Atlanta-centric retro vibe variety show 'Now Dig This' showcases diverse indie music scene

February 21st, 2023

"Now Dig This" airs on the public access channel People TV and was created by Randy Michael of InCrowd Recordings. (Aleksandr Batenko)

Watching an episode of the Atlanta-centric variety show “Now Dig This” is like watching a time capsule opened for a new generation to ponder. The Retro Vibe program, which airs on the public access channel PeopleTV, was created by Randy Michael of InCrowd Recordings. Episodes are produced by Max Amirdzhanov and star Atlanta personality and drummer Pietro DiGennarro. Featuring multiple musical performances and brief conversations, “Now Dig This” most often showcases bands from Atlanta’s diverse independent music scene. The three creatives behind the show joined “City Lights” senior producer Kim Drobes to talk about their platform.

Interview highlights:

How a lifelong touring musician came up with a new way to showcase talent:

“When I was 18, I joined Butch Walker’s band as a bass player and we were touring, we were doing these arena tours in Canada with Avril Lavingne… so that was my life from 18 to 23, and playing with Butch Walker, especially that young, we got to do a lot of cool things. We did the Ellen Degeneres show. We did “Austin City Limits.” It was the first time I went to London, was with Butch Walker,” recounted Michael. “Joe [Lean], he was playing drums in a band called the Pipettes, and the Pipettes, they were like a modern-day English Ronettes, and then when that band kind of fell apart Joe was like, ‘Hey, you want to move to London and join my band?’ …And that changed my life.”

“When I got back when my Visa ran out, I called up Tuck Smith [of the] Restless Hearts who was in the Biters then and I said, ‘Hey man, I’m going to come back to Atlanta. I’m gonna put the Booze back together. I’m going to do this thing based on the ‘Ready Steady Go’ TV show. I’m going to call it ‘Now Dig This,”” said Michael. “At the time, I was watching a lot of ‘Ed Sullivan Shows’ and ‘Hullabaloos’ and ‘Ready Steady Go’s.’ I was like man if you can get people to come and dance around to a song that nobody’s heard before, then people that you don’t know might be like, ‘Oh, well, maybe it’s a good song or maybe it’s a good band.’ It’s like, the first person’s not going to get on the dance floor. Somebody else has to dance first before someone else can get on the dance floor and feel comfortable.”

A team of old friends, recreating an old-school public access variety look:

“I remember back in high school, Randy was doing his music scene, he was part of the Booze. I went to go see their studio. He was recording with a couple of people and I was always intrigued by that,” said Amirdzhanov. “He’s kind of like me whereas, you know, he just picked up an instrument and without any formal training, it’s just embedded in him to do music. And me in high school, I picked up video production and I started producing television, so it just happened for us where he clicks on the music side, I click on the video production side.”

“PeopleTV, like Randy said, it’s an old studio. It’s been, I think, on air for maybe going on 50 years or something like that. So they have a lot of old equipment in there as well,” explained Amirzhanov. “So when you have three cameras filming, they have a video board, and you could use different type of swipes — whereas it’s a circle that blows up or it’s just a diagonal swipe through the video. And then what I also try to do is, let’s say it’s a country song. I try to put some filters on the video to give it that country look. That’s what I basically do, I try to give the essence of the song, try to make it come more alive, try to make it look official as it can be.”

The host who, in his words, looks like “Charles Manson if he was a couch potato”:

“For some reason, Randy Michael thinks I’m hilarious,” said DiGennarro. “He believed in me, and he would I guess watch how I would interact with other musicians and he would come up behind me and say, ‘That’s what I’m talking about. We need to get something like this on TV, this interaction, you know, it’s fantastic.’ That’s pretty much how it just really came to light. I’ve been playing drums since I was a child, and playing drums gave me this opportunity. I had to come from there.”

“Now Dig This” airs on PeopleTV via Comcast cable channel 24, and on their YouTube channel. Additionally, the show was recently picked up by the streaming service Night Flight.