Surroundscapes Surroundscapes

Bob Boster runs a large manufacturer of live and broadcast communications and combines this with a side passion and profession as a sound artist. We discuss how this came about and how he manages to juggle these two threads of his life. We dive into sound art, how a niche artist from USA can economically plan a 20-30 date European tour and much more.

Never Not Nothing have been described as anarchic electro psych punk noise, and Paul Frazer, one half of the band describes how it came into being with a unique launch event for industry insiders. We move on to talk about how the band progressed and then dealt with the pandemic lockdown by creating an immersive sound and sight stage in order to make compelling videos. We finish by talking about the use of haptic suits, in-ear monitors and VR glasses to create the live events of the future. Along the way we learn how the band changed its original name from Black Futures in order to allow that phrase to be used by the Black Lives Matter movement without confusion.

Glen Rowe has had a long and very varied career in music from drumming in bands, to working for an instrument manufacturer, touring managing Muse and coming off the road in order to create projects of lasting value. He tells us about the many and varied activities of his company Kyoto – from a recording studio featuring a ‘Drumbrella’, to rehearsal spaces, creative communities and artist management done in a new and humane way. We also talk about the charity that Glen founded – the Neko Trust – and the amazing work that it does to support and educate young creatives. We wonder just how many hours he has in his days!

Ben Richter has created a career with a number of different elements. He is a teacher, a performer, the director of an ensemble and a recording artist. One of the things that we discuss is active listening and how music can be used to help to alter people’s time horizons and better understand slow-moving but profound phenomena such as climate change. We also talk about different ways that musicians and other artists can add value to their content in order to reward true fans and find new income streams.

Jon Cotton is a producer of both artists and content and this episode really focuses on what this means. Jon talks about the role of a producer in finding ways to connect an artist to their audience and how this has changed in the digital age. He discusses the role of marketing on digital platforms in order to build global awareness and we touch on next ways to present music in a live context.

This episode covers Theon Cross’s musical beginnings, the Tomorrows Warriors project and how this changed his musical style and aspirations leading to Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then Sons of Kemet. We finish by talking about living in lockdown, discovering looping and other electronic technology and making an album using just the Tuba and finally coming back to performing with an avatar-based event at SXSW.