Attending The KALW Audio Academy is About Creating Stories of Introspection and Intimacy

Students attending The KALW Audio Academy were asked to reflect on what they hope to achieve during the two semesters. Here is the second of those musings.

By Guest Blogger Jeremy Dalmas, Student, The KALW Audio Academy

Firstly, I want to work on interviewing. Becoming better at preparing for a planned interview and coming up with a question list is important to me, but even more important is getting experience with just talking with people and knowing how to help people be comfortable and open up. I really want to become better at asking questions.

I already am really comfortable with recording, mixing and creating with audio, but I would like to get better at telling a story and in leading a listener through a piece. Knowing what clips work best, knowing how to order them, and knowing when to talk and when to let interviews speak for themselves are all important to me.

In general, I am less interested in harder news and I am more interested in storytelling and mood. I love listening to newsier things, but I am more drawn to and better suited for creating pieces that are more introspective, more intimate and leave a listener with more questions than answers.

If this training program led to more projects after it finishes, that would be fantastic. I am waiting until I have been at KALW for a little bit before I pin down exactly what I would want, and what I can reasonably expect. I have ideas, but they are still brewing right now. I’ve always found publicity difficult, so knowing what how to get people to hear finished pieces is would be great to know.

And finally I am just excited about meeting other sound-makers and seeing what other people discover through their work. Probably the thing I am most excited about at KALW is the people and the atmosphere. Not that I’m not excited about all the radio stuff, but the energy of a space can make or break any project.

Who’s Jeremy?

Jeremy Dalmas is enjoying the people and atmosphere at The KALW Audio Academy.

Jeremy Dalmas is the producer and co-host of the talk show Oakland Nights… Live!, which features interviews and performances with notables from across the Bay Area. Jeremy put together a pair of sound art walking tours of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Manhattan’s Lower West Side, painting audio portraits of each location, and featuring the strange stories, histories and people that helped shape those spaces. In 2008, he spent the fall and winter based in Yerevan, Armenia producing audio stories and helping punks record their music. Jeremy has hosted a radio station in his closet, been a DJ in old York, and has been recording musical and non-musical sounds since the 1990s. He loves recording conversations.