Holding Up The Ladder
44 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 year ago -A podcast about the creative process - the how, the why.
Most artists are inspired by more than just their own medium – so even though podcast host, Matshidiso is a musician, the Arts more broadly, politics, people – in short, life informs the music she makes.
And why ‘Holding up the ladder?’ Because we’re all trying to get somewhere and Matshidiso believes we not only further the arts but each other if we ‘hold up the ladder’ rather than pull the ladder up from under us as we climb.
Website: holdinguptheladder.com
Twiiter: @hutl_
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
Salon Series I
July 04, 2023 23:00 - 1 hour - 97.2 MBHolding up the Ladder Salon Series I This episode is in collaboration with Black British Art, an arts platform that focuses on championing, educating, curating and advising on all that is Black British Art. Its founder Lisa Anderson-Diffang, a curator, consultant and Interim Managing Director of The Black Cultural Archives* chairs the discussion asking the question - ‘Are we having a Black British Art Renaissance?’. Our panellists were: Bolanle Tajudeen - founder of Black Blossoms – a...
Makoto Fujimura & Haejin Shim
September 21, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 88.9 MBWe have come full circle and reached the end of season 3 - time really flies! I started this season expressing my desire to talk about social justice, racism and discrimination. I gave the example of the Japanese art of Kintsugi - the broken vessel that is mended to make new. And who better to talk about these Kintsugi ideals than the person who introduced me to this concept, return guest, artist Makoto Fujimura. This time he joins me with his incredible wife, lawyer and justice advocate Hae...
Alexander Liebermann
September 14, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 79.1 MBHave you ever asked yourself the question - what is music? Does nature around us - the birds, the trees - make music? What is music supposed to do? I had never thought of these questions (and I didn’t even plan on asking them) until I spoke with my guest today, composer Alexander Liebermann. Alexander is an award-winning composer, arranger and educator who trained at Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin, at New York’s Juilliard and is currently doing his doctorate at the Manhattan School ...
Yvadney Davis
September 07, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 79.9 MBAs we continue our conversations about the ways in which art and creativity can be used to bring about social change, I wanted to talk about how normalising the ordinary can actually be a form of activism. I’m joined by kids’ fashion stylist, blogger, lecturer, start-up entrepreneur, artist, wife and mother of two, Yvadney Davis. We talk about normalising the black family, a family that is happy and healthy with children who are free to be themselves outside of the racist and burdensome trop...
Topher Campbell
August 31, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 85.5 MBADVISORY: This episode contains adult themes unsuitable for younger audiences In this week’s episode of HUTL we’re talking about the idea of radical homelessness. Where do we find home? What does home mean? Is home a physical or geographical location, is it a state of being or is it both? And how does this idea of home manifest itself within the context of black queer masculinity?! To help me answer some of these complex questions, I’m joined by artist and filmmaker director, filmmaker, wri...
The Temple of Her Skin
August 24, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 104 MBWho gets to tell stories, who gets to tell your story? How does story relate to the body? What are the stories our bodies tell? These are some of the questions I delve into through the prism of African women, tattoos and scarification, with my guests today Laurence Sessou and return guest Jessica Horn (catch Jessica in S01 Ep. 7 of HUTL) founders of The Temple of her Skin Jessica and Laurence, two African women hailing from East Africa and Benin in West Africa respectively were inspired by...
Felix Howard
August 17, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 81.5 MBI’ve been thinking a lot about how Black culture shapes mainstream culture so sometimes it can feel like we’re everywhere - but actually when it comes to positions of leadership and ownership - female bandleaders, women producers, label or studio owners, songwriters, women of colour who are composers or arrangers, who aren’t the pretty face in a band, or some kind of object of desire but behind the mixing desk - we really are few in number. It is changing - in its 2020 music diversity repor...
Dr. Mark Breeze
August 10, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBWhat do you think of when you think of shelter? Have you even thought about what it means or what it’s meant to do? Is it just something that provides immediate protection from the elements? And what about architecture? Is architecture about buildings that we find aesthetically pleasing (or not!) And is there a difference between architecture and shelter? These are questions that I’d never really considered until I spoke with my guest today, architect, academic and award-winning filmmaker Dr...
Art of Change
August 03, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 93.1 MBWhen is enough is enough? When is adapting no longer the appropriate response? When do people stop adapting because of their resilience and say we’ve had enough and we need to do something to change this? I’ve changed this week’s programming (we were due to talk about music with A&R manager Felix Howard) because Wednesday 4th August marks the one year anniversary of the devastating port explosion in Beirut that killed 200 people, made about 300,000 people homeless and created about $15 b...
Dr Lemah Bonnick
July 20, 2021 23:09 - 1 hour - 130 MBThis is the 3rd and final instalment on the series of discussions on race, class and education in the UK. It only felt right to interview the person who is the reason I am who I am, who has shaped the way I see the world - the person who literally brought me into the world, my mother, sociologist Dr Lemah Bonnick. Bio Lemah trained at the Institute of Education where she obtained her PhD in the Sociology of Education ‘Racial structuring of Educational Marginality’. She was a senior lectur...
Dr Michael Taylor
July 13, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 98.2 MBI’m delighted to bring to you part 2 of our 3-part series on race, class and education in the UK. This week we’re joined by historian Dr Michael Taylor, author of what I’m calling ‘required reading’ & shortlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2021 - The Interest, How The British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery Bio Michael Taylor is a historian of the British Empire and the British Isles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He graduated with a double firs...
Reni Eddo-Lodge
July 06, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 102 MBToday’s episode is the first of a 3-part discussion on race, class and education in the UK. A 3-part conversation that really is the basis for the theme of season 3 - arts, anti racism and social change. We kick off the discussion with journalist and author of Sunday Times bestselling book Why I’m No longer to White people About Race Reni Eddo-Lodge Reni’s 2017 book was birthed out of a 2014 blog post of the same name sharing her experiences of what I would call almost a kind of racial em...
Dr. Zoe Whitley
June 29, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 99.5 MBIn this week’s episode of HUTL, we’re talking art, access and representation with art historian, writer, curator and director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery Dr. Zoe Whitley. We talk about the importance of seeing oneself reflected in culture and having teachers who create spaces for that exploration. We talk about Black women and their hair, about standards of beauty and representations of black women and beauty. We talk about the power of possibility having what’s possible reflected back a...
Eric Collins
June 22, 2021 23:00 - 1 hour - 60 MBIt’s great to be back and with the first episode of season 3, a season dedicated to the arts, creativity and social change. My guest today is serial entrepreneur, investor, tech executive, CEO and Founding Member of Impact X Capital Partners, Eric Collins. Bio London-based Eric is a serial entrepreneur, investor and technology executive who has spent a career building the value of digital companies through innovative strategies. He has done this at public and private companies includi...
Season 3 - Trailer
June 15, 2021 23:00 - 8 minutes - 11.2 MBWelcome to Season 3 of Holding up the Ladder In the few months between the end of season 2 and the start of season 3 it seems the world isn’t calming down any time soon - in fact in many ways, it feels more intense and more far-reaching. We’ve had the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, which doesn’t really feel like a victory and more like a pyrrhic victory - you know where no-one really wins. All around the world - Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, Belarus, the Israel-Pal...
Reflections
February 03, 2021 00:00 - 47 minutes - 65 MBAnd so we come to the end of Season 2! And what a season it’s been. I would normally have another wonderful guest to come and share their process with us, but this time I wanted to do something a little different. I feel like I had some real personal awakenings that I’m going to share with you. Using excerpts of interviews from across the season, I’ll be talking about the value of arts in society and why it’s so important to value ourselves! There is a great line in the Jane Campion film B...
Shruti Kumar
January 27, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 104 MBWe talk about access to musical education, about bridging the gap between classical music and other musical genres. We talk about the role of arts in society, about creating safe spaces, safe spaces for artists, for women artists. We talk about starting musician-led spaces rather than seeking a seat at the table, about the importance and necessity of creating our own jobs. We talk about trusting your gut, trusting your ear and your own creative expression because as Shruti puts it, ‘- art is...
Elora Hardy
January 20, 2021 00:00 - 52 minutes - 71.5 MBToday, we’re talking about the future - about creating a world we haven’t yet seen and a future that hasn’t yet been imagined. We’re talking about outside the box thinking, dreaming, playing, experimenting. I'm talking AI, living on Mars, the Elon Musks, the Will. I. Ams, my guest earlier this season, Beatie Wolfe who uses technology to push what’s possible in our musical experiences (she sent her music to space, and has contributed to pioneering Dementia research). At times they may seem ec...
Money Talks
January 13, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 101 MBIn this special bonus episode of Holding up the Ladder, we’re talking money! Money and the music industry. I’ve brought in some formidable women to talk about these issues and made a point of including not just artists but people who work in what I call the administrative side of the industry - law, label management etc. So, let me introduce you to my guests: Producer, songwriter, composer and singer, Alev Lenz Music and media lawyer, Honey Onile-Ere Creative business consultant, Sam Ca...
Daley
December 18, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 96.4 MBI’ve probably said this before but the thing I love most about music, apart from the music itself is who you get to meet through it, the relationships that are forged - I’ve made friends whom I now consider my extended family. One of those people is the reason I know today’s guest. His name was Richard Antwi (he unfortunately passed away a few years ago). He was a lawyer and my manager and became a really good friend - he was instrumental in the careers of many artists, he signed the likes o...
Building Creative Community
December 11, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 109 MBIn this week’s special bonus episode of Holding up the Ladder, we’re talking value systems and building creative community. I’ll be sharing some of the lessons I’ve learned/am learning over the past 8-10 years building my music production company. I’m joined by my good friend Ramona Harris- she is global head of language services at Hogarth, the world’s leading creative production partner for many brands and agencies including Coca-Cola, Nespresso, Dyson. She is extremely pragmatic and has ...
Makoto Fujimura
December 04, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 98.1 MBBorn in Boston, Makoto Fujimura or 'Mako' the name he goes by is an artist, arts advocate, writer, thinker and filmmaker. He studied 16th & 17th century Japanese art in Japan and practices the Japanese art of Nihonga or ‘slow art’. This beautiful ‘refractive’ art requires you to slow down in order to see what’s happening in the painting, sometimes 10-15mins at a time and then a whole world opens up - colours that you hadn’t seen before unless you slow down to look. We talk about the work he...
Pura Fé
November 27, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 89.3 MBIt’s not everyday you get to talk to artists you admire and then they turn out to be even more wonderful in person. I’ve been listening to the music of today’s guest for many years now and every time I return to it I’m reminded of why I love music from authentic voices. Pura Fé (meaning ‘pure faith’) is a musician, songwriter and activist originally from North Carolina but raised in New York. She is in many ways the embodiment of America’s rich and complex ancestral history - with her Nativ...
Leeroy Jason - Part II
November 20, 2020 00:00 - 41 minutes - 57.3 MBADVISORY: In this episode we talk about issues of domestic and sexual violence Welcome back to the second and final part of my conversation with South African photographer Leeroy Jason. If you haven’t listened to part 1 yet it’s worth tuning in so you get a sense of Leeroy, his work, his values and how we ended up having our meandering conversation - meandering, not in the sense of being directionless more in the sense of the kind of conversations you have with someone when you go for a lon...
Leeroy Jason - Part I
November 13, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 98.2 MBADVISORY: In this episode we talk about issues of domestic and sexual violence If you’ve been listening to this podcast at all you’ll hear me talk a lot about South Africa and you’ll also know that I’m half South African. I love South Africa it is home for me as much as London is my home - yet I feel like I fully belong and I’m a foreigner all at once. I often say South Africa is a place of extremes, the good things are incredible and the bad things are terrible and it seems to me that this...
Chef Pierre Thiam
November 06, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 99.9 MBMy guest on today’s episode of Holding Up the Ladder is chef Pierre Thiam. Hailing from Dakar in Senegal, now residing in New York, Pierre is an author, restaurateur, social entrepreneur and culinary ambassador. He is the executive chef of awarding-winning restaurant Nok by Alara in Lagos, Nigeria; signature chef of the 5-star Pullman Hotel in Dakar; executive chef and co-owner of Teranga a fast-casual food chain in New York rooted in traditional African culinary traditions and founder of Yo...
Beatie Wolfe
October 30, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 121 MBSome conversations are less about answers and more about the questions. Getting to ‘the why’ of an issue. And sometimes those questions, those ‘whys’ open the door to unexpected discoveries that give rise to even more questions. That’s how I would describe my conversation with today’s guest, artist Beatie Wolfe. I was introduced to Beatie’s work at her retrospective at London’s Victoria and Albert museum and to say I was blown away is an understatement. Beatie isn’t solely a musician, she’s...
Heidi Vogel
October 22, 2020 23:00 - 1 hour - 108 MBEvery city has its ‘scene’ those spaces where groups of people with a similar aesthetic, value system or art discipline or music style find each other. Well in London the jazz, soul, session musician scene is on one hand really big yet on the other really tiny - everyone knows each other and if they don’t, they’ll know someone who knows someone you know. And it’s through this same scene that I met today’s guest, vocalist and songwriter Heidi Vogel. Heidi has toured the world opening for art...
Lisa Anderson
October 15, 2020 23:00 - 1 hour - 83.7 MBMy guest on today’s episode of Holding Up the Ladder is art writer, curator, advisor and founder of Black British Art, Lisa Anderson. With a background in international relations and an MA in Human Rights, Lisa’s love of art and curation was sparked while at university - it’s an intimate story, one that I’ll leave her to share in her own words. We talk about identity, belonging, the importance of representation, of seeing oneself in the world around us, not just in our homes but in culture...
Season 2 Trailer
October 08, 2020 23:00 - 4 minutes - 5.57 MBThe trailer for Season 2 is here! Episode 1, Season 2 out on Friday 16th October 2020! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dr Susan Rogers
June 25, 2020 23:28 - 1 hour - 112 MBWhat a perfect way to end the first season of Holding Up the Ladder with my guest today Dr Susan Rogers. For those of you who may not know, Susan is most famous for being Prince’s sound engineer - she’s responsible for recording (in my opinion) some of Prince’s best work, Purple Rain, Sign “O” The Times, Around the World in a Day, and Parade. Susan Rogers started off as a studio maintenance technician for Crosby Stills & Nash in Hollywood, she responded to an advert looking for a technician...
Sarah deCourcy
June 19, 2020 09:28 - 57 minutes - 79 MBMy happy place will always be talking to other musicians about music. Even with musicians I’m meeting for the first time, we start talking about music and by the end of our conversation, we’re firm friends. Which leads me on nicely to tell you about today’s guest songwriter, producer, musical director and composer Sarah deCourcy. We met through another musician Mr Hudson (the Mr Hudson who’s collabed with Jay Z and Kanye West on Supernova & Forever Young). We started chatting about music as...
Lucy Bright
June 11, 2020 23:00 - 54 minutes - 74.6 MBOne of my rituals when I go to the cinema (remember the cinema? The place with the big screen where you sit in the dark next to lots of people and have a collective experience?) Well, when I go I like to sit through all the credits at the end because I’m always amazed at how many people it takes to make something that’s 90 minutes long. It’s such a vast network of vital, interconnecting people. And one of those vital people is a music supervisor. I like to think of them as a DJ or selector f...
Jessica Horn
June 04, 2020 23:00 - 57 minutes - 78.5 MBLet’s talk about us- Let’s talk about who we come from, about the kind of world we want to live in and leave for future generations, the communities we want to build and how to do that. Let’s talk about kindness and compassion, freedom and gentleness, about struggle, the struggle for power and how to challenge it, let’s talk about change about getting into trouble, about justice and fairness. Let’s talk about creativity and creating beauty. about the body, about creating safe spaces for the ...
Justice Mukheli
May 28, 2020 23:00 - 50 minutes - 70 MBThere are some conversations that linger - like a meal that reminds you not only of the food you ate but the people you shared it with, or a fragrance that triggers a memory - I have that with sunscreen it always transports me to being on holiday. I was speaking with an artist friend of mine about our need to be inspired, it’s the engine of our creativity. And because of that I like to create moments or find beauty in moments, almost like a well of memory to draw from. And I have some favou...
Thomas J Price
May 21, 2020 23:00 - 40 minutes - 55.6 MBI have a confession to make - I don’t really understand art! I studied languages at school, but the more you learn languages you realise that you’re really only learning the basics to get by - how to ask for directions, how to order a beer at a restaurant! That’s how I feel about art- my understanding feels very surface level. But the right person will open up your understanding to see things in a new way. Thomas J Price did just that as he walked me through his practice. A multi-disciplina...
We owe it all to the music
May 14, 2020 23:00 - 28 minutes - 39.5 MBBonus Episode - We owe it all to the music One of the things I love most about music isn’t just the making it, but the relationships I’ve made because of it - in fact I can’t separate the two, to me, everything is relational. The people I’ve met through music have become some of my most cherished friendships, it’s a very unique thing, hard to explain sometimes, but it’s indelible like a tattoo. And so, I want to tell you about a person that has embedded themselves under my skin, someone wh...
Behind the Ladder
May 07, 2020 23:00 - 8 minutes - 15.2 MBThis is the story of how the idea for Holding Up the Ladder came about! If you'd like to help support the making of this podcast, click the link below! Thank you DONATE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Rob Cates
April 30, 2020 23:00 - 45 minutes - 63 MBIf ever a discussion exemplifies why I’m so fascinated about process, the conversation you’re about to hear is it - the voice. What started as my desire to remove some of the taboos around vocal health and singing teachers (this was just meant to be a short bonus episode) turned into a far deeper conversation. Rob Cates is an elite vocal coach professional, one of only a handful vocal coaches accredited by Vocology in Practice in the UK - he teaches commercial artists, musical theatre singe...
Mpho Sebina
April 23, 2020 23:00 - 18 minutes - 25 MBMpho Sebina is a singer songwriter hailing from Botswana. I discovered her music through mutual friends who’d shot some of her videos. There’s something about her voice- it’s soothing, transporting, ethereal yet grounded, full of emotion, I just love it! Hailing from Botswana, Mpho studied international business in Malaysia before pursuing a full time career in music. And I’m glad she did, music is better off with her in it. In 2017 she released a 6-track EP, Neo, released a single called ...
Ayanna Witter-Johnson
April 16, 2020 23:00 - 43 minutes - 60 MBI like clever women, I like talking to clever women. They’re women who are curious, thinking, women who know and love themselves and because they love themselves you can hear it and see it in the work they make, continually exploring the reaches of their creativity. Singer, songwriter, cellist and composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson is one of those women. Clever women also seem to have done a lot, they have a lot of qualifications, here’s a quick summary - Ayanna graduated with a first from bot...
Motheo Moeng
April 09, 2020 23:37 - 36 minutes - 50 MBTitle: Motheo Moeng - ‘For the longest time, cinematography was very political’ Motheo Moeng is a cinematographer and photographer from South Africa. His work is wide-ranging. He’s worked on feature films including “Thina sobabili (meaning The two of us) which won numerous awards at film festivals in Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Rwanda and was selected as the South African feature for the 88th Academy Awards. He’s done TV for Ben Sherman & Red Bull. Award winning short films; music videos inc...
Alev Lenz
April 03, 2020 05:00 - 42 minutes - 58.3 MBI met Alev on Instagram like many people do these days. The thing that struck me most about her before I even knew her music was her generosity - she invited me to her album launch before we’d even met in person, and from the outset has been really open, authentic and generous with her time and ideas - and that generosity is evident in her music, there’s a care, a thoughtfulness. You’ll hear it in the words, the song arrangements that are as considered and as authentic as she is - I trust yo...
Holding Up the Ladder - Trailer
March 31, 2020 17:59 - 1 minute - 2.5 MBI’m Matshidiso, a musician, songwriter, producer and composer. I’m fascinated by process – how we make what we make, why we make what we make. As a musician, I’m always learning from and inspired by other creatives, other musicians, artists, the arts itself, people, in short life, all inform the music I make. And I think that learning from others enriches not only our own art, but the arts. And why ‘Holding up the ladder?’ Because we’re all trying to get somewhere and I think we build somet...