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.
-
All Songs Considered hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by Stephen Thompson and NPR's Music Saidah Blount for a look at a handful of bands we can't wait to see at SXSW this week. -
NewsOut of more than 6,000 entries, the musician selected as the winner of the Tiny Desk Contest created something "captivating," "serpentine," "beautiful," "unusual" and "tremendous."
-
Step inside NPR Music's offices with this virtual reality video for a front row seat at Wilco's Tiny Desk concert.
-
Bands don't typically get to play the Tiny Desk more than once, but Wilco is a natural exception. Watch the group perform "The Joke Explained" and three songs from its late-'90s catalog. -
Hear a tribute to George Harrison, plus new music by Fantastic Negrito, Black Mountain and more on this week's mix from All Songs Considered. -
On this week's show: songs of power, protest and passion, including a cut from Shearwater's "angriest" record, and singer Kevin Morby's fervent if exasperated attempt to make sense of police violence. -
In this week's mix, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton showcase a number of artists who reflect on their past to make powerful new music. -
Highlights from New York's one-night festival of global sounds included music from Haiti's dance-clubs, Ukrainian experimental theater and Mexican cabarets. -
It's our 500th show at the Tiny Desk, featuring The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and the new band he started with Richard Swift, Homer Steinweiss, a Mariachi band and more. -
On "White Privilege II," the rapper questions both his position within hip-hop and as a white person unsure of his role in the struggle of black people fighting injustice.
