Celebrating 100 Episodes of Girls Twiddling Knobs

Celebrating 100 episodes of empowering women in music, Girls Twiddling Knobs host Isobel Anderson takes listeners on a reflective journey through the evolution of the podcast, revisiting its top five most popular episodes, including conversations with Kate Nash, Orla Gartland and Victoria Witjeratne. 

Featuring listener Q&A, insights into key challenges for women in music technology, and plans for the future, this milestone episode highlights how the Girls Twiddling Knobs community has become a vital voice for diverse creators in music. 

Tune in to celebrate and explore what's next!

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Transcript

00:00:01.52
Isobel Anderson
Welcome back to Girls' s Twiddling Knobs and to our 100th episode of the podcast. It's quite a milestone. A lot of people, um you know, when they start a podcast don't necessarily imagine that they may make 100 episodes and in truth,

00:00:17.13
Isobel Anderson
We've actually made more than 100 episodes because we've had bonus episodes and so you know bits and bobs like that along the way. um So in reality we've made I think it's nearing 120 episodes but this is our official 100th episode. This is episode 100 of Girls Twiddling Knobs.

00:00:36.15
Isobel Anderson
And it's been quite the journey. It's taken us all the way from November and 2020 when we launched to here. I'm recording this today on January the 1st, 2025. So it has been really quite a journey. um And here we are 100 episodes down the line. So obviously I was thinking, what will I do for the 100th episode? And I talked to Jade who I make the podcast with, Jade Bailey, who's fantastic and she helps produce the podcast and edit the podcast. But I sort of decided, let's just keep it simple, because there's lots of things we could do. The simplicity kind of approach was in the ethos of everything that I've tried to do this year. I've talked about this a little bit on the podcast before, but my words for 2024 were slow, space and together. So I could have done some slightly more complicated things for this episode, but I'm going to keep it simple.

00:01:35.67
Isobel Anderson
but still hopefully really valuable and really insightful or thought provoking for you, the listener. So before I keep dribbling on, just let me share what we're going to that what we're goingnna do today in this 100th episode, because it is a bit different. So in this 100th episode, I'm going to reflect a little bit on the process of why I started this podcast and how it has evolved and changed over time.

00:02:05.19
Isobel Anderson
We're then going to take a little sort of journey back through the archives to the five most popular episodes of the podcast all time. And I've selected some little sections of each episode that I think still are really, really useful for any women, girls, non-binary people or whatever gender in in all honesty, for people who are interested in creating, producing, recording and sharing music.

00:02:34.51
Isobel Anderson
as we go into this new year in 2025, but also into however many more episodes we make of Girls Fiddling Knobs 2. So we're going to go back through those five most popular episodes. We're going to hear so a section from each episode and I'm going to talk a little bit about why I picked it.

00:02:51.09
Isobel Anderson
for you and what I think it means for us moving into this new year and moving forward with the podcast as well. And then I also um have invited listeners yourselves to share questions with me that you would like me to answer.

00:03:09.51
Isobel Anderson
And so I have selected three questions from people who have sent them in and I am going to listen to them with you and then answer them on the podcast because I wanted this episode.

00:03:21.18
Isobel Anderson
to not just be about the podcast and the guests and everything we've covered and everything we're going to do, but I really wanted it to be about you and to open up that dialogue with you. And maybe this is something that we'll continue to do as the podcast evolves. I think it would be really lovely if we did. I've really enjoyed um receiving the questions that have been submitted and hearing them and considering them. So I really love the idea of adding your voice to this podcast a bit more in the future, but that's what we're gonna do today. And then um to to finish up,

00:03:49.73
Isobel Anderson
will also be considering what, you know, might be and important for women in music moving into 2025 because it is a New Year's episode, but also um what we are kind of bringing into the the future episodes of the podcast as we've reached this 100th episode milestone as well. And the plans that we have coming up and the um the things that we'd love to do with you and the conversations we'd love to have with you and the the growth that we'd love to take with you.

00:04:23.59
Isobel Anderson
So that's all coming up on the episode as well. So we have got quite a lot to get through. So without further ado, let's jump in. And so the first thing that I want to just spend a tiny bit of time thinking about is the journey of this podcast. um First and foremost, you make this podcast what it is. Obviously, this podcast wouldn't exist if people were not tuning in and listening and sharing their thoughts and leaving insightful reviews and feedback and sharing it with their friends. And what has become clear over the years, very slowly, very modestly, I think, is that Girl Striddling Knobs has become a really vital voice in the fields of gender and music technology, but just women in music on of itself in general.

00:05:13.73
Isobel Anderson
and that has been an incredible thing to witness and I often find I'll i'll be when I leave my cosy little studio cave that I'm recording this from and I go out into the world I find more and more when I share who I am and what I do if somebody I meet someone for the first time and they ask they've often if they're in any way involved in musical sound or audio they've often heard of girls twiddling knobs And that is a wonderful thing to witness because I don't really see Girls Toodling Knobs as any kind of expression of mine or or mine.

00:05:50.95
Isobel Anderson
even though, of course, it was something that I set up and it's something that I make. But I see it as something that's really very much a collective effort. It's a collective effort of, on the one hand, me, and you know what I kind of have started and bring to this space. But as much or more so, it's the guests that we have on the podcast. We've had some incredible guests. and In fact, we've had over, I think we've had nearly 80 guests now on the podcast.

00:06:19.80
Isobel Anderson
um But not only that, the listeners and what you bring and what you share and what you take from the podcast. There's something about um podcasting in general, but I think particularly with um this this kind of topic of women in music, women expressing themselves, sharing their voices, sharing their stories through music, that it can only ever have felt like a collective effort, this podcast.

00:06:46.80
Isobel Anderson
So for me to go and, you know, leave my little studio cave and, you know, from time to time, be it festivals and concerts and conferences and all that kind of stuff. And for someone to say, oh, yeah, I listen to girls, oh, yeah, I've heard of girls fiddling knobs.

00:07:02.47
Isobel Anderson
it's um It's really heartening because it genuinely started four, five years ago, four years ago, four years ago, um as as just an idea with no backing, no experience of podcasting.

00:07:19.61
Isobel Anderson
um And it's become, like I say, a kind of, ah I think, in its but small humble way, a vital voice in the field of music production and gender, but also just women in music in general. So that's something I want to kind of just just reflect on and just mark as we reach to this 100th episode.

00:07:42.22
Isobel Anderson
And for me, it's been a ah journey that I ah kind of can't believe it's been four years. It doesn't feel like four years. um And I think when I first set up the podcast, it was because I had been doing lives every week inside of a a Facebook group that I had been running. And what I was finding was a lot of people would say, oh, I really want to watch these videos that you're doing as well, but I never have the time.

00:08:11.37
Isobel Anderson
And it became abundantly clear that for particularly for my audience who I was serving and have still been serving women in music, time is a really key factor. A lot of the women that I work with, they have young children or they're juggling multiple jobs or they are freelancers or they have they're caring for elderly relatives. um There's lots and lots of different sort of plates they're spinning.

00:08:35.78
Isobel Anderson
And it became really clear that me doing videos on Facebook Live or Zoom or whatever was just too much of a commitment for people. Whereas a podcast, you can stick in your ears and you can listen to it when you're doing the school run or you can listen to it while you're cooking dinner or you can listen to it while you're commuting.

00:08:54.89
Isobel Anderson
And so it became really clear that a podcast would be a great way for me to be able to share some hopefully really powerful, empowering messages with other women about music making through production recording, but also about many other bigger things as well, as you know, if you listen to the podcast ah regularly. So that's how it started. um And I think that What it became for me personally was a really satisfying way to itch this scratch that I had had all of my life about trying to articulate the experience of women in music, but women in music production and music technology.

00:09:35.85
Isobel Anderson
of really getting into the nooks and crannies of those complicated conversations and um particularly the solo deep dive episodes that I've done have been really really good for um teasing out some of this stuff um and a lot of the stuff that doesn't usually get talked about or if it does get talked about it's quite surface level or it's a bit throwaway or it's kind of here, there, are and everywhere. With the podcast, with this format, I've been able to really basically make audio essays on everything from assertiveness in music studios all the way through to why there are still fewer women studying music technology, for example.

00:10:15.26
Isobel Anderson
So for me it's kind of been really great to be able to scratch that itch. um Someone who has a research background but has not gone into you know mainstream academia yet still teaching and education is my my bread and butter but it's it's enabled me to kind of scratch that researchy nerdy itch. um On the other hand though it's enabled me to connect with amazing women across the industry, so people who work on and off stage, people who work in different genres, even different art forms, so we've had people from the stage, we've had people from

00:10:51.04
Isobel Anderson
sound installation, um background, we've had people who are working in film, Foley, I could go on. So it's been an incredible privilege to be able to actually make these connections and build a network that I would never have had the opportunity to do otherwise, unless I was going to and be a lot more extrovert and go out of my little studio cave a lot more often, um which is not my natural mode.

00:11:17.80
Isobel Anderson
So it's it's been such a privilege to be able to get to sit down, albeit on Zoom, but sit down and have conversations really deep, raw, open, informative, funny conversations with a whole variety of really inspiring women and gender diverse people in music from that kind of angle of music technology.

00:11:45.20
Isobel Anderson
so So I guess that that's kind of what it's kind of brought me along the way from starting it, the reasons I started it. um Of course, like one of the big reasons I was making any kind of kind content for women to do with music technology was because I knew and I still know and I still feel in every cell of my but body and my being that when you have skills in music technology and you can record and produce your own music and it could be that it's also that you can make your sound installation idea come to life and your theatre sound design come to life, whatever it might be that you're working on that you can actually make the thing that you hear in your head and you can birth it into the world. There is nothing

00:12:26.56
Isobel Anderson
I think when it comes to being an artist working with any kind of sound or music there is nothing more satisfying than hearing what has been in your head for maybe years out in the world outside of you and you are listening back to it and you are witnessing it and it is encapsulating an emotion, a story, a message, a mission, whatever it is that you're communicating and maybe you're communicating on multiple levels. There's nothing as magical and empowering and freeing and liberating than hearing that. So there's that part of it, but also if we get into all the kind of

00:13:07.75
Isobel Anderson
um Career strategy stuff, there's nothing more liberating as well from that point of view as being able to record your music when you want, how you want, where you want, um get up one morning, have an idea, make it into a recording and share it online and not keep yourself stuck, not being able to show up and take part in music online in the industry however and wherever you want to take your work. So I think you know on on one level like the reason I started doing what I do at Girls Toodling Knobs was always about knowing how empowering and how vital that ability to create and record and share and listen

00:13:51.01
Isobel Anderson
to your voice and your stories are for women in particular. um But also because I know and I've seen this in multiple, multiple, multiple other artists and also my own journey.

00:14:03.12
Isobel Anderson
that it unless you can record and produce your music yourself, then you are at a massive disadvantage. And it's becoming more and more the case that it makes it just almost impossible for you to start and grow a career in music if that's what you want.

00:14:20.96
Isobel Anderson
And for most people listening to this podcast, I'm presuming it is in some way or for, I mean, not everyone wants music to be their full-time income. Not everyone wants to be approaching their music from a sort of really ambitious, hustly mindset. Some people love that. Some people, it might just be that you want to um be able to just release your music, you know, and and wherever that takes you is not the end goal. It's about doing it. So wherever you stand on this,

00:14:49.75
Isobel Anderson
I have no doubt still saying four years on over four years on that if you have those skills to record and produce your music then you are ah massively stuck in the odds in your favour at having even you know a kind of seat at the table and showing up and showing up as the artist that you know you are inside and if you don't have those skills then it's near impossible. I think it's got more like that um even since the podcast started to have um a career, a voice and a creative practice. So that's that's kind of the the the really deep why, but obviously the practical why was I was

00:15:33.65
Isobel Anderson
why Why a podcast was I wanted to be able to share it with people um and meet people where they were at in terms of how they could take that information in, how they could connect with the the stories and the ideas and the concepts and the ah the the information that I wanted to share.

00:15:52.74
Isobel Anderson
so So for me that journey has been incredibly rewarding and kind of scratching that itch of being able to really understand on a deeper level what are some of those barriers, what are some of those opportunities for women, um how does that kind of all integrate with the industry, with our own inner complex in our lives, um in our soul, you know all of this stuff we've explored in quite a lot of detail in these solo episodes that I've done but also with these incredible guests and so for me it's been a wonderful experience of building this network of and amazing women from a variety of different roles and genres across music and sound.

00:16:32.25
Isobel Anderson
And then so, you know, kind of bringing me just reflecting on where the podcast has landed and and kind of where it sits now. We're in the middle of our sixth season. um So that in itself feels like a big achievement to get to six seasons.

00:16:49.69
Isobel Anderson
Um, the approach that we are taking to the podcast currently is with a slower pace. I think I said before on this episode that my words for 2024 was slow space and together. So the season six, which launched in October, 2024, we've released an episode every two weeks to give us more space to prepare it. I mean, I probably don't have to tell you this if you're, you know, showing up online in a regular way.

00:17:17.81
Isobel Anderson
But making the episode is the least time um intensive part of the podcast. It's all of the content that means it gets to be shared outside in the world that takes up all this time. So we need time.

00:17:32.53
Isobel Anderson
um to make it because it's just me and then I have help from Jade as well. So um me and Jade are kind of pedaling away behind the in the background and so where we sit now we release it every two weeks and we try and instill that sense of space and slowness um in the ethos behind our podcasting and what we do and making the episodes. um I think another thing that is maybe a bit different now is that we do it in seasons. When I first started the podcast, I was doing it every week.

00:18:05.13
Isobel Anderson
um i had been that That was mainly because of um being in the process of building a brand and building a business. um and ah Back then, the business was called the Female DIY Musician.

00:18:19.15
Isobel Anderson
And all of the advice was you have to have some kind of content going out every single week so that you can build a relationship with people who you may be able to serve down the line. And so I i diligently followed that and i I did it every week, but it just became um clear to me that AI wasn't sustainable energy wise with doing all the other things.

00:18:41.64
Isobel Anderson
and B that it wasn't actually necessary and yes if I wanted to do it perfectly and I wanted this to be the best it could ever possibly be I would do it every week. I think there's no doubt that when you put something out every week whether it's a newsletter or a podcast or a video series on YouTube, whatever it is, if you put it out every week, the out algorithm will keep pumping it to people. People will expect it to be there and come and find it. um But it just became clear to me that I it wasn't going to work in the ecosystem that was growing in formerly known as for female DIY musician. Now, everything we do is now under girls twiddling knobs. So we moved it to seasons and then this year we moved it to

00:19:26.16
Isobel Anderson
the sixth season releasing every two weeks so in terms of like how things have evolved that's the biggest evolution that I have felt is that's slightly more slow pace which like I say is not necessarily best practice for podcasting but because the podcast it's probably never going to be something where you could make a significant income or certainly not a full-time income from I'm fine to just make it what it needs to be to work for me, girls twiddling knobs and of course the people that listen to it as well. so So that's kind of maybe something that has evolved over the last few years. I think the other thing that's evolved over the last few years is

00:20:14.42
Isobel Anderson
um I think that, well, hopefully my interview skills have continued to evolve. Um, I really enjoy interviewing and I often hear from the guests after I've interviewed them that it's one of the best, if not the best interview experience they've had. So that is awesome. And I will take that and I'm very pleased. I think that as we've gone on behind the scenes, I've learned lots about how to

00:20:45.46
Isobel Anderson
take care of guests and prep guests and make guests feel comfortable. um And we've also become really, I mean, I'd say this was like about two or three years ago, um me and Jade became very clear about the diversity targets that we would want to hit and why. um So that the voices that we represent, not that I think there was necessarily a massive problem from the beginning because there's something I was always really conscious of, but so that we were really conscious, really clear that the podcast was going to be diverse voices um of women in music technology and sound, um that it's not enough to just profile an already marginalised group in music tech and sound, that women's experiences are incredibly varied depending on your own um identity, background, all those things. So um I think that's another thing that has kind of evolved.

00:21:43.16
Isobel Anderson
um Something that we did for the first time this year was we did a live podcast recording at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. um The Towner Gallery, um was that most most recently they hosted the Turner Prize and so it felt like a really nice venue to have girls twiddling knobs to kind of combine that more kind of visual art um community and with what we represent which is obviously music tech but also sound and

00:22:15.07
Isobel Anderson
um We had a really wonderful conversation with Daisy Stewart Darling about her practice um and her piece documenting um the sounds of the South East Coast. So that was something that we did this year that was quite new and um yeah I'll speak a bit at the end of the episode about you know whether we'll continue to do that, um these live episodes or not.

00:22:37.36
Isobel Anderson
But I think essentially well what feels abundantly clear is, you know, coming to to where we are right now, four years on, is how powerful and important it is for there to be these conversations between women, for women, about women in music, but specifically as well, I think, in music technology because housed in music technology, like I said before, is this incredible superpower to share what's in your head with the world and have that voice. So that's the biggest takeaway that I have from the podcast is how important and how powerful it is to have these conversations, to hear these conversations, to be part of these conversations and

00:23:26.88
Isobel Anderson
I don't take it for granted ever that Girls' s Twiddling Knobs has played a huge part of of amplifying those conversations in every single episode that we do. So, without further ado, I would love to now take you back through the archive, dear listener, and to revisit the five most popular Girls Swiddling Knobs episodes.

00:23:53.61
Isobel Anderson
so and and ah And it was nice, actually, when I was looking back through these episodes, I saw that there's a really lovely breadth to them. um So I'm excited to share some of the highlights from them and so the the most popular episode is episode number one which was recorded or released on November the 26th 2020 four years ago and this one is called how learning to record my own music launched a DIY career I could never have predicted. So this episode number one is basically my story

00:24:31.14
Isobel Anderson
of starting to make music, going through the process of trying to build a career as a musician and realising that everything was changing, both in my life and the world, but also in the music industry. And that if I was ever going to release my music, which I really wanted to do as much for no other reason than to show up authentically as myself, which I'm sure a lot of artists can um identify with as being so important, especially as a woman. um I say especially as a woman, I mean especially as a woman in an industry that is still incredibly patriarchal and misogynistic, because of course it's important for everyone to show up as themselves, but this episode really kind of documents that that moment where I realise

00:25:21.99
Isobel Anderson
ah how I came to realise the importance of recording production in me being able to do that, not just at all but also on my terms and in a way that feels rewarding and fulfilling and empowering rather than um disempowering and controlling and a grind.

00:25:39.62
Isobel Anderson
So, I have selected a part of this episode where I am talking about when I realised that no one was coming. And if you've taken Home Recording Academy with me,

00:25:55.03
Isobel Anderson
and if you've taken one of my workshops, I used to do um a workshop that was all about recording from home, it was a free workshop and I talked about this moment in that workshop, so if you've done either of those programmes with me you will have heard a little bit about this already, but I want to share this section um with you, this little snippet with you, because I think this is one of the most scary but empowering realisations that you can make as an artist, as a human,

00:26:24.61
Isobel Anderson
And let's take a little listen and then I can unpack what I think is helpful about this um as we move into a new year together.

00:27:06.50
Isobel Anderson
So obviously it's um really a relief that listening to that first episode, I still stand by what I say in it. I feel very much the same as I did back in 2020, that it's really important to on the one hand take ownership of your life and your future on the other hand to recognize the barriers and the constraints that may be put in your way that are not of your making and that is a difficult sort of balance to hold but in that snippet that I shared with you it very much is encapsulating that moment of

00:27:50.21
Isobel Anderson
almost kind of coming to the end of the line of looking for that external um gatekeeper and um that external ah like validation and um and that external permission to to kind of almost like step into being an artist, to step into and and to make those dreams that you have come true. um Which doesn't mean that you can um just, you know, imagine your way to all of the amazing big stages of the world or incredible, you know, reviews from really well-known publications or, you know, selling out, um you know, billions of CDs or whatever it might be that there are those traditional notions of success in music. but

00:28:49.35
Isobel Anderson
It's more for me. the most important thing was that the music I had written and had performed for years and years and years didn't just stay either in my head or in my throat that it was something that existed outside of me so that wherever I went from there my music stood on its own and had its own kind of platform and its own life I knew that that was really important to me wherever that took it and I also knew that you know it would be really hard for me to move beyond where I was unless I did have something external from me, my music external sitting externally as a recording either online or as a CD or a vinyl or whatever it might be, um so that it could have a life beyond just my my body, my presence. So

00:29:37.93
Isobel Anderson
I think that, you know, I do still stand by that embracing that sense that no one is coming is scary. There is no external person that's going to come along and say, I pick you.

00:29:51.88
Isobel Anderson
here's the key to the castle, let's go, I'm gonna, you know, the the hustle is over and from here on in, you've got this safety net or this a machine around you that's just gonna make it all happen. um that That is very much the kind of traditional industry model, I think a lot of people still are operating with that at the back of their mind or wish that that was still the case and so for me to have that realization that actually that isn't happening, it hasn't happened, no one's coming and if I want my music to be

00:30:27.97
Isobel Anderson
out there as a recording in a CD or online or on the radio, whatever it might be, I'm going to have to make that happen and therefore it's going to have to look quite different to what I maybe had in my head if it was made by a big record company who had spotted me in some dingy pub in London um and then whisked me up and put me in a studio and all that stuff. I didn't really want that. you know In reality, I didn't really want that. I didn't want to be put into a studio with some male producer who was going to slap a sound on my songs.

00:31:05.60
Isobel Anderson
I didn't want to be um disconnected from the way that my music was going to be sold and marketed and talked about. And I didn't want other people to be making all those decisions for me. I actually didn't want that. But I don't think until I'd made that realisation of no one is coming, had I really started to think, well, what is the alternative? If I don't want that, and if it hasn't happened and it's probably not going to happen yet now,

00:31:33.76
Isobel Anderson
what is the alternative? And so if you keep listening to that episode, you hear how I ended up finding my way to recording myself, producing myself, releasing my own music and how that then did launch a career that I could never have expected because it was entirely DIY and entirely based on platforms and ways of listening that just hadn't been invented when I'd first started making music.

00:32:03.50
Isobel Anderson
um So if if you're kind of inspired by that, I definitely recommend going and listening to that first episode. You may have only listened to it when I first released it four years ago, so by all means go and re-listen to it. um It's you know hopefully a useful, interesting listen just to hear somebody else's story.

00:32:22.12
Isobel Anderson
but there's definitely a lot in there about taking ownership of your destiny, of your um artistry and also but at the same time holding that in balance with the genuine constraints or blocks that are in in different people's paths and obviously for women there are um specific ones there too.

00:32:47.06
Isobel Anderson
So the next episode, the next most popular episode is ah episode 81, making production part of your songwriting process with Ola Gartland.

00:33:02.79
Isobel Anderson
So Ola was very generous with the interview that she did with us. She is ah an amazing artist and we had a wonderful conversation all about her very much kind of independent DIY ethos career but has that has taken her to really amazing heights.

00:33:20.95
Isobel Anderson
And just to kind of recap, if you're not familiar with Ola, kind of rose to fame, um I guess you would say on YouTube, um got a lot of recognition on that platform when she was very young and then moved to London and then started kind of forging a more conventional music career, you might say, of like singles and working in studios and all that stuff.

00:33:43.46
Isobel Anderson
So Ola talks about that on the um on the episode and Ola's single Kiss Your Face was released in August 2023 and was featured in the season second season of Netflix's Heartstopper, which really kind of brought a lot more attention to her. And then just to give you a little kind of idea of where what Ola's been doing since she recorded her episode with us. So she released her second studio album, Everybody Needs a Hero.

00:34:08.81
Isobel Anderson
on October the 4th and the album showcases her growth as a songwriter, vocalist and producer building indie pop sensibilities with daring creativity and following the album's release Aula embarked on a successful North American tour with high demand leading to some shows being moved to larger venues highlighting her growing popularity as an independent artist. So she's had an amazing year. If you go on her Instagram page, you'll see some wonderful photos of her playing to these sellout crowds. And it just looks so much fun. And some of the stage, um the staging, like the props and stuff that she's created with some collaborators are just wonderful. um One notable track that you may want to check out from the album is Little Chaos, which all are released as a single in May 2024.

00:34:56.69
Isobel Anderson
But I would like to take you back to this episode that we recorded. We recorded this episode, well we shared it in March 2023. And the section I want to show you is all about Aula's journey of owning the title of producer. So Aula shares in this episode how She had been very, very lucky to be sort of working with some people who were very generous about sharing their knowledge and she had asked all the questions which didn't always come easily for her. But then that there was a kind of moment where, or like a process where that sort of tipped into her owning the title of producer and her expanding her gear and taking that part of her music making a bit more seriously and owning it more.

00:35:42.57
Isobel Anderson
And I think that for many women in music that there's a really hard thing to do, not everyone, but lots and lots of the people that I talk to, the listeners, my students, our community, um this can be really, really difficult to own it, to say, yeah, I'm going to invest in the that new piece of gear, or yeah, I'm going to set up a space in my living room where I record my music and it's just there and I'm not going to apologise or feel silly. So this is what I talk to all about in this little snippet.

00:36:12.72
Isobel Anderson
So I hope that listening to Ola has given you the um confidence or conviction to allow yourself to spread out, to visibly spread out your creation, your music creation, and and to use some tech words, for your music production, the producer in you.

00:36:35.40
Isobel Anderson
Because in reality until you do it, you won't feel worthy of it. So much of the time we are waiting to feel confident, to take action or to show up in some way, to do the thing And in reality, it's it's the other way around until we start doing the thing, until we invest in ourselves, until we, ah ah we were talking about investing in that snippet, so it could be about investing in gear, it could be about investing in your skills. um And anyone that's interested in that, we are gonna be opening Home Recording Academy in January, and you can come on that amazing transformational process with us of learning to record, produce and mix your music from home.

00:37:16.77
Isobel Anderson
So it could be about but investing in your skills or your gear. It doesn't always have to cost you the earth to do that. Like Ola said, it could be secondhand stuff. It could be um really selecting courses that you trust and that you know are going to be really good quality. um And sometimes, you know, if you're lucky, they will offer you a payment plan. Well, as we do in Home Recording Academy, if you need that,

00:37:40.05
Isobel Anderson
So it's it's kind of balancing that as well, but also it's about taking up space in the world almost unapologetically, which doesn't mean you have to take up space brazenly. It just means that you you allow yourself to just spread out a bit more, feel into that role, that identity.

00:38:00.67
Isobel Anderson
And if you can't call it a producer right now, it could just be as a music creator. Because now, like I said at the beginning of this episode, to create music and share it, you have to be able to, at the very least, demo it up yourself at home using music technology, using very intuitive, often free to access music technology.

00:38:22.95
Isobel Anderson
So it's really about, you know, being able to just have the bravery, a little bit of courage to feel into that role very gradually, take up a little bit more space, set up that that part of your living room or your bedroom, invest in a couple of bits of gear if you've got to the point where you want or need to do that.

00:38:43.91
Isobel Anderson
It's so easy to stop ourselves from doing it as women because we feel silly or we feel you know pompous or we feel um ridiculous or like we're going to embarrass ourselves or someone's going to quite ask us a question because they see a piece of kit and we won't be able to answer it.

00:38:58.54
Isobel Anderson
But to just say, do you know what, I don't need to apologise, I don't need to ask for permission, I don't need validation to do this. In me doing this is what will lead me to the growth that I am looking for. I'm looking for the growth to happen first, to give me permission to do the thing, I need to do the thing and the growth will follow.

00:39:20.09
Isobel Anderson
So I hope that snippet with Ola has helped you to kind of feel that galvanised you to embrace that in this new year in 2025 if you're listening as it goes out or whenever you're listening. And I thoroughly recommend listening to the rest of the episode with Ola because she talks really openly and generously like I said before about her experience of coming up through music of making music, um ah kind of forging a career before having a team, what it was like building out a team, how that's kind of worked and also working with producers and producing herself. So the next episode that we're going to look at is um episode number two, composing for film and TV and shamelessly breaking the rules with Victoria Witcheratney. So Victoria is a film composer.

00:40:10.52
Isobel Anderson
and um Victoria came on she's as you will have seen because it's episode two she was one of the first people that I i inter interviewed on Girl's s Twiddling Knobs and so Victoria's written for film and kind of high-end production she'll do scoring um and often plays instruments herself but also works with other artists as well and just to give you a kind of recap or an update on what Victoria's been doing this year at least 2024 this last year. um Victoria released testing all the leaves that grace us on August the 9th on accidental records um and inside this track she still skillfully weaves together in a way of field recordings from different times and locations

00:40:52.93
Isobel Anderson
seamlessly blending them with subtle synth pads and her contemporary minimalist piano style. Through this combination she emphasizes the beauty found in life's seemingly ordinary coincidences and this is going to be part or is is the kind of prequel to an album that Victoria is developing which will be her debut album reflecting her identity as a queer South Asian multidisciplinary artist. um Also this year, Victoria contributed to the short film Shrike, which successfully completed its crowdfunding campaign in July. So Victoria has been busy this year, um of course.

00:41:32.08
Isobel Anderson
And the part of the episode that I wanted to play you is all about Victoria's experience of writing for film in terms of working with other people. Now, I think that, you know, lots of people listening to this podcast are probably interested in how you get into composing for film. And there's some really great um information that Victoria shares. she actually I asked her for her three top tips for getting started with writing to picture. So whether that be for games or films or TV or whatever it might be. So she shares all of that on the episode. So definitely go and check that out if you haven't listened to it yet. But there's a really interesting part where Victoria talks about her her actual process, like the creative process of writing for TV and film.

00:42:14.53
Isobel Anderson
And what that that tension and that kind of opportunity and that connection that comes with the fact that it's not your baby. You know, but most of the time when you're a composer writing for film, it's a director's vision. There's a scriptwriter or a writer that has written the thing as well. There's multiple people involved and you are playing a role and you are serving this vision that is largely or very commonly not your own.

00:42:44.32
Isobel Anderson
So she talks about how do you get into that headspace and how do you lose that um but kind of grip on the work because it will have to go through multiple revisions and you are going to have to accommodate other people's wants and needs and and vision of what it needs to be. So that's the section I'm going to play for you now.

00:43:14.11
Isobel Anderson
So I think all of what Victoria shared is really important to consider if you are thinking that you would like to write for film and TV and games and all that kind of stuff. But maybe if you've generally been a solo artist who's been mainly working to your own vision, I think that um that sort of dynamic of working with other people's vision and where there may be multiple people feeding into what that vision is or what that output needs to be.

00:43:42.33
Isobel Anderson
um that that's a really could be a really tricky thing and also really rewarding thing to be part of. And so I think that Victoria's um take on that is really helpful to consider. I also recommend just listening back to that whole episode, if you are someone who is interested in building or starting your career in writing for film, because Victoria shares everything, like I said before about getting started writing to picture, including the kind of tech um tools that you might need um But she also shares about her home studio setup and also what it's like to record with other artists for first film scores, going to studios what versus do it at home. It's a really, really practical, helpful episode as much as also a really insightful and thought provoking one too. And so our fourth most popular episode is episode number three. Why you'll never get this recording thing right.

00:44:38.86
Isobel Anderson
and why you shouldn't even try. So this was a solo episode that I made and the part of this episode that I wanted to play you was really me just listing and kind of explaining the myths that we break down in this episode because I think that these myths four years on are still really pervasive for a lot of women in music technology. And so if you're listening to this in 2025, they are just as relevant to you. I'm willing to bet. So let's take a listen and then we can just dissect what these myths might kind of mean now four years on.

00:45:17.34
Isobel Anderson
So in this episode I share how the myths that you just heard me list through, they don't just affect women negatively, they affect everyone, no matter your gender, and that even cis-heterosexual men that I have known over the years have expressed deep frustration and exhaustion with having to act a certain way that doesn't feel aligned with or congruent with how they really feel inside in order to save space in the studio, in order to avoid ridicule, whatever it might be. So these myths are um still relevant today. I see it time and time again. um

00:45:56.67
Isobel Anderson
but For a lot of women it's internalised patriarchy that they will attach to these myths more than a lot of men naturally do. um that That's a big generalisation and I know that that's even just talking about binary genders.

00:46:13.68
Isobel Anderson
However, it's something that ah after teaching thousands and thousands and thousands of women, I still see so often that women are attaching personally, identifying with these myths in ways that can be really um limiting and sabotage their future success. I say success, it could be mean many different things.

00:46:41.72
Isobel Anderson
So, well where does that leave us in 2025, listening back to that episode that was recorded and released in 2024, when I say that these myths are still prevalent, these myths are still um potentially holding a lot of women back. um i think I think sometimes it can be helpful to see that that prevalence kind of carry through time.

00:47:06.40
Isobel Anderson
For me anyway, when i when I see that I feel even more determined or even more clarity that it's time to let them go or it's time to set them to one side or it's time to just see them for what they are. um I'm a big believer in not kind of trying to um stop feeling or thinking or believing those myths because you can't just stop that.

00:47:32.94
Isobel Anderson
but at least integrating a more balanced view of them and see them for what they are and to kind of note, okay, that that myth's taking over again. If you if you feel yourself believing or like telling yourself, I'm just not good with music technology and I never will be, for example, to be able to note, ah, that's that myth again.

00:47:52.94
Isobel Anderson
And I'm going to let it be there, but I'm not going to let it make my decisions for me or stop me from giving this new piece of software ago or giving ah investing in a microphone that might enable me to record my music.

00:48:10.36
Isobel Anderson
um So i think I think that's what it is, it's kind of seeing, right, these myths have been there for so long and I think the longer time goes on, at least for me, the more I believe and I feel determined or um entitled or convinced that they're not true and they're really destructive and come from a place of protection. you you know when we When we buy into these things, as much as them coming from other people's mouths and we internalize them, they are also a way of protecting us and keeping us safe. So we can kind of honor that and show share appreciation for that whilst also putting them to one side.

00:48:53.62
Isobel Anderson
If this has struck a chord with you and you think that this is something that you may need to work on this year because you really want to record and share your music and you don't want to be, or you can't spend thousands of pounds for someone else to do it for you, then I really recommend going and checking out episode three. The title again is while you'll never get this recording thing right and why you shouldn't even try.

00:49:18.28
Isobel Anderson
So I offer you, we kind of took um unpack those myths more, but then I offer you an alternative way of approaching music technology, um which is hopefully empowering and helps you to really kind of so take ownership of your music production learning journey and your journey to sharing your music in a way that feels really empowering hopefully.

00:49:45.48
Isobel Anderson
So the last episode, the fifth most popular episode, is our bonus special with Kate Nash. It's called Kate Nash Talks Music, Feminism and Coffee. So Kate gave, again, a really generous, really insightful interview. um I'm sure a lot of you are already familiar with Kate because um she had a lot of hits in the noughties um and kind of rose to fame um during that time then had a very difficult experience of being dropped by her label and um all of it kind of falling away and becoming really difficult but she picked herself up and decided to embark on a DIY and independent artist's career

00:50:36.31
Isobel Anderson
And she is such an inspiration in so many levels, but particularly this year, she has once again shown up and showed everyone how how much of an inspiration she is on, I would say, a new level. So in 2024, Kate released her fifth studio album, Nine Sad symptom Symphonies on June the 21st.

00:50:59.70
Isobel Anderson
and she supported the album with a UK tour but in order to do that she actually launched her butts for tour buses campaign which i think is absolute genius and i I hope that collectively, you know, as women and gender diverse people in the in the field, we would all just express gratitude to anyone who's going to not only stand up for what they deserve, but for what all artists deserves, because buts Kate's um campaign, Butts for Tour Buses, um was something that she launched on Onlyfans to address the financial challenges of touring. And so Kate,

00:51:39.98
Isobel Anderson
shared tasteful photos of her butt and in order to fund her UK and European tour and in a way that would mean she could actually pay her crew fair wages and also provide safe um ah tour safely so not overload the van because shoot they were trying to save money and things like that.

00:52:03.04
Isobel Anderson
And what this also did as well as financing her tour, it meant that Kate's highlighted the rising cost of travel accommodation and other expenses that musicians are facing and that also these increases are not matched in what musicians are paid in fees and um and renumeration. So It emphasised that, Kate also emphasised that streaming revenues are insufficient with platforms like Spotify paying artists as little as 0.003 dollars per stream. And within a week of her OnlyFans going live, earning surpass to her monthly streaming income. So this is how this all knits together. Just from a week of um her launching her OnlyFans

00:52:48.59
Isobel Anderson
it surpassed her monthly streaming income underscoring the platform's potential as a revenue source for artists. So she's kind of made this really convincing and compelling point that OnlyFans has you know a lot of um like a lot of people have quite ah like looked down their nose at it and would say that it's a demeaning way to earn an income and what Kate Nash has done is said well actually a it's you know, one of the only ways that as an artist I can pay my team properly and actually get my music out to audiences. B, it's ah actually a better way for me to earn an income than those conventional methods including streaming.

00:53:28.72
Isobel Anderson
and see I'm choosing to do this so that I can do my music career in the way that I want to do it and this I'm making an informed decision as an artist to use OnlyFans and all of that has created such a great awareness of um musicians experiences and the challenges that women and the women and also and all musicians are going through in the industry at the moment of how to actually make a sustainable income and get music out to fans and you know do do what music is supposed to do, which is connect with each other. But how incredibly impossible that can be as anyone who's basically not kind of tied to an incredibly um wealthy like record label, how incredibly difficult it is for almost every musician, you know for 99% of musicians to do that and in this current climate. So hats off to Kate.

00:54:25.40
Isobel Anderson
And what I want to and come back to from the interview that we did, so we interviewed Kate, I interviewed Kate in April 2023 and I would like to um just play you a snippet from that interview which is all about Kate's experience of working with producers as a woman in studios.

00:54:47.27
Isobel Anderson
What I love about that snippet from the interview with Kate is that Kate really shows the breadth of experience you can have as a woman in the studio. Now, anyone can have a breadth of experience in the studio, no matter what your gender is, but um there's you know really well-documented accounts of you know how prevalent um bullying, harassment, abuse, ah discrimination is when it comes to gender and women in particular in recording studios.

00:55:16.80
Isobel Anderson
So I felt that was a really important snippet to play people as that last snippet we're going to listen to um on this episode at least going back through the archive because I think what it does is it highlights just how varied those experiences can be, that there can be bad experiences, there can be wonderful experiences, but also therefore how important it is that you are in tune with and you trust your gut on how somebody feels, how that relationship feels, how that environment feels. Do you feel safe? Do you feel valued? Do you feel respected?

00:55:51.86
Isobel Anderson
And if you don't, that you can walk away and you can find something better. You can find a better relationship, a better studio environment, a better team, a better project. that there is agency in this, that you have choices and it is not just that you have to put up with bad treatment and bad working conditions as a woman in recording studios. so And as anyone in music and as anyone in life, but you know, bringing it back down to the, the premise of this podcast, as any artist

00:56:26.86
Isobel Anderson
navigating through the really complex and messy and amazing and exciting journey that we all go on in having a little tiny spec of an idea that then gradually comes to something that we share with other people in the world. So if you feel uncomfortable, if you don't feel respected, if you don't trust the people you're with, if you don't feel heard, if you don't feel safe,

00:56:52.48
Isobel Anderson
You do not have to put up with it. There are multiple different people that you can work with, multiple different spaces you can work in and multiple different communities and teams that you can be a part of. And it's really important to recognize that, recognize there are good experiences waiting for you and not to just feel trapped in the ones that aren't.

00:57:14.48
Isobel Anderson
So that's our final snippet that I'm gonna share with you. Those were our five most popular episodes. They are the most downloaded. um I should have said at the beginning of that kind of archive walkthrough, the reason I've decided to go with the most popular episodes is not because they're necessarily the best or my favorite. I love all the episodes. I think that was the thing. I couldn't choose. i ah It's like choosing your favorite kid.

00:57:41.46
Isobel Anderson
I can't choose the episodes and there's so many now. So I just thought, right, let's just go with the listeners vote here. These are the most popular and let's go back to some of the best bits from them. So that's what we've done. I hope that was helpful. I hope that was fun. and I hope that was insightful and that you enjoyed that walk back through the archive.

00:57:58.56
Isobel Anderson
Like I said, definitely go and check out those episodes in full. If any of them have sparked your interest, um they are waiting for you wherever you listen to podcasts right now. And now what I would like to do is turn it over to you. So like I said, I invited our listeners to um submit questions for me to answer to create a bit more of a back and forth.

00:58:21.26
Isobel Anderson
And we have three questions I've picked. Just thinking of time, I've picked three. They're all really different questions and people have sent them in as a voice note. So let's dive into these questions because I think it's really important that we um also get a sense for what's important to you, what ah what's on your mind moving into this next stage of got the podcast and also the new year. So the first question that I'm going to start with is from Brenda and and Brenda actually submitted five questions so thank you so much Brenda but I will only be able to um share one because of time. um Maybe down the line I will do a full episode which is just Q and&A

00:59:06.50
Isobel Anderson
um But for this episode, just because of time, I'll just answer one question which Brenda asked, and it is this.

00:59:21.25
Isobel Anderson
So that is a great question. um and So I don't write music down and I never have. And I think that the reason for this is because um I've always struggled with music theory and reading music and writing music. um I struggled with writing music more, actually, if I'm honest, than reading it.

00:59:43.86
Isobel Anderson
um although I have struggled with reading it in the past as well. And I think that this is a dyslexic thing. So if anyone's listening who has dyslexia too and recognises this in themselves, do write in or share a comment or a review of the podcast so that I can know it's not just me. I have a theory that, you know, it makes sense that if dyslexic people struggle with writing and reading, then surely they would also struggle with writing and reading music. um It's very similar kind of parts of your brain, I imagine, I'm no neuroscientist, but that you're having to kind of decode and encode information in symbols. And I really struggle with that. So I don't write music and I don't even use notation software. I think that's largely because I never necessarily wanted to become

01:00:39.90
Isobel Anderson
someone who was writing for big ensembles like orchestras or quat even smaller ones like quartets or anything like that. I wasn't necessarily um sort i of interested in writing music that traditionally is notated.

01:00:54.30
Isobel Anderson
um which largely is just classical western music um even though it's not it's solely or um you know exclusively that but I think it just meant that I knew it wasn't going to be vital to me writing the music I wanted to write and making the work I wanted to make and um you know performing in the way that I wanted to perform it just hasn't felt relevant. And I think that what I see, which doesn't mean I don't value it, by the way, and doesn't mean that I don't have a lot of respect for people who do score, um and especially people who score for, you know, multiple instruments and for orchestras and all of that stuff. And I think that is incredibly um ah skilled and important and necessary. It's just, it's not the artist that I am.

01:01:41.69
Isobel Anderson
And so I think it's helped me to kind of feel a sense of peace with that because of being dyslexic because I think that is largely probably about the dyslexia. um I also have a lot of kind of peace with the fact that I have other skills. I have a really really strong ear and I always have done and I think that's why I've been attracted to sound over composition. You know I never wanted to go into a composition course but I definitely wanted to study sound in quite a lot of detail and quite extensively and did, as many listeners of the podcast know. So um I'm more interested in listening than scoring, and I'm more interested in things pouring out, I guess, um which again doesn't mean I don't respect or appreciate and artists that work in that way and the music that is made in that way.

01:02:38.87
Isobel Anderson
So I hope that that answers your question. And I guess one of the reasons why I picked this question that Brenda asked rather than the other four is because I feel like this is something I see a lot. um I get asked this actually, even though I mainly talk about music production and music technology and sound, I do get asked by quite a few students about writing music. And I see a lot of students feel like because they can't notate music or they don't notate music, they're not a proper musician.

01:03:09.07
Isobel Anderson
And I hope that in listening to me explain why I don't notate music and why I never have done, although do have a lot of respect for people who do, but I hope listening to my reasons for why I don't has helped just lighten that pressure and that load and helped you to see that there are many, many ways that people are composers and makers and creators and that one tool, because music notation is a tool, one tool is not the be all and end all or not the kind of definitive measure of whether you are a composer.

01:03:53.64
Isobel Anderson
And just as one tool of, you know, being able to use logic or whatever it might be, that is not the measure of whether you are a music producer. So at the end of the day, these are all tools and we we use the different tools that speak to us or that work for us and It is also good to challenge yourself, and I did do ah music theory up to grade five. It's not like I just you know tried it a bit and then stopped. I've i've definitely gone through all of the... um i've I've gone through it. I've i' given it a good go, a good old bashing. But once I got to that point where I got my grade five, I just accepted. That is that is not the kind of artist that I am, and I will never be that kind of artist, which doesn't mean

01:04:40.07
Isobel Anderson
that if there wasn't a project that if there was a project that I needed to notate for of course I would go back into it and I would refresh my memory and I'd give it a go again but that it is not my modus operandi. So our next question is from Ola and Ola asks this.

01:05:16.82
Isobel Anderson
So that's a great question, Ola. And my my biggest tip with producing with drums is whether you are using um samples or you're working with MIDI, um I would recommend that you start really simple. So start with a really simple drum beat. It can just be a kick and a snare and it can just be, you know, kick on the one and a snare on the two, kick on the three, snare on the four.

01:05:48.00
Isobel Anderson
Just literally start with that and just start kind of very gradually building up from there. When I first started writing with drums, I think what you you really want understandably to be able to have the drum beat that you hear in your head, do you hear on other people's tracks.

01:06:07.82
Isobel Anderson
But I think that it's easy to try and run before you can walk and also not appreciate just how much you can do with really quite a simple drum beat. So that's my first tip is start with a really simple drum beat so that you can then um be able to do my second tip, which is to really think about the texture and the tonal quality of your drum beat. So especially if you're using MIDI where you have a lot more control over the sounds that you're using. If you have a simple drum beat from the beginning, you can get a little bit more into choosing a very particular kind of kick sound and then matching that with a very particular kind of snare sound.

01:06:52.57
Isobel Anderson
And then you'll be able to really um create an atmosphere and a kind of voice with your drums rather than it just be quite kind of um generic stock sounds, but trying to do an overly complicated drum pattern.

01:07:09.05
Isobel Anderson
And my third tip for working with drums is to be applying effects to different, um potentially, depending on the kind of music you're making, but to different um ah percussion instruments ah from each other. So for example, what does it sound like when you put a snare ah a reverb on the snare, but no reverb on the kick, or maybe less reverb on the kick, for example?

01:07:35.19
Isobel Anderson
um So I would just recommend kind of like really trying to bring out the tone and the colour of each individual instrument in your drum kit by applying some sometimes like just subtle differences in effects. And my fourth tip is don't underestimate the power of then applying effects to your whole drum kit. So things like glue compression,

01:07:58.55
Isobel Anderson
um EQ so that it just kind of brings the whole drum kit together. So this this is all stuff that you can do right away in your DAW for free by either using some drum loops which gives you less control over those individual drum sounds but still you could do some really great um like to start really simple with those loops but also if you're using MIDI drums um and if you're using, I sometimes get asked about um recording drum kits which in all honesty I've not done very much but from um having been in studios where other people are doing it and also having had the chance to pick the brains of certain engineers and producers who do it

01:08:44.37
Isobel Anderson
um Again, it's about being able to mic up those different drum instruments, so the kick, the snare, the toms, the cymbals, et cetera, the hi-hats, all those different um components of the kit are miked up separately. There's overhead microphones that are miking up the drum kit as well, and then you can have much more control over mixing that that drum kit when you're producing your track.

01:09:08.47
Isobel Anderson
and again you know you might apply a slightly different ah amount of reverb to one mic than another on that drum kit um but the overheads are going to give more of a sense of cohesion and then you might also put like a glue compressor to bring out a bit more punchiness and bring the whole kit together So those are just some really kind of simple starting points, but I'd say keep the beat really simple at first, really minimal so that you can then really get intentional and so deeper with the the tone of the sounds that you're working with.

01:09:41.63
Isobel Anderson
Apply effects slightly differently to different parts of that drum kit so that you get the sound that you're looking for, the lift where you need it, the the kind of atmosphere where you need it. um And use ah other effects, particularly compression, to bring that whole drum kit together so you p apply it across the whole drum kit. so um whether that be a live recorded drum kit or if you've got midi tracks across MIDI instruments across different tracks you group them together or bust them together depending on what software you're using and you apply at least some compression

01:10:17.39
Isobel Anderson
maybe even a little bit of reverb to create some kind of consistent space or character across that whole drum kit. um that That would be my kind of whistle stop, like very, ah ah yeah, kind of overview of how you might start and also continue to produce drums. So I hope that helps.

01:10:38.70
Isobel Anderson
And then the last question is from Felix. Felix is one of our, and actually was the last guest on Girls Striddling Knobs. Felix and I did an episode where I was live with her in her home studio and ah slash office and we were knitting together and we talked about all of her work to do with knitting and sound. You can go and listen to that episode now where you're listening to your podcasts. But Felix is sent in the question. So here it is.

01:11:08.84
Isobel Anderson
Okay, so that's another great question. And I think that my answer to that is that I don't think I have found a balance. um And over the last, that so even if we just take from when the podcast launched over the last four years,

01:11:24.62
Isobel Anderson
I haven't really been trying to find a balance. I've just been almost, yeah I've been sort of 95% focused on girls' toodling knobs. And I've been in a position to do that because before that time I had, you know, made a lot of work.

01:11:43.39
Isobel Anderson
um And I'd released four albums, had made multiple sort of quite long form sound art pieces, done very sound installations, et cetera, et cetera. I'd really kind of explored lots of different facets of my practice. So I think that coupled with the fact that I had, um I was living with a chronic illness and wasn't able to sort of push my music in the way that I had done previously.

01:12:11.41
Isobel Anderson
um I, for the last few years, have just been, like I said, 95% focusing on girls tooling knobs. The last year, I have stepped back more from girls tooling knobs, or not even stepped back, I guess I've just kind of reduced the capacity or the um volume of, or the reach of girls tooling knobs. I've just kind of but put pulled the foot off the gas a bit.

01:12:38.18
Isobel Anderson
And so I haven't done, I didn't launch Home Recording Academy last year at all, which is the sort of biggest um program that we do um and often involves lots of you know at scale like workshops to thousands of people ah leading up to those launches so I haven't done any of that stuff and I've done more one-to-one work with amazing musicians and artists who want help strategizing or understanding their creative practice and their music recording projects. um And I just haven't been kind of pushing it as hard and giving as much of myself to Girls Twiddling Knobs. And so what's that what that has done is opened up

01:13:25.78
Isobel Anderson
just a little bit more space for my music again. um But that's happened more in a sense of because I've, it's not like I stopped it so I could just jump right into making music. It's more that I like i pull ah pulled back um or scaled back what Girls Twiddling Knobs was doing and actually did things like Cross Stitch and Sousa.

01:13:50.97
Isobel Anderson
and just, so you know, things for their own sake, which I really needed to do. I really needed to reconnect with just creativity and even just craft for its own sake. And in doing that, that then ah ah then allowed there to be a bit more kind of softening of my creative inner world, I guess.

01:14:16.64
Isobel Anderson
And I quite kind of last minute, I guess, or quite impulsively booked for myself to do an artist residency that I self-created and self-funded for myself. um Nothing extravagant, of course, um but in a little caravan for about 35 quid a night. And I did that the week before Christmas. And I knew I had to do that.

01:14:43.48
Isobel Anderson
because i knew that if i tried to make something new that was really from my soul like me really kind of speaking my unfiltered emotional truth in some new music. I didn't feel like I could do it here in the room that I'm recording this podcast because this room is 95% girls twiddling knobs. It's where everything that I do in girls twiddling knobs happens. I very much associate it with that. And so I knew that if I started making work in this room, it would almost be like I was feeling with thousands of eyes on me

01:15:24.33
Isobel Anderson
of the expectation that I will make work because I'm being a good music tech influencer, if that makes sense to anyone. I think when you make, because Felix's question was about how do you balance your creative practice with serving an audience? And so it's different to having a more conventional job. I know that when people invest in one of my courses in recording, producing music, or listen to the podcast, or whatever else it might be,

01:15:54.33
Isobel Anderson
There's a part of it for many people that unless they believe in what I'm saying, they won't take the action themselves. like if Unless they believe that what I speak is actually I walk the walk, that understandably that it's going to be hard for them to take the action themselves and do the scary thing and actually pick up the microphone, open up the DAW and record their music.

01:16:20.48
Isobel Anderson
And I get that. And so, you know, over the years, people have sometimes asked me, oh, what are you working on? Or, oh, you know, you' you've made such amazing music. Why aren't you making any music? And there's that kind of expectation, which I get. But for me, I don't need to be making music all the time for me to teach people how to record and produce music because I have done it for so many years. And I have really walked that walk over my lifetime.

01:16:47.99
Isobel Anderson
So for me to be making music in this room, I feel that those eyes on me, I feel that pressure on me, which isn't any, I'm not saying that, um it's just the the nature I think of as well of the the the world we live in now. we we're We're all kind of tuned into this odd second reality of online, the online world. And I think we all in a weird, silly way, but very real and understandable way, feel other people's eyes on us through that portal of our smartphone. And I think when your job is that you serve an audience, and that is quite public and quite visible online, I think that I knew I wasn't going to be able to really ah dive into that really raw, messy, ugly,

01:17:33.88
Isobel Anderson
um just you know on unfiltered, unfinished part of myself that I needed to when I really wanted to, to make something that was going to in some way help me process or feel or understand what it is I feel and how that relates to the rest of the world. you know that's That's what came up this year was I needed to do that again, which I hadn't felt that need to do it again. And i I needed to do it in a different way than I had to say when I was younger. But I needed to do that again to make sense of how I feel and how that fits into the world.

01:18:14.57
Isobel Anderson
And so I knew that I needed to take myself out of this space. And that's why I booked for myself to go away on this residency that I created for myself, which was hugely empowering and really transformational and honestly, as profound as taking as what many people describe a psychedelic experience to be and I will. um I've written about this a bit in my my ah mailing list to my music mailing list um and I'm sure I will talk about it more in the podcast and talk about it um to our membership, our Rise and Release members um and other students in our communities but I think that that's one way that recently I have found of striking that balance of saying okay if it feels like it's too close to do

01:19:04.88
Isobel Anderson
that messy stuff of delving into the the soul, the the ugly, unfinished, un, you know, imperfect, but real soul stuff. It feels too close to do that in the room where I publicly show myself, you know, um or publicly kind of ah connect with people in a very different way because i'm i'm um it's a space where people need me to hold space. If that feels too close and I feel like I've got these eyes of expectation that may or may not be there then if I take myself away I can allow myself to kind of

01:19:51.28
Isobel Anderson
s sink into something more vulnerable and that's absolutely what happened. And so I booked for myself to go back to that same caravan park in February and continue the work that I started there. um So that's a bit of a rambly answer, I hope that that answers it for you Felix, but basically I struggled to find a balance, it's really hard. I would be amazed to meet anyone that does this kind of work, and I know you do this kind of work yourself Felix with Knitsonic,

01:20:16.15
Isobel Anderson
that does this kind of work where you are holding space, providing a learning journey, but really that's a kind of journey of growth for other people where they are needing you to be a trusted, consistent, clear, reliable source of information and also, you know, in certain ways inspiration.

01:20:38.72
Isobel Anderson
to to do that as well as all the other things that go on in in doing being an online business, a small online business um to do with, you know, all the balancing the books, the marketing, the all the tech, all that stuff, you know, all the endless content creation to do all of that. And then dive into that really sensitive, raw,

01:21:01.27
Isobel Anderson
a vulnerable part of yourself, that messy part of yourself. It's a very different um space to be. And I think that there's something really important about differentiation. I've had, you know, multiple jobs in my life. They are not like this one, where you are doing things like this, recording a podcast where you're talking.

01:21:22.53
Isobel Anderson
and in some way are putting yourself on this pedestal of you know claiming to know something or even just ask interesting questions. It's a different kind of role and it's a very specific one and so I think it it is very much at odds with

01:21:49.45
Isobel Anderson
being undone enough to create something meaningful. So that's my take on that. I hope that that's interesting um for people to hear. I loved answering those questions. I would love to have more of these on the podcast. so As we move into this final part of this episode, that's just something I would say is that I'm really open to doing more of this in the podcast. So if you'd like for us to do more Q and&A on the podcast, um let me know. Either send me a message on Instagram. It's at girls twiddling knobs or write an email to info at female diymusician.com. Still haven't changed the email address over. That's what it currently is.

01:22:34.35
Isobel Anderson
Or um you can write a review on the podcast and just say how much you enjoyed this part of the episode. And I will then know to do more of it. So do let me know. And so this last part of the episode, I just want to maybe think a little bit about what's coming up in the new year and what might be coming up for the podcast. So for the podcast, I think definitely I would be looking at more ways to create more dialogue between me and you, the listeners.

01:23:00.91
Isobel Anderson
and our guests even. um I am also interested in doing live episodes more. um It's tricky because of money and because of time so I don't want to promise anything but I am actively keeping my eye out for the opportunities to do that.

01:23:17.85
Isobel Anderson
um And I think also to say that, you know, we will continue to approach the podcast with um slowness, with space, um with balance. So we will be releasing more episodes for season six and then we will take a break and then we will be all things going well. Who knows what is coming around the corner, but be making another season and we will continue to approach that with the same ethos.

01:23:44.80
Isobel Anderson
um so So that's a kind of in a nutshell what we're going to be looking to do with the podcast moving forward. um We are always open to people sharing suggestions or requests or um you know of of what we might do with episodes in the future so do let us know if you have ideas.

01:24:05.55
Isobel Anderson
And then when it comes to you, our listeners and music in general, like I said at the top of this episode, I have no doubt that having the skills to record and produce your music from home yourself is still and will continue to be one of the most important and empowering and liberating skill sets you can have. And it's not just about a skill set. It is about hearing you witnessing your story, your voice, your self-expression. When you listen back to something that you have recorded and you have managed to capture that emotion, that atmosphere, that story that was rattling around in your head, when you listen back, it is the most magical thing and is almost indescribable. And when I was on that residency in the caravan and I'd recorded a couple of new songs

01:25:00.21
Isobel Anderson
I remember lying in bed at night just hitting play on the stuff that I'd been recording and just feeling it was like nothing else and it was so wonderful to feel it again. um It's one of the most satisfying affirming and, uh, what could you say? I can't put it into words. It's just one of the most wonderful things you can ever experience in your life. And if you have the inclination and the talent and the, you know, ah what's the word? If you you resonate with music and you make music,

01:25:45.69
Isobel Anderson
i I just, I think that if you don't experience that in your life is you're missing out. And so therefore in this new year coming up 2025, I really hope for you that you get to record your music, how you want, share your music in a way that feels empowering and on your terms and that you do so not because of chasing numbers or stats or external success.

01:26:13.66
Isobel Anderson
But because you understand how important it is, more important than maybe, you know, many other um decades that have just gone. It's so important now to be able to tap into what you feel, what you think, what your story is, what you're curious about.

01:26:36.07
Isobel Anderson
in a world where we are constantly bombarded with content and information and other people's ideas. So I hope that for you in 2025, you will not just reap all the opportunities and the platforms and the exposure that recording and sharing your music will bring for you.

01:26:56.81
Isobel Anderson
but that you also experience that really transformative, deeply meaningful experience of hearing your voice, your vision come back to you from outside of yourself and affirm who you are, what you're feeling, and that all of it in some way helps it make some kind of sense.

01:27:21.85
Isobel Anderson
So on that note, thank you for tuning in to this 100th episode. If you've been listening since November 2020, thank you so much for coming on this incredible journey with us on Girls Twiddling Knobs. To all of the guests who've been on the podcast so far, thank you for sharing all of your wisdom, your generous insights, your experiences and your skills.

01:27:45.60
Isobel Anderson
And to all of our future guests and future listeners and community, I am so excited for the conversations we're going to have on the podcast, the connections we're going to make and the journey that's ahead of us. And that is ahead for you with your music this year. So with that, I'm going to let you go and I will catch you next week for another episode of Girls Toodling Knobs. But take care for now.