On October 23, 2026, Future Imperfect released the vinyl edition of Hot Dad’s Comedy. Hot Dad, aka Erik Helwig, is a prolific “emotional comedy” musician and YouTuber whose special brand of humorous music videos has amassed him a cult following of over 160,000 subscribers.
Stylistically spanning dream pop, shoegaze, and retrowave, Comedy is an ambitious introspection of the comic mind. Now, you could be holding a piece of this in your hands. Buy the album today.
See the official video for the lead single, Comedy, here:
Erik has documented the genesis and development of the Comedy album from initial conception and writing in 2017 to drum recording with Andrew Maury in 2021 to prerelease on Patreon in 2024. Meanwhile, I was looking for a new project to produce that maybe wouldn’t be as fully involved as the recording, editing, mixing, and mastering of the jazz album or the writing, casting, recording, revising, editing, mixing, and mastering of the rock opera. Having been a fan of Hot Dad since before it was cool, I was aware he had some projects in need. So, in May 2026, I approached Erik on Patreon:
From there we got connected on his discord and talked through the whole process and what exactly my role would be. Having produced physical records before, I had some valuable experience to bring to the table in addition to the cash funding the run. Executive producer Aaron Chesler of A Mediocre Clown threw in some additional funds. The art was already done by the pro Paul Kreizenbeck. I volunteered again to do the package layout and design (using my designer pseudonym Chris Stanton).
Once again we called on Scott Hull at Masterdisk to do the mastering for vinyl and lacquer cutting. Given that a physical needle moving across the grooves of a record is what produces the signal that makes the sound, there are special considerations when making a vinyl record that you don’t even need to think about with digital mastering. For one thing, getting this wrong could make the needle jump out of the groove when playing it back, ruining the listening experience. For another thing, the amount of audio you can fit on a record is a function of the relative loudness throughout: louder signal means physically wider grooves, which leave less space for more music. Getting this right is why I always leave this to an expert like Scott.
Plus, he’s fun to work with. Reflecting on this project’s 80s-inspired style, Scott shared:
I wanted to be Thomas Dolby, Talk Talk, and Kraftwerk all rolled into one when I was in my 20s. I had a Prophet and Linndrum, and I WAS COOL! White lab coat with orange parachute pants…!
The mastered-for-vinyl audio gets carved with a lathe into a lacquer. The lacquer is used to create a stamper that is literally pressed into the vinyl material to create records.
To do that manufacturing (and handle online fulfillment), we again called on Physical Music Products (PMP) in Nashville. They did a great job on Leo’s jazz album, so it was an easy choice to work with them again. Again, I think if we’re selling a physical object to you, it should be made with care at a high standard of quality, and PMP does just that.
Every copy has a lyric sheet, Bandcamp download code, and — as a bonus — a sticker designed by theaveragejoey.
We knew we wanted to make the special edition extra special, so in addition to the eye-popping hot pink and bright blue swirl vinyl, we also included an 11″x17″ poster that Erik personally signed with a unique message per copy. In the end, only 73 copies of the special edition were made, and they all sold out in pre-order.
We’re thrilled by the response so far and can’t wait for Hot Dad’s hottest fans to get their hands on their copies. Though the special edition is gone, you can buy the standard edition on Hot Dad’s Hot Shop. You can also stream the album anywhere you stream music and buy a digital copy on Bandcamp.