● What does your podcast do differently from other podcasts?
I think there a few key elements our podcast does differently. There’s the blend of a fictional drama that drives a non-fictional narrative at the same time. It’s tricky stuff and needs to be done with respect to both mediums, and I think we captured that. Telling a compelling romantic drama in a podcast has also not really been attempted, at least not on this scale. Our show was fashioned after film and television, so it really feels like a movie in your head. I think a lot of podcasts tend to over narrate, like a typical radio show. However, I like it when the narrator only exists to lead you from scene to scene, from one idea to the next, like in a movie. I like to get lost in the worlds the characters are in much more than I care to hear the narrator. Don’t get me wrong, I want to hear Jad and Robert wrestle with their topic, that’s why I tune in. Having a compelling host is a style, but it seems to be the only style for podcasts. I knew from the beginning I was trying to make something that wouldn’t sound like This American Life, Radiolab, or even Serial.
Another element was the music. A good friend and music partner named Timothy Cleary, a sound mixer for Saturday Night Live, helped create the score. The song that Abilene sings was something I initially created, and Tim brought it all to life. My intention was to create a movie-like experience, so I knew the music had to play a huge part. I think Tim understood that and he did such excellent work making it happen. We also used the Garnet Valley High School ensemble under the direction of Vincent Demarro to accompany the score and add that distinctively film score quality, which was so important to me.
Last, was the art direction and design. For instance, for our sound design we used actual cassette recordings for the story of Abilene. I would convert the digital recordings by running them into this shitty, plastic 80’s mobile recorder before playing them back into a microphone through the same shitty recorder that I had stuck inside a wooden box to give it a warmer, more intimate feel. It was an excruciating process to say the least. The art and the website played a big part in how I envisioned The Cohabit as well. All of the photos were taken on a disposable camera with myself and Brittney Panda, a well-known model and dear friend. She also directed the shoot and did an outstanding job. Those photos were the only thing in the whole process that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought they would, and I was more than happy with how they turned out. Lauren Baker, an incredible designer based in Portland, OR designed our gorgeous logo and the basic web layout while Frieson Designs put it all together. I maintained myself as the art director, overseeing every aspect to an obsessive detail. Luckily, all of these folks I worked with were also friends of mine, so they were very gracious and patient with me along the way. This was my first major production and to me it meant nothing if it wasn’t properly represented through the art direction, something many shows overlook. Most podcasts I know lack that sort of vision. I wanted to create something that felt big.
● I know that you have done other podcasts in the past, but tell us what it was like to tackle your first major production.
It was intense. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into, and really there was no way to know. Not only had something like this ever been done before, but because we are completely independent and self-funded, we lack the structural support that gives you that industry knowledge and other resources to help navigate your way through. For instance, shows that come out of organizations like NPR have experienced executive producers that come in and map out the show from start to finish. I simply had no context for something like this, so in that respect, I learned that projects like this take a lot of time. Things that I would allot a few days or weeks to do would consistently take at least five times as much. Whether it was the shoots for Abilene and Randy or the score for the piece, everything seemed to take infinitely longer.
I also learned that this is absolutely something I should be doing with my life and my time right now. I was in love with the whole process, almost obsessively at times, something I’ve learned I can struggle with.
But mostly I’ve learned that I’m capable of a lot more than I knew.