5 questions with Justin Hellstrom

Welcome back to 5 questions, the blog series that asks 5 questions of the producers and stars behind Local Files Club's latest releases. This is our first—and only!—entry covering Salt Bloom, given that the show was entirely created by one person: Justin Hellstrom.

Justin is a multi-hyphenate audio producer, composer, writer, and performer, a veritable one man show. You might be familiar with his previous work, The Great Chameleon War, a surreal sci-fi war drama that I would describe as Apocalypse Now mixed with Annihilation.

He also co-created The Goblet Wire with Ester Ellis, another surreal fiction podcast, this time taking the guise of a role-playing game. The Goblet Wire is a highly digestible micro-fiction podcast with short episodes, usually around 10 minutes long. He's also the author of—get this—a surreal sci-fi novel called The Tide Will Erase All.

All in all, there is truly no one else better suited to deliver an otherworldly, mind-bending audio experience like the one we get with Salt Bloom.

How would you describe yourself to a stranger at a party?

I normally say something like I’m a werewolf that’s never transformed or I’m a lost character from a novel looking for an interdimensional wellspring. This either leads to an adventure or quickly ends the conversation.

How do you organize your files?

Much like an octopus organizes confetti. My project folder structure makes sense at a glance, but once you dive in the madness is truly a thing to behold. Reference photos and indecipherably named videos leak into every subfolder. Files are named out of exasperation and exhaustion. “Final” and “Final Final” and “Please God When Does This End” are common naming conventions. Late night work sessions are evident when sound effects are left in my downloads folder or, in rare cases, thrown angrily onto my desktop.

Media I consume like books, movies, and music are all neatly arranged on an external drive far away from the disaster zone. 

What was the first audiodrama you fell in love with?

While Alice Isn’t Dead was the audiodrama that made me feel like there was space for me to make my own, I think The Far Meridian was the first to truly steal a part of me away.

Describe your favorite sound effect.

The “twang” of high-tension cables and power lines when they snap via natural disaster or the momentum of a Kaiju. It’s such a cool whipping sound that takes me right back to being a kid on Saturday morning watching Godzilla plow through a cityscape.

What piece of art that’s NOT an audiodrama has most influenced your artistic practice?

I’ll have to say Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! about a group of high school girls trying to make anime. I think it wonderfully captures the journey of the creative process—the concessions and sacrifices you have to make—how it feels to finally release something—and the struggles of growing as an artist. I find it a recurring source of motivation, and it features a sound designer obsessed with field recordings!

You can find Justin on Instagram and Bluesky, or over on his website, DeadSwanPond.com.

Salt Bloom is out 6 February and is available for pre-order now on Bandcamp!