Invasives (Paul Wheaton podcast edit)
Posted on July 25, 2023
It was Summer 2022. I was listening to a bunch of Paul Wheaton’s podcast episodes. I was in the heyday of my first major foray into permaculture. It was a wonderful time to be on the internet.
At the time, I was also in a “regressive” musical state – regressive in the sense that I was returning to the things that I liked in the past. My favorite one of those things that I liked were violin plucks.
The “official song” that ultimately fell out of this regressive state was called Roman Fresco, which dropped in July 2022. Here’s an excerpt from the Roman Fresco blog article:
I have always liked the sound of violin plucks. Some of my earliest shit songs use a synth sample called “pizzi” that sounds like an electronic version of a pluck (“pizzicato” refers to the technique of plucking a string instrument).
https://yiction.com/roman-fresco/
Aside from Roman Fresco, I did some other experimenting in this state.
Experimenting
There I was, listening to a particularly profound conversation between Paul Wheaton and Toby Hemenway on native plants. I was simultaneously working on a song with violin plucks that felt like it needed something… more. Then, I realized you could download Paul’s podcast episodes. I downloaded the episode. I found the part of the conversation I thought was great. I put it behind the music and modulated it (to keep things engaging). Here’s what I got:
The idea was then that I would listen to Paul’s podcasts, find and isolate soundbites that I like, vet them with the forums at permies.com, then put them into chill beats songs. Fun way to repurpose existing content, spread permaculture knowledge, etc.
However, I soon dropped the project. I was slightly nervous about so blatantly repurposing Paul’s content (i.e. in the “publishing it without express permission” realm), but in order to get this “permission”, I would have to present it… aka post it. And that was a public behavioral barrier that I didn’t really start crossing on permies.com until more recently.
No matter; here we are today.
1. What do you think of this idea of repurposing podcast clips into songs?
2. Do you know Paul’s attitude towards this type of repurposing? (I know this caliber of reuse is probably “legal” under the Fair Use doctrine but I prefer laymen over the law).
3. What do you think of the invasives edit?
4. If your responses to all of the above are positive, do you have any favorite podcast clips to suggest?
Permies.com version of this post (with responses)