The Quarantined's Sean Martin on 900K Streams, 40M TikTok Views, and No Label

The Quarantined's Sean Martin on 900K Streams, 40M TikTok Views, and No Label

Episode 020 – Sean Martin | MAKE // BREAK Sean Martin is the vocalist, guitarist, and executive producer behind The Quarantined, a grunge/punk/metal project rooted in socially critical songwriting and real lived experience. A U.S. Army Airborne Infantry veteran who deployed to Iraq with the 3/509th, Sean channeled his post-service recovery into music, graduating from Musicians Institute in Hollywood and building The Quarantined from the ground up across LA, Florida, Boston, and Nashville. The band's latest album, Aversion to Normalcy, was recorded at Blackbird Studios with producer Nathan Yarborough (Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Evanescence) and has surpassed 900,000 Spotify streams and 40 million TikTok views. In this episode, Sean gets into what it really takes to make uncompromising art as an independent artist — from surviving the DIY grind to turning trauma into something that resonates worldwide. Building a rock career without label support like Sean? THE V1LLAG3 is the room where the work gets shown. ↓ link at the bottom. 👀 What you'll hear * Hear how Sean turned an Iraq deployment and a Musicians Institute degree into a fully independent grunge project * Unpack how Aversion to Normalcy got cut at Blackbird Studios with producer Nathan Yarborough on a DIY budget * Break down the TikTok and Spotify run that pushed The Quarantined past 40M views and 900K streams * Trace the move across LA, Florida, Boston, and Nashville and what that grind actually costs an artist * Talk veteran mental health, PTSD, and writing songs that double as survival tools instead of branding * Get tactical on what professionalism, content discipline, and audience-building look like with no label in the room 🕰️ Chapters 00:00 Cold open and intro 01:30 Iraq deployment to Musicians Institute 06:45 Starting The Quarantined in LA 13:10 Moving the project to Nashville 19:20 Tracking Aversion to Normalcy at Blackbird Studios 25:40 Working with producer Nathan Yarborough 32:15 The 40 million TikTok view run 38:50 Hitting 900K Spotify streams independently 45:30 Veteran mental health and PTSD songwriting 52:00 DIY systems for music business survival 58:25 What it costs to keep going 01:04:10 Recalibration and what's next 🔗 Guest Links https://www.thequarantined.com [https://www.thequarantined.com] https://www.instagram.com/thequarantined [https://www.instagram.com/thequarantined] https://www.tiktok.com/@thequarantined [https://www.tiktok.com/@thequarantined] https://www.youtube.com/@thequarantined [https://www.youtube.com/@thequarantined] 🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20] https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish [https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish] https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish [https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish] 🏡 THE V1LLAG3 You put the work out. It got crickets. Every Wednesday at 2PM EST, get 90 mins live with people who do this for a living — a publicist, a content strategist, a music-business operator, a publishing pro. The same people private clients pay $1,500–$3,000 a month to work with. Bring one thing you're stuck on. Leave that same call with a straight answer you can act on. Not someday → this Wednesday. Right now it's free. No card, no catch. It's free because we're in our founding chapter, building it with the first members — and the day pricing turns on, founding members keep the founding rate for life. Worst case? You spend 90 minutes and walk out with more insights and professional feedback than you had going in. TAKE YOUR SEAT, FREE (for now…)→ [https://www.skool.com/v13-7161] 🔗 V13 Media Links https://v13.net [https://v13.net] Subscribe for new MAKE // BREAK episodes. And if you're wrestling with building a fanbase without label support like Sean did — bring it to THE V1LLAG3. That's where these conversations actually go somewhere. [Contains explicit language and discussion of combat experience and mental health.] #MakeBreak #Martin #TheQuarantined

Mark Winters: From Aerospace Engineer to 107-Date Tour

Episode 019 – Mark Winters | MAKE // BREAK Mark Winters is a Texas-based singer-songwriter, poet, and former aerospace engineer who traded rocket science for rock with a positive vibe. Since his 2019 debut Slipstream, he's released four albums, built a loyal fanbase of over 36K monthly Spotify listeners, and launched his own label, Bernoulli Records. Now midway through a 107-date Good Vibes Highway Tour across the US and Canada, Mark is doing it all independently: writing, booking, touring, and looking forward to sharing some extra protons while out on the road. In this episode of MAKE // BREAK, he unpacks what it means to start a music career later in life, the unglamorous systems behind sustainable DIY touring, and why positivity is a strategy, not a cliché. Building your own systems like Mark? THE V1LLAG3 is the room where you show the work. ↓ link at the bottom. 👀 What you'll hear * Hear how Mark Winters left aerospace engineering to chase the music business and build Bernoulli Records from scratch * Learn the Instagram discipline host Lance Marwood and Mark dissect for organic growth without follow-for-follow gimmicks * Unpack the booking timeline, venue myths, and community-first systems behind a 107-date Good Vibes Highway run * Steal the two-week sprint method Mark uses to A/B test reels and find his highest converting content * Wrestle with AI, AGI, and what it means to be human alongside a former rocket scientist turned songwriter * Decide when ambition becomes hobby and how to know whether to push, pivot, or step away 🕰️ Chapters 00:00 Meet Mark Winters and Bernoulli Records 01:24 Booking a 107-date DIY tour 02:42 Industry illusions vs the reality of artist development 06:43 Why venues don't deliver community 08:13 Email capture and converting cover gigs to fans 10:24 Picking Instagram as the home base 14:45 The brutal discipline of judging your own content 16:15 Two-week sprint method for testing reels 25:39 The physics of positivity 30:00 AI, AGI, and what it means to be human 39:23 When to push, pivot, or quit 49:05 Good Vibes Highway Tour close 🔗 Guest Links https://markwintersmusic.com [https://markwintersmusic.com] https://www.instagram.com/markwintersmusic/ [https://www.instagram.com/markwintersmusic/] https://www.tiktok.com/@markwintersmusic [https://www.tiktok.com/@markwintersmusic] https://www.youtube.com/c/markwintersmusic [https://www.youtube.com/c/markwintersmusic] 🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20] https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish [https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish] https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish [https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish] 🏘️ THE V1LLAG3 // the paid community from your host The room I built because I couldn't find it. The first readers your work has been waiting for. Wed Live 90min with Lance & Chris. 7 frameworks V13 uses with $1,500–$3,000/mo retainer clients. Bio, EPK, profile & website teardowns. Founding 50: $49/mo locked for life · [38 spots left] $79 Standard after. Full refund if your 4th Wednesday hasn't earned it. JOIN HERE [https://www.skool.com/v13-7161] 🔗 V13 Media Links https://v13.net [https://v13.net] Subscribe for new MAKE // BREAK episodes and drop a comment about your own home-base platform versus your discovery channels. #MakeBreak #Winters #DIYTouring

Samantha Willman: Truth, Poetry, and the Love It Demands

Episode 018 – Samantha Willman | MAKE // BREAK Samantha Willman is a Canadian writer, designer, and editor based in Montréal. She co-founded and co-edits Romanticon, a Substack literary magazine dedicated to neo-romanticism and new sincerity, alongside Anthony Galluzzo, Paul Franz, and Matthew Gasda. She also publishes Marbl, a personal newsletter exploring intimacy, symbolism, and the interior life. Her 2016 book Behind The First One was published through the Canadian Academy in Rome. In this episode of MAKE // BREAK, Samantha unpacks why irony culture has hollowed out creative life, how she built a thriving 60-person poetry reading series from nothing, and why approaching truth with love (not optimization) is the real survival strategy for artists. Looking for this kind of insight and care for your own work? THE V1LLAG3 is the room where you show the work. ↓ link at the bottom. 👀 What you'll hear * Why writing poetry in Rome unlocked a felt sense of truth she couldn't access through logic alone * How the new sincerity movement pushes back against layers of ironic artifice in online culture * Building a 60-person poetry reading community from scratch with zero formal plan * The case for keeping a day job so you can approach your art from love instead of desperation * How Rilke wrote two masterworks in weeks and what that says about creative production vs. productivity * Why philosophia means love of truth — and why that changes everything about how artists create 🕰️ Chapters 00:00 Introduction and how Lance discovered Samantha 03:00 Why poetry is hard to recommend and harder to consume 05:16 Writing poetry in Rome and the birth of creative instinct 08:59 Charles Taylor, intrinsic rightness, and felt truth 10:33 Favourite poets: Plath, Octavio Paz, Wallace Stevens 14:17 Neo-romanticism and new sincerity explained 19:17 Irony culture, meme politics, and the Vice magazine pipeline 22:41 Argumentation vs. dialogue — methods of thinking 30:00 Building Romanticon's live reading community 37:34 Why the Enlightenment was top-down and Romanticism is not 42:22 The starving artist myth and creating from a place of health 45:16 Rilke, the Sonnets to Orpheus, and creative production in bursts 🔗 Guest Links https://romanticon.substack.com [https://romanticon.substack.com] https://marbl.substack.com [https://marbl.substack.com] https://instagram.com/sam.willman [https://instagram.com/sam.willman] https://x.com/samanthawillman [https://x.com/samanthawillman] 🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20] https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish [https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish] https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish [https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish] 🏘️ THE V1LLAG3 // the paid community from your hostThe room I built because I couldn’t find it; the first honest take your work has been waiting for. Wed Live 90min with Lance & Chris. 7 frameworks V13 uses with $1,500–$3,000/mo retainer clients. Bio, EPK, profile & website teardowns.Founding 50: $49/mo locked for life · 38 spots left. $79 Standard after. Full refund if your 4th Wednesday hasn't earned it.→ https://www.skool.com/v13-7161 [https://www.skool.com/v13-7161] 🔗 V13 Media Links https://v13.net [https://v13.net] Subscribe and tell us in the comments: do you think sincerity is the real counterculture right now? [Contains occasional explicit language.] #MakeBreak #SamanthaWillman #NewSincerity

Workers Comp's Peter Mahoney on Surviving the DIY Scene

Episode 017 – Peter Mahoney | MAKE // BREAK Peter Mahoney is a Toronto-based guitarist, recording engineer, and DJ rooted in the city's punk and hardcore underground. As guitarist for Workers Comp (who deliberately pulled their music from streaming in favour of Bandcamp) and a collaborator in UNWELL alongside Cursed/Burning Love/SECT vocalist Chris Colohan, Peter has spent two decades navigating pay-to-play scams, revolving lineups, and the real cost of making loud, fast music on your own terms. He also runs House of Trash, offering affordable recording and mixing to DIY bands. In this episode of MAKE // BREAK, Peter opens up about losing bassist Nick, rebuilding through grief, rejecting social media pressure, and why community built on genuine friendship outlasts every trend. 👀 What you'll hear * Discover how Peter identified pay-to-play scams and industry gatekeepers as a teenager in Toronto * Learn why Workers Comp pulled their music from streaming and what they use instead * Hear the gut-wrenching story of losing bassist Nick and deciding to keep the band alive * Explore what community really looks like when you strip away the buzzwords and trend-chasers * Find out why Peter built House of Trash to record bands affordably on his own terms * Understand the internal resistance artists face when social media becomes a second unpaid job 🕰️ Chapters 00:00 Cold open: the real cost of playing music 00:51 Single Release Playbook promo 01:15 Meet Peter Mahoney — guitarist, engineer, cat dad 05:31 Early illusions about the music industry 09:42 Pay-to-play shows and industry scams in Toronto 13:21 Joining the wrong bands and learning to say no 19:28 Building community and finding the right people 25:27 Defining success on your own terms 33:34 The shit sandwich: social media and self-promotion 43:37 Leaving Spotify and the case for Bandcamp 51:53 Recording at House of Trash and learning to engineer 58:04 Losing Nick and pivoting through grief 1:06:15 Shameless plugs, upcoming shows, and final wisdom 🔗 Guest Links https://youreentitledtoworkerscomp.bandcamp.com/ [https://youreentitledtoworkerscomp.bandcamp.com/] https://www.instagram.com/workerscompband/ [https://www.instagram.com/workerscompband/] https://unvvell.bandcamp.com/ [https://unvvell.bandcamp.com/] https://www.instagram.com/house.of_trash/ [https://www.instagram.com/house.of_trash/] https://www.instagram.com/vernaltrash/ [https://www.instagram.com/vernaltrash/] 🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20] https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish [https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish] https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish [https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish] 🔗 V13 Media Links https://v13.net [https://v13.net] Subscribe and drop a comment: when have you had to pivot instead of quit in your own creative life? [Explicit language throughout.] #MakeBreak #Mahoney #DIYPunk

Paul Van Valkenburgh of TubeFreeks shares music business survival lessons

Episode 016 – Paul Thomas Van Valkenburgh | MAKE // BREAK Paul Van Valkenburgh is the vocalist and frontman of hard rock and groove-metal outfit TubeFreeks. On MAKE // BREAK with host Lance Marwood, he breaks down the music business realities of keeping a long-running band alive: the early “make” spark, the “break” moments of lineup shifts and stalled momentum, and the habits that rebuild trust. Paul shares how writing during recovery from major surgery reshaped his confidence, why vocal coaching levelled up his delivery, and how delegation protects both the work and the people. He also previews the next chapter, including the upcoming single “Flower” and the album Canvas, co-written with Clint Lowery (Sevendust). 👀 What you’ll hear * Trace the moment TubeFreeks stopped being a project and became a real band * Break down how a lineup collapse killed momentum, and what rebuilt it * Learn why coaches and co-writers raised standards without flattening Paul’s voice completely * Hear an in-house vocal recording process that avoids clock pressure and fixes phrasing fast * Steal the anti-Franken-song veto rule that keeps great ideas from getting overworked * Get the scoop on Flower and Canvas, and what a big 2026 slot means 🕰️ Chapters 00:00 TubeFreeks origin and the MAKE // BREAK frame 00:33 Make moment and the first riffs that made it feel real 05:19 Switching from drums to frontman mindset 08:06 Band chemistry, no-drama lineups, and why personnel is everything 15:32 Momentum collapse, touring stops, and rebuilding after a lineup split 24:34 Health crisis, recovery writing, and confidence after The Dry Tide 31:38 Delegation, coaches, and co-writing with Clint Lowery 39:15 In-house studio workflow and vocal takes without clock pressure 43:50 Vocal writing: cadence, phonics, and chasing cool 51:37 Lyric risk, emotion, and the God hear me out chorus decision 56:01 Franken-effing a song and the veto rule that protects great ideas 1:03:16 New single Flower, album Canvas, and opening for Black Stone Cherry 🔗 Guest Links https://tubefreeks.com/ [https://tubefreeks.com/] https://www.instagram.com/tubefreeksrocks/ [https://www.instagram.com/tubefreeksrocks/] https://www.youtube.com/user/Tubefreeks [https://www.youtube.com/user/Tubefreeks] https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gCE3tYHEDORDZLDQdimlp [https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gCE3tYHEDORDZLDQdimlp] 🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20 [https://open.spotify.com/show/5GDOUd909p7ir2W74M9teg?si=cbc7e01e13ba4a20] https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish [https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish] https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish [https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish] 🔗 V13 Media Links https://v13.net [https://v13.net] Subscribe, and comment: would you use the band-veto rule, or does it kill songs? [Mild profanity] #MakeBreak #TubeFreeks #MusicBusiness