Despite having no children to listen with, I’ve recently stormed through the catalogue of creation stories pulled together on In The Beginning. The show is made with children in mind (and with children in the cast!) and children will enjoy the playful way of connecting to other cultures through the sound design, acting and storytelling. But Producers Lucia Scazzocchio and Hawa Khan have created a show that is also perfect for adults wanting a light-hearted snippet of global culture in their podcast playlists.

I sent some questions over to Lucia to find out more about how the team pulled this show together…

What were the origins of this podcast – take us back to the Beginning of the show!

In the Beginning… Hawa Khan my co-writer/producer and I created a new family audio tour for the Tower of London where historical events are experienced through the eyes of two child ghosts. We had so much fun writing and producing together that we decided we would like to something else. Hawa is a natural storyteller and we are quite passionate about traditional stories and myths. We both come from quite mixed backgrounds and realised that many of these stories aren’t that well known in the UK. We wanted to tell these stories in a way that fully represented multi-cultural Britain in voices and styles of speech familiar to young audiences.

We pitched the idea to all the children’s networks we could think of, but kept hitting a wall. We then applied for an Audio Content Fund and partnered in Fun Kids who backed the idea from the start. We applied three times before the project was finally funded.

Did you take inspiration from any podcasts in particular before you started?

Not directly, I listen to many, many different podcasts and I did immerse myself in audio drama, especially the more immersive productions from QCode or Gimlet. There are some children’s podcasts that possibly inspired on a subliminal level, like Wow in The World, Radio Lab for kids and I was an avid listener of audio books when I was child. I bought by niece a Yoto player and rediscovered many of the stories I had listened to on cassette.

Co-producer and voice actor, Hawa Khan

The show was originally a radio show and made into a podcast – can you give us a little insight to how it worked between yourself as Producers/Writers and then the actors/the Fun Kids radio station.

The radio show and the podcast are the same format. I would say the big difference when producing for a radio station is that everything has to fit exactly into the time allocated, which isn’t the case for podcasts!

The process was: Hawa and I first selected, then researched the stories, gathering as much information as we could about the people and places these stories come from.

Many of these stories are from ancient indigenous cultures and have been passed down over generations and some are still very much part of religious and cultural life. We wanted to make sure we properly acknowledged the people who these stories belong to and spent a lot of time researching the names, places and religious aspects.

Leona Fensome did a brilliant job helping us contact academics and indigenous elders to make sure we used the correct language and terms.
The next stage was writing the scripts. Hawa and I co-wrote each script by trying to embody the characters, Hawa is a brilliant voice artist so she developed the characters as we went along, deciding what accents, intonation and personality each character would have. We had decided from the outset that the voice of each character would be decided by their personality rather than from where the story is from. This means a Chinese dragon has a West Indian accent, or the Taino Sun is based on an Indian Raj. Hawa then worked with the children and adult actors to develop their characters and give them voice. The children played themselves, but the adult actors are all experienced in channelling diverse accents and characters so they really brought that into the studio when we recorded. We had already worked with some of the children and actors on the Tower of London project so this was helpful.

Once everything was recorded I worked on the pacing and sound design. Fun Kids helped us hone the original application and concept but they didn’t intervene during production. They trusted us to produce these stories in our own way. The final addition to this series becoming a podcast, was the creation of the artwork by Delphine – each episode has its own image which is gorgeous.

One of the things I really liked in the series was the children’s voices in the show. How important was it for you to have that?

Children love listening to other children and the children’s voices provide a narrative thread through the series. The children in the series are being told the stories and ask the kinds of questions that children listening might also ask. There is also a little life lesson in each episode that connects to the children’s interaction at the beginning of each episode.

As Producers, how did you find doing that aspect? (Never work with children or animals comes to mind!)

Hawa Kahn is a creative school facilitator so she is very used to working with children and firing their imaginations. The children in the series aren’t professional actors and the script was written around them – they are two sets of siblings. Time and patience is the key, with plenty of breaks. These children were superb to work with and incredibly literate. The youngest were 5 when we recorded and they were all just amazing.

Have you seen a difference in the reaction from listeners since it became a podcast?

Fun Kids has a very specific audience – children! The difference now that the series is a podcast is that it can reach audiences beyond Fun Kids and I think adults will enjoy listening just as much.

Do you have any advice for budding producers for Children’s audio?

Test your concepts and ideas with children first. They will tell you if it’s good and engaging. We got the children involved to read through the scripts, they were quite vocal if they thought something didn’t make sense or wasn’t funny.

Do you have a creation story you haven’t told yet but would love to?

There are so many! I think we will have to do another series. For example closer to home is the ancient story of Queen Albina and her sisters who was exiled from Syria to an uninhabited island which is now Britain.

Lastly, is there anything we didn’t ask that you’d like to add?

It was important for us to have a space to share more detail about the creation stories so In The Beginning.. now has a bespoke website inthebeginning.world where you can learn about the different myths, where they are from and more about the people they belong to. We have also transformed the artwork into a colouring book and postcards.

And finally I would say have a listen, you will hear stories from all over the world, told in a very unexpected and humorous way by an incredibly diverse and talented cast.

Listen to In The Beginning on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

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Since then, more than 30 older people aged 60+ have been involved in the first series, and it was even praised by Prince William! The award-winning podcast is back for a second season and looks set to continue is its mission for creativity and connection. We spoke to creators, theatre company Made By Mortals.

Why podcasting? What is it about the format that appeals for this project?

We turned to podcasts through necessity to be honest. We run a not-for-profit that traditionally creates music theatre and films with groups of people from our community in Manchester. When lockdown hit, like everyone we were forced to work remotely, which meant that none of our groups could meet in person. We wanted to create something that could bring people together during a time that they were forced apart. So, through experimenting, playing and using our imaginations over zoom, we came up with the concept of Armchair Adventures, a podcast series for children that takes them on a journey of the imagination.

We were able to develop the scripts, rehearse and record using equipment we all had to hand, while still managing to create something that meets (and I think has now surpassed) the artistic quality of our theatre work.

Podcasting has also helped us to grow our audience reach. Armchair Adventures has had tens of thousands of listens, if that was one of our theatre productions we’d have to sell out a lot of venues to reach those numbers!

You’re also able to play with sound design to make the listener feel part of the action. Podcasts have allowed us to create immersive theatre far more regularly than we ever could when putting on a staged theatre show

To top it off, podcasts are also easy to get hold of, they’re convenient for an audience as they can take their podcasts with them wherever and play them whenever. So all in all, podcasting was the perfect solution!

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

I think our Armchair Adventures episodes are getting better and better all the time, so I’d go for our latest one ‘An Underwater Adventure’ (released 11th November). The series follows 15 year old travel agent Connie, and her gang of explorers. With the pandemic, people haven’t been able to go abroad as freely as they used to, so they’ve come up with an alternative to a traditional vacation, a journey of the imagination, an “Armchair Adventure”. Using the voices of Connie and the gang, music, immersive sound design, and places in the podcast for the listener to interact too, the listener is very much a part of the action.

The use of the music in this latest episode, ‘An Underwater Adventure’ is really fun. It’s like the piano has come along on the journey too, and instead of hearing someone speak, the piano communicates through music!

We also always have an important message for children in the podcasts too, in this one, it’s all about conservation and climate change. And as always, there’s plenty for the listener to join in with too in this episode! I do love ‘Carla’s Bubble Adventure’ and ‘A Showbiz Adventure’ from season 1 too though!

Has Armchair Adventures grown beyond the podcast?

One of the most exciting things about Armchair Adventures is how it has been adapted to be used in lots of different settings. We made the series for children so it was important to us that we put it in front of as many kids as possible! We have great relationships with local schools through our theatre work, so we presented the podcasts online in ‘Live Online Shows’. This also put podcasting on the radar for many schools and children. Since then we’ve made teaching resources to accompany the podcast episodes, so teachers can embed the learning. This was particularly impactful with ‘A Unity Adventure’ which is about racial equality.

We’ve also created an activity pack for older people and trained up activity co-ordinators in nursing homes so they can use it with their residents. Now restrictions have eased up we’re now creating the episodes in person and also working on the development of a live Armchair Adventures theatre show – watch this space!

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

I really like The Story Pirates and how it blends actors, musicians, improvisers and stories from kids. It’s quite like how we create Armchair Adventures, except we make it using stories from over 65s!!

Away from podcasts, we’re really into the work of Tim Crouch, a theatre maker who challenges traditional theatre conventions. We try and do that with our work, blurring the distinction between performer and audience member.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from working on this project?

You can’t just expect an audience to fall at your feet, no matter how good you believe your podcast to be. You need to spend just as much time, if not more, marketing your podcast and maintaining audience engagement as you do making the episodes!

We’ve worked really hard at this, and although we’ve had a low-budget, grassroots marketing campaign, the results have been brilliant: tens of thousands of listens including a surprise following in India; engaged with over 5,000 school children through our Live Online shows; we’ve trained over 50 activity co-ordinators in nursing homes; we were recommended by BBC Radio 4 and Podcast Radio; received a letter of commendation from HRH Prince William and most recently we became an award-winning podcast by winning Best Podcast at the Manchester Publicity Awards 2021!

It’s all nuts and can’t wait for where our next adventure takes us!

Listen to Armchair Adventures on SPOTIFY or your favourite podcast app.

The post Armchair Adventures: A podcast for sharing imagination appeared first on POD BIBLE.

QCODE is a Los Angeles based audio production studio who develop innovative and immersive scripted narrative stories. Normally what would occur in the Point of Entry series is episode recommendations, however QCODE now have 13 different shows. Instead, I will recommend some of my favourite shows, as I feel if I recommend individual episodes, I will be giving away spoilers.

For people who enjoy watching television but don’t always have the time to sit down, narrative fiction podcasts are great – you can listen to the drama unfold on the go. If you are already an avid podcast listener who enjoys an interview style show, you may enjoy scripted audio because there is still an interesting back and forth, chemistry between people and great audio design – it is just at a bigger scale because the visual aspect is taken away.

BLACKOUT

The first QCODE fiction podcast release was a drama starring and executive produced by Academy Award winning Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody). BLACKOUT tells the story of a local radio DJ named Simon Itani who is based in small town Berlin, New Hampshire. One of those small towns where everyone is in your business and something shady is going on. One night a blackout occurs and Simon gets fatally shot, whilst his son Hunter Itani’s (T.C Carter) camping trip with his friends takes a disastrous turn. The whole town is turned upside down – food, medicine and essentials are in low supply.

In the midst of this Simon is determined to keep the community spirit alive with his show and continues to play selected rock tunes with his signature “Look out for each other” thrown in for good measure. A fascinating thriller where the listener is moved through the Berlin woods into the back garden of the Itanis through a random field with a crazed neighbour with a shotgun. This can only be done by a meticulous sound department team – where every detail is thought of, the eerie music is just as important as the cereal during breakfast. Along with most podcast recommendations, this is best listened to with earphones. However if you want to avoid jump scares in public, I recommend it on a loud volume at home.

With all this being said, with what has happened in the past year, perhaps indulging in an apocalyptic thriller about modern civilization falling apart, may not be the best choice for a form of escapism. The characters explore themes like control, authoritarianism, freedom of speech and justice.

With a second season of BLACKOUT featuring How To Get Away With Murder star Aja Naomi King just announced, if you choose, now it the perfect time to catch up with the first season.

Soft Voice

The second series I would recommend is Soft Voice – a psychological drama that delves into the dangers of the mind. Soft Voice (Bel Powley) is a voice inside Lydia’s head (Naomi Scott). Soft Voice is a blunt and no-nonsense entity that values perfectionism – it controls every aspect of her life down to Lydia’s diet and love life – Lydia doesn’t know any different so she goes along with it as it comes with a peace of mind and much success. It is not until one day Soft Voice stops talking and Dark Voice enters (Olivia Cooke) and Lydia’s life takes a turn in the most dramatic manner.

What it does well in the same way the TV show Black Mirror does – is it makes you question ‘what would I do if I were in that situation?’ and then it makes you sit and wonder maybe I am closer to being in that situation then I would like to admit. Think the ‘Nosedive’ or ‘White Bear’ episodes – it may seem dramatic, however if you get to the heart of what issues are being explored and take away the hyperbole – they hit closer to home.

Listening to Lydia navigate her inner thoughts is unnerving and unpredictable. She faces the same insecurities that many others do, acted brilliantly by Naomi Scott, you can hear her cleverly switch from moments of panic, uncertainty and relief – perfectly depicting the trials of the mind.

Unwanted

After you indulge in two intense podcasts you can have a go at an action-comedy. Unwanted is about two 30-year-old best friends Ben (Lamorne Morris) and Grant (Billy Magnussen). They are strapped for cash and unwilling to get a job. One day while driving they accidentally hit a woman who bizarrely just walks it off. It is not until later they find out the woman was a hard as nails runaway convict, named Shelley O’ Keith (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) worth a million pounds if found.

After much deliberation both Ben and Grant go on a mission to get that prize money. With a fun back and forth between the two main characters as they have their hand at the bounty hunter/good cop bad cop persona, this podcast series packs plenty of laughs. We are treated to our favourite movie clichés like a good old catchphrase, they opted for “LET’S DANCE!” and the evergreen “we’ll ask the questions here!” followed by silence and fumbling to develop an actual helpful question but a random debate over buying and renting whilst someone is tied up in the basement (a few episodes in and this will make sense).

Shelley is frightening and shows no mercy to anyone who crosses her path. Her no nonsense attitude is balanced well by a hilarious ex-convict named Darko (Flula Borg), an old friend who owes Shelley a massive favour after his betrayal led to her six years in jail. He runs an electronics store and seems to be more interested in leading a quiet life with the occasional trip to TGI Fridays.

With a catchy 80’s synthwave-style theme song sung by the legendary Rick Astley, and the constant mention of Arnold Schwarzenegger, for those who want their movie clichés with a fun script, this is a great introduction into scripted audio because it is still familiar but with a few twists and turns.

The post Where to start with… QCODE Podcasts appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Matt Stocks, host of Life in the Stocks

Hi Matt. First up, tell us a bit about yourself and your podcast.

The podcast is called Life In The Stocks, and it features candid, unedited, in-depth interviews with a wide range of musicians, actors, comedians & creatives. I’ve been interviewing people for over a decade now. I started out hosting the Evening Show on Kerrang! Radio from 2010-2013. Then I worked at Team Rock Radio, co-hosting their Breakfast Show from 2014-2015. I also presented a Punk Show and an-depth interview show called Soundtrack Apocalypse, which is when I began to really hone and develop my skills as a long-form conversationalist.

I’ve also written over a hundred articles for the likes of Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Vive Le Rock and Louder Than War. I spent three years (2015-2018) presenting for Scuzz TV. I wrote, produced & directed a feature-length documentary on the band Airbourne, called It’s All For Rock N’ Roll, which has had over 150,000 views on YouTube.

And at the end of last year, I released my first book, which is based on conversations from my podcast. It’s called Life In The Stocks: Veracious Conversation with Musicians & Creatives (Volume One). But no one likes a show off, do they? So I’ll shut up now.

Well, that does lead us nicely into the next question: how did the idea to do a podcast book come about?

It’s something I’ve had in the back of my head for a long time. I’ve been doing the podcast for four years now, and I’ve published 200 episodes. When you host a show for that long, and you talk to that many people, a Venn diagram starts to form between all the guests and their shared histories—both on a personal and a cultural level. And if you’re paying attention, which I always am, you start to form a mind map of when and how the dots connect. So I’ve been toying with the idea of how to combine and present these stories in a new format for quite some time.

Then on March 10th last year, the day before my birthday, I received an email out of the blue from Rare Bird—a publishing company based in Los Angeles—asking if I wanted to meet up for a chat whilst they were in London. I agreed to meet them the next day in the hope that I’d blag a free drink and a meal out of them—I always try to take business meetings on my birthday for that very reason.

I thought they’d maybe ask me to host some Live Q&A events for them, or perhaps see if I’d have one of their authors on my podcast or something like that. But within five minutes of sitting down, they offered me the chance to turn Life In The Stocks into a book. It was the best surprise birthday present ever—much better than a free meal, which they never bought me, by the way.

So that would’ve been right before the UK went into national lockdown. The timing couldn’t have been better really.

Right? It was like a gift from the gods—if you believe in that stuff, which I think I do. After the Coronavirus hit, I instantly lost all my work. I used to make a living as a DJ: 70-80% of my annual income came from touring and local London residencies. And all of that dried up immediately, of course, the minute we went into national lockdown. Then I lost all my podcast sponsors, too. So the book deal could literally not have come at a better time. Someone up there was definitely looking out for me, because aside from the book advance, I haven’t had a paid gig since March 2020. Bleak times.

Thanks to the support of my listeners via Patreon, though, I’ve managed to just about scrape by with money from the Patreon page, the book advance, and the government self-employment support income. It’s funny, I calculated my earnings for 2020 just before Christmas, and it was my worst financial year since leaving university in 2008. I say “funny,” it’s obviously not… but if you don’t laugh then you’ll cry. And I just about managed to get by, so I can’t really complain.

If the last twelve months have taught me anything, it’s to be grateful for what you’ve got. And writing a book has always been a lifelong dream of mine, so 2020 wasn’t all bad—at least for me. And I don’t know if I would’ve had time to write a book if it wasn’t for the Coronavirus and resulting lockdown, so I have to look at things in that light too. I made the best of a bad situation, I guess.

There’s 35 guests in the book, and you said you’ve published 200 podcast episodes. So how did you go about choosing who appeared in Life In The Stocks Volume One?

The first decision I made was that all the guests in this book would be from the United States or Canada. There’ll be time down the line for a UK edition, and I’m already excited to get into that one. The publishers are LA-based, so it just made sense to focus on that market—if you want to call it that. I also love the history of American music and pop culture, too. So this gave me the chance to really delve into that.

As far as picking who the specific guests would be, I just went back to the start of the show—Episode 001: Steve-O (Jackass)—and worked my way chronologically through the back catalogue, pulling out what I believed to be the strongest and/or my personal favourite conversations as I went. I then transcribed the highlights from each episode along the way, and I wound up with an average of 2-3,000 words per episode. And books of this kind are usually around 80-90,000 words in total, so 35 guests just seemed like a good number to go with. I guess I’m a pretty methodical person in that sense; there’s always method to my madness.

As far as the guests go, just so people have a vague idea of who to expect, here’s a short list of some of my favourites and/or the ones that really stand out for me: Andrew W.K., B-Real, CJ Ramone, Doug Stanhope, Kyle Gass, Laura Jane Grace, Michael Monroe, Monique Powell, Nick Oliveri, Steven Van Zandt, Steve-O, Tom Green… As you can see, there’s a lot of crossover, and a lot of these artists come from similar scenes, eras, and cultural backgrounds. If you came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, and you lived on a steady diet of alternative music & comedy, you’ll absolutely love this book.

You’ve split the chapters into themes, and you cover everything from childhood and punk rock to success, drugs, politics, and creative partnerships. Plus a lot more. What are some of your personal stories from the book?

I particularly love all the old New York stories courtesy of people like Clem Burke from Blondie, CJ Ramone, Tommy Victor from Prong, who also used to be the sound engineer at CBGB, and the “Mayor of the Lower East Side” himself, Mr Jesse Malin. Jesse played his first gig at CBGB when he was twelve years old, and he’s friends with all the New York cats and legends. He’s been on the scene since forever, and he’s still plugged in to what’s happening now in music, too. Everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Billie Joe Armstrong is a friend and a fan of Jesse, and the stories he has are incredible—especially the one he tells in the book about Joe Strummer. Jesse also wrote the foreword to the book, and I was so humbled and honoured by what he wrote. He’s an absolute legend.

There’s some pretty touching and harrowing stuff in the book, too. It isn’t all rock ‘n’ roll tales of fame, fortune, and fun, although there is plenty of that in there of course. Laura Jane Grace and Mina Caputo discuss their experiences coming out as trans, Monique Powell from Save Ferris and my friend Amie Hawick—a famous therapist and writer—talk about feminism and the #MeToo movement, Tom Green describes surviving cancer, Steve-O discusses beating addiction, Al Barr from Dropkick Murphys talks about the opiate crisis in America, I get into mental health and depression in great detail with quite a few guests, and there’s some really beautiful stories about friendship, parenthood & community in there as well.

I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve achieved. And I can say that because I’m only in the book about 10% of the time. The rest of the time, it’s all the guests sharing their amazing stories, experiences, and insights. I kind of just set each chapter up and then get out of the way.

It sounds like a great read, and definitely one for everyone interested in alternative music and comedy. Presumably, there’ll be more volumes down the line?

Most definitely. I’m already working on Volume Two, which will feature another round of American artists: Gene Simmons, Tommy Lee, Chuck D, Perry Farrell, Buzz Osbourne… people like that. Then book number three will be UK centric, which I may also split into two volumes. With 200 episodes to choose from, I’m not exactly short on material.

I’m incredibly proud of every podcast I’ve ever done, too. I think there’s great stuff to be found and taken from all of them—even if I do say so myself. I have been doing this for over a decade after all, so you’d hope I’m able to conduct good interviews by now. If not, it’s probably time to pack up and try something else.

You’re perfectly within your rights to be proud of what you do. We’re big fans of Life In The Stocks here at Pod Bible, and you’re right: there’s an extremely vast back catalogue of conversations to choose from. Why don’t you tell us about a few of your favourite episodes, which people should check if they’ve never heard Life In The Stocks before.

It all depends on what you’re into, I guess, but if we’re going purely on the strength of the conversation, then I’d say the Gail Porter episode is as good a place as any to start. The Kate Lawler episode is another one of my all-time favourites as well. They’re a couple that are outside the realms of music, but still music related in that they’re both TV & radio presenters—not to mention two of my favourite people. The John Lydon and Shaun Ryder episodes are fantastic, too. Two UK legends right there.

The Tom Green episode is well worth checking out, just because it’s nothing like what you’d expect. We’d go deep: we talk about death and the meaning of life for about half an hour. The Gene Simmons episode might also give you a different perspective and opinion on him. And it’s hilarious. He’s just a ridiculous person. But I rate him, and it’s great interview. Have you had enough yet? Ha ha! There really is something for everyone in there: James Lavelle, Dom Joly, Stephen Graham, Tommy Lee, B-Real, Doug Stanhope, Alice Lowe, Perry Farrell, Ralph Steadman, Wayne Kramer, Pauline Black… you name it.

Any good guests or exciting news about upcoming stuff that you’d like to share?

I’d really love it if people just checked out the podcast, if they haven’t heard it already. It’s available in all the usual places. And if you like the show, please subscribe and give me a follow on social media (@mattstocksdj), that way you can keep updated with all the new podcast developments.

I’ll be relaunching the podcast after a short break in February, and I’ll going into Series Three—I do 100 episodes per series because I’m hardcore like that—with Alice Cooper as my guest. So that’ll definitely be an episode you don’t want to miss.

Thanks for letting me chew your ear off about all things Life In The Stocks, though. I promise I don’t talk this much on my podcast—I like to give my guests the floor, and allow them the chance to shine. But thank you for giving me the opportunity to do the same on here. I really admire what you guys are doing for the podcast community, and I really appreciate your support.

Cheers, Matt. All the best with the book release and Series Three of Life In The Stocks.

You can listen to Life in the Stocks on Acast, Spotify and your favourite podcast app.

 Life in the Stocks: Veracious Conversations with Musicians & Creatives (Volume One) is out NOW and available from Amazon, Waterstones, Blackwells, and you can get signed copies direct from the publishers: rarebirdlit.com

The post INTERVIEW // Life In The Stocks: from podcast to print, with Matt Stocks appeared first on POD BIBLE.