Couch Wisdom
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.
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Top 10 Couch Wisdom Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Couch Wisdom episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Couch Wisdom for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Couch Wisdom episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Young Guru: Jay-Z's Engineer
Couch Wisdom
04/16/18 • 75 min
Young Guru is more than just an engineer. As Jay-Z's right-hand man in the studio, he oversees everything from sequencing to mixing, and his work on "Empire State of Mind" earned him a Grammy nomination. In this brilliant lecture at the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy, he talks stealing records to scour for samples and how Jay Electronica revived his faith in hip-hop.
George Clinton
Couch Wisdom
02/05/18 • 74 min
Music as we know it would look a lot different (and less colorful) without the contributions of George Clinton. From his early musical beginnings at Motown, he went on to form the bands Parliament and Funkadelic, two of the most important groups of the 1970s. As part of the Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York in 2015, the king of P-Funk sat down for a rare, intimate chat about his momentous life and career.
The Black Madonna
Couch Wisdom
12/04/17 • 50 min
One of the most respected DJs working today, The Black Madonna has never shied away from speaking up for women, people of color and the LGBTQ community, both on and off the dancefloor. In her lecture from the 2016 Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal, the former Midwest raver tells us what it takes to challenge the status quo.
Transcendent pop star Robyn
Couch Wisdom
06/10/19 • 72 min
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 of young women. Here, Robyn discusses key moments from the past 20 years, why she always thinks of Prince to keep in shape and the experiences that inform her long-awaited new album, with Adam “Kindness” Bainb
Essential French DJ Laurent Garnier
Couch Wisdom
06/03/19 • 63 min
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, eventually leading to a well-earned reputation for eclectic, marathon sets. Here, Garnier discussed everything from approaching techno like a jazz musician to the role of radio in his early musical discoveries.
Can's Damo Suzuki
Couch Wisdom
06/17/19 • 64 min
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 front Damo Suzuki’s Network, traveling the world to improvise and record with local bands. Here, he discusses his philosophy on “instant composing,” spirituality in making music and more.
Sound engineer Susan Rogers
Couch Wisdom
05/13/19 • 113 min
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 Associate Professor and Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory. Here, Rogers discussed the intricacies of listening, becoming a producer and her memories of working with Prince.
Mtume
Couch Wisdom
10/23/17 • 55 min
James Mtume may have crafted iconic LPs with Miles Davis, but it was his transition to R&B master that really set him apart. His duo with Reggie Lucas was an unstoppable force through the ’80s, and after decades of serving hit after hit, most notably the sampled-to-death “Juicy Fruit,” Mtume opens up at the Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo 2014.
Keyboardist and Funk Icon Bernie Worrell
Couch Wisdom
08/13/18 • 63 min
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 Keith Richards and Deee-Lite, and he’s among the most-sampled musicians ever. In his 2013 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, Worrell sat on the couch – and behind the Hammond – to discuss his biggest records and m
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FAQ
How many episodes does Couch Wisdom have?
Couch Wisdom currently has 92 episodes available.
What topics does Couch Wisdom cover?
The podcast is about Music, Podcasts, Music Interviews and Music Commentary.
What is the most popular episode on Couch Wisdom?
The episode title 'Can's Damo Suzuki' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Couch Wisdom?
The average episode length on Couch Wisdom is 60 minutes.
How often are episodes of Couch Wisdom released?
Episodes of Couch Wisdom are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Couch Wisdom?
The first episode of Couch Wisdom was released on Sep 5, 2017.
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