The Curator Podcast

In the podcasting world sometimes things change.

Originally I had planned to release an episode with Lags and Stu from Gallows but alas, it is not to be. Maybe next week.

All is not lost however, and in my attempts to be the most prepared man ever when it comes to…well, everything in life, I have other episodes queued up. So today I bring you an interview with DIY record label mogul Steven Hill from Struggletown Records.

If you’re a Glasgow native like me, and you’ve been involved in the local music scene for a number of years, then it’s pretty safe to say that Struggletown is something of a local success story. Their growth has been steady since they started back in 2011 and they’ve moved from releasing records for local bands to doing releases with international artists like Koji, Into It. Over It. Shook Ones and Death is Not Glamorous. There is surely much more to come.

We cover a lot of ground in the podcast, and I’m really eager for you to listen to it so I won’t give away too much here. Some key points:

• The work/life/stress balance
• The genesis of Struggletown and skateboarding
• Some of the cool bands they’ve worked with
• The biggest inspirations behind the label, like Dischord Records and the DIY ethos of hardcore punk music
• Biggest successes and failures
• Growing up around “alternative music”

And a whole bunch of bands were mentioned too: Armor for Sleep, Floorpunch, H2O, Champion, Carry On, Jimmy Eat World, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit among others.

The most heartening thing about this interview for me was how similar our musical discovery was as we grew up, and how that fed into the DIY ethos that’s present throughout all of Struggletown’s endeavours.

I enjoyed the length of this podcast and I hope you do too. Podcasting offers the listener an opportunity to spend time with a person, and in these conversations I’m just the instigator, I try my best to let the interviewee talk as much as they want for as long as they want. That way we can get to know them a little better. Sometimes that can be quite difficult to do when you’re sitting in the back of a tour van or when you’ve only been given an alloted amount of time to spend with someone. But when you get into a relaxed environment and spend a bit of time just shooting the shit with someone, that’s what really makes the conversation flow. I’m sure as I get better at this I’ll be able to make the conversation flow no matter where the interview is taking place.

I hope you enjoy it. Please take some time to check out the label and the music they offer.

You should sign up to my newsletter – I only send out one a week it and all it contains are ten cool news storys from the past week in the music/media/film and TV world.

Intro: Voodoo Puppets – Electric Chair Blues (used under CC licence, you can check it out here).

Shook Ones – Thin,
Wolves at Heart – More to Find,
The Sinking Feeling – Not Now.

All of those songs and more, including Steven’s own band Slowlight, can be found over on the Struggletown Records bandcamp.

You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to check out their web store as well.

You can do either by dropping a comment in the comment box below.
Or you can hit the contact link to show me some love by using the cool email form.

I’m on a few social media sites, so it’d be pretty handy if you could show me some love over there.
Check out the Facebook page.
Or you can get me on Twitter.

Oh and seriously, rating and reviewing this podcast on iTunes would be amazing.

The post TC5: Steven Hill – Struggletown Records appeared first on The Curator Podcast.

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As a humble podcaster who is only four episodes into his new venture, I didn’t expect to be interviewing someone I’ve been a big fan of for a while. At least, not this early on. But I did! And it was Anthony from Bayside, who are a band I bloody love. So if you think I’m gushing or something when you listen to the show, now you know why. And I refuse to apologise for it.

Once again it’s an interview that took place in the back of a tour van. It was daunting, I’m not gonna lie. Especially when their tour manager asked if I could interview Nick instead, but I held out and I got the conversation I wanted.

At some point during the interview Tiger Cub, the opening band on Bayside’s recent (and first ever!) headlining UK tour, started their soundcheck. Which was lovely and you can just about hear them in the podcast.

In this episode we discuss:

• Punk rock showtunes
• Not being told what you should and shouldn’t do by anyone
• Why Bayside are often on the road but never feel worn out
• Anthony’s new solo EP and how he composes Bayside songs
• Their first ever UK headlining tour
• Fifteen years as a band
• Why the latest album is his favourite

Amongst a few other things.

My favourite thing about this interview is how quickly Anthony eases into it. For bands, particularly bands who have been going for a long time, interviews can be tedious. A lot of the time they’ll do interviews with journalists who are simply deployed to ask a bunch of stock questions. It’s understandable that many musicians feel a sense of indifference or reticence about doing interviews.

A podcast offers a different experience though, because ultimately the interview is about the person being interviewed and when you can hear their voice it makes for a much more intimate, and personable experience. Usually a podcast will conducted by a fan of the perseon being interviewed, and in my own case I try to ask questions that a fan would like to hear.

With a podcast you’re creating an intimate link between the speaker and the listener. Anything which can reveal new or interesting things about someone that a fan has never heard before, or that the regular listener will find engaging, is always worth exploring.

I had an absolute blast doing this podcast, and I hope you enjoy listening to it.

Intro: Voodoo Puppets – Electric Chair Blues (used under CC licence, you can check it out here).

Bayside – Stutter from the album ‘Cult’.
Bayside – Dear Tragedy from the album ‘Bayside.

You can get the ‘Cult’ reissue on awesome red double vinyl at the Hopeless Records webstore here. The album is also available on iTunes, Spotify etc for your listening pleasure.

Or you can hear it on Youtube:

Once again Boab at No One Knows Records is the man for being patient and sorting the show out for me. Also a big thanks to Butler at Audio Glasgow for the mic and Tom Aylott at Hopeless Records for setting up the interview. Good dudes. Good vibes.

You can do either by dropping a comment in the comment box below.
Or you can hit the contact link to show me some love by using the cool email form.

I’m on a few social media sites, so it’d be pretty handy if you could show me some love over there.
Check out the Facebook page.
Or you can get me on Twitter.

Oh and seriously, rating and reviewing this podcast on iTunes would be amazing.

Weekly updates on what’s caught my eye in the music/film/TV/arts news this week. You can check it out here.

The post TC4: Anthony Raneri – Bayside appeared first on The Curator Podcast.

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My favourite thing about living in a city with such a vibrant music scene is that there’s no shortage of individuals I can interview for this podcast. On this episode Corrie Gillies – frontman, songwriter, guitarist and one half of Pinact was kind enough to sit down with me for a chat on the Glasgow date of their recent tour. Oh, and it also happened to be the same day they were launching their cracking debut album ‘Stand Still and Rot’.

For the tech heads amongst you, you might like to know that this podcast was a bit of a pain to edit. There was a very loud, low hum present for the entire interview which I didn’t notice at the time. I managed to fix it. For the most part. If you can hear a whooshing noise in the background that’s what it is.

It didn’t affect the conversation though and this podcast is rather fascinating.

Corrie is an insightful and intelligent guy, who despite having only been on the road a short time with Pinact has racked up an impressive amount of experience. What struck me the most about this interview is how driven Corrie is. Something which is highlighted by the sheer amount of time Pinact seem to spend on the road. If Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoah et all are your thing then really, you’ll love Pinact. They’re also loud as hell live given that there’s only a guitarist and a drummer.

Our conversation largely consisted of:

• Elliott Smith
• The work/life balance of being in a band which is fast gaining success
• How the format of Pinact will probably evolve fairly soon
• The pros and cons of touring
• The passion and the songwriting process
• Signing to the New York based Kanine records

And a bunch of other cool stuff. The band then proceeded to tear it up after the interview was over, which is always a sight to see.

Intro: Voodoo Puppets – Electric Chair Blues (used under CC licence, you can check it out here)

Pinact – Anxiety
Pinact – Limbs

You can get the album in both digital and cassette format over at the Kanine records website. It’s also available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music and all other cool digital retailers. Nice.

Photo by Guy Christie.

You can do either by dropping a comment in the comment box blow.
Or you can hit the contact link to show me some love by using the cool email form.

I’m on a few social media sites, so it’d be pretty handy if you could show me some love over there.
Check out the Facebook page.
Or you can get me on Twitter.

The post TC3: Corrie Gillies – Pinact appeared first on The Curator Podcast.

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In stark contrast to the last podcast, I thought I’d throw myself in at the deep end and not only interview a member of an American band who may or may not be able to understand my Scottish accent (something which is always made worse after a few beers, I should add), but also someone who is in character for the entire interview. It made for an interesting podcast.

It’s difficult to coax conversation out of someone who is constantly in character, meaning you can never be too sure if what you’re getting is the person themselves or the character they’re portraying.

I tried to strike an easy balance – I asked some ridiculous questions which played up to the character’s persona, and some others which aimed to get to the bottom of Intruder Green’s love for music.

So I hopped in the back of a (baking hot) tour van and had a brief chat with Intruder Green whilst the band’s tour manager looked on, bored as hell.

I think our chat is fairly entertaining, and I have a feeling you will too. We covered a fair amount of ground in the short time we were chatting, such:

• What’s the hardest thing he’s stolen on tour?
• How do they get away with stealing stuff if the cops can always find out where they are?
• How Green Day is one of his favourite bands
• What it’s like to tour with The Queers, the Dwarves and Teenage Bottlerocket and be able to call them friends
• How new album ‘M.I.’ is more geared towards getting girls to dance with them
• And Mike Ness from Social D.

Ultimately I think it went well. I got chatting to Intruder Red and Intruder Blue later on and they were also nice, funny guys.

The gig took place in the 13th Note in Glasgow which, if you haven’t been, is akin to a sweaty shoebox. It was a pretty good example of a sold out punk rock show. The guys seemed to have a blast and Officer Bradford was in full on dancing mode. Has anyone ever had a sweaty topless police officer dance with them before? It’s not pretty. Thank god this is a podcast and not a more visual medium.

Big thanks to Boab at Punk Rock Rammy/No One Knows Records for being a patient guy and hooking me up. He’s also the best promoter in this sorry city, so if you like punk he’s the guy to go to for good shows.

Intro: Voodoo Puppets – Electric Chair Blues (used under CC licence, you can check it out here).

Masked Intruder – The Most Beautiful Girl
Masked Intruder – Crime Spree

Image taken from Aux.com.

You can check out Masked Intruder’s new album on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play music and any digital retailer. Or if you want the physical version then check out the Fat Wreck Chords webstore to buy a copy. It’s also available at all good record shops if you like to be old school about your record buying. Like me.

You can do either by dropping a comment in the comment box blow.
Or you can hit the contact link to show me some love by using the cool email form.

I’m on a few social media sites, so it’d be pretty handy if you could show me some love over there.
Check out the Facebook page.
Or you can get me on Twitter.

Oh and seriously, rating and reviewing this podcast on iTunes would be amazing.

The post TC2: Intruder Green – Masked Intruder appeared first on The Curator Podcast.

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The best advice anyone has ever given me is to “just begin”. I’ve been ruminating over starting a podcast for the best part of a year, so here we are with The Curator Podcast. It’s hard to get over the general dislike of my own voice, I hope you guys don’t share a similar opinion. Otherwise there might be some… trouble.

I thought that for the first episode I’d interview someone I know and basically someone who isn’t short of an opinion or two. It worked out pretty well, and the result was a pretty interesting and engaging chat with a really nice guy.

Now that I’ve done a few interviews for this podcast, it seems to me that a lot of musicians are opinionated. It’s definitely not a bad thing, and I’m also a musician myself so perhaps it’s part of our DNA?

Also, doing interviews in tour vans is probably gonna be the norm for this podcast.

Conor’s band, Dialects, recently released their debut EP ‘LTKLTL’ which you can download right here. It’s a positively symphonic collection of instrumental post rock goodness and if you ever get the chance to catch them live then you shouldn’t pass it up.

In the course of our chat we covered:

• Why it would be daunting to interview Paddy Considine
• How Mogwai and Fall of Troy played a huge part in shaping Conor’s musical approach
• Tour van vibes
• How acting experience is essentially useless for curing stage fright when playing music
• Celebrity name and food name combinations

And a whole host of other things. So check it out by hitting play up above, or by finding going to the iTunes link.

Intro: Voodoo Puppets – Electric Chair Blues (used under CC licence, you can check it out here)

Dialects – Restless Earth
Dialects – Good Luck Felix
Dialects – Spectacular Supernovae (recorded live in Nice n Sleazy)

You can check out Dialects on their bandcamp page, over on their Facebook page, or you can hop on over to their Twitter page.

Photo by Andy Mills.

You can do either by dropping a comment in the comment box blow.
Or you can hit the contact link to show me some love by using the cool email form.

I’m on a few social media sites, so it’d be pretty handy if you could show me some love over there.
Check out the Facebook page.
Or you can get me on Twitter.

Oh and seriously, rating and reviewing this podcast on iTunes would be amazing.

The post TC1: Conor Anderson – Dialects appeared first on The Curator Podcast.

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