Audio-Technica, a global leader in professional and personal audio technology, is excited to announce it will be sponsoring the Lost and Sound podcast in its upcoming series.  

The Lost and Sound podcast meets with innovative music professionals from across the world. Each week Berlin based writer, author, DJ and broadcaster Paul Hanford chats with the innovators, the outsiders, the mavericks, the people who make music and do it utterly in their own way. Previous guests of the podcast include Ellen Allien, Chilly Gonzales and Hania Rani. Paul’s relaxed style allows guests to feel comfortable and express themselves, the result delves into a unique perspective on some of your favourite artists.  

“The first mic I ever owned was an Audio-Technica, back during being in a band in the 90s” 

Paul’s creative story began in the late ‘90s, when his band, Brothers In Sound, signed with Parlophone Records on the back of a 4-track demo they recorded one weekend. After several years of this, Paul moved to London where he wrote for magazines, DJ ’ed on weekends, hosted radio shows and TV music news (Hoxton Radio, London Live) curating events for organisations ranging from Secret Cinema to Tate’s Modern and Britain galleries, before moving to Berlin in 2018. 

Paul hosts the podcast Lost and Sound, and teaches Music Cultural Theory at the music school BIMM Berlin. Publications he’s written for include Huck, Wired, WePresent, The Face, Mixmag and DJMag. 

Paul’s Perspective: What made you decide to start a podcast? 

“A podcast just seemed like the right format: I knew radio from several years of having my own shows in London but with podcasts there are no rules, it can be so immediate and raw and you can get such a feel for being there in that moment with the guests. Plus, I’ve always loved to give exposure to the music I connect with and the feeling of sharing conversations about music. 

When I moved to Berlin in 2018 I got an Arts Council grant to research Berlin’s music history, this evolved into the first season of Lost and Sound, it was very much based on reportage and being on location. This also formed part of what led into my first book, Coming To Berlin. Then I went to Kyiv in Ukraine in 2019 for a season to meet the underground DJs and electronic producers there. Then the pandemic happened, we were all stuck at home, I reached out to artists around the world whose music I love to see who’d be up for talking about music and their lives and creativity with me, and I was surprised that some of my total childhood heroes replied and were like ‘“yeah ok”. 18 year old me was in the room somehow when I was on zoom with Laetitia Sadier or Thurston Moore: just there sharing their reflections in that weird time.

Since then, I’ve followed this idea and each week the show is on tune into having these open chats with inspiring artists.” 

Paul’s Perspective: What made you decide to collaborate with Audio-Technica for this series?

“The first mic I ever owned was an Audio-Technica, back during being in a band in the 90s. I think it’s the combination of studio quality and affordability in Audio-Technica products that made me decide to collaborate with Audio-Technica - music should be accessible for everyone to make and listen to at the highest quality. Most of the artists I speak with, as well as myself, started in a pretty rudimentary way, making music on limited means and using whatever we had at hand to express ourselves, I think it’s the responsibility of sound providers to offer products as affordable as possible so the upcoming generations of artists have opportunities that might have, at times, only been made available for an exclusive audience.” 

Listen to the new series of the Lost and Sound podcast here