Artwell

On a mission to inspire to make great art. Subscribe to the newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Subscribe to my YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thejacobkelly Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly

Some thoughts from my interview with the musician Kubla. Learn more about Kubla Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thejacobkelly

Learn more about Kubla Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Subscribe to my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thejacobkelly I first met Kubla in January at the Flora Lounge in Toronto… he probably doesn’t remember this. He was playing there and I’d been invited by a mutual friend of ours Shaiyan to go watch him perform. The Flora Lounge is the kind of swanky hotel bar where everyone is dressed to impress but you can’t really tell because the lights are so dim. My partner Halle and I went to the bar and timidly crept around the bar until we found our friends. In the middle of the room stood Kubla with nothing but a guitar, microphone and amp. This wasn’t a concert per se, everyone wasn’t gathered around listening to him perform but it was easy to tell that he was a pro. During one of his breaks he popped over to our group and said a quick hello before heading back to the mic. A few months later I ended up at an all you can eat buffet with Kubla, Shaiyan, and our friend Danny. This was the first time I met Kiaran, the man behind Kubla. The four of us had some great chats that night about life, love, art, and more. You really get to know someone a lot when you’re eating as much meat as humanly possible in a two hour time-span. Shortly after that, Kiaran asked me to attend his show for Canadian Music Week and a group of us ended up going to see his show at Longboat Hall and it was fantastic. Kubla had put together an eight piece band for the night and they absolutely killed it. After his show, I knew I had to get him on my show. We recorded the interview on Wednesday, July 5… a swelteringly hot day in Toronto. I trekked out to Kiaran’s place from my apartment, lugging all of my gear onto the Toronto City Bus. On my way, Kiaran texted me asking which type of light I thought would be best for the interview… If I’m being honest, I’m the opposite of a gear head. I know it’s a gap in my knowledge as a podcaster, especially running it as a solo operation but it’s just something that does not excite me in any way, shape, or form. I’ve cobbled together a set up that (sort of) works and I stick to it. I ended up just Google the light options and picking randomly. By the time I sat down to do the interview, I’d spent hours prepping and had six pages worth of questions. Over the course of the two and a half hour interview, I opened it only once to get a specific definition I’d written down. But other than that, I did the entire interview off the top. This was a really good test of my abilities as an interview because I normally rely on my notes heavily during my interviews because I spend so much time prepping. Now, I think that part of the reason I was able to do this is I had rapport with Kiaran already and the interview was in person. There’s something about doing the interview in person that you don’t quite get when doing it remotely. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to only do in person interviews moving forward. I’ll still continue to do them remotely, in fact, remote will probably be the primary interview method on here, I’m willing to lose a little bit of chemistry for the convenience and reach a remote interview offers. This interview was a ton of fun for me to record, and I think you’re going to like it. I know that Kiaran is a more contemporary guest than some of the previous guests I’ve had on the show but I don’t want this podcast to just be reminiscent of the past of art, creativity, and culture. I also want it to be celebration of the present and look towards the future of those things so when I find a modern artist who I like and think is talented I’m going to invite them on the show. Kiaran is an incredibly deep thinker who I knew would make a great guest and I wasn’t wrong. Enjoy.

Some thoughts from my interview with Howard Bloom, publicist for Michael Jackson, Prince, Bob Marley, and more. Howard's Website: https://www.howardbloom.net/ Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly

Howard Bloom, a legendary publicist who represented musical giants like Michael Jackson and Prince, dives deep into the complexities of fame and artistic connection. He shares his insights on the psychological impacts of stardom and how early experiences shape creative passions. Bloom humorously recounts his unexpected leadership during school days and reflects on a profound meeting with Jackson, emphasizing the emotional ties between artists and their audience. His narrative uncovers how storytelling and personal branding can transform a musician's journey.

Some thoughts from my interview with legendary session and touring musician, Fred Mandel. Fred’s Album: Part Time Rebel Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly

Fred Mandel was another person that I stumbled upon during my months long deep dive into Freddie Mercury and Queen. I learned about Fred when reading Queen Unseen: My Life With the Greatest Rock Band of the 20th Century by Peter “Ratty” Hince, a Queen roadie dedicated to Freddie Mercury. I’ve reached out to Mr. Hince for an interview but finding the time hasn’t happened yet. Fred is a great guy and was an absolute pleasure to interview. When scheduling the interview he asked me if I had a preference of which of his mics he should use and whether be on video or not to ensure he had a good backdrop and high quality audio. If I’m being completely honest, I’m not very technical so I replied to him and said: “The gear sounds good to me, I trust whichever mic you decide to use.” On the day of the recording we had some technical difficulties with the first platform we were going to record on had to jump onto a zoom as a second option. The problem with Zoom is I’m on a free plan so we were capped to 40 minutes and had to leave the call and come back in for the second half of the interview. Technical difficulties always fluster me and I can hear that fluster in my questions in the interview. Fred is great, we exchanged numbers after the interview and we’ll get him back on the show in a few months to tell some more stories — we barely touched on his time with Elton and didn’t even talk about how he played at Live Aid! This interview taught me an important lesson for how to approach interviews in the future. The chronology is cool and an easy way to lay out an interview but we never end up having time for the whole story, and it feels very formulaic “okay, and then what happened next?” which is sort of what I did here. What I took away and wrote down when reflecting on this interview was instead of going in chronological order is to focus on lessons from my guest’s career and anchor the interview around those lessons and then let the guest use stories from their career as a way to reinforce those stories. Going from one story to the next is cool, but being able to have a deeper meaning tied to the story will make the interview more resonant. We’ll see how this goes in practice, it’s a theory I have now but one I formulated after interviewing Fred and will be my approach for my next chat with him. One final fun fact, for the transcript, I linked out to every single reference and name Fred said throughout the interview. This more than tripled the time it took me to do the transcript and I don’t think I’ll be doing it for future episodes but if you’re looking for an education in rock and roll, just scroll through the transcript and click on the links, you’ll learn a ton! Fred’s Album: ⁠Part Time Rebel⁠ Subscribe to my newsletter: ⁠https://jacobkelly.substack.com/⁠ Follow me on Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly⁠

Discussing my takeaways from my interview with Freddie Mercury's personal assistant, Peter Freestone. Get a copy of Peter’s book: https://rightplace-righttime.eu/ Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly

first learned of Peter Freestone when I was studying Freddie Mercury. What does it mean when I studied Freddie Mercury? It meant for two months, all I did was read books about Freddie Mercury, watched documentaries about Freddie Mercury, listened to Freddie Mercury interviews, and listened to Queen music. Once I’d finished that I wrote two essays about what I’d learned. Studying great artists was born out of my frustration of consuming all kinds of information with nothing to show for it and nothing to retain. The idea was if I consume as much about someone for a couple of months and then create something based on what I learned it would help me to retain things better. I wasn’t necessarily planning on starting with Freddie Mercury but I started reading “Freddie Mercury in His Own Words” and was hooked. What he was talking about back in the 1970s and 1980s was still just as relevant to artists of today. He was way ahead of his time so I decided to go all in and consume as much as a I could. As I scoured the internet for Freddie Mercury content, I stumbled upon an interview with Peter. Knowing I’d planned on launching this show, I decided to ask him to be one of my early guests. I got in touch with his manager Milan, and we set up a time. Milan also offered to record Peter with his camera and microphone which really elevated the end product of the interview. We had to postpone our first scheduled time as Peter had an unplanned trip to the hospital. Less then a week after he was back home he made time to do this interview. I remember on the day him telling me how tired he was but he still pushed through for over 40 minutes. Get a copy of Peter’s book: https://rightplace-righttime.eu/ Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly

Discussing my takeaways from my interview with film theorist and story expert, Mike Hill. Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly