a start child writing camp or a hackathon. Put yourself in rooms where art and tech and intuition and data, creativity and systems collide. Be open about where you're at.

Tonya J. Long: 41:56

It occurs to me, you've had several resets through your career LA musician, student here in the Bay Area, founder, now soon-to-be husband. You had a dad, dog dad. So you've had lots of transitions that you've lived through, but each of those transitions represented different communities for you.

Bryan Fenchel: 42:21

Yeah, yeah, community has been everything. Every major reset in my life leaving LA, going back to school for computer science, shifting from musician to founder I wouldn't have made it through without the right people around me, like when I left music industry to pursue tech. It was disorienting, like I went from studios and stages to algorithms and labs. But in San Francisco, I found a new kind of community, one that welcomed experimentation. I met developers who loved music, artists who loved data and mentors who saw potential in the crossover. So the Sound of AI Accelerator was a huge turning point. It gave me structure, accountability and, most importantly, it gave me peers who were asking the same crazy questions I was. And that's where we built the early vision for Starchild and where our team won the hackathon. It was really cool. It was our team. It was called Pacifierifier.

Bryan Fenchel: 43:17

We built this thing in just a few days that could convert any song into a lullaby. We said any song, but after we won, like one, one of the judges like, oh, could you convert a heavy metal song into a lullaby? We're like not yet. We'll work on that. I think we can do that now though. But yeah, it was connection, it was. You're not alone in this. So if you're going through your own creative or like professional reset, I would say don't try to do it solo. Surround yourself with people who stretch you.

Tonya J. Long: 43:48

Yeah, and to see your transition not as a loss but as a reinvention, yeah yeah, and I've seen you reinvent just in the last year and a half from the really large head of hair that you had to, dare I say, finding more investor meeting looks to bring, because you're not going to wear your favorite t-shirt into a meeting with a potential investor.

Bryan Fenchel: 44:14

Why not you could. Yeah, honestly, I was just scared of haircuts. You were Okay, so I had to get over that fear. Yeah, are you sincere yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 44:23

Why were you scared of haircuts? I?

Bryan Fenchel: 44:25

just don't like haircuts. It's scary.

Tonya J. Long: 44:27

Okay.

Bryan Fenchel: 44:28

And so I usually don't get one. Maybe once a year I'll go in and get one.

Tonya J. Long: 44:31

Okay.

Tonya J. Long: 44:32

Or once every few years, all the things that you are fearless about, and I would not have anticipated that you would have been scared of cutting your hair. You must, somewhere in your lineage, have Samson From biblical times. Remember Samson who couldn't cut his hair. He would lose his strength. So I see, at this point, it's time in the radio show for us to give a little shout-out, and we're going to do a shout-out for Surprise Chef. Now, when you think Bryan, when you think of Surprise Chef, do you think of cooking classes? Do you think of bands? What do you think of?

Bryan Fenchel: 45:13

Surprise Chef. Yep, I think about Chef from South Park. That was like the first thing that came to my head.

Tonya J. Long: 45:21

He was not a surprise. He was except what was going to come out of his mouth, because that was South Park.

Bryan Fenchel: 45:25

Yeah, or I think about cooking up in the studio. Yeah, one of those things, yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 45:29

Surprise Chef is a band and we're going to be giving away three pairs of tickets for the July 26th show, so that's coming up in just a few days at Moe's Alley. Now I'm not a music gal, like I don't follow music closely like a lot of our listeners do, but Moe's Alley is like a pretty famous music venue down in Santa Cruz. So we're giving away tickets for the July 26th show and if you'll join, or if you are part of the Signal Society, then you can enter to win. And if you need to find a way to join the Signal Society, you can do that at kpcrorg slash join. We're going to announce the winners on July 24th, so just a couple of days before the show.

Tonya J. Long: 46:14

So as we transition into our final section, it has become my favorite part of the show. It is a lightning round. So it become my favorite part of the show. It is a lightning round. So it's half a dozen or so questions, spontaneous answers, short answers. I don't have an issue with you. Some people tell stories that go five and eight minutes, which is forever on a one-hour show. I don't have to rein you in with answers. I was at a place last night where they kept telling the speaker we need one minute answers. We need one minute answers because he was a storyteller, right, but this is a lightning round, so let's get on with it. First question for you I feel like I need some kind of TV game show background music, and if I was equipped with Starchild sitting here I might do that. But we'll do that on another show on a future show and you could change the genre, the energy level?

Tonya J. Long: 47:02

Yeah, we'll have to do a show together. Add intensity yeah, we can do that. So the question is if you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, on a Starchild adaptive track, who would that artist be?

Bryan Fenchel: 47:22

That's a really difficult question.

Tonya J. Long: 47:24

I know you music people. It's like asking you to pick between your babies.

Bryan Fenchel: 47:28

What kind of artist is this perfect for? I don't know if any of you have heard Fred again, but Fred again.

Tonya J. Long: 47:34

I know that name.

Bryan Fenchel: 47:35

Yeah is amazing and what he does would be perfect for this platform.

Tonya J. Long: 47:39

Okay, so yeah, Can you say a little bit about why. Because I'm curious, since I don't readily know Fred's music why is his music perfect for the platform?

Bryan Fenchel: 47:50

He pushes boundaries.

Tonya J. Long: 47:51

Okay.

Bryan Fenchel: 47:52

He's not afraid to have his fans remix his work. That's actually one way like he directly connects and engages his audience. He collaborates with everyone. A big part of his music is collaboration and the followers of this electronic genre of music. They're a far more engaged audience and they're more likely to get a lot out of something like Starchild.

Tonya J. Long: 48:16

Okay, got it. Thank you, thank you. So, in the age of AI, what's one skill every creative person should develop? Now that we have AI tools?

Bryan Fenchel: 48:34

You have to get really good at prompting Okay. You have to be aware of these AI tools and use them. So I guess, if you're a creator, instead of saying I'm not going to use this because it's cheating- or I'm not going to use this because it's. I would say how can you use this to beat the game? I don't know. I used to love Mario Brothers 3. And the thing I loved about it is the way you beat the game. Is you cheat? You have to cheat to beat the game.

Tonya J. Long: 49:04

Oh interesting.

Bryan Fenchel: 49:05

You have to know the cheat codes.

Tonya J. Long: 49:07

We'll have to talk about that on another show. What's the biggest misconception people have about AI in music?

Bryan Fenchel: 49:22

music. I think a lot of people believe that it's replacing artists and that it's all unethical and that music AI is the enemy. But that's only true about the bad actors and it just turns out the bad actors. They get the most marketing and publicity because they get the most support from VCS or the bad actors are the ones getting all that funding hundreds of millions of dollars. There are many players out there that aren't like that.

Tonya J. Long: 49:51

That's our child, okay, so what's a piece of technology that you wish existed right now for creators?

Bryan Fenchel: 50:05

I always wanted something to exist where I could just wave my hand and it would almost read my mind and what I wanted to create and just create it. Not necessarily Neuralink.

Tonya J. Long: 50:18

Okay, okay, fine, fine, you want to wave your hand and create? Yeah, like a conductor. Okay, what if I was a?

Bryan Fenchel: 50:26

conductor and I didn't have a symphony. I didn't have a musician to wave my hand in front of. I would like it to be possible for anyone just to wave their hand and create music Like. I wrote this screenplay a while back, and in one of the scenes in it there's this holographic symphonic painter and he comes out and he's like waving his hand and he's wearing a bathrobe with a long beard like a crazy wizard, but he's waving his hand around and as he's waving it, this amazing holographic painting appears, along with music.

Bryan Fenchel: 50:58

Oh, that's sensational. That's coming out spontaneously.

Tonya J. Long: 51:01

Yeah, yeah.

Bryan Fenchel: 51:02

And that's what we see the future being possibly, because with Star Child, right now you can just move a finger and push a button and it's generative and we're going to add support for videos you don't know maybe someday, with Star Child, you'll be able to be a holographic painter of music, fascinating Multidimensional experiences.

Tonya J. Long: 51:23

Okay, yes, I love the multidimensional experiences. Speaking of these creative experiences, if traditional record labels disappeared tomorrow, would it be good or bad for artists?

Bryan Fenchel: 51:55

labels disappeared tomorrow, would it be good or bad for artists? I can't answer that question. I don't want to answer that question. Okay, I think it would be. I want to work with the traditional labels. I think they're awesome. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to meet with Warner, which I would.

Tonya J. Long: 52:07

Yeah, that's a good answer.

Bryan Fenchel: 52:08

I'd love to work with them as artists. I always was waiting, like, oh, I want to get signed to one of these labels.

Tonya J. Long: 52:13

Yeah.

Bryan Fenchel: 52:14

But really today's age, you don't need a label.

Tonya J. Long: 52:17

Yeah, I published a book and I self-published. I didn't want to wait the 18 months that it takes to create and get to market with a book with the publishing houses. I was in a hurry. It was an AI book, I didn't have 18 months. So I feel like that's a parallel for people. A parallel for people. Some people may prefer the, the construct of working with the formal channels to get these things in the market, and but you don't have to these days, it all takes community right.

Bryan Fenchel: 52:47

So if you don't have a label, let's say the labels did disappear tomorrow, which would be sad for some, yeah, but for the rest of us it'll be like oh, that's, it's totally fine, because I was going to collaborate with this other creator. We're going to do these collabs together and market together to push our stuff out there.

Tonya J. Long: 53:04

Yeah. So if you had to explain Starchild to your granny in 10 seconds or less, what would you tell her? It does.

Bryan Fenchel: 53:15

You can make your music fit your moment.

Tonya J. Long: 53:17

Oh, I like that Good Perfect Fill in the blank. Here's the last one.

Bryan Fenchel: 53:24

Music becomes truly alive when when it makes you feel alive.

Tonya J. Long: 53:34

Oh yeah, I do see that and agree. Okay, I love it, I love it.

Bryan Fenchel: 53:55

So looking ahead. The wrap-up question for our talk is what reset do you see coming for the world as it relates to music? What do you think the big reset will be? For us? Right now it's dull the atmosphere, and spatial and immersive music. But I think what's coming is this shift from static music formats, like I just described, to these adaptive, interactive experiences music that's alive, responsive and personalized. So we're already seeing the early signs, like there's ai artists, virtual virtual personas, immersive fan experiences. But what ties it all together is this growing expectation that music should do more than play. It should react, it should adapt to who you are, where you are, you feel, and that's what StarShield Adaptive is built for. It's not just like a feature.

Bryan Fenchel: 54:40

It's a new format that makes all of this possible so whether it's like a real artist releasing music in multiple styles and moods, or an AI persona interacting dynamically with fans, star Child is the format that powers that. You know musical responsiveness. And it's not just about the music industry. This reset is going to ripple across everything, because music is everywhere. It's part of gaming, fitness, fashion, wellness and, yes, even of course, branding and advertising. And for brands, this is huge. Adaptive music means you're no longer stuck with one-size-fits-all soundtracks. You can deliver emotionally tailored musical experiences, resonate in the moment, personalize ads, immersive brand campaigns, music that shifts based on your user's state of mind or activity. It brings feeling back into marketing in a way that's dynamic and respectful and not disruptive, and Star Child opens the door to that future where music becomes a living part of every experience. It's already a part of. I have music on all the time, but some people like driving in silence.

Tonya J. Long: 55:45

I've heard I yes, you listened to my last NorCal Narratives podcast. She was wonderful. Yeah, she was great. Yeah, paige Brodsky of Streetlight Records was on another podcast that I do, and I confess that I actually never have music on at home on my drive. So, Bryan, I'm thrilled that you listened to my last podcast so how do we prepare for this coming future of adaptivity?

Bryan Fenchel: 56:15

if you're a creator you can start thinking beyond the track and and this is your chance to design experiences, not just dropping a single and if you're a listener, you get ready to shape the music around you, your mood, your moment. It's really just trying it out. You don't have to get ready for anything.

Tonya J. Long: 56:32

It's that easy.

Bryan Fenchel: 56:33

My three-year-old niece can use Star Child and enjoys it. So if you're a brand or platform, you know this is your invitation to connect with audiences, and if you want to see where it's all going, come visit us at starchildmusic or, for sure, connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm always on there.

Tonya J. Long: 56:55

That is a bold-faced lie.

Bryan Fenchel: 56:59

Okay, I'm always on there. That is a bold-faced lie. So yeah, we're building this new musical universe. Yeah, and it's not just for artists or fans, it's for everyone, okay. Okay, just don't lie about your LinkedIn. So come join us. And yeah, I do need to post more on LinkedIn. I haven't even announced this.

Tonya J. Long: 57:21

You've talked about your camp, the camp that you're doing, the writer's camp, which I think will be fascinating. It'll be similar to the camp that we ran here at Pirate Cat for kids this summer to learn to do radio production and podcasts. So I think getting people involved in your medium is going to be a big step forward. When's that camp coming up? We just had one actually in LA Okay.

Bryan Fenchel: 57:43

And we're going to have another one, because unfortunately I wasn't able to make this one. In LA Star Child, yizo Donye he ran it, and Shizuko was there and Juan, who's my co-founder. He flew out from New York to be there. Yeah, and we videoed the whole thing. We just haven't released any of the content yet.

Tonya J. Long: 58:04

Good, but yeah, there should be some more video and info coming soon. Beautiful, beautiful. You've told people how to get in touch with you at Starchild Music on LinkedIn. Are you Bryan Fenchel? F-e-n-c-h-e-l? Yeah, Bryan Fenchel, awesome Starchildmusic or Bryan at starchildmusicai, starchildmusic.

Bryan Fenchel: 58:15

or Bryan at starchildmusicai.

Tonya J. Long: 58:16

Okay, excellent, that's my email.

Tonya J. Long: 58:20

So if people want to follow you, want to pursue what they can do creatively with music, they have different ways to get a hold of you and we will drop that into the show notes. Excellent, okay. So, Bryan, it has been a pleasure to have you today on RESET with Tonya. Talking about creativity is outside my creative zone, so I really enjoyed this. I appreciate you. We love our audience, so we're giving the little love sign to our video podcast that we'll produce. But you've been listening to this show with Bryan Fenchel of Star Child Music on the RESET with Tonya program and it's being broadcast from kpcr, 92.9 fm, as well as k215 ga, 90.9 fm and santa cruz's lovely kmrt, 101.9 fm. Everyone have a beautiful, wonderful, lovely day and we will see you again next week.