Talking Ears

Author: Earmark Hearing Conservation

Music Audiologist Frank Wartinger, Au.D., speaks with music creators about their ears, sound, and hearing. This is a sound-positive space where loudness is celebrated as one of the fantastic ways sound can be created and experienced.
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Language: en

Genres: Health & Fitness, Music, Music Interviews

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Tom May - talking guitar tone, in ear monitors, and punk
Episode 5
Friday, 19 December, 2025

After a brief fall hiatus, we return with Tom May of the Philadelphia-based punk rock institution The Menzingers! They've been touring and putting out critically-acclaimed records since 2006, so the obvious first question is how four high school friends from Scranton can keep the same line up and energy going strong for almost 20 years. Retrospectively, it seems obvious that the answer was "democracy". (Editor's note: this interview was recorded in early 2024) Besides a deep dive into guitar tone, we stay on topic and focus our conversation on in-ear monitors - including the active-ambient system Tom uses on stage, the Sensaphonics 3DMEs - and live event safety. Music heard in this episode is from The Menzinger's 8th and most recent studio album "Some of It Was True". Content Warning: this episode contains profanity. We challenge the sensitive listener to try talking about punk rock without the use of George Carlin's famous list of 7 words.