INTERVIEWS

Peter Vidani, designer for Tumblr.

How did you get involved with Tumblr and what did you do before?

I met Jacob Bijani on a message board we were both posting on for years, starting in 2003. From there we started a site called start.io and worked on it together over AIM. I had just moved to Los Angeles and he was in San Diego, so we met up on the weekends. I was also working as a junior talent agent at a small commercial talent agency, and working nights as a dubber for a post-production company (not at the same time). This was my first experience with web design.

He moved to New York after art school to start working at Tumblr. Around that time I moved back to Wisconsin to go back to college at a school I’d already dropped out of once. Three months later, I started doing contract work for Tumblr, making themes for brands that were coming on the platform. Three months after that, I left college again and moved to New York for Tumblr.

What did you go to school for? You have no formal training in design?

I changed it almost every semester. Graphic design, Film, Marketing, Business. I’m not good at school.

What is the design process like at Tumblr and what is your role as Lead Designer?

A group of us talk about what problem we want to solve until we figure out the best way to do it. Sometimes it starts out broad, like, “How can a new user find good blogs to follow?” Sometimes it’s a small tweak that comes up on the way to lunch.

If I’m designing it, I use Photoshop to make something as close as possible to what it will be when it’s live. After I send it around for feedback, someone much smarter than me starts implementing it. I’m alright with CSS and HTML, but Jacob is much better at doing everything else.

If it’s a big release, there might be another round of design that follows the same process. This is for the things we didn’t think about before, or something that just doesn’t work.

I’m grateful that the whole thing is really, really casual.

Besides Photoshop, what software do you use most often?

TextMate, DigitalColor Meter, and Mail.

When you’re working on something, do you do any sketching by hand first or do you just jump right into Photoshop?

I draw a sketch of the page on graph paper. This is a huge help for a few reasons.

1. It’s a good excuse to get away from the distraction of a computer.
2. It’s an easy way to get all the bad ideas out.
3. By the time you’re doing the labor, you can hold less in your head because you’re not worrying about the end product as much.

I also make a to-do list on the same page.

Tumblr is often praised for its usability, why do you think that is? What makes a site user friendly?

I think it comes from making the interface for ourselves. I also think people are smart and don’t need things explained to them, which gets rid of clutter. Mostly I’m just paying attention to balancing the page and keeping things in a grid. When you’re solving a problem for something simple, there aren’t a lot of places you can screw up. It doesn’t hurt that it’s the only site I use, so it’s easy to see when a piece fits.

Also, the site was beautiful before I started working on it, so it hasn’t been hard to keep that going.

Tag pages have been out for a little under a week, and you’re editing a few of them, are you happy with the response to them so far?

I love them. We’ve gotten a ton of positive feedback. They fit right in.

Thank you, Peter.

Who are you and what do you do?

Bill: My name is Bill Israel. I’m a software developer for a company in St. Louis, and I help run Tuneage in my spare time. When not doing either of those things, I keep a slightly-more-personal blog at http://cubicle17.com/.

Richard: I’m Richard, and I’m going to university in September to study Linguistics. I blog at nostrich.net and numblr.

Okay, this is just for me, but why Linguistics?

Richard: I’ve been fascinated by language for as long as I can remember. And no one knows what it means, so I sound smarter than I am.

What made you guys get together and start a tumblelog about music?

Richard: It was Bill’s idea, he asked if I wanted to contribute.

Bill: Oddly enough, I kinda remember how it happened. It was around the time Tumblr introduced the public groups feature, and since Tumblr only allows 1 audio upload per day, a group tumblelog that lets multiple people upload 1 song seemed a good way “around” the limitation.

Richard and I have similar tastes in music, and just enough ego to think other people are interested in what we’re listening to, so it seemed liked the obvious choice.

Plus, similar to owning a coffee shop, having a music blog is always something I’ve wanted to do.

A coffee shop? Why?

Bill: To be honest, I have no idea. I’m a complete spazz for coffee and there’s always been something alluring about the typical coffeehouse atmosphere to me.

I wish I had a better reason, it’s just something I remember wanting to own as far back as 13/14…

How many people are writing for Tuneage currently? How do you pick them?

Bill: Right now there are 8 people writing for Tuneage.

Some people we’ve asked to be a part of Tuneage (Russell, Rach, and Dave) and everyone else was chosen after we put out open calls for submissions.

Richard: We put a lot of effort into picking people we think would be “right” for Tuneage. We look at their taste in music, their writing style, things like that.

Bill: Picking contributors is definitely not just about who matches up with our tastes…a music blog with no variety would suck, so we do our best to pick people we think will bring in a different style of music. Naturally there’s overlap, but in general we think there’s pretty good variety.

What is something you wouldn’t want to see as far as music taste goes?

Bill: Well, someone whose taste matches up with mine isn’t someone I’d necessarily be interested in. I already contribute to Tuneage, so another me on staff wouldn’t be a net gain for us, really.

Richard: We like people with a fairly wide taste in music, we use their last.fm profiles to check that out. It’s also good if it’s different enough from ours that there’s some variety, too.

And no one that listens to fucking Paramore or Coldplay, or any shit like that.

Bill: Yeah, like Richard said, variety is what we’re most interested in.

Are you happy with the response from readers? Is it as successful as you expected?

Richard: Response from readers has far surpassed anything we ever expected. We’ve been active less than 4 months and have already amassed over 1,000 followers. It’s really strange how popular we seem to be.

Bill: We didn’t really have any particular expectations when we started it, it was just a way for us to post the music we’re listening to that we really like. The fact that we’re gaining readers everyday is humbling and really exciting.

How about non-Tumblr traffic?

Richard: That’s minimal, actually. The majority of our traffic comes from within Tumblr. I’m hoping we can break out of that at some point and gain a more general appeal, but it’s not something I hold too highly as a priority.

Bill: Non-Tumblr traffic has been hard to measure. Given that we didn’t expect what’s happened, we went with the plan to not burn our feed, so we have no idea about RSS subscribers. We have a rough idea of daily traffic, but the majority of our traffic so far comes from Tumblr.

Do you get permission for the music you publish?

Richard: We’ve been relying on the fact that the music we post isn’t downloadable by anyone, and so hopefully isn’t viewed as a problem. Nonetheless, we do try and stick to mp3s that are already freely available where possible. We haven’t had any problems yet.

Bill: We would, of course, gladly take down any post that someone had a problem with.

Richard: As long as they said please.

Bill: We’re trying to promote these bands, not promote stealing from them.

Have you ever heard from any of the artists or the labels of the artist who you mention on the site?

Bill: We’ve spoken to a few bands and labels, and the response so far has been resoundingly positive.

Richard: Asthmatic Kitty, in particular, have been great. They contacted us and offered to put us on their promo mailing list, they’re great.

Where do you find the music you talk about on Tuneage, I’ve never heard of most of them. Who the hell is Asthmatic Kitty?

Richard:: Asthamtic Kitty are the label that Sufjan Stevens, My Brightest Diamond, and a couple of lesser known acts are on.

Most of the music I find comes from reading other music blogs, and exploring sites like last.fm and hype machine.

Bill: It’s mostly the same for me, really. Other music blogs, a few MP3 blogs, and word of mouth, mostly. Last.fm and Pandora are great services for finding new material. And, I know it sounds cheesy, but I’ve found a lot of music just from being a part of Tuneage.

Richard: I have too, actually. Our contributors know a lot of great music that I’d never have heard of without them.

What are the future plans for Tuneage?

Bill: Well, we have a number of ideas, but we’re still sorting the good from the bad.

Richard: Top secret.

Bill: Our latest “future” idea has been our podcast, which we think is doing pretty well so far. We still have some kinks to work out, though.

Richard: The podcast has proven surprisingly popular, and we’re only 3 episodes in.

Do you have any plans to monetize Tuneage?

Bill: There are a number of ways we’ve discussed monetizing Tuneage, but so far nothing’s felt right. It’s always in the back of our minds, but for now I think we’ll stick to not-for-profit.

Tuneage, being hosted by Tumblr, doesn’t incur a lot of expenses. Okay, it doesn’t incur any expenses.

Richard: We put a lot of time and effort into Tuneage, and though it doesn’t cost us anything, it would be nice to receive a little compensation.

Bill: Yeah, Tuneage is definitely more of a timesink than I expected at first.

What is the worst album you’ve ever heard or bought?

Richard: I’ve heard a lot of bad albums; it would be impossible to pin down one that tops them all. But one album I’ve hated recently is The Bird & The Bee’s self-titled one.

Bill: Worst? That’s a lot harder to answer than I’d think….I’ve purchased some pretty dubious albums in the past, but I’m not sure I’d want to share them…I’m not sure my pride could handle it.

Richard: I’m also really not a fan of that No Age album everyone is hyping at the moment.

Bill: What’s everyone’s deal with that album? I like noise rock as much as everyone else, but that album just didn’t do it for me.

Richard: It’s just noise. Fuck it.

Okay, this one is for Richard. What artist would you like to fuck the most? Bill shouldn’t answer because he’s happily married.

Richard: I’ve had a huge boner for Zooey Deschanel for a long time. But I’ve got a soft spot for Joanna Newsom too.

Well, actually, a hard spot…

Bill: Aw, she’s precious. Crazy voice too.

Richard: And god, Katrina Kerns is amazing.

What is the last played song in your iTunes, or whatever music app?

Richard: I Don’t Feel Young, off Wye Oak’s album If Children.

Bill: Last song played for me was “O Mexico” by Dosh, but that’s because I’m listening to the album it’s on; “The Lost Take”.

What other Tumblr or music blogs do you like?

Richard: The only other music blog I follow on Tumblr is 365 Days of Music, which barely counts. I read and enjoy Matthew Perpetua’s tumblelog too, though it’s not really a music blog.

As for other music blogs, I read Stereogum, Discobelle, Missing Toof, and Gorilla vs. Bear religiously.

Bill: I skim over Pitchfork daily, but Daytrotter is probably one of my favorites.

Richard: Oh, I love Daytrotter too. Their sessions are always excellent.

Pitchfork is a nice way of hearing about new music, but I try to avoid actually reading it - it’s a load of pretentious bullshit I don’t enjoy reading at all.

So, you are having a contest?

Richard: Oh yeah. We’re giving away a load of stuff some bands and labels were kind enough to give us, as a way of saying thanks to all our followers.

Bill: The contest centers around having our readers create a muxtape of their Perfect Summer Mix. Summer’s right around the corner, and whenever I make mixes, the Summer ones are always the most fun.

We’ll have people submit them to us, we’ll judge them (and probably do our best to post them all somewhere), and pick our favorite three.

Richard: And we’ve managed to get a huge list of things to give away to our favourites. Including some albums from Asthmatic Kitty’s catalogue, and Jonathan Coulton’s entire catalogue.

Rock On Bill and Richard!

Who are you and what do you do?

From the official bio: “Adam Lisagor resides in Los Angeles in the thanks-God gentrified neighborhood of Silver Lake, which he believes lends him hipster cred and allows him to cling to the illusion of his dwindling youth. To make money, he edits and creates visual effects using digital technology for the soulless motion picture and advertising industries. ‘Visual effects’ is not to be confused with ‘special effects’ which, in industry parlance means dropping comically-oversized pieces of fruit on people. Also, trick photography.

He has a tumblelog called lonelysandwich, a Twitter account, also (confusingly) called lonelysandwich, and takes part in a new and enticing podcast called “You Look Nice Today: A Journal of Emotional Hygiene” with his friends Scott Simpson and Merlin Mann, both of whom he met ostensibly by being dumb on Twitter, but actually by hounding them via email for many months until they finally warmed to his ice-breaking tactics. Never give up, people.

Also, some day he hopes to start a company of his own. Something in computers or something. Like for the Internet, where people can just chill out and share feelings.”

How did you get to know hotdogsladies and scott simpson?

I was running on the treadmill one day (I was working on Wall Street in 1985 and that was still the thing to do) and I heard a guy called Merlin on a podcast for 43 Folders that was really short, really tight, really nerdy and really funny. You know, nerd funny is funny on a different scale of funny than actual funny. But this ‘Merlin’ was funny even on a non-nerd scale of funny. And I thought to myself, “This guy is suprisingly charismatic, insightful, personable and really funny for a nerd with a podcast. Plus, he talks really fast, which is nice.” Then I dropped my iPod on the treadmill and it totally shot right off the back and everyone goes, “Ooooh.” So I started paying attention to other stuff Merlin was up to, and I printed out any picture of him I could find and put a little scrapbook together, which - I don’t even think I know where that is anymore just kidding it’s sewn into the lining of my jacket. Then I started a Twitter account, decided to use it for making mouthfarts rather than status updates, and Merlin somehow smelled my mouthfarts and the smell resonated with him. I have a huge amount of respect for Merlin as this spokesperson, this handsome, knowledgeable, easygoing, handsome ambassador of the Internet. If the Internet had a face with an enormous masculine jaw, it would look like Merlin Mann. And the jaw would be cascading style sheets.

Scott Simpson I noticed because I was intimidated by the style represented in his Twitter icon. He had a cool cap and oversized spectacles like a rapper and his Twitter was really aloof and brilliantly funny and original and full of all these tropes like “B-minus titles for love songs about my kids’ bowels” and I was hardly less intimidated when I found out the icon was actually a picture of his 3-year-old son. I also knew him because he’s friends with Jesse Thorn of The Sound of Young America and the Maximum Fun empire and if you know me, you know that the one thing I like more than Scott Simpson is Jesse Thorn. So when Scott smelled my Twitter, I flipped out, natch.

All the rest of it is behind-the-scenes stuff that’ll eventually be dramatically recreated for the stage.

Why did you guys decide to start a podcast?

The three of us had talked very briefly and noncommittally about doing some sort of project together. A couple months later, by chance, Bobby Andersen, kid-genius of Pixel Implosion suggested on his Twitter that the three of us do a podcast. In this town, when Bobby says do a podcast, you do a fucking podcast.

So we recorded some test episodes, and pretty quickly it was clear that each of us would have a role to play: Merlin would be the funny one, Scott would be the smart one and I would be the not funny one. Or Scott would be the witty one, Merlin the famous one and I would be the straight man - that is to say, I’d just sort of keep quiet except when I’m laughing. Or maybe Merlin would be the clown, Scott the thinker and me the one with glasses. Sometimes, we switch it up and Merlin plays Figurehead, Scott Team Captain and me Dead Weight. Regardless, it was decided I should be the one with little or no self-esteem, and I’m okay with that.

Has the response been good?

Bobby hasn’t said to stop yet, so I guess so. I say that as if I’m entirely nonchalant about the feedback, which is a lie. Let’s just say it’s been tracking high among certain demos. Let’s also just say there’s been some interest from Canada.

Who are your musical influences?

Bach. A little bluegrass, a little Spotnicks, but pretty much just Bach. Everything else is shit.

Where does “lonelysandwich” come from?

If you’ve ever seen the 1990 movie “Awakenings” with Robin Williams as neurologist Oliver Sacks, you’ve seen where he sits in on a bench in a solarium, eating a sandwich while contemplating and being sympathetic. That image has always evoked so much emotion in me - the image of someone sitting (or standing) alone, eating a sandwich, just thinkin’ ‘bout life - I always want to cry when I see that. Even if they want to be alone, I want to cry, happy tears even. And I have no idea why it works this way, so I figured something of so much mystery and profound effect must make a good name for a stupid website with clips of 90s TV commercials.

Anything else we should know about you?

There is nothing else about me. Wait, what are you insinuating? Are you trying to find out if I’m Jewish?

Potato?

Kabbalah. Wait, is this word association? This interview is making me sleepy.

If you could put any two people in a cage where only one can come out, who goes in, and who comes out? from Bill

Alan Alda and Adam Hann-Byrd (‘Fred Tate’ in Little Man Tate) would go into the cage. I think they’d have a lot to talk about. Alan Alda would come out because he seems like a really decent guy.

THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER

Who are you and what the hell do you do?

I’m Garrett Murray. I create Maniacal Rage TV[1] and I make websites[2].

Who is Shawn Morrison and why did you decide to do a podcast with him?

Shawn Morrison and I have been friends going back to college. We have a very similar sense of humor and we’re both into comedy, film and such. Went spent so much time talking about nonsense and enjoying ourselves, we figured others might like it too. I guess they do.

How do you come up with what you talk about on the audio podcast? Is it all scripted?

The audio podcast can be broken down into two types of content: (1) Talking points (90%), which are all improvised. We go into the studio with, at best, subjects for conversation. We just make it up as we go along. (2) Audio sketches, which are written and recorded and edited and polished. These are things like the crank calls[3] and Shawn’s Relaxation Tape[4].

How much production goes into the video podcast?

MRTV is a completely different beast than the audio show. We write everything, we schedule and plan shoots. Episodes usually involve other people (all of whom have jobs), so we have to schedule around availability. There’s a lot more editing and post production.

Which do you like more the audio or video podcast? (which do you like doing more?)

I love them both, but if I had to choose one to focus on it would be the sketch show. Film and video have always been my primary passion. The audio show was a great way to start doing something regularly with a very low barrier to entry. The video show is a lot more work, but I love the outcome that much more.

What are your opinions on houseboats?

I’m fine with them as a concept, although I’d never buy one. I’m slightly claustrophobic at times, and I would constantly worry the boat might sink while I was sleeping and I’d drown. That and they’re not terribly classy. Something tells me bringing a lady home for the first time to a houseboat would send her a very clear RUN AWAY signal.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Veronica, and I’m the co-host of Revision3’s Tekzilla along
with Patrick Norton. In the past I was the host of Mahalo Daily, and
co-host of Buzz Out Loud, MP3 Insider and Crave.

How did you get started in New Media?

My first official job in new media was as an audio intern for CNET.
But I’ve been a geek for my whole life!

Why did you decide to leave Mahalo Daily?

I wanted to focus more on technology, and it was also hard to fly down
to LA so often. I knew that would be part of the job when I took it,
but I missed San Francisco more than I expected to!

Why did you decide to join Revision3/Tekzilla?

Tekzilla was a natural fit. I’ve co-hosted the show several times and
I’ve known Patrick and Roger for years.

Do you have any other future plans besides Co-Hosting Tekzilla?

I do! I just can’t talk about it yet :)

Why do you like doing the work you do?

It’s the best, because I get to talk about the stuff I love all day. I
also enjoy being creative, and bringing humor to (sometimes) dry
topics.

Are there any web shows, besides the ones you’re involved with, that you
like?

Of course! The Instance, ExtraLife Radio, Galacticast, This American
Life, Totally Rad Show… well, there are too many to name.

Thank you!

I realize I haven’t been posting here as much as I thought. My original intension was to post every week, which turned out to be very difficult because I have to deal with real people and their schedules to make a new post here. So, I plan on posting more often, I have 3 lined up (possibly more), and I think that the content you see here is going to get better. Remember that I’m new to this stuff.

thanks

So, I’ve been doing this site for a while, and I’ve been pretty happy with the response I’ve gotten. I’d like to think that I’ve introduce at least one person to someone or something new through this site. That is my main goal, it’s not about hearing about the people you’re already familiar with, but rather to learn about someone you didn’t know existed.

OK, that said, I wanted to ask something that is now going to seem a bit hypocritical of anyone who happens to be reading this. Who would you like to see interviewed? Is there someone out there who has done something you really like and you want others to hear about them? Is there someone you really respect and just want to know a little bit more about them (for those analyzing this, that was a hypocritical statement).

Anyway, I would like to know who these people are. If you have someone (or “someones”) in mind, let me know by leaving a comment on this post (yes, extraview does have comments) or shoot me a email here. I will try my best to get to all requests sent in, at some point (just be reasonable, I’m not yet cool enough to interview Steve Jobs [I got denied by Apple]).

Thanks,
-ben

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Matt Belknap, I run a comedy website called aspecialthing.com and a record label called aspecialthing records; I run a weekly live comedy show at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles called See You Next Tuesday; I’m a story analyst for a movie production company; I’m a screenwriter; and I produce and appear on the podcast Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo.

How did you get involved with Jimmy Pardo?

We met in the L.A. comedy scene. I got to know him by watching him perform at Comedy Death Ray, a popular weekly show that started at the M Bar and is now at the UCB. I think he got to know me by reading my recaps of said show on my website. At some point I did a print interview with him for the site, then I had him as a guest on my first podcast, AST Radio. Somewhere in there, we became friends.

How did Never Not Funny start?

Jimmy hosts a live monthly talk show called “Running Your Trap,” and after I started the aforementioned AST Radio and had Jimmy as a guest, I approached him about doing a podcast version of the talk show. We discussed it at length, but eventually decided that recording the live show at the theater wasn’t going to sound so great, so we settled on a different format: a weekly half-hour where we’d sit around his dining room table and shoot the breeze with a guest. (The half-hour became an hour, then an hour-plus, and the dining room was abandoned for a studio by the end of season one.)

Why did you decide to go with a subscription model for the show? and why did you chose subscription over options like advertising and sponsorships?

Originally, the purpose of the show was to promote Jimmy and his various endeavors and maybe get in on the ground floor of a new medium, but after two years we felt like we’d done as much as we could on the promotion front, and while the show grew into its own unique entity, podcasting as an entertainment delivery format hasn’t really taken off the way we all hoped it would — the public at large remains oblivious (or worse, averse) to it. We tried advertising and sponsorships, but our audience isn’t big enough to make that work (you need at least 100,000 subscribers to get serious interest from agencies, I’d say) and it takes a lot of effort just soliciting for it, setting it up, maintaining it — you have to be a salesman, and that didn’t interest either Jimmy or myself. We just wanted to do our show.

So, before any bitterness could set in, we decided to see if we could get something out of this thing that we’ve put so much into. We’re both busy guys, Jimmy has a baby now, so continuing to do this show for free indefinitely was untenable. And I feel strongly that as a professional entertainer, Jimmy should be paid for his work regardless of where he’s doing it — in a comedy club, on a TV set or in a podcast studio. Thankfully, many of our listeners agree: the feedback has been overwhelmingly great and the subscription sign-up rate has been beyond what we could’ve hoped. The general sentiment seems to be that we’re delivering unique, high quality entertainment, and for our audience, I guess that’s worth 77¢ a week.

What other podcasts do you like?

I don’t get to listen to as many as I’d like to just because my schedule doesn’t allow it, but I like Jesse Thorn’s shows (The Sound of Young America and Jordan, Jesse, Go!), Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show on WFMU and the always compelling This American Life. (I know those last two are radio shows, but they’re available as podcasts too!)

maximumfun.org
friendsoftom.com
thislife.org

Is Pat Francis really that annoying in person?

This interview is over!

(Pat’s a super-nice guy and a hilarious individual — he’s one of my favorite NNF guests.)

Who are you and what do you do?

My name in Benjamin Franklin Gates, I’m a reluctant treasure hunter. You might have heard about my exploits when I tried to clear my grandfather’s name in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, earlier this year. I also am a member of the MTV show Human Giant on MTV but I use the alias of Paul Scheer for that show.

How did you get involved with Aziz Ansari and Ron Huebel? (the ‘b’ key is next to the ‘n’ key).

I met Aziz at UCB Theater in NYC. I met Ron Huebel in a bar in Denver. He introduced me to Rob Huebel and we became friends and improvised together for the last 10 years or so at UCB theater in NYC and LA. I never heard from Ron after that fatefully day.

How did you get into sketch comedy?

I paid a magical troll who lived under a bridge and he told me to study with the UCB, which I did and it was the best decision I ever made.

Can you think of a question lamer and more generic than the ones I asked?

Yes, I can think of 2 —-What’s your Shirt Size? and Do you believe in photosynthesis?

Is there anything you want to sell?

Yes, I want everyone to own a Mr. T Keychain, that thing is hysterical and after that if they want to buy Human Giant Season 1 on DVD they could do that too.

This is an older interview with Jesse Thorn from the Sound of Young America because I did not have time to get an interview this week. Will be back in full force soon!

Why did you start podcasting?

I decided that if I was going to do a radio show, I should do everything in my power to get as many people access to it as possible. It was great to have a small but loyal audience on the college radio station in Santa Cruz, but my hope was that podcasting would be one more way to get it in front of people. I didn’t expect podcasting to grow so fast, I just figured if another 100 people could hear the show, it was worth it

Do you listen to podcasts other than your own?

I do. Like anything without a filter, there’s a lot of crap in the podcasting world, and that turns some people off, but I download about six or eight shows every week. My favorite podcast-only show right now is Jimmy Pardo’s Never Not Funny, which is kind of what I wish morning talk radio was like.

Where did you come up with the name “The Sound of Young America”?

We went through a lot of names before we started… for a while I was really into the idea of a music show called The Night Train. We settled on The Sound of Young America because it suggested something old and grand, but ridiculous. It was always about the irony of three guys in college calling themselves something so grandiose.

A lot of podcasters find it hard to pay the bills because it’s not
exactly a very lucritive job, do you find yourself having this
problem?

You bet. Recently, the show has had a sponsor which has more or less payed my bills (bear in mind I live a pretty spartan lifestyle), but that’s only been for a month. I still work side jobs, and until I moved to LA about six months ago I had a real job at an evironmental non-profit called The Trust for Public Land. After I moved down here, I applied for some jobs, but didn’t get any, so I was working odd jobs to pay the rent and so forth. At this point, I hope that I won’t have to get another part-time (or full-time) job, but it’s far from certain.

I also take listener donations, which is a really important stream of income. That basically helps cover the costs of the show — when I need equipment, hosting, bandwidth, that kind of thing. I’m really touched that people care enough about the show that they’ll give money, even though there’s no “thank you gifts” or anything. Some folks have been giving for a couple years now, and I really appreciate it.

Why did you start doing Jordan Jesse Go!?

I basically missed doing a show with Jordan. He used to co-host TSOYA with me (and Eugene O’Neill, who’s still our friend). It was just the most fun thing I’ve ever done, so I wanted to do it again. That was part of why I moved to LA — I couldn’t convince Jordan to move to the Bay Area.

One of the cool things about podcasting is that we don’t have to convince program directors of radio stations to give us a timeslot — we can make a show, and if people find it and like it, they can listen.

Now that you have very successful audio podcasts, would you ever consider adding a video podcast to the MaximumFun network?

Yeah. I’ve been working the past few weeks on adding dribs and drabs of video to The Sound. And we’ve podcast a fair amount of video in the Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast. But something more serious and regular would be great.

The trick of it is that video production is dramatically more labor-intensive than audio production, and I already work a LOT. Hopefully as the audio casts grow, I’ll find some great collaborators who can help me with video, or at least get further along the learning curve so I can do good work myself.

How do you get such awesome guests to come on the show? Also, how do you decide who you want on the show?

Well, the fact of the matter is that as awesome as the guests are in my eyes and yours, many of them are pretty unknown to the general public. Part of what I try to do with the show is share these people who are doing such amazing work with people who might not have heard of them, while still getting some insight that’s surprising to people who already are on board. One of the things I don’t like about most mainstream interviews is that they’re just banal.

The producers of Leno or editors of GQ seem to think that if the subject isn’t a Celebrity (like, say, Jim Carrey), we only want to hear some “relatable” story. I think that people want to hear about the creation of art — because an artist will always be passionate about their work, and that passion will carry the day.

As far as how I book them… it’s a slog. I don’t have a team of producers, I do it all myself. Sometimes it’s easy — somebody’s email address is on their website, I email them, they say “yes” or even “I love that show!” Usually it’s an extended dance of self-justifications and self-aggrandizement (“X thousand listeners… nationally syndicated…”) which gets really old really fast.

As far as the who… it’s basically people I’m interested in. That’s mostly it. It’s a very personal show in that way, and I think people respond to that.

Is there anything you want to plug?

I see this whole thing as an extended plug, but I just started a new podcast called “Coyle and Sharpe: The Imposters.” It’s these two guys who spent the early 60s walking around SF with an early tape recorder doing man-on-the-street interviews. Only the interviews are on subjects like, “How do you feel about the morality of leasing babies.” They’re comedy geniuses, and I’m really proud that Mal Sharpe (Jim Coyle has passed) gave me permission to podcast their work. It’s one bit a week, and the stuff is astonishing.

Who are you and what the hell do you do?

I am called Justin Johnson, technically I’m an Associate Producer at Next New Networks, but more precisely I head up our promos department and work in various capacities with our indie filmmaking show, Indy Mogul.

How did you get started in the New Media Business?

I’ve been in a ‘new media’ space since probably before it was called New Media. As a kid of eight, I would run around with our Pixelvision camcorder and record sci-fi epics involving snow and complex Lego space ships. In my late high school years, I started messing around with the edit bays at our local Public Access, and eventually got one of the early prosumer video capture cards. It was a piece of crap, but just to use a NLE system was like freakin’ devil magic compared to jury-rigged sets of VCRs and CD players.

I started putting up video blogs on the ‘net around 2001 / 2002. I called them “docutainment,” and gained a moderate following for a time before the powerhouses of Myspace and Youtube. I started email correspondence with fellow online filmmaker Jakob Lodwick and become one of the first original video creators for Collegehumor.com.

Fred Seibert, founder of Next New Networks along with a mess of other important things, was also friends with Jake. He was seeking a producer to make short ‘promo’ clips for his podcast Channel Frederator. Jake, busy making more money than I’ll ever see, turned down Fred’s request but suggested me.

Things went well, and a year later, I was driven in a limo down to Palo Alto to meet Tim Shey, Emil Rensing, and Fred for some breakfast. They offered me a job in NYC, and I took it!

Since you are part of the Indy Mogul crew, What is your bestest most favorite movie of all time?

(Editor’s Note: I made a comment in my questions to him about how I write very “flamboyant” questions and make them pretty later.)

My BESTEST, most FAVORITE movie of all time is … (see, now you’re stuck using your flamboyant question!) … “Rushmore.” I’m a big fan of early Wes Anderson work, and that movie is just so inspiring for people who see drive and ambition as the gold standard of indie creativity. Max Fischer is a badass, and I want his manbabies.

Just how indy is Indy Mogul?

Pretty frickin’ Indy. Erik just made a space helmet by Frankenstein’ing two bike helmets and a bunch of other thrift store junk. A perfect complement to the tape-affixed, painter’s suit space suit he crafted last week. The budgets are low, but the creativity is through the roof. A lot like it was for George Lucas before he got a magical green genie called “LOADS OF MONEY” to make his every stupid whim come true.

What new media content do you like?

I love Liam Lynch, I’m in awe of his ability to combine video editing, music recording, and 3d modeling into worlds that are so obviously true to the madness in his head. Then, of course, anything and everything that Next New Networks makes!

Do you have any advise for the people out there who are interested in making a show that is every bit as awesome as the stuff you work on?

As long as it’s something you give a crap about, and you’re passionate about making it, you should find an audience. That’s why I pushed the creation of Indy Mogul, I wasn’t so into all the car shows that NNN started out with, and wanted something closer to my interests. (I’m a greedy bastard). You can tell the folks who have the right to talk about a subject, and those who are just doing it for an endgame, like cashmoneyfameetc. Oh, and drop out of school. Yeah.

DAMN YOU JUSTIN JOHNSON!

How did Next New Networks get started?

In late 2005, Fred Seibert and Emil Rensing, two of my partners in the company, started a couple of video podcasts for their own reasons — Fred wanted to meet more emerging animators, and created Channel Frederator as a venue to showcase animators’ work, and Emil was frustrated with auto programming on TV and online, and started VOD Cars. Something a lot of people don’t realize is that David Karp, the creator of Tumblr, came up with the original format and package for Channel Frederator — he had been doing some web development work for Fred — and Fred responded immediately, since it looked like TV. Fred was the first employee and original creative director of MTV — he led the branding of the network, all the brilliant packaging and promotion of MTV, and later networks like Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Spike, and Nick-at-Nite, that made MTV Networks so unique and influential on the television business (Fred’s story is a great read, and available here). Most recently, Fred was producing some of the biggest cartoons on TV, and continuing to consult on the development of new networks, along with Emil, for his longtime friend Herb Scannell, the Vice Chairman of MTV Networks and President of Nickelodeon Networks. Emil has a pretty impressive track record, too — one of the first few hundred employees at AOL, he was part of the AOL Greenhouse that launched online brands like The Motley Fool, CBS Sportsline, iVillage, and Travelocity, and went on to work on projects like the rebranding of TNN to Spike (with Fred) for MTV Networks, and online strategy for companies like Victoria’s Secret and WWE.

Within a month after Emil and Fred started the podcasts, Apple announced the iPod video and added a number of video podcasts to the iTunes store, including Channel Frederator and VOD Cars. Each was an immediate hit, getting one million downloads a month and a really passionate response from their viewers, and Fred and Emil thought, if we had a company with a hundred of these, that would be a business advertisers would be really interested in.

That’s when the rest of us came in. Jed Simmons was a seasoned online and cable executive who’d worked quite a bit with both Emil and Jed over the years — when Fred was President of Hanna-Barbera (and overhauled the company, leading it to become the uber-cool Cartoon Network), Jed was his partner and COO, and Jed was the kind of partner we needed to help us shape a business model and raise the funding necessary to make the company. I had worked as an interactive producer and designer for about ten years, and had done interactive TV and mobile work for lots of TV networks, but at the time I was thinking about a business around videoblogging and launching original series made for online and mobile phone viewing. I was helping on projects like Afterworld and Rocketboom, and was really excited by the idea that there might actually be a new aesthetic for online video that was different than TV, one that most people in the media space weren’t onto yet, and a company needed to exist that could launch lots of these kinds of series and build and support them. Emil and I had been close friends since college, and when we realized we had similar ideas for a company, he brought me in. Finally, Herb had just left his position at MTV Networks, and was spending a lot of time with us thinking through the idea of the company, with his focus on audience, undiscovered talent, and low cost that had been such a success at Nickelodeon (under Herb’s tenure, they developed Spongebob Squarepants, Dora the Explorer, and Ren and Stimpy, among others). I’m sure he thought he was coming to the meetings as a founding Board member, but we were all working on him to be the CEO from the beginning, and it was a huge thing for the company that he agreed to do it.

Everything moved pretty quickly from there. The five of us worked out most of it over the summer of ‘06 — we defined the aesthetic we wanted to have, the system of developing and launching and networks we thought the company needed, worked out the business plan, and went out to raise our initial funding. Our lead investors, Spark, came on early in the process and really helped us shape our thinking, as did Fred’s longtime friend Bob Pittman. Funding the company was by no means easy — it took a lot of work, especially as most online video startups were about creating sharing tools, or content studios, and we were neither. We were talking about the value of programming — not lines of code, but television programming — and how brands, and packaging, were going to make a difference for audiences and advertising online. It’s amazing that now, a year later, people seem a lot more accepting of that concept and the idea of online TV networks, but at the time we got a lot of pushback on the idea, including some skeptical coverage when we announced the company in January ‘07 or so. These guys are old, they don’t know anything about the web, networks are irrelevant now, that sort of thing. I was like, “Hey! I’m pretty young, and I’m a web guy — so is Emil — and our partners are really smart about this space, too.” But we knew the only thing that would convince people was launching great programming and proving people would watch. I feel like we’ve earned some respect now, and it wasn’t easy, so it felt really good to announce at the end of last year that we’d done over 100 million views. We’ve still got a long way to go — like everyone else in online video, we have to introduce ways to monetize this medium that preserve what makes it special — but at least we can say that people love the networks we’re launching, and they’re definitely watching.

Why is Next New Networks broken down into smaller networks, instead of one big network with a bunch (high-quality) of shows?

For the same reason there isn’t just one television network. In the beginning, there were only a couple broadcast networks, and everyone watched them, no matter what was on. Cable allowed a lot more networks to spring up that could focus on a subject or a targeted audience and build loyal, valuable audiences, and you needed to have ten networks to reach the kind of scale that one broadcast network had. Similarly, we think you might need 100 online networks to reach the same kind of breadth. But it also allows us to create programming that’s more personal and dedicated to the things people love than cable TV could do. We can have a network for people who love fast cars, another one for people who love classic cars, and another one for people who love to fix up cars. Those are three audiences that may have a little overlap, but in many ways are distinct and have really different needs. Instead of having one show that they Tivo at three in the morning, now they can have a whole network, just for them. And the kind of loyalty they have is incredibly valuable, especially when you do it at a big scale and can bring in advertisers both across the entire network of networks, and targeted in a really specific category. Breadth, and depth.

How long should video content be on the web?

I would say forever. It should be on the web forever.

Oh, you meant length. The answer is, whatever people want. When we’re first trying out a show or a series, they work better shorter. It’s easier for people to share them with their friends, easier to fit them into their day. Once people really get into a network of ours, though, we find that they want more of it, and longer videos. This isn’t anecdotal — we did a research study and most viewers said they wanted longer episodes.

If you think of the web as a medium for communication, not something that’s just on your computer, there’s no reason you can’t connect a big screen to the web and use the web to watch longer shows and movies in a satisfying way. Why are TV shows a half hour or hour long, anyway? It was easier to program in blocks. Movies were usually one hour and forty-five minutes long because of film reels. The same web distribution that allows us to make shows that are two, five, seven, or eleven minutes long should let people people make really cool 48-hour-long movies or fictional shows that are interacting with their audiences essentially in real time. All bets are off, and people are going to come along — most likely young people who don’t even remember the old TV — who really create a new entertainment medium.

What web shows, that are not part of Next New Networks, do you like?

Ze Frank’s been a huge influence, as has Rocketboom. They built audiences fast by having a conversation with their viewers in a way TV couldn’t do. For the same reasons I immediately liked Diggnation and Ask a Ninja. These were all the kinds of shows we wanted to have. I can get in a lot of trouble here, as I’m a fan of lots of shows and I hate to not mention them all — there are so many that people need to know about. But a personal favorite of mine’s been Galacticast, for sure — there’s just no one doing anything like it, it’s insane how much work Rudy and Casey put into every episode, and they made me enough of a fan that I pulled a stunt for them, getting their show in front of Kevin Smith. (http://www.galacticast.com/2007/02/27/video-kevin-smith-watched-galacticast/) As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s part of my job to watch web shows, so I love lots of them. Lately I’m really enjoying Jake and Amir and Maniacal Rage TV. They have essentially no budgets, but don’t need them to be great.

How can the people who watch mainstream media be brought into the new media loop?

It’s inevitable. Obama Girl gets shown all the time on CNN and FOX News, hilarious but true, and Top Chef and American Idol fans go rack up millions of page views every week after every episode. My parents send me YouTube videos. Distribution platforms and devices will get better, and soon enough it should be easier to get Indy Mogul than HBO. It’s the new pop culture, and we think our shows already represent the mainstream. Cars, Cartoons, Fashion, Politics… we make networks based on the things people love. And if you do that well, people will seek you out.

Holy Shit Tim!

a folk rock singer-songwriter and internet superstar. You can find more about him and his music here.

How did you get from a software developer to a musician, has music always been part of your life? 

I’ve always sung and played music, my family is filled with musical people. And I started writing songs in high school, so that’s been a longtime hobby of mine as well. I actually meant to become a famous musician when I first moved to New York after college, but just sort of forgot about it and got a software job instead. And then before I knew it, it had become a career. Around the time my daughter was born, I was feeling enough pull from the song writing activities I was doing, and enough push from general job boredom, that it ALMOST made sense to quit and pursue music full time. Luckily it’s worked out very well for me so far.  

Have you considered starting up thing a week again? 

I’ve thought about it a lot, but I just don’t think I’d have the time to do it now. These days so much of my time is spent answering emails, planning tours, stocking merchandise, all this business stuff that pays the bills - I just can’t imagine cramming a song a week into it as well. Not to mention, now there’s an actual audience of people paying attention, so the pressure’s really on to produce great stuff all the time. A lot of Thing a Week was about putting out stuff I thought was bad, or didn’t think was really finished, and I feel a lot less comfortable doing that sort of thing now.

In making, distributing, and playing music professionally, how have you been able to make a living? 

No idea. I really think it just comes down to having a large catalog of songs placed in every distribution outlet I can think of - and of course I was lucky enough to have a few hits during Thing a Week that built my current audience. High volume and low margins, kind of boring when you think about it. But I also think that fans really are willing to support artists whose work they enjoy, especially if they know that the money they’re spending is going directly to that artist. 

Of all of your songs, which is your favorite? 

It changes day to day, but generally I’m very fond of the sad ones. I’m extremely proud of “I Crush Everything” - it’s supposedly about a giant squid, but it feels a lot more personal than that. And I love the way it surprises an audience who hasn’t heard it before. They think there are going to be a lot of giant squid jokes (and there are a few in there) but instead it’s a really earnest lament from a very sad character.  

Because you are not a mainstream artist, and you gained a lot of your following through the internet, do you ever find that live show audiences are unfamiliar with you, or do you get a lot of fanattendance? 

For the most part I try to only play shows that are filled with my fans - I’m kind of grumpy that way, it’s a lot less fun for me to play for an audience of people who don’t know me. So I’m not really big on festivals, or opening for people, or in general putting myself in front of large crowds who have never heard of me. When I do a show, the audience is mostly fans and the people they’ve dragged along - though always some small percentage of people who only know me through a couple of songs. It’s nice to hear from people like that who discover that they like the rest of my stuff too.

Who are your musical influences? 

I grew up on a diet of lots of soft rock and folk - Dan Fogelberg, Simon and Garfunkel, though I also went through a period where I listened almost exclusively to Billy Joel and The Beatles. I’ve always been a fan of smart, vocal heavy pop - XTC, Steely Dan, Fountains of Wayne, OK Go - and when I listen to music it’s all about the songwriting and the arrangement. In college I heard They Might Be Giants for the first time, and they just about blew my head off with their ability to write songs that were totally crazy, but also well constructed and ultimately kind of moving - that sad-but-insane kind of songwriting that I try for every time. 

Thank You Jonathan Coulton!

the CEO of Revision3, a new media company which produces high quality shows for the web. 

Are there any plans for Revision3 to broaden its content variety from it’s current tech and geek focused lineup?

Everyone is geeky about something.  We plan on providing content for everything that people are geeky about.  We already provide music shows, modern culture shows, and more to come.

Is there a possibility of live shows in the future? 

Nothing concrete, but the studio we’re building out has the capability to do live.  I think a live experience can work really well both in person and on the web.

Is advertising going to be the only way to make money from new media, if so, how can it be made better?

Some few folks will be able to make money from subscriptions, but it’ll mostly be free.  Advertising is really about getting the right message to the right people at the right time.  So if I can deliver you an interesting and engaging message right when you want to see it, then things are good.  If I spam you with the same message over and over again – especially about something you don’t want, then things are bad.  Our goal is to move closer to the former and far, far away from the latter.

How important is a network in creating online content?

It’s all about aggregating an audience.  One show may have a good audience, but when you combine it with nine other shows, you build a big enough audience that major marketers are interested in reaching.  Also, you want to be able to promote shows within other shows – and that’s where having a bunch of related shows help.  It both helps build audiences and build brands, and then creates an attractive place for advertisers to spend money.

Is Revision3 doing well?

Very well.  Watch what we’re announcing over the coming weeks and months.

What other new media networks do you like or think are doing well?

Next New Networks, Blip.TV and On Networks.

the Chief Scientist of Tumblr, Inc. (they host this site, be nice to them).

How did you get involved with David and Tumblr?

Davidville was still a consulting company, and he wanted to see my work, so he subcontracted a feature from a client project to me. He liked my code and working with me, so he offered me the job.

I waffled for a while, as I was deciding between Davidville, Amazon, LiveTechnology, and Bloomberg. Amazon eventually declined to hire me after a far-too-lengthy process. LiveTechnology didn’t wow me. I declined a great offer from Bloomberg for many reasons and concerns, all of which proved true.

I started work at Davidville in June, 2006, and Tumblr was an idea that David had queued up for a while. We had a few-week gap between big clients in the fall of 2006, so we started making Tumblr.

What do you do for tumblr?

I have no official title. In a two-person company, it doesn’t really matter. When prompted for one in a newspaper interview, David and I quickly agreed on Chief Scientist, a title I always liked and respected (but didn’t hold) at my previous job. So I’m the Chief Scientist of Tumblr, which I consider quite an honor, even though it probably doesn’t matter.

I write the majority of Tumblr’s back-end code, design the architecture, and administer the servers. I generally don’t touch the design or front-end, since David is much better at that.

How do you use Tumblr?

I currently follow 194 people. I live in my Tumblr Dashboard — it’s the first site I visit in the morning and the last site I visit at night. I’ll go back 15-30 pages every morning just to catch up to where I stopped the previous night. I read every post.

So I use Tumblr differently, or at least on a different scale, than many people. I don’t have a small group of favorites: I have a huge group of people as my collective internet filter. I don’t read Digg, Reddit, or most high-volume tech blogs (Engadget, Gizmodo, etc.) - the signal-to-noise ratio is too miserable, and with my read-every-post obsession, there’s just not enough time in the day for those.

The people I follow filter through the internet and post the items I’m likely to care about. I also love people who publish original, meaningful content instead of just reblogging a hundred posts I’ve already read or mass-importing their feeds from other services. I choose which tumblelogs to follow (and later un-follow) based on whether they’ll post mostly signal or mostly noise.

Where did reblog come from? Why is it so awesome?

Reblogging was a feature we had planned from the start, but cut it from the first version of Tumblr at the last minute because we weren’t happy with its implementation. (The version of reblogging that appeared in Tumblr’s second version was completely rethought and much better.)

Reblogging is not a new idea (see http://www.reblog.org/), but it doesn’t fit very well with traditional blog software, interfaces, and expectations. Fortunately, tumblelogs are a perfect fit for reblogging with their blend of original and referential content.

It’s so awesome because of the great icon. Just look at that thing. Follow the arrows. Keep following them…

What other companies in the web industry do you like?

I like the role Vimeo has chosen to take. They’re the only video site I’ve seen that successfully distinguishes themselves from YouTube and can be successful without becoming a TV-piracy haven.

37signals paved the way for paid, subscription-based web applications. There’s a big future for paid web apps. People are suffering from advertising overload, and there are plenty of instances where advertising doesn’t make sense.

Amazon’s Web Services division has been great, and they have huge potential for the future. Many modern web apps wouldn’t be feasible or economical without S3 and EC2, and the new Flexible Payments Service is an untapped goldmine.

Meetup is fantastic - not because of anything particularly noteworthy about the site, but because it’s one of the only modern web apps that successfully bridges the gap between real life and the Web 2.0 echo chamber. I respect Meetup’s co-founder, Scott Heiferman, for his rare insight into the way everyday people use (and don’t use) computers and the web.

And while this is a weird context, I have to pledge my support here for PHP. Language snobs insult it or pretend it doesn’t exist, even though it’s the most-used programming language on the web, because it’s easy and often used by novices (similar to the flak Visual Basic received in the 90’s, despite its huge usefulness for many people and businesses). PHP isn’t perfect, but it’s a very good language in the right hands with a mature, stable, and insanely fast platform that’s cheap to run and easy to administer. With the right framework or library to fit your needs, it’s just as easy to develop for as the newer, trendier alternatives.

 Thanks Marco!