Switched on Pop Hosts Discuss Netflix Move and Their Music Tools
The duo behind the music podcast Switched on Pop have brought their show to Netflix, and they shared their favorite gear and pet peeves with The Verge.
According to an interview with The Verge, Sloan is a composer and professor of musicology at the USC Thornton School of Music, while Harding is a songwriter, music journalist, and professor. Their podcast, produced by New York Magazine’s Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network, dissects pop songs by examining musical theory, production techniques, and other details.
In the interview, the duo shared their favorite tools and habits. Harding said his Martin D-28 guitar is his most indispensable tool, describing it as the “platonic idea” of what a guitar sounds and looks like, though he is still waiting for it to produce a timeless classic for him. Sloan said he relies on Sibelius music notation software to understand songs by transcribing their melody, harmony, and rhythm.
When asked about underappreciated gadgets, Harding pointed to keyboard shortcuts and the app Rectangle, which he said save him hours of time repositioning windows and make him feel like mission control. Sloan said the metronome is underappreciated. The first app Sloan installs on a new phone or computer is AudioHijack for grabbing audio. Harding, meanwhile, complained about iOS focus modes, saying that despite using them to avoid distractions, exceptions for family members mean group chats with one relative still trigger notifications, such as when his retired father catches a fish.
The pair also discussed their online habits. Sloan keeps ProQuest Historical Newspapers pinned to his tab bar, while Harding said he has 92 tabs open, organized into groups that only he understands. Sloan said he now keeps just two tabs open after finding that hundreds were harming his attention span. Sloan uses Instagram guiltily, while Harding said his happy place online is browsing Sweetwater for variations of guitar pedals he already owns.
Among their favorite devices, Harding cited the Dato DUO synthesizer and Dato DRUM drum machine, saying they are an easy way to learn programming and can’t make a bad sound. Sloan chose the iPod he traveled with in 2006. Sloan’s most disappointing gadget was a minidisc player. Harding said the tech trend he wishes would go away is “AI music slop,” while Sloan wants wearable computing to end. Harding also mentioned that in 2007 he pitched an idea for a ride-hailing app, but started a tea company instead; Sloan said he wished he had created Auto-Tune.
The duo are proudest of Switched on Pop and of coining the term “pop drop” to describe the instrumental post-chorus in pop songs. Harding added that his wife read the interview and suggested he should also be proud of his children.