Part II of our interview with the producers of Audio Smut

Left to right: Mitra Kaboli, Kaitlin Prest, Jen Ng, Rae Dooley. Photo by Ted Roeder [tedroeder.com].

By now you know that Audio Smut is full frontal radio (oops, podcast) that might just cause steam to come out of your earbuds. And prepare yourself for more barrier breaking episodes, because season two of provocative listening is right around the corner, just in time for the emotional high of Valentine's. But if you'd like a more heightened Audio Smut experience, be at Union Docs in Brooklyn on Feb. 15 when the show goes live and lusty.

Kaitlin, what's the division of labor between you, Mitra and the rest of the Audio Smut team?

Kaitlin Prest: On the production/creative end, it's so collaborative it's often hard to figure out who is entirely responsible for what—-it can get pretty complicated. We develop everything collaboratively. I edit Mitra, she edits me. We cut each others tape. We follow up on each others' ideas. Last season Rae Dooley, Julia Alsop and Jen Ng were part of that mix as well. For our next season, we're divying up the episodes so that Mitra is driving four, and I'm driving four. But it will likely get all mixed up in the end, as we each help the stories to grow -- and we each have to agree on the final product.

It's only very recently that we developed titles for the staff, for the sake of clarity and efficiency. The show started as a collective, which means that everyone does everything (no matter what their experience level or their level of involvement may be). As is usually the case with collectives though, people emerged who were more invested and more involved.

When Mitra moved to NYC in 2012, our mission was to take the show to a professional level. At that point we decided we were partners, and started calling ourselves the creative directors. From then on we became a unit.

The administrative side is a little easier to separate out. I manage staff and outreach, Mitra manages the relationships with our distributors and does all the social media. Jen does all of our design work. Right now we're working with Connie Ho on grant proposals.

You and your cohorts apparently made a decision to go for an intelligent approach to sex instead of shock value. True?

Mitra Kaboli: I’m continually amazed at the difficulty for people to understand that intelligent dialogue about sex exists. And I’m not really sure why sex tends to be shocking. It is everywhere and almost everybody does it! I don’t think shock value was ever something we considered. We just wanted to be honest and true to life. 

KP: There’s a difference between shocking someone by being honest, and shocking someone by being offensive. The difference is purposefulness, and intention. Honesty is sometimes shocking. But we do it for a reason. What we’re really going for in terms of audience response, is a sense of relief and a sense of compassion. We’re doing this to make people more comfortable, not less comfortable. 

One of the things that distinguishes the show is the production values, including first-rate sound design and music that intensifies the mood.

KP: Yes! Embedded in our approach is the idea that radio is an artistic medium that is comparable to film, theater, music. After spending my life being trained in music and theater, radio was like a secret I had been waiting all my life to discover. They call it the “theater of the mind” and in that theater, the possibilities seemed limitless. 

Never facing an audience in a room presented a vast freedom to experiment. And experiments ensued. From the contact mic Jess made to record masturbation from the inside, to Mitra’s ‘round and round’ echo chamber in the Ass episode, to the music/story hybrids you can hear in most of our episodes. I can’t imagine producing radio any other way.

MK: I was drawn to radio because I wanted to make things that sounded awesome. Kaitlin, really influenced my approach to radio. She pretty much taught me everything I know, so I think my style mirrors hers a lot of the time, in addition to it being a source of creative inspiration.

Unlike Kaitlin, I have a background in creative writing, rather than music or theatre. So, my brain is constantly trying to put stories together and stringing things together to make a narrative. When I started adapting my writing for radio, I had a revelation—I’m not a very good writer if the work is to only be consumed on paper (computer screens). My work really came alive when I introduced sound and music, or even if I just read my work out loud. 

Talk about your live events that bring the show to listeners.

MK: We consider ourselves artists in addition to being radio producers. But all of our other ventures incorporate the medium of radio somehow, the events being a prime example. During the events we have some social time, along with some sort of interactive activity or performance. Then we get everyone to come into a room and we dim the lights and present an episode of our show live. We mix and narrate the whole thing on the spot. All of our events are free and open to everyone. Also, it’s pretty special (embarrassing) to listen to sexy things in a room full of strangers. 

What software and studio equipment do you use?

MK: Protip: Bedrooms make excellent studios. We edit all of our work on Reaper and we have rather hefty amount of mics and recorders between all of us. We also have a lot of fancy plugins that we’ve acquired from different friends over the years. 

KP: My favorite running joke is “Audio Smut Studios”. We used to call my Rainbow Brite blanket (that I stole from the boyfriend that I lost my virginity to) “Audio Smut Studios” and have some hilarious pictures of us recording narration underneath that blanket. I recently moved into a bedroom with a walk-in closet, and proceeded to hammer all the blankets I own into the walls and ceiling. That’s the new Audio Smut Studios. Quite an upgrade. 

I use Ableton Live to make more music oriented pieces. I now have a midi keyboard, compliments of the amazing Brendan Baker of Love+Radio. We have to give a shout-out to Brendan as he has also been an incredible resource in terms of technology and software. He is an audio-tech genius. 

Tell indie producers what you're looking for: Finished pieces or stories and sound that you'll finish? Also, what's in it for them if there's no compensation?

MK: We are always looking for first person stories about people’s experience. But our mandate requires that the voices that we feature be diverse and the perspective to be feminist/queer. We are also looking to collaborate with more women, queer folks, people of different backgrounds on a variety of different projects, across mediums. 

We get a lot of pitches that are about people’s sexual experiences, but just having sex, which most people do, isn’t really enough. We are looking for stories that offer new perspectives and are told by people who aren’t represented in the media. So that time that you were approached by a lesbian couple for a threesome isn’t quite enough, dude. 

KP: To address what’s in it for them: 

1: The joy of making something. Every time I produce a radio piece, I have a new epiphany about sound and storytelling. Any art requires practice, and with radio we so often don’t give ourselves permission to practice our craft.

2: We provide tons of feedback and creative collaboration time; we will work with you to create a piece that you can be really proud of. 

3: Every job I’ve ever gotten in radio has been because of the portfolio and skills I developed via Audio Smut.