New Boots and Contracts

I am very excited to announce the unveiling of a project I’ve been working on for several months now, a new musical video podcast on the Mule Radio Syndicate called It Might Get Personal.

Here’s why it exists.

We are inundated with music. As a consumer, you can carry thousands of songs around in your pocket, and what you can’t fit in there can probably be found somewhere on the Internet. As a performer, you have access to recording technology on your laptop that a decade ago would have cost hundreds or thousands of dollars a day. And there are more bands and musicians every week. (Heck, some friends and I started a band last year.)

I think that’s great. I love having all that music at my fingertips. Some of those songs have found a permanent special place in my heart, songs that never, ever lose their meaning. The song that takes me back to my very first concert, the song that was playing when we had to rush our sick dog to the vet for the very last time. I believe most people have at least a few of those songs, and they’re very powerful little signifiers in those people’s lives.

But there’s one thing that can make those songs even more meaningful: sharing them. I don’t mean uploading them to Usenet or squirting them to your friend’s Zune — I mean singing them or playing them yourself, for other people.

Sharing music with people that way will open parts of your brain you may never have looked in before. It lets other people see things in you that they didn’t know were there.

Plus it’s fun. Singing or playing for someone is just a crazy amount of fun. It’s a rush. Of course what makes it a rush is that it’s also pretty scary, especially if you’ve never done it before. But when you let yourself go and really sing that special song with all the meaning that has for you, it’s like nothing else.

I started It Might Get Personal because I want you to come share that song. Share it with me and the Internet. I promise you’ll do something great. Maybe something you didn’t think you could do.

Be brave. Have fun.

It’s that simple. It’s something I tell myself every day.

Be brave. Have fun.

If you’re interested in being on the podcast, email me at getpersonal@muleradio.net. We’re going to have a mix of practiced performers and people who’ve never sung outside the shower. We’re not looking for groups, at least not right now. We want individuals. We want to learn about this one person’s absolute favorite song. We want you.

I owe an unpayable debt of gratitude to a few people who helped me get this off the ground. The first five episodes you’ll see are people who agreed to come record an episode with me based on nothing but my description of the show. Each guest sat patiently while my partner Seven Morris and I figured out how the heck to shoot video and record audio that’s worth watching and listening to. We’ve been working on it for a few months now, and we’ve gotten better with each shoot. I believe we’ll get even better as we go forward.

Thanks for taking the time to watch. It means a lot to us and the performers.

Be brave. Have fun.