There were still some empty seats, Thursday 29 January in TivoliVredenburg, but that's kind of part of the low key, try-out event we organised there. Because recording a podcast is usually done in a well-insulated broom cupboard, not on a stage overlooking a slightly snowy Vredenburg. The broom cupboard offers the intimacy that suits something you usually listen to on your ears, so how do you maintain that atmosphere for a live audience?
First tip: don't make that audience too big. So we took care of a little too little PR and a recording time when the target audience is usually busy at work. This kept it intimate, and gave the recording of De Omslag, episode 1, just the right vibe.
Money allocated
Sjoukje Hoogma and Reinier van Harten are frank about their motives and towards the end also talk about how vulnerable existence in pop music is. In fact, you can only be a professional pop musician if you have a job, or a partner with a job, alongside it. Even taking part in something as prestigious as the Popronde costs money. You get paid in applause and possibly a contract elsewhere. We find that in forty years, the price of a live concert hasn't changed. What earned you 400 guilders as a five-piece band in 1983 will earn you 400 euros in 2025. And you still have to pay all the costs from that too.
Reinier managed to arrange subsidies for his current tour by going into the theatre. Sjoukje has to get used to the fact that in a pop venue, much less is arranged for you than in the theatre.
Listen here the conversation.
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