When I started making collecting the interviews that would become Weird Music, I knew that it was going to take a long time, but I didn’t realize it would take almost 15 years. Throughout that time, I condensed the material down to what I thought could hold an attention span for an entire sitting, but that left a lot of material that I found truly interesting on the cutting-room floor. After I’d finished recording the entire piece, I went back through all the interviews from scratch to compile everything that I thought was valuable.
The aim of this podcast series is to present all of that material organized into a steady flow of ideas and peppered with additional information and my own experience in making the project.
The first five episodes are offered for free, and you can access four extra episodes over the next week via paid subscription to the Talking Writing Substack or my own Substack. While the first five episodes focus on general aspects of art, the last four shine a light on how artists are adapting to the ever-changing digital landscape and the effect that has on their livelihood.
Although you could say that the first five episodes are for the general public and the last four are geared more toward artists, I believe that it’s important for any audience member—and especially those interested in supporting the arts—to learn about how artists experience these issues in their personal life. Also, on my personal Substack, you’ll find transcripts of the episodes and writing about the project as well as extras going forward, such as my experiences with playing shows of this material.
For artists reading, listening to, and watching this project, I hope that this will serve as a resonant expression of the issues surrounding your own relationship with creative intent and motivation. For non-artists, I hope it provides a more realistic view of how artists feel and think about their work.
Check out the Weird Music album on Bandcamp, iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, and all other places where you can find music. For information about these interviews and the people in them, please visit this post from my personal Substack.
1. Communicating Through Art
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The first episode of the Weird Music podcast series focuses on an idea put forth by Stephen King in On Writing: that art depends on telepathy. While discussing the telepathic elements of art, the conversation veers into the area of whether or not an artist’s intention translates through the work.
2. When Ideas Float Out of the Ether
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This episode explores the ways in which ideas arise and how they move through the process into becoming a piece of art. The path from vague idea to finished product is never straightforward. One thing that becomes clear during these conversations is how messy and random the progression can be.
3. Growing Projects on the Side
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Most artists tend to have many projects occurring simultaneously or over the course of their artistic life. Here, the artists interviewed tell how they tend to move from one project to another and what their various projects provide them.
4. Two Entirely Different Things
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Performing live and recording music are very different acts, and the skill sets don’t necessarily cross over. Some musicians are prone to creating things in the studio and then face the challenge of making something live out of it. Others write and experiment in the live setting and then enter the studio to try to translate what they’ve been doing live. Both approaches come with unique challenges, and this episode asks the question, What do you get psychologically out of each process, playing live and recording?
5. Why Is Live Performance Dynamic?
Listen on our host site, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and elsewhere.
In this episode, the artists interviewed discuss their approach to playing their music live. What are the challenges? Where is the wiggle room for improvisation? What makes a performance engaging? As with the previous episode, each artist approaches the live situation differently, whether they are trying to present something they’ve made in a studio or they’re working out something they’ve made during rehearsal.