This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Peter Orullian, author of SONGS OF THE DEAD.

About SONGS OF THE DEAD: When Jack Solomon, a struggling musician who works in London’s West End, is killed, he awakens to a new reality in which light and music are used to create magic and where living eras of the past sprawl beneath modern London, layer upon layer, all the way back to recorded history.

Jack also soon discovers that many of those who reside in the stratums of London’s past have grown angry with the present world, and that their anger is being channeled by a powerful society of light-and-music-based magic wielders who can cross the realms between life and death, between the present and the past. A past where the dead are sowing revolution against the living, and all of history is at stake.

About Peter Orullian: Peter Orullian is an American fantasy author, composer, and performer. As a musician, he has toured internationally—fronting various rock and metal bands—written and released multiple albums, and recently founded his own symphonic rock group, Symphony North, which focuses on building trans-media properties to combine music and narrative. The first of these, entitled The Bell Ringer, was recently released as a full concept album, and will embark on a US tour in holiday of 2026. The novelization of The Bell Ringer will release in tandem with the tour. As an author, Orullian has also novelized chart-topping concept albums for Grammy Award–winning metal giant Dream Theater. In 2012, he was shortlisted for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award. He has written numerous short stories as well as several other novels, including The Vault of Heaven, all of which use music as a driving force for worldbuilding and magical systems. Since 2018, he has been collaborating with Brandon Sanderson on developing and writing The Strata Wars series.

This week’s picks:

• Peter #1: Sevendust: One (Album)
• Peter #2: Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
• Peter #3: Symphony North albums
• Tracy: Daredevil Season 1 (2015 – Netflix/Disney+)
• Patrick: Black Clover (Crunchyroll)

Links:

• Peter Orullian on Instagram
• Tracy Townsend on BluSky
• Patrick Hester on Instagram
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2026 Patrick Hester

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