PRODUCTION PROCESS
To enable a professional output for the podcast, I had to make sure that everything was correctly done pre-production, post production and on time. The following text highlights the beginning of how I came up with the idea of the podcast the genre I chose to research into, how I went about getting these interviews and the methodology I made to make the podcast easy for myself and the artists being interviewed. Plus the text will isolate the challenges undertook by myself to ensure the podcast was professionally done.
Pre-Production Process
The Idea
Over the last 2 years, I have hosted hundreds of bands across Bristol and London through my events, blogs and podcasts. Box Logo Music was traditionally a podcast which started interviewing bands in London cafes then moving into interviewing them at venues across London. From then I focussed on events, making BLM a monetizable business, However in the recent months ticket sales have fallen and from speaking to other promoters then Live Industry is struggling. For this reason I decided to restart the podcast as this was a cheaper way to promote BLM and expand my list of contacts. Therefore I had to rebrand and remodel the podcast with a new names, artwork, team, bands, genre. Basically everything had to have a massive revamp.
THE PROJECT
Therefore I created IN THE BOX POD a strain of BLM still showing the relation between the two companies however giving the podcast I new identity. I also liked the play on words as listeners will be listening to the podcast through a streaming service with a boxed icon and the band are logically talking to them from inside the box.
I wanted to use the previous method of the portable podcast bringing the equipment to the bands at the venues with everything set up post sound check and pre-doors, keeping the podcast short and engaging plus making everything more accessible for the bands and myself. On top of this I always manage to get myself on the guestlist so It's a nice way to get a free ticket for shows. I choose Bristol as a location as I know the venues and the music scene there incredibly well plus it's a short ride from Cheltenham station. I'll be using the media school equipment these being one Scarlett 2ii2 audio interface, 2 XLRs and one thing I learnt from last time is that condenser mics pick up more background noise then dynamics so I used 2 dynamic mics.
A new era of the podcast meant a new genre and image, with the original I mainly interviewed up and coming Indie rock bands however I wanted to bridge out into a new exciting up and coming genre, something I liked the sound of and wanted to explore more so for this reason I chose new-wave UK jazz as a bench mark of the podcast which would cover bands/artists such as Sons Of Kemet, Ezra Collective, The Comet Is Coming, Ashley Henry and Kojey Radical
Making Everything Work
Firstly I had to find the bands to interview, through my BLM contacts I had a fair few clients which helped me start off including the agency Midnight Mango which works with many UK Jazz bands and knows me fairly well through past bookings. I found the best way to get into contact with these bands were firstly through their agency's, then onto management then onto Instagram direct messaging between myself and the band, a typical email from myself would come across as shown:
"Dear Matt
Hope your well and having a good start to the new year, I've recently come across a band on your roster going by the name of Ishmael Ensemble and have really enjoyed listening to their material. I'd love to interview them for a new series of podcasts we've started to produce called 'In The Box' I understand IE are playing the Trinity Centre in Bristol on November 4th and I'd love to catch them for a short 20 minute chat. Looking forward to hearing from you all the best, Ivo Wright"
This email worked most of the time and I scheduled in my first few podcasts with Ishmael Ensemble and Tom Mcguire & The Brassholes by the end of last year. So I had the bands scheduled in so now I needed to work out the software required and the technical side of things.
From past knowledge I understand I needed a podcast channel/platform to create a RSS feed for the podcast to be featured on Spotify, Apple Music, IheartRadio and other platforms, in the past I used Libsyn however I wasn't a major fan of this platform as it proved glitchy, untechnical and the format was puzzling, So then I moved to buzzsprout which proved much easier to use and this had a free service which I could stream my podcasts for up to 80 days which seemed to be ideal. The main platforms I wanted the pods to feature on was Spotify, Apple Music, IHeart Radio and Tune In, Due to the fact both Apple and Spotify are both market leaders within podcasts, IHeart Radio which is very music specific and Tune In so listerners can get the podcast through a voice controlled speaker.
In regards to the script. I wanted to make my script unique and inclusive for the listener. So for these reasons I thought it was right to include the bands material in the podcast have an exciting jingle at the start of the podcasts plus have a game that the listener can join in with as you can see to the right there is a template of one of the scripts taken from Tom Mcguire & The Brassholes. My script gave me a basic outline of the band and gave me free reign to freely chat with the bands. To put it basically I usually reflected on the band and their past and story in the first part of the podcast then the material in the middle then we usually go into their live scene and their future. Then we play a game a game called 'Who Do You Think You Are?' which are 5 questions to themselves about themselves, which their fans can enjoy quizzing themselves about the band.
Post production process
In the post production process I send the recorded podcast off to my engineer which takes an average of a week to edit and send back, though after the second podcast sadly my engineer had to quit due to family commitments so I had to start editing them myself this was actually better due to I could manage my timing much easier and the turn over period was quicker. In the production side of things after the podcast is complete and finished all it needs is to be uploaded to buzz sprout and scheduled for release. I would release two a month in different weeks.
