This week I speak to Stanlæy, an artist and musician who combines glitchy, experimental production with intricate compositions, belying a background in classical viola. They love sonic world-building - within songs, and in their physical sound Installations. Their track Fragility, (from their EP “p=arallel u=niverse”) uses digital, broken sounds wi…

This week I speak to singer, songwriter and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson, whose music combines classical music with alternative R&B. We discuss her track “Rise Up”, which is both a dance track inspired by Missy Elliot, and a powerful anthem to enact change, which found it’s place in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. She describes her journey e…

This week I speak to xyzelle., a soulful alt-RnB singer/songwriter who moved from the Philippines as a child, and we discuss our shared experiences of growing up as an Asian person in a predominately white area. She brings her track “Remedy”, which celebrates finding self-confidence as a teenage girl and a person of colour. We discuss how music can…

“What an inspiring conversation!” Those are the last words of this week’s episode, and I’m sure you will be inspired too by Abi Flynn's extraordinary story and music. Abi is a soul, jazz and R&B singer, with an amazing story. Diagnosed with cancer, and given a terminal diagnosis, she healed, miraculously, after a profound spiritual experience. It’s…

I chat to Jasmine Crowe, a pop artist, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles, who uses music to speak about mental health and addiction awareness, which she explores in her first album, “Symptoms”. She brings her track “Sky Is Falling”, a powerful tribute to the death of her father, an astrophysicist, philosopher and music…

This week, I chat to Anusha, whose pop/R&B sound combines her classical training, and her poetry (strongly paralleling my own songwriting background). She brings her track “Someone I Never Wanted”, written about her experience of sexual harassment at university. She describes her struggle to break free of the limits imposed on her by her classical …

This week, I share a fascinating conversation with Grove, a producer and vocalist who combines dancehall, punk, jungle & pop. Their track is “Black”, written about the toppling of the Edward Colston statue, which comes from their “Queer + Black” EP. We discuss what being queer means to them, and how it intersects with their discovery of black cultu…

RIZIK is an instrumentalist from LA, whose work spans electronic music and neo-classical piano. Today’s track, “Alone Together (Panorama)” is a solo piano piece. In this fascinating conversation, RIZIK describes feeling pressured into a conventional path by his Palestinian parents - before taking the leap of faith from music marketer to musician. W…

In this episode we meet Andy Cato, one half of Groove Armada, and discuss his first experience of dance music, the formation of Groove Armada and his transition into regenerative farming.Groove Armada, has been at the heart of electronic music scene for over two decades - touring internationally, playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and foundin…

Alt-folk singer-songwriter and old friend Sam Brookes joins me to discuss his track '18 & Sleeping', taken from his latest album 'Black Feathers' (a "meditation on grief") written after the death of his father and a close friend.We discuss depression, healing through songwriting, the magic of live music, the future of the music industry and finding…

Singer/songwriter, poet, performer (and now podcast host!), this episode focuses on me, Thomas Kam. Beginning as a classical and jazz pianist, I first started songwriting when I began to set my poems to music. After school, I briefly studied at Oxford before leaving to become a musician. In 2017, I was diagnosed with leukaemia and spent 6 months in…

Singer/Songwriter Eli Carvajal joins me to discuss “Mom Song”, which describes his mom's transition from dancer to being a lawyer, and her recent heart attack, which inspired Eli to write “Incubabies”, an extraordinary autobiographical exploration of his family history. We also discuss Chinese poetry, our first experiences of performing, and the ar…

Singer/songwriter Kathryn Williams (Mercury Prize Nominee) explores "Heart Shaped Stone" which she wrote whilst on tour, taking her son with her for the first time. We talk about collaboration and teaching in songwriting, the nuances of silence, the nature of fame, and the value of failure.

Poet, producer and rapper Dizraeli, straddles hip-hop, bassline, and folk. He brings his track “Everybody Here's Golden ”, about the moment of liberation from depression into a moment of clarity and love for everyone around him. It comes from “The Unmaster” (nominated for Worldwide Music Awards’ Album Of The Year 2020), a “sonic film… about how we …

Making Tracks is about personal and musical journeys. My name is Thomas Kam Meadley, and I'll be interviewing music makers about the story behind one of their songs and the role music has played in their lives. I'm really excited to get started and I hope you'll be able to join me next week on 14th August 2020 for the first episode of Making Tracks…

Tia DeShazor is an actor and lyricist/librettist based in New York City. She is actively creating change on the stage and developing new projects as a lyricist in the Advanced BMI- Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. She has written commissioned work for Prospect Theatre's Musical Theather Lab, Astoria Performing Art Center, and Girlhood the Mus…

On this episode, I talk to Dr. Shondra Marshall about the education system in America and how students of color fit within that system. We discuss strategies to improve the achievement gap, how the achievement gap is created in the first place and teachers responsibilities to their students of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. The importance of th…

On this episode, the host of TOBGITR, Tiana Starks provides insight into how the concept of The Only Black Girl In The Room came to be and how it has evolved. It started as a little politically incorrect blog and now has grown into an empowerment podcast, with much more in store.

On the latest episode of TOBGITR, I talk with Attorney Jehan Crump-Gibson and Attorney Ayanna Alcendor--co-founders of Great Lakes Legal Group, PLLC and very accomplished and esteemed attorneys in the Greater Detroit area. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of CHOOSING to be excellent and honoring the legacy of those who have come befo…

Geneva built an esteemed international career as a journalist and digital media executive. A frequent contributor to Vogue Italia and Teen Vogue, Geneva offers her take on culture, issues that matter, style and entertainment news for a range of media powerhouses including NBC News, Lucky, BET, Vibe, The Huffington Post including her mobile news sta…

Dr. Bryanne Standifer is a physician practicing at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. During our conversation, we discuss Dr. Standifer's journey to becoming a physician, which included its fair share of obstacles. Dr. Standifer talks about how she was able to overcome financial and educational disadvantages to realize her dream of becoming a doct…