Subscriber Fridays

Notes & thoughts about all the RCP episodes I hosted: 1-100

Something personal, notable, or whatever comes to mind about each

This little story I wrote is a nice time capsule and distillation of pandemic-era music business thought: how we thought about growing our artist careers during that time.

Ilhan plays for the love of the game, in all kinds of ways. I don’t find him cynical, not now nor when he was 18 years old and jumping on a podcast with no episodes.

Despite how Francis has lived some serious life since this episode — married, moved out, started and left multiple new bands — the subject here is still his most recent solo album and is still available to stream. I wouldn’t have called that.

This first Chris to grace the show was also the first guest whose conversation with me was our first meeting.

I’m such a fan of Emily’s music. All I got other than that: here was the first episode where I used a Shure SM58 microphone, the brand I’d use for every episode thereafter.

David’s reconnection with me here put the show on the map. His share was the first time a guest’s share rippled through the scene and brought in some listeners. I’m happy it covered such a significant subject.

Victoria helped me start everything about this website, copy-editing most of my early articles.

The style of my interview with Chin was difficult and represents a lot of what I’m trying to avoid in every subsequent episode. I probably should’ve turned down the pitch.

I haven’t made a more expensive mistake that would make this list in the 3+ years since.

The way that Anita (first meeting) and I covered her upbringing was nothing crazy but became an example for how I wanted that part of each future episode to go.

At time 32:09, about a year before the gig list started, Marina lays out what you could consider a value proposition and concept for the list. I jumped on the point, even though I couldn’t picture the list yet. She literally asks, “Who could take on a task like this?” at around 38:30, which keeps the topic moving forward for a while longer.

Deanna is one of the only guests I’ve never met in-person or heard from since recording the first meeting, probably the only such guest who was BC-based. Oops!

Jay is one of the five to ten people I’ve spent the most hours talking to in my life. I can assure you that on any given day he’s exactly as he comes across here. I miss him now that I see him less often.

I agonized over splitting the talking time evenly when preparing for this first pair of dual guests, but once the conversation started rolling I just let them choose who would speak first, and it turned out fine.

Because I didn’t have Will’s dad on the show, I’m grateful that I got the chance to bring him up here.

Steve’s episode was the second one to put the show on the map. His share of it was good for spreading the word, and I dropped his name more than any other to gain credibility in booking other guests.

Amber’s was the first episode where I felt underprepared. Of course in the later episodes I hardly prepared at all, but I was comfortable enough by then that I didn’t feel the same way.

Elena’s episode is a great example of not only the practices I used to make online recordings — which I’d phase out soon — tolerable, but also how much better an episode could’ve flowed if we were in person. There’s so much great laughter that you can’t reciprocate the way you’d want to. After this one, I remained ever conscious of laughing with guests. It’s great.

Tim’s is arguably the most irreplaceable episode I’ve ever made. In our first meeting, we spoke within a month of when he started doing the thing he’s become known for. It’s a true I-knew-him-when moment.

Having my first in-person session be a stiffer conversation was probably good for me, because when I had easier-flowing ones toward the end of 2021, I gained confidence from them. Still so grateful to Jonathan for taking the flyer on joining me in my living room down the block.

Can you tell that John’s wearing a mask?

The humble approach that Alvin extols in this episode isn’t unique, but something about the way he states it plus how successful he’s become as a session and touring player cuts through the noise for me. Oddly enough, it‘s also one of the only ones I drank beer while recording.

Aidan’s is by far the most selfish episode I’ve ever made. If it’s interesting at all to you, great, but I‘m just happy I got to talk about the band transition in a unique way.

While I’d love to write a full-on book about NSCE, I have no regrets about the timing of making Claude’s episode. We got it in before he drifted fully into retirement from the society. Claude is one of those rare people who steered or even saved my life at critical times by giving me opportunities to do what I love. I had only about one episode in each quarter of my run that I feel so proud of.

I flubbed the tech setup of this one and had to bail out of my equipment plan, ending up with both guests on one condenser microphone. They were so gracious about it! I manually separated their voices while editing afterward.

The only guest so far to change her artist name after we recorded.

The first of only two US-based guests to ever join the show. Can you name the other more recent one?

My mother keeps showing this episode to friends and family. I love it. What I love even more: the session came at what was in retrospect one of my lowest lows, and I don’t think I sound like that’s the case.

Todd provided my favourite cold open — or at least the one I think about the most — in the history of me including those at the top of episodes

I wish I didn’t centre this conversation with such a multidisciplinary person so much around one employer along the way.

Teddy’s was the first episode with a sponsor, the first one where the show started to reach a few more listeners, and the first one where I started to fuss about the details and become a decent editor. Unfortunately, I started cutting large chunks of the next handful of conversations to hit an arbitrary 30-minute runtime goal. This one was fun enough that we always talked about doing a follow-up; however, I made my promise to not have repeat guests until at least episode 101.

When I think of guests who really came to play, ready to have fun and tell stories with a certain vigour that it’s hard for some folks to find with a microphone in front of them, Carman’s the first one who comes to my mind. I wish that our conversation could’ve gone longer and that I’d have gotten to know him better over the last few years. Of course I still can…

Jonny is the canonical musician in my life whose entire come-up I’ve been privy to. His episode is one of the few from my 30-minute weekly era that I feel leaves you wanting more and benefits from the short runtime.

I wouldn't know it for over 12 months, but this episode planted the seed of a whole new podcast.

My high school friend Andie and I had a 15-minute segment about NFTs with this conversation. I cut all of it right away. I don’t regret that.

Not only does Alex and Tess’ episode have the worst audio quality of all my productions, I feel like I shortchanged Tess given how much her profile has expanded as a singer in the current jazz scene — despite her seemingly saying here that she didn’t identify much with jazz! Some evolution happened there.

Tahnee’s honest discussion of personal issues here had a big impact on people in my family, helping them make positive steps to get care and treatment. In that sense it’s one of the most impactful ones I’ve made.

I tried to swear off booking publicist-pitched episodes after Catherine’s, not because of the guests but because of me and something about how I approached them. It ends up feeling like more of the same old thing to me once it’s out as a product.

With Ian’s episode, you can feel me steer in a new direction, chasing further growth by reaching beyond the jazz scene. It didn’t work; some of the next five or so episodes are the least-listened of all time. Still, making this one has introduced my work to many new people through Ian’s presence. I’m happy we didn’t talk politics.

I wish Justice didn’t take his podcast offline.

I’m chilling on Emily MacCallum’s episode: no agenda, just chatting to learn more about someone. Shouldn’t it always be so? This week also happened to be the launch of subscriptions; you can hear my original pitch right upfront.

The way Angela talks about Caity Gyorgy near the end fascinates me. I’m always looking for who makes people feel that way.

You can tell in Jamie’s episode that I expected so much of the audience to be fellow musicians. Now, I’d rather not lay so deep in the weeds of that sort of talk. It seemed to work for him and his interests coming into the conversation, though.

I slept so throughly on VCC’s music program before Emily Best’s episode; I’m still a bit embarrassed how little I’ve covered it in the ensuing years. To fix! I enjoyed the way Emily told little stories about older musicians she had collaborated with. I hadn’t drawn out many of those yet as a host.

A fantastic first meeting. Jancis has now played with me multiple times and was a jovial guest in-person. Episodes like these made me want to keep running the podcast even if it never made a cent.

The first of my two episodes where I feel like I stamped an early co-sign of an artist — one who would grow a fair bit more well-known around town — is Amanda’s, having arrived on just the first single from her album. Olivia Quan was still with us. Again: why am I still doing it online? The audio quality and flow doesn’t do her justice.

I stand by every word of my Coastalgate essay. It informs how I want to treat many other stories that may arrive in the coming years. I need to erase the excuses that I make to hide from covering stories like this one.

Arvind’s episode was arguably the third that put the show on the map. Here was a young artist who was always out on the town, well-connected with the current CapU student body, respected by veterans, funny, and coming on with a timely show to talk about. It set the position of the podcast with, I believe, many more people than those who had listened from day one. I was ready with decent production quality.

The second of my two older episodes where I caught an artist early is Haleluya’s. The personality she’s continuing to shine with in 2024 is on full display in her teenage years here.

Jen’s is the least-listened episode of all time: weird, eh, given the milestone.

51-100

Cory's episode was the beginning of it all. Before we talked here, we didn't really know each other, though I had of course engaged with what he does for years and he had begun to support my work too. After to this episode, the chain of events went something like this: we started a separate podcast featuring him, I started working casually for Cellar in the fall of 2023, I worked on Jazz at the Bolt, and the working relationship grew after that. He has put me on and given me opportunity ever since.

Clayton's episode had a bit of a mismatch between how comfortable the host was and how comfortable the guest was. I had already become easygoing enough by the summer of 2022 in these conversations that I'd forgotten the guests would get nervous. Hopefully after realizing that here, I added some sensitivity to my bag.

My former bass instructor's episode stands out as one I'd love to have done more than a half-hour videocall with. There's so much more we could have covered. At least we talked about hockey at the end.

I'm delighted that Rory and I did our episode when we did, because we immortalized how important he was to the gig list's founding.

Kria's, technically my first episode of jazzfest coverage, is still one of my favourite jazzfest episodes for how concisely it captures the moment.

One of my worst-conducted interviews followed one of my favourite little folk shows of the year. Should I have prepared more? I had been tapped into Jocelyn's music for years, so maybe I had a false sense of security.

I already knew that I wanted Chris to be the next host of the show when I booked him for this episode over two years ago; I just wasn't ready. We talked for over 2 hours before I ran out of hard drive space.

If I'm ever going to do a transactional booking – one that's all about the promotional desire of the guest, maybe not even for their music specifically – I reckon Jen's episode is one of the least jarring examples of how I got them done. She was excited to talk about all that Muzewest was up to, and I knew roughly what to ask.

With George, in discussing his collaborators back east, I took my only chance to shout-out bassist Jon Chapman.

Aridonis' is probably my favourite outside-the-scene episode. He spoke intelligently about topics I love to nerd out on.

Lauren's episode had me thinking the whole time about how you can acquire the accent of your new home region, just a little bit that you can detect as a fun subtlety, if you stay there long enough. As for the actual substance, her shout-out of Arts on View in Victoria is an underrated contribution to a story that I hope to do someday.

Danny's episode: how to make a friend from scratch using your podcast in an hour and a half.

The second-most-popular episode of my tenure, even though the audio quality was weak, is this duo's appearance. I attribute the popularity to how often I linked it up on the gig list for both of their names.

Chet's is the only episode with attached works of art on the episode webpage.

The biggest bugaboo episode I ever hosted. Sarah and I spoke in December 2022, and it didn't come out until almost a year later. How'd I let it go so long? I stopped caring so much about timing an album release campaign after going through that absurdity.

I knew once and for all after Gentiane's episode that the 30-minute online format wasn't deep enough for what I was going for. However much it suited an incoming artist on tour, I wish I could've taken them all back and enjoyed longer conversations.

The most popular episode in the show’s history belongs to Gordy.

Will is one of the most stalwart employers of jazz musicians whom you won’t hear about in the jazz scene specifically.

Ben’s understated episode has quietly one of the most popular, I think because of his emotional openness. One of my personal favourites that has grown on me over the last couple years.

I caught Noah at interesting time that I’d describe as a break between his bouts of Vancouver activity, in which he worked in other places, before his current prominence here.

Preparing for Jocelyn’s episode was hard for me because of how many other podcasts she had done already. Can you hear me trying too hard to not replicate other people’s conversations?

I didn’t feel like I was early to Shruti’s career at the time, but her high level of ambition and activity since then has shown that yes, I knew her when. The conversation was relatively short, but I wouldn’t quite say it was impersonal.

Another one of the most popular episodes ever is Teresa’s. She is one of those people who appears everywhere and has been a great ambassador of the podcast to some more listeners.

Robyn’s episode was the last one that I recorded at my home office in New Westminster before putting the show on hiatus to move. Episode 75 served as the announcement of that hiatus; I don’t include it in this rundown of every episode.

Brian saved the show. I brought it out of hiatus to fulfil an episode I had promised to him a long time ago, and I might have kept that hiatus going indefinitely if not for that.

Now that Bonnie no longer books the 2nd Floor, I almost wish I had waited to do a David Blake-style post mortem on that role she had.

Steph’s episode is my purest attempt at simply getting to know someone in a first meeting with no promotional or curatorial agenda. My friends had started going to hear her — or playing with her — and I wanted in on the experience.

Roisin ended up being one of my favourite performers at Jazz at the Bolt 2024 and remains a generous advocate of my work out there in the creative scene. This first meeting started it.

Dan’s episode is perhaps the most actionable one for a musician seeking more gigs to listen to.

Francis Naluz is one of the younger instrumentalists in whom I most see the early personality and sensibility that I had through my CapU year and out of adolescence. I spoke to him like I was speaking to my younger self.

Jess has a big personality that became apparent quickly on our episode and made the hosting job easy throughout the conversation. She’s a multi-disciplinary person who does more than anyone in each discipline could keep track of.

Chris Wong is a guiding light at Rhythm Changes. I couldn‘t do it without him. In our episode I faced a similar problem as Jocelyn Gould’s, except I knew all the other content would follow mine — I was going close to first. So I tried to steer toward places that I anticipated others wouldn’t go. The long runtime was also part of how I tried to distinguish my episode from the rest of the book tour. Fortunately, Chris was game and could’ve gone for extra time still.

Harmeet lifted my spirits more than any other guest. I was having a bad day, she showed up, and everything became sunny. What a joy.

Building on the success of Arvind‘s episode, his close associate David turned in a smart conversation that went places around our scene‘s listenership. Again, I got him early even though it doesn’t feel like it. It’ll eventually mean something that he came on having played on only one album release to-date.

Rachel’s was my first episode at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch, a space that helped me crunch out my final dozen episodes in a more convenient fashion for the guests. She might be the fastest-made friend I got from a first meeting episode — we went for dinner with a mutual friend afterward and said long goodbyes.

Around my lengthy and wide-ranging episode with Wynston, you can start to hear my mortality as the host. I know what I want to do after episode 100. I act with more awareness that each of these conversations is my one and only such time with that guest, and I try to squeeze more out of them all.

Kate’s episode is the biggest honour of my hosting tenure. I knew I could quit happily after completing this one. Thanks to Karin Plato for making it happen, especially after I missed my first chance to do it in 2022.

My motive for inviting Justin was simply because I wanted to play with him later this year and to get to know him first; we would play for the first time at St. Andrew’s-Wesley in August.

My last online episode featured Jon, one of the major Canadian jazz blogging inspirations I’ve had. Hope I get to meet him someday soon.

Making Sarah’s episode was the greatest indulgence I took as host here. I took ferries to and from Nanaimo, found a place to stay in town, went to a show, and showed up at her family home, all to have a lovely chat with a likely future star of our national jazz scene. Few are this comfortable and sensible with the professional role at age 18 — I sure wasn’t.

By Jeff’s episode, the end feels nigh for me and I’m just trying to get people in the room who have been integral to my journey and thank them to their faces, hopefully shouting-out everything they’re up to while I’m at it. Jeff obliges with a typically busy roster of activity between two cities and with shared memories from the past decade.

I feel less open and emotionally/intellectually available in Ben’s episode than I did in Brian Fraser’s. Understanding why would help me level up further as a host. I didn’t know Ben as well beforehand, but I was in an equally comfortable environment for the guest, traveling to his space.

“Access” is a funny thing in a scene as small as ours and means something different for me than it does for music journalists proper. That said, booking one of the biggest figures in CapU jazz’s history after his retirement was a lot of fun. I didn’t expect Réjean to know my work or anything, but he came to play.

Biboye was as charismatic as I expected him to be, having waited for the right timing to have the chat since before the Max Roach show. His work resembles mine the closest, I think, of any other Canadian jazz personality in my generation. I can't wait to visit him in Edmonton.

I was surprised and thankful to hear Mili and Eli talk honestly about the tougher parts of their move. Packing up for Montreal is not always rosy. We're lucky to still have them participating in this city as often as they do.

Jenny's episode was a full-circle moment for me; she was the first jazz musician I interviewed in any capacity. I can always count on Jenny to zoom through time in her mind and talk about different life experiences with the full context of a mental timeline, like how I do for my own times. I perk up when I recognize someone else doing it. Her two bandmates are great foils for her; I wish them all the success, as I allude to in the episode, of the famous and long-running modern jazz bands.

On John's episode, it's not just me who knows I'm near the end; the guest, a close friend of the incoming host, does too. We play it right down the middle and basically read through John's appearances on the gig list over the past year or two, simply reminiscing about each band and show. The conversation put me at ease. Don't miss us exhorting what Dean Thiessen means to our generation.

The shenanigans at the end of Feven's episode encapsulate the relief I felt as the outgoing host. To have this conversation with a guest who so impressed me in her rise over the last couple years was on my bucket list. I wasn't ready to host her until just now, in my penultimate episode.

I felt like I needed an occasion to have Sapalo on, so it was a long anticipation after promising him episode 100. Originally, we were thinking of doing it in front of a live audience, but then we wouldn't have had a conversation so easygoing. I couldn't think of a better person to run out the clock with. He and I are out there trying to do the same sort of thing.

Notes & thoughts about all the RCP episodes I hosted: 1-100

51-100

Read more

Montreal Talk (in Nanaimo) w/ Sarah Leroux & Ryan Bennett

A long weekend thought about interviewing

Bug Incision at 20 Years, with Chris Dadge

Dipping my toes in the jazzfest tour ocean