Listen to “Pathetic/Spineless (Neon Ver.)” by the garages on Blandcamp:

Episode Transcript

BONES:

Hey everybody! Bones here, one of the editors of idol board with a couple of pre-plodcast updates. We’re going to be taking a short break from idol board after this episode, and we’ve got a staffing change as well. Aoife is stepping down from the role of host to focus on other life endeavors, which… [laughs] as sad as it makes us, we wish her the best! Aoife was the one that pretty much came up with the idea for idol board in the first place, and has been our host since the show started. idol board literally wouldn’t exist without her, she’s done an incredible job, and uh, she’s still going to be around! So… thumbs up there!

This break will probably last through May up until potentially early June, unless we get overzealous and starting doing a bunch of stuff anyway… Because we’re going to be doing more interviews, we’re going to be trying to get a few more episodes in the bay just as backups for us in the future, as well as streamlining our editing process so that that way episodes are more consistent in structure and in format.

If you’ve been listening to idol board throughout this process, thank you so much for your support! This has been a blast to create, and we hope to keep making more of it! Now with that all out of the way… Have fun listening to more of my voice. That’s right, it’s an idle/bored about editing. So, uh… Enjoy!

[musical intro plays]

ANNOUNCER:

You’re listening to a Fourth Strike production.

TANGEREEN:

Hello and welcome to idle/bored. If you don’t read the episode titles or the transcripts, I’ve just made a very clever pun. I’m not Aoife, and I don’t use she/her pronouns. In this plodcast, I’ll be interviewing members of the idol board team about their episodes, the creation process, and possible aspirations. My guest for this episode is idol board editor BONES, all caps. Thanks for coming on Bones. Can you tell us your pronouns, pre-plodcast ritual, and what plodcast you’ll be talking about with us today?

BONES:

Hey, thanks for having me. Uh, I’m BONES, my pronouns are they, she, and it, pretty much just don’t use he/him and you’re good. My pre-plodcast ritual is, quite honestly, probably doing a different project. And I am going to be talking about the process of, uh, making idol board.

TANGEREEN:

Wonderful, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you so much for joining us at the very last minute.

BONES:

[laughing] Yeah, no problem.

TANGEREEN:

All right, so first of all we’ve got, um, a couple of, uh, standard questions that we always ask, the first one being: when and why did you join the garages?

BONES:

Ooh, okay, ummm, trying to think about the timeline…. I–the first project that I worked on, the first thing that I did for anything Garages-adjacent was actually doing editing for Blaseball: The Musical. I did sound design and editing of all of the non-music, like, song sequences? As well as, like, assisting a little bit in helping, uh, Ophelia with the script writing and helping the recording process and rehearsals and stuff like that. Um. But after that happened, I think all of us from the musical kind of got an invite into the Fourth Strike Discord. Umm, and then I jumped over to do some, like, video editing stuff? And then I just kinda stuck around! I didn’t really ever leave. I ended up doing, uh, more things. I’ve done, uh, a couple of backing vocals now, for tracks. Um, done some live show stuff and it’s, it’s been very exciting. But yeah, no, I just kinda like, um, slid my way in. [laughing] And then, uh, and then just stayed.

TANGEREEN:

I know, that’s, that’s perfect. And that’s, uh, kind of, I think, how everyone does it?

BONES:

Yeah, for sure. It’s definitely, like, it’s a very welcoming environment. I like it a lot. Um. I’ve never been able to have this many, especially audio related projects, to be able to like, jump between? So it’s been fun.

TANGEREEN:

Awesome. Are you ready for some questions from all of your many fans?

BONES:

[laughs] Sure! Sounds great!

TANGEREEN:

All right. Our first one comes from Ada who is another idol board editor! Ada says, “Hi, redacted! My question is: of all the bones, which one makes the best sound?”

BONES:

Okay, so, if you go strictly by, like, by, by scale, probably a femur? Maybe for like, if you’re doing like, big percussion. Um, but… I dunno. Like I feel like a rib cage you could make a xylophone out of. So probably that?

TANGEREEN:

Okay, yeah. So we’re, we’re talking about hitting the bones to make music. What if you used the bone as the hitter, would that change your answer?

BONES:

[inhale] Hmmm. If it, so there’s, I mean you could also do like a flute? Too? So that adds like a couple of other interesting things. That I would probably, like a humerus would be good for that?

TANGEREEN:

Mmmmm, interesting! Yeah.

BONES:

Well yeah, I feel like, I feel like each bone has its own unique, uh, sound? That can definitely help spruce up any track.

TANGEREEN:

Excellent! Yes, that’s fantastic advice, and I, I hope to hear more bones being used in future garages songs. Next question comes from Blone: “What podcast do you look to for inspiration when it comes to editing?”

BONES:

So, I guess this ties into my background a little bit, too, is like, um, I actually primarily came from like a, a video editing and documentary, sort of background? Which, I, suits itself well for idol board. A lot of times, like, I’ve taken inspiration from a lot of documentaries that I’ve watched, or like, tricks that I’ve learned from making films.

TANGEREEN:

Can you give us an example?

BONES:

Yeah! So like, uh, like, I know Noclip is a, uh, video game documentary series run by Danny O’Dwyer. Um, it’s a patreon-funded, ad-free video game, uh, they basically go and interview a bunch of studios, um, about different titles, then focus in on a specific title. And its, yeah, it’s… it’s very similar in the sense that they really do hone in on like a specific project and then they’re like, okay, what are, like, tell me about how this was made. And it’s very quick, it’s very like, well-paced, and so a lot of the like, editing practices, I kind of pulled from that? I also worked on a documentary that we got funded on kickstarter a few years back, called Mother to Earth, which is about, uh, Earthbound Beginnings, which is, uh, an old NES game that was fully localized and then took, like, twenty-five years to officially release. Um, and we had a lot of footage to sift through for that, and a lot of dense content. So, being able to learn how to like, find the most concise way of putting words together was something that was really helpful, also, for podcast editing. But as far as podcasts go, I really like Radiolab, that one is the, uh, they do a lot of really interesting, sort of like wide spread of topics, a lot of them are very, like, science-based topics. Um. But they also do a really good job of like, transitioning from person to person, and from idea to idea, and like, getting, again, like, dense content into a single, ah, piece.

TANGEREEN:

That’s really cool. Can you tell us about the process of editing an idol board episode? Um, like, from when you get it to when it’s done, what do you do?

BONES:

Yeah. Um, usually we’ll get like, a, uh, recording from the interviewee, the interviewer, which, most of the time is Aoife, and then we’ll have like a backup of the Discord call usually? Um. Once I drop those in, basically like I’ll, I’ll make sure that the frequencies are at the right volumes for the, uh, the voices so that it sounds good. Um, there’s a lot of like, I do noise removal to get rid of background noise, and I do, um, a lot of like, uh, compression or like voice leveling, so that like, the loud stuff and the quiet stuff are still pretty close together in range. And then once I have that for the voices, for both the interviewer and the interviewee, I usually just go through and I, um, I’ll probably get a feel for putting the music into the background. And then if I, if I feel like there are parts where I want to have the music, just, show on its own, I’ll usually figure out the part that I want and then time everything to that. But usually the background music goes in last, um, and we’ll sometimes have, like, every single individual instrument track, uh, for a song, in like a bunch of layers so that we can turn ones off or turn ones up whenever we want to, like, highlight certain things, um.

But yeah, it’s, I mean it’s mostly like from there most of the process is chopping up the, the audio to make it sound concise and like, have the conversations, uh, feel natural and fluid and cover the content. It’s really, it’s really, like, I could just put my head down in it, and like, get in the zone and just like, really get to work on it. It’s a lot of fun.

TANGEREEN:

Awesome, it’s really, it’s really fascinating. I had to edit one of our episodes once, and I didn’t do any of those things. [both laugh]

BONES:

Well, we’re also in a, in a space right now where like, especially as the show, like– Ultimately we only have, we’re, we’re still pretty low in episode count, in total, and so there’s definitely a lot of stuff that like, I do want to start finding ways of unifying that stuff. Um. Whether that’s making instructional guides, I would love to do a stream at some point, to like, talk about or walk through the process of an episode.

TANGEREEN:

That’s fantastic. We should do that.

BONES:

But then also like, there are weird things, like, I sometimes just like, podcasts have a certain, uh, standard for how loud a file is, and that one usually we miss quite a bit.

TANGEREEN:

Whoops.

BONES:

And it’s also nice because podcasts is still working that stuff out too, like as an industry. So if we miss those things initially, it’s not the end of the world. It’s a lot of learning, and it’s a lot of tweaking things, as we go. So I’m excited to see what, you know, twenty episodes down the road we sound like.

TANGEREEN:

Me too! We keep getting better every time. So, eventually we’re just gonna be the best podcast out there. Following up on the behind-the-scenes details of actually editing, we have another fan question from Agent 39.2—

BONES:

[laughs]

TANGEREEN:

—who asks: “Which VST/plugin should everybody know about that they probably don’t?”

BONES:

Uh, I’m trying to think of weird ones that I use…. Uh, oh! If you’re looking for music, uh, like background music, um, Spitfire Labs, uh, is a really, really good set of free, very [laughs] podcast ready instruments, uh, to make music for. Uh, there’s a lot of like, ambient stuff, there’s like violins, and pianos, and, uh, all sorts of different cool sounding pads and drums and things. Um, I highly recommend it, and it’s completely free so, that’s a plus.

TANGEREEN:

I also use Spitfire for, um, like actual music. But uh, it’s okay.

BONES:

[laughs]

TANGEREEN:

Maybe part of that is that I’m just still learning how to use it. [laughs]

BONES:

Yeah, well and also definitely has its limitations. That’s why I said that it’s like, it’s very, uh, I would say podcast-ready?

TANGEREEN:

Yes.

BONES:

‘Cause a lot of it is very ambient and a lot of it is very, um, like, there’s a lot of like cool tone? Instruments in there? Like there’s the frozen strings, and stuff like that, that like, would really fit well in like an NPR podcast but might not necessarily fit as well in like, you know.

TANGEREEN:

Punk rock band?

BONES:

Yeah, like a, like in the garages. [grinning] I have definitely heard it used in garages tracks before. Um, but ah, it’s a little less common. I actually did use it in expansion, now that I think about it.

TANGEREEN:

Really!

BONES:

Yeah, I used the drums.

TANGEREEN:

Cool!

BONES:

It’s good. I like it.

[a clip from ‘expansion (a late siesta snack) plays]

TANGEREEN:

Cool! Nice. Um, you used the phrase “cool tones”. Is that, like, warm and cool colors?

BONES:

Yeah, it’s a weird way of describing it, like, um, I don’t personally experience like, synesthesia? But a lot of musically descriptive terms kind of lend themselves that way. Um, so I’ve sort of created this vocabulary around visuals and feelings and music that are not…. Like I don’t know how to describe them but that’s just how I learned how to say them. [laughing]

TANGEREEN:

[laughs] That makes sense. Um, I know I describe music a lot through setting? Like, where I think I am when I hear it.

BONES:

Yeah, that’s kind of where I go too, and like, I think a lot of that, too, comes down to my background in film. Where I’m like, I, I think about, like, a scene that I would picture it in. As a, as a way of trying to describe what something sounds like without using like, a ton of super technical terms.

TANGEREEN:

Fascinating. Another audience question comes from an anonymous field agent not conducting reconnaissance: “Which skeleton character, fictional or real, is your favorite?”

BONES:

[sigh] I don’t wanna say Sans…. I’m gonna say the dog. I’m gonna say the dog from Luigi’s Mansion.

TANGEREEN:

That is a really good answer!

BONES:

Like, specifically the dog from the first game. Um, there is a skeleton character that pops out of the ground, and when you vacuum them up, a single bone comes out and then the dog goes and plays with it before you go to the, to the second boss.

TANGEREEN:

That’s so cute.

BONES:

That is probably my favorite skeleton.

TANGEREEN:

Last audience question before we get into the real, serious stuff, comes from Tegan, who asks: “You’ve said in the past that working on lots of side projects is a fun way for you to spend your free time. Why do you think that is? Also, how do you have time for all of this? Don’t you work too much on video games as it is?”

BONES:

[smiling] Uh, yeah, so I work on a lot of projects. Um, I pretty much have my workspace set up so that I can work on projects. I work from home, um, and I have a wireless keyboard that I can just slide under part of my desk, and then I can put like, my midi controller down, so I very quickly can just like, swap between either, yeah, my midi controller or like, I have a drawing tablet sometimes that I use, and so I can plug that in for things. And I, I think it’s really, it comes down to the fact that I just like working on things because I think it feels like a puzzle, or like a creative challenge to me. And that’s how I get my energy out. I constantly hyperfocus on so many different things that I’m like, ooh! I like this! I like this! And I have to like, time block it. Um, I’ll hop between projects, and that ends up being like, a creative break. I have had times where like I’ve taken on too much stuff, um, but at this point I’m like, if I take a break that’s too long, from doing creative work, I will probably just sleep.

TANGEREEN:

All right. time to get serious. What is your goal with this plodcast? Why do you work on it?

BONES:

I find it to be relaxing, for one thing. Editing, like I said, gets me in the zone in a way that I can just like focus on it and like, you know, just crank some stuff out. Um, but it’s also really fascinating and interesting to hear the ways that so many incredible artists make the music that they do. Being able to learn tips and tricks and like, thought processes behind things and like, especially inspirations, has been really helpful for me to learn that sort of thing. I also think that like, being able to give those creators a way to showcase their work or to get more eyes on it, especially with how much garages content there is, I think that idol board is a really good vessel to like, ah, to get some of those ideas out there, and to get some of those songs out on the radar.

TANGEREEN:

Makes me very proud to hear. Do you have a favorite part of working on these podcasts?

BONES:

Umm, I really like being able to find ways of, and I, I personally don’t do it as much as I know that like, Jen and some other editors have done, too, but like, as I mentioned before, those like little bits where like, there will be a point where it makes sense for the music to come up, and really show itself. Um, or like to be able to find creative ways of looping an instrumental in the background so that you don’t notice that it’s been playing for twenty minutes. Um, and then other times it’s like, how can I, uh, in the case of like the last episode that I edited, I was like, okay, I have all of these clips of like, the raw recordings of the instruments, how do I make it sound like adding the reverb in, and stuff like that, so that it sounds exactly like the original. Um, ’cause I learned so much about the tools that I’m using, uh, when I’m trying to like, match up my own work with somebody else’s. And it’s like a little nice flourish to make it sound exactly the same. [laugh]

TANGEREEN:

For our last question, we usually ask our guest what song outside of their own work they think is the most underrated. But in this case, I’m going to ask what song you want to have us play for the ending.

BONES:

I would love to play the neon version of ‘pathetic/spineless’ from, uh, ‘neon fakes’.

TANGEREEN:

Excellent.

BONES:

I think it’s a really good track. It’s probably my favorite version of, dare I say, probably any song that rain has made?

TANGEREEN:

Ooooh! That’s, uh, that’s a bold statement!

BONES:

Yeah, no, it’s a bold statement, but also Quinne just absolutely knocks it out of the park on those vocals, and the key change gets me every time, and I can’t think of another time where I would be able to hear it on idol board. [laughing] So I, I feel like it’s a good one!

TANGEREEN:

It’s my favorite version of ‘pathetic/spineless’ which, at this point, has six different versions.

BONES:

Oh my god, I forget about that every time. I mean, I, the song, the song’s earned it, it’s a good track.

TANGEREEN:

It’s a good track! [laughs] Awesome, this has been so great, uh, talking with you, Bones, and getting to hear more about the editing side, which is something I know so little about. And to our audience, thank you so much for joining us on idle/bored, a plodcast where the creators of idol board interview each other about the plodcast they make. You can find our episodes at blandcamp dot com slash podcast, spotify, podcast dot net, or wherever you get your plodcasts. Now, here’s ‘Pathetic/Spineless (Neon Version)’, by the garages.

[‘Pathetic/Spineless (Neon Ver.)’ plays in its entirety]

TANGEREEN:

idol board is edited by Ada Quinn, BONES, Jennifer Cat, Nuclear Tourist, and zack.ry, hosted by Aoife, produced by Tangereen Velveteen, transcribed by Astrid D, Sigilcrafter Aya, Merry, and VigilantBaker, and written by Aoife and Tangereen Velveteen.

[musical outro]

ANNOUNCER:

That was a Fourth Strike production.