Throughout 2016 I spoke with a number of my colleagues about their work. Initially speaking with people wrangling various animals at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, I quickly opened the discussion up to other musicians and artistic practitioners that I know. These discussions, edited down to 10-15 min podcasts – which I called Tales From Backstage – were good fun and full of interesting stories and insights.
Then, at the beginning of this year, I appeared on Soho Radio with some other artists (I had come on to talk about my show Over My Shoulder, concerning a famous daughter of Soho, Jessie Matthews). The experience of talking with other artists reminded me how stimulating and revealing these discussions can be. Consequently, I decided to revisit the podcast series and to try and think of other colleagues who might want to talk about their work and experiences. I’m really pleased that my first few emails were replied to with enthusiasm!
Here, then, is a new series of podcasts. I have already started, by talking to the irrepressible soprano Natalie Raybould the day before her performance of Pierrot Lunaire at the Guards Chapel on 27 February. The podcast I’m publishing today is a chat with the artistic polymath Kerry Andrew a week or two ahead of the release of her new album with her band You Are Wolf.
All podcasts can be heard via claremccaldin.com/podcast, or on iTunes, Mixcloud, or any other podcast player (like PlayerFM) with a good RSS feed.