Welcome to the SCENE REPORT substack
a new home for the podcast with the coolest artists in the world, from Reed Dunlea
Thanks for getting to this page, and thanks for reading.
I love making audio. (I love making videos, and photos, and writing too). More specifically, I love interviewing people. Especially people who make incredible music, art, food, journalism, activism (does one make activism?) or some combination of the above. In a way, I think my love for interviews has to do with wanting to tell the world what I think about things, but knowing that I’d rather do that in conversation with someone who may have a more interesting or informed worldview and life experience than my own. Also to be clear I’m not a like, chat with any random person about politics sort of guy, but I AM a chat with people who are lit about politics sort of guy. If that makes sense.
I honestly think SCENE REPORT is pretty cool, and this Substack is a way for me to put everything in one place that’s a little more accessible than just the pod feed and random posts on my Instagram. I plan on posting more than just the show in this space. I hope it’s interesting and fun. My first guest plays in punk and metal bands but also reviews and sells hummus. My most recent guest plays in crazy Brookly rock bands but also studies terrorism and sometimes works at his Dad’s legendary Iraqi restaurant in NYC. With these guests, we talk a lot about their art, but also a lot about what’s going on in the world and what little things people can do to resist the awful things happening, and perhaps even create something beautiful in between it all.
But how did I end up as something truly embarrassing, aka a podcaster? Well I started doing radio when I was in high school, at the local university station near my hometown in upstate New York. The first artist I ever interviewed for that show was Limp Wrist, and the second was Fucked Up. Honestly, if you know anything about punk music, you know that that is legitimately cool as hell. I wish I was better at archiving stuff (I do probably have the cassette tapes in a box somewhere tbh), and I’m also pretty sure my 4-track didn’t actually work for the Fucked Up interview anyways.
I moved to New York City after liberal arts college, and worked as a community organizer during the day and DJed at a Brooklyn online radio station called Newtown Radio at night. That was actually also cool in hindsight, as the station was in this busted practice space in Bushwick and I had bands pull up and play live (while the homie Zeke Mishanec, who has gone on to BIG things in the world of hip hop production, engineered and literally used the hallway and the live feed as his control room). It was a cool time in the NYC punk scene, and I had on guests like Crazy Spirit, The Men, Vaaska, Marked Men, Hunx & His Punx, etc. The archive of that actually is still around, probably cringe! The show was called Crust Never Sleeps. We also used to bust in there late at night and just get on the air and fuck around not during my timeslot. Nobody ever said anything. If you’re reading this, sorry Newtown!
I eventually entered the community radio big leagues and started hosting a show at WFMU. I imagine you probably know about WFMU. If you don’t, it’s a longstanding independent music station in NJ and has a bit of a cult following. Again, actually cool stuff. I had a million bands on that one, like Fred & Toody, The Spits, La Misma, Bad Noods, etc. Again, the archive is live! Long live Brian Turner! I was also working a day job at the NPR station WNYC during those years, but they never let me anywhere near a microphone there.
Fast forward a few years, I went to grad school at CUNY for journalism and kinda turned this hobby of interviewing cool people into a career, writing for Noisey (Vice) while I was in school, moving to DC for a minute for a video journalism job out of school (and DJing at a pirate station there) and eventually landing a pretty cool gig as a video producer at Rolling Stone. I guess I’ll mention notable interviews that I produced there like, uh, the Dalai Lama… Kamala Harris… the last interview with Pop Smoke… that list kinda goes on and on.
While at RS, I wanted a project that I had complete creative control over, so I started this podcast called Protest & Survive. I interviewed people who did both art and activism. It felt relevant and meaningful and interesting. I had on people like Winona LaDuke and Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson from Discwoman.
I am now a communications director for an immigration non-profit, so again, this project I call Scene Report is a way to do something creative on the side that I can all the shots for. I’m proud of what I’ve made so far, I’m grateful to the guests who have shared their stories, and I so appreciate the homies who have pitched in to lend a hand or give me a feedback or lent their time as a sounding board. Anyways, please subscribe!