Telling Stories

The first piece I came across by Kalli and Kaija was Night Swimmer, which follows Marilyn Korzekwa, a 61-year-old swimmer, as she attempts to be the first person to cross Lake Superior, from Michigan, USA to Ontario, Canada. The way Kalli and Kaija think about place and tension within their work is mesmerising; they are constantly questioning how to elevate the experience of non-living beings and how to navigate our relationship with the world around us through storytelling. In this interview you’ll learn about narrative structure and how Kalli and Kaija make collaboration work for them. This piece also features an audio challenge from the wonderful maker T.H. Ponders. Enjoy! 

I have been following Jess’s work ever since I heard Bats in the Attic on BBC Shortcuts. Jess so artfully integrates two weaving strands of a story together to create a 7-minute piece which is moving, poetic and challenging. The way Jess deals with grief - with curiosity and even humour - is so powerful. We spoke to Jess about Bats in the Attic and her programme Unchained which explores the impact of short term prison sentences on women's lives. You can listen to the episode here.

If you want to think more deeply about some of the ideas presented in this episode, Jess has offered these links as a place to start: 

https://www.womeninprison.org.uk/campaigns/our-campaigns

https://abolitionistfutures.com/

https://jessielawson.org/2019/09/01/we-are-incredible-producer/

https://www.instagram.com/lady_unchained/

https://twitter.com/paula_harriott

https://twitter.com/AmandaJHailes

Ariel is one of those makers...you’ll be listening to her work and suddenly a line in the writing will pull you out of your mind and into your body. I experienced this while listening to Ari's piece Chasing Purple. In this episode we explore sound design, bending time and D.I.Y identities . You can listen to the episode here.

Zak is a builder of fake cities and real dreams, using the power of storytelling to re-imagine what our world might look like. I was drawn to Zak’s idea of life and stories as works in progress. He’s also not afraid to let his uncertainty permeate the stories he’s telling. I hope you enjoy the episode and have time to explore Zak’s podcast Pregnant Pause for a beautiful insight into his decision with his wife, Shira, over whether or not to have a baby.

Redzi and I first discovered Sarah after listening to The wind phone for Heart and Soul which explores the beauty and rituals around grief. Sarah explores big ideas of loss in unusual ways in both The wind phone and another piece, The paddle out, which she also made for the BBC World Service. No matter how unfamiliar the ground appears at first, Sarah offers us the space to connect and exercise our own imagination within her stories. In this episode we talked about inviting magic into our work and the power of cross-fades.

Courtney is part of the team that bring you Today In Focus at The Guardian. He also produces The Wine-Dark Sea for Noods Radio, a sonic cruise around the Mediterranean where each episode explores a different musical genre and the world from which it came. Courtney is someone who thinks deeply about place - and what it means to really take a listener somewhere. We wanted to get to the bottom of how you can help the listener arrive at the authentic truth of a place. While, Courtney says, there is no real authentic truth, we can work to understand a story (and a place) by speaking to different people who share an authentic investment in it and by listening closely to the details they pick-up on. 

Content Warning: This episode contains reference to torture and violence against women. 

Sharon is the creator of Man Choubam and Appearances - a one-woman audio show about an Iranian family, “where appearances are important and the daughter is a liability to the family’s reputation”.  When I listen to Sharon’s work I feel like I’ve been placed inside a film set and scene by scene, I’m walking through the story; visualising and getting to know every character. Sharon spoke with us about beginnings, finding the premise and first line of your story and asking yourself, what is the universal question or statement at the top of this story?

Phil is a musician and radio maker. I fell in love with his work after listening to Time Brings Roses - a Radio Cabaret set in Berlin. Phil creates a "schmoozy-coozy salon, a space for burlesque, where shared fantasies become reality". Phil spoke to us about the push and pull of creating stories that balance magic and reality, fiction and fantasy, tragedy and comedy.

NK is the creator of Divesting From People Pleasing and co-host of Bitchface alongside Phoebe Unter. In this episode we talk about witnessing stories and the beauty of surprising yourself. We also reflect on shame and how it can be explored through stories and perhaps lead us to a place of healing. If you want to explore how to make stories that will leave people laughing and crying at the same time- NK is a great person to take inspiration from.

Sarah is a independent radio producer and editor, a former artistic director of Third Coast and the keeper of audioplayground.xyz. We fell in love with Sarah’s piece for BBC Shortcuts Geis & Geis: Pinball Machine Distributors. But as our conversation with her twisted and turned we ended up asking Sarah about her piece No Bad News which tells the story of American hypnotist Larry Garrett and Uday Hussein, son of Sadam Husein. This episode explores the art of interviewing and the interesting moral and ethical decisions around the stories we tell.

Ariana is a multimedia artist making images, objects, and audio documentary. Ariana started out working with physical art and sculpture. What we fell in love with was Ariana’s ability to translate the physical world - objects, architecture and space - into sound. Ariana says you don’t need to be an expert in Pro Tools to create good stories. If you can harness soft-skills like observation and recording real-world detail you’re well on your way to creating amazing stories and capturing sound-rich locations. In this episode we discuss their piece “Perfect Love” for The BBC, Between the Essay.

James is an audio artist and designer who is pushing all sorts of storytelling boundaries. His work is bold, experimental and moving. Redzi and I had been getting lost in his audio zine, scraps of documentary and podcast: U+1F60C. It's really brilliant and we recommend listening! James uses rhythm and repetition in ways that allow you to really feel the work. He creates something that is whole audio, whole art, whole immersion: a total sensory experience.

And please join in our audio challenge to create a story based on your last 5 internet searches, through sound! You can send your challenges to redziandphoebe@gmail.com

And please join in our audio challenge to recreate the feeling of waking up from a dream, through sound! You can send your challenges to redziandphoebe@gmail.com

Axel is a sound artist and poet. Redzi and I listened to “How To Remember”, Axel’s piece about discovering himself within a world that tries to shape and deny black people their own identity and experience. Listening to the piece was the same as reading a novel - after those short 11 minutes we felt like we had voices and ideas that were swimming around in our minds long after the audio had ended. How does he do it? Learn from Axel about truth, identity, and valuing your creative self.

And please join in our audio challenge to capture the song of an emotion! You can send your challenges to redziandphoebe@gmail.com

Arlie is a producer Redzi and I have admired for some time. We first heard his “The Toilets at Home Are All Gender Neutral” piece on BBC Shortcuts and were blown away by how gripping, funky and vulnerable it was. In this episode we talk to Arlie about his piece for The Dig, International Trans Person Helpline. We also explore trans health care in the pandemic, music choices and creating work that’s personal.

Please join us in our audio challenge to create a story with a sonic transfer! Send us your challenges to redziandphoebe@gmail.com