This podcast took a 1 year break in late 2021, and I've been asked a few times, "why?" So let me explain...
The concept of this podcast has been interesting sounds in Singapore, and where possible, recording them with immersive techniques, to really bring the listener (wearing headphones to get the best effect) to the location to experience that sound. I sketched out a list of sounds for episodes to make sure this was a viable plan, and once I had 20 items, I figured it was go time.
Mind you, this was something that started in early 2021: vaccines had only just started to come through and the idea that the pandemic might ease soon gained traction. Then, things got worse - variants, changing mandates for what we needed to do to reduce the stress on the medical services - and capturing sounds became a solo effort. I couldn't interview people. I wanted to start interviewing people to explain the sounds, so there was more variety in the voices, but social distancing made this impossible except in a studio setting. The last episode I did before the pod took a pause was about a sound exhibition at the Art Science Museum, and the interviews with the curator and one of the artists was done via Zoom. Wonderfully insightful chats, terrible audio quality. That's why I paused: I didn't want to do podcasts with bad audio.
Then I had the opportunity to connect with composer and artist Ella Spira MBE - she would hold an exhibition in Singapore, and in addition to interviewing her, I interviewed 2 of her collaborators and she gave me permission to use a song she composed specifically for the exhibition. I had never stopped gathering sounds on my own, so I fired up the RSS again, dropped weekly episodes to get back in the groove before the Ella episode, which was the 9th episode of the 2nd season.
Taking the year off proved to be a wonderful opportunity to recharge and refocus myself on Singapore sounds, I hope you enjoy the new episodes, and would love to hear suggestions on sounds that I should seek out and share in future episodes.
