Tim Westergren on the Furious World
by daniel on Jan.14, 2010, under Furious World Guests
It was a priviledge to have Tim Westergren on our show; he’s the founder and creator of Pandora, the popular music website. He’s also a composer and producer with lots of experience in the industry; Tim now spends his time traveling the country, doing research for the Music Genome Project and spreading the word about Pandora. He had this to say about his experience on our show:
About a year ago Peter Himmelman came to Pandora for one of our midday office concerts at our makeshift stage/club. Most musicians when they perform live stick to a tried and true script. They play songs they’re comfortable with, well-practiced segues, even the jokes are the same. They know what works and it’s easy. That’s true of most public performers. Partly it’s a function of raw material – it’s hard to continually make new stuff, and there’s always a huge fear of a train wreck if you try enter untrod territory. No such thing with Peter. He performed with no net. It’s clear that he relishes the spontaneity – and he’s someone who performs a lot, so it’s not like he’s saving stuff up. As a listener it was really refreshing. And it turns out, par for the course, as I got another dose of it during the podcast I had the pleasure of participating in.
One of the challenges with technology is to avoid using it as a crutch. I’ve spent a lot of time around recording studios and the latest software technology (Peter’s got a pretty sweet setup himself at home). There’s really nothing you can’t do with sound anymore. My last band spent 3 weeks sequestered at a recording studio recording a dozen songs. It was great fun. Shortly after the retreat we played a live show in SF. We stunk.
I hope audiences will celebrate and support the artists who stretch themselves and keep burning the creative candle. Sometimes it will sound like crap. But sometimes.. often, it’s sublime.
Bravo, Peter.
Tim (Founder, Pandora)
Tim- it was a pleasure meeting you and having you on our show!
If you want to check out Pandora, head on over to pandora.com and setup a free account. It’s a great way to discover artists that sound like things you’re already listening to. They have millions of tracks, artists, and styles! I was just reading checking out Pandora One, which has tons of great additional features at the ridiculously low price of $36 a year.
