This episode was written & produced by Grace East and Casey Emmerling.

What happens when a podcast about sound gets into video? In this special behind-the-scenes episode, producer Grace East flips the script and interviews Dallas about his leap into visual storytelling, and how the different pieces of the Twenty Thousand Hertz Extended Universe all fit together. From backstage at SNL, to Disney Imagineering’s archives, to real-life Bluey locations, Dallas reveals the anxieties, lucky breaks, and human connections behind our new video series.

MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE

Wesley Slover - Not Quite Summer
highline - Loyae
Mimmi Bangoura - Meant to Be

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View Transcript ▶︎

[20K sonic logo]

Grace VO: I'm Grace East.

[music in: Wesley Slover - Not Quite Summer]

Grace VO: You might recognize my voice from the credits, or from some of our game show episodes.

[downbeat]

Grace VO: Today, we're doing things a little differently. I'm taking the mic to interview Dallas for a special behind the scenes episode. There's been some monumental changes at Twenty Thousand Hertz lately, including a new video series that we launched last summer.

Grace VO: If you haven't seen these videos yet, you should because they're awesome. But basically, Dallas meets with audio experts in their spaces where they break down what they do, and how they do it.

Grace VO: I wanted to get Dallas's take on how these videos came about, how he feels about them, and how the different pieces of the 20K extended universe all fit together. I hope you enjoy it.

[music out]

Dallas: Well, gosh, my editorial brain is on and I'm like, “Wait a second. We need to set up this whole premise. Who are you, Grace? What do you do all day?”

Grace: “Who am I, what do I do all day?” Uh, so I am Grace. I am the producer at Defacto Sound and occasionally at Twenty Thousand Hertz. I wear many hats, including project managing, and managing our ads for the podcast, and helping manage our social media, and clients, and… you know, a little bit of everything.

Grace: So I have like a little mini intro, but is there anything specifically that you wanted to lead off with?

Dallas: You know, I… There's so many things that I want to express. The way that I imagine Twenty Thousand Hertz, I am not the star of Twenty Thousand Hertz. I know that it's my voice, but my voice's job is to set up the premise, and then throughout the story, we're plugging my voice in to get from point A to point B.

Dallas: But I think that's why I don't talk about myself, because it's not about me. And I don't really give opinions, and I don't really give fourth wall breaks, and I don't really talk about the behind the scenes.

Dallas: So this whole conversation is one that I would love for people to be interested in, to get a little peek behind the curtain.

Grace: Mm-hmm.

Dallas: But everything in my brain and body is like, “This is not what Twenty Thousand Hertz is about.”

Grace: But it's worth a try. And I also think people do appreciate sort of “state of the show” updates, you know? Like when there are big changes, people wonder why, and what the decision making process was, and what the future of the show is. So I feel like people will be interested.

Dallas: What the hey, let's try this.

Grace: What the hey.

[Microhertz Bumper]

Grace: So last summer we launched our video series on YouTube, which was a huge deal. And we didn't know how it would go or what it would become. But now, sort of looking back six months ago, we have some perspective. So I wanted to ask, why did you decide that it was important for the mission of Twenty Thousand Hertz to extend into video?

Dallas: So I consider Twenty Thousand Hertz, Defacto Sound, and this new DallasTaylor.mp3 YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn video effort all one and the same. They all just kind of hold hands. They're all from the same people.

Grace: Mm-hmm.

Dallas: And truth be told, back when I started the podcast, I spent many years to kind of decide, "Should Twenty Thousand Hertz be a podcast or a YouTube channel?" But for me, I felt like the best way to communicate sound was through the medium itself. I just wanted to meaningfully tell stories about sound through sound.

Dallas: It is not that my idea of storytelling is podcast exclusive. And I've felt that way my entire career.

Grace: Mm-hmm.

Dallas: So I've never really identified as a podcaster. I also don't identify as a YouTuber. I don't identify as an Instagrammer or a Tiktokker. I identify myself as an expert in sound. Like that's, that's who I see myself as.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And I simply use these highways, if you will, in order to reach people.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And even way back when I started Twenty Thousand Hertz, the mission of Twenty Thousand Hertz was to get quote unquote “normal people” into how cool sound is. So as I started thinking about “Should I go into video?” And as I started studying it, “Would this be worth my while?” Trying to get over the fact that I don't want to put myself on a camera. I started looking at numbers.

Dallas: So to give you some hard numbers…

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: Podcasting, as an entire whole, meaning everyone who's listened to a podcast worldwide in a month, is roughly 500 to 600 million people worldwide. Now, that's a ton of people.

Dallas: But I have to be realistic about this. How many of these people are listening to a highly crafted podcast like This American Life, Radiolab, 99% invisible, or kind of the likes of the ones that I listen to? Or, do the majority of people listen to chitchat podcasts or celebrity driven podcasts? And I think it's very likely that that's the case.

Dallas: So really our bucket might be, who knows, 50 million if we're lucky, of the total number of people who this could reach. So expanding beyond that, I started looking at the monthly active users of other platforms. So we've got TikTok, which is in the range of 1.6 billion monthly active users.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: Then you move on to Instagram. Those averages are between two and 3 billion monthly active users globally. And then finally you get to YouTube, which is somewhere in the two and a half/3 billion monthly active users and growing.

Grace: Wow.

Dallas: So when I saw those numbers, I went, “Am I true to my mission of trying to get quote unquote ‘normal’ people into sound if I only do it in the walled garden of podcasting?”

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: Don't get me wrong, I love podcasting. I love being able to create stories entirely in the sense of hearing. So I still plan on doing that, using this medium. But it became very clear that I had to move this mission into these formats. They're just so incredibly powerful at reaching people.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: We have a podcast that I think people think is humongous. And it is big, but it's one 10th the size of 99% Invisible. It's probably one 20th the size of Radiolab. It's probably, I don't know, one 50th the size of This American Life, even though it sounds like it.

Grace: Right.

Dallas: And I'm proud of it. And the whole reason is that we're telling these world class stories over here, but there is no algorithm to push this content to people.

Dallas: So for example, if we make a podcast about Wicked, the only people who are gonna hear it are people who are subscribed to Twenty Thousand Hertz. There is no algorithm pushing our podcast to people who like Wicked, who then get introduced to the podcast. So that has been a frustration point, is that it is purely word of mouth. But on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram, you can play the system to find the people who are interested in that.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And so I decided to jump into those lanes. And I started practicing like a vlogger. I went, I would go, I was going on trips, talking to camera, trying to get that relationship, trying to become… you know, get through that discomfort. So there are videos that I've made that I will not publish because it was me practicing.

Grace: Right.

Dallas: Again, like once I figured all of this stuff out, I'm not the star of the YouTube channels or the Instagram or TikTok. It's the person that I'm speaking to. You gotta remember like every storytelling technique in my life, I've learned from podcasting, from the likes of Ira Glass, or Jad Abumrad, or Roman Mars, or Starlee Kine, you know, that, that is my whole storytelling world.

Grace: Right.

Dallas: So now I'm bringing everything I know about storytelling to this visual medium. But I'm not doing it with two people sitting around a table with SM7Bs pointed at themselves, because that just doesn't feel right for what I even want to consume anyway. I like getting out there, seeing the real world, getting real access.

Grace: Definitely. Yeah.

Dallas: So have I even, uh, I, I could keep going and going and going, but reign me in here, Grace. you're, you're, you're driving the ship.

[music in: highline - Loyae]

Grace VO: The first video I wanted to ask Dallas about was the very first one we posted, which he filmed on the set of Jeopardy. In the video, production sound mixer Carlos Torres walks Dallas through the show's audio setup, and introduces other members of the sound crew.

[music fades under]

Grace: So I wanted to ask first how you landed that recording.

Dallas: So a few years prior to even thinking about video, I was approached by a book publisher about writing a book about sound. But during that process, I saw that Ken Jennings, the current host of Jeopardy, shared this same book publisher who reached out to me.

Dallas: And so I wrote him and I said, “Hey, is this, person legit?” Ken wrote me back, instantaneously going, “Oh no, this person's amazing. I want to write more books because I want to work with this person.”

Grace: Oh my gosh!

Dallas: And so that was a huge relief and, uh, super kind. Very authentic and genuine.

Dallas: And I knew that going into video, I was trying to make a statement that like, “This is about the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds here.”

Grace: Mm-hmm.

Dallas: So I thought, “What would be just the most delightful, warm, joy filled things I could cover?” and Jeopardy just popped into my mind. I was just like, "Jeopardy is so wholesome."

Grace: It is. It's great.

Dallas: And so, um, I effectively just wrote Ken again on that chain and said, "Hey Ken, um, how's it going? It's been years." Gave a little bio of what Twenty Thousand Hertz is, "and I'm moving into video and I'd like to highlight your sound team." And once again, he wrote me back and he was like, "Oh, it's Carlos. And here's his information and I've passed it along, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." And then, I don't know Carlos at the time. I don't know if he's cool or not cool. I just have faith that anybody in the community is cool, ‘cause pretty much everyone is.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And then now we see Carlos as just the most delightful human being on the planet.

Grace: Yep.

Dallas: And yeah, so I, I, that's how it all started. And then I met him at Sony Pictures in an alleyway with the camera. I was so nervous. And just like immediately being swept into, from parking garage, to meeting Carlos, to walking in a side door. And then I'm standing on the Jeopardy set just like, “Here we go, on video.” I go behind, I click the buzzers, I stand behind everything.

Dallas: He's, he's telling me stuff about Jeopardy that literally the Jeopardy producers after we post this, were like, "Hey, hey, let's cool it on this level of detail. Like, you're cool with everything you posted, but can you just like pump the brakes a little bit?" Very kindly.

Grace: “We can't reveal all our trade secrets.”

[music in: highline - Loyae]

Grace VO: The next set of videos I wanted to know about was Dallas's mind blowing trip to Saturday Night Live, where he spent three days filming with their audio team. He was technically there to profile Mixer Bob Paladino for his final show with SNL after 40 years. But Dallas ended up filming with over 10 other people.

[music under]

Grace: So tell me a little bit about that. How did you land the recording? Who was your sort of way into that huge, amazing, and also like exclusive club?

Dallas: I have a hunch it probably had to do with Fred Hedemark. We did a whole show on him, he was the mixer on Late Night with Seth Meyers. And we've just become friends over the years. He was the one that took over for Bobby after 40 years.

Grace: Right.

Dallas: And I think that I was just like, "Wait, the mixer for Saturday Night Live for 40 years is having his final mix on, you know, May 16th? This is a moment in audio history that I need to document." So it felt like, "I need to pitch this."

Dallas: That's what led me in. And then I got connected with the SNL producers. And I'm just so intimidated by anyone who is an SNL producer.

Dallas: So I went in the final three days of the season 50 finale. It was the Scarlet Johansson Bad Bunny episode.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And when I got there, they were like, “Your only access is this one room and Bobby Paladino.” Because no one gets access to SNL. There was no one there that was not on staff.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: It is a locked down situation room situation. And so, uh, I get in there and I'm just like, okay, "I can't believe I'm here. I don't wanna step on anybody's toes. I don't wanna get in trouble. I don't want Lorne Michaels to even see that I'm here with a camera."

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: So Bobby, we're starting to warm up to each other, he was starting to open up, tell me some stories. A lot of that hit in the podcast version. And then the first kind of yoink in this entire plan was someone was like, "You've gotta meet Eddie Ruotolo." And I'm like, "Who's Eddie Ruotolo?" And they were like, "He's one of our boom operators. And I was like, "Oh, cool. I don't have access to go on the floor. I can't even walk out. The floor is so close to me and I cannot, I'm not even allowed to walk on it."

Grace: Right.

Dallas: And so, at some point Eddie walks in. He was just like, “You wanna see what I do?" I was like, "I, I would love to." And he is like, "Let's go!" And he, like, he didn't give me a choice. He, effectively, in kindness, basically said, "Get outta your seat. We're going in here now!"

Grace: I love it.

Dallas: This guy had been waiting for this moment for someone to walk in who is super interested in audio to where he can tell everything he can possibly tell about that boom mic. And he did it, and he crushed it.

Dallas: Yes. So when you watch that, it's the second episode on the YouTube series. You gotta realize like, I'm brand new at SNL. I'm going from zero to Eddie Ruotolo in no time flat. And I'm on the floor within seconds of him pulling me in there, and I'm not supposed to be there.

Dallas: So basically, I took Eddie Ruotolo and now I went from "only go to this room" to literally standing in the heartbeat of the stage…

Grace: Yeah really.

Dallas: "You know, I'm here. I can't not capture as much as I possibly can."

Grace: For sure.

Dallas: So, it was a kind of a push and pull because it wasn't like me asserting myself to people. But you also have to realize, these are people who do not get highlighted and they are 20 feet from stardom. They are the people who make people stars, and they are part of that support team that does that.

Dallas: And so, my thought process was like, "If anyone wants to tell me about their job, I will ask for forgiveness later than permission.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: Because I'm here in the center point of some of the most brilliant audio minds in the world, and I'm going to take every opportunity."

Dallas: So I just started meeting people and I was like, "Hey, do you wanna tell me about what you do? And then… then they're like, "Yeah, sure. let me take you over here. But they would do it really enthusiastically.

Dallas: I remember somebody saying, "Oh, Jeff, next door, kind of our sound designer sound effects person? He's like a huge fan of the podcast and would love to meet you." And then I made a whole video about him and I'm such a huge fan of him now.

Grace: Yeah, that interview is fantastic, too.

Dallas: So it was like, I can't stress enough that none of the video would happen without these rabid podcast fans who are perfectly placed in a lot of these organizations that go, "Wait, that's the host of Twenty Thousand Hertz? Yes, he can come in here with a camera." Because it's been 10 years of trust, and win-win, and good vibes, and not throwing anybody under the bus, and not hurting anybody. It's just like, “a rising tide lifts all ships.” Like that's been my whole thing from the beginning.

[music in: highline - Loyae]

Grace: Next I asked Dallas about filming with the audio team at Walt Disney Imagineering. That's Disney's Research and Development department where they craft all of the attractions for their parks. In the video, Imagineer, Greg Lhotka leads Dallas on a tour through their audio archives and even puts sounds from Haunted Mansion inside his head.

[music fades under]

Grace: So I wanted to talk about that adventure because that was another like SNL sort of exclusive place that I don't know that any of us would've guessed you would be able to highlight.

Dallas: Yeah, so I'll give you the lead up to this, too. 'Cause there's a whole backstory that leads to the invite. But first we have to go back.

Grace: [imitates flashback sound] [sfx: harp sweep]

Dallas: Years ago, we did a podcast, one of my favorite, called Disney Parks.

Grace: Yep.

Dallas: Again all roads lead back to the podcast. Back then, I talked to two people about music and sound design but audio only, I was not invited in. I recorded it remotely. So I was not an insider by any means.

Dallas: And I think I re-upped that years later saying, "Hey, we worked with you before this team at Imagineering. But if there's ever an opportunity, I'm starting to think about doing this video, or maybe we do a different angle for the podcast or something." And I would just occasionally ping them, and you know, maybe nothing would happen.

Dallas: And then I get an email saying, "Hey, we'd like to invite you to this press only event where we wanna show you all of the new cool foods and drinks and stuff that we're gonna have for the upcoming season. It's just for press. You go to Galaxy's Edge, they're gonna take you through a back door, and then you're gonna see all the cool stuff to where you can highlight it."

Dallas: And I'm like, "I don't do that. That's not what I do. Uh, I'm not like a Disney YouTuber." And they're like, "No, that's fine. Just enjoy the day." But going into it, I hit up my favorite YouTuber about Disney Design, which is this guy named Mark Brickey that runs a YouTube channel called Hey Brickey.

Dallas: But I used that day and I reached out to Bricky just totally cold and said, "Hey, I love your videos. Can I just follow you around while you tell me all the cool sound stuff?" And in just cool fashion, he's just like, "Yeah, let's do it."

Grace: Ugh, awesome.

Dallas: And Yeah, so I meet him, and we spend like four hours together filming. I ended up making two videos out of it. One that's just on Disneyland proper, like the sound design of it. And then he took me to Galaxy's Edge. I did a whole different thing over there.

Dallas: And then I think I sent that off to Disney, and I was like, "Hey, while I was there, I did this with this YouTuber that is not affiliated with you. So I effectively just did exactly what I asked, without your permission, on your dime, when you sent me there. Thanks for that."

Dallas: And, I think they were like, “Whoa! Okay.” But I think that signaled to them that no, I'm serious about this. It was like proof of concept. They go, “Oh, he's super into the design aspect.”

Dallas: So months go by. But I remember I got an email saying like, "Hey, what's your address?" And I was like, "That's weird, but okay. Uh, you seem legitimate." So I get a card in the mail that's just super minimal. It says like, “Walt Disney Imagineering” at the top, and it's like, “You're invited to a special event on this exact day. We are really excited to open our campus to you and share a magical day with you.” And I just melted.

Grace: That is so, like, Hogwartsian. You know?

Dallas: It is.

Grace: Like a mysterious letter appears in the mail. So cool.

Dallas: So basically I get there, and I discover, "Oh, I'm in a pod of like four YouTubers." We're all kind of just doing our thing, but they're just kind of shuffling us into all of this stuff that I've kind of seen other YouTubers do. And I was like, "Ah, okay, I'm filming it. But there's really not any sound. It's just kind of, it's very visual and..."

Dallas: But they had planned, it was like an hour and a half of tour, and then it was like an hour and a half of mystery with the sound people.

Grace: Ooh!

Dallas: I did know that I was gonna do a podcast recording though. So we get in there and we did a podcast recording with two people. One was the head of Sound, one was the head of Music.

Dallas: And then I think I only had like 45 minutes left. But in, again, audio community fashion, Greg takes me on the most epic visual tour on the planet. Greg is just the foremost center point of Disney Imagineering sound, and he gives me a tour of every single room that they do. And literally there's times where PR is behind me saying like, “Hey, no one has ever seen this on camera before, so please don't show that.”

Dallas: You know?

Grace: It's so funny.

Dallas: And I think we go like two hours long. Obnoxiously way past. All the other YouTubers are long gone. It's not like I was pushing him to go hours over. I think he started realizing, “Wait a second, I can tell this guy's into this.”

Dallas: And again, kind of like Eddie Ruotolo at Saturday Night Live, he's just like, "Oh yeah, let's do this!"

Grace: And he so clearly loves his job.

Dallas: He loves it. And I don't know if you can see it, but if you watch with a really sharp eye, you can see him start very professional, and you see him melt into giddiness over the course of that time. And that is what's so magical about being in these places is like, everyone kind of starts they're a little bit professional, a little bit like, “Who are you?”

Dallas: And then on every video see everyone kind of melt into who they really are. And they're just delightful, kind, creative, curiosity driven-kids underneath.

[music in: Wesley Slover - Not Quite Summer]

Grace VO: After the break, Dallas meets the sound and music geniuses behind one of his favorite TV shows. Plus the biggest lesson he's learned from filming these videos.

[downbeat]

[music out]

MIDROLL

[music in: highline - Loyae]

Grace VO: Finally, I asked Dallas about his trip to Australia. In Brisbane, he filmed four Bluey videos, three with the show's composer, Joff Bush, and another with sound designer Dan Brumm. Then in Sydney, shot a video inside the Sydney Opera House about the building's acoustics.

[music fades under]

Dallas: Since I was a child, I've wanted to visit Australia. It feels like a place that you can't get to. It quite literally, like in my human bones, it's like, “That's too far. You can't make it there.”

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And then being somebody who spent a huge portion of my life playing the trumpet in symphonies and wind bands, and spending most of my childhood thinking that's what I wanted to do with my life, the Sydney Opera House felt like, “that is the perfect venue.” It is stunning. It's in an exterior that actually does justice to the majesty of sound and music.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And so, flew out there, started with the, oh gosh, the Bluey trip was just unbelievable. So we did two episodes with Dan Brumm, who's the sound designer and the voice of Uncle Stripe on Bluey. As the father of three kids who have all hit the Bluey phase, I'm also a huge fan of Bluey. And I featured Dan. I, I kind of got to know Dan in that process. He's super thoughtful.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: He's very deeply embedded. His brother created the show.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And so I hit up Dan, "Hey, would you be interested if I literally flew all the way around the world to profile you? No pressure and don't feel like awkward or anything about it, but I'm gonna come all the way to Australia to profile you."

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And he was like, "Oh gosh, me?" Yeah. I mean, very humble, very cool. And he was like, "Sure, I guess." And through that process, I also hit up the composer Joff Bush.

Grace: Ugh.

Dallas: He was also so gracious and he was like, "Sure, that sounds great." But I get to Brisbane, fall in love instantaneously with this town.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And I got together with Joff just having coffee. And then we walked the river for like an hour just talking about life and normal things. And this, none of this is on camera, none of this is recorded.

Dallas: I think this might be a good time to say that. Like, I almost feel like the video effort, it is so beautiful what I'm able to share with the world. But it is kind of a selfish effort because, and here's what I mean by this, this camera, and the legacy of Twenty Thousand Hertz, it has become a key to every influential person I've ever wanted to meet.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And so what this key has allowed me to do is go, "Hey, I wanna show the world, just what your vibe is." But inevitably, when that camera goes off, we're talking about life, we're talking about family, we're talking about hard things. I become genuine friends with every person that I've featured, and that camera has become that key that has unlocked that friendship.

Dallas: So spending, you know, an hour talking with Joff, we're just hanging out, we're just talking about normal stuff that we're both going through and whatever.

Grace: Just being humans.

Dallas: And then I would ask a question about music. And then literally he would just speak absolute brilliant poetry like he's Mozart.

Grace: Yeah. Just casually.

Dallas: Just casually, just the most thoughtful, kind, beautiful explanation that no person could ever sit down and write.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: Because he's a genius, in my mind.

Dallas: And then I believe it was the next day or the following day, the first thing I did with him was I got to go into a small orchestral recording. I mean, it's 18, 20 people. So it was more like a very large chamber ensemble, or a very small symphony that he was recording for an upcoming album.

Dallas: What was cool is I would bounce back and forth between the tracking room and the actual orchestra room. So this is for a video down the road, but it's literally me standing next to the conductor while they're playing, and then going into the room and watching Joff give notes, and the orchestrators, and…

Dallas: It was just the most wholesome, sweet, kindness overload. Everyone was just so happy and it just... Everything about the behind the scenes of this recording session was just beautiful, just like the show.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: So that was my first time with him. The second time, I went in the next day when everyone had left. And I was trying to just pin down Joff for a walkthrough of his room.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: Kind of just, "Show me your room. Why is that mandolin on the wall?" Like, "Why is that instrument sitting over there?" And I love that format, because everyone has, in their offices, trinkets that have stories.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And so he just went around pulling things off the wall, playing 'em, kind of reminiscing about certain episodes, and what they meant, and what the instrument meant.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: So that was that entire episode, which you can find on YouTube. But during that exact recording, that's not where it stopped. I have another episode coming where he deconstructs the final episode of Bluey, which is called The Sign. And there's a beautiful piece of music in it called “We'll See.” And so we spent another hour after that initial walkthrough, just deconstructing one of the most beautiful moments, or arguably the most beautiful moment in the entire show that hasn't come out yet.

Dallas: And so I've been just sitting in all of this knowing what's coming and it's just... It's really weird in my situation right now how I'm having these unbelievably magical experiences completely alone. And then I have to just wait for months for all of it to come out.

Dallas: And then Dan's video’s one of my favorites.

Grace: It's so great.

Dallas: He was really the reason I wanted to go all the way to Brisbane, is I knew that the sound and visuals of Brisbane was wrapped up in this show, Bluey.

Dallas: So when I got with him, we met up at a park, which I didn't know anything about what the significance of this park was until he would be like, "Here it is on the show." And I'm like, "This looks exactly the same." And then “This is me recording the playground that's literally in the show, animated."

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And then he took me to a field which is in the show, but animated. And it started to make me realize that… I think to a foreign audience, like an American audience or maybe anyone outside of Brisbane, I think cartoons are just kind of made up places.

Grace: Right.

Dallas: But I kept telling him repeatedly, "It is so bizarre to be in the real location of a animated cartoon…

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: …with dogs that are the characters." It's like, I'm standing here and I literally go, "Oh wait, this is the scene from this iconic show that I'm standing in."

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: So just the care and the love that this team shows for their own city is beautiful. And it's a beautiful city with beautiful people. And I wanna go back.

Grace: Yeah.

[Microhertz Bumper]

Dallas: So Sydney Opera House. So I'm like, “I'm in Australia. I've gotta go to Sydney.” And so I was like, "Oh gosh, I wonder if I can get into the Sydney Opera House?" You know, nowadays, I just say it out loud.

Grace: Just manifesting.

Dallas: And I go, I just, can I just try it like, why don't I just write the Opera House on their website and say, "Hey, I just started a YouTube channel. I have almost no social proof. But I do have social proof on this podcast called Twenty Thousand Hertz. And I heard you did an acoustics renovation a couple years ago, and maybe you could just give me a tour of the Opera House acoustics." You know, just as someone says, "Hey, I want you to just shut down the Opera House, and give me an hour to where you just tell me everything about it privately."

Grace: That’s cool, right?

Dallas: Yeah. And so they just are immediately like "Yes, this is perfect."

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And I'm like, "Great. Okay. That's amazing." And they're like, you know, do you want the stage with this or with that? Or how do you want the configurations?"

Grace: Oh my gosh.

Dallas: And I'm like, "I, I'm directing the Opera House right now? I'm like…

Grace: What's happening?

Dallas: "What is happening?" And all, these logistics are like the easiest logistics I've ever put together. It's like I ask, they say, “Sure.” So before I go down there, I'm like, "Hey, I just have to ask, why has this been so easy?" And they said, "Well, because one of the people who run the Opera House is a huge fan of Twenty Thousand Hertz."

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And I was just like, "Gosh, the reach on this thing is just so amazing."

Grace: Amazing.

Dallas: So it was one of the account managers, JK Power, who was behind the scenes pulling all the strings.

Grace: Incredible.

Dallas: And you can now watch him on YouTube, give me a tour of the Sydney Opera House. It was just breathtaking. Even flying in, it was just butterflies looking at this building that I'd only seen in photos my entire life.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: That place is just a work of art from the highest level, to the most minute level. Literally, the walls have sound waves imprinted on them.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: I believe the way that JK said it was like, "If you strike a middle C in the middle of the stage on a piano, they carved into the wood the shape it would make by the time it hit that part in the auditorium." So throughout the entire place is just a beautiful sound wave, just carved right into the wood.

Dallas: So we kind of go through the whole thing. I get the tour of the Opera House, and every time I turned off the camera, he would bring up a podcast episode and we'd talk about it.

Grace: Ugh.

Dallas: It was just the best

Grace: Oh my gosh.

[Microhertz Bumper]

Grace: What do you think our podcast listeners should know about the video series that they might not fully understand?

Dallas: It is not the same thing. The podcast is perfectly designed for your ears, and has almost no crossover with the YouTube. YouTube is designed entirely for YouTube, and not as a bulletin board for the podcast. Instagram has its own editing style that is entirely designed for Instagram, and TikTok, and LinkedIn, and YouTube Shorts.

Dallas: So we are effectively making three different pieces of work. And over this journey, I've learned very clearly what type of a story works as a podcast, and what type of a story works as visuals. Because I've noticed if we just stop and somebody starts telling me this fascinating story in the past, and they're very alliterative, that is a podcast story.

Dallas: Sometimes we go and sit for an hour and a half. I'm still pointing the camera at them, but we're just sitting in two seats. I can't use this for YouTube, because there's no motion. It's not flashy enough. But that's the depth. And I've pulled that audio and we have made podcasts out of that, because that's where you get depth.

Dallas: Where then everything around it, when we're kind of touring, seeing things, we've plucked it and we've made videos of it. Because when people are showing things, humans just naturally communicate differently when they know you can see it…

Grace: It’s true.

Dallas: …versus if you're just taking a journey in their mind with them.

Grace: Right.

Dallas: So everything is designed to put me in a situation where I can be my best self, be completely present with this human, to where then when I put that footage to this very capable team, I know they are set up with every single tool to make it compelling for each individual place. And we think about each individual place as their own pillars, where we have a podcast that's very much rooted in our decade of audio storytelling. And it will always remain that as long as we can pay for it.

Dallas: And over the course of the past 10 years, the podcast audience is incredibly loyal, and it is so special, and it is what's built my entire reputation, and what has led to all of the access I've been given in video.

Dallas: And so I would say that YouTube and the video effort is… I feel like I'm likely the only person in the world who could be making this very specific thing, because of my passions, because of my focus, because of the people that I know, because of the podcast reputation, because of my expertise, because of the sound company that's respected in the industry... I know that I have been given an opportunity that is so large that I have to do it.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: And what is at the heart of this is the audio community, which is the most delightful set of people I've ever met.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: They're generous, they're kind.

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: It is such a sweet, amazing community. And it's this weird world where everyone is kind of pitted against each other in service of trying to get the same jobs…

Grace: Yeah.

Dallas: But everyone refuses to play the game. So we all just help each other. And so that's where I just have inherent faith that no matter where I go, this is a proud member of the audio community. And for anyone in the audio community hearing this right now, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Grace: Yeah. And as someone who did not come from the audio industry myself, and then diving into it, I just kept meeting these like wonderful, humble, creative, talented folks.

[music in: Mimmi Bangoura - Meant to Be]

Grace: And I think, especially in industries like entertainment, which can be very cutthroat, very competitive, we are highlighting these lovely human beings being good to each other, being collaborators, being generous colleagues. And so I think it's a really fitting testament to that.

[downbeat] Grace VO: Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by our sound agency, Defacto Sound. Hear more at defactosound dot com, or by following defacto sound on Instagram.

Grace VO: This episode was written and produced by Grace East.

Other Voices: And Casey Emmerling. It was sound designed and mixed by Joel Boyter.

Grace VO:Thanks to our guest Dallas Taylor for stepping outside of his comfort zone on this one. To see Dallas's trips to all of these incredible places, subscribe to our YouTube channel, DallasTaylor.mp3. You can also find short videos on Instagram and TikTok under that same name, DallasTaylor.mp3.

Grace VO: I'm Grace East. Thanks for listening.

[music out]