Podcasting

I love learning about other people. How they came to the way they think, the stories that made them who they are, the unique details in their perspective while moving through the world. Growing up I was voted "Someone to Lean On" for the yearbooks, which was perhaps in part because I was always the shortest kid in class before my late growth spurt, but also because I've always enjoyed listening to people. This carried over in various ways into my very first jobs where I gravitated to customer service where I would get great reviews for always going the extra mile to help the customer...except I would get dinged by rubrics for taking too long because I would take the time to fully listen to people. 

Music was my first true passion and another place where my listening skills where honed. If I wasn't listening to a person talking, I was listening to music, often the same songs over and over trying to understand all the different parts and how they were interacting. I later studied music in college and took classes in recording and sound design (where I spent some time studying with a Tony and Grammy award winning sound designer). This was the first time I started capturing a bit of other people's ideas if only in musical form. 

I later started teaching music lessons where I quickly realized I enjoyed working with adults, not because children aren't fun, but because I enjoyed digging into the history of the adult's story. Why they had chosen to learn music (most kids aren't making that choice), their prior struggles, the parallels of this musical endeavor with other challenges in their life. Relating on those levels I always felt elevated the lessons for the students who opened up with the rest of their life.

And then in 2014, I started a blog called Thought Mixing Bowl where I started having people from all over the world share their 1-2 paragraph responses to a weekly question that I posed around the creative life. I enjoyed it, but it missed the in-the-moment back-and-forth of ideas and seeing the thoughts forming in someone's mind in real-time that I love so much. So I started my first podcast. I continued the idea of the blog, but did virtual interviews (on Skype! before Zoom ruled the world.) so I could have face-to-face conversations to explore the way different people were tackling the creative life. I was obsessed, it was gaining some traction, I was building an online community. And then my son was born. My outside life came to a halt as I was a stay-at-home dad. My computer and backup drive both crashed one day apart from each other with all my archived episodes. (I then became a fan of cloud storage...) You can still find a handful of the those episodes online, but that project ran its course.

After my time as full-time dad came to an end I re-entered the creative world with music and eventually podcasting again. I started to remember how much I loved not just the conversations, but the editing, using everything I've learned from the experiences in paths in my life. I know some people who complain about the tedious work of editing, but I actually feel a little giddy each time I remove an "umm" or a stumble over words. It combines my musical sensibilities with finding the right cadence, making the words sing smoothly, and making the speaker sound the best I can. (For the record I think umms serve a purpose for in-person conversation, but people listening later don't like to hear them all.)

Now I produce podcasts for non-profits and small businesses where I enjoy asking the questions just as much as instances where I recede into the background just to capture the conversation and make the speakers feel comfortable. I also found a new fervor for hyperlocal projects. Rather than searching the globe for good stories, I now prod my neighborhood for them. Engaging stories and life lessons can come from anyone if you give them the time and an honest ear.

That's my quick story, what's yours? If you have something to say, reach out to me at matt@matthmusic.com. I'd love to capture your stories and ideas and help share them with others!