"Musically, it’s inspired by a motif from the 'Dreamscape.' So, brand-wise, it’s continuing a consistent theme that listeners are already familiar with."
That's what I just wrote to Meg, in a rationale explaining my most recent new intro idea for her podcast, Self Remembrance. We've collaborated on SR since she started the podcast in early 2020. That's over two years now. One day, I will document how it all began. But for now, I want to focus on what was a musical "turning point" for the podcast, back in November of last year. Before then, she'd been using the same music of mine for her intro/outro—which, frankly, had started to sound kind of tired, given that her online personality and the reach of the show had grown.
Then during spring/summer of 2021, she told me of her idea to do a podcast episode that featured music. At the time, she didn't know what she wanted that to be; but I'd already been playing around with setting her recorded meditations to original music—so I was game!
In October of that year, Meg handed me a 45-minute recording of her season 2 finale episode. I was not expecting anywhere near that much material to have to score; but over the next few weeks, I created about 30 minutes of sound design and original music for it. (Which stretched the episode to almost 50 minutes!)
During that process, I quickly found out why you don't hear many "original scores" created for podcasts—it's hard! And I think we both underestimated the amount of work it would be, and the amount of time it would take. (I worked on this project probably 30–40 hours, over the course of about six weeks—when I'd anticipated only about a month.)
Also, as I found out, the podcast medium/process wasn't really made for high-quality audio—which was a big disappointment, as it meant that much of the audio experience I'd meticulously built into the music was lost. It still worked out for Meg's purposes; but regardless, my spirit was kinda crushed by not having much control over the sound quality of the end product.
(Most podcasts are just recorded conversations—Self Remembrance is no different. Except, the Season 2 finale of SR was a hybrid between conversational podcasts, and those that are scripted. Think Gimlet or Wondery podcasts that tell stories or act as documentaries, and are highly produced and polished. This is the territory we were stepping into...)
The Dreamscape episode, as I came to call it, dropped near the end of November, 2021. (11/22/21 is the exact date, I believe.) I had no way of tracking the popularity of the episode, but Meg said she'd gotten good reviews/comments from her listeners. We briefly talked about the idea of making the Dreamscape into an album—which still may happen. But at this point, Meg promptly took an extended hiatus from the podcast.
In the meantime, I went to work on the "Soul Medicine Suite"—my own vision of "albumizing" the Dreamscape project. To date, only one complete song has manifest itself from all that source material—but there is potential for much more music to be developed from it!
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After emerging from hibernation, around mid-March, Meg called saying she wanted to redo her intro/outro music.
This was a very positive development, because it meant she was recognizing her growth, and the need for her brand to grow in reflection of that. At the same time, the idea of approaching Meg as a "music client" has always been slightly unsettling for me—no matter how many times we've collaborated by now. But I do it because I need that perspective—and I need the practice. Even though no money is being exchanged, this experience is helping me figure out if "music for clients" is something I can stomach doing on a larger scale.
When she called, quite out of the blue, I was in the midst of other big projects...as I always seem to be. But there's not many *truly* creative opportunities I will turn down. And one thing about my work with Meg on the SR podcast is that, so far, it's been a great collaboration—and very eye-opening!
The most valuable part of this process for me has been the back-and-forth feedback loop that we have shared, in my trying to create music for someone else's needs and tastes. A few weeks ago, Shawn Kelly and I actually had an interesting conversation about it. He seemed to be intrigued by my description of how our "creative process" involves a lot of probing, back-and-forth communication, iterations, trial-and-error, Frankensteining, batting down questionable ideas, making concessions, having your dreams crushed—then finally coming out with something acceptable, on the other end. Pretty much the same as working with design clients...
For the new SR intro, things have not been quite as intense or involved, but still have involved our signature back-and-forth communication process, and my interpreting of her stated vision into actual music. It's kinda magical.
This time around, Meg began the process by sending me Spotify samples of songs that she was digging at the moment; as well as a list of her favorite segments from the Dreamscape episode. This was to inform the vibe that I should shoot for. Great information! Although, what I initially saw fit to do was to "get my creative ya-ya's out," in the form of
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When it comes to creative work, the above types of explanations and "rationales" are not BS. They're part of an attempt to ground the work strategically, and give it meaning beyond just sounding nice. (Or looking pretty.)