Studio Radicals: A new music podcast from dCS

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Created with journalist, broadcaster and DJ Kate Hutchinson, our new podcast series celebrates individuals who are crafting unique sounds and bringing a fresh approach to music production

Series trailer:

What does it take to create a hit album? How do you craft a great sonic experience? And how can you push the record-making process to bring listeners daring and original sounds?

In Studio Radicals, we meet with artists, engineers and composers who are pushing their craft and shaping how music is made. Through in-depth interviews, we learn about their process and adventures in music. We also reflect on the art of crafting sonic worlds and creating albums that reflect an artist’s unique sound and vision.

A co-production from dCS and Kate Hutchinson - a London-based journalist, broadcaster and DJ - the series celebrates individuals who are challenging convention to bring us exciting and thought-provoking scores, songs and soundtracks.

In series 1, Kate travels from London to Los Angeles to speak with eight creatives - from experimental composers to renowned producers, artists and engineers...

Hannah Peel An Ivor Novello-winning composer who creates evocative pieces using a mix of instrumentation, electronic music and environmental sounds - from a Mercury Prize-nominated reimagining of archive sounds from the BBC’s famed Radiophonics Workshop, to an ethereal collaboration with the Paraorchestra, plus an intricate soundtrack for drama series The Midwich Cuckoos

Ebonie Smith An engineer, artist and producer who has worked on smash-hit albums and theatre soundtracks - including Hamilton: An American Musical - alongside supporting under-represented voices through Gender Amplified and collaborating with Angela Davis, Alice Randall and Roberta Flack.

Marta Salogni An award-winning engineer, mixer and producer known for her sonic experimentation, creative use of analogue tape machines, and work with artists including Björk, Black Midi, Bon Iver, English Teacher and Depeche Mode.

Suzanne Ciani A pioneering composer and sound designer renowned for her experiments in quadraphonic sound and musical effects for advertising and film.

Catherine Marks A GRAMMY-winning producer, mixer and engineer who has worked with some of alternative music’s leading names - including St Vincent, Wolf Alice and boygenius - to craft compelling albums filled with imaginative details

Maria Elisa Ayerbe A genre-defying engineer who has mixed everything from salsa to reggaeton to alt-rock, received numerous Latin GRAMMY nominations and supported up-and-coming Latin American acts through her South Mountain Music label.

Ramera Abraham A vocal producer who has worked with some of the UK’s biggest singers and girl groups - including Little Mix - to elicit great performances and write infectious harmonies.

Cicely Balston A mastering engineer based at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios, who started out mastering experimental projects for vinyl at Gearbox Studios and AIR before working on the late, great David Bowie’s back catalogue

When making the series, we set out to celebrate musical creatives who aren’t afraid to challenge convention - either through their sonic experimentation, their approach to collaboration, or their efforts to support and nurture new talent.

The series is our first co-production with Kate Hutchinson, who has reported on music and club culture worldwide for newspapers, radio and magazines, and created The Last Bohemians, a podcast celebrating maverick women in arts and culture. She has also curated events for Tate Modern, hosted radio shows for Worldwide FM and DJd at some of the UK’s biggest festivals. Work began on the series in 2024, with interviews taking place across the US and UK.

Over the years, we have collaborated with numerous engineers, artists and producers, developing the first hi-res audio DACs and ADCs for music studios in the 1980s, and providing playback equipment for artists and professionals to use in their workflow.

We strive to honour their work by creating products that reveal the full breadth of information within a recording, allowing listeners to appreciate the full impact and scale of an artist, producer and engineer’s vision.

Studio Radicals Host & Co-Creator Kate Hutchinson

Alongside this we aim to champion the people who make our work possible through creating original podcasts, playlists and films that celebrate musicians and music professionals.

Studio Radicals builds on these efforts. The podcast follows our Bartók Masters series, which spotlighted musicians and creatives using dCS Bartók in their workflow; our Mercury Living Presence podcast, which documented the pioneering work of music producer Wilma Cozart Fine, and our dCS Legends podcast, which featured interviews with GRAMMY-winning producers and engineers including Bob Ludwig, Leslie Ann Jones and the late Al Schmidt.

With this latest venture, we wanted to celebrate people who are driving change in their field and embracing a unique approach to recording, mixing, mastering and composition.

We hope the series will appeal to all those who love listening to music and hearing more about the process of bringing artistic ideas to life.

It’s been an honour to collaborate with Kate and hear the musical luminaries featured in Series 1 share their stories.

Episodes 1-3 of Studio Radicals will be released on April 23 2025.

A new episode will then be released each week from April 30 - May 27.

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Episodes will be available on all major podcast platforms and at dcsaudio.com/studioradicals, where you can also download transcripts and listen to music from artists, engineers and producers featured in the series.