Meet the Judges

San Francisco indie-musician nerd, Megan Slankard and her band The Wreckage, have independently sold over 50,000 copies of six self-released albums. Their newest, "California & Other Stories," was produced and recorded by Megan, and long-time friend/co-producer, Alex Wong (Delta Rae, Vienna Teng). The collection of songs showcases fresh sides of Megan's music, balancing delightfully belligerent rock and roll with cinematic soundscapes of orchestral instruments and robot harmonies.

Slankard's recent adventures include touring with Toad the Wet Sprocket, performing on Sister Hazel's cruise ship festival, "The Rock Boat", singing with Darius Rucker, Lukas Nelson, Charles Kelley (Lady A,) and Pat Monahan (Train) at AT&T's Golf ProAm in Pebble Beach, and recording voice-overs for two different children's toys. Megan continues to test the patience of her neighbors' good humor, by learning new instruments she finds on Craigslist.

Matt Arnett is an art historian, filmmaker, music producer, and curator. In 2010, Matt founded Grocery on Home, a non-traditional music space in Atlanta, Georgia, uniting his love of music with his passion for building community support for the arts. Since 2012 he has hosted the Eddie’s Attic Open Mic.

For more than two and a half decades, Arnett has worked closely with the artist and musician Lonnie Holley. He co-produced Lonnie’s first three albums, co-wrote and produced a short narrative film, “I Snuck Off the Slave Ship,” which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

With his brothers and father, Arnett founded the Souls Grown Deep Foundation and Tinwood Media to publish books and organize museum exhibitions that advance the study, visibility and inclusion of the art and culture of the African American South in museums and institutions worldwide.

Myke C-Town is a poet, visual artist, and music aficionado. He is an integral part of “Dead End Hip Hop” (one of YouTube’s most successful hip-hop discussion shows) where he shares his love and knowledge of rap music. He also operates his own personal YouTube channel, “Myke C-Town,” where he’s able to be a visual testimony to people of color breaking the box they have been forced into, as well as a source of reference for the under-represented—something sorely missing from his youth.

Bryan Howard is both a musician as well as a voice actor. He is the founder of the African-American Voice Actor Database (AAVADB). See the website here!

Robert Schneider is an experimental musician, co-founder and producer of The Elephant 6 Recording Company, and a mathematician.