IN POD ----- INTERVIEWS BY GEORGE GARNER -----
WALKING THE FLOOR WITH CHRIS SHIFLETT
Not content with being lead guitarist in Foo Fighters, Chris Shiflett has also hosted his own country/Americana podcast since 2013…
Roll with it:
Questlove with Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt
ROLLING STONE MUSIC NOW
Rolling Stone senior writer, podcast host and author Brian Hiatt on how the publication has been taking the brand into the future...
The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast started in January 2016. What was the original idea behind it? Brian Hiatt: “The unique thing about our show is it’s a live radio show on Sirius XM that we then clean up a bit – sometimes a lot [laughs] – for the podcast version because there’s a little bit of a different expectation for live shows versus a podcast. I’d like to think it creates a certain energy to Rolling Stone Music Now that’s a little different. Podcasts are particularly wonderful for longform magazine writers because it allows you to have the expansion of interviews, and have depth and quality in an audio format.”
Is there anything you feel Rolling Stone’s podcast can do that others can’t?
“It’s the only music podcast I know of that combines both discussion-formatted episodes with our experts talking alongside interviews. It does both. We’ve had some of the biggest stars on the planet on the podcast in longform interviews that are really like Rolling Stone interviews, just conducted on a podcast. It’s probably the most varied music podcast, it does lots of different things.”
What are some of your favourite episodes so far? “The one I did with Donald Fagen from Steely Dan was extremely news-making. That was something where Donald and his people sought us out because he loved the tribute that we did for Walter Becker. He chose to do his one interview after Walter’s death on our podcast. That was a huge honour, not just for Rolling Stone but specifically for the podcast. On one of my favourite episodes, we had Halsey on before her new album [2017’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom] came out. That album was a
22 | Music Week 01.07.19
huge, huge sensation and her first interview for it was on the podcast.”
Has the podcast reached beyond your readership? “When you’re a big brand, you want to put your footprint in as many areas as possible and this does seem like a fruitful area. My impression from feedback – and this is very rough – is that perhaps half or so of the listeners are already readers, and half are just fans of the podcast. That’s fascinating. Hopefully they then start reading Rolling Stone. There are people whose primary media engagement these days seems to be podcasts. They’re religious about their listening and it’s important to reach them.”
Is the appeal of a good podcast different to that of a good RS magazine article or a radio show? “It’s nearly identical to a great radio show, it just needs a little bit more staying power. There’s a lot more room for digressions and chatter on the radio. With a podcast you want some of that, but you also want to get down to business as well, without being artificial and rigid. Also, Rolling Stone Music Now is not a music critics’ show – in that it’s not Inside Baseball, which I think is a feature of a lot of music podcasts, some of which I enjoy. Many music podcasts are hosted by music critics, and that means they’re going to get deep into the discourse of criticism, deep into the semiotics of music. I think some people might be surprised at how fun the Rolling Stone podcast is. I’m not afraid of making it entertaining – I really don’t want people to be bored. Yes, you’re doing journalism, but you’re also trying to be entertaining. I think that if you’re conscious of that, it helps.”
Had there always been a dormant inner-podcaster in you? Chris Shiflett: “Oh God, no! Never! It started as an idea when I put out the Dead Peasants covers record [2013’s All Hat And No Cattle], one of the guys at Side One Dummy was like, ‘You should start a podcast and then you can promote your record.’ I didn’t want to do one of those ‘riffing on pop culture’ ones, that’s for comedians. So, I started doing interviews and I quickly found I really liked doing them – it’s super-fun. Initially it was just, like, if I knew somebody, or knew somebody who knew somebody, I’d call them and see if I could interview them, so I’d get John Doe’s number and call him out of the blue. I cold called a bunch of people and ran through my Rolodex pretty quickly! It took a while but, little by little, we got to know all the publicists that work with all those folks and different managers and now we’re able to get to all the people we want to get to. The best part, man, is that I get pitched by all these people where I’m not familiar with their work. It’s what keeps me getting turned onto new music.”
What was the specific vision behind your podcast? “Sometimes you have to ask the obvious shit you can’t avoid, but having done interviews over the years, you find you end up telling the same stories over and over. What I try to do is ask questions that people wouldn’t ask in a regular interview. It’s great when you get to do ones like Dwight Yoakam or Marty Stuart, but I love speaking to artists I’ve never heard of. Sometimes I wind up interviewing people and I look on Spotify and it’s like, ‘Holy fuck, they’ve got 10 records – where have I been!?’ Sometimes you don’t want to know too much beforehand – so you can sincerely wing it and see what happens. Well, I’ve never completely winged it, but I have got questions together 10 minutes before!”
Given that you’re also in Foo Fighters, how do you actually make time to record so many podcasts?
“I do as many as of them as I can at home, I have a studio not far from where I live and people come there. And I have a little podcast pack that I take with me, if needs be I’ll do them in a hotel, on a tour bus or backstage. I did once go through a podcast distributor but I didn’t like that at all – I’ll probably never do that again, which means I’ll probably never ever really get big [laughs]. I did it once a week for about a year and that was too much, it was like, ‘I don’t want to be a full-time podcaster’. Now I do it every two weeks.”
Finally, who’s on your interview bucket list? “I knew it wasn’t going to happen but there was a slight chance I was going to get Willie Nelson, which of course did not happen. But I have a big long list of questions so I’m ready for that interview when it happens.”
musicweek.com
The world of podcasts has opened up exciting new opportunities for all corners of the music industry. Here Music Week speaks to some of the creators behind the best music podcasts out there…
WE TRUST Life in the cast
lane: Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett
Photo: Maro Hagopian
Photo: Jody Domingue
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