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Episode 395: Brad Albright

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·21m 6s·analyzed·Mar 14, 2024
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TL;DR

Brad Albright discusses his new Motorhead homebrew pinball machine debuting at Texas Pinball Festival.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews artist and pinball designer Brad Albright about his new homebrew pinball machine, Motorhead, created in collaboration with David Peck (from New Zealand) and coder Matt Kemp. The machine features original playfield design inspired by Motorhead's 1978 album 'Bomber,' with a WWII fighter plane dogfight theme and artwork styled after classic Centaur aesthetics. Albright discusses his background in art, his transition to full-time freelance work, and his various pinball and non-pinball projects including posters, collaborations with Electric Playground on toppers, and work with 86 Pixels on pin light accessories.

Key Claims

  • Motorhead homebrew will be at Texas Pinball Festival with three units total being built (one each for David Peck, Matt Kemp, and Brad Albright)

    high confidence · Brad states: 'In some form of construction, this will be the only one in North America so far' and that each of the three collaborators will have one.

  • Matt Kemp, who does coding work for Spooky on Halloween and Ultraman, is handling the code implementation for Motorhead

    high confidence · Brad explicitly mentions bringing in Matt Kemp for coding work on Motorhead

  • Motorhead is inspired by the album cover from Motorhead's 'Bomber' album with a WWII fighter plane dogfight theme

    high confidence · Brad states: 'we took the album cover from the album Bomber and used that as our kind of bass theme inspiration'

  • Brad Albright previously collaborated with David Peck on a Led Zeppelin re-theme before Stern released their own Led Zeppelin pinball game

    high confidence · Jeff mentions 'Five years ago, you and Dave got in touch to do this really masterpiece, beautiful, beautiful pinball machine' on Led Zeppelin, and Brad confirms this was his first artwork on a machine

  • Brad Albright transitioned to full-time freelance art around 2015, coinciding with rediscovering pinball as an inspiration

    high confidence · Brad states: 'kind of in the mid-2015-ish...took the leap, went independent, left the security of the job behind'

Notable Quotes

  • “The loudest damn show I've ever seen. Truly loud to a scary degree. I'm a big metalhead so Motorhead is of course close to my heart.”

    Brad Albright @ ~2:00 — Explains personal connection to Motorhead theme choice and passion for the project

  • “It's like a retro modern vibe. The complexity of the rules is dialed back a little bit so the average player can find it accessible. The layout is a little bit more of a retro design, but it then has modes built into it.”

    Brad Albright @ ~8:30 — Describes design philosophy balancing accessibility with modern ruleset depth

  • “We were doing things very much to our own taste which you know for better or worse makes it very unique. The artwork itself is kind of a throwback, taking inspiration from Centaur, that black, white, red kind of thing.”

    Brad Albright @ ~9:00 — Explains artistic direction contrasting with current saturated artwork trends in modern pinball

  • “Pinball is my girlfriend, baseball is my wife.”

    Brad Albright @ ~25:00 — Personal quote reflecting Albright's passions and lifestyle balance

  • “I say that because you've done work with the Texas Rangers, the World Series champs. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I've been very fortunate to do posters for the Mavs, the Stars, and the Texas Rangers. Not yet for the Cowboys, but I say yet.”

    Brad Albright @ ~26:30 — Demonstrates breadth of Albright's work beyond pinball into sports and entertainment

  • “Once the code is implemented and it actually works and it triggers sounds and call-outs and music at the right times and integrates with the artwork, I'm as much of a fan of this project as anybody else.”

    Brad Albright @ ~6:30 — Describes collaborative process where code implementation brings design vision to life

  • “Back as far as I can remember, I was finger painting or drawing crayons or whatever. But I always did love pinball growing up. We never owned any, but in the 90s, you'd always come across a Twilight Zone or an Addams Family.”

Entities

Brad AlbrightpersonDavid PeckpersonMatt KemppersonMotorheadgameTexas Pinball FestivaleventElectric Playgroundcompany86 Pixelscompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Brad Albright operates as full-time freelance artist with multiple revenue streams: pinball artwork collaborations, aftermarket accessory design partnerships, sports/entertainment poster work, and convention vendor presence

    high · Brad transitioned from day job to independent around 2015; currently working with 86 Pixels on pin light accessories, Electric Playground on toppers, doing TPF posters, Stern Pro Circuit Final poster, vendor booth at shows

  • ?

    community_signal: Collaborative homebrew development involving designer (Peck), artist (Albright), and coder (Kemp) from different geographic regions (New Zealand, Texas, elsewhere) demonstrates robust homebrew ecosystem and international coordination

    high · David Peck flew machine from New Zealand to Houston to Texas Pinball Festival; project took 2+ years development; Brad has never played it until evening of interview

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Motorhead design intentionally contrasts with current market trends by using limited black/white/red color palette inspired by classic Centaur, reducing rule complexity for accessibility while maintaining depth through modes, positioning as 'retro modern'

    high · Brad states: 'artwork itself is kind of a throwback, taking inspiration from Centaur' and 'in contrast like the technicolor, super saturated artwork that we mostly see in the market these days'

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival 2024 has increased homebrew presence with Motorhead alongside major releases (Looney Tunes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Spooky; Centaur from Nitro; Princess Bride from Multimorphic; Barry's Barbecue from American Pinball)

    high · Jeff notes seven new games at last year's TPF; this year featuring multiple releases plus Motorhead homebrew debut with significant exhibition space

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.063

0:00
It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Twitter, Instagram, at pinballprofile. We've got a great Facebook group as well. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. If you'd like to show your support on Patreon, that'd be wonderful. Not necessary. It's just a nice way to say thanks and keep the show going. Patreon.com slash pinball profile. And thanks to great people like Jake C and Rodney C, GME Law, Tony V, Fox Cities Pinball, and so many more. We really appreciate that. Texas. That's what it's all about this week. The Texas Pinball Festival is happening. So we go there now because I can't go there. And somebody you're going to want to see and his incredible creations is our next guest. It's Brad Albright. Hey, Brad, how are you? Hey, what an intro. Thank you, sir. Well, the check cleared, Brad, so thank you. And hey, before I forget, shout out to Martin, your partner on Final Round. Thank you. He'll enjoy that. I might cut that out, but we'll see. We'll keep it in.
1:13
Well, the reason I wanted to shout out is because the whole reason that I know David Peck is because of hearing him on Head to Head Pinball. Nice. and struck up a friendship the past five years. And I credit Martin and Ryan for making that happen. Well, that's good. We even had David on final round as well, too. He's wonderful. And why you bring him up is why I'm talking to you is because there's this brand-new homebrew game, Motorhead, and it's not a re-theme like his Led Zeppelin one that you also were a part of. This is all new. Motorhead is going to be at TPF. Holy cow. If you haven't seen this on Pinside, you've got to check it out. We've got pictures on pinballprofile.com and all our social media. But you mentioned, okay, five years ago, you and Dave got in touch to do this really masterpiece, beautiful, beautiful pinball machine that we're going to see at TPF. Tell us about it. Yeah. So, well, when we struck up our friendship, we were working on his Led Zeppelin re-theme. And that was, of course, a wonderful project. It was my first chance at putting artwork on a machine. and then a little over two years ago he approached me with the idea of doing a completely original playfield design doing it for motorhead he asked if i was a fan of motorhead and my response i think was loudest damn show i've ever seen which is really no no bs it truly was loud to a scary degree i'm a big metalhead so motorhead is of course close to my heart And it was a really kind of perfect theme for us to explore. So we started discussing it back then. On my end, I started chipping away at what that might look like. His concept was for it to not be Lemmy the pinball machine or not about the band itself, but more inspired by kind of the energy and the defiant attitude of the music. So we took the album cover from the album Bomber and used that as our kind of bass theme inspiration. So it's this World War II fighter plane dogfight kind of vibe that's backed with Motorhead's music and Devil May Care attitude. Well, that's kind of the theme of the game. Snaggletooth has gone wild and you've got to help the band capture him. So this is going to be something to see. If you haven't seen the pictures, again, take a look on the socials on Pinside. Four flippers, three spinners, and this incredible iron fist sculpt. The artwork, too, is just bang on. If somebody said this is a new mass-produced pinball machine, I wouldn't have blinked an eye. I would have said, yeah, of course, look at it. Look at everything that's on there. Look at the art. Look at all the fun shots on this game. And no, this is a homebrew. This is ridiculous. And Dave's going to have some offers at TPF, I'm telling you right now.

Brad Albright @ ~30:00 — Origin story explaining early exposure to art and pinball that shaped career

Spooky Pinballcompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Jeff Teolisperson
albrightillustration.comorganization
Pinball Profileorganization
Led Zeppelingame
Centaurgame
Jimmy Lipumperson
  • ?

    personnel_signal: Matt Kemp, code designer for Spooky Pinball games (Halloween, Ultraman), involved in homebrew Motorhead project, indicating willingness of commercial manufacturer staff to participate in non-commercial homebrew initiatives

    high · Brad credits Matt Kemp with bringing Motorhead code to life; explicitly notes Kemp works for Spooky on other titles

  • ?

    announcement: Motorhead homebrew pinball machine officially announced for debut at Texas Pinball Festival with artwork, mechanical design, and code by collaborative team

    high · Brad confirms machine will be at TPF, describes full design philosophy, four flippers, three spinners, iron fist sculpt, WWII fighter plane dogfight theme based on Motorhead's 'Bomber' album

  • ?

    technology_signal: Motorhead utilizes FAST Pinball control board (implied through mention of P-Rock alternative and modern homebrew development patterns), representing continued adoption of open-platform pinball technology for homebrew games

    medium · Motorhead described as 'original playfield design' with 'modes' and complex coded integration; Matt Kemp known for Spooky code work using modern development practices

    • 4:08
    Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. That's very flattering to hear. You know, it was very much a personal passion project for us. And I think we just wanted to make it, of course, for ourselves first. We wanted it to just be the coolest game that we had never seen before, doing things in a way that's not really like the current trend. You know, his I forget exactly how he describes it. It's like a retro modern vibe. So the complexity of the rules is dialed back a little bit so that the average player can find it accessible. The layout is a little bit more of a retro design, but it then has modes built into it. And the artwork itself is kind of a throwback, taking inspiration from Centaur, that black, white, red kind of thing, which is a limited color palette and very much in contrast like the technicolor, super saturated artwork that we mostly see in the market these days. So we were doing things very much to our own taste which you know for better or worse makes it very unique I think I hope And as you know as far as we seen so far it really gelled together nicely And I have yet to play it. I will see it tomorrow morning for the first time. David flew it in from New Zealand. He picked it up in Houston and drove it up. I'll see David this evening for the first time in the flesh. You know, we brought in Matt Kemp, who, of course, is doing amazing coding work for Spooky on Halloween and Ultraman. And bringing him into it to actually bring it to life has been just the coolest thing to see. You know, like between David and myself, we had a lot of ideas along the way. But once the code is implemented and it actually works and it triggers sounds and call-outs and music at the right times and integrates with the artwork, I'm as much of a fan of this project as anybody else. You mentioned Matt Kemp. You mentioned Spooky. I think you're going to be located right near the Spooky booth, correct? Yes, that's right. Okay. So, of course, Danny Peck certainly has an association with Spooky, too. Dave's daughter, who's a wonderful pinball player and giving us some great tutorials. So when you're at TPF, check out Spooky, which you'll want to do anyway, because Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre is there, and now we're going to see Motorhead as well. Let's go back. You said this is new for you in a lot of ways. When you did Led Zeppelin with David years ago, before actually Stern did Led Zeppelin, it was a freedom re-themed game. So you knew the spaces you had to work with. Nothing was really added. So that made it maybe easier to know your limitations. With this, did you have to wait, of course, for Dave to come through with, okay, here's what the whitewood's going to look like, or did you have some input on that? Yeah, I mean, both cases were sort of similar in what I was provided. I would say with Led Zeppelin, that was my first crack at doing playfield artwork. So what I received was a very accurate vector file that a friend of his, I believe, took scans of the play field and then turned it into vector shapes for me to work with. And it took a little while for me kind of staring at it to make sense of what of that layout was necessary due to the limitations of the inserts and the mechanisms and everything, and which of it was from the original design choices, just like visual design, and what I could throw away and replace with new work that was, you know, appropriate to the Led Zeppelin theme. So that itself was a learning experience. This time around, he already had a layout kind of sketched out, ready to go. So I was able to, kind of like any artist would do in pinball, is start with the cabinet and the back glass as the initial steps. You know, that kind of establishes the tone and establishes the aesthetic for everybody. And then once that's kind of nailed down a little bit, then you start diving in more on the playfield design, you know, the artwork placement and everything. You know, he had ideas along the way that were kind of added into it, and we made modifications to the layout here and there. But, yeah, between Led Zeppelin and Motorhead, in both cases, I was provided pretty close to finished layout to work with. I'm just so impressed that he brought it. Like you say, he flew it from New Zealand to Houston, drove it up to TPF. It might be the only chance we get to see it here in North America, unless somebody wants to make it and mass produce it. Hint, hint, somebody out there, please, please, this thing looks great. But a real treat. You haven't even played it yet. You've seen, obviously, the pictures and stuff, but it's just going to be night and day. You know, I think of the lineups last year. Last year at TPF, there were seven new games released. Seven. And this year, we've got a lot. We mentioned the two from Spooky. I know Centaur will be there at the Nitro booth. I know that Princess Bride is going to have a wonderful display with Multimorphic. They're going to have lots of games there. American Pinball is going to have Berrio's Barbecue, which is kind of nice right there in Texas. And, of course, this Motorhead game. So get in line early because this is going to be a lot of fun. And holy cow, for him to bring that, that's a pretty penny. Yeah, yeah. In fact, this is going to be my personal machine. Oh. Each of the three of us, David, Matt, and myself, we each have one. I didn't know that. Yeah, in some form of construction, this will be the only one in North America so far. Okay, Brad, that means you've got to bring it every year to TPF. You heard it right here first on Pinball Profile. Brad's bringing it every year. There we go. So on that note, every show that I go to, I try to go as a vendor because it helps for me to pay for the trip and everything. Thankfully for TPF, I don't really have to travel far at all. But I still have a completely full minivan of show displays and everything. So I'll be there with my booth. I haven yet figured out what it would mean for me to try to bring Motorhead to more shows But that kind of putting the cart before the horse a little bit Brad Dave flew it from New Zealand to Houston I don want to hear any excuses You are in charge of North America shows Get a U-Haul trailer. Find a way. We're holding it to you. At least a couple shows this year, for crying out loud. I mean, I do sympathize with you. I know you were at Chicago Expo. You had a big, big booth there last year, and you could see everything. By the way, go to his website, albrightillustration.com, to see all the wonderful things that Brad does. And if you want to purchase some of his incredible art, it's right there for you. But yeah, it's not easy being a vendor. I kid and I'm just being selfish when I say I want you to bring it. But not only is it not easy to haul all that stuff, and it's the hours at the show. Like, okay, you're one person. That doesn't include things like, oh, I don't know, meals, pee breaks, things like that. You got to get some help sometimes. Yeah, absolutely. TPF, again, check out Motorhead. You're going to be seeing it tonight at the time of this recording, and I know there will be a huge lineup again with this game. But you've also been busy with pinball in a lot of other ways, too. I was just at the Stern Pro Circuit Final. You did the poster for that. Of course, the TPF posters, the 3D. You love the 3D. Whenever I talk to people that buy artwork and some unique things, that kind of jumped out at people like, oh, look at this. You kind of have the market on that, I think. Yeah, thanks. That just comes out of the personal curiosity around it. It makes it fun for me after I've spent all the time making an image to kind of then make it 3D and experience it in a more interactive way. So I just do that for fun, and it kind of stuck after all these years. But, yeah, that's mostly how people would know me and how I typically present myself. But, yeah, it's not always appropriate to every project. It didn't even ever come up for Motorhead. I don't feel like it's appropriate to that project by any means, but sometimes it's fun for the poster art. Some of the other things you've done, you mentioned your bit of a metal head and stuff, and you certainly like rock. You've done some work with The Who and Primus with some concert posters there. You can, again, see on your website, albrightillustration.com. That's got to be kind of fun. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's, again, much like working on this motorhead. Those kinds of projects are 100% passion-led projects. I have some exciting posters coming out just in the next month, in fact. For those that know me really well, you think, oh, this guy's all into pinball. Yeah, I am. I like to say pinball is my girlfriend, baseball is my wife. Everybody knows when I go to shows, if there's a baseball game, I'll be there and cutting out for a few hours. I say that because you've done work with the Texas Rangers, the World Series champs. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I've been very fortunate to do posters for the Mavs, the Stars, and the Texas Rangers. Not yet for the Cowboys, but I say yet. And I know you're on this podcast, which pales in comparison to Mark Maron, really the podfather, if you will. So you got to work with him as well. Yeah, yeah. And you have some history in comedy, don't you, sir?
    13:44
    Sure, yeah. A little. I've dabbled? Yeah. No, Mark's a legend. That was an incredible project, how that came to be. I'm so thankful and fortunate to have been able to do that. Well, people listening to this podcast certainly like to know the other things about Brad Albright, but they want to know about pinball. And you are busy, and you've got a few projects, some we can mention, some we can't mention. But the ones we can mention, we're going to be seeing some pretty cool art blades coming up from you. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I'm working with 86 Pixels. That's Jimmy Lipum's company. Everybody, I think, knows Jimmy. He's a wonderful guy. He's one of my best friends in pinball and at large. So I'm working with him on some arc blades and accessories for his new pin lights product, which is very kick-ass. Okay. And I'm also working with Rob and Alec over at the Electric Playground. They make those incredible toppers. Yeah. Yeah, if you were at Expo last year, right near Brad's booth, in fact, it was just almost side by side, Electric Playground had toppers for Godzilla and for Twilight Zone that were mechanical marvels. You're telling me, Brad, you're working with Electric Playground? Yes. If you can see me right now, I'm doing the Burns fingers. Mr. Burns, excellent. Excellent, yes. Yeah, those guys, they're a delight to work with. and I am just in awe of the engineering that they're doing on those things. If you haven't seen it, they put out a YouTube video just explaining how to install the Godzilla topper, which sounds kind of, I don't know, dry, I guess, as a watch, but when you see how this visual work of art then ties into the machine, how they reverse engineered how to integrate it with the lighting system that's in the Godzilla so that the topper reacts and represents your progress through the game It so elegant and just professional and you can believe that somebody reverse it from outside of Stern It just amazing And so, yeah, we're working together on something, and it's going to be a very special sneak peek at TPF that everybody should go check out their booth, see all their existing product, and then maybe get a chance to take a little peek. Okay. Hey, check that out again, Electric Playground, because if you didn't see it at Expo, what they do is spectacular. I'll say it, my favorite toppers I think I've ever seen. I don't mind giving that plug because that Twilight Zone was just an absolute marvel. Godzilla was spectacular, too. This isn't plastic, folks. This is really just some great engineering and affordable, too. That was one thing. I remember talking to those guys. I was like, that's pretty cheap compared to what we're seeing for things that are less, let's say. Absolutely. I'm definitely in awe of what they're doing. So, okay, what do we know about Brad Albright? We know he loves pinball. He's an incredible artist and stuff. But what was first? Was it the art or pinball, or has it always been kind of simultaneous?
    16:56
    I'd probably have to say the art. Back as far as I can remember, I was finger painting or drawing crayons or whatever. But I always did love pinball growing up. We never owned any, but in the 90s, you'd always come across a Twilight Zone or an Addams Family when you're out at a sports bar, restaurant, or whatever. I had a friend who had a couple machines in his basement. He had a Matahari and a High Speed. But then into the 2000s, when pinball started to disappear, it became this kind of diamond in a rough thing that I would get really excited to find, but I didn't know how to go find it. It would pop up here and there at random. And then kind of in the mid-2015-ish, as maybe it was starting to get its legs back, it became very exciting to realize that it was out in the world and I could find it again. And that coincided with me making the leap out of my day job. I took the leap, went independent, left the security of the job behind so that I could pursue my artwork full-time. And the timing was just right with rediscovering pinball as this inspiration that I now had room in my life for again. And really since then, it's been kind of a love affair. As I am pushing my work forward, pinball has been something that's driving me to do better and do more. And meeting people in the hobby and in the industry, People are so brilliant in such different ways from what I'm used to in my world as an artist. I mentioned the Electric Playground guys. I mentioned Jimmy Ripham. Folks like that that are technical with code or electrical, mechanical, engineering, things that I have no background for at all. That stuff just is so exciting and inspiring to be around now. And, yeah, it's just such a cool hobby that way. I'm impressed with those things too, but we are equally impressed with what you do with your art, and we're seeing it first and foremost at different avenues, whether it be the posters for TPF, for example, your display there, albrightillustration.com, and of course the brand new Motorhead pin, one of three, one we're demanding that will be at TPF every single year, that Brad has to bring it now that he's right there in Texas. You heard it here. hey uh i'm just happy it's it's finally come to pass and you get to see it and play it and own it and uh share it with everybody i'm telling you right now i'm not even there and i know the reviews are going to be holy cow this thing looks great because dave knows his stuff he you know single level play fields and stuff the guy's an expert uh it's a kind of a bucket list place for me to go to his place in new zealand and i hope you have a great time with him tonight and this weekend at TPF. Brad, I wish you all the success. I don't think you need it from me because you've already been doing a wonderful job, but have fun at Texas Pinball Festival. Hey, thank you, Jeff, so much. I really appreciate it. Anybody, obviously, that's going to TPF, come say hi. Say hi to David. He came all this way with his family. And Matt Kemp, of course, will be there with Spooky. Yeah, come hang out with us. We'll be there. All the best, Brad. Talk to you soon. Cheers, Jeff. Thanks so much, man. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Twitter, X, Instagram, at pinballprofile. We've got a great Facebook group as well. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you're interested in supporting us on Patreon, that would be wonderful. Don't worry, the show will always be free, but it is patreon.com slash pinballprofile. Thank you to William M., to Lua W., to Cliff A., to Colin M., and so many others that make this show possible. Have fun at Texas Pinball Festival. Go check out Motorhead and Brad Albright. I'm Jeff Teolas.