With co-hosts located all over the country and beyond, the 5-9 Albums of the Month podcast is a go-to for discovering new music. We chat to Nottingham-based co-host Karl Blakesley to find out more about how the podcast came to be…
Firstly, what is the 5-9 Albums of the Month podcast all about, and who are your co-hosts?
It started back in January of this year. I do lots of music writing, and I met my co-hosts through that. One of them is Andrew Belt, who's based in Reading. He decided that he wanted to focus more on his own thing. So, he set up the 5-9 blog. We were doing it outside of our day jobs, so that’s the theme of it.
The main focus for the whole blog was to start this new podcast idea he had. He saw a gap in the market. There's a lot of music podcasts on there, but there's not really anything focused on new music. I obviously jumped at it. I loved the concept. Another person came to me who actually lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico - Kiley Larsen - and another who's up in Glasgow - Matthew McLister. It was just the four of us coming together.
The concept is that we each choose an album ahead of time - we look at the schedule of what is coming out that month and pick the one that we're most excited about - and the fifth album is chosen by a poll that we've been running on Twitter. Then, we do a ranking system to choose one as our album of the month, scoring them all between one and five.
At the start of each episode, we run through the gigs that we've been to over the course of the month, and the other albums outside of the five that we've been listening to. We also talk about our local music scenes and what's happening within them.
Is it difficult having co-hosts all living in different places, or does Zoom make it easy?
It actually works as a strength because you get a taste of all those different music scenes from different places. We get a global look at what’s going on. Logistically, I don't think we'd be able to run it if it wasn't for Zoom. So, it makes it easier, because all we've got to do is jump on a call.
What makes the Nottingham music scene stand out to you?
I lived in Lincoln for most of my life, but unfortunately the venue I used to go to as a teenager got turned into an office block. The Lincoln music scene kind of died after that, unfortunately. So, in February 2020, I made the decision to move to Nottingham. Obviously, everything immediately shut down, so the first year was hard. Now, I can’t imagine living anywhere else - the music scene here is world class. My flat is literally a five-minute walk to Rock City and Rescue Rooms. There’s no excuse not to go to loads of gigs!
In terms of local artists, I went to see ROB.GREEN a couple of months ago at Rescue Rooms. I first saw him at Hockley Hustle, and he was playing an acoustic set in Metronome. What a performer! He's just enigmatic on stage: his charisma, and his songs as well, are so uplifting. We were blown away. He’s got something special. A couple of others I really like are bexx and Express Office Portico.
As the listener, you’re passionate about that subject, so you want to hear the same level of enthusiasm from whoever it is you're listening to
What do you think makes a successful podcast, and how does that apply to 5-9?
The main thing we have going for us is that we are all really passionate. That applies to any podcast - as long as it's someone who's passionate about what they're talking about, I think that's obviously always going to be the biggest thing. As the listener, you’re passionate about that subject, so you want to hear the same level of enthusiasm from whoever it is you're listening to.
I think it's also just got to have its own unique thing going on. The concept has to be strong. It has to have a solid format that makes it stand out. With our podcast, I think the competitive element adds to the drama of each episode, and it keeps people listening in.
The podcast is still in its relatively early stages, but what are your plans with it going forward?
As we get towards the end of year, the album of the year kind of time, it’s going to be cool to decide which album is going to be the big one at the end. We’ll probably do special episodes as well. On my blog, every year I rank the Mercury Prize-nominated albums on how likely I think they are to win, so something like that.
We’ve also talked about getting other writers on as guests, and we might do episodes where we interview artists as well. We’ve got quite a few ideas. Once we’ve got a few more episodes under our belt, we can hopefully start branching out and doing these different ideas that we’ve got bubbling away.
Listen to 5-9’s Albums of the Month podcast on Spotify
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