Issue No. 8: Making Noise Podcast
Adam Kennaugh and the Making Noise Podcast
As a collaborative composer, Adam Kennaugh believes honest and powerful music is created through open communication and genuine back-and-forth of ideas between performer and composer. He centers each work around the preferred musical techniques and concepts of the performers, fusing their technical and expressive prowess with his musical language, which exists in the space between pitch and noise.
His music emphasizes the characteristic features of an instrument by investigating the mechanisms that produce a sound. Through this, he combines microtones with sound-based techniques, reflecting the unpredictability of everyday life. By creating distinctive works that integrate as a contemplative, immersive experience, his goal is to enhance the quality and diversity of repertoire for performers, elevating them as an ambassador of 21st-century music.
In 2020, Adam created the Making Noise Podcast. About it, he writes:
COVID-19 really threw a wrench in our world, literally! All of our lives have changed and we have been trying to figure out ways to maintain our sanity, maintain our relationships, and on top of that keep making music and try to make a career out of it. The old rules for carving out a career in classical music are no longer feasible or lucrative. We have to be creative not only artistically, but business savvy as well. So how the hell do you do that?! No really, how?!
If you’re feeling the weight of uncertainty and misdirection, whether, in your personal or professional life, you will find solace in knowing that your peers and colleagues are not the avatars you see on Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media platform. They are real people too. With real troubles and challenges. We are all trying to figure out how to keep a level head and earn a living as musicians. So let’s talk about it.
I was recently interviewed by Adam for an episode of the Making Noise Podcast. What resulted was an intense 150 (!!!) minutes of discussion about purpose, empathy, creativity, psychoactive substances, the power of self-imposed discomfort, meditation, and “following dumb ideas.”
Listen to the entire episode on YouTube (posted here) or through Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Update from The Theisen Journal, Issue No. 7
In the previous issue, I mentioned that I was going to be interviewed by Stephanie Lamprea for a livestreamed event on Friday November 20 (including a performance of my composition for solo soprano voice, Ich kreise um Gott). In case you missed it, you may now view the recording on YouTube (posted here)!
Stephanie did a great job conversing with seven different composers about their tiny works for her. The performances, predictably, were also stellar. Brava, Stephanie!