The Upful LIFE Podcast – 096: lespecial – A Year In The Life ft. RORY DOLAN, LUKE BEMAND, JONNY G, w/ YHETI [LIMINOID], + BRET PERETZ [P4 TM]

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Episode 096 welcomes three-headed prog-tronic hydra lespecial, plus enigmatic bass-wizard Yheti, for an expansive deep dive into their mind-bending collaborative portal – LIMINOID. Framed through the lens of “A Year in the Life of lespecial,” the series of colorful conversations chronicle a monumental run from Jam Cruise 21 in Feb.2025, thru the LIMINOID experience, then NYE marking their 20th anniversary since forming as high-schoolers in the woods of Connecticut. This episode orbits LIMINOID’s debut The Outernet, an idiosyncratic sonic tapestry and brilliantly-bizarre concept album where the searing precision of Rory Dolan, Luke Bemand, and Jonny G is masterfully manipulated by the surgical, mad scientist sound design of Yheti. Ep.096 finishes with Tales of a Tour Manager featuring Bret Peretz [Pigeons Playing Ping Pong].

• 00:00 – Ep.096 preview
• 03:30 – check out Four Peaks Medicinals
• 04:30 – Golden Road Gathering
• 05:45 – The Upful Update
• 09:15 – Intro: a year in the life of lespecial
  Interviews 
• 13:15 – Rory Dolan, Luke Bemand, Jonny G – Jam Cruise, Feb‘25
• 52:15 – Yheti & Jonny G – December 2025
• 1:17:00 – Rory – Feb 2026
• 1:39:45 – Luke – Feb 2026
• 2:03:30 – Jonny G – Feb 2026
• 2:28:30 – Tales of a TM ft. Bret Peretz (P4) – July ’25
  

lespecial: A Year In The Life begins on the ragey open seas, as B.Getz connects with all three members of lespecial while aboard Jam Cruise in Feb. 2025. This Day 5 cabin summit at the tail end of this floating carnival captures the fellas [Rory Dolan – drums/vox, Luke Bemand – bass/synths, Jonny G – guitar/synths, vox] reflecting on the boat’s bombastic musical escapades, playing with (friends of the pod) Alex Wasily, Mike Dillon and Skerik, Rory’s Primus audition, introducing new music onstage, revisiting “Cannibal Holocaust”, spotlighting their relationship with Yheti and a forthcoming collaboration at the time still in its infancy. 

The narrative shifts to a focused deep dive in early December 2025 with Yheti, plus a little more color from Jonny G. Since it was always his baby, BG looks to Tyler Yheti to properly unpack the modus operandi behind the LIMINOID project. They explore the creation of The Outernet, detailing how they navigated the “liminal space” between organic instrumentation and avant-garde electronics. This segment highlights the brilliance of the concept, recalls initial challenges performing this project live (see – Mishawaka in May 2025), the tricks and tools required to bring this genre-schitzo robot to life – both in studio and then onstage, and creating a new hybrid strain of intoxicating, brain-splattering sound art that exists beyond traditional boundaries.

The saga continues with a series of intimate, individual conversations with Rory, Luke, and Jonny from early Feb. 2026.  We complete this podcast revolution around the sun, honor twenty years of these hometown buddies who made good, and look towards their mighty bright immediate future. These one-on-one sessions allow for a more granular window into personal growth, interband dynamics, and creative philosophies as they recognize a brotherhood that has kept them bonded since teenage garage band glory. We amp the stoke for lespecial’s long-awaited return to West Coast’s burnin’ shores for their Tentacle Difficulties tour. Behold this monumental, DIY evolution from small-town Connecticut proggy power trio to a genre-blurring, diabolical-maxxing, frontal-lobe leviathan known to us mere mortals as lespecial.

After a year in the life of lespecial, for an episode chaser B.Getz checks in with an old friend in Bret Peretz, a connection rooted at Spirit of Suwannee Music Park years ago. The longtime Tour Manager for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong has worked many jobs behind the scenes over the course of a decade-plus. Several months back, Bret opened up about his beautiful journey from the hotel hospitality industry and nearly joining the Coast Guard, humble backstage beginnings all the way to the P4 gig at the heart of contemporary jam scene success.

ViBE Junkie Jam 

lespecial – “Boundary Dissolution”
Suwannee Hulaween 2023

 

lespecial’s signature blend of “heavy future groove” combines headbanging metal riffage and surgical rhythmic precision with bone shaking 808s, sub synths and ethereal vocal stylings for a dance floor that welcomes moshing, dancing and hip swaying alike. Listeners are taken on a journey to the musical netherworld through esoteric soundscapes punctuated by raw, primal power.

LIMINOID is a musical entity formed through the integration of data streams from Yheti and lespecial, two distinct sonic architects. Yheti orchestrates the sonic experiment while lespecial contributes live instrumentation encoded with rhythmic complexity. Analysis of live performance recordings reveals high variability and dynamic modulation of energy states. Audience response patterns indicate elevated engagement during improvisational sequences. Conclusion: LIMINOID functions as a high-intensity auditory experiment, optimized for real-time adaptation and multi-genre convergence without reliance on predefined constraints. System recommends further observation.  Their debut live performance was May 2025 at Mishawaka Amphitheater in Bellvue, CO. 2025 debut LP ‘The Outernet’ is a 12 track concept album that explores the liminal space between humanity and technology. The group performed at several festivals and a short tour in November 2025.