Academic duo and Scally guests on Teenage Wasteland Podcast live
The Academic’s Craig Fitzgerald and Stephen Murtagh, as well Mullingar artist Ethan Scally were the surprise guests for Teenage Wasteland Podcast Live, held in Caffrey’s Bar on Thursday last.
The podcast celebrates the best music in the world, the music of our teenage years, and is produced by Michael and Johnny Cronin from Live Transmission Records, and Will Russell of Hot Press Magazine.
Each guest chose music that inspired them during their formative years, and Scally’s choices included the likes of The Stone Roses, Elvis, Bob Marley, Ian Browne, Eminem and The Pogues, while The Academic’s focused on Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, George Michael, Frank Sinatra, Julee Cruise and Aretha Franklin.
"We had great guests and there was a good turnout," says Will Russell. "People have always loved the concept of the podcast, there’s an egalitarianism to it that as a teenager, there’s a level playing field when it comes to music.
"It’s such a precious time, so people have always got the concept, but our worry was that it being live, people wouldn’t be able to sit through the songs. Earlier we considered truncating them but in actual fact, people really wanted to listen to the full songs and really enjoyed it.
"Scally went down really well, he is well able to talk and he concentrated definitively on this teenage years. He spoke a lot about his family and his dad, who was a huge influence in a lot of his choices, and his granddad, who used to sing Elvis in the pub. When he was around nine or 10, Ethan told us how he used to be a little Elvis impersonator, and his mam brought him to Graceland. So it went down really well with the audience.
"The Academic spoke about their teenage years, and a lot about how their choice both on the playlist and obviously outside of what was on the playlist, how it inspired the band’s music and their writing. They both possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of music."
Plans are already in motion for another Teenage Wasteland Podcast to take place in Caffrey’s Bar in a month’s time.
"Caffrey’s was a great venue for it, Dinny Caffrey and all the staff looked after us, the stage was really well done. It worked well, so yes we’d love to do it again and we’re planning for another live podcast in four weeks’ time."
Teenage Wasteland Podcast Live was produced in association with Creative Ireland, Westmeath Arts and Westmeath County Council. To listen to the podcast in full, go to Teenage Wasteland Podcast on Spotify.