ZHZ Podcast: Independent Music, Artist Interviews & The Utah Scene · Zak Davis & Matt Allen

The Indie Music Grind: Where Creativity Meets Zero Budget

·29 min·1 clip

Jinnitus turned canceled tours into hundreds of Instagram Live interviews.

1. ZHZ Podcast: Independent Music, Artist Interviews & The Utah Scene talks with Jinnitus about independent music grind and zero-budget release strategy. 2. Jinnitus is the guest, an artist based in Finland who writes, produces, engineers, manages, and releases his own music. 3. The episode asks what an independent musician can do when a release has no budget and still needs attention. 4. Jinnitus explains that he chose the name “Jinnitus” from his last name and turned childhood drawings into custom lettering for his logo. 5. He says he worked on AM radio in the 1990s and at Groundhog Recording Studio, which gave him early experience with broadcasting and music scenes. 6. He also mentions helping with Bam Margera’s Sirius satellite radio show and later running a 24/7 station through Sam Broadcaster in 2005-2006. 7. After COVID canceled a planned Japan trip while touring with Andy McCoy, he moved his music networking onto Instagram Live. 8. He says he started livestreaming from his balcony, then began reaching out directly to musicians “I don’t care how big they are.” 9. The livestream habit grew into “hundreds” and then “thousands” of sessions, and he later moved some of that work to YouTube because Instagram Live is hard to find again later. 10. He says the show is also about his new release San Francisco Safari, which he plans to share through podcasts and streaming services. 11. Jinnitus says he wrote the track with Life with Distortion’s Martin, whom he describes as a “super cool dude” based in Brooklyn, New York. 12. He says Martin often sends him a fully arranged song with drum-machine drums, and Jinnitus adds vocals, guitar parts, and solos. 13. He says the song also includes artwork by Sacrament 666, a Russian artist who has made covers for Nordic Sea and Take a Bow. 14. He says he almost used AI for the cover art, then changed course after Martin reminded him that he already had an artist for the job. 15. Jinnitus says San Francisco Safari is about AI, ChatGPT, World War Three, apocalyptic zombies, and his view of what is happening in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. 16. He says he follows both mainstream and independent media, plus people like Rogan, Lex Friedman, NVIDIA’s CEO, and Sam Altman, to shape that perspective. 17. The conversation is casual and collaborative, with both sides talking as musicians rather than as formal interviewer and interviewee. 18. The pace stays conversational, with repeated jumps between release details, collaboration history, and the business side of DIY music. 19. Independent musicians, livestreamers, and collaboration-minded artists would probably relate to it. 20. Listeners wanting tightly edited, topic-specific music journalism may skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded look at independent music, collaboration, and the slim hope of a sync placement.

ZHZ Podcast follows Jinnitus, a Finland-based artist who seems to do everything himself: producing, writing, engineering, and managing, all while getting ready to release San Francisco Safari with Life with Distortion.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want the real cost of making music on a tight budget.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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