Intro

Chris Black: My name is Chris Black (@donetodeathprojects). I am originally from Atlanta but now live in New York City. My agency, Done To Death Projects, works with brands on strategy and communications.

Jason Stewart: I’m Jason Stewart (@themjeans). I’m born and raised in Southern California. I used to be a professional DJ and now I produce and host podcasts, and do some creative strategy as well.

How is this show different from the HLG podcast, and what motivated you to start it?

CB: We flirt with music criticism on How Long Gone, but with How Long Gone Radio we are able to go a little deeper. For example, Jason likes to go Google lyrics...stuff you could do, but it’s more fun to hear us do it.

JS: When you do a podcast about everything and nothing, it’s nice to have a different outlet that's hyper-focused on something specific. We always flirted with the idea of talking about music like this on our podcasts, but now that Spotify released this new function, it was a no-brainer.

What was your thought process when choosing HLG Radio's format?

CB: We both follow music closely, so it made sense for us to do a weekly show that spotlights the most interesting new releases.

JS: I just wanted to make something entertaining. Chris is really good at hating the things I like, and I’m really good at liking things that Chris hates. This translates well to popular music because everyone in the world has an opinion on it.

How do you select which songs to include in each episode?

CB: Troll the new-release page desperately looking for reissues of music made before I was born.

JS: I browse the new music releases on Spotify, as well as my New Release Radar [playlist on Spotify]. We always try to have a good mix of interesting music from artists we actually like, and then some pop music disasters to give a good thrashing to.

What kind of research goes into making a show like this?

CB: Not much!

JS: After all the years of DJing, my ability to scroll through music is just a reflex at this point–, it’s like checking my email. I categorize songs by how they make me feel, good or bad. If a song doesn’t make me feel anything at all, then it won’t even be fun to talk shit on.

How do you choose what parts of your show to edit or publish organically?

CB: Luckily for me, big TJ [Stewart] does all of the editing. I don’t even have Ableton on my MacBook Air.

JS: We don’t really edit much at all, to be honest. Spotify makes it really easy to just pull up our playlist when we’re uploading. I just drag and drop our songs into the audio file and they do the rest. Thank god, because we make four podcasts a week.

Outro

Do you have any advice for people who want to create a music show like How Long Gone Radio?

CB: Good luck!

JS: Spotify makes it so easy, literally anyone could do it, but I would like to see you try, buddy. Good luck indeed.

What are you most looking forward to as you think about the future of the show?

CB: Having guests pick songs. They will never be as good as we are, but it would be fun to watch someone try.

JS: I thought about creating a collaborative playlist on Spotify that anyone could just submit their music to, which would be an amazing idea that would make our lives easier. Sadly, it would only work if everyone actually did that instead of just spamming us with 45,000 Taylor Swift songs.