Audio Indies

"People aren't just going to find you if you stop making content. That's not how it works."

Jon Grilz has been making horror audio drama since 2015, when he launched Small Town Horror and later Creepy - a show that now has close to 3,000 episodes across its free and Patreon feeds. In this conversation, we talk about the long road from data-entry jobs and creative burnout to podcasting full-time, including the moment he was days away from quitting altogether.

We also get into the craft: why the telling of a story matters as much as the story itself, what a single-line delivery from a No Sleep narrator taught him about the power of audio, and the simple piece of advice that changed how he thinks about narration.

• Jon's website
• Dread Central welcomes Creepy

"I do maintain that a big reason why the audience is that switched on and enthusiastic is because they got to experience the show in a communal environment rather than that isolated listening experience where you're not really sure if anyone else is out there."

Amber Devereux is a writer, musician and sound designer making audio drama and music as Tin Can Audio.

"I am not out there hawking at the street corner trying to get people to listen to my thing. I am arriving at a potluck with food."

Lauren Shippen has been making audio drama since 2015, when she launched the Bright Sessions and helped kickstart a new wave of fiction podcasting in America. In this conversation, we talk about how the landscape has shifted in the decade since, from the community that's kept the medium alive, to the money that came and went, to why she's not particularly interested in making TV shows. We also get into the craft side of things: what silent films taught her about rhythm and silence, why acting is everything in audio drama, and what it actually means to widen the pool beyond the listeners you already have.

• Atypical Artists: Website
• Atypical Artists: Patreon

"Radio is about two-thirds of all time spent listening to audio in the UK. Podcasting is 9%. We have so much space to grow, four, five, six times bigger than we currently are. How exciting to be at the beginning of a medium."

If you're involved in podcasting in any way, there's a decent chance you're subscribed to James Cridland's essential Podnews newsletter. Podnews has been running since 2017, but James has worked in audio since 1989, including a career in radio. On this episode, we get into some of the tips and tricks we can learn from our sister medium, the problem of all podcasts being thought of as chat shows, and why an agreed-upon definition of podcasting matters more than we might think.

"Those rich landscapes in your mind can be as vast and as detailed as your imagination can be."

Sarah Golding a multitalented voice actor, director, and writer. She works as production manager at the Wireless Theatre Company, is the organiser of the Audio Drama Hubfest, and is the host of the Indie AF podcast.

"When you have a lot of sound and then you suddenly go to silence, it's such a disarming contrast. It's like if you're doing puppetry and you drop a puppet."

Lindsay Harris Friel writes The Fiction Podcast Weekly newsletter. She's the creator of Jarnsaxa Rising, co-host of Life in the Ted Lane, and I'd highly recommend checking out her 11th Hour Audio piece, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Automatics.

"Radio and podcasting is the strongest form of painting pictures. In the same way, when we read a book, we fill in those gaps, we create the characters, we create their voices, we create the picture."

The Photowalk embraces the mindfulness of walking with a camera, being in the great outdoors and making pictures.

Each Friday, Neale invites you to lace your boots and walk with him as he shares stories of inspiration, letters and pictures from your own walks and talks with photographers and creative people worldwide.

An introduction to the Audio Indies podcast. Please subscribe or follow on your listening app of choice.