Editor’s Note: Scott White, aka SolidSnake120, asked to interview me for a creative writing class project. The following is his work, crafted into a magazine-style article, with more after the break. Enjoy!

WTF?! Peter Spezia Wants to Show You His News!

Interview by Scott White

For as long as I have known Peter Spezia, he has been constantly striving to create new and better works of creative art. I have known him since High School, where we both took part in marching band, and it wasn’t till later on that we developed a friendship. We both had a mutual love for Nintendo’s Smash Brothers franchise, but he would take to a whole new level by creating entertaining, imaginative, and popular pieces of content.

Peter is working at Chrysler as a intern, taking part in creating videos for them, but he is more famously known for his 5 year old online game podcast, “Show Me Your News”, which he runs and organizes weekly, complete with guests and co-hosts, to discuss the latest news in the video game world. A podcast he not only created, but grew from a podcast that focused solely on the world of Smash Brothers, and now one he is turning it into an entire network, full of fresh and creative content. He is also a talented musician, who creates and plays his own renditions of game music.

I conducted an interview with Peter, where I got his thoughts and feeling on how he creates is projects, and get a looked into the process he takes to get to the finished product.

Me: “You mentioned you worked for Chrysler creating content, would you say that your creative process differs in your professional setting as opposed to your hobby setting?”
Peter: “I think that once you actually get down to the nitty gritty, the actual creation and process of making the media and finding that kind of inspirtation is more or less the same, however I think the biggest difference is where you are instructed, and where you find the driving force behind what the content will be.”
“In the end, both media creations, are my own drive and inspiration and my own effort that I make something that I see as high quality, but the initial spark comes from different places.”

Me: “Where would you say you draw most of your inspiration from?”
Peter: “The most inspiration I think comes from the internet, because, while other media forms have a lot to offer, the internet emphasize the global community, which is new in our lifetime. Also the cost of production has gone down, digital technology has increased so you have more people using those creative outlets to create something for the digital online community. Because of all these new minds creating new content and proposing new ideas, I think the internet is a wonderful source for inspriation that reaches a global scale.”

Me: “What would you say your creative process is? Where does it start?”
Peter: “I think some of it has to happen naturally. I don’t think you can ponder and try to come up with that initial spark of the idea. For example for the Wtf?! Pokemon show, the anime parody, I was seeing a bunch of things saying why these shows were good, and I’ve always been a sucker for little top 5s or top 10s, I thought, what would the other side of the coin be. Seeing bad cartoons on TV now, and made me think, were the cartoons that bad when I was younger? When you look back, they kinda are, so I kinda just fused those two together, and some people thought it was a really good idea. So I think some of it can come from an initial spark that you really can’t ponder to much about, but at the same time I think often times taking in observations from the world around you and really using what inspires you. For me it’s media. I make rather strange observations about media and construct that into things that I think are funny or could be informative. From there I think once you have that initial idea, it depends on your own drive, your own experiences. I think that experience as a media creator takes hold and goes from there.”

For the complete 15 minute interview with Peter Spezia listen to the file included with this document! And tune into “Show Me Your News” every weekend to listen to Pete and the rest of the SMYNjas discuss the latest gaming news!