How do you attract the best of the best? NPR’s Bobby Carter has to ask himself that question every day as he revealed in a fascinating conversation with Des Paul, Producer at The Content Works. As Producer of the famous Tiny Desk concerts, Bobby has managed to book every major artist of the 21st century into his studio. Combined, the concerts gained billions of views on YouTube.
To make the format work as well as it does, Bobby set his own rules. Taking away the monitors of every musician, the band can’t perform as they would on a big stage. Everyone must play quieter, listen to each other – perform as they would backstage. They aren’t playing in a studio or on a stage – it is literally just a tiny desk in an old office building. He wants to challenge artists and flip around everything you know about them. Getting T-Pain, a singer heavily associated with his use of autotune, to perform without any filter on his voice was a “game changer”, as Bobby called it.
And artists love it. The Tiny Desk concerts are all purely promotional. The artists or labels cover all the costs, and still almost every major name has performed in NPR’s music show.
Bobby also explained the evolution of managing the Tiny Desk. In the beginning, getting artists was all about checking tour schedules and managing to squeeze them in between their shows. After gaining the recognition they have now, many labels plan album releases or entire tours around performing at the tiny desk.
Carter managed to massively diversify his program. From Rock or Hip Hop all the way to Country or Folk – his program manages to inspire every generation, every musician. NPR’s Tiny Desk has something for everyone.
image © Hedda Axelsson
