Podcasts that are talk-based and feature musicians or music industry people?

November 29, 2010 6:18 PM

Looking for music shop-talk in audio form

Hello, I'm looking for podcasts that feature musicians or music industry people talking about what they do. Could be songwriters discussing technique, producers, DJs, classical music conducters, whatever. I realize there's probably not a perfect answer to this so I'm casting the net fairly wide.

Basically any podcast that is mostly people talking (up to maybe 40% music is OK) and that left you feeling like you knew more about how people make / record / sell music than you did before.

Single episode links or other internet-accessible audio-only content are OK! Thanks in advance.

posted by chaff to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

There are a lot of Fresh Airs with musical guests that are excellent. Of course it's a general interest show, so it's mostly personality-based, but there is often a decent percentage of talk about songwriting craft. Go back to the archives and dig in. In the last year or two there was an in-studio with John Mellencamp that completely turned me around on him, and great interview with Rosanne Cash about The List that was stunning.

Not exactly what you're looking for... I'll be watching for better answers because I would love a show like you describe.
posted by quarterframer at 9:12 PM on November 29, 2010

Soundcheck is pretty good. Sound Opinions is pretty good. Morning Becomes Eclectic is sometimes OK. New Sounds is something I just started listening to, but seems promising. Echoes is too short, but usually good. Studio 360 seems to have interviews with musicians at least every other show, among other things.
posted by palacewalls at 11:16 PM on November 29, 2010

I should add that each of these podcasts have varying ratios of discussion:music.
posted by palacewalls at 11:17 PM on November 29, 2010

Oh, also CD Baby DIY musician podcast. I've stopped listening because I felt like it was kinda the same thing over and over, but I'm personally burned out on hearing how important it is for musicians to be "social media-ing" all over the place. Otherwise, a pretty good podcast.

This is my last post, promise.
posted by palacewalls at 11:23 PM on November 29, 2010

I like World Cafe Words and Music.
posted by knile at 12:04 AM on November 30, 2010

Are you specifically looking for current interviews? If not...starting last year, the Exploratorium in San Francisco began a podcast called Speaking of Music - Rewind as part of its 40th anniversary celebration. From the link:

"The highly regarded Speaking of Music series (1983–1992) was co-presented by the Exploratorium and Charles Amirkhanian of KPFA radio. Conversations between Mr. Amirkhanian and prominent musicians and composers focused on the creative process. The archived files have been released as a podcast series."

(The page also says "Check back soon for upcoming programs" but the last episode was actually two weeks ago, at least according to the press release.)

A podcast episode runs about 1-2 hours or longer (usually it's split up into two files). I'm actually still working my way through them. There's a nice range of different types of music/sounds featured and you may recognize a lot of the musicians' names, e.g. Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Astor Piazzolla. There's definitely more talk vs. music/performance. The episodes I've heard seem to concentrate a lot on inspiration/background behind a piece, but there's also some technique discussed.

Also, the Other Minds (RadiOM) section at Internet Archive has a lot more interviews with musicians/composers (along with performance recordings) -- there are even more Speaking of Music interviews, but there are also recordings of newer events/interviews (i.e. 21st century). It's streaming audio only for this section, it looks like. You also may find this handy: an Internet Archive blog post of some highlights in the Other Minds archive.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 1:58 AM on November 30, 2010

NPR Topics: Music Interviews is pretty good.
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:43 PM on December 3, 2010