Podcast Side Project: Episode 4

This week, we had the head of Student Services, Caleb, be our interviewee for our 4th episode, which we were all keen for as we've never really met him before. Also, due to everyone in the group getting more occupied with main and side projects, we've decided from now on to split our whole podcast and do an interview every fortnight and have album reviews in between, so then it reduces the workload we need to prepare for the podcast each week. Anyway let's get into what happened in episode 4.

We all sat down around the table and I could see Caleb was a bit nervous but I couldn't blame him, as I'd be nervous if I had to do an interview with a bunch of students I've never spoken to before. The podcast began and and it was my turn to start the podcast of with the theme song, and yes, you guessed it, it didn't go well : ) My mouth just somehow couldn't keep up with my brain and I just mumbled shit but everyone including myself laughed it off. Anyway, after that mess, we started with asking Caleb to tell us about him and what he does. He began with telling us that he just recently joined SAE and is now the SSA for the uni, and that he came from a high school sector. Caleb's role as a SSA is to help the students with any part of their life, whether it be at home or struggling with studies.

We also asked him about what inspired him to do all the free food events and other events such as Superhero Week and he explained that it's a great way to connect with people and I thought that's what we really need, as I only get to see students in other disciplines in CIU and that's only once a week. With Superhero Week, he explained that all superheroes aren't perfect and that they don't come from perfect backgrounds and it relates to the students, which I thought was a great way to relate to the students as I didn't know what the event was about. This topic then led to a good discussion about everyone's favourite superheroes and superhero movies but since I'm not a fan of any of these, I couldn't really understand what they were talking about, which was a tad awkward for me but it was good.

It was also interesting to know that Caleb finds the issues that he had to deal with in high school are quite similar to the ones here at SAE and that it all relates to mental health and that students from can suffer from mental health issues, even after high school. It was also sad to hear that he was bullied and he didn't have anyone to talk to that helped students with mental health issues or with bullying, so he wanted to help students that had this issues and that is how he became involved with student services.

It was also surprising to hear that he hasn't really been to any live concerts or isn't really a music person, which is totally fine. I think he's more into movies from what I hear as I know now he's a big fan of superheroes and those kinds of movies, but it was just strange to hear that he's not really into music, as I've never really met anyone that isn't a fan of any sort of music.

Album Review

For album reviews, I got given an album by Stephen which was Blood Red River by The Scientists. The Scientists are a post-punk band from Perth and this album was released in 1983. I thought the album was mixed well and it was interesting to hear delay and reverb effects on most of the tracks as most punk songs I've heard have dry and upfront vocals. All the instruments had their own space in the mix which was interesting to hear as well as most punk songs are also upfront. This would be an album I'd listen to while driving through a desert on a hot day doing 110km, and going offload. I also felt a Lord of Dogtown kind of vibe as I felt like this would be an album that skateboarders would be listening to in the 70s in LA, California. Anyway I thought the album was pretty good, and I gave it a 7/10.

For next week, Liam gave me Tyler, The Creator's newest album Flower Boy to review in two weeks and I am really excited. I haven't listened to the album thoroughly and now this will give me the time to listen through it and also analyse it. I know the album will be good because well, it's Tyler, The Creator and most of the songs I've heard so far from that album is bloody good.

Anyway, check out my next blog post of next week's episode where we interview one of our first lecturers we had when we started studying here, Adrian, and also look out for my album review on Flower Boy.