My interview with Jake Song about Misadventure by Death
I hear you're starting your own AD, Misadventure by Death, what inspired you to make your own?
There are a few factors at play here.
It sounds silly, but Misadventure is a direct product of my love of Disney and history-the Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror rides at Disney World put a yearning for scary stories into me when I was little, and as I continued to grow, I visited many historical museums across the Eastern seaboard with my parents, places like Monticello, Mount Vernon, the Biltmore Estate, and The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, to name a few.
Whenever I visited a new place, I would read up on its history, and in the process often would stumble across stories of hauntings and unexplained occurrences that happened there. I ate it all up.
All of those stories I read continued to knock around in my head through high school and most of college, and when Jim Robbie and the Wanderers became established, the thought occurred to me that, Hey! I can do this too! I knocked out the first draft of Episode 1 during the summer after I graduated college in 2016, continued to chip away at it and hammered out the rest of the details in the coming months, and now here I am!
What is Misadventure by Death about?
It started off as a goofy idea, essentially taking a look at horror tropes and examining why people still find them scary, despite knowing exactly what’s coming.
The show has evolved a bit past that initial idea, but the framework has stayed the same-you have your main protagonist, Neil, who despite his better judgement, takes on a grounds keeping job at a mansion-turned-museum by the state with the help of Finn, a nonbinary nighttime security guard who patrols the property.
As you can imagine, it all takes a sharp turn south very quickly. It’s all pretty tongue-in-cheek, to be honest, but it retains many classic horror elements.
However, I wanted to create a horror podcast that was accessible.
I’m very aware that much of modern horror relies on jumpscares, which alienate a lot of people.
So, as far as those horror elements go, I wanted to challenge myself to create unsettling soundscapes that navigate their way around the need for jumpscares.
Further, as with pretty much all other Crossroadstations productions, most of the characters and cast are queer, and I’m planning on having all kinds of representation on the show.
Is this a different experience than working for JRATW?
It’s completely different. There is so much work.
I’m primarily a voice actor for JRATW, and the extent of my involvement in the creative process is writing the occasional episode and guiding Nico’s plot line along.
So, shifting from that to a position where I’m suddenly heading up a whole production by myself is terrifying to say the least. I will say it’s much quieter, as the team is about a third of the size of JRATW’s, possibly even smaller.
Do you plan to do everything on you own or are you getting some help from fellow JRATW cast members?
God no, I could never do this by myself.
So, Jack Pevyhouse is actually one of the first people I came to with this project.
Since Neil is so similar to him personality-wise, I thought it was a no-brainer to cast him in that role. He’s very nervous about it, but I know he’s going to be amazing.
I am currently directing, writing, and mixing the audio all by myself.
Since I’m pretty new to audio editing, I will sometimes consult Jim Robbie’s audio editor, the wonderful Laura Bramblette, for advice on technical stuff, and I occasionally ask the writers’ opinions on plot points and scripts.
I’m currently arranging to take on a co-writer soon, an old friend of mine from high school, actually.
What was the process for casting the roles for your new AD?
It was a little easier for me, and I’m very lucky, I think, as I already have so many people in the Crossroadstations family and the creative community as a whole that are eager to jump in and lend their voices. It’s very humbling.
For bigger parts I sort of jumped in feet first and figured, well it’s now or never. I originally approached people already established in the podcast production community, but when it came to casting Finn, well, that was a bit more difficult.
I created a casting call and shared it everywhere, and many, many talented people auditioned, but I eventually settled on M Moon, who I’m very excited to welcome to the team.
When do you plan to get this AD into the public ears?
I’m crossing my fingers for sometime in late July 2017! I have a lot of non-MbD related stuff coming up very soon, like me moving to a new place, most of the JRATW team moving up to Seattle, and such.
The first episode is ready to be released as of right now, but I’m just trying to have all my affairs in order.