He arrived almost by chance at a radio studio and has become a pioneer of sound design in the Spanish
podcast
.
Precisely in this category Teo Rodríguez (Madrid, 48 years old) will collect this Tuesday, May 24 in Malaga one of the Ondas Globales Podcast Awards, in which it is the first edition of these awards [whose gala can be followed from 20: 00 hours live via
streaming
through the front page of the EL PAÍS website].
The jury has highlighted "his mastery of surrounding a story with an unmistakable sound universe, full of nuances that lead the listener to live the sound experience in a totally immersive way".
The fiction
Lasfera
, produced by Podium Podcast (the PRISA Audio platform), is based on a real premise that is developed throughout the episodes.
Several US Army pilots sent a letter to
The New York Times
in which they recounted that they had been seeing unidentified flying objects during their flight maneuvers for years.
From that fact, the story written and directed by Polo Menárguez presents us with a police agent (played by Marta Nieto) relegated to an unknown and mysterious department called UAD.
Actor Luis Zahera (
Entrevías
,
El Reino
) voices his new boss, in a role that has also given him one of the Ondas Globales Podcast Awards in the acting category.
Ask.
What is sound design?
Response.
It is a relatively new term, used to differentiate it from the work that was being done in conventional radio.
It consists of knowing how to tell stories with sounds.
It is already a very important step that in an award category there is a category dedicated to something called sound design.
It is something that just three years ago would have been unthinkable.
Q.
How did you get into the world of audio?
R.
I started in the year 2000 in
Anda ya
[the wake-up program of Los 40 Principales].
I participated in a contest in which I had to demonstrate sound creativity and the prize was a job offer.
It took me a year to decide, because I had just studied Teaching and was working in a college and it seemed risky to enter a world that I completely did not know.
I am not a sound engineer nor do I have technical training in audio.
I have learned everything as I go along.
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P.
Many professionals say that the sound is more careful in the cinema than in the radio itself...
A.
In my 20 years working on programs, I have been lucky enough to be in places where sound was highly valued, such as Javier del Pino's
A Vivir, which is two days
on La Ser, or
Milenio 3
, with Iker Jimenez.
But they are exceptions in Spanish radio.
Unfortunately, as a general rule the audio issue has been secondary.
It is a medium where there are not enough resources for it.
In this aspect, it is far removed from the resources we use to produce fiction or sound documentaries.
The competition that has arisen with the arrival of the
podcast
is going to be positive in that regard.
Q.
So it's not so bad that a label has been invented for the profession.
.R.
It makes me happy and makes me feel optimistic about it.
I often say that sound designers are going to be the next
rock stars.
Now all the relevant audio production companies are like crazy looking for this type of professionals, who are capable of understanding this language.
They are not radio technicians, following a script.
They are creative people who bring new things to what the script reflects.
P.
How did you face such an ambitious project as
Lasfera
?
R.
The sphere
was very complex in many things.
Many of the situations he recounts are not tangible.
At first, when reading the scripts, I thought that it was impossible to carry them out.
Based on trying many things, we got it.
It reminds me that with audio you can make anything sound.
Polo [Menárguez] thinks about image because he usually writes for film and television, so he brought that frenetic pace to the script.
I tried to capture all the sounds that arise when you think of images.
And work on silences, which is one of the most important aspects of all this.
Teo Rodríguez, awarded in the sound design category at the first Ondas Globales Podcast Awards for 'Lasfera'.
Q.
To what extent is the listener's suspension of disbelief important?
A.
In the first two minutes, the listener already has to be involved in the story.
In both sound design and script writing, the listener has to be the focus.
That doesn't mean you work to please the listener, because that's the easiest way to fail.
Listeners there are thousands.
Even if there are only two, one is going to be different from the other.
You write for yourself, but thinking of others.
P.
And how is the work with the actors?
A.
The sound design is applied after the actors have recorded.
It is very important to put them in a situation, because they do not see or hear the scene they are playing.
The beautiful thing is that, if the preparation work is adequate, the sound elements end up fitting perfectly.
P.
What follows the triumph of
The sphere
?
R.
Now I am preparing
La firma de Dios
(Podium Podcast), which José A. Pérez Ledo has written and I am in charge of directing and sound editing.
The objective is to contribute something more than what has already been heard in
Lasfera;
go one step further.
P.
And what did you learn in
Anda ya
?
R. I learned to have a hard time at work, in the best possible way.
I had never been in a radio studio.
I learned to fend for myself, because at first I had no idea how a mixing desk worked.
And I worked on a program that started at six in the morning and was live... Before arriving, I only knew the medium because years before I would go to see Joaquín Luqui, as a listener of his program, so that he would give me news of michael jackson
He told me: “
My friend
, one day you will work on this”.
And he was right.
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