The first year of Podsongs: 100 songs inspired by podcast interviews

Posted on 22 January 2022
By Khyle Deen
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Podsongs—the unique interview podcast that produces a song for every guest—has passed its centenary episode, just over a year after it launched…. that’s 104 songs in 12.5 months.

What’s the next step in its evolution? Podsongs 2.0 features guest musicians on every episode: interviewing one of their heroes and writing a song about them.

Podsongs launched on 30th November 2020 after COVID lockdown forced British singer-songwriter, Jack Stafford, to look for other outlets for his music.

He reached out to celebrity actors and authors, professors and professionals around the world, and gained interviews with the likes of Alan Dershowitz, Lawrence Krauss, Kate Hudson, Janet Varney, Kyle Cease, Rick Beato and Eddie Glaude.

In the beginning, Stafford interviewed all the guests and wrote the songs himself, producing them with his backing band in his adopted home of Italy. Together they produced 8 albums in a single year, in a complete range of genres including pop, rock, reggae, folk, jazz and classical.

“It’s been a humbling experience”, explains Stafford. “Speaking with so many deep thinkers and being responsible for condensing down their passions, ideas and philosophies into a 3-minute song”.

Not enough protest songs: #songsforgood
“The most rewarding episodes were those where I interviewed activists truly in service to others, trying to change the world,” says Stafford. “For example, I wrote a song campaigning for clean air for the mother of Ella Kissi-Debra, the first person to have air pollution on their death certificate. Laura Nirider from the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” about wrongful convictions. “If The Bombs Go Off”, a song for nuclear disarmament. And many more. Songs for good causes are what we want to focus on more in the future.”

Musicians interviewing their heroes
Now he is sharing the experience with other musicians, so he will act as a host while the guest musicians will interview their heroes: someone who has changed their life or is changing the world.

Six artists have already appeared on the show and their feedback has been excellent.

“Jack and the Podsongs team have something rare: both a unique and phenomenal idea, and the expertise to execute it at a very high level. Working with them was a joy and privilege!” Brian Powers of Frances Luke Accord.

While Joshua Zimmerman of The Silent Comedy from San Diego said “It was really refreshing to be a part of interviewing someone else because usually we are the ones being interviewed. It was nice to be on the other side for a change. Releasing a single with the Podsongs team was a really informative process for us. The creative and logistic workflow are completely different than the way we normally operate and it was really nice to mix things up and work with a fresh team that is halfway around the world. Getting other artist’s creative perspective on our songwriting was really neat and I would definitely collaborate more in the future as a result of this experience.”

Other bands, singers and songwriters already lined up for 2022 include Doe Paoro, A Place to Bury Strangers, Gregory Harrington, Death Valley Girls and Chicks on Speed.

The production team would like to hear from musicians around the world who would like to appear on the show. They can apply at Podsongs.com

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