billpalmer.net

I'm not sure if it's gradual damage from the acid reflux I've had since I was a teenager, the years I spent talking over a computer lab full of collaborating students, or maybe some combination of both, but my voice tends to go out pretty quickly on me. A few years ago when the mainstream media all decided to take a ridiculous interest in one of my side projects, I said yes to every phone interview they offered me...and spent the majority of each day hoarse as a result. And when I first started podcasting back in 2005, I got so excited that I tried to crank out an episode every day - which lasted about a week before I completely lost my voice, put the project on the shelf, and didn't go back to podcasting for about a year.

So these days I try to avoid putting myself in one too many consecutive situations where I have to either talk loudly or sound good while talking for any period of time. When I'm scheduling phone interviews with musicians I never do two on the same day; the rock star I'm talking with may not care how bad I sound, but a good percentage of these interviews ultimately end up on the podcast, and the audience will notice if I sound like something crawled down my throat and died. I try not to even allow them to be on consecutive days if I can help it. Not that, frankly, I get too much say as far as what date and time these interviews typically take place.

So when I woke up this morning with my throat on fire, my first thought was uh-oh, that's not such great timing. Richard Patrick of Filter was calling this morning for an interview that's not only for an iProng Magazine cover story, it's for this upcoming week's cover story, meaning that the odds of being able to reschedule it in time were small. And since Filter's new album is coming out the same day the cover story is coming out, I didn't want to look at the possibility of sliding the Filter story to the next available cover, either. So I did the interview. I made it through ok.

And now you know who's on the cover of the May 13th issue. Hey Man Nice Shot. Take a Picture. Yeah, that Filter. I love putting bands on the cover the day their new album comes out. And I continue to be amazed that in this era of industry paranoia, the major and indie labels are generally willing to trust me with advance copies of the new albums before they're released so I know what I'm talking about during the interviews. For the record, the new Filter record is really strong. I offered them the cover based on the strength of the new single alone, so I guess I got lucky.

Side note: Filter's Richard Patrick is the brother of Robert Patrick, who played the bad guy in Terminator 3. Small world.

But the short of it is that I unwittingly had another phone interview scheduled for tomorrow morning, which I was determined to get through but was secretly (okay not so secretly, dear readers) relieved when I was given word this evening that the band needed to push it back to next week. No worries, since that story isn't scheduled to publish until June. And no, I'm not telling you who they are yet. Except that you've almost definitely heard of them.

Of course this week we didn't have a musician on the cover at all. I'm not going to make a big deal about finally putting a podcaster on the cover, because frankly, it shouldn't have taken this long. We've been slacking in that department, and hopefully the Goodnight Burbank cover story helps begin to correct that. There are more coming. Promise.

Someone will invariably ask, so I'll just go ahead and answer it now: the timing of our first podcasting cover story has nothing to do with the fact that both major podcasting magazines, Podcast User Magazine and Blogger & Podcaster Magazine, have gone on unofficial hiatus. I've always intended to do the occasional iProng podcasting cover story, the schedule just finally worked out properly this week. It'll always important for iProng to provide a good amount of podcasting coverage, but at the same time it'll always be just one of several things we cover. Bottom line is the podcasting industry needs its podcasting-specific magazines, and I'll be smiling wide when both magazines come back to us in full form.

On a personal level, the winds of change seem to be in full effect around here lately, in more ways than one. I've ended up spending a little more time hiding out here in Florida than I was originally planning. Things got so busy with the magazine that I've kept putting off my return, one pushback after another, but now it's time to return to the real world. When walking down to the lake and seeing if you can spot an alligator along the shoreline becomes a daily highlight, it's time to get out of dodge. Monday (assuming I have a voice to speak with) I'll be on the phone all day scouting out potential Hollywood apartments. Feels good. It's time. I plan to be on a plane June 1st if not sooner.

Finally signed off on a media partnership I'd been negotiating with a major music festival for months. They've got an incredible lineup this year. Can't wait to make the announcement next week.