Natalie Coughlin interview

Six is the age at which Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin first began swimming competitively. Six is the number of iPods she owned when I first met her late last year during a west coast Olympic promotional tour. And six is also the number of medals she’s bringing home from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, whose closing ceremonies took place just last night. I caught up with Natalie late last week to ask her about her just-concluded Olympic experiences – and of course to talk some more iPod and iPhone.

You just won six more medals, including two gold, in the Beijing Olympics. Is it fair to say that you surpassed your own expectations?



Although I am very happy with my performances, I definitely did not exceed my expectations. It’s important to aim high. (Also, only one gold.)

You developed the iSH2 for iPod shuffle with H2O Audio. How were you able to use the product for your own Olympic training and  preparation?

There are several different training groups while you are training  prior to the Olympics.  On the days that I was in my own group I used my  iSH2 to help keep the workouts interesting and so I wouldn’t get too  lonely.

Last time we spoke, you said you couldn’t wait to get an iPhone. Have you taken the plunge and what do you think of it so far?

I’ve had the iPhone for quite a while now and just got the new one.  I absolutely love it and all the new Apps are incredibly addictive.

Now that the Olympics are over, what’s next for you?

A nice long break :)

•••••

And for the complete story, here’s the full text of my earlier interview with Natalie from late 2007…

“My first iPod was probably the second generation of the original iPod. I held out for a little bit,” Natalie told me as we sat poolside during a break from a campaign which included promotions for the U.S. Olympic Committee and NBC. Life isn’t always this hectic for her, but the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are fast approaching and “things are pretty crazy.”

“I have not been to China before but I’ve seen pictures of the facility and it looks like a giant glass bubble. It looks really, really beautiful and I can’t wait to see it,” Natalie said of the Olympic facilities being constructed in Beijing. The 2008 games will be halfway around the world from Athens, the site of the 2004 games where she cleaned up with two gold medals and five medals in all.

Natalie has different goals for Beijing. “I feel like I have less pressure this time, just because the way swimming works is you’re validated through the Olympics and you only have that opportunity every four years. Going into the last Olympics I remember having these interviews where the interviewer would say, oh you have world records and American records but you don’t have that gold, and things like that and it puts so much pressure on me to get that Olympic medal and I feel like I’ve done that. And now I can just focus on myself in the next games.”


Traveling the world means that Natalie reaches for her video iPod the most often, downloading shows including The Office and Ugly Betty and watching them when she finds herself in a part of the world where those shows aren’t available.

While the iPod has played a role in her life for the past five years, swimming has been a part of it for much longer. “When I was six years old I dreamt of being in the Olympics but that really meant nothing at that point. I had no idea what the Olympics even were let alone how you would get there. I was thirteen years old when I realized it was a possibility that I could make the olympic team and I didn’t even think of swimming professionally until that actually happened.”

It was during her junior year of college, right around the launch of the original iPod, that Natalie started to think that she’d continue swimming beyond school and do it for a living. But it wasn’t until recently that she was able to begin taking her iPod with her into the water.

“I just partnered with a company called H2O Audio and they are in the process of developing what’s called the iSH2 and that’s my signature line and it’s an underwater housing for the little shuffle,” making Natalie one of an increasing number of athletes involved in the development of iPod-related products. So far she’s used her iPod during a thirty-minute swimming competition in Fiji.

If the professional athlete’s signature sneaker has now given way to the signature iPod accessory, perhaps it only makes sense when placed in the context of the music itself. Training can be lonely for Natalie, so she relies on music to get her through workouts. As she puts it, “it keeps me going.”

When it comes to music, Natalie finds herself listening to every modern genre but country, with current favorites including Paolo Nutuni and Alicia Keys. But not all of her music fits into every aspect of her life as an athlete: “I love Jack Johnson but I’m not going to listen to his stuff on the day of a meet.”

Along with her current iPods, Natalie wants to make another addition to her collection. “I can’t wait to get an iPhone. I’ve played with it in the stores and that’s about it. And I love it. It’s the coolest thing. I can’t wait because the screen is way bigger and then I’m really into photography, so to have all my photos in such rich color and bigger than on my video iPod.”

Natalie was hired by MSNBC to help cover the 2006 Winter Olympics as a sportscaster. She envisions moving to the broadcast booth full-time at some point, but likely not until after competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Now at age twenty-five, she’s encouraged by the increasing career lifespan in her sport but eventually wants to have a “normal life” and a family.

One thing isn’t likely to change though. With six iPods already, an iPhone on the way, a MacBook in tow, and a penchant for editing photos in Aperture and cranking out web pages in iWeb, Natalie Coughlin sums it up best herself: “I’m pretty obsessed with Apple products.”

Podsafe Cafe: Wil Deynes

You have amassed over a million plays on MySpace alone. What is the inspiration behind your album and why do you think so many people connect to it?

I think part of the reason why people connect with my music is because I keep it simple. When I was writing Stay, I never really had a plan on how the record should sound. The only thing that I wanted was to not have a bunch of songs that sounded alike. I feel that that was important in order to appeal to not just one group of people, but to many different people, on different levels.

Its funny, because you hear Super Wonderful, and people say that that’s the hit. Then other people hear Better Way, and love that song. I get that with every song on the EP. After all, music is a matter of taste, different people have different tastes. Right now I am in the process of rerecording a few songs in spanish as well, and remixing of some of my songs by some pretty good MC’s (Marketing baby)!

How did you get involved with new media? What type of success have you had using the web to promote your music?

I am a Mac guy who lives on the internet, so it seems natural for me to use it to get my music out there. No time in history can a band be international and not have to actually, physically live there. All because Al Gore created the internet (LOL), thanks Al!

As far as success, one million plays and counting on MySpace, great reviews and TV/Film placement. That’s has all been great for me. But, I can honestly say, I just played a show in NJ and when i was packing up, this little girl, about five years old, came up to me and said “wow you’re pretty good”. That made my day! That’s success! The little things make it worth it! 

Your album is available as a “pay what you want” download on your website. When/why did you start that and how has the response been (was it much different from previous releases)?

As an indie artist with no label, you have to find a way to get people to not only listen, but to buy your music. It was hard at first, because I put a lot of time and money into recording. But in the end it just made sense to have people pay what they want. Hell, you can download my music on bittorrent and limewire anyway. I figured, if you appreciate what you’re hearing, then send me some money. Support the little guy. Your donation goes directly to the artist. Either way it’s yours, you own it, no DRM. I don’t think I will ever charge a set price for my music. I think in this new age of media, you have to find alternate ways of making money off your music. Also, people are so fed up with the way the RIAA has gone about doing business, trying to sue everyone for what? So that instead of making 100 million dollars, they make 90? What’s the difference?

You’ve described yourself as a “Mac tech by day, musician by night” – how do you balance the two careers?

Not by choice, it’s really hard. i have to work in order to pay bills, record new songs etc etc, it’s like having four jobs. When I get home from work, second shift begins. I respond to friends’ emails (I refer to all fans as friends). Book rehearsals, book gigs, you name it. Oh….and I also have to practice. I love making music and I love every aspect that goes along with it.

With so many Apple users being musicians, has your tech support work led you to meet people in the music industry, or vice versa?

That’s a great question. I have met a few people. but it’s hard to try and sell yourself when you have a pissed off person on a deadline with a machine that keeps acting up. (yes Macs do have their problems). I keep it very professional at all times. If I am there to fix your machine, that’s what I am there for. I think one of the biggest things in this business is establishing relationships. And the ones that I have managed to obtain, are ones that were established when the other person inquired about my music, not me shoving it down their throat. I think what many people forget, is when you make it all about you, people tend not to care. When you make it about them people care a whole lot more.

As a current iPhone user, what’s your take on the new 3G iPhone?

I love my iPhone, but I hate the fact that Apple has so much control over a device that I have purchased, which should be mine. I understand that Apple and AT&T want to make money, but Apple voiding a warranty for unlocking/jailbreaking your iPhone is silly. Did I mention, still no replaceable battery? But hey you bet your ass I’m getting a 3G iPhone, so I can get those web pages three whole seconds faster LOL.

AppMinute for iPhone

Why are third-party applications important to the iPhone platform?

Third-party applications will create functionality into the iPhone that it does not have out of the box. This will appeal to a much broader spectrum of potential buyers. At the moment, there is no one “killer app” that sells the iPhone. Eventually, a third party iPhone developer will come out with an application or game that people will buy the iPhone just to get access to. This is what happened with personal computers back in the 1970s. It was not until VisiCalc came out on the Apple II that people started to see a reason to even own a computer. All of a sudden, you could use a computer to do your finances on, even complex stuff, fairly simply. That will happen with the iPhone, or maybe the BlackBerry, eventually. 


What can readers learn about iPhone apps by visiting AppMinute?

We (Myself and Sam Levin) link to both interesting iPhone / iPod Touch news and the latest cool Apps worth downloading. There are a number of really great iPhone focused websites out there, providing original content that people want to know about.

Our site is designed to point people in the right direction, making finding content worth reading easy. We also search the internet to find iPhone related video, and post those on the site as well. These could include video reviews, previews, or what have you. 

What future plans for AppMinute can you share with us?

We have many plans, but most we are keeping close to the vest for now. However, one thing we are looking at is creating an iPhone Developer Connection service (free) on the site that will act as a gateway between developers, as well as companies looking to hire developers. We want to become a “one stop shopping” site for all things iPhone App related. 

What are your favorite apps so far?

I love AOL Radio, mostly for the two comedy stations. Uncensored and full of really great content. I don’t know who programs that particular channel, but they have great taste. I also enjoy a few of the 80s channels on there. 

Both the MySpace and Facebook Apps are decent, and in fact they facilitate me actually using both those services more than I ever did in the past. 
My favorite, however, would still be a toss-up between the iPod and Safari. The iPhone has now replaced my iPod, and the ability to browse the internet no matter where I am has spoiled me to no end. 

What’s the latest scoop with MyMac, your “other” publication?

MyMac.com is still my passion, and while I enjoy AppMinute.com, I don’t have the emotional connection to it that I do with MyMac. We are moving into our 14th year of publishing, and while we have come a long way since 1995, I have not lost my passion for it. We only publish original content, and have some of the most creative and honest writers on the Mac scene. Companies, both Mac and iPod / iPhone related, have been seeking us out to review their products in record numbers over the last year, so that is exciting. Our large staff is once again already gearing up for Macworld Expo in January, an event we usually have ten or so staffers covering. Things are going really well in the land of Macintosh for us, and I hope my newest venture, AppMinute.com, can become as popular as MyMac.

Photos from New Media Expo

Photos from the 2008 New Media Expo in Las Vegas. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the iProng booth, we hope you enjoyed our non-stop live podcasting…

Photos from Coverville 500

Photos from the Coverville 500 concert at the 2008 New Media Expo in Las Vegas. We enjoyed the show and hope you did as well…

August 25th issue with Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin and more – read it now!

Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV

New Media Expo has seen its share of notable podcasters take the keynote stage, and this year is no different as Gary Vaynerchuk of the popular video podcast Wine Library TV is set to deliver the Thursday morning keynote address. Intent on bringing wine to the masses, Gary has had massive success in using New Media tools to promote his show, and he’s been tapped to appear on mainstream outlets ranging from Conan O’Brien to Ellen Degeneres. I recently caught up with Gary to get some background on how he’s made this far, as well as a preview of what attendees can expect from his upcoming keynote address.

A lot of people start a podcast about some random topic, maybe something they just want to explore a little more, but in your case you grew up around wine, right?


Yes. You know, I come from a place of, I’d like to hope and think, a little bit of knowledge. It’s something I did my whole, basically my whole career, before I started a video blog, was, you know, the wine retail business. And I lived and breathed wine 24-7-365. So it’s definitely something I’m comfortable and obviously, you know, hopefully a little bit knowledgeable about.

This is a family business. What did your family think when you first said, I’m gonna do a wine-tasting video podcast, video blog, and it’s supposed to help business? Were they skeptical?

You know, I think at that point I’d gained so much street cred within, you know, the world. I mean really it’s my dad and I, so really he was the only that I had to kind of really talk about it with. But I’ve been running operations for a decade, and you know, when you take your family business from three million a year to fifty million a year, you’ve got some credibility, you know? You’re allowed to play a little bit. And so I think that, you know, just like my parents have been, I think they were very confident that there was something behind it and that I wasn’t doing this for kicks and giggles. But regardless, I’ll be honest with you, this was something I just knew I had to do. And you know, it really wasn’t even so much for day to day Wine Library business. It was really more about changing the culture of wine and doing something that made me happy. So that’s really what was most important to me.

Usually when you think wine you’re thinking connoisseurs, upper class two hundred dollar bottles of wine. But you’re going in a whole different direction, right? You’re aiming more toward the masses with Wine Library TV.

Yeah, you know I felt that I can leverage New Media to show people a cooler, more exciting wine culture, something that people could wrap their head around. I just feel that wine is on a pedestal that it has no interest in being on. It’s way to foofy-foofy in society. I think of it as a product that brings people together and is pretty awesome, and I wanted to shed a different light on Pinot. And I felt I could do that leveraging social media, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, you know, things of that nature, and that’s what I’ve been very passionate about. And luckily, somewhat successful.

You’ve been promoting the show using the social networks you mentioned. You do the show every day, and of course you’re still running your business. Why is it important to carve out time to do things like, you know, posting little random stuff on Twitter all day?

It’s actually become my full-time job. My day to day operations at Wine Library I’ve been handing off more and more every day. It’s important because you want to be part of the conversation and you want to engage your community. You know, it’s very important to me for me to put myself out there and spend time with people and, you know, answer wine questions or questions about other things whether it’s marketing or branding or business. I just want to be part of the conversation. I want to be with the people. And so it’s my lifeline. It’s my oxygen. I need it. So it’s not only important, it’s really everything.

So are you one of these folks who kind of goes nuts when Twitter goes down or the “replies” tab gets broken?

No, because I get about a thousand emails a day. So actually I think I’m relieved, so I can actually go do the emails, cause I don’t want to keep those people waiting too long. You know, I’ve always got something to do. So obviously Twitter’s fun and when it goes down there’s another place to go, you know, whether it’s Facebook or Pownce or my inbox or somewhere else.

The show is about wine tasting, so why are you on there licking rocks and eating dirt and stuff like that?

You know, episode 148 is a real historic episode of Wine Library TV. It’s when I did that. It was to show people what I did to build my palette, and how I built my palette when I was seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, to get into wine but my parents wouldn’t let me drink. I would read the tasting notes of wine and I would then go out and basically taste those things. So a Blackberry, Black Current, Cassis, you know, rocks. Whatever, you know, oyster shells, grass, black pepper. Whatever it took, I wanted to taste those things so that I could then pick them up, the subtleties of them in wine. Obviously if I’ve never had Cassis, how the heck was I gonna know what it tasted like when I tasted it in wine? And so that was a very important process of my career, even though it seems extreme, it was a big foundations of my palette.

When you’re on Conan or Ellen it seems like the thing that they want to focus the most on is eating the weird stuff. Do you feel like they’re trying to make it into a gimmick, whereas you have a more legitimate reason for doing it?

Yeah I think at some point maybe, but don’t forget I don’t care because I get the trade-off of getting millions of people to find out who I am and maybe come to the show and see what we’re doing, you know? And it is funny, and it is fun, and you know, I’m more than comfortable in making fun of myself. You know, I’m a New York Jets fan, I can handle a lot. So I just think it’s a part of the process, it’s one dimension. You know, I feel comfortable that I have a lot of dimensions, and so I hope that people start out by seeing it and being curious. And I’m sure some people will see that and be turned off by it and I respect that. But you know, I’m gonna work my face off and work real hard to show up on their radar again, and then hopefully when they see it the second or third or fourth time, they realize there’s a lot going on here.

I know there are lot of people who watch your show who are not necessarily a wine drinker, they just find the show entertaining. But for someone who’s never really gotten into wine, maybe they’ve taken a sip here and there but it’s just never caught on, what would be the first steps that they should take to become a wine drinker?

We should realize that wine is probably one of the only luxury items out there that doctors allow us, we can’t even eat anymore, right? I mean wine is like the one thing everybody agrees is healthy. So it’s a healthy beverage too. It’s phenomenal, it tastes great, and everybody hates it at first, and I think people need to wrap their head around that. Ninety percent of the people that taste wine for the first time dislike it. But then there’s a flip of a switch. And so the big thing to understand is you need to try as many different things and you need to trust your own palette. I don’t want to hear people rolling up on me anymore saying I’m sorry, I have an unsophisticated palette, you know? Nobody needs to be sorry for what their taste buds are. So go out, try different wines, don’t take it too serious, and I think what’s gonna happen is you’re gonna have an epiphany wine. You’re gonna be out with friends or doing something, watching games, drinking something. And you’re gonna taste something and be like wait a minute, this is pretty serious, I like this. And then the journey begins.

So if someone out there, it turns out that their favorite wine is some sort of wine that is cheap and everyone else makes fun of them for it, you’re saying that’s okay?

I think that’s great. I mean if you want to drink White Zinfandel or if you want to drink, you know, Yellowtail, that’s fine. But don’t drink it like it’s got the cure inside. I mean try different things. And way too many people find a wine they like and they drink it until, you know, they’re peeing out that flavor. And so I really would like to see people expand their palette, try as many different things, and that’s where I get really excited.

You’ve introduced some different terminology on your show, for instance there’s one that’s in the title of your book, you use it on your show all the time, “Bring Thunder.” What does that mean?

In high school when we used to play hoops and play NHL ‘94 on Sega Genesis, if you did anything good, you brought thunder. You know, no matter what. If you picked up a girl, you brought thunder. It was just a term that me and my friends used, and you know, I just subtly brought it back somehow when I was doing Wine Library TV. People caught onto it and really enjoyed it, and it just kind of became a life of its own. And you know, it’s just a slang term that I’ve used from back in the old school that has just kind of been resurrected on WLTV.

So these are things, you say things like “sniffy-sniff” and “link that up,” these aren’t things that you’re sitting around trying to think up, this is the way you naturally speak?

I think those kind of things that you try to naturally think up become very non-authentic, which is going to kill you. Not that I haven’t said oh man, this is fun, let’s come up with more stuff. But I just can’t force it because the thing is, I black out when I do Wine Library TV anyway. So even if I had a really solid gameplan going in, it would be thrown out the window. So I kind of just go natural.

You say you black out, I’ve also read that this is unscripted, you don’t have cue cards or anything. So this is just from the top of your head once the camera’s rolling?

Straight from the hip, my man. Straight from the hip. Five hundred episodes almost, never an edit on WLTV, just we rip it. And that’s how it rolls. And so it’s how I feel comfortable. When I do national television, things of that nature, I actually get upset because they want to, except when I do Conan and when it’s live, you know? I mean, people just try to over-produce. And I think when it’s real and transparent and authentic, it dominates. And you know, that’s why I love improv comedy.

Did you know all along that you wanted your show to be video and not just audio?

No, I guess I didn’t, you know? The audio podcasting thing kind of slipped through my radar, I was just in the middle of building a forty thousand square foot store. I kind of very much paid attention to blogging, but you know, that whole thing kind of went and passed me by cause I’m just not an unbelievable writer, even though I wrote a book. And then audio had, you know let’s be honest, audio had like that one year window before video was kind of available as well. And in that window I kind of just was too busy. And then by the time I kind of got back onto paying attention to what was going on, video was available as well and it just felt like a more common, more obvious platform for me cause wine is pretty visual and I thought I could do a lot more things with being a little bit more visual and so that’s how that kind of happened.

How did you end up making the decision to this every weekday, as opposed to just once or twice a week, or something that would be easier on you?

Because I’m hungry and I’m raw like that. I don’t understand anything unless it’s at a hundred thousand miles an hour. And so if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do it for my community and my fanbase until I was gonna bleed out of my eyeballs. And so that’s just the work ethic that I come with. And so it just made sense. I felt listen, I could put out a lot more content, you know? I kind of make fun of myself that I don’t do it seven days a week.

You’re going to be giving a keynote address at New Media Expo on August 14th. Obviously we don’t want you to give away the whole thing here, because we want people to actually go and see it in person. But just in general, what can people expect from you when they go to see you give a speech like that?

Pure passion. Looking to give value. Not looking to go up there and brag about what I’ve done. Maybe try to give a blueprint to people being able to see or achieve the same kind of success as I’ve had in a genre or niche that is meaningful and passionate to their soul. Talk about different scenarios, and a crapload of Q&A so I can answer questions of what people really want to know about. And so, you know, that’s really where I’m gonna come from because that’s what’s most important to me. You know, when I speak, I’m there to help, I’m there to give, and I’m not up there to promote. And so that is going to be a massive, massive part of what I’m doing. And really trying to talk about this gold rush of personal branding and building community and giving back. I’ve got a lot of things I’m passionate about, and really we’ll see where the crowd is vibing, and I like to really adjust or mold into where I think the sense of direction is of the audience.

Interview with Night Ranger

Back in January I was in an elevator at Macworld Expo with Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Tommy Shaw of Styx, headed down to the Apple booth to do a Shaw-Blades photo shoot for iProng Magazine issue #3, and at one point I thought I saw Jack pull out an iPhone and check his email on it. But in my haste to get the photo shoot wrapped before Apple could change their mind about letting us use their booth, I never got a chance to ask him about it.

Half a year later, Night Ranger has just released their new album Hole in the Sun, and I’m given the opportunity to interview Jack Blades about the band’s present and past. Jack is the band’s bass player and co-lead singer, and even in the band’s third decade, he speaks as passionately and enthusiastically about Night Ranger as ever. But first things first: did I really see you with an iPhone?

“You better believe it,” he says. “What I love the most about it it’s like all in one, man, everything. The fact that it can just sync it up to my laptop, you know, cause I’ve been an Apple guy forever. That’s what I do. I’m an Apple guy. You know, musicians, artists, they’re all Apple guys. So I’ve been on Apple, you know, with all my computers.”

Hole in the Sun is Night Ranger’s first new album in a decade, and the band best known for hit songs such as “Sister Christian” and “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” has a lot of history to live up to. So how do you deal with the expectations from your entrenched fanbase, along with those who know you from your hits and those who are just encountering your music for the first time?

“If you think about all those kind of things, you can trip yourself up. I mean years and years and years ago, when we had out Midnight Madness album out and it sold like four or five million copies, and then the label of course wanted us to get right back in after we toured for like two years straight, like ‘get back in there and do another record,’ and I was like, you know, there’s a lot of pressure on there. It’s like you’ve got to follow up your second record that was like so huge with your third record.”

“And I was freaking out about it, and I was talking to Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, who’s a good friend of mine, and we were just sitting around and I said man, I got all this, you know I’m thinking I’ve gotta write hits, we need to have hits, we gotta have that, and you know what he said to me? He says “Jack, man, I gotta tell you, you just go in and make another record. You just do what you do. You just go in and make another record. And after that, you make another record then. And you just keep just making records. And if you get all caught up in your head, it’s not gonna be right. You just make the record that’s in your heart at that time. You just go in there and do it. And it seemed so simple to me, and I’m like, oh! You know what I mean? And I went okay, so we went in there and had a real successful third album too, but I mean I have to hand it to Gibbons on that one, you know? He made me just slow down and go wait a minute, just go in there and do what you do, make another record.”

“So expectation-wise, all we can do is write songs that are in our heart, you know, and that are where we are. I mean here we are in 2008 and the record Hole in the Sun is where we all are right now. This is the music we’re playing right now, this is the music we just created, this is the music that’s coming out of us right now, and so be it, you know what I mean? I mean there’s always expectations, and I’ll never be able to make a record that sounds like our first album Dawn Patrol or our second album Midnight Madness, cause those records were made in the early eighties. I mean it’s like if I did that, I would be lying to myself because that would mean that twenty-something years of experience amounted to nothing, and no forward progression. Can you imagine that? Look at the iPhone. Why don’t you just make another iPhone like the old one, you know? How about me make something new and different and exciting, and let’s keep growing, you know that I mean? And it’s the same thing with out music, that’s kind of the way we feel.”

So is that mindset that’s led to your longevity in the industry, both with Night Ranger and with your other projects? “I think so, I think it’s that and just being fresh to everything and playing with a lot of different people. I mean you know, playing with the Damn Yankees and with Shaw-Blades with Tommy and I, you know, you saw us down there at Macworld in January, and just all those kind of, all the different people that I play with, man I’ve jammed with and played with Roger Daltrey from The Who, and all these people. You know, this is what my life is. I played with Ringo Starr, I did Ringo’s VH1 Storytellers, you know, I just love it.”

“This is my chosen field, I’m a musician. Its just like a doctor, after twenty years of doing something, doesn’t just decide hey forget it, you’re not a doctor anymore. No, that’s what you do. And my chosen field is as a musician. And I’ll just keep playing music, I don’t care where it is or who it is or who I’m playing for, that’s what I do. And that’s what I’ll keep doing for the rest of my life.”

It seems like rock bands stereotypically have a built-in hierarchy in which the lead singer is nearly irreplaceable and therefore the top dog, with the lead guitarist perched just beneath him, and the rhythm section not necessarily allowed to speak. How does that work with Night Ranger, where the two lead singers just happen to be from the rhythm section?

“”It’s funny. I thought about that, and it’s like [drummer Kelly Keagy] and I learned that long ago. I mean the bass player and the drummer are the first two guys to get fired, right? And we’re like okay, listen, we can get job security. What if we write the songs and sing them, we’ve got a little job security here, you know what I mean? And so we went for the job security. It just worked out real well for us.”

And just how did the band end up with two lead singers, when most bands only have one? “We never even thought about that. When we started playing and singing together, we were just like okay, this one sounds better for your voice, you do this one, okay this one sounds, I’ll do this one, you do this one, and I think, you know that? I think that when we were starting out in Night Ranger and all that kind of stuff, Kelly and I were always such big Beatles fans, and so it was a natural thing for me to think that it would be okay to have two lead singers, like John Lennon sings and Paul McCartney sings.”

Back at Macworld Expo, Jack shared the story of how Night Ranger’s biggest hit song, Sister Christian, actually began life with a different name:

“We were doing it, and Kelly wrote the song about his sister whose name is Christy, and she grew up in a small town in Oregon where they would just, you know, on Friday and Saturday night they’d be cruising up and down the streets, or what they called motorin’. You know, so they’d be, let’s go motorin’ up and down the streets. And so one day, we all thought that Kelly was singing ‘Sister Christian’ and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, because he was going ‘Sister Christy oh the time has…’ and I always thought, when we were just rehearsing it and jamming it out and stuff, I always thought he was saying Sister Christian. And one day he wrote down the lyrics, he said ‘Sister Christy’ and I’m like what? What do you mean Sister Christy? And he goes no, that’s my sister’s name. And I said dude, I thought it was Sister Christian. And he goes no, no, my sister’s name is Christy, it’s not Christian. And I said man, we’ve gotta call it Sister Christian. And he’s like, well I can’t do that, my sister’s name is Christy, how can I call it Christian? And I’m like dude, poetic license. We can change it. I mean Sister Christian, that sounds so much cooler. And he goes, you really think so? And I’m like yeah man, for sure it should be Sister Christian. And he was like okay, so we changed it to Christian, and that’s what happened, I mean with apologies to his sister Christy.”

But the story got even better, as one fan tried to interpret the song: “We had just finished the soundcheck in Rochester, Minnesota and we were going through the, you know, getting some food before the show and the lady that was dishing out the food for us said, you know my daughter, she’s been listening to that Sister Christian song over and over and over. It was right in 1984 when the song was a huge hit, and you know, the show was sold out, and we were like well yes ma’am, that’s really great. And she says, ‘Say, is that about a nun who sells dope to school kids? And we look at each other and we’re like ‘Yes ma’am, it is.’ And then we just walked away. This poor lady, you know, never destroy the dream, right?”

So what can new and old fans of the band expect from Hole in the Sun? “It’s the hardest rocking Night Ranger record since Dawn Patrol, since our first record. And I think the fans are gonna be, everybody’s gonna be really excited about it, just the fact that it’s twin blazing lead guitars, twin vocals, you know, lots of big choruses, just everything you expect from Night Ranger circa 2008. And I think that once people check out the record they’re gonna be very happy at what they hear. And we’re excited about playing all summer and we’re looking forward to seeing everybody out on the road with us.”

iPod touch: ten months evolved

When the iPod touch started to trickle out to Apple retail stores last September I managed to grab one of the first ones, and within a few hours of getting it out of the box I was able to surmise that it was anything but the “iPhone without a phone” that some users had been hoping for ever since the iPhone was first announced. A quick hands-on comparison between my iPhone, which at that point I’d come to rely on quite heavily, and my iPod touch, which I’d only bought for testing purposes, revealed fifteen immediately identifiable features missing from the touch, none of which had to do with not being able to make a phone call.



My little list of fifteen missing features turned out to be one of the very first hands-on assessments of the iPod touch, and as such it was linked to by everyone everywhere, made the front page of Digg, and fairly or unfairly got me labeled as an iPod touch hater. I don’t suppose I’ve done much to challenge that label in the past ten months (I’ve often been quoted as saying that you should either buy a real iPhone or a traditional iPod, not an iPod dressed up as a fake iPhone). But regardless of how the iPod touch measures up to the iPhone, the touch has evolved significantly from a software standpoint over the past ten months and so the release of the 2.0 update seems like a good time to revisit my original list of fifteen missing features. None of this is meant to disparage the iPod touch; in fact it’s just the opposite, as many of its original deficiencies have since been mitigated or erased completely. Join me as we take a look at how much the gap has closed since the touch debuted. On the following pages you’ll find my original September 2007 assessment, followed by my July 2008 updated prognosis…

EDGE network



September 2007: Just because the iPod touch has Safari and the iTunes Store doesn’t mean you’ll be able to use either of them whenever you feel like it. If you’re not within range of a wifi network, you’re not getting online with the iPod touch. If wifi access is sparse in your daily routine, you may find yourself wishing you had the iPhone and its (slow but almost always accessible no matter where you are) EDGE network. If you live amongst pervasive open wifi access (say, on a college campus) then you might not miss EDGE at all.



July 2008: Nothing’s changed here, beyond the fact that the iPhone now comes with faster 3G network access instead of EDGE, and wifi is just a bit more pervasive here in 2008 than it was in 2007. This continues to be the reason why I consider the iPod touch only appropriate for certain users in certain special situations (namely, those who encounter wifi everywhere they go at all times). But unless Apple changes course and begins offering a new iPod touch with built-in 3G access and the option for an AT&T monthly data plan (wouldn’t that be the true answer for those users who want an “iPhone without the phone”?), this issue will remain what it is.



Mail application



September 2007: The iPhone’s built-in email application has gone missing on the iPod touch, meaning that the only email access you’ll get is via webmail in Safari. Users of Gmail might not miss a beat, but those accustomed to using a client might not feel the same way.

July 2008: The Mail application arrived on the iPod touch early this year, meaning that as long as you can find wifi, you’re in business.



Safari link sharing



September 2007: Steve Jobs seemed to imply in his keynote that the iPod touch only has wifi so you can buy music from iTunes, and it only has a web browser so you can sign onto public wifi hotspots and then proceed to buy music from iTunes. But just because Apple doesn’t seem to want you to go websurfing on the iPod touch, it doesn’t mean you can’t surf to your heart’s content. The only missing feature I’ve found in Safari (so far) is the ability to email a web link, which has a lot to do with the iPod touch not having an email client.
July 2008: Yep, the iPod touch now has this feature too.



Adding items to calendar



September 2007: Even though the iPod touch features the same cool calendar application as the iPhone, and even though you can sync your calendar from iCal on your Mac to the calendar on your iPod touch, you’ll find that you can not add new calendar events directly to the iPod touch. Apple could seemingly change this easily with a software update, and might if there’s enough public pressure, but for now it’s not there. Oddly enough, however, you can add contacts directly to the iPod touch’s Contacts application.



July 2008: This one came to the iPod touch a little while ago. See, I told you this wasn’t going to be all negative.



Notes



September 2007: Not only is there no way to add a calendar event, there’s no clear way to jot down random information of any kind. The iPhone’s Notes application is missing, which combined with the lack of a Mail application means that the only way to jot down a few words for later use would be through the web.



July 2008: Well it looks like Apple has fixed all of those deficiencies, now hasn’t it?


Bluetooth



September 2007: The iPhone only has Bluetooth for use with wireless headsets, which wouldn’t make much sense with the iPod touch anyway. But be aware that unless Apple snuck Bluetooth hardware into the iPod touch and has hidden it from us for the time being, you won’t be able to use any Bluetooth accessories with the iPod touch without the use of some kind of third-party adapter.



July 2008: And here’s where I get to start criticizing the iPod touch again. Ten months later and still no Bluetooth, although it’s still possible (but unlikely) that it could make its way into the next hardware revision.



Screen quality



September 2007: Speaking of hardware, one of the iPhone’s best features – its brilliant screen – is (sort of) missing from the iPod touch as well. Although I’ll need to do more testing to quantify it, immediately clear is the fact that the iPod Touch’s screen is neither as vivid or (seemingly) as detailed as that of the iPhone. I’ll have a lot more to say about this in the final review, but unless my eyes are thoroughly deceiving me, there’s a world of difference between the two.



July 2008: Nothing new here, although again this could change in the next hardware iteration of the touch.



Rear surface



September 2007: Just as many iPhone users are finally growing comfortable with the idea that they don’t necessarily have to carry their iPhone in a case in order to keep it pristine-looking, the mirrored chrome backside on the iPod touch is every bit as easily scratchable as with traditional iPods.



July 2008: Why does Apple continue to include the ridiculously chrome backside on the iPod touch, other than to prop up the iPod touch protective film/case industry? Bizarrely, the $49 iPod shuffle is the only iPod model you can carry around without some kind of rear surface protection and not permanently scratch it to a degree beyond ugliness in a matter of minutes. But I digress.



External volume buttons



September 2007: Perhaps because Apple expects you’ll spend most of your time on the iPod touch merely consuming content and not simultaneously using other applications, the only way to control the volume of that content is when it’s right in front of you via the on-screen slider; the iPhone’s external volume buttons are nowhere to be found on the iPod touch. On the other hand, you can press the iPod touch’s round front button twice to bring up basic playback controls (including volume) at any time, something I wish Apple would hurry up and bring to the iPhone.



July 2008: Nothing’s changed here, except that the iPhone now sports the same ability to bring up playback and volume controls by pressing the home button twice.



Built-in speakers



September 2007: The iPod touch lacks the iPhone’s built-in speakers, but many iPhone users have concluded that those speakers aren’t good enough for listening to music anyway. I suspect Apple only intended the iPhone’s speakers for speakerphone use on phone calls.



July 2008: Ditto.



Included dock



September 2007: While the iPhone comes with a sturdy dock with playback for the iPhone’s built-in speakers, the iPod touch comes with a comparatively lame little piece of clear plastic which can be used as a stand. On the plus side is that while watching video or otherwise using the iPod touch in horizontal mode, you can easily pick up the touch and reset it into the stand sideways – try doing that with the iPhone’s dock.



July 2008: Score one for the iPod touch, as the iPhone now comes with no dock at all. Then again, an iPhone now costs $100 less than an iPod touch with the same capacity, meaning you can afford to buy the dock separately.



Camera



September 2007: While the iPod touch can display photos that have been synced onto it from your computer, you can’t use it to take pictures. Not that I would have expected the iPod touch to have a built-in camera, but be aware that it’s not there.



July 2008: There are now third party applications (such as Facebook) that allow you to use the iPhone’s camera from within the application, making the camera more useful and its omission on the touch more glaring – at least for those who cared about it in the first place.



Maps, Weather, Stocks



September 2007: While you can still use Safari to look up all of this information via the web in one way or another, the individual applets on the iPhone for Google maps, weather forecasts, and stock prices are missing on the iPod touch.



July 2008: That all got cleaned up awhile ago, although again, having these applications doesn’t mean you can do anything with them unless you happen to be within range of wifi.



The point of all this



September 2007: None of this is to say that you shouldn’t buy the iPod touch. In fact, based on my early testing, I’d have to say that the iPod touch is by far the most amazing product to ever bear the “iPod” brand name. But be forewarned that the iPod touch is not necessarily the mythical “iPhone without a phone” that some users have been looking for. Instead, think of it as an “iPhone lite without the phone.” If the iPod touch suits your needs, then don’t let any of the above stop you. But with as much as has been arbitrarily removed from the iPod touch, it sure looks like Apple still wants you to buy the iPhone, and then only wants you to consider the iPod touch if you’ve already ruled the iPhone out.


July 2008: The iPod touch has come a long way in ten months. Several of the original missing features I documented have since been added, a few have stopped mattering, and the touch has gained access to the same legitimate third party software applications as the iPhone. It’s still extremely difficult to recommend the iPod touch to most users, as you’re only likely to be happy with it if you either A) have access to wireless internet nearly all the time, or B) care very little about the iPod touch’s features that require network access.



That having been said, the iPod touch has come a lot closer to being an “iPhone without a phone” than it was originally. As I said ten months ago, the iPhone is the way to go unless you absolutely can’t make that happen. But if the iPod touch is what you want, don’t let me stop you

Interview with Kirsten Price

“Oh no, you’re recording!” she says to me as she playfully tosses a napkin over the voice recorder after she’s just finished making fun of a bizarre decoration hanging from the ceiling. Kirsten Price is impossible not to like, as I quickly figure out while we’re sitting together at bar an hour before the release party for her album Guts & Garbage, a record which just might define the next era of soul – that is, of course, if you can even place it into a single genre.

The music isn’t quite like anything you’ve heard before, and Kirsten’s story is a bit off the beaten path as well. After all, what aspiring musician heads for San Francisco instead of a hotspot like LA or New York? “I wasn’t an aspiring musician,” she says of her trek from her native UK to the Bay Area. “In fact I’ve never been an aspiring musician. I’ve always been a musician, but I never really focused. I was always running away from what I was supposed to be doing.”

But she found herself making music nonetheless, or as she puts it, “It’s a compulsion. It’s part of who you are.” Eventually she found her way to New York, but unconventionally settled in Brooklyn. “There’s lots of little pockets and cool little neighborhoods. But if people grew up outside of New York or in New Jersey or any of the suburbs they want to be in Manhattan, but anyone who’s dug a little deeper…”

She stops herself in mid-sentence and now she’s got ahold my iPhone, which I’ve been not-so-coyly using as a notepad for my interview questions, because she wants to see the questions. She’s playfully toying with me, but I’ve got no complaints. Or maybe she’s just looking for an excuse to play with my iPhone.

“I have an iPhone and I’m highly addicted,” she explains. “I dropped mine in the toilet for about thirty seconds, and I was so gagging and jonesing that instead of going and getting it replaced I had to buy a new one immediately. I couldn’t survive for two days without an iPhone.” I ask if she’s planning on upgrading to the new 3G iPhone, and she says she’s going to stick with the one she’s got because it reminds her of an early Star Trek communicator. “Did it not look exactly like that?” she says. Then she admits she’s actually waiting to upgrade until Apple releases a new iPhone with live video.

When I look surprised after she tells me she has four MacBook laptops, she explains “I have a few interns, you know. I’m running my own label.” It’s not that the record labels didn’t come calling, but “it’s a difficult time in the industry because anybody that comes calling, you kind of know they’re about to get fired even if they’re the head of a label.”

“So yeah, it’s a self-released thing,” she explains of putting the record out on her own label, KPI. But with its complex sound and slick-sounding production, Guts & Garbage sounds like anything but an indie project. “It’s a top shelf product, you know? It’s not like a debut grungy self-produced-released indie thing. It’s more like I’ve been doing this a long time and this is a culmination of years work and, you know, it’s already been licensed a lot. People are responding really well to it. It’s genre-bending, it’s a mindfuck, people love it. So we’ve got a great product. But we don’t have a big machine behind it.”

While the lead track “Magic Tree” has been featured everywhere from CSI to The L Word, I confess to Kirsten that the achingly sweet ballad “Fall” is my favorite. “That song’s about my brother” she says, instantly changing the entire meaning of the song for me and causing me to like it even more. “I don’t want to be cheesy and over the top but it’s one of those things when you’re just there for somebody no matter what they do, and it’s that kind of unconditional love and acceptance thing.”

I ask her which one is her favorite, and she points me toward the last song on the record, Possibilities. “It was originally written by Michael Hutchence of INXS just before he died, and it was demo version, not the version that I have. And Danny Saber, who worked with Michael on a lot of stuff, and also worked with Seal and Madonna and David Bowie, after Michael’s death he wrote this incredible sixteen piece string orchestra arrangement. But the actual song itself, melodically and the words and everything, was still just kind of a scratch track. So I came in and I heard the string arrangement and immediately I started working with him. We finished the song, we gave it some more production.”

“So it’s my favorite song this week. The great thing about this album is the material is the kind of material that it can grow on you, and then you can get a little bit tired of it, but it’s never just that yeah yeah yeah, it’s really annoying I never wanna hear it again, you know? I come back to it and I continually, because I think we finished the album about a year and a half ago, as is often the case with these projects, they go on and on. I go back to it and it’s still fresh.”

I’ve only had Guts & Garbage for a few weeks, but so far I couldn’t agree more. It sucks you in and compels you to put the same song on repeat for hours on end until you just can’t listen to it anymore, only to get sucked in by a different track the next day. There’s nothing conventional about the album, but none of that seems to matter. The fact that it was released through iTunes eight months before the official release of the physical album? “Does anybody buy CDs? I don’t know anybody who buys them.” Does she even tune in for the TV shows that use her songs? “Oh God no, absolutely not.”

And the fact that her face is nowhere to be found on the album cover? “I’m not at all concerned with having a skeleton on the album instead of me. It’s my guts and my garbage. Hey, they’ll either swallow it or they’ll spit it out.”

Twitter’s odd new policy

Twitter made an interesting policy change announcement this week. Users can choose to keep their updates private and approve follower requests on a case by case basis, but this has always been pretty much a two-way street. For instance, if your updates are protected but you start following me (my account always has been and always will be publicly available), that means I can automatically follow you back without having to get specific approval. It always made sense to me; if you want to see my updates, it seems only fair that I get to start seeing yours.

But according to their blog, Twitter has reversed that policy, meaning that even if you start following my updates, I’ll still have to specifically request to be allowed to see yours if you keep them protected. For someone like me who follows nearly everyone back if they’re an actual human and not some kind of automated regurgitator (I have 2887 followers and I follow 2765 people), this is a problem for me. Why? Because generally speaking, the only followers I don’t follow back are the autobots. I’m not saying that they’re not of value, and in fact we’ll soon be launching one for iProng Magazine due to public demand, but it’s not what I signed up for on Twitter.

So my problem is, if you follow me and I have to decide whether I want to request to follow you back without first being able to see any of your posts, how I am I supposed to know whether you’re a real person or an autobot? I can look at your last five posts and figure that out immediately, but if I’m limited to having to make a guess based solely on your username and follower ratio, I’m going to guess wrong sometimes and pollute my already-crowded Twitter stream with stuff I don’t want. The real trouble comes with the fact that some autobots actually go so far as to make it appear that they’re real human user accounts by using a person’s name, a stock photo, and even throwing in the occasional random human-sounding post in amongst all the automated links.

Twitter’s blog makes the case for someone who wants to keep their updates private but want to follow a legitimate autobot such as @CNN. That seems fair, as someone who’s concerned about privacy may not want to expose their personal day to day activities to the anonymous face behind an account representing a multi-billion dollar corporation. But that just tells me that whether anyone wants to make it official or not, there are now two different classes of Twitter accounts: humans and autobots. And before this starts to sounds like a good-vs-evil Transformers sequel, I want to reiterate that I don’t have a problem with legitimate autobots. I just don’t want to follow any myself, and I certainly don’t want to waste anyone’s time by following them by accident.

My point is that instead of dealing with the automated accounts in a way that makes it more difficult for us real people to use the service effectively, how about creating a separate class for the automated accounts? I really don’t know how that would work, and seeing how Twitter has much bigger and more immediate fish to fry, I’m not sure I even want them to try. But I know how I’m going to deal with it. For the time being, anyone who follows me with a protected account and then doesn’t allow me to follow them back within a few days, I’m going to block them. Those folks will still be able to see my update history (as can any non-Twitter user) simply by viewing my page, but I don’t want them following me from one minute to the next. Which is big for me, because I’ve never blocked anyone. I’m not trying to take a stand, not trying to protest the policy change. I’m just not comfortable with the idea of anyone following my updates if I can’t see theirs.

Any other Twitter users having as hard of time wrapping their heads around this one as I am? Anyone think Twitter should look into creating a separate class of user accounts whose sole purpose is to post automated links to a certain site’s content? I’m not sure if I do, but this week’s policy reversal has gotten me reconsidering.

Follow me on Twitter at @billpalmer

Podsafe Cafe: Jeff Schram

We met Jeff Schram at Podcamp NYC 2.0 where he was performing at the iProng table. Jeff has a beautiful and approachable voice that leads you through his original songs till you’re singing along. He is self-releasing his next EP “Season of the White Crow” this Fall.

How long have you been a singer / songwriter and what got you started?

I started in high school after my little brother bought a bass guitar. At first I just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t cooler than me, but everything changed when a guitarist friend of mine introduced me to Dylan, The Beatles, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix.

At the time, I was trying my hand at a lot of different things. I was painting, sculpting and working on cinematography for a couple low budget movies. However, music was the only thing that really make sense of my life and I was able to share that with other people in a way that the other arts couldn’t.

After that I moved to Chicago to study music exclusively. I was in a classical guitar program and started playing folk music in coffee shops. It all felt like I was on my way to becoming a ‘respectable’ musician, when everything curved off track and I met a redhead at a blues bar…

Your next EP “Season of the White Crow” is set for release this Fall, what’s the inspiration behind that title?

The title ‘Season of the White Crow’ is inspired by a quote from WIlliam James. “If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, it is enough to prove one crow to be white.”

To me, it’s about moving from a dark place into the light. It’s about reversing your assumptions about what life is, and about what life can be. It’s about believing that something good can come from something bad. It’s about learning that you aren’t bound by your past.

All of these concepts have influenced “Season of the White Crow”, and I feel that this is the best music I’ve made yet.

How was the writing and recording process for the album?

Music has changed a bit for me in the last year. With “White Crow” comes a new sound that was developed in collaboration with musicians, Jon Price (Bass) and Patrick Carmichael (Drums) and performing in NYC. I write the songs but as a group we have transformed the music into something new.

I’ve been told that our sound is reminiscent of The Raconteurs, The Black Keys, some 70’s Clapton, mixed with a bit of the Foo Fighters thrown in.  

It’s been fun seeing the reaction of people who show up at a gig to see me play an solo acoustic show, but instead get hit with the intense new electric sound. We brought that same energy into the recording sessions for “White Crow”, and set out to defy even more expectations with the EP.

It’s a follow up to the EP “Devil Ain’t Got A Chance,” which was released as a free digital download. Why did you chose to release it for free and do you have any special plans in the works to use new media to release “Season Of The White Crow”?

I think at this point it’s pretty obvious that it’s in the best interest of an indie artist to give their music away for free. I just want people to listen to my music and get to know me.

I am planning to release “Season Of The White Crow” as a free digital download. I think it’s vital that artists today be ahead of the technology curve. Digital distribution has allowed musicians to reach an audience in a way that was never possible before . So I’m also planning to, hmm… I think I’ll keep this secret for now. There will be more about this on my new site, www.jeffjeffjeff.com.

Tell us about your side projects: Alloy Radio and Schram Design.

I’ve always been fascinated by how technology can bring people closer to art. Alloy Radio (alloyradio.com) was an idea that I came up with a few years ago when I was introduced to an inspiring bunch of independent musicians playing in NYC. Since then I’ve collected over 100 musician’s tracks, and made them available for free on alloyradio.com. Alloy provides a way to discover new music from the NYC area, and gives an opportunity for artists to reach new audiences.

Schram Design is my web / graphic design business. I create websites, and various digital and print media for artists and musicians. I used to joke that I’ve made a website for every single musician in NYC, and now it’s kinda scary because I think it’s true!

Anything else you want to let us know?

I just launched my new website with new podcasts, videos, and blogs. Right now I’m writing about the experience of finishing the new EP, as well as playing shows in NYC with the band. You can also listen to demos of brand new songs, and follow along as they develop into what will be our first full length album. I want to involve my friends and listeners as I progress to whatever comes after the “Season Of The White Crow”.

August 7th issue with Wine Library TV, Night Ranger, Kirsten Price, and more!