Only the Host showed up on my radar in a flash, like something out of a sci-fi movie. One minute, nothing. The next, everywhere. In the space of, like, three days (or so it seemed), everyone I knew was getting a review on the Only the Host blog or, in the case of Kelly Kintner, a comic about him by Chris Triggs. Then, in short order, there was the Only the Host radio show, which goes out live on YouTube weekdays at 3PM EST. And, of course, there’s the music, which reflects what John Woodson, the man behind the apparent force of nature, describes in his Spotify bio as inspired by a wide range of genres and exploring the intersection of creativity, technology, and human emotion.

As I mentioned in the introduction above, my impression is that you came out of nowhere—but, of course, that’s just my perspective. How long has Only the Host been around?  

The Initial concept is probably about 2 years old. I hadn’t really done anything musically in about 10 years out side of recording riffs into my daw, and jamming for the sake of jamming. Initially I’d hoped to reach out to some some local singers I had worked with in previous bands to give a different voice to each song.  The 10 year gap didn’t work out well and I turned my attention to different singers on fivver. That ended up turning into 1 singer I’ve been working with for about a year. 

And what led up to it? How did you arrive at Only the Host?

The music project all started with a concept of hosting a bunch of singers and musicians I’d worked with over the years to create an album that wasn’t really from a band. It’s a concept I’m still pursuing as I learn more about the process of mixing and mastering. When this didn’t work out how I’d hoped, the internet was there with the answers. The name itself was born from the concept that I am not really this squishy mortal creature, and in my time here I am only the host to my consciousness and everything I know, everything I’m doing will be left behind when I’m gone. It just happens that that has lended itself so well to encompass a lot of the other projects this has spawned into.

I’m struck by the name “Only the Host,” which makes me think of your role as the host of a blog and a radio show, but neither of those things is “only” about you. Far from it, in fact! Can you talk a little bit about what the name means to you?

It’s a complicated question, because I don’t really know what it means now. It’s not what it was when I started, and I don’t even feel like it’s mine at this point. The name has been more of a roadmap I’m letting play out in any collaborative way I can. There are people from 6 different music projects working together under the banner of onlythehost.com. The Kintners , Trenchgun, Insmnc, below carbon, uncle funkbeard, grimrock. We’ve got a comic about The Kintners made by Chris Triggs. I’ve got a few more people looking to contribute content as well, including Brian Lambert with his best advice ever which I’m working on rolling out, but things keep happening. I’ve had a few creators reach out to help with YouTube editing for making clips.  At this point I think the collaborative essence is what matters, and in that aspect of it, the name has made a life of its own. I’ve become more of an editor of the website I started than I am the main driver of content, and it all happened organically just because some people thought what I was doing seemed fun and cool. Thats really why I’m doing it.  Im having fun being the host. I get to use skills I’ve learned in ecommerce, and marking and present these really great artists, and those artists are freely writing about other artists they like. I’m forming bonds with people all over who are doing cool things. I want everyone to see those cool things. I guess the answer is it means more than I can express yet.  Its all just happened, and keeps on happening and changing. It’s hard to put a saddle on it.

You do a lot to highlight the work of independent artists. What motivates you?

I am a fan of music, and I’m astounded by the quality of the content that exists these days.  I don’t know if it’s luck, but the bands I’ve come across are so good. There are so many I come across with 2-4 monthly listeners, that are just as good as anything I’ve ever heard on the radio. If I can talk about 2-3 bands a week on my blog, that’s awesome, and even better with others contributing articles, but with my hour show I can get a few ears on 80 bands a week if people tune in. That motivates me a lot. The collaborative feeling of being in a band working into all these other little areas.  I’m so stoked when I talk about a band, and see someone I know start following their music and interacting. These little things are super exciting to me because I can see it working at scale. The fact that you want to talk about this motivates me. Indie music is a lot of fun. There is a ton of quality, and variety. 7 of us care enough to talk about it on a blog together, and that’s awesome.  Getting a new band emailed to me, its great.  Hearing an early release, its cool.  All this stuff is awesome.

Your Spotify bio mentions that one of your goals is to redefine the boundaries of what’s possible in music. What do those boundaries currently look like, and how do you see them evolving?

Currently we see a bunch of individuals pushing content to the void. Some things work, some don’t. I feel like there is a path forward to build a place created by artists to help artist. We can create lists of quality producers, record labels, indie shows, mixing engineers, artists, video makers, while at the same time creating a quality user experience for those that are just fans looking for a place that has a community spirit, and enjoyable musical content. Smaller groups of indie artists are already trying to work out new ways to connect. Sharing their skills and insights. I want to scale up what we’re doing. I want to host content for 100 bands or more. I want people making shows I can upload to YouTube about indie music.  I want a 24 hour indie music channel. I don’t care if I’m recasting other people’s stuff. I want to close the knowledge gap, and create a place free of scammers preying on our passion as artists. If enough people decide to share knowledge and work in supporting each other, there isn’t going to be competition.  What’s cooler than 100, 250, 500 artists/ bands coming together and lifting each other up, learning from each other, talking about music experiences together.  

How do you see technology fitting into the picture?

I think it’s becoming more apparent that  people are trying to connect. There is a lot of selflessness built into the community as a whole. We need an mtv for a new world, and everything is here for us to do that ourselves, just by working together. I didn’t know how to live stream 10 days ago. I’d only ever uploaded videos, but I thought it would be cool. As a musician, I already had the tools and now that  I’ve done it, I can tell others how, and if anyone wants to stream on my channel in the future for more indie content, we can figure that out too. I’m 42, and I remember an internet before social media. There are ways we can connect on a different level, and build our own indie music hub. A lot of what I’m doing is proof of concept to see how easily this can become reality.  Ideally I want to use the knowledge I have to build a model that works for us as musicians in some way that’s more sustainable. These are big questions, and everything we try tells us more and more.

What are some of the challenges that artists in the digital age face?

Market saturation for sure, record stores aren’t around like they used to be. The sheer amount of music being released. A lack of physical media attached to our work which as a collector was why I bought physical media. An over abundance of “experts” who only want to remove money from your pockets. Monetization in general. The list of hurdles is enormous, but it’s always been for musicians. I’m pretty confident that those hurdles can all be lowered as a community focused project. There’s so much content and so little attention span.

Your YouTube show is fairly new—and you do it live. What’s involved, and what’s the learning curve been like?

I start with an image tweet Monday morning asking people to share their songs. Luckily a lot of my followers on twitter are super supportive of this and it generally has a good reach.

I create a Spotify playlist trying to get an hour of fresh music, and take down everyones twitter handle as best as I can. I try to play in the order received, but if we’ve heard someone within a few days, I put them towards the bottom.  They may not be on the show, but they will live on the playlist for participating.

Sometime before live I will tag all the artists on the list letting them know they will be on the show, and tweet again once live.

Once the show has concluded I try to tag as many names from chat as I can and  thank them.

The show itself has been fairly easy to pull off once I was able to get my broadcast software (OBS) to register the Spotify sound at the same time as my mic (I will be making a guide for anyone interested in doing anything similar). The learning curve is hard to say. When I threw out my first tweet asking for submissions I had a huge response, and when I went live people showed up. It sounds easy, and it was for me. That’s more luck with the community I’ve found on twitter. It’s time consuming to build the lists, but I did it because I wanted to see if I could. I was already trying to listen to new bands anyway, and I wasn’t really concerned with anyone showing up. I’d still be there jamming by myself with no viewers. I just don’t want to sit around thinking about if something will work. I’d rather just build it, and see if it sticks. I don’t care if my production isn’t perfect when I start it, I’ll get better and I can go back and watch it grow at some point down the line.  Maybe even cringe at myself.

With your music, you’ve mentioned that you aim to “create sonic landscapes that evoke deep emotions and leave a lasting impact.”  What pieces of music have done those things for you? What’s left a particularly lasting impact?

That’s a lot to unpack too. There are songs like “tears in heaven” by Eric Clapton that remind me of loss and bring me to tears. I can’t hear Kings of Leon without thinking about memories of my wife and I dating. It could be the theme song to the original Zelda game that fills me with memories of my childhood. It could be the “Imperial March” from Star Wars… a sound I can feel in my bones. The infectious sounds of queen reminding me of driving around as a teenager with a car full of people singing bohemian rhapsody like something out of Wayne’s world. Playing acoustic Alice in chains songs around a campfire. They all have very different impacts, and effect very different emotions. The impact for me isn’t usually about the song, but where it fits into my memory. I associate music with life in every way. I’d like to make a sound that someone feels like that.

What’s on the horizon? 

I’m currently working on a music video show pilot. I asked for submission for a 30 minutes test show. Kelly has been working with museIQ on an interview (new streaming platform about to launch). I’m talking with some indie YouTubers about rebroadcasting indie content on my channel. My friend from below carbon is working out some ideas for site structure. The whole team is always working on articles. I’m trying to figure out a panel show where we can have a group of musicians talk about what they know about a particular topic. Figuring out how to help musicians monetize their work in a sustainable manner is a big challenge I can’t get off my mind.  Looking to grow our contributor base. Then of course anything it is you may want to contribute to the site.  

Cool! I’ll give that some thought! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!