Artwell

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

Jacob sits down with story lecturer and concept artist Mike Hill to discuss why films aren't resonating as deeply as they once did and what we can do to tell better stories. The conversation delves into the future of the film industry, the potential impact of AI on the creative arts, and the importance of taking risks and creating art that stands the test of time. With a focus on the subconscious and technical aspects of storytelling, this podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in becoming a better storyteller. Transcript: https://www.thejacobkelly.com/interviews/mike-hill Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jacobkelly.substack.com/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJacobKelly Mike's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikehilldesignstudio Mike's Website: https://www.mikehill.design/