In the midst of undertaking English work in class, four close friends devised a plan to establish the Between the Beats podcast, where they review new and classic hip-hop/rap music from various artists. Sophomores Cruz Garcia, Aidan Westerland, Nathan Marshall and Vince Cotugno then became involved in a year-and-a-half commitment, gathering every weekend and bringing their own research to review albums on their own grading scale.
Garcia explains how they established their podcast completely on their own along with all of the equipment, producers, and editing they do. Garcia explains how they got help from Westerland’s mom as she lent them her gear to use.
“We originally started with Aiden’s gear because he had two microphones and two headphones. Vince then bought a lot of equipment later on which we added to our setup. To start the podcast, we set up our recording and have a conversation about whatever’s going on in our lives to get used to speaking into the mic. We then count down and record. I do all the intros. We edit the audio if there is anything unnecessary that wouldn’t add to the conversation,” Garcia said.
Garcia also explains what procedures he uses to judge and review an album and how they are graded based on a scale.
“I listen to every song, and then I look at the lyrics on Genius. Then, I’ll pause the music and then to take notes. I write down every little note I have about that song and then I base the music for how deep their lyrics are and production quality on a scale of one-10,” Garcia said.
Cotugno is the editor of the Between The Beats podcast and explains how he processes and edits the podcast audio, making it finalized to post an episode.
“I use recording software, which is a recording box itself. I plug in my headphones and mic, which record all the audio. It then plugs into my computer, which has the audio software to capture the conversions, as well. Once I save the file, I can make cuts to the audio. Once I make the edits, I finalize the file for it to be ready to upload to Spotify,” Cotugno said.
Cotugno explains the real motive behind their podcast and why they were so effectively able to establish it and commit to meeting each week to record, as well as how their podcast can inspire others.
“Our minds think alike, especially since we are all good friends, which made it so easy to create a podcast one day. I would say that most of the time our opinions meld well, which I think is one reason we created it because we all had similar ideas that mostly complemented each other. We’re more on the positive side of reviewing songs, but at the same time, we’re not afraid to say when we do not like a song at all,” Cotugno said.
Westerland explains the kind of topics and albums they review while revealing.
“The 14th episode of the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers was the most controversial review. I was influenced by my dad and because they’re into martial arts. But I found it. I found some of the songs good and some of the songs okay and bad, and the other guys just found it like they were either good or bad. This was the album where we agreed to disagree, with many different contrasting opinions on the songs,” Westerland said.
Westerland sees the Between The Beats podcast as more than just having fun with his friends and reviewing albums, he sees this as an opportunity to motivate others to do what they love. According to Westerland,
“Our podcast could help people get out of their comfort zone and feel inspired to be more comfortable voicing opinions. They can not be afraid to give their views on music that they like and not like and to know it’s ok to not agree with what their friends say.”
