Holding Up The Ladder

• Rich Harless (Pt 1)

  In this week's episode we’re talking tech, marketing, AI and the music industry with entrepreneur, Rich Harless.Rich Harless is a Berlin-based, US-born entrepreneur and the founder of Feather, a company pioneering AI-powered brand measurement for digital advertisers. Prior to launching Feather, Rich held leadership roles at leading music and media companies such as AOL, Shazam, and Digitalstage.io, where he collaborated with some of the world’s largest streaming platforms, record labels, and a diverse range of independent artists. With over two decades of experience across digital advertising, emerging technology, and the creative industries, Rich has worked at the intersection of AI, blockchain, and augmented reality, helping brands and media platforms navigate technological shifts.We talk about old vs. new music; the disconnect between art and business; about streaming platforms. The role of social media for independent artists, as Rich says it’s good for discovery but not for monetisation.And because this is a never before heard conversation from my archive and the tech space changes so rapidly, Rich very kindly came back on the pod to chat with me about what he’s up to now and the latest changes in the tech space. For example, the first time we spoke it was centred around web 3 and NFTs and now the focus has shifted to AI. I decided to keep it in, because Rich explains things so clearly it helps provide a kind of technological arc, so to speak, to understand where things are at now. So this is a 2-parter. Tune in next week Wednesday to hear the follow-up conversation we had just last month.Guest: Rich HarlessTitle: It’s like skywriting in a hurricaneMusic: Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Purple Disco MachineLinks:Rich Harless on LinkedinFeather agencyTed Gioia - Is Old Music Killing New Music?Find out ways to support the Israel-Palestine project click herePodcast WebsitePodcast IG Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  58:54
• I've been thinking about...maturity, ageing - the process produces the sound

  What makes an artist great, how does an artist become great? In today's episode of I've been thinking about, I explore the idea of maturity, ageing and process.It seems to me that maturity, ageing in the Arts is actually beneficial. Unlike other professions where ageing is synonymous with decline, with cognitive or physical impairment - people in sports have an early retirement age for that reason, Or former US president Biden wasn’t he forced to step down because of his cognitive decline due to his age? That doesn’t seem to apply to artists. When it comes to the Arts, age and maturity actually have the opposite effect - we can keep getting better. And there are many examples of this: Irish writer Edna O’Brien lived to 93. French writer Annie Ernaux now 84, won the Nobel prize for literature at the age of 82. Classical pianists only seem to get better with age, they have all the technique of years of practice without the need for showmanship that you sometimes see in younger pianists. I think about artists like Sonia Boyce who represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in her 60s or figurative painter Claudette Johnson also in her 60s. What about American abstract painter Stanley Whitney still making beautiful work at 79 or Indian artist, Arpita Singh. Now 87, I recently went to her solo exhibition at London’s Serpentine and her work took my breath away, her use of colour and composition, I felt like I was seeing an entirely new interpretation of artistic expression.I mean as long as you can pick up a paintbrush or pencil, or a camera, the work doesn’t and shouldn’t stop. And I’m not saying that we have to wait until we’re in our 80s to produce works that’s meaningful. I’m saying that our process produces the sound and the deeper the process the richer the sound. Music Refs:Ray LaMontagne, JoleneJoni Mitchell, Both Sides Now from 1969Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now from 2000 Holding up the Ladder links:Find out ways to support the Israel-Palestine project click herePodcast WebsitePodcast IG Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  17:58
• Carri Twigg

  In the latest never before heard conversation from my archive, we're talking about America. You may be feeling over saturated with America at the moment as the loudest, brashest voice in the geopolitical room. I know I definitely feel like that these days, especially given everything that’s going on all over the world. But I want to promise you that you’re in for a refreshing, insightful, through-provoking treat with my guest today, Carri Twigg.Carri Twigg is the co-founder and head of development for Culture House media, a Black, Brown, women-owned, premium film and TV production company that specialises in storytelling about the cultural questions that shape society, politics, and identity. They’re responsible for series including Netflix Top Ten series, Ladies First: A story of Women in Hip Hop, The Hair Tales for Hulu and OWN and Growing Up for Disney+.Before her pivot to entertainment, Carri served in the Obama White House as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Public Engagement for then Vice President Biden. Carri spent over 10 years working at every level of American politics and government. And in 2022, was appointed by then President Biden to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts and the Kennedy Center board.We talk about growing up in Ohio with mixed heritage, the relationship between culture and politics. We talk about self-censorship, should we for example keep content in films that are racist is it harmful and if so why?I have to say this is the best exegesis of what I’d call ‘Americanness’ I’ve ever heard and really contextualises the kind of ‘soup’ that is US politics and culture. Carri now has a politics and culture podcast with Brad Jenkins called Twigg & Jenkins, a continuation of her engagement in US politics. She's also written a fantastic piece for Rolling Stone magazine about what she describes as ‘Trump’s cultural capture', very much reasserting much of our conversation.Guest: Carri TwiggTitle: Sometimes culture really pushes politics and sometimes politics pushes culture’Music: Amanda Jones, Rodney Chrome, Meshell Ndegeocello - The Hair TalesYussef Dayes & Tom Misch, What Kinda MusicLinksCulture House ; IG & SubstackCarri Twigg IGTwigg & Jenkins podcast websiteFind out ways to support the Israel-Palestine project click herePodcast WebsitePodcast IG Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  1:14:00
• I've been thinking about...sacred spaces

  In today's episode of I've been thinking about, I explore the idea of sacred spaces. Drawing from the famous Virginia Woolf lecture, 'A Room of One's Own'. She wrote, ‘a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction’. Although Woolf was referring to the condition of women in the 1900s, their invisibility, the misrepresentation of women in fiction and their desire for freedom and self-determination. Nonetheless, it’s something that people refer to often as a space that belongs to the artist, a dedicated, private, personal, specific space.I talk about my space and I ask some of my artist friends to share their spaces. But why the word 'sacred?' Creation is a generative act. Where ideas are 'birthed' into the world - I unpack this idea further and its connection to sacredness.Holding up the Ladder links:Find out ways to support the Israel-Palestine project click herePodcast WebsitePodcast IG Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  14:50
• eL Seed

  Who is art for? And how are we to engage with it? Should art be in museums or outside in parks, town squares or on the side of buildings? Is art the province of an elite few, the private collector, with a rarefied language that excludes? And why do artists make art, is it for ourselves, do we exist because there’s an audience, is it because of our ego? My guest today thinks so.eL Seed is a contemporary artist whose practice bridges painting and sculpture, developing a unique visual language inspired by the tradition of calligraphy and the energy of urban art. He uses art to explore ideas around identity, cultural heritage, creating connection and inspiring ideas of unity. About how he engages with the communities where his art is placed. Whether it be the Coptic community of Zaraeeb in Cairo or a rural community in Nepal. For eL Seed art is an amplifier, it’s about humanity and that really comes through in our discussion.I remember listening to an interview with British sculptor Anthony Gormley, perhaps best known for his life size and life-like cast iron figures of men, he said that art belongs in the world, that ‘art is about life and it needs to be in life.’ That it can change the way we behave, think and feel. That’s exactly how I would describe eL Seed’s work.Guest: eL SeedTitle: ‘Artists exist because there is an audience’Music: Eminem Stan, Booba, Fairuz, Umm KultumLinksWebsite - https://elseed-art.com/IG - https://www.instagram.com/elseed/Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@elseedart Cairo project - https://youtu.be/g9M3HIjHuq0?si=0tfE03TxY5nxvJaE Find out ways to support the Israel-Palestine project click herePodcast WebsitePodcast IG Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  49:26

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