Strap in for the grand unveiling of Infinite Prattle, where the art of unfiltered conversation takes centre stage. Embark on a behind-the-scenes tour of podcasting pandemonium with me, your host, as I recount the bloopers and blunders of season four's inception. From the inception of my own media company, Stephen Speak! Media Production, to the creation of soundscapes for local a local charity, this season kicks off a celebration of both professional growth and personal passions. I'll even shed light on my clandestine down time and near burnout, proving that sometimes the best inspiration comes from a well-timed sabbatical.
As we orbit around the conversational cosmos, you'll be privy to a not-to-be-missed two-part episode featuring Johnny and his new adventure (previously featured chatting about his frosty tales from the great white expanse of Arctic circle! Amid the tales of icy escapades, you'll find gems from my previous seasons that deserve an encore, and I'll express my heartfelt gratitude for the companions who've ridden the airwaves with me thus far (thats you!). It's a season ripe with anticipation, unscripted and unedited, where even the smallest moments are part of the greater narrative tapestry that is, the Infinite Prattle!
Strap in for the grand unveiling of Infinite Prattle, where the art of unfiltered conversation takes centre stage. Embark on a behind-the-scenes tour of podcasting pandemonium with me, your host, as I recount the bloopers and blunders of season four's inception. From the inception of my own media company, Stephen Speak! Media Production, to the creation of soundscapes for local a local charity, this season kicks off a celebration of both professional growth and personal passions. I'll even shed light on my clandestine down time and near burnout, proving that sometimes the best inspiration comes from a well-timed sabbatical.
As we orbit around the conversational cosmos, you'll be privy to a not-to-be-missed two-part episode featuring Johnny and his new adventure (previously featured chatting about his frosty tales from the great white expanse of Arctic circle! Amid the tales of icy escapades, you'll find gems from my previous seasons that deserve an encore, and I'll express my heartfelt gratitude for the companions who've ridden the airwaves with me thus far (thats you!). It's a season ripe with anticipation, unscripted and unedited, where even the smallest moments are part of the greater narrative tapestry that is, the Infinite Prattle!
Hello, welcome to season number four. I can't say Steven speak any longer. I can't say Stephen speak because I've rerun it, as you've probably seen on social media. So the show is now called Infinite Prattle, formerly Stephen speak. But for series four and for the foreseeable future we are now Infinite Prattle because if you've listened to my podcast previously, then you know that I can ramble on potentially infinitely. If you're new to the podcast, then hello welcome. Thank you for joining us. You're in for a wild ride.
Stephen :
I would like to say that I'm more organized this season, but my wife will attest. Today I'm recording everything for the podcast, including intros and outros etc. All in one go and it's been a disaster. But you know, let's get into it and let's hear that new intro sound. Well, that's the first mistake of the new series, pressing the wrong button. Welcome to series four. You're listening to Infinite Prattle with your host, steven. Thanks for joining me on scripts and edits.
Stephen :
Oh, what do you think about that intro? It cuts off a bit abruptly. I might need to change that. I was expecting the symbol to carry on as it used to do, but oh well, if you don't know about this show by now, then you'll never know it's full of cockups and me banging into things and doing things that I shouldn't be doing Messing with things on the fly as I'm doing now, because setting up your mic prior to actually starting recording it is my priority. I've started my own media company, as you might know. This is the professional level you'll get with my services. Obviously, if it's for you, I would take more care Just drinking my brew. So, apologies, I just recorded the intro there on my phone. I did say I was going to do video.
Stephen :
By the way, this episode has no target, has no subject whatsoever. I don't know what I'm going to do. I know what the next episode is going to be. I don't even remember Johnny came on the show. He came on when was it? It would be series three, I think. And what's it? Series three, series two, I don't know. Check, you can go back and check. He came on and was talking about what trip he'd done to the Antarctic. It's a great episode over two episodes. To be fair, towards the end of last year, I think it was the start of December, end of November. Myself and my wife came with us that time. We went up and saw him again and recorded another episode by a trip that he did last year. After I recorded the episode with him. It was pretty much nearly a year today that he recorded the episode and he went out in the January. It could have been series two. We recorded another two episodes, johnny. The first part of that two-parter again is going to be next week's show. At least I've got something organised already. I've got a few people in the works to record another couple of podcasts as well. Fingers Cross, I've got to get in contact with them.
Stephen :
This week my admin's been terrible. I had a bit of a break. As you know regular listeners will know the last episode was like December, like the first week of December. I think it was Maybe the second. I should have probably checked before I started talking about it. Here's for rebranded internet prattles. Say well, steven, um, yeah, so I I wanted a bit of a break.
Stephen :
Um, work's been quite difficult. I think. Probably my brain's a little bit burnt out. I've not really had like. Even though I've had holidays, I've never really it's not been long enough to relax. I feel like I need like a complete, like month away from everything. Um, the first two weeks just to like get my brain back to a normal level and then two weeks then to enjoy before I come back to like the real world, um, so it's been. It's been quite difficult for my brain to concentrate on, on anything really. Um, I've had a nice break from the podcast and that is the way my brain works. It's things stay in my brain for a long time before I actually anything, um, and that's that's um in everything I do, really, if I'm honest with you. So that's stuff around the house. So I've been essentially building some wardrobes for a while. Um, I know what I'm going to do in my brain when I have to buy some stuff and probably actually write some sort of plan down, and that kind of goes goes through everything that I do. So I've been thinking about changing the podcast for a while to a different name to separate it from.
Stephen :
As I say, I've started like, uh, I've gone as a sole trader for production stuff Cause, um, remember one of the episodes last year told you that I'd create like a soundscape for a local charity, local, uh, heritage center for the railway, and, um, I could have charged for that service, but, having never done it before, um, I didn't feel like code, didn't, didn't want to, to be honest, um, but having achieved, I think, what was quite a good um for having never done it before. I think it was, I think it was quite quite good. I think I'm underselling myself there Um, cause I got some really good feedback a good, a good soundscape and a good, good first attempt. And um, I'll keep using the word good but you insert your own word. That's more descriptive and and entitles me to more praise. So from that my brother basically said he's been into like audio stuff for years, like DJing, uh, doing sound, um production and stuff like that for gent, various stuff he studied at uni. So he said, you know, you could, you could have probably charged them up quite a lot of money, like, and he was. I think he was quite impressed with what I did. So I was quite impressed with that cause, kind of hold my brother in high esteem for stuff like that. Um, um, oh, I got my car keys in my pocket for some reason, I don't know why.
Stephen :
Anyway, this episode is going really well. It's. I'm blaming the stress of like recording the intro and outro. Everything's so compressed. I thought it was going to be easy. My computer's been having a paddy. Uh, the software I use on my Mixcast um audio I can't find words today audio interface Um software kept crashing for some reason. It turns out I think it was to do with my um Skullcandy player, pm NT headphones being the output sound source, it seems. As soon as I disconnected them, it seemed to work.
Stephen :
Anyway, um, my brother was quite impressed with the soundscape I created. Hey, listeners, this is what they're all like. Um, there's, there are sometimes interesting. Hold on, I do say stuff that's interesting sometimes. Um, I'm talking quite quickly as well. I'm excited about being back. I've missed doing this. It's been. I must admit, it's weird. I didn't want to just record anything. I probably should have just recorded some episodes and then I could have added in the new jingle afterwards. What do you think about that? By the way, it's more snappy than the old one. Uh, now I've got like four subjects open.
Stephen :
Um, yeah, so my brother was impressed with the soundscape and basically said I probably could have charged quite a lot of money for it and it kind of got me thinking. You know, it's it's stuff that I enjoy and I actually managed to put it together really quickly. I was, it was in my head basically this is what I'm going with it. It was in my head for a long time what I could do to achieve the things I wanted to achieve, and I had to submit it to the council and the person that was going to review it, uh, on a Tuesday, okay. So I had a deadline of this Tuesday. Um, we were going to, you know, I was going to send it to them or we were going to meet up and listen to it, and basically they were.
Stephen :
That was like probably like a week before the exhibition opened or a few days before it opened, and I did nothing literally up to the Sunday before. I kind of opened up logic pro once and kind of had a play around with some sounds using my little Akai Is that how you say it? Akai, okay, a-k-a-i Little kind of got a little mini keyboard. I had to mess around with some of the sounds on that weeks before and then went ehh, that sort of something, and that's kind of how it was, and I was just like kind of noting stuff down. Every time I thought of something, I'd got a little note thing on my phone with about six bullet points and it was just like the sounds of people walking and brushing up, the sounds of a big drill, big impact sounds, someone dropping some tools, the sounds of the doors opening in the morning and on the Sunday, before it all became one, basically, and I think that's what I'm getting with.
Stephen :
Everything stays in my brain quite a lot and I find it very difficult. Even if I write stuff down and it doesn't always, doesn't always help, talking through it helps. So, in a weird loop, infinitely talking about stuff really helps me. Ironically, I've never done counseling and think it's a bit weird to talk to strangers about stuff, although I talk to strangers regularly about crap, including yourselves, you good people that listen along to my crap. So, yeah, and I think I wanted to take the break from the podcast and I wanted to take a break for my own benefit and just kind of focus on like home life and work and just doing stuff that I wanted. But I really really missed doing this. Like I think it's been a little stressful today with my software and stuff not working, but I really missed just coming up to this mic and I kind of like being unprepared.
Stephen :
It's something I'm really learning about myself and it's something that I don't know if I can change it. I've always known that I work really good under pressure ie that soundscape I was just on about and just having confidence. I have like a weird, sometimes misplaced, confidence in the fact I can just do it, I will muddle through and I will produce a result. And it's kind of like kind of what I've always kind of done, and it's probably not the best because it does it does stress me out, but I also then produce good results from that and I kind of do that in my work, I kind of do it in my personal life and it also weirdly brings me like a massive amount of satisfaction to do that. So it's oh no, it's really bizarre.
Stephen :
I'm really wondering what the AI is gonna do with me rambling right now, cause I'm now using AI to like kind of listen to the podcast and like create, like I've mentioned this, create like a description and transcript, and I'm talking that fast and randomly. It creates its own version of what the title should be of the show, like this, each episode. So I'm kind of intrigued about what it'll come up with and even if it'll be able to distinguish what hell I'm saying, cause I'm rambling at a rate of knots today. If this is your first example of the show, it does get slightly better. I am a bit more calm.
Stephen :
I sometimes have a subject and it's sometimes it's not, until I walk up to the microphone. You know we've all heard me like dozens of times just say it's not what I'm gonna talk about today and I've got an idea, and then it comes out and what I'm trying to say is I've missed. I've missed this, I missed you guys, even though you're not here. But you know what I mean. I've missed that just saying anything I want to in a microphone and getting out of me and putting it into the ether and then knowing that someone somewhere is listening to it and that's kind of nice, it's kind of and I hope people get something out of it, like I hope people listen to me today and just go, that's exactly what I'm like.
Stephen :
Yeah, and we don't have to put a label on it. You know I've mentioned before that. You know my wife thinks I'm maybe a bit autistic or ADHD kind of spectrum-y, and maybe I am. And the more there's more kind of I kind of evaluate myself, the more I think it could be so. But I don't need a label. We don't need to label that we don't. We don't always have to have a label on everything. You know you can, you can, you can get through life and you just have to know yourself. And I have that tattoo on my arm in Latin and know myself in Latin, because I think it's important to remind yourself that you know just to be you, and I'm trying to, and it's difficult recently is what I'm saying God, if you can decide for this, please, please email me, contact me, especially on Instagram, and tell me what the hell I'm on about. What I'm trying to say is my brain is messed up and I've needed some time just to chill out, but I've missed the show.
Stephen :
That's the summary and the rebrand thing. As much as I really wanted to do on season 4 and I've had like four weeks off. Again, procrastination leaves us. The last minute is just. It's just my it's just, it's just my jam. I think that's just how I do, that's just. You know I've had other things on as well. You know I've been, I've been doing the bands, two bands. I'm in now leasing of two bands and I'd like to say my voice is getting a bit better, get a bit more confident. You know really enjoyed it. It'd be nice to get out there and I may, with permission, but I've been recording some of the, some of the, some of the practices. So once we've done a bit more practicing, with permission I might play a bit over the airwaves on one of the podcasts for you. I might even get the bandage on the podcast. That'd be cool. Maybe, maybe get the band on the podcast. That'd be pretty epic, wouldn't it? So, anyway, yeah, so there's all infinite prattles.
Stephen :
So the rebranding was because I was coming back to this. I was trying to separate, like, starting off as like a soul trader for them, for the, for my media, media business. So, but the whole thing about my media business, it's gonna be cool, it's. It is called Steven Speak, media production and it. I just want to get out there and just like help people make podcasts and maybe MC for some people you know, host and I'm quite confident. I don't mind standing from a room of strangers and just talking and and comparing, so I don't mind doing that, you know.
Stephen :
And it also expands into the whole potential video production, photography, which I really like and I want to get back into. So it's kind of a plethora, but a good word, plethora of like how that feels in my mouth. Oh, some words just feel good, don't they, yeah? So yeah, I kind of like want to get back on track with with all of that, because it brings me joy and it's creative and that's what I need to do. So I'm getting back in with my music stuff, which is it makes me want to cry with happiness, and I want to get back in with more creative stuff of producing music, producing sounds and helping others do that as well, and I think that will bring me joy and it will hopefully give me a little bit of income. And I'm not, you know, I'm soul trader. So it means I can, I can write, I can claim some VAT back on the stuff I'm buying for the podcast or for you know my venture Whether I make anything, I'll just hit my hand on my desk.
Stephen :
I'm talking my hands a lot today. If you've ever videoed it, see, come back to that. So, yeah, I just I'm speaking a little bit of hands. Today. I feel very energetic, I'm excited. I'm excited. I hope you guys are.
Stephen :
Let me know what you think of the new logo and stuff. Actually, the new logo, um, can I do this? I've been sketching in my Kindle Scribe, just doing a little. There's cracking a little device, by the way, I've been just doodling little things and at first I was going to rebrand the StevenSpeak as a podcast and have StevenSpeak Media Production and StevenSpeak Podcast. But then I was thinking I think I need to separate a little bit. I want to separate it. So I started thinking you know what do I do?
Stephen :
I love the word Prattle. I started adding that into my hashtags and stuff like that. And, um, the history of the word Prattle not the history of the word Prattle, the history of where I heard it and where I wanted to use it from. I was watching a John Cleese interview. Um, I was like John, no, no, it was Monty Python. It was Monty Python.
Stephen :
I was watching the Monty Python series and in one of the episodes, john Cleese basically has this rant and he goes oh yeah, prattle it on. And I thought what a cracking word Prattle is. This is just. It makes me happy to say it and I don't care if people say I Prattle on. I feel like Prattle is you're Prattle it on, but I feel like the content, if you're rambling, is kind of like without meaning, but I feel like Prattle is someone saying something of content, but it's an extended period of time, which is what I do. So that's my understanding of the word Prattle in the context of infinite Prattle and the form of StevenSpeak, and I think the whole infinite thing is just. I think people have said for years, like you could talk forever and forever is infinite, isn't it? So I thought, well, the simplest way of doing it Again, stevenspeak was a simple title and I thought infinite Prattle.
Stephen :
So I was doodling infinite and I was doodling with the end of the E, how to end the E, and I decided, oh, actually that could be the infinite infinity sign. So if you look on the logo, infinite is the infinity sign and I wanted it to kind of look, kind of written almost like the Men in Black font from the film, and I was going to clean it up and make it look like, trying to make it look cleaner but hand-read at the same time. And in the end I used my first draft and polished it up a little bit and used that as the logo. So I might make a slight rendition of it at some point. Rendition, is that the right word? Revision of it at some point To make it look a bit more professional. I've maybe had the word podcast for certain logo usages. But yeah, so my new slogan is unscripted, unedited everything, because then that kind of sums up infinite Prattle, unscripted, unedited everything. And yeah, so that's what we are now. We are infinite Prattle, sound like the collective, sound like the Borg.
Stephen :
So if you are new to the podcast and you've got to this point, thank you Definitely. Go back and listen to Steven's speak, because it's much the same just under a different guise, and there's quite a few episodes in the first and second series that haven't had as many lessons as I think they deserve. To be honest, I think some of them episodes are really cracking and I think they deserve a bit more love. But as the first episode of season 4 goes, that kind of brings it to the end. Yes, I'm really looking forward to the AI now when I process this. This is going to be interesting, to say the least. But thank you very much for joining me. Thank you very much for supporting the show. My numbers went up last year. I've made the top 100 in good pods on 5 different areas, so 2024 onwards and upwards with Infinite Prattle and, yeah, I'll see you in the next one.
