PODCAST · music
Couch Wisdom
by Red Bull
Couch Wisdom is a weekly podcast presenting the best of Red Bull Music Academy’s lecture archive. Questlove has called these in-depth interviews ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ for music, and who are we to disagree with Questlove? With personal stories and creative insights from Björk to The Black Madonna, Young Thug engineer Alex Tumay to Moodymann, there’s something for every music fan. Red Bull Music Academy is a world-traveling series of festivals and workshops est. in 1998.
Episodes
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Hip-hop original Madlib
Whether he’s working with artists like Freddie Gibbs, MF Doom or Erykah Badu, collaborating with the late J Dilla, or working under one of his own aliases, like the drugged out party creature Quasimoto, Madlib has carved out his own idiosyncratic corner in the massive hip-hop universe. Luckily…
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Can's Damo Suzuki
Damo Suzuki left Japan in his late teens and busked around Europe, attracting the attention of Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of the band Can. Suzuki became their lead vocalist from 1970 to 1973, writing and singing on the band’s most enduring albums. In 1983, he returned to music-making to…
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Transcendent pop star Robyn
Robyn’s career reads like a film script: Swedish star tops of the charts, sidesteps pop for a more personal sound, ends up self-sufficient and even bigger than before. This second chapter has included five Grammy nominations, appearances on Saturday Night Live, iconic music videos and mentorship…
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Essential French DJ Laurent Garnier
One of the forefathers of French electronic music, Laurent Garnier had an older brother who would sneak him into nightclubs. He caught the disco bug and moved to Manchester, falling under the spell of house music at the famed Haçienda nightclub. It was there that Garnier began to DJ in earnest,...
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Pan Daijing: Sound, Performance, Emotion
The Chinese experimental artist Pan Daijing's attention to granular detail makes for a deeply absorbing listening experience. Since being an RBMA participant in Montréal in 2016, she's released her acclaimed debut album, Lack, on Berlin label PAN. Other releases include an EP on Dubai’s Bedouin...
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Detroit techno originator Kevin Saunderson
While Juan Atkins and Derrick May are known as the originator and innovator of Detroit techno, respectively, Kevin Saunderson is known as the elevator for bringing it to the mainstream. In the late ’80s, his group Inner City topped UK charts with singles like “Big Fun” and “Good Life.” In…
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Sound engineer Susan Rogers
Susan Rogers dropped out of high school to teach herself sound engineering. By 25, she worked for Crosby, Stills and Nash at their Rudy Records studio. Rogers spent five years working for Prince, a relationship that would change her life. She now holds a doctorate in psychology from McGill and is...
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Funktion-One's Tony Andrews
Tony Andrews has been building PAs for decades. Today, the soundsystems made by his company Funktion-One are preferred by the world’s best clubs. Their speakers are more iconic than you might expect something so technical to be – a testament to Andrews’ uncompromising vision for how to achieve...
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Cellist Larry Gold: From MFSB to "The Boy Is Mine"
Philadelphia native Larry Gold has worked on countless hits over the past four decades. He was a member of MFSB, helping shape “The Sound of Philadelphia" via classic recordings on Philadelphia International. By the late ’90s, Gold was the go-to string arranger of the modern R&B and hip-hop era,...
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Rap mainstay No I.D.
A pivotal figure in the ’90s Chicago rap scene, producer No I.D. is responsible for the bulk of Common’s early output. He went on to manage a young Kanye West and work with Jermaine Dupri and Jay-Z. He's been one of the top A&R men at Def Jam and worked as the executive vice president at Capitol...
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Sun Ra Arkestra's Marshall Allen
Marshall Allen is the third man to helm the Sun Ra Arkestra. The alto saxophonist joined the group in 1958 and led its reed section for over 40 years. For this episode, Allen was joined by Danny Ray Thompson, a bassoon player and saxophonist who joined the Arkestra in the mid-’60s, managed Sun Ra...
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Club and pop music polymath Jam City
The roster for UK electronic label Night Slugs is stacked with talent, so it’s no small praise to say that British producer, songwriter and DJ Jack Latham, AKA Jam City, is one of the label’s most prominent artists. Though he's lauded for his dynamic solo work, Latham displays even greater...
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Singular rapper Pusha T
Born in the Bronx and raised in Virginia Beach, Terrence LeVarr Thornton, AKA Pusha T, is one of the most influential rappers alive. He and his brother No Malice formed rap duo Clipse, whose Neptunes-produced albums are accepted masterworks of street rap. After the brothers parted ways, Thornton...
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Definitive American composer Philip Glass
Philip Glass' compositions transformed the world of classical music and, eventually, popular music in general. Time spent in Paris set Glass on a course toward the repetitive, dramatic and conceptually rigorous style that has become his trademark. He's behind compositions like Music In Twelve…
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Teki Latex on his musical evolution
Teki Latex is a progressive presence in the French electronic music scene. He got his start as a founding MC in Parisian hip-hop act TTC, along with collaborators including DJ Orgasmic and Para One. He co-founded the influential Institubes label, then continued pushing his genreless vision via...
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House music legends Masters At Work
"Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez have spent more than 20 years shepherding dance music down new paths. With remixes being their specialty, their treatment has been given to artists from Madonna, Debbie Gibson and Lisa Stansfield, to Saint Etienne, Michael Jackson, Brand New Heavies…
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Mixpak's Dre Skull
Raised on the East Coast underground freak-punk scene, Dre Skull perceives urban music culture as a holistic affair. After lacing beats for heavy hitters such as Beenie Man, Popcaan and Pusha T, the mighty Major Lazer asked Dre Skull to co-produce Snoop Dogg’s reggae-fied reincarnation as Snoop...
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Ben UFO on joining the dots as a DJ
London’s Ben UFO started out on pirate radio station Sub FM in 2007, playing alongside friends, producers and DJs Pangaea and Pearson Sound. After being sent new music every week, the trio started the Hessle Audio label, through which they joined the dots of the UK underground between house,...
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Pop radical Planningtorock
For Jam Rostron, the multimedia artist who performs as Planningtorock, subversion – in gender, sexuality and politics – has driven their creativity for almost two decades. After the melodramatic pop of their debut album and 2013’s anthem “Patriarchy (Over & Out)” – not to mention writing an opera...
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Piano adventurer Chilly Gonzales
Pianist, composer and entertainer Chilly Gonzales is no ordinary musician. Originally from Canada, he scored a Grammy for his contribution to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and seamlessly switches from working with Boys Noize to Feist to Drake, to his education endeavor the Gonzervatory. Key…
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Drummer and hitmaker Sheila E
Sheila E is a world-class drummer and percussionist who's worked with some of the most acclaimed artists of all time, including Marvin Gaye, Beyoncé, Herbie Hancock and Diana Ross. She was Prince’s drummer and musical director during the period of recording and touring Sign O’ the Times, The…
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Montréal engineer Howard Bilerman
Grammy-nominated Howard Bilerman is a former member of Arcade Fire and the engineer for the band's breakthrough album, Funeral. Throughout his prolific career he has worked with over 400 artists, including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Leonard…
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Berlin icon Gudrun Gut
Gudrun Gut has been at the forefront of Berlin music for decades. She cofounded Einstürzende Neubauten and went on to play in bands like Malaria! and Mania D. In the ’90s Gut founded Moabit Music and Monika Enterprise, exclusively releasing the work of women. In 2007 she made forays into…
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Canadian composer Kara-Lis Coverdale
Kara-Lis Coverdale became organist and composing music director at a local church in Ontario at 14. After studying musicology and composition, she moved to Montréal and befriended Tim Hecker, playing on his albums Virgins and Love Streams. In 2015 Coverdale released Aftertouches, which blurred…
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Minimal Wave's Veronica Vasicka
Veronica Vasicka has unearthed countless gems and revived a subgenre with Minimal Wave, the label she founded in 2005. Vasicka’s sound was partly cultivated via online radio station East Village Radio, where she was the station’s first program director. And her reputation cemented with the…
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Production duo Christian Rich
Taiwo and Kehinde Hassan AKA Christian Rich have created some of the most progressive rap productions of the ’10s. After producing for artists like Foxy Brown and Lil Kim in the ’00s, Rich racked up credits with rappers like Earl Sweatshirt, Drake and J. Cole. Since moving to Berlin two years…
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German music icon Manuel Göttsching
Manuel Göttsching is one of Germany's most influential talents. In the ’70s, he co-founded pioneering krautrock group Ash Ra Tempel and released several works of minimalist guitar music. In 1984, he made a left turn with E2-E4, the classic that wed Göttsching’s guitar with minimal electronic…
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Electronic original Jlin
After discovering footwork while majoring in math at Purdue University, Jlin began studying from genre pioneers like RP Boo and DJ Rashad. Her track “Erotic Heat” caught the attention of Mike Paradinas, who included it on Planet Mu's Bangs & Works, Vol. 2 compilation. She worked at a steel mill...
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House godfather Frankie Knuckles
Born in the Bronx, Frankie Knuckles grew up during the early days of disco and was a regular at the Loft and the Gallery. He cut his DJ teeth with Larry Levan before heading to Chicago, where he helped shape and design the Warehouse, the club that birthed and named house music. While in Chicago…
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DJ Spinn and DJ Rashad: Taking footwork to the world
When footwork first erupted in Chicago, few were able to put names to the music behind the wild dancing. Gradually, DJ Spinn and DJ Rashad (who passed away in 2014) emerged as prime movers, with a crate full of beats designed to move the crowd and the curiosity and knowledge to look beyond their...
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Footwork originator RP Boo
Chicago producer Kavain Space, AKA RP Boo, invented footwork with his 1997 track “Baby Come On.” By upping the tempo of ghetto house, he established a new template for an entire generation of dancers and producers. Space continues to produce and DJ around the world, his enduring success proving...
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Inimitable DJ and producer Objekt
Many musicians genre-hop, but few have an inventive take on every style they touch. Cue Objekt. Across his output on labels like Hessle Audio, Leisure System and PAN, audacious sound design and arrangements twist dancefloor conventions. In parallel, Objekt has become a must-see DJs of his...
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Experimental artist Fatima Al Qadiri
Senegal-born, Kuwait-raised and Berlin-residing producer Fatima Al Qadiri pulls together personal and political geographies. As a child, she experienced the Gulf War firsthand – a trauma that was furthered by her love for video games and playing the Desert Strike video game barely two years after...
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Synth guru and producer Malcolm Cecil
Malcolm Cecil was in a series of ’50s and ’60s jazz bands, but it was the synthesizer that really excited him. With Bob Margouleff he formed T.O.N.T.O.’s Expanding Head Band. The name was an acronym of a synth designed and built by Cecil himself. A dazzled Stevie Wonder instantly recruited Cecil...
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Monolake's Robert Henke
Robert Henke is one of the most significant figures in electronic music. Along with Gerhard Behles, Henke developed Ableton Live, the DAW that allows musicians to store and trigger samples during shows. He's also made abstract computer music and dance-derived techno as Monolake. Here, Henke...
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Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto: Electronic Luminaries in Collaboration
Ryuichi Sakamoto came to fame with Yellow Magic Orchestra, along with solo work and collaborations with the likes of David Byrne, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop and Berlin-based electronic artist Alva Noto AKA Carsten Nicolai. The pair met when Carsten was performing in Tokyo, and together they formed...
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Modeselektor: Anarchic Berlin Techno
Hailing from Germany, Modeselektor work in a variety of tempos and styles with an emphasis on big, warpy synth sounds and heavy basslines that can threaten foundations. With plenty of artist albums and Moderat, their joint project with Apparat, it's as an audio/visual live act that they’ve truly...
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Techno innovator Richie Hawtin
Richie Hawtin always pushes the envelope: he started Plus 8 Records with John Acquaviva, formed the M-nus empire and developed Final Scratch. His works as F.U.S.E., the delicious desolation of Plastikman and his groundbreaking works with the Concept series and Decks, EFX & 909 are all firmly...
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Berlin electronic/punk icon Hanin Elias
After her family moved to Berlin, Hanin Elias ran away from home and into the city’s punk and hardcore scene. In 1992 she formed Atari Teenage Riot with Alec Empire and MC Carl Crack, fusing punk and techno into what they termed digital hardcore. In 1999, Elias left the band and focused on solo...
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Mastering Engineer Mike Grinser
Mike Grinser made his name as one half of Manmade Mastering, alongside Tim Xavier. In addition, Grinser also works at Berlin's renowned Dubplates & Mastering. Grinser was a rock fan before being turned onto electronic music in clubs. Intrigued, he sought to understand how this music was created,...
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Alexander Hacke and Gareth Jones: On Berlin's '80s Underground
Alexander Hacke joined the influential Einstürzende Neubauten shortly after the band’s formation in 1980. Gareth Jones worked at the iconic Hansa Tonstudio, adding an industrial edge to recordings by Depeche Mode and others. Their paths crossed when Jones contributed production to the Neubauten...
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Atari Teenage Riot Founder Alec Empire
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young Alec Empire looked to the rebellious sounds of techno, acid house and punk to inform a new project: Atari Teenage Riot. The trio debuted in 1992 and became notorious for its self-styled digital hardcore sound. When ATR split in 2000, the group and…
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South African House Music Master Black Coffee
Black Coffee, real name Nathi Maphumulo, serves as Durban's house music elder statesman. His style is, in his words, “home-brewed but future-focused.” Maphumulo's recording career began in 2005 with a remix of Hugh Masekela's 1972 hit "Stimela" and has gone on to include five solo albums…
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Keyboardist and Funk Icon Bernie Worrell
Bernie Worrell came to prominence as a founding member Parliament/Funkadelic, radically utilizing emerging keyboard technology during the golden age of synths. Later, he resurfaced with the Talking Heads. Worrell has also been a prolific studio musician, contributing to projects by the likes of...
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Atlanta Super-Producer Mike WiLL Made-It
The Atlanta-born Michael Williams’ journey began with a gift from his father, a Korg ES-1 sampler, followed by his first break: producing for hometown hero Gucci Mane. While the man best known as Mike WiLL Made-It is capable of impeccable rap-pop, he saves his weirdest, most adventurous work for...
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Calypso Icon and Activist Harry Belafonte
Grammy Award-winning musician, actor and activist Harry Belafonte is one of the most successful Jamaican-American artists of all time, renowned for bringing the Caribbean sound to the international mainstream. A close friend and adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Belafonte was also at the...
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Throbbing Gristle's Cosey Fanni Tutti
Starting her career in the late 1960s, Cosey Fanni Tutti went on to become a seismic force in experimental music. Whether delivering confrontational performance art as part of COUM Transmissions, pioneering industrial music with Throbbing Gristle, or constructing a prototype for acid house in...
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Bob Marley & the Wailers Guitarist Junior Marvin
Originally a rock and blues guitarist, Junior Marvin became a member of Bob Marley & The Wailers from 1977 to 1981 after getting into reggae through Toots & The Maytals. He continued playing with the Wailers until 1997, and in his lecture at the 2016 Red Bull Music Academy, he looks back on a...
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Mastering Engineer Rashad Becker
Around Berlin, Rashad Becker’s name is synonymous with sonic brilliance — a mastering engineer at the famed Dubplates & Mastering studio, he put the finishing touches on over 1,200 of your favorite techno, dub and house records. His album 'Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. 1’ is a...
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'Lost in Translation' Music Supervisor Brian Reitzell
Brian Reitzell is best known for his contributions to films by Sofia Coppola, including 'The Virgin Suicides,' 'Lost in Translation' and 'Marie Antoinette,' but he’s also composed scores for the football drama 'Friday Night Lights' and the TV series 'Hannibal.' In his 2015 Red Bull Music Academy...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Couch Wisdom is a weekly podcast presenting the best of Red Bull Music Academy’s lecture archive. Questlove has called these in-depth interviews ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ for music, and who are we to disagree with Questlove? With personal stories and creative insights from Björk to The Black Madonna, Young Thug engineer Alex Tumay to Moodymann, there’s something for every music fan. Red Bull Music Academy is a world-traveling series of festivals and workshops est. in 1998.
HOSTED BY
Red Bull
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Couch Wisdom have?
Couch Wisdom currently has 92 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Couch Wisdom about?
Couch Wisdom is a weekly podcast presenting the best of Red Bull Music Academy’s lecture archive. Questlove has called these in-depth interviews ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ for music, and who are we to disagree with Questlove? With personal stories and creative insights from Björk to The Black...
How often does Couch Wisdom release new episodes?
Couch Wisdom has 92 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Couch Wisdom?
You can listen to Couch Wisdom on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Couch Wisdom?
Couch Wisdom is created and hosted by Red Bull.
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