Tell Me About Your…Podcast “Tell Me About Your Song” with Jacob Haller (part 1)
Jacob Haller is a far better interviewer than I…and far better at keeping on top of things. I spoke with him months back meaning to transcribe our interview and am just getting to it now. But nonetheless, I think what he is doing is an incredible important thing for local music and songwriters. He hosts a podcast called “Tell Me About Your Song” where artists talk about the meaning behind their songs and how they craft their lyrics and tunes. A really, really amazing thing that has sparked many incredible conversations. The best part, is you can hear them all! Here is part one of our long conversation (that I am still in the midst of transcribing…next time we talk process and some of his favorite conversations so far. Stay tuned!)
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RLR: So what is the series, how long have you been doing it? Give the readers the quick overview.
JH: Sure, so Tell Me About Your Song is this project where I talk to musicians and songwriters about a song that they wrote. They pick the song, I try and not exercise any influence on that. The first episode was put out on September 1, 2013. So its been going on for a while and I started recording the interviews the previous July. So I just put out my 36th episode. So it’s an ongoing thing.
RLR: So who was your first interview?
JH: Tracie Potochnik was.
RLR: Cool, I love Tracie. So from there, how did you manage to spiral this thing outward and spin this web of songwriters. Bringing in new voices and songs? I know you have said you take some input from the songwriters you have previously interviewed, but how else have you brought folks in?
JH: Especially at the beginning, but still to a large extend today, it’s really made up of people that I know. Initially I didn’t have anything planned. For a few months in the beginning I didn’t have anything to show anyone, I just relied on the good will of my friends and that’s true to a large extent still. I have gotten recommendations from some people. At the end of every interview I try and remember to ask the person I am interviewing if there’s anyone to recommend. I say “if this was your podcast, who would you want to interview”. People tend to say different things. Heather Rose, I think, said Dolly Parton…how great would that be?! I put them on the list and when I am running low on things that I have already recorded I’ll send out an email to a bunch of people or contact them and try to explain what I am doing and put it out there.
RLR: So like Red Line, you have been fairly “New England centric”, have you had a more direct focus on the Rhode Island group of songwriters because it’s the community you are engrained in? How far has it extended thus far? Do you have plans to grow this idea organically? Make it regional?
JH: I always would like to talk to Rhode Island/Massachusetts musicians, because this area has been very good to me musically and the amount of talent around here is amazing. With that said I do like to talk to others…I mean if I could talk to Dolly Parton that would be amazing (ha-ha). But if I have an opportunity to talk to someone outside the area I will take it and I would like to expand the range as much as I can, considering the how much time I have to do it. I just find it cool to talk to a really diverse set of musicians. Someone I talked to really early on was Shelley Segal, who is from Australia. We had a skype interview while she was in LA on tour. So hopefully one of the results of that is if someone from Australia looks to see what Shelley is up to and sees this interview and listens, then they also become familiar with you know, Allysen Callery, Becky Chase, Chris Monte. These other local musicians who I think really deserve a wider audience. So that’s one way. I like to keep it local…partly because it means we can meet face to face because it makes for a better interview, but I like to talk to folks from other parts of the country as well.
