You can find more information on the Tiny Desk Competition, including how to enter, over at tinydeskcontest.npr.org
Hey, Robin.
Hey, Malcolm.
Thanks for making some time for me today.
Oh, absolutely.
Let's start on the ground floor. For those who don't know. What is the Tiny Desk Competition?
Oh, well, so it is an annual contest that we have to highlight the work of unsigned, independent artists to discover the next great thing out there. We open it up every year, and the winner of the contest gets to play a set at the Tiny Desk and go on a ten-city tour.
For anybody listening who wants to enter this year's competition, how can they do so? And when is the deadline for submission?
So the deadline is February 9th, and you just have to shoot a video of you performing your original song and upload it to YouTube.
Other than being unsigned, are there any other restrictions or parameters for people entering?
You do have to be eighteen, and it's U.S. only at this point, and you have to have a desk in the video by the way, if you don't have a little desk or some sort of desk in the video behind it, that will disqualify you.
Good to know. Make sure you have a very visible desk in your submission video. In the competition's twelve-year history, I'm sure you've seen a real assortment of genre mashing and sonic experimentation, so to speak. Are there any entries that come to mind which have made you think, well, that shouldn't work, but it does.
Well, I actually remember one just from last year that I thought was really amazing from this band called Yo-Yo, where they performed the entire song while kind of, they were all in aerobic gear, it looked like an aerobics video from the 1980s, and the singer and the band was pedaling on a sort of a stationary bike through most of the performance. Yeah, you would think that it wouldn't work, but it really did work. And yeah, people get really creative with it. We love it.
That's what I imagine having the canvas of the tiny desk setting can do, it can sort of lead to those submitting entries to sort of see the restrictions as a breeding ground for invention. Is that fair to say?
Yeah, but we're not also, you know, at the same time, I'd say we're not looking for any, like, novelty. You know, I want to be surprised. All the judges want something that's surprising and that moves them in some way, but not something just sort of clever, you know, not something just done to be clever or funny or to stand out in some sort of otherwise empty way. There was an energy to the Yo-Yo entry that really fit with the music and worked really well; it didn't come off as a shtick, you know.
What kind of things do you actually look for in entries? Is there a sort of specific criteria, or is it more gut instinct?
I think a lot of us, the judges, just kind of go by gut instinct and what we feel. It's not too calculated beyond that. We're not looking for a specific genre or a specific region or specific production, like, oh, we really want a big band with lots of musicians doing lots of wild things, you know. It could just be a single person in their bedroom, shot on an iPhone with their guitar or whatever their instrument is, and that's enough. And what we're really looking for is something that moves us in some very deep and significant way, makes us feel something, and it surprises us in some way. I always tell people if they're looking for advice, just be honest. Just be true to yourself in your character and your spirit and your music, and that will shine through.
Okay, Robyn, as we sort of wrap up, I would be amiss if I didn't ask this question. With us broadcasting out of Central Texas. I wanted to know, are there any previous submissions from Texas which sort of stand out or come to mind?
Well, one I remember from Dallas was this band called Cure for Paranoia. They were one of the entries I remember from last year, a sort of Hip Hop group, very big, one of those big sprawling groups with lots of musicians doing lots of different things. But I remember that one really popping. I don't know, we've had so many. I mean, 7500 entries last year, I can't remember all of them, but that's one I do remember.
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me today, Robin, and for giving listeners an insight into the Tiny Desk competition.
Thanks so much, Mal.
