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I never intended for Erase the Filter to have seasons. And, in fact, I don’t think I ever publicly identified seasons for the podcast. Each time I’ve taken a break, and then started up the show again, I intended to just keep doing it indefinitely, but then the inevitable break would come. Once again I’m at a break point.
If none of this means anything to you, now would be a good time to stop listening to (or reading) a long winded, moderately relevant explanation of how this podcast has organically structured itself. But before you go, let me just say thank you for checking out the show and if you do enjoy it, please stay subscribed and at some point in the not-too-distant future, new shows will appear in your podcast app. Ok, now you may go…
For those of you still here, thanks for hanging out with me just a bit longer. So, the beginning of Erase the Filter was in 2018 when I was looking to do a more creative sound collage podcast that complemented my interest in experimental music and art. I was having conversations with artists about their work, having collaborators submit readings, and conduct their own interviews with interesting artists. It was definitely a podcast that I enjoyed listening to, but after six episodes I realized that I struggled to get away from the “journalistic” approach I had a established with my long running arts based interview podcast called Around the Wood Stove back in the early teens. I didn’t have the time or capacity for the format so I took a break which lasted the entire year of 2019. I ended up calling that Season 1.
At the beginning of 2020, ironically in hindsight, decided to bring back the show for my self proclaimed Year of Rhythm, committing to making a show each month and committing to moving away from the magazine format of promoting other artists and turning inward to my original goal of creating essentially an audio journal, inspired by the zine culture of the 1980s and 1990s. The show turned into a monthly audio collage of old recordings, new conversations, monolog, and original music and field recordings. I was off to a great start but by May of 2020, after five episodes, I was already so fatigued from everything that was going on, that I decided to press pause once again. That became Season 2.
After a sixteen month break and desire to get back into audio production, and really start flexing my creative muscles again, I decided to start things back up again to celebrate my 50th birthday in September 2021. I felt like the seven episodes that followed really captured the spirit of what I’ve been trying to accomplish with this podcast. But alas, here I am again at a stopping point where life stuff has bubbled up to a point where my capacity is limited and I’m just not able to spend the time I would like pulling together these podcasts. I have a ton of ideas, but also have a few other itches that I need to scratch, particularly with making music and writing. So, it seemed like the right time to take a break, focus on some other things, and call episode 18 the end of Season 3.
In a recent conversation with a friend about podcasting, we talked about the idea of making a finite number of shows to cover a certain topic or theme, and not producing in an ongoing infinite episodic way. I think that Erase the Filter is organically moving that direction. So during this intermission I’m going to think about the various themes I’ve been interested in exploring, and maybe I will move the show toward more intentional seasons with an established theme, and a beginning, middle, and end. We’ll see.
In the meantime, thank you for coming along with me on this journey. I’m assuming that if you’re hearing these words, you have found some value in what I’ve created with this podcast, and that is very much appreciated. Stay subscribed to the show, and new stuff will appear some day. If you’d like to keep up with the other creative things I’m doing, I’m using my Instagram feed to publish little bits and links to my creative pursuits. You can find me over there at @jason_mundok. And I’ll continue posting here at EraseTheFilter.com. See you soon.