Bob Boilen
In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
Significant listener interest in the music being played on All Things Considered, along with his and NPR's vast music collections, gave Boilen the idea to start All Songs Considered. "It was obvious to me that listeners of NPR were also lovers of music, but what also became obvious by 1999 was that the web was going to be the place to discover new music and that we wanted to be the premiere site for music discovery." The show launched in 2000, with Boilen as its host.
Before coming to NPR, Boilen found many ways to share his passion for music. From 1982 to 1986 he worked for Baltimore's Impossible Theater, where he held many posts, including composer, technician, and recording engineer. Boilen became part of music history in 1983 with the Impossible Theater production Whiz Bang, a History of Sound. In it, Boilen became one of the first composers to use audio sampling — in this case, sounds from nature and the industrial revolution. He was interviewed about Whiz Bang by Susan Stamberg on All Things Considered.
In 1985, the Washington City Paper voted Boilen 'Performance Artist of the Year.' An electronic musician, he received a grant from the Washington D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities to work on electronic music and performance.
After Impossible Theater, Boilen worked as a producer for a television station in Washington, D.C. He produced several projects, including a music video show. In 1997, he started producing an online show called Science Live for the Discovery Channel. He also put out two albums with his psychedelic band, Tiny Desk Unit, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Boilen still composes and performs music and posts it for free on his website BobBoilen.info. He performs contradance music and has a podcast of contradance music that he produces with his son Julian.
Boilen's first book, Your Song Changed My Life, was published in April 2016 by HarperCollins.
-
Calling all undiscovered artists: This might be your chance to perform at music's most famous desk.
-
NPR Music's Bob Boilen remembers the moment when he heard about the death of John Lennon, 35 years ago today, and how the Beatle's music led — in a way — to his work at NPR. -
There's purity in the 26-year-old singer's soulful voice that's unadorned, untouched and unaffected by 21st-century pop. He's easy to love and tough to resist.
-
The first words Bridie Monds-Watson sings on her debut album double as a tidy thesis statement: "A teenage heart is an unguided dart." The Irish singer-songwriter records under the name SOAK.
-
Out of thousands of submissions, one soulful musician came out on top.
-
NPR Music is looking for the next great unknown artist to perform at the most famous desk in music.
-
The reunited band was made to sing and play around one microphone, so a Tiny Desk Concert seemed inevitable. All it took was a reunion tour — celebrating 25 years of Nickel Creek — to make it happen. -
All Songs Considered features "The Voyager," the new album from Jenny Lewis, a singer known for complicated, emotional lyrics and vivid storytelling. It's part of NPR Music's "First Listen" series.
-
The Boston band's second album provides a perfect soundtrack for thoughtful, beautiful times. Gem Club reveals new intricacies on In Roses, which sounds more resplendent with more ambient passages. The voices and cello merge and weave together perfectly. -
Music reviewers generally wait until November and December to assess the year in music. But 2008's halfway point seems like a good place to stop and look back at six busy months full of critics' darlings, Internet sensations and even, in a grim commercial climate, commercial hits.
