April 12, 2018 • 40 mins
This week Matty talks to Dallas Taylor from Twenty Thousand Hertz! They talk about his start as a sound engineer, the importance of sound not just in podcasts but in video as well, his experience working with Roman Mars of "99% Invisible", and find out which person dead or alive, Dallas would would want to hear a podcast from in our 3 Killer Questions round!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome everybody to another edition of Access podcast, the podcast
about podcast and today Z it's all about sound, sound, sounds,
sound sound, sound, sound, sound design. It's fascinating. Good sounding
podcasts are super important. And if somebody who knows this
well as Dallas Taylor, host of twenty Hurts, he's coming
(00:27):
up at a second. Let's check out some of his
good sounds. Right now, you're listening to twenty Hurts The
Stories behind the World's most recognizable and interesting Sounds, hosted
by Dallas Taylor. This is the story behind the emergency
(00:48):
alert system. So that wasn't a real emergency, but that
distinctive dissonant tone and got your attention, didn't it? And
for good reason, that sound has accompanied weather alerts and
other important warnings here in the US. So, Dallas, welcome
to the show. I want to just say how you
(01:11):
came about being on the show? Is such a podcasting
way of coming about being on the show. Um, I'm
want to go over this real quick. Are you aware
exactly of how how all that has happened for me
to get in touch with you? Not at all? So
that I'm looking forward to hearing this. So I went
to West Virginia University. A guy named Scott Simons went
to West Virginia University with me. Now Scott is the
(01:34):
he does uh. He's one of the guys in the
band for America's Got Talent. He's the musical director for
the new Steve Harvey's show. Um. But he also is
the singer songwriter of the Paw Patrol theme song. That's right.
So yeah, this, we did this. We went back and
forth on Twitter on this and I was blown away
because I have a five year old and a two
year old and so we know that very well. I've
(01:56):
even been to pot Patrol live so and I can
sing every word and the entire pot Patrol uh theme song,
which I will not do. I know nothing about it.
All I know is that we were we were at
the n C Double A Games in San Diego, and
you know, he knows that I'm the podcasting guy, and
he's like, listen, I just was listening to a podcast
about the E A S. S System and being a
(02:18):
radio nerd, I was like, I gotta hear that, and
he so we texted me your show this weekend. I
listened to it and then went nuts Ford with nuts
Ford love it. Love it to death and like binged
a whole bunch of them, and then immediately got a
hold of uh, Chris Peterson and I heard and said,
we gotta can you help me track him down. Let's
let's get him on the show. So I'm really excited
(02:41):
to have you on because I just I absolutely I'm
a I'm a huge fan of twenty hurts. It's such
a good podcast. Well thank you. This is this is
quite the like shot to the ego, so I really
appreciate it. I can just have you follow me around, um,
if I can afford that, and just tell me how
great I am. And I'll tell you I get you know,
I'm the I that everybody and their mother text me
(03:02):
you gotta hear this podcast or you gotta listen to this.
I'm like, I know, I'm busy. I got too many
podcasts to listen to. But first of all, it was
it was the topic. Uh. And then also when Scott said,
you know, Scott's musician, and he said, listen, this thing
is about sound design, but but it's not. You just
gotta check it out. And I was intrigued because I
love good sound and I love podcast. It sound great
(03:22):
and I think that that is it's vital to the
future podcasting that more podcasts sound as good as yours.
I mean, if they could, because yours is one of
the I will say it maybe the best sounding podcast
I've ever listened to. So thank you. I want to
backtrack and talk about your relationship with sound. When did
you fall in love with having things come into your ears? Well, uh,
(03:47):
we're gonna go way back. So, UM, I grew up
in the Delta of Arkansas, very poor area, and I
wasn't particularly great in school or anything. Um, but I
eventure really found band and I went in and started
playing the trumpet, and it really became the only thing
(04:07):
I was really good at in my life. Um. I
mean I was okay like math and science and all
that stuff, but really like what got me out, not
got me out of trouble and kept me going to
school and all that stuff was was really like playing
the trumpet, and um, my band teachers and my friends
there and so that really like took me from this
very very poor area to getting like a full scholarship
(04:30):
and all the stuff. So it was just one thing
that just came really naturally to me, thankfully, and um,
and so it all started being like a trumpet player
and then going to school and really like thinking about
classical trumpet and jazz trumpet and all that stuff. And then, uh,
in college, I started to struggle with some really bad
performance anxiety. It was a thing where like I loved playing,
(04:50):
but I didn't like the idea that my best performance
was going to be in a practice room. I really
wanted some to do something in this field where like,
once it it was may aid, it stayed made and
it just went out to the world identically every time. So, um,
kind of struggled for a little while late in college
figuring out how I was going to transition from this
thing that I had done for most of my life
(05:12):
up until that point. And uh, and pretty quickly, like
there was a there was a very very short phase
of like recording music, but I didn't particularly love the
atmosphere of that. Um, there's a lot of just like
kind of coolest person in the room room type of
politics that go on in that. Not everybody, but I
don't think a lot of us understand what that is
(05:34):
to to go into a studio and record music. Yeah, Um,
so I kind I consider myself like always kind of
like a science nerd and like a space nerd, and
like I mean, nerd isn't the right word. So I
guess what I mean is like whenever going into the
recording studio, like music is such a personal expression of
(05:55):
of like a motion that that's like deep and important. Um.
But it also on the r hand, just um can
really explode into just like really um non uh pragmatic
type of like thinking and and it's more so just
like living. I think that's a really weird way of saying.
Just like the culture of the recording studio can sometimes
(06:16):
feel like it's a popularity contest and like who's the coolest,
and it's not like a like a logical, pragmatic type
of process. And that's why like whenever I found post
audio and sound design for like advertising and TV and
things like that, um, it felt like I found like
my science and and like my creative science nerds over there.
(06:37):
And so I felt like I really belonged in that
very analytical thinking and and kind of thinking about physics
in a way, but in a creative way. And so
UM fell in love with that. Uh. Started working in
television news. That was my first job into this whole field,
and UM, what did you do for television news? So
(06:58):
I were My very first job was like an intern
ship running a camera at an a at a Texas
news station. UM. But that quickly led me out to
working at Telemundo out in l A, which I don't
speak Spanish, but running their board for their news stuff,
and then UM that kind of led to working at
Fox and UH and then eventually led to finally getting
(07:21):
into post audio at G four, which is an old
TV UM or an old television network for video games,
which was before it's time. UM, and then UH landed,
then after that landed a senior sound designer position at
the Discovery Channel and UM all of their networks they
have like fifteen networks, and then after that started my
own company where we work with all kinds of different networks,
(07:44):
so like HBO and Netflix and UM, Discovery and National
Geographic and lots of like advertising brands like Nike and
different cars and shoot, does that mean when you do
sound design for these companies? Like, you know, I don't
think a lot of us understand what goes into what
we hear because with video it's so it's so you know,
for most people, they you know, they don't even realize
(08:07):
that a lot of the video experience is coming from
what they hear as much as what they're seeing. Well,
you'd be surprised. There's actually a lot of people in
the industry to UM. I send out a lot of
connection emails just kind of getting us on there on
people's radar, And just today got I got a couple
of emails of just like, well, I'll ford for this
onto our music department. UM So a lot of people
(08:27):
naturally think, well, what other sound is there in all
of these things other than music? And um and I
guess I usually will say, like, well, what other sounds
are there in life? Like if you walk outside, do
you have a soundtrack? Or like, you know, if you
drive somewhere or if you walk somewhere, All of those
things in a picture form gets recreated because it doesn't
(08:50):
sound very good, just to kind of like put a
singular mike out there and just you know, it's like
if you have a think of an old video camera
or something, or even an iPhone camera or something, like
your your point it at someone and how's that audio sound?
It's distant. It's kind of like it's not very like
crisp and clean it's like that sound versus what like
a movie sound is. And on the movie side, every
(09:11):
element from the ground up is rebuilt. So you have like,
you know, the winds are like tracks of very specific
winds and environments, and then you have things like um fully,
which is all the things you touch with your hands
and feet typically, so like if you're walking, Um, we're
going to record all that stuff separately, and we're gonna
put a microphone like two inches away from when we
(09:34):
record it to make sure that it's just crystal clear,
and we have we can we can feel out those
levels and stuff when we're mixing it. You also have
something called heart effects, So these are things like door
slams and explosions and things like that that we can
kind of build. And then um, then we have kind
of abstract emotional effects, and these are things like wooshes
and trailer hits and scrapes and things that make you
(09:55):
feel something. UM. So that's what I do most of
the time for my day jobs. So for the past
twenty years, it's been rebuilding all of the environments and uh,
and really everything sound related to picture except for music. Yeah,
(10:16):
I teach it at university and a lot of You know,
my students are multimedia students, and I always tell them,
I said, a good video is not good if the
audio is bad, because that is the number one mistake
of video young videographers and filmmakers is they forget about
the sound. And I want to talk about your podcast
and how you got into that, but I want to
share with you how I've used your podcast, um, because
(10:38):
your podcast, UM, you know, it is all about the sound.
And we you know, my students this week this is
this is how nerdy I got for your podcast. I
came into class, they played their assignments. I changed the
assignment in the middle of the class of what we
were gonna do the next week, and said, listen, you
guys all need to be inspired. So I played them
a couple of things from your show about voice acting,
(11:00):
and I played them the e A s Uh piece
and and then and then their assignment this week is
to find a good sounding podcast, something that sounds good,
and then use that as inspiration to do their podcast
this week. Because I don't think that there is I
think that that's what makes these great podcasts downed out
right now is the sound. So when were you listening
to a podcast and going, boy, that sounds good, or
(11:22):
or were you thinking that doesn't sound good, maybe I
should do something? Um. It all definitely for me, it
definitely goes back to Radio Lab. Um. That that was
um for podcasting and for even sound design in general.
That was a real like watershed moment um across the board.
I mean we did have big shows like This American
(11:44):
Life and other things, but Radio Lab really challenged what
you could do with sound only UM. And then that
really kind of like spawned some other offshoots. And so
I consider myself probably you know, uh great great grandchild
aild of something like the Radio Lab um experience and
something that you know, the from Radio Lab. It kind
(12:07):
of like that's that's kind of how you birthed things
that sounded great like invisible and even boosted a lot
of production value on some of the big shows already. UM.
And so that that really is like the starting point
of in Radio Lab also started around the time whenever
I was really in my like starting to get into
my prime of being a sound designer, and so jed
(12:29):
Abomad like really like doing these crazy sounds along with
this thing like really inspired even what I was doing
on the TV and film and advertising side of what
I was doing. Um we would. I would reference that
a lot in the way that like being able to
have invoked sort of like feelings in the way that
you craft sounds and everything. Um. So that's really where
(12:49):
it started. And since then, just because I'm in sound,
I'd never really consume anything that doesn't sound great. I
just think that that's kind of like a starting point
for um. So you've not into my podcast at all. Well,
I just it's one of those things that's like, um,
I think you hit the nail on the head with
like the video versus the audio thing, and um we
(13:12):
I would encourage people, especially who are in film school
and things like that, to be able to tell a
story with audio only. I think that should be a prerequisite.
Um because the point being is we only have even
though it is you know, there is a visual element
to this, you know, multi sensory thing. Uh, sound is
the other element. There's only two human senses that we
(13:33):
can put together with most of the visual content out there.
And whenever you have forty people on a set and
you have one or two sound people and then you
move that into post production and you have you know,
eighty people working on it and a handful of sound people.
It just shows like just the the stress. And I'm
not saying that like that, and I know that visuals
(13:54):
do take a lot more of just like you know,
equipment and things like that, but that also translates a
lot into like the way that people produce things and
they really think of sound as an afterthought, and that
that goes for pretty much like advertising and um film
and TV and all that stuff. And really this podcast
for me was like a like a silent protest against
that without necessarily saying it. I think there's a lot
(14:17):
of undercurrents to what like I'm trying to say that
will reveal itself at fifty or a hundred episodes rather
than kind of at the five or ten mark. And
I think once once like it's all revealed, it'll be like,
oh my goodness, Like this richness of this sense is
just cannot be denied and cannot be ignored anymore. So
you know, I'm I'm working branded content as well, and
(14:38):
you know your podcast in a sense is a branded
content podcast for what you do. Did you mean it
to be that? Because I don't. I can't think of
any other branded content podcast that I've ever listened to
that now has advertising on it, so that people were like,
I know, you know, it's like, you know, getting paid
to do your own advertisement. Almost is how did this
all happen? Well, Um, so I own a sound design
(15:00):
studio called De Facto Sound and I and if you
listen to earlier episodes, you'll hear it. Right at the
very beginning, it will say from de Facto Sound, you
were listening to twenty hurts, um about fifteen episodes ago
or so we dropped that completely. Um. And at the end,
if you listen to some of the earlier shows, it
would say, um, you know this is produced by the
team at De Facto Sound. And then now it says
(15:22):
this is produced out of the offices of De Facto Sound.
So um. With all that said, uh, it was a
thing that I did want to highlight what we do
at this company because podcasts, notoriously don't make very much money.
And so my hail Mary was at least if we
kind of put our name on it, maybe the point
zero one percent of people out there in this audience
(15:44):
who might work at an agency or something might start
might sendto something that could help pay for this podcast, UM,
and that worked. Actually, UM, we don't get any sort
of like windfall work from the podcast, but but it does.
We have actually gotten some serious jobs just because people
were fans of the podcast. But over time it really
took on a life of its own. Like we UM,
(16:07):
I don't really think of it as a branded podcast
anymore so, UM, even though we still keep that first credit,
that's more so for the fact of sound that is,
that's more so for just our team because we worked
so hard on it, thinking about it and talking about
it all the time. But it's its own now, like
the podcasts its own business and its own its own
it has its own like aspirations for what it is
(16:29):
that don't involve like what de Facto Sound is doing.
So it is. It began as a't like it was.
It was began from that group of people thinking about
those things. But really I feel like now it's just
its own thing. So it's kind of it was like
definitely a little bit of a branded podcast at first,
and then now I feel like it's just kind of
like a its own thing really, but it has it
(16:50):
has worked for us a little bit. There is so
much to be learned from your podcast. It is a
it is a learning experience. And you know you mentioned
Jad Apple rom And and I quote Jad probably daily. Uh.
He has a little thing on YouTube about sound and
how it creates empathy and a good podcast, a good
radio show creates empathy. And you know you do such
(17:13):
a good job with the subjects that you talk about,
you know, to make me, you know, on maybe on
the exterior, I'm like, I don't know if that's interesting,
And then five minutes in, I want to know everything
about it. What have you found to be? You know,
the most surprising things you've learned just just hosting this show? Um? Interesting? Um.
The most surprising thing that I've learned through this is
(17:35):
how I suddenly whenever we put hit published on an
episode that I can't remember what we've ever done before
I published. So every time I think about like pot
prior shows, I'm like, I can't think of a single
show we did, because there's there's you know, ten ahead
of us that I'm always thinking of. Um. I think
that what I've learned overall, because I can come out
(17:57):
of like the TV film advertising world, is that TV
film advertising versus other fields. Uh again, really really underappreciate
sound like pretty extreme. Whenever you look at other fields,
whether it be science or math or space or you know,
anything that that we talk about that's not TV film related, Like,
(18:19):
we find that those people all take it very seriously
and it's an equal partner to that. Even whenever you're
talking about video games, UM, sound is an equal partner
all the time. And so UM. What I've learned at
least that kind of gives me a little bit of
like hope, is that there's a lot I think there's
gonna be a renaissance of the way people use sound
in visual uh situations. And the film people have got it.
(18:41):
Like there film sound, especially on the big blockbuster stuff
is is excellent and they take it really seriously, but
everything else doesn't typically UM so UM. So yeah, I
guess that that's like a big overarching thing is that
there's just a lot of work to be done in
in in the media that we create. UM and and
of course, like you know, three fourths of the of
(19:03):
the shows that we do have nothing to do with
with the industry at all that I work in. UM.
But that's just something that kind of sticks with me,
is that a lot of people care about sound and
they think about it a lot. Um, it just happened.
I just happened to work in an industry where they
don't particularly do that very often. I UM, my personal
(19:26):
philosophy on on the future of podcasting and sound is
is growth. Because I've always looked at podcast as an escape.
You know. I tell folks that, UM, as somebody who
has had a lot of crazyness in my life, my
my escape would always be books. You know, I could
read a book and get into it and forget about
whatever else I was was obsessing about. And and podcasts
(19:48):
fill that same gap in the brain, you know that
that they create this this safe place, this place where
you can escape. And and in a world where we're
being inundated on Facebook and social media, which just so
many different things, and they're also it's it's seems more
aggressive and negative than the last. Uh. That's where I
think podcasts can really benefit society. And I think, and
(20:08):
I say all this to say, you know, kudos, because
I do feel you're one of those shows that that
fill that gap. I mean it really, I was excited
to do this interview because I was excited to listen
to your podcast because it is such a good, good
a good thing therapeutically for people. Well, yeah, I'll tune
tune you into a little bit of things that I've learned.
That's actually brings up another uh point that I'd like
(20:30):
to make. Um. One we started this this podcast was published,
um six days six or seven days before the presidential election.
So if you can think about the climate that we
were in whenever this podcast launched, um, everyone associated with
it cannot couldn't ignore that stuff. However, when we launched
the podcast, you'll notice that like nothing is political at all,
(20:53):
and it's very much an escape and um, and I
think that you're definitely like tuning in on some of
the things that I hope that people will eventually you
start to notice is that I really wanted it to
be a complete escape from just stress in general. Um,
there are some things that we talk about that are
stress inducing, but the show is really like a lot
about mindfulness is something that I've kind of found we
(21:14):
we've touched on that in a few episodes, but even
for me personally, the show has become something that has
become a little bit more grounding in my own reality.
I tend to at least I've heard in the past
that like you know, anxiety is living your mind living
too far in the future, and depression is your mind
living too far in the past. And the real balance
(21:35):
is is trying to like land right there in the present,
you know, be with my kids, like be uh with
my friends, with my colleagues, like be in my work,
and really devote my whole self to it. And I
think that sound and revealing the sonic things around us
really grounds you to your reality because that's not a
past or future thing, it's a right now and you're
(21:56):
experiencing it constantly. Um. So that's been really important to me,
even in the tone of the show, is like a
real grounding and giving people the opportunity to maybe tune
in on a sound and maybe they don't know what
it is to know it or not, but they've kind
of grounded themselves by by now starting to think about
like this next layer of what they're hearing. And so
that's something that's become really important to me, at least therapeutically.
(22:19):
That's something that I personally needed in my life and
I'm hoping that podcast people um need that too. Yeah. Man,
I'm just I'm just nod in my head the whole
time that you're talking, You've made me think about a
few different things. Of one was the episode about voices
sounding like instruments. I've been like, I've been for days,
going God, what is my voice? I think it's it's
(22:40):
got to be something terrible. It's like a harmonica or
something awful. Um, But it's fun to think about. And
then when you were talking about the stress inducement, and
I did see stress inducement from one of your podcasts,
I played the E A S. One from my class
and I had one student in particular, and you I mean,
she got visible visibly and physically upset by it because
(23:02):
of this the sound and the that you know that
that sound really like really, I mean, I couldn't believe this,
this real effect that it had on her. But it
was great for the class to see and show them
how powerful what they're doing can be. You know that
they want to be these you know, these these podcast producers.
This is this is what you can do with with
just five minutes of sounds. So and even with that
(23:24):
E a S episode, the whole reason that I wanted
to do it, it was something that I was kicking
around on the back burner for a while, but I
was in a in like a like an auditorium and
they were probably a couple of thousand people in the auditorium,
and um, everyone's phone started going off with that, with
that alarm, um in the middle of the auditorium when
it was pretty it was relatively quiet and what and
(23:46):
like everyone was kind of looking at their phone and
my phone hadn't gone off or anything, but I had
to like leave to walk out to make sure that,
you know, everything was okay. I mean, I'm on the
I'm on the outskirts of Washington, d C. So you
can see what I mean by that. Um, but it, uh,
that is a terror inducing sound, especially if you find
yourself in certain locations that could be you know, consider
(24:08):
I mean, think about what happened with the people in
Hawaii with a straight up missile incoming fine shelter with
that sound. I mean, that's that's horrible and that sounds
you know, it's it's designed to get your attention, and
it did just that. And um, you know, I could
imagine people actually suffering some from some long term stress
just because of that. Oh. Absolutely. And you know, as
(24:30):
a radio nerd, it's one of those things that you know,
growing up, I've worked in radio since I was sixteen,
and having to do those tests every day and or
every week, it's you don't even think about where it
all comes from. And one of the conversations that it
sparked in our class as well was, you know, I'm
forty four, so I still remember when it was I
was a kid. We we were pretty sure we were
(24:51):
going to be nuked by the Soviets at some point, um,
And and these guys don't have that, and it's so
I mean, it's just it's just it's just an example
of like the all the conversation that can jump out
from talking about this very annoying sound that people take
for granted exactly. Yeah, it could go so far um
with that conversation and just bring so many memories up
(25:11):
if if it was used in a really serious way.
But yeah, that's that's one of the many things that
kind of triggered different emotions in your mind. And something
that I think a lot about is just like how
sounds and experiences can kind of like put yourself in
a good or a bad place depending on how you've
heard that or experienced it in the past. Um. For example,
(25:31):
one of our earliest episodes was about eight bits sounds
and it was just like deconstructing like even like Mario
Brothers sounds and stuff. And I remember just even feeling
like I was five again because that's whenever the Nintendo
came out. And um, those those very very unique feelings
that that that sound can bring out is really special.
(25:52):
Before we get into my my last segment, which is
our three Killer Questions, I've got to ask about Roman Mars.
I know you have to be a huge fan and
and and you know, I think you know you got
to do or you were you were in an episode
if I'm not mistaken. How thrilling is that? Um? What
was cool? Because Roman and I have a have a
pretty long history together just as friends. Um, I was
(26:14):
a sound designer. He was he had started a podcast
seven or eight years ago. I started listening to his podcast,
like right at the very beginning before he really blew up,
And um, was was out in San Francisco and said, Hey,
let's let's grab dinner sometime. I'd love to just you know, meet,
And I'm a sound designer and I do this stuff.
And I think he was naturally interested. And then, um,
(26:35):
I was naturally his interested in his thing, and we
just hung out and then after that became Facebook friends
and just randomly commented on things back and forth for
five six seven years, like nothing more than that. And
I was just such a fan of what he was doing,
and every time he would do a sound show, I
would just immediately gobble it up. And um. But over
the years, um, he he very much really started to
(26:57):
focus in on that architecture design and and really zone
in on that, even though they still do some sound
episodes here and there, and um, because of that, I
felt like there was enough of an opening and enough
of like a respectful opening that I could just kind
of command all of the sound stories that I'd love
to hear them do. And um. And and with Romans
(27:17):
Blessing a little bit, because I know that he's flattered
that he's kind of inspired a lot of shows like mine.
So with with his Blessing a little bit, I was
just like, I'm gonna take this and just kind of
see where it goes and put together some episodes. The
first couple of episodes took us probably eight months to
make because we didn't know what we were doing, and um,
and then I just happened to bump into him at
(27:38):
a at a podcasting conference, and he was just talked
to talk about how how great it was, and it
was amazing. He's such an encouraging person and um, in
a shoot a few days later he said, hey, can
I play it on my show? And it was just
really organic and kind of eight years in the making
in a way. But he's just such a kind person
who really has a heart for growing things, especially things
(28:00):
that are highly produced, and especially in that very like
educational infotainment type of space. And so I felt felt
right and it was very thrilling, and even when it
re told me, I think my heart stopped. And then
whenever I actually looked at the stats and saw it
on his feed, it was it was overwhelming. All right. Listen, Hey,
(28:24):
I always saw wrapped things up with three three questions.
I'm a radio guy, so we have our you know,
little cheesy radio things that we do three killer questions. Um,
the first question I have for you, Dallas Taylor, if
you could listen to a podcast featuring any person living
or dead, who would you want to listen to? Oh?
I mean, if I overthought this, I could come up
with a lot. But the very first person that came
(28:45):
to my mind was Abraham Lincoln because one, we don't
know what he sounds like he was right before that time.
And and two is just like the crux of the
history that that influences everything, like so much of what
he did in that moment. Uh is we're living in
this timeline. And uh, I would love to just I
could just eat up that timeline from his perspective forever. Yeah.
(29:08):
And he's and being such a such a you know,
wonderful arts or you know, just to hear his voice,
you hear his delivery in his cadence, that would be fascinating.
And we forget how how young our country is. A
lot we we take a lot of things for granted.
And uh, and I think he lived in a in
a moment that really defined if this was going to
(29:29):
keep going or not. Yeah, all right, So what's the
one piece of technology in your life that you remember
thinking this is changing my life? Oh? Um, Again, I
could overthink this, but if I was to stick with something,
it's probably that very first iPhone that really kind of
connected me with the world on a on a second
by second basis basis. And it harmed a lot too.
(29:52):
Whenever I'm talking about mindfulness and things like that. Um,
but we are living in the very first generation of
just ultra hyper connectivity and um. Out of all the
time that humans have been roaming the earth, UM, now
we're living a very unique time in our and our
bodies and minds are trying to adapt very very quickly.
But so I think that even for me, that was
definitely like a big shift between like I'm living in
(30:15):
my own little bubble to living in a global like
global society all the time. And what's the last podcast
that you binged, uh? S Town? I think it was. Um.
I would say that there's the worst thing you could
do for your podcast consumption is start a podcast, because
even when on on all the times that I typically
(30:35):
listened to the podcast, whether it be in transit, if
I'm in New York and I'm kind of walking around,
I listened to podcast. Um My, my trip to and
from the office is about five minutes. Now that has
all been filled up with just approving my own podcast.
So I've gotten so far behind. And I think S
Town was like right when we started or shortly after,
So that was like the last one that I just
(30:56):
listened to every single episode of it's tough. I mean,
with my job I listen to I can't tell you
how many podcasts that I have to, you know, check
out for folks during week And it's so nice to
have a show that you find and that you want
to just be excited that you have so many episodes
to go back and listen to. And that's how I
feel about your show. I'm I've just been I've been
looking on the site. I'm like, oh gosh, I can't
(31:17):
wait to listen to that one. I got that one
planned for when I'm at the park this weekend. UM.
So that's awesome. Thank you so much for doing your
show and and and and and just bringing you know,
bringing that awareness to sound and to quality, because I
think that that that's strong, that the quality that you
strive to do UM is important and I hope other
(31:38):
people are inspired by it. I've been inspired by it.
So thanks alas well. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
And now we are joined by my producer, zz He.
How are you that I know you edited this interview.
Did you enjoy the really geeky conversation that we had
after the interview? I did you know why? Because it's
(32:00):
really cool to hear two people, so you and Dallas
who love sounds so much. It's just like being so
passionate and getting to talk to each other about how
much you love sound, you know. I mean that's what
you love about podcast is that you want it to
be as a high quality as it can be. And
you guys both know that. I think that we might
maybe release that as a little separate segment, but in general,
(32:22):
we had a conversation about, um, you know, my belief
that the ability to create empathy is something that podcasts
do well and that it's it's something that could be
good for society. And then and then I do feel
that way. I do feel that what we do in
podcasting in general can be very beneficial for for people. Yeah,
and it totally came through in the whole episode. That's
good listen. Um, there's a lot of great sounding podcasts
(32:45):
out there, and I know there's a few that we're
going to talk about today. So let's get started on that.
What you got for us? All right? My first one
is was actually our first episode ever from Mission to Zix.
Oh yes, Mission to zis tell people about that. So, um,
they are a improv comedy storytelling podcast, and it's crazy
(33:06):
when you listen to it, and then when you get
when you get to talk to them like we did,
just how much work goes into putting all of that together,
with the sound effects, with the voices each they invite
comedians to do, like play a special character each week,
and it's so well thought out and it's just really
cool to hear once you hear the whole episode together.
It's here a little bit. Hi, I'm Jennifer's squirrel. It's
(33:27):
nice to me. I'm the holographer at the school here,
and it's hollow dayDay. Hello, you say day Hello Hello. Yeah.
So they came on our very first show. We had
set land On and Mushon Zolfagari who plays Bargie Uh.
(33:52):
And their new season is in production right now and
they've been teasing it on the admission to zix on Twitter.
So follow them to find out when the new season
comes out, and go back and listen to our very
first episode and hear how how it sounded and how
the show's evolved a bit. I think we've come a
long way, come a long way, see, but it was
a good first episode. Also at the same point, well,
they were a great guests. This show is all about
(34:12):
the guests. Nobody, nobody ever says I'm listening to that
show just because of Maddie. Nobody. I don't think there's
anybody out there. There might be a couple, thanks, if
you're a couple of people. All right, what do you
got from? Number? Two? Four? One is Radio Lab Radio Lab.
So I've been listening to their I love JAT, I
mean I have an unhealthy love for Jat Apple Apple
rom really I said apple Apple mum. Actually I've been
(34:37):
listening to their latest two episodes. It's part of a
trilogy called Border Trilogy, and the first episode is um,
this guy who's an antipop anthro anthropologist, anthropologist, I have
an accent. Okay, you guys, we should say you're you're
from Sri Lanka, so some words are hard. This is
(34:58):
not your first language? Is not? Sorry? What's your first language? Yeah?
It looks like spaghetti. Really, people have told me can
you talk about our podcast in singles for a second?
I need someone to talk to me for me to
talk to them back. Z no in just in English?
(35:20):
All right, there you go anyway? Okay, soologist, yeah, okay,
so he this episode the first episode out of the
three is his name is Jason da Leon and he
is going across the Sonoran Desert Wow English is hard Um,
and he finds artifacts left by migrants who tried to
(35:42):
cross the border, and he tries to piece them all together,
and he found a human arm one time. So he
was like that kind of set him off on this journey.
So I just love how they incorporate the narration with
the interview. You know, it's incredible. Check it out. We'll
see little tasted that one. So for the next several years,
(36:04):
Jason just keeps going back to this stretch of this
snorin desert, ripped clothes, fragments of clothes and bushes, gathering
whatever he could find, dirty socks, and you know, like
an archaeologist, he would collect this stuff, bandages, item mindset,
categorize it, hocktail dresses, high heel shoes, try and figure
out who it came from, why it was there, baby bottles,
hair curlers, toys, rappers. He did this year, sneakers photograph.
(36:28):
After years picking up this shoes, dresses, backpacks, bibles, bottles,
and then one day human arm. He finds an arm.
We're all big fans of Radio Lab. What else you got?
What's the last one? Last? Yes, I'm new to this one.
I can't believe I'm new to this. This is one
(36:48):
of those that when people talk to me about podcasts,
like all of songs quote, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
I'll check it out. Sometimes a lot of our guests
have said that's the last one they binged. Also it's
it's excellent. Yeah, So the one I chose was the
Jack Johnson won because I love Jack Johnson, and um,
it's just a really cool um. Sorry, it's just a
really cool podcast because they have the actual artists on
(37:11):
to break down the songs and give the backstory and
the stories of how the instruments and the whatever came
together to make that song possible. And at the end
they played the song for you. So it's a really
cool way. And the host talks at the front and
at the back that's it. The rest is the artist.
It's great and I'm so excited I finally got into it.
Now I have something else to bene check it out.
(37:31):
We're just goofing around and I think it was time
for dinner, and we're like, don't forget the idea as
it put it down. Yeah, he sent it to me
like a month later. He's like, I remember this jam,
and I was thinking us nice. So when I started
making the record, I played it for my friend Robbie
that was helping me produce, Robbie Lachritz, and he dug
the groove. But the first thing that Robbie said when
I played it to him was like, us cool, but
(37:52):
we gotta get rid of those nineties drums. Sounds like
every nineties hit right there. And I was like, no way,
it's like James Brown, funky drummer beat like na not
at all. He was like, it's more of the Wonder
Wall beat it back and so anyways, I was like,
(38:14):
all right, whatever. I was a little offended, but not
that much. Well, see, those are some very good suggestions
this week. And I learned something. I learned that in
Sri Lanka they speak single single singles, and you can
only tamil and tam You can only speak it if
it's spoken to you. Yeah, just because after I moved here,
I just English was so predominant. You know for me,
(38:35):
were you speaking at home still single? Yeah, your mom's
mad at me, like she'll yell at me and single.
You know, that's usually what would she yell at You
give me, give me, give me something, give me one
little taste of it, like not cleaning off my room. Well,
let's hear it. I want to hear it. And no,
I gotta have her, really, k really, it takes me
such a long time to terrible teas for the listeners. Sorry,
just go YouTube. Oh my gosh, next week, I promise, Yeah,
(39:00):
I get you. Guys, we'll have some singleings actually in
two weeks. If you're new to the show or old
to the show. We've set our production schedule now for
every two weeks so that we can bring you better
programs and better guests, including Mr Greg Broups, who I'll
be talking to you on next week. So I'm excited
about that. He's a He's a somebody I used to
know well and haven't talked to him a few years,
(39:21):
so I'm excited to reconnect with him Ben for my night. Well,
quick story. When I first moved to America, Whose Line
Is It Anyway? Was one of the only shows my
brother and I watched, and so having him on is
really cool for me. Oh good, maybe I'll let's ask
him a question. I'm nervous, he's too smart the show.
(39:46):
Thanks to everybody who was involved, Casey, I want to
thank you. I'm wantin Dalton. I want to thank David
who was our engineer, and Katie and Don here at
I Heart Radio San Francisco. Chris Peterson, the godfather of
podcasting at I Heeart, we appreciate all that you do
for the show and especially Z producer Z executive producer Z.
(40:06):
Thanks for all you do here. She goes a lot
of stuff, all right, everybody, thanks for tuning in. Remember
go find a podcast, listen to it and go tell
your friends about it. And if you can't listen to
it on I Heart, thanks for listening. By
Welcome everybody to another edition of Access podcast, the podcast
about podcast and today Z it's all about sound, sound, sounds,
sound sound, sound, sound, sound design. It's fascinating. Good sounding
podcasts are super important. And if somebody who knows this
well as Dallas Taylor, host of twenty Hurts, he's coming
(00:27):
up at a second. Let's check out some of his
good sounds. Right now, you're listening to twenty Hurts The
Stories behind the World's most recognizable and interesting Sounds, hosted
by Dallas Taylor. This is the story behind the emergency
(00:48):
alert system. So that wasn't a real emergency, but that
distinctive dissonant tone and got your attention, didn't it? And
for good reason, that sound has accompanied weather alerts and
other important warnings here in the US. So, Dallas, welcome
to the show. I want to just say how you
(01:11):
came about being on the show? Is such a podcasting
way of coming about being on the show. Um, I'm
want to go over this real quick. Are you aware
exactly of how how all that has happened for me
to get in touch with you? Not at all? So
that I'm looking forward to hearing this. So I went
to West Virginia University. A guy named Scott Simons went
to West Virginia University with me. Now Scott is the
(01:34):
he does uh. He's one of the guys in the
band for America's Got Talent. He's the musical director for
the new Steve Harvey's show. Um. But he also is
the singer songwriter of the Paw Patrol theme song. That's right.
So yeah, this, we did this. We went back and
forth on Twitter on this and I was blown away
because I have a five year old and a two
year old and so we know that very well. I've
(01:56):
even been to pot Patrol live so and I can
sing every word and the entire pot Patrol uh theme song,
which I will not do. I know nothing about it.
All I know is that we were we were at
the n C Double A Games in San Diego, and
you know, he knows that I'm the podcasting guy, and
he's like, listen, I just was listening to a podcast
about the E A S. S System and being a
(02:18):
radio nerd, I was like, I gotta hear that, and
he so we texted me your show this weekend. I
listened to it and then went nuts Ford with nuts
Ford love it. Love it to death and like binged
a whole bunch of them, and then immediately got a
hold of uh, Chris Peterson and I heard and said,
we gotta can you help me track him down. Let's
let's get him on the show. So I'm really excited
(02:41):
to have you on because I just I absolutely I'm
a I'm a huge fan of twenty hurts. It's such
a good podcast. Well thank you. This is this is
quite the like shot to the ego, so I really
appreciate it. I can just have you follow me around, um,
if I can afford that, and just tell me how
great I am. And I'll tell you I get you know,
I'm the I that everybody and their mother text me
(03:02):
you gotta hear this podcast or you gotta listen to this.
I'm like, I know, I'm busy. I got too many
podcasts to listen to. But first of all, it was
it was the topic. Uh. And then also when Scott said,
you know, Scott's musician, and he said, listen, this thing
is about sound design, but but it's not. You just
gotta check it out. And I was intrigued because I
love good sound and I love podcast. It sound great
(03:22):
and I think that that is it's vital to the
future podcasting that more podcasts sound as good as yours.
I mean, if they could, because yours is one of
the I will say it maybe the best sounding podcast
I've ever listened to. So thank you. I want to
backtrack and talk about your relationship with sound. When did
you fall in love with having things come into your ears? Well, uh,
(03:47):
we're gonna go way back. So, UM, I grew up
in the Delta of Arkansas, very poor area, and I
wasn't particularly great in school or anything. Um, but I
eventure really found band and I went in and started
playing the trumpet, and it really became the only thing
(04:07):
I was really good at in my life. Um. I
mean I was okay like math and science and all
that stuff, but really like what got me out, not
got me out of trouble and kept me going to
school and all that stuff was was really like playing
the trumpet, and um, my band teachers and my friends
there and so that really like took me from this
very very poor area to getting like a full scholarship
(04:30):
and all the stuff. So it was just one thing
that just came really naturally to me, thankfully, and um,
and so it all started being like a trumpet player
and then going to school and really like thinking about
classical trumpet and jazz trumpet and all that stuff. And then, uh,
in college, I started to struggle with some really bad
performance anxiety. It was a thing where like I loved playing,
(04:50):
but I didn't like the idea that my best performance
was going to be in a practice room. I really
wanted some to do something in this field where like,
once it it was may aid, it stayed made and
it just went out to the world identically every time. So, um,
kind of struggled for a little while late in college
figuring out how I was going to transition from this
thing that I had done for most of my life
(05:12):
up until that point. And uh, and pretty quickly, like
there was a there was a very very short phase
of like recording music, but I didn't particularly love the
atmosphere of that. Um, there's a lot of just like
kind of coolest person in the room room type of
politics that go on in that. Not everybody, but I
don't think a lot of us understand what that is
(05:34):
to to go into a studio and record music. Yeah, Um,
so I kind I consider myself like always kind of
like a science nerd and like a space nerd, and
like I mean, nerd isn't the right word. So I
guess what I mean is like whenever going into the
recording studio, like music is such a personal expression of
(05:55):
of like a motion that that's like deep and important. Um.
But it also on the r hand, just um can
really explode into just like really um non uh pragmatic
type of like thinking and and it's more so just
like living. I think that's a really weird way of saying.
Just like the culture of the recording studio can sometimes
(06:16):
feel like it's a popularity contest and like who's the coolest,
and it's not like a like a logical, pragmatic type
of process. And that's why like whenever I found post
audio and sound design for like advertising and TV and
things like that, um, it felt like I found like
my science and and like my creative science nerds over there.
(06:37):
And so I felt like I really belonged in that
very analytical thinking and and kind of thinking about physics
in a way, but in a creative way. And so
UM fell in love with that. Uh. Started working in
television news. That was my first job into this whole field,
and UM, what did you do for television news? So
(06:58):
I were My very first job was like an intern
ship running a camera at an a at a Texas
news station. UM. But that quickly led me out to
working at Telemundo out in l A, which I don't
speak Spanish, but running their board for their news stuff,
and then UM that kind of led to working at
Fox and UH and then eventually led to finally getting
(07:21):
into post audio at G four, which is an old
TV UM or an old television network for video games,
which was before it's time. UM, and then UH landed,
then after that landed a senior sound designer position at
the Discovery Channel and UM all of their networks they
have like fifteen networks, and then after that started my
own company where we work with all kinds of different networks,
(07:44):
so like HBO and Netflix and UM, Discovery and National
Geographic and lots of like advertising brands like Nike and
different cars and shoot, does that mean when you do
sound design for these companies? Like, you know, I don't
think a lot of us understand what goes into what
we hear because with video it's so it's so you know,
for most people, they you know, they don't even realize
(08:07):
that a lot of the video experience is coming from
what they hear as much as what they're seeing. Well,
you'd be surprised. There's actually a lot of people in
the industry to UM. I send out a lot of
connection emails just kind of getting us on there on
people's radar, And just today got I got a couple
of emails of just like, well, I'll ford for this
onto our music department. UM So a lot of people
(08:27):
naturally think, well, what other sound is there in all
of these things other than music? And um and I
guess I usually will say, like, well, what other sounds
are there in life? Like if you walk outside, do
you have a soundtrack? Or like, you know, if you
drive somewhere or if you walk somewhere, All of those
things in a picture form gets recreated because it doesn't
(08:50):
sound very good, just to kind of like put a
singular mike out there and just you know, it's like
if you have a think of an old video camera
or something, or even an iPhone camera or something, like
your your point it at someone and how's that audio sound?
It's distant. It's kind of like it's not very like
crisp and clean it's like that sound versus what like
a movie sound is. And on the movie side, every
(09:11):
element from the ground up is rebuilt. So you have like,
you know, the winds are like tracks of very specific
winds and environments, and then you have things like um fully,
which is all the things you touch with your hands
and feet typically, so like if you're walking, Um, we're
going to record all that stuff separately, and we're gonna
put a microphone like two inches away from when we
(09:34):
record it to make sure that it's just crystal clear,
and we have we can we can feel out those
levels and stuff when we're mixing it. You also have
something called heart effects, So these are things like door
slams and explosions and things like that that we can
kind of build. And then um, then we have kind
of abstract emotional effects, and these are things like wooshes
and trailer hits and scrapes and things that make you
(09:55):
feel something. UM. So that's what I do most of
the time for my day jobs. So for the past
twenty years, it's been rebuilding all of the environments and uh,
and really everything sound related to picture except for music. Yeah,
(10:16):
I teach it at university and a lot of You know,
my students are multimedia students, and I always tell them,
I said, a good video is not good if the
audio is bad, because that is the number one mistake
of video young videographers and filmmakers is they forget about
the sound. And I want to talk about your podcast
and how you got into that, but I want to
share with you how I've used your podcast, um, because
(10:38):
your podcast, UM, you know, it is all about the sound.
And we you know, my students this week this is
this is how nerdy I got for your podcast. I
came into class, they played their assignments. I changed the
assignment in the middle of the class of what we
were gonna do the next week, and said, listen, you
guys all need to be inspired. So I played them
a couple of things from your show about voice acting,
(11:00):
and I played them the e A s Uh piece
and and then and then their assignment this week is
to find a good sounding podcast, something that sounds good,
and then use that as inspiration to do their podcast
this week. Because I don't think that there is I
think that that's what makes these great podcasts downed out
right now is the sound. So when were you listening
to a podcast and going, boy, that sounds good, or
(11:22):
or were you thinking that doesn't sound good, maybe I
should do something? Um. It all definitely for me, it
definitely goes back to Radio Lab. Um. That that was
um for podcasting and for even sound design in general.
That was a real like watershed moment um across the board.
I mean we did have big shows like This American
(11:44):
Life and other things, but Radio Lab really challenged what
you could do with sound only UM. And then that
really kind of like spawned some other offshoots. And so
I consider myself probably you know, uh great great grandchild
aild of something like the Radio Lab um experience and
something that you know, the from Radio Lab. It kind
(12:07):
of like that's that's kind of how you birthed things
that sounded great like invisible and even boosted a lot
of production value on some of the big shows already. UM.
And so that that really is like the starting point
of in Radio Lab also started around the time whenever
I was really in my like starting to get into
my prime of being a sound designer, and so jed
(12:29):
Abomad like really like doing these crazy sounds along with
this thing like really inspired even what I was doing
on the TV and film and advertising side of what
I was doing. Um we would. I would reference that
a lot in the way that like being able to
have invoked sort of like feelings in the way that
you craft sounds and everything. Um. So that's really where
(12:49):
it started. And since then, just because I'm in sound,
I'd never really consume anything that doesn't sound great. I
just think that that's kind of like a starting point
for um. So you've not into my podcast at all. Well,
I just it's one of those things that's like, um,
I think you hit the nail on the head with
like the video versus the audio thing, and um we
(13:12):
I would encourage people, especially who are in film school
and things like that, to be able to tell a
story with audio only. I think that should be a prerequisite.
Um because the point being is we only have even
though it is you know, there is a visual element
to this, you know, multi sensory thing. Uh, sound is
the other element. There's only two human senses that we
(13:33):
can put together with most of the visual content out there.
And whenever you have forty people on a set and
you have one or two sound people and then you
move that into post production and you have you know,
eighty people working on it and a handful of sound people.
It just shows like just the the stress. And I'm
not saying that like that, and I know that visuals
(13:54):
do take a lot more of just like you know,
equipment and things like that, but that also translates a
lot into like the way that people produce things and
they really think of sound as an afterthought, and that
that goes for pretty much like advertising and um film
and TV and all that stuff. And really this podcast
for me was like a like a silent protest against
that without necessarily saying it. I think there's a lot
(14:17):
of undercurrents to what like I'm trying to say that
will reveal itself at fifty or a hundred episodes rather
than kind of at the five or ten mark. And
I think once once like it's all revealed, it'll be like,
oh my goodness, Like this richness of this sense is
just cannot be denied and cannot be ignored anymore. So
you know, I'm I'm working branded content as well, and
(14:38):
you know your podcast in a sense is a branded
content podcast for what you do. Did you mean it
to be that? Because I don't. I can't think of
any other branded content podcast that I've ever listened to
that now has advertising on it, so that people were like,
I know, you know, it's like, you know, getting paid
to do your own advertisement. Almost is how did this
all happen? Well, Um, so I own a sound design
(15:00):
studio called De Facto Sound and I and if you
listen to earlier episodes, you'll hear it. Right at the
very beginning, it will say from de Facto Sound, you
were listening to twenty hurts, um about fifteen episodes ago
or so we dropped that completely. Um. And at the end,
if you listen to some of the earlier shows, it
would say, um, you know this is produced by the
team at De Facto Sound. And then now it says
(15:22):
this is produced out of the offices of De Facto Sound.
So um. With all that said, uh, it was a
thing that I did want to highlight what we do
at this company because podcasts, notoriously don't make very much money.
And so my hail Mary was at least if we
kind of put our name on it, maybe the point
zero one percent of people out there in this audience
(15:44):
who might work at an agency or something might start
might sendto something that could help pay for this podcast, UM,
and that worked. Actually, UM, we don't get any sort
of like windfall work from the podcast, but but it does.
We have actually gotten some serious jobs just because people
were fans of the podcast. But over time it really
took on a life of its own. Like we UM,
(16:07):
I don't really think of it as a branded podcast
anymore so, UM, even though we still keep that first credit,
that's more so for the fact of sound that is,
that's more so for just our team because we worked
so hard on it, thinking about it and talking about
it all the time. But it's its own now, like
the podcasts its own business and its own its own
it has its own like aspirations for what it is
(16:29):
that don't involve like what de Facto Sound is doing.
So it is. It began as a't like it was.
It was began from that group of people thinking about
those things. But really I feel like now it's just
its own thing. So it's kind of it was like
definitely a little bit of a branded podcast at first,
and then now I feel like it's just kind of
like a its own thing really, but it has it
(16:50):
has worked for us a little bit. There is so
much to be learned from your podcast. It is a
it is a learning experience. And you know you mentioned
Jad Apple rom And and I quote Jad probably daily. Uh.
He has a little thing on YouTube about sound and
how it creates empathy and a good podcast, a good
radio show creates empathy. And you know you do such
(17:13):
a good job with the subjects that you talk about,
you know, to make me, you know, on maybe on
the exterior, I'm like, I don't know if that's interesting,
And then five minutes in, I want to know everything
about it. What have you found to be? You know,
the most surprising things you've learned just just hosting this show? Um? Interesting? Um.
The most surprising thing that I've learned through this is
(17:35):
how I suddenly whenever we put hit published on an
episode that I can't remember what we've ever done before
I published. So every time I think about like pot
prior shows, I'm like, I can't think of a single
show we did, because there's there's you know, ten ahead
of us that I'm always thinking of. Um. I think
that what I've learned overall, because I can come out
(17:57):
of like the TV film advertising world, is that TV
film advertising versus other fields. Uh again, really really underappreciate
sound like pretty extreme. Whenever you look at other fields,
whether it be science or math or space or you know,
anything that that we talk about that's not TV film related, Like,
(18:19):
we find that those people all take it very seriously
and it's an equal partner to that. Even whenever you're
talking about video games, UM, sound is an equal partner
all the time. And so UM. What I've learned at
least that kind of gives me a little bit of
like hope, is that there's a lot I think there's
gonna be a renaissance of the way people use sound
in visual uh situations. And the film people have got it.
(18:41):
Like there film sound, especially on the big blockbuster stuff
is is excellent and they take it really seriously, but
everything else doesn't typically UM so UM. So yeah, I
guess that that's like a big overarching thing is that
there's just a lot of work to be done in
in in the media that we create. UM and and
of course, like you know, three fourths of the of
(19:03):
the shows that we do have nothing to do with
with the industry at all that I work in. UM.
But that's just something that kind of sticks with me,
is that a lot of people care about sound and
they think about it a lot. Um, it just happened.
I just happened to work in an industry where they
don't particularly do that very often. I UM, my personal
(19:26):
philosophy on on the future of podcasting and sound is
is growth. Because I've always looked at podcast as an escape.
You know. I tell folks that, UM, as somebody who
has had a lot of crazyness in my life, my
my escape would always be books. You know, I could
read a book and get into it and forget about
whatever else I was was obsessing about. And and podcasts
(19:48):
fill that same gap in the brain, you know that
that they create this this safe place, this place where
you can escape. And and in a world where we're
being inundated on Facebook and social media, which just so
many different things, and they're also it's it's seems more
aggressive and negative than the last. Uh. That's where I
think podcasts can really benefit society. And I think, and
(20:08):
I say all this to say, you know, kudos, because
I do feel you're one of those shows that that
fill that gap. I mean it really, I was excited
to do this interview because I was excited to listen
to your podcast because it is such a good, good
a good thing therapeutically for people. Well, yeah, I'll tune
tune you into a little bit of things that I've learned.
That's actually brings up another uh point that I'd like
(20:30):
to make. Um. One we started this this podcast was published,
um six days six or seven days before the presidential election.
So if you can think about the climate that we
were in whenever this podcast launched, um, everyone associated with
it cannot couldn't ignore that stuff. However, when we launched
the podcast, you'll notice that like nothing is political at all,
(20:53):
and it's very much an escape and um, and I
think that you're definitely like tuning in on some of
the things that I hope that people will eventually you
start to notice is that I really wanted it to
be a complete escape from just stress in general. Um,
there are some things that we talk about that are
stress inducing, but the show is really like a lot
about mindfulness is something that I've kind of found we
(21:14):
we've touched on that in a few episodes, but even
for me personally, the show has become something that has
become a little bit more grounding in my own reality.
I tend to at least I've heard in the past
that like you know, anxiety is living your mind living
too far in the future, and depression is your mind
living too far in the past. And the real balance
(21:35):
is is trying to like land right there in the present,
you know, be with my kids, like be uh with
my friends, with my colleagues, like be in my work,
and really devote my whole self to it. And I
think that sound and revealing the sonic things around us
really grounds you to your reality because that's not a
past or future thing, it's a right now and you're
(21:56):
experiencing it constantly. Um. So that's been really important to me,
even in the tone of the show, is like a
real grounding and giving people the opportunity to maybe tune
in on a sound and maybe they don't know what
it is to know it or not, but they've kind
of grounded themselves by by now starting to think about
like this next layer of what they're hearing. And so
that's something that's become really important to me, at least therapeutically.
(22:19):
That's something that I personally needed in my life and
I'm hoping that podcast people um need that too. Yeah. Man,
I'm just I'm just nod in my head the whole
time that you're talking, You've made me think about a
few different things. Of one was the episode about voices
sounding like instruments. I've been like, I've been for days,
going God, what is my voice? I think it's it's
(22:40):
got to be something terrible. It's like a harmonica or
something awful. Um, But it's fun to think about. And
then when you were talking about the stress inducement, and
I did see stress inducement from one of your podcasts,
I played the E A S. One from my class
and I had one student in particular, and you I mean,
she got visible visibly and physically upset by it because
(23:02):
of this the sound and the that you know that
that sound really like really, I mean, I couldn't believe this,
this real effect that it had on her. But it
was great for the class to see and show them
how powerful what they're doing can be. You know that
they want to be these you know, these these podcast producers.
This is this is what you can do with with
just five minutes of sounds. So and even with that
(23:24):
E a S episode, the whole reason that I wanted
to do it, it was something that I was kicking
around on the back burner for a while, but I
was in a in like a like an auditorium and
they were probably a couple of thousand people in the auditorium,
and um, everyone's phone started going off with that, with
that alarm, um in the middle of the auditorium when
it was pretty it was relatively quiet and what and
(23:46):
like everyone was kind of looking at their phone and
my phone hadn't gone off or anything, but I had
to like leave to walk out to make sure that,
you know, everything was okay. I mean, I'm on the
I'm on the outskirts of Washington, d C. So you
can see what I mean by that. Um, but it, uh,
that is a terror inducing sound, especially if you find
yourself in certain locations that could be you know, consider
(24:08):
I mean, think about what happened with the people in
Hawaii with a straight up missile incoming fine shelter with
that sound. I mean, that's that's horrible and that sounds
you know, it's it's designed to get your attention, and
it did just that. And um, you know, I could
imagine people actually suffering some from some long term stress
just because of that. Oh. Absolutely. And you know, as
(24:30):
a radio nerd, it's one of those things that you know,
growing up, I've worked in radio since I was sixteen,
and having to do those tests every day and or
every week, it's you don't even think about where it
all comes from. And one of the conversations that it
sparked in our class as well was, you know, I'm
forty four, so I still remember when it was I
was a kid. We we were pretty sure we were
(24:51):
going to be nuked by the Soviets at some point, um,
And and these guys don't have that, and it's so
I mean, it's just it's just it's just an example
of like the all the conversation that can jump out
from talking about this very annoying sound that people take
for granted exactly. Yeah, it could go so far um
with that conversation and just bring so many memories up
(25:11):
if if it was used in a really serious way.
But yeah, that's that's one of the many things that
kind of triggered different emotions in your mind. And something
that I think a lot about is just like how
sounds and experiences can kind of like put yourself in
a good or a bad place depending on how you've
heard that or experienced it in the past. Um. For example,
(25:31):
one of our earliest episodes was about eight bits sounds
and it was just like deconstructing like even like Mario
Brothers sounds and stuff. And I remember just even feeling
like I was five again because that's whenever the Nintendo
came out. And um, those those very very unique feelings
that that that sound can bring out is really special.
(25:52):
Before we get into my my last segment, which is
our three Killer Questions, I've got to ask about Roman Mars.
I know you have to be a huge fan and
and and you know, I think you know you got
to do or you were you were in an episode
if I'm not mistaken. How thrilling is that? Um? What
was cool? Because Roman and I have a have a
pretty long history together just as friends. Um, I was
(26:14):
a sound designer. He was he had started a podcast
seven or eight years ago. I started listening to his podcast,
like right at the very beginning before he really blew up,
And um, was was out in San Francisco and said, Hey,
let's let's grab dinner sometime. I'd love to just you know, meet,
And I'm a sound designer and I do this stuff.
And I think he was naturally interested. And then, um,
(26:35):
I was naturally his interested in his thing, and we
just hung out and then after that became Facebook friends
and just randomly commented on things back and forth for
five six seven years, like nothing more than that. And
I was just such a fan of what he was doing,
and every time he would do a sound show, I
would just immediately gobble it up. And um. But over
the years, um, he he very much really started to
(26:57):
focus in on that architecture design and and really zone
in on that, even though they still do some sound
episodes here and there, and um, because of that, I
felt like there was enough of an opening and enough
of like a respectful opening that I could just kind
of command all of the sound stories that I'd love
to hear them do. And um. And and with Romans
(27:17):
Blessing a little bit, because I know that he's flattered
that he's kind of inspired a lot of shows like mine.
So with with his Blessing a little bit, I was
just like, I'm gonna take this and just kind of
see where it goes and put together some episodes. The
first couple of episodes took us probably eight months to
make because we didn't know what we were doing, and um,
and then I just happened to bump into him at
(27:38):
a at a podcasting conference, and he was just talked
to talk about how how great it was, and it
was amazing. He's such an encouraging person and um, in
a shoot a few days later he said, hey, can
I play it on my show? And it was just
really organic and kind of eight years in the making
in a way. But he's just such a kind person
who really has a heart for growing things, especially things
(28:00):
that are highly produced, and especially in that very like
educational infotainment type of space. And so I felt felt
right and it was very thrilling, and even when it
re told me, I think my heart stopped. And then
whenever I actually looked at the stats and saw it
on his feed, it was it was overwhelming. All right. Listen, Hey,
(28:24):
I always saw wrapped things up with three three questions.
I'm a radio guy, so we have our you know,
little cheesy radio things that we do three killer questions. Um,
the first question I have for you, Dallas Taylor, if
you could listen to a podcast featuring any person living
or dead, who would you want to listen to? Oh?
I mean, if I overthought this, I could come up
with a lot. But the very first person that came
(28:45):
to my mind was Abraham Lincoln because one, we don't
know what he sounds like he was right before that time.
And and two is just like the crux of the
history that that influences everything, like so much of what
he did in that moment. Uh is we're living in
this timeline. And uh, I would love to just I
could just eat up that timeline from his perspective forever. Yeah.
(29:08):
And he's and being such a such a you know,
wonderful arts or you know, just to hear his voice,
you hear his delivery in his cadence, that would be fascinating.
And we forget how how young our country is. A
lot we we take a lot of things for granted.
And uh, and I think he lived in a in
a moment that really defined if this was going to
(29:29):
keep going or not. Yeah, all right, So what's the
one piece of technology in your life that you remember
thinking this is changing my life? Oh? Um, Again, I
could overthink this, but if I was to stick with something,
it's probably that very first iPhone that really kind of
connected me with the world on a on a second
by second basis basis. And it harmed a lot too.
(29:52):
Whenever I'm talking about mindfulness and things like that. Um,
but we are living in the very first generation of
just ultra hyper connectivity and um. Out of all the
time that humans have been roaming the earth, UM, now
we're living a very unique time in our and our
bodies and minds are trying to adapt very very quickly.
But so I think that even for me, that was
definitely like a big shift between like I'm living in
(30:15):
my own little bubble to living in a global like
global society all the time. And what's the last podcast
that you binged, uh? S Town? I think it was. Um.
I would say that there's the worst thing you could
do for your podcast consumption is start a podcast, because
even when on on all the times that I typically
(30:35):
listened to the podcast, whether it be in transit, if
I'm in New York and I'm kind of walking around,
I listened to podcast. Um My, my trip to and
from the office is about five minutes. Now that has
all been filled up with just approving my own podcast.
So I've gotten so far behind. And I think S
Town was like right when we started or shortly after,
So that was like the last one that I just
(30:56):
listened to every single episode of it's tough. I mean,
with my job I listen to I can't tell you
how many podcasts that I have to, you know, check
out for folks during week And it's so nice to
have a show that you find and that you want
to just be excited that you have so many episodes
to go back and listen to. And that's how I
feel about your show. I'm I've just been I've been
looking on the site. I'm like, oh gosh, I can't
(31:17):
wait to listen to that one. I got that one
planned for when I'm at the park this weekend. UM.
So that's awesome. Thank you so much for doing your
show and and and and and just bringing you know,
bringing that awareness to sound and to quality, because I
think that that that's strong, that the quality that you
strive to do UM is important and I hope other
(31:38):
people are inspired by it. I've been inspired by it.
So thanks alas well. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
And now we are joined by my producer, zz He.
How are you that I know you edited this interview.
Did you enjoy the really geeky conversation that we had
after the interview? I did you know why? Because it's
(32:00):
really cool to hear two people, so you and Dallas
who love sounds so much. It's just like being so
passionate and getting to talk to each other about how
much you love sound, you know. I mean that's what
you love about podcast is that you want it to
be as a high quality as it can be. And
you guys both know that. I think that we might
maybe release that as a little separate segment, but in general,
(32:22):
we had a conversation about, um, you know, my belief
that the ability to create empathy is something that podcasts
do well and that it's it's something that could be
good for society. And then and then I do feel
that way. I do feel that what we do in
podcasting in general can be very beneficial for for people. Yeah,
and it totally came through in the whole episode. That's
good listen. Um, there's a lot of great sounding podcasts
(32:45):
out there, and I know there's a few that we're
going to talk about today. So let's get started on that.
What you got for us? All right? My first one
is was actually our first episode ever from Mission to Zix.
Oh yes, Mission to zis tell people about that. So, um,
they are a improv comedy storytelling podcast, and it's crazy
(33:06):
when you listen to it, and then when you get
when you get to talk to them like we did,
just how much work goes into putting all of that together,
with the sound effects, with the voices each they invite
comedians to do, like play a special character each week,
and it's so well thought out and it's just really
cool to hear once you hear the whole episode together.
It's here a little bit. Hi, I'm Jennifer's squirrel. It's
(33:27):
nice to me. I'm the holographer at the school here,
and it's hollow dayDay. Hello, you say day Hello Hello. Yeah.
So they came on our very first show. We had
set land On and Mushon Zolfagari who plays Bargie Uh.
(33:52):
And their new season is in production right now and
they've been teasing it on the admission to zix on Twitter.
So follow them to find out when the new season
comes out, and go back and listen to our very
first episode and hear how how it sounded and how
the show's evolved a bit. I think we've come a
long way, come a long way, see, but it was
a good first episode. Also at the same point, well,
they were a great guests. This show is all about
(34:12):
the guests. Nobody, nobody ever says I'm listening to that
show just because of Maddie. Nobody. I don't think there's
anybody out there. There might be a couple, thanks, if
you're a couple of people. All right, what do you
got from? Number? Two? Four? One is Radio Lab Radio Lab.
So I've been listening to their I love JAT, I
mean I have an unhealthy love for Jat Apple Apple
rom really I said apple Apple mum. Actually I've been
(34:37):
listening to their latest two episodes. It's part of a
trilogy called Border Trilogy, and the first episode is um,
this guy who's an antipop anthro anthropologist, anthropologist, I have
an accent. Okay, you guys, we should say you're you're
from Sri Lanka, so some words are hard. This is
(34:58):
not your first language? Is not? Sorry? What's your first language? Yeah?
It looks like spaghetti. Really, people have told me can
you talk about our podcast in singles for a second?
I need someone to talk to me for me to
talk to them back. Z no in just in English?
(35:20):
All right, there you go anyway? Okay, soologist, yeah, okay,
so he this episode the first episode out of the
three is his name is Jason da Leon and he
is going across the Sonoran Desert Wow English is hard Um,
and he finds artifacts left by migrants who tried to
(35:42):
cross the border, and he tries to piece them all together,
and he found a human arm one time. So he
was like that kind of set him off on this journey.
So I just love how they incorporate the narration with
the interview. You know, it's incredible. Check it out. We'll
see little tasted that one. So for the next several years,
(36:04):
Jason just keeps going back to this stretch of this
snorin desert, ripped clothes, fragments of clothes and bushes, gathering
whatever he could find, dirty socks, and you know, like
an archaeologist, he would collect this stuff, bandages, item mindset,
categorize it, hocktail dresses, high heel shoes, try and figure
out who it came from, why it was there, baby bottles,
hair curlers, toys, rappers. He did this year, sneakers photograph.
(36:28):
After years picking up this shoes, dresses, backpacks, bibles, bottles,
and then one day human arm. He finds an arm.
We're all big fans of Radio Lab. What else you got?
What's the last one? Last? Yes, I'm new to this one.
I can't believe I'm new to this. This is one
(36:48):
of those that when people talk to me about podcasts,
like all of songs quote, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
I'll check it out. Sometimes a lot of our guests
have said that's the last one they binged. Also it's
it's excellent. Yeah, So the one I chose was the
Jack Johnson won because I love Jack Johnson, and um,
it's just a really cool um. Sorry, it's just a
really cool podcast because they have the actual artists on
(37:11):
to break down the songs and give the backstory and
the stories of how the instruments and the whatever came
together to make that song possible. And at the end
they played the song for you. So it's a really
cool way. And the host talks at the front and
at the back that's it. The rest is the artist.
It's great and I'm so excited I finally got into it.
Now I have something else to bene check it out.
(37:31):
We're just goofing around and I think it was time
for dinner, and we're like, don't forget the idea as
it put it down. Yeah, he sent it to me
like a month later. He's like, I remember this jam,
and I was thinking us nice. So when I started
making the record, I played it for my friend Robbie
that was helping me produce, Robbie Lachritz, and he dug
the groove. But the first thing that Robbie said when
I played it to him was like, us cool, but
(37:52):
we gotta get rid of those nineties drums. Sounds like
every nineties hit right there. And I was like, no way,
it's like James Brown, funky drummer beat like na not
at all. He was like, it's more of the Wonder
Wall beat it back and so anyways, I was like,
(38:14):
all right, whatever. I was a little offended, but not
that much. Well, see, those are some very good suggestions
this week. And I learned something. I learned that in
Sri Lanka they speak single single singles, and you can
only tamil and tam You can only speak it if
it's spoken to you. Yeah, just because after I moved here,
I just English was so predominant. You know for me,
(38:35):
were you speaking at home still single? Yeah, your mom's
mad at me, like she'll yell at me and single.
You know, that's usually what would she yell at You
give me, give me, give me something, give me one
little taste of it, like not cleaning off my room. Well,
let's hear it. I want to hear it. And no,
I gotta have her, really, k really, it takes me
such a long time to terrible teas for the listeners. Sorry,
just go YouTube. Oh my gosh, next week, I promise, Yeah,
(39:00):
I get you. Guys, we'll have some singleings actually in
two weeks. If you're new to the show or old
to the show. We've set our production schedule now for
every two weeks so that we can bring you better
programs and better guests, including Mr Greg Broups, who I'll
be talking to you on next week. So I'm excited
about that. He's a He's a somebody I used to
know well and haven't talked to him a few years,
(39:21):
so I'm excited to reconnect with him Ben for my night. Well,
quick story. When I first moved to America, Whose Line
Is It Anyway? Was one of the only shows my
brother and I watched, and so having him on is
really cool for me. Oh good, maybe I'll let's ask
him a question. I'm nervous, he's too smart the show.
(39:46):
Thanks to everybody who was involved, Casey, I want to
thank you. I'm wantin Dalton. I want to thank David
who was our engineer, and Katie and Don here at
I Heart Radio San Francisco. Chris Peterson, the godfather of
podcasting at I Heeart, we appreciate all that you do
for the show and especially Z producer Z executive producer Z.
(40:06):
Thanks for all you do here. She goes a lot
of stuff, all right, everybody, thanks for tuning in. Remember
go find a podcast, listen to it and go tell
your friends about it. And if you can't listen to
it on I Heart, thanks for listening. By
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