SMILEfest 2013: Smilecast podcasts by Nick Pollard

BA (Hons) Popular Music Journalism student Nick Pollard produced entertaining daily podcasts providing coverage of each SMILEfest 2013 day’s events. Interviews by Nick Pollard, Rebecca Rayner, Andrew Yates, Tom Hutchin and Raven Lyness.

  • Episode 1: Thomas Yeo of Critical Wave (2’10”), Welcome Pariah (4’15”), Mr Tom (9’05”) and Sons & Lovers (12’00”). The chaotic production process of this episode is best remembered for the nearby police raid’s sirens regularly interrupting interviews (heard in the opening) at SMILEfest 2013’s opening event at Southampton-based club UNIT.
  • Episode 2: Lumberyack Promotions (1’05”), Posh Cow Promotions (3’45”), YUZU Performers (5’20”) and Cloudi Lewis (7’05”). Due to the particularly lengthy New Riot interview, it had to be cut in two. References to the night’s performance made it in, and regrettably any references to their latest record, had to be removed. For the full interview, one had to venture onto the SMILEfest website.
  • Episode 3: Electric Banana (2’30”), The Kaleurs (5’00), Skymarshal (12’30”) and Mitchell Stevens/Cholombian (15’40”). This production was best remembered for the The Kaleurs’ refusal to tell me how to pronounce their name. As a result, I felt forced to type their name into a text-to-speech program to find the result. The result was funny enough that it featured in the podcast itself, channeling my stressed-out mood with an emotionless “*beep* you”.
  • Episode 4: Karvel (1’40”), Written in Waters (6’45”), All My Sins (13’05”), Old Crows (14’55”), Gnarwolves (16’15”) and Mitchell Stevens/Cholombian (22’35”). This extended edition features the series’ largest list of events and interviewees. At the time, this was a nightmare, but the resulting interviews with multiple performers and promoters (successful showcasing Southampton Solent student talent), conducted by all of the cast’s interviewers led to what became my definite favourite episode.
  • Episode 5: Concert promoter Andy Copping (2’00”), Wall of Sound founder Mark Jones (11’30”) and music journalist Simon Price (14’00). This episode was introduced as the ‘Conference Special’, almost exclusively consisting of interviews conducted by myself, with industry professionals who visited Southampton Solent University.

 

Original post on Nick’s blog here.