Theme Song: Apostrophe Soul Radio
Apostrophe Soul Radio,
Where Soul Meets Story.
When my friend Mary approached me about starting a podcast, I thought—sure, why not? I had no idea how to do it. But, I figured it would be an excellent way to offer different forms of content for our new business, while having fun in the process. There are many podcasts I really enjoy listening to, and the idea of creating one seemed like an interesting adventure. I had worked in production for theater, and music—but not radio. There is a lot of work involved in getting everything started, but it was work we both really enjoyed. Fortunately, I was able to draw from and combine the things I did know with everything I didn’t, and we learned how to create and produce a podcast together!
In our many conversations about what we wanted this business to be, we kept circling back to the importance of engaging the soul. We wanted to create something that would inspire people, through the art of storytelling, to grow in their own creativity and self awareness. To be in the highest vibration of joy. With all of this in mind, I was reflecting on what the sound of our podcast could be. What is joy, in sonic form? Mary thought it would be fun to play with an old-time radio feel, since a lot of what we do is finding and sharing the stories of things lost to time. I loved this, but was cautious about creating something happy that wasn’t cheesy. I wanted it to be genuine, and authentic to what inspiration feels like.
I went to the beach a lot, and listened—I tried to be as open as possible in what came through. As I played with different melodies and cadences, I was thinking about the feeling I have when walking on the shore and looking across the sea. I connected to what it felt like to breath in the air as mist rises off the water. I thought about the enigma of it, how water is a giver and taker of life. How everything that brings us joy can become our deepest sorrow. And I realized that joy is complex—it’s a light feeling, it is bliss—but it is in balance with its opposite by the nature of polarity. So I thought…what pulls us out of our darkest emotional places and helps us reach a state of joy? For me, the answer to that is expressing the truth of how I feel. Of acknowledging and releasing the darkest feelings, to allow space for joy to come in. And that was it—space. Creativity. Inspiration. The lithe bliss of light dancing on the water. The timeless energy and mystery of the sea, and all of its stories.
In creating the music, I played with breath, pace, and the feeling of waves breaking. I didn’t want it to feel too strictly measured in its rhythm, and to have a freeform quality. I worked with my friend Jason, who is also a fantastic force in our new company. He brought his guitar and we played with different levels of brightness, to add more texture and color to the sound. And then, it was there—our theme song, which became a beautiful collaboration and a solid introduction to what our message is.
Here is our theme song music for our podcast, Apostrophe Soul Radio:
Made of Shimmer, Sea, and Sonic Imagination.
Where Soul Meets Story.
Mary Beth Kaplan: Spoken Vocals
Jason Kaplan: Guitar
Jessie Howe: Vocals (Singing and Spoken), Piano, Effects.
Recorded & Edited in my home space of Renaissance Skye Studio.