
Chad Matheny
American singer-songwriter known professionally as Emperor X, based in Berlin since 2012
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Jul 31, 2026
Episode 728: Emperor X
50:12
50:18
51:05
51:10

Chad MathenyGUEST
Um, it was, I think it was on, um, St. John's bluff road, uh, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Chad MathenyGUEST
It was right off a nine a they didn't build it yet, but it was, uh, it was, uh, it was on the, developing kind of at that point not really developed swampy uh suburbs of jacksonville and it was it was a school and radio station and church and observatory and uh and and missionary uh hub so they would fund a lot of like missionary people it was it was a regular church too uh but there was a whole community around it and and i've it was a big part of how i look at the world honestly like i I think again, like there's, there's a lot of nonsense and the church fell apart in a big scandal at one point, because I think that there was some kind of, someone was addicted to something and misappropriating church funds.

Chad MathenyGUEST
The problem is, the problem is it was, the problem is it was a, it was a non-denominational church.

Chad MathenyGUEST
And that means there's no oversight, right? So they're just like, there's, he may have had a divinity degree, the pastor and his wife who ran the church together.
6 MINS LATER
Exvangelical Folk Punk Recorded in a Warzone (ft. Emperor X)
7:32
7:43
7:57
8:07
A
7:24Andrew GillHOST
But give us, like, the briefest of, uh, explanations of that project, and then we'll get deeper into it later.

Chad MathenyGUEST
Um, I have been recording a lot of songs, uh, and also have a ton of friends in Ukraine 'cause I've been playing shows there for many years now, I guess it's accurate to say.

Chad MathenyGUEST
At the start of the, uh, at the start of the war, my wife and I were pretty active in refugee aid, and I'm pretty salty online in my, um, my fairly vocal support and advocacy for, for, uh, Ukraine winning.

Chad MathenyGUEST
Um, and this emo kid from Ukraine who liked my stuff invited me to come over, and obviously I'm gonna say yes to that.

Chad MathenyGUEST
Um, so he set up some shows in Sumy and Kharkiv and Odessa and Kyiv and Kremenchuk and Ternopil and, and a few other places I'm forgetting, I'm sure.
18 MINS LATER