Q&A – Melodic Distraction

“Interaction and connection are absolute necessities in our lives”

When COVID-19 put the world on hold, the radio waves didn’t stop.

Melodic Distraction, a Liverpool based station, occupied our locked-down homes, soothing our minds with music to connect us from afar.

Led by Josh and James, Melodic Distraction is a pivotal creative anchor within the Liverpool music industry, showcasing 180+ hosts.

Their mutual respect and placemaking within the music community is reciprocated by the recent support in their successful KickStarter Campaign.

I caught up with Josh and James to find out more.

How has the pandemic impacted Melodic Distraction since March?

Quite significantly. Pre – Covid, we tended to broadcast pretty much every show from our home on Jamaica Street.

Before March 2020, 95% of our monthly shows would be broadcast live.

The other 5% which were pre-recorded, would still be made within our little box studio down in The Baltic Triangle. The biggest shift we’ve had to make has been taking the whole programme remote, to the host’s homes.

With the need to close our studio quickly, to protect our hosts and producers, we had to learn fast how to set up our 180 hosts from home.

We provided equipment such as mics, DJ gear and cables to those who didn’t have access to the right tech.

There were a lot of contact free drop offs in a very short space of time! Thankfully we managed it before the national lockdown began!

What challenges have you overcome this year?

After broadcasting remotely from March ‘till August, we were presented with the chance to move back into our studio.

This allowed hosts who hadn’t been able to broadcast from home the chance to finally return to their slot on the station.

We worked alongside a health and safety consultant to make the studio as Covid- secure as we could and in late August, we opened again.

Cue our next challenge… in early October we were told we would have to vacate our Jamaica Street studio due to an ongoing dispute with our landlord, and the collective tenants at Flux Studios.

Thankfully, it was around that time that Dr. Martens (yep, the shoe company) reached out to us to see if they could partner up and help us out with the station.

Teaming up with DMs was great! They helped us source a temporary studio and kitted our whole team out with some lovely new boots!

Once we were set up in our temporary studio in Phase One on Seel Street (big ups to Graham and the whole crew there!) we decided that we needed to turn our attention towards a permanent home.

That’s when we went for a catch-up with Jason at The Tapestry and discovered his yard space. From there, the idea snowballed to open up our own space; somewhere for our community to come together.

We ran a Kickstarter in December and raised £35,000 to build our very own radio studio, coffee shop and bar out of shipping containers.

Thankfully we made the total on the final day of fundraising!

We’ve had our heads in planning applications and blueprints ever since!

During this period, what has kept you inspired and driven?

The community of hosts and listeners that we are so lucky to have around us.

Things have changed hugely for everyone in the last year. By continuing to work to ensure we don’t drop a single beat of radio, some form of normality remains.

Whether it’s the hosts continuing to broadcast – or knowing the listeners can still tune into a friendly voice and fantastic music selection, that’s what has kept us inspired to stay driven.

Seeing all our hosts bring their A-game each and every time they go live also really does it for us too.

We’ve seen some incredible output from them. Seeing them step up to every show with even more than the last gives us so much pride and drive. It also instills in us a lot of responsibility to ensure we do our best for each and every one of them, to  make sure their show broadcasts to the highest possible standard.

Quality is what keeps the station ticking forward and our producers have a big part to play. It’s honestly a true honour to produce for our hosts and that keeps us motivated.

Aside from that, the importance of getting outdoors and also finding that work-life balance has been key.

Has lockdown helped your work output in some way? via learning new skills, taking time to educate yourself or even a much-needed downtime to unwind and recoup?

I think as a whole team at Melodic Distraction, we’re proper hands on and like to be in an active environment.

All 5 of the team members; Toby, Kate, Nina, James and I split the production shifts for each show.

We want to be connected with the community and make radio tick along from the studio’s production booth. How it should be!

But with the change to remote broadcasting, it’s a whole new game.

Our brief interactions on the phone with each host get us through.

The whole team has taken to the process like ducks to water.

We’ve essentially become a remote stream team; working to provide streaming to not only our radio station – but numerous organisations across the city and country.

 What’s your ‘go-to-method’ when things all get a bit too much during lockdown?

Josh: Running. As soon as I hit a roadblock or things get too much the laptop closes and it’s out for a run for me.

Running is actually one of my favourite things to do, It’s one of the main points in my day where I give music 100% attention too.  The combination of both running and music does really good things for not only my physical health but my mental health too

With everyone being stuck up at home it’s so easy for the four walls around us to get on top of us and I find changing your surroundings even for 30 minutes gives you new perspective and patience.

Changing your surroundings gives you new perspective.

James: A good BBQ in the summer months of the pandemic was a real winner.

Can’t think of a food I didn’t attempt to grill between the months of May and August.

Since then, lots of walking, eating good meals and not drinking too much beer!

Lockdown hangovers are grim, and staying away from over-drinking has really improved my long-term mood this past year.

The UK was quite late to the ‘lockdown party’ back in March, were there any stand-out memories you had just prior to the government announcing the Covid measures?

As a business owner and someone who’s not all too keen on uncertainty, the pre-lockdown flux was quite an uncertain place to be.

I will never forget the team meetings we were having as we were realising that the studio had to close.

What really stood out to me was how much each member of the team stepped up to the plate to help find solutions.

It’s not easy to accept that you’re going to have to close the project you’ve been working on for five years and start over, but with the support of the team we were able to  make it happen.

As soon as it all kicked off, Nina, our station manager, and myself turned our office into a mini call centre, working through our whole programme of hosts to identify all the equipment they had at home and what we could provide to fill in the gaps.

We worked with a number of fantastic local AV Rental companies to borrow equipment and distribute it to all the hosts.

I remember arriving home after the final delivery on the evening Bojo was set to make an announcement on the T.V. I sat down, knowing all the hosts had the kit they needed and then the first Lockdown was announced.

I won’t forget the five days spent driving to all the corners of the city to ensure everyone had the kit they needed, just in the nick of time.

Other than that, on a personal note, I remember my last night before lockdown.

Sat in the pub with a host and member of the team knowing that this was probably one of the last nights before some things were going to change.

And rightly so, that lockdown should have happened weeks before and lasted weeks after. Conservative government really made a pig’s ear of things.

They really outdid themselves… even after Brexit.

James: I was on holiday for the whole string of events…my bad!

Shout out to Josh, Nina, the team and all the hosts for being so adaptive to such a quick flurry of changes, thinking on their feet, taking more initiative than the Tories ever could!

Most of all, huge props for their willingness to fight on and not give up!

 ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ seems to be the phrase that’s keeping us going; what does ‘hope’ mean to you during this phase?

 I’m quite an ideas driven person, always living in my brain, annoying James and the team with new wacky ideas.

As a result, I’m very solution- focused and I think that keeps my hope counter topped up.

By finding ways to continue broadcasting or planning for new spaces, my brain keeps me hopeful by helping me move forward.

I think however, the uncertainty of direction has found myself without hope at various times through the last year so it has definitely swung both ways.

On a less introspective tip, hope has been huge for me when seeing the ingenuity of local and global creatives to adapt while their usual practices become restrictive.

Through lockdown, I’ve continuously been inspired by the people around me; whether creatives, local independent business, friends or family.

They provide hope to me and so many people.

One of the beautiful things about our generation is the ability to connect with one another despite having to stay apart.

There’s been some hugely toxic results of it but I’ve tried to focus on the other side of things and that’s provided a lot of hope too.

 ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ seems to be the phrase that’s keeping us going; what does ‘hope’ mean to you during this phase?

I’m quite an ideas driven person, always living in my brain, annoying James and the team with new wacky ideas.

I’m very solution- focused and I think that keeps my hope counter topped up.

By finding ways to continue broadcasting or planning for new spaces, my brain keeps me hopeful by helping me move forward.

I think however, the uncertainty of direction has found myself without hope at various times through the last year so it has definitely swung both ways.

Hope has been huge for me when seeing the ingenuity of local and global creatives to adapt while their usual practices become restrictive.

Through lockdown, I’ve continuously been inspired by the people around me; whether creatives, local independent business, friends or family.

They provide hope to me and so many people.

One of the beautiful things about our generation is the ability to connect with one another despite having to stay apart.

There’s been some hugely toxic results of it but I’ve tried to focus on the other side of things and that’s provided a lot of hope too.

How important is the role of creative spaces, like yourselves, for better well-being to our communities?

Whether physical or online, they provide so many ways in which we can look after ourselves and the people we come into contact with.

Interaction and connection are absolute necessities in our lives for so many reasons.

Having that cut off this year has certainly affected my well-being as I’m sure it has affected others in varying ways.

While we are unable to rely on physical spaces, it’s been lovely to see online communities grow.

Whether it’s the numerous fantastic community stations across Liverpool (a massive shout out to Svara for building such an amazing  community in such a small of time) or further afield.

There’s too many to mention. They’ve all played a part in providing an online, non-judgmental congregation of like-minded people who can enjoy culture and the virtual company of one another from home.

Whether it’s the thousands of people who tune into Charlie Bones every morning on NTS or the people who join us for our breakfast series.

There’s even people running online, live streamed, wellness classes and others out there putting out online quizzes and games on their platforms, it’s been such a vital source of wellbeing.

That being said, I can’t wait to be able to meet all these people in person at classes, conferences, dances and other events.

I’m excited to see all the country’s fantastic venues open up again with fresh new programmes, once again providing an all important space for well-being on so many levels.

These spaces have been hanging tight for so long but in the meantime, many have been offering really interesting and creative online events and support for people, massive props to them.

Hopefully we’ll also have a little space to contribute to that offer by summer. We can’t wait to put on a whole load of multi-disciplinary events to support various communities, creatives and aspiring art-folk.

Shout out to all the people who made our new space happen. YOU ROCK.

 Has your outlook on life changed?

I think the lockdown has made me think very carefully about passing up on any opportunity put in front of me.

We’ve spent almost a year of our lives stuck, in one way or another, indoors and apart.

I can tell you for sure that I’ll be trying to never pass an opportunity by in the future without some good thought given to it.

Even an offer to go to the pub or to Mbox for a little karaoke session! It all counts!

Being apart has really made me appreciate that.

Through the pandemic, the workload has increased substantially here at Melodic Distraction as a result of taking our broadcast schedule remote.

There’s also been an outpour of countless new and creative ideas that the team threw into the mix …I’m really guilty of adding new ideas to my plate.

I find it really hard to switch off.

Through lockdown, I’ve learnt, thanks to the team, my friends and my girlfriend, that developing balance is key to not burning out.

I’ve definitely got better through the year at just switching off, but I’ve got a long way to go. The mindset is now there.

While we’ve had huge amounts on, the team has done a really impressive job of not only continuing to push forward but staying close while physically apart.

They are superb at checking in on how one another is doing day-to-day.

We all get bad days, especially when stuck within four walls.

I will never take having that fantastic support network for granted.

Whether it’s the team, the hosts or the wider community, they are all a fantastic unit. As a result, I really want to work out ways in which we can develop and grow that network further; continually striving to be supportive of each other while pushing to always be more inclusive than the day before widening our community more and more.

Engaging with fantastic local services, seeing how we can support them and help them continue doing what they do.

Finally, while it’s important to work towards achieving that work-life balance, when it comes to setting goals or embarking on new projects.

The last year has taught me more than ever to think big and be bold.

No idea is too crazy or big, you’ve just gotta put your mind to it and make it happen.