The Earworm Podcast

For the Season 1 finale of The Earworm Podcast , Bryan Clark and Patrick Cloud pull back the curtain on one of the most complicated machines in entertainment: the business of being a pop star. Behind every artist you see onstage is an enormous ecosystem of managers, A&R executives, producers, engineers, songwriters, publishers, attorneys, publicists, business managers, booking agents, promoter...

In Episode 23 of The Earworm Podcast , Patrick Cloud and Bryan Clark plug into one of the most important technologies in modern music: MIDI. Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI arrived in 1983 with an almost absurdly ambitious idea: get competing synthesizers, drum machines, computers, and other electronic instruments to actually talk to each other. More than four decades later, t...

Episode 22 of The Earworm Podcast takes Patrick Cloud and Bryan Clark back to a time when recording at home meant cassette multitracks, MIDI cables, bouncing tracks, and making some very questionable decisions in the name of “production.” The guys trace the evolution of home recording from the analog world of the 1980s through the sometimes-awkward arrival of digital audio, CDs, early Pro Tools sy...

Patrick Cloud and Bryan Clark suit up for the biggest gig in music: the Super Bowl halftime show. Episode 21 of The Earworm Podcast rewinds all the way to 1967, when halftime entertainment meant marching bands, baton twirlers, Old West reenactments, and apparently putting a child inside a machine and hoping for the best. From Disney spectacles and jetpacks to the gloriously confusing “Kaleidosuper...

In Episode 20 (holy crap), “The Liars of Ur,” The Earworm Podcast gets strung out on the surprisingly weird history of instrument strings. We start thousands of years ago with ancient lyres, plant fibers, animal sinew, and gut strings that could apparently be thrown out of tune by a strongly worded weather forecast. From there, we follow the string’s evolution through commercialization in the 1600...

The Earworm Podcast returns to where it all began: artificial intelligence and music. Except this time, the technology has gotten better, the questions have gotten weirder, and Bryan and Patrick have plenty to say about it. With the usual Earworm humor and a healthy dose of self awareness, they revisit tools like Suno and admit that they are part of the problem too, considering they use generative...

In Episode 18 of The Earworm Podcast , Bryan Clark and Patrick Cloud head to the movies to untangle the difference between a score, a soundtrack, and a musical; and why each can completely change the way we experience a scene . From the live orchestras of the silent-film era to King Kong helping establish the modern original film score in 1933, the guys trace how music became one of cinema’s most...

Episode 17 of The Earworm Podcast goes straight to one of the most overlooked links in the entire audio chain: the cable. Bryan Clark and Patrick Cloud sit down with Dariush Rad, owner of Asterope , to explore why musicians will spend thousands on guitars, microphones, pedals, preamps, and converters; then connect it all with a cable they barely think about. Dariush breaks down signal-to-noise rat...

Episode 16 of The Earworm Podcast dives into the architecture of great songwriting, breaking down the building blocks that have shaped everything from folk ballads and Delta blues to Broadway standards and modern rock. Bryan and Patrick explore the four essential song forms—including strophic, 12-bar blues, AABA, and the familiar verse-chorus-bridge structure—showing how each creates a unique emot...

Episode 15 of The Earworm Podcast dives into the fascinating and often chaotic history of music copyright, tracing its roots from the 1710 Statute of Anne to the landmark court cases that shaped the modern music industry. Patrick and Bryan break down the difference between copyrights, trademarks, and patents before exploring how composers first gained legal protection for their work through cases...

Episode 14 of The Earworm Podcast traces the fascinating evolution of sampling from the experimental tape manipulations of musique concrète and the Italian Futurists to the Mellotron, Fairlight CMI, and the legendary Akai MPC 60 . Patrick and Bryan explore how sampling transformed from physically splicing tape loops into one of the most influential creative tools in modern music, forever changing...

In Episode 13 of The Earworm Podcast , Patrick and Bryan sit down with Sony immersive audio engineer Doug Battle to explore his unconventional journey from podcasting to becoming one of the industry’s sought-after immersive music engineers. Doug shares how self-education, preparation, networking, and recognizing emerging opportunities helped him build a career in a rapidly evolving field. The conv...

Patrick and Bryan take a journey through the complete history of recorded music—from the first known sound recording in 1860 to the cutting-edge plugin technology shaping modern productions. Along the way, they explore Thomas Edison's phonograph, Emil Berliner's gramophone, a working 1908 Edison Model B, and a century-old Victrola, revealing how each innovation forever changed the way we...

This week for episode 11, Patrick and Bryan take a field trip to the new recording studio inside the Franklin, Tennessee Walmart called Create-It Studio, where they ask the obvious question: just because you can track a record between the garden center and frozen foods, should you? The conversation uses the studio as a springboard into a bigger discussion about how music has shifted from an owners...

John Capito joins Patrick and Bryan for a deep dive into the fascinating world of guitar amplifiers, tracing the lineage of iconic amp designs that shaped modern music. From the chime of the AC30 to the roar of the Plexi and the warmth of the Tweed Bassman, John unpacks the sonic DNA behind the sounds that defined generations of players. Along the way, he shares his unlikely path from automotive t...

In Episode 9 of The Earworm Podcast, our hosts Patrick and Bryan explore Fender’s recent legal victory against a Chinese counterfeit manufacturer and use it as a springboard to examine one of the most influential rivalries in music history: Fender versus Gibson. The conversation traces the evolution of the electric guitar, from Leo Fender’s practical, repair-friendly designs to Gibson’s handcrafte...

In this episode of The Earworm Podcast , Patrick Cloud and Bryan Clark explore the fascinating history of sound design in film, from the era of silent movies and live theater musicians to the invention of Foley artistry and the groundbreaking work of legendary sound designer Walter Murch. Along the way, they examine how humans interpret sound and music through learned “codes,” discussing everythin...

On this episode of The Earworm Podcast, Bryan and Patrick trace the evolution of the synthesizer—from the room-sized Teleharmonium and Hammond B3 organ to the groundbreaking instruments that shaped modern music. Along the way, they explore the pioneers of electronic sound, including Raymond Scott, Bob Moog, and the innovators who transformed experimental technology into musical tools. The conversa...

On episode six of The Earworm Podcast, Bryan and Patrick sit down with Greg Walton, founder of XTS, to explore the art, science, and obsession behind guitar tone. Greg shares his journey from guitar enthusiast and environmental consultant to building custom pedalboards and effects for some of the world’s top musicians. The conversation dives into the rise of boutique pedals, the founding of LA Sou...

On episode five of The Earworm Podcast, Bryan and Patrick dive into the strange world of rankings, lists, and “greatest of all time” debates—especially in music. From Billboard charts and Rolling Stone album lists to Michelin stars and classic rock canon, the conversation explores how authority, perception, and cultural bias shape the way we value art. The hosts question whether subjective experie...

On episode four of The Earworm Podcast,  Patrick and Bryan dive into the world of audio compression, unpacking concepts like ADSR, decibel levels, and hearing protection while tracing compression’s origins back to early broadcast regulation in the 1930s. The episode explores how compression shaped music and radio, leading into the “loudness wars” of the ’90s and 2000s—an era defined by hyper-compr...

In this episode, Bryan and Patrick dive deep into the science of sound — starting with history's loudest recorded event: the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, which reached over 180 decibels and was heard 3,000 miles away. From there, they explore how decibels actually work, debunking the common myth that a 100-watt amp is twice as loud as a 50-watt one — spoiler: it's only a 3dB difference. Th...

On Episode 2 of The Earworm Podcast , Bryan Clark and Patrick Cloud dive into the smooth, meticulously crafted world of yacht rock—breaking down its origins, defining traits, and the artists who made it iconic. From the late ’70s through the mid-’80s, this era delivered some of the highest production value in recorded music, with pristine sound, sophisticated arrangements, and contributions from e...

In Episode 1, Bryan Clark and Patrick Cloud dive into how AI is changing the music industry—and what that might mean for the value of music itself. With tools like Suno making it possible to generate full songs in seconds, the conversation centers on a simple question: if music becomes effortless to create, does it lose its worth? The episode itself leans into that idea, with both the artwork and...