Bob Boilen
In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
Significant listener interest in the music being played on All Things Considered, along with his and NPR's vast music collections, gave Boilen the idea to start All Songs Considered. "It was obvious to me that listeners of NPR were also lovers of music, but what also became obvious by 1999 was that the web was going to be the place to discover new music and that we wanted to be the premiere site for music discovery." The show launched in 2000, with Boilen as its host.
Before coming to NPR, Boilen found many ways to share his passion for music. From 1982 to 1986 he worked for Baltimore's Impossible Theater, where he held many posts, including composer, technician, and recording engineer. Boilen became part of music history in 1983 with the Impossible Theater production Whiz Bang, a History of Sound. In it, Boilen became one of the first composers to use audio sampling — in this case, sounds from nature and the industrial revolution. He was about Whiz Bang by Susan Stamberg on All Things Considered.
In 1985, the Washington City Paper voted Boilen 'Performance Artist of the Year.' An electronic musician, he received a grant from the Washington D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities to work on electronic music and performance.
After Impossible Theater, Boilen worked as a producer for a television station in Washington, D.C. He produced several projects, including a music video show. In 1997, he started producing an online show called Science Live for the Discovery Channel. He also put out two albums with his psychedelic band, Tiny Desk Unit, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Boilen still composes and performs music and posts it for free on his website . He performs and has a podcast of contradance music that he produces with his son Julian.
Boilen's first book, , was published in April 2016 by HarperCollins.
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Lenny Kaye is an elemental force in music and a spiritually attuned diviner of sounds. On this episode, he walks us through his process and his inspirations. -
Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton, bleary-eyed from a mind-bending Flaming Lips show, share this week's favorite music discoveries. -
More than 6,000 entries later, we have our champion. Watch the joyous video that won over all 10 judges unanimously. -
Ahead of the release of his newest record, Ryan Adams sits down with NPR Music's Bob Boilen to consider his favorite love songs, including Springsteen, Dylan and Sonic Youth. -
"I feel like this is my lane, guitar-based pop music." Martin Courtney and his band Real Estate's fourth album In Mind, takes cues from one of the great albums of all time, The Beatles Abbey Road.
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Bob Dylan continues his love for the Great American Songbook with a new album of classic songs called Triplicate. Listen to him singing "I Could Have Told You," first recorded by Sinatra in 1954.
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Singer Jenni May Toro had that question on her mind while going through a divorce. The answers she got when she asked her community, as shown in this video for "Pull Me," may surprise you.
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Here's a second chance to listen to inspiring conversations with veteran musicians like Paul McCartney and Jonny Greenwood, as well as newer visionaries like AURORA and Danny Brown. -
Send us a video of you or your band playing an original song behind a desk of your choosing. You could win a chance to play your own Tiny Desk concert.
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We take a chronological audio stroll through 2016, looking at memorable moments and important releases with NPR Music's Ann Powers and Stephen Thompson.
