What it takes to make a Tiny Desk Concert

0:00All reporters at NPR, including me, are very pleased when our stories generate a lot of public interest, when they get seen and heard on air and online by thousands and sometimes millions of readers and listeners. But everyone at NPR is well aware that there's one team here whose work is much more widely known than any single story. I'm Taylor. Welcome to my Tiny Desk concert. I'm talking about the Tiny Desk concert series. That's where musicians ranging from little-known bands to superstar recording artists perform behind what is literally a tiny desk in an office at NPR. Lucky staffers at NPR's Washington, D.C.

0:41headquarters, and sometimes guests we're allowed to bring along, get to watch these concerts live. Millions more people watch them later on platforms like YouTube. I've attended many Tiny Desk concerts over the years, including Taylor Swift and Alicia Keys. But until this week, I hadn't known much about the story behind the series. Well, it was several people's idea. It started off as a kind of a joke back in 2008. That's Robin Hilton, host and senior producer of Tiny Desk and All Songs Considered. A couple people on the NPR music team, Bob Boylan and Stephen Thompson, were at a bar at South by Southwest trying to see this singer-songwriter named Laura Gibson.

1:18And it was a really quiet set. They couldn't really hear anything. So that gave them an idea. And after the show, Stephen joked that we ought to just have her come and play at her desk. Long story short, Laura Gibson took Stephen up on the offer.

1:39That was the first of many, many Tiny Desk concerts. The first year, I think we did 10 shows. We'll do that many in a month now. Consider this. 17 years later, Tiny Desk isn't just going strong. It's a highly in-demand venue, not just for obscure bands looking for exposure, but for established performers with global followings. From NPR, I'm Sasha Pfeiffer.

2:19It's Consider This from NPR. I wanted to know more, as both a reporter and a Tiny Desk fan myself, about what it takes to produce so many fabulous performances. So this week, I spoke with Robin Hilton and his colleague Kara Frame, a video producer and director of Tiny Desk Concerts. They explained how artists who performed in major venues all over the world react to showing up to play behind a desk in an office building. Playing at the Tiny Desk in an office is kind of awkward, but I think the thing that really is unnerving for most artists is that they don't have the safety net that they usually have.

2:53So we have some ground rules that we had in the very beginning and that we've held on to, which are we don't amplify voices for the room. We don't use reverb or other kinds of effects, you know, no auto-tune. And then we don't have any monitors, in-ear or they're called in-ear or wedge monitors. And that's the way that artists normally hear themselves when they're playing live. Some musicians also say they were feeling left out that they hadn't come to do a tiny desk yet. I recall Hilary Swift being one of those. I think she actually said I had been getting FOMO, that she hadn't done it. Do you have other examples of artists who kind of said, you know, finally, I was feeling like I was one of the few that hadn't done a tiny desk?

3:33Post Malone said that he was really excited to be here. Carol G. said something really nice about how... I forgot how cool it feels, like I feel in my home and yeah, in the living room with my people that we just came to share some wines and everything. Olivia Rodrigo said that she was really excited. A lot of times we hear musicians say, I've never been starstruck by a desk or a space before. And these are all things that I guess I kind of take for granted. I don't think about how iconic the shelves are because we're so in it. You know, at the root and the heart of everything we do is, I like to think, is truth and authenticity.

4:16And I think that's why artists gravitate toward it. I think that's why fans gravitate toward it. And it's why we do what we do. You know, at no point is there a big meeting room full of suits deciding who's going to play the tiny desk. We keep it very, very real. If you play the tiny desk, that means that somebody on the NPR music team really, really loves you and wants you to play the desk. What are some of the most popular or most viewed tiny desks? The most popular of all time, just in terms of views, was Dua Lipa's home tiny desk.

4:57Which I think is interesting because it really speaks to that whole safety net question. Because when we asked artists to start doing these from home... This was during COVID? During COVID, it's how we kept the series going. We ask them to follow the same ground rules that we follow when we're in the building, which is no monitors, no reverb. You have to play in front of a desk. So they had to find some sort of desk. And those ground rules push artists into interesting directions that they otherwise might not go in. What are your personal favorites for whatever reason, the sound, the video, the music?

5:33Do you have a few or one or a few, Cara? Sesame Street will always be one of my top. Tiny Dusks. It was just so joyful. Sing what I sing, sing after me. Be my echo, if you can be. Sing tra-la-la, tra-la-la. Me, me, me. I remember them circulating all over the headquarters building. Yes, and so that was so fun. The puppets were walking around, and it was cute seeing different professional newsroom journalists lose their mind when their favorite puppet from Sesame Street. When Big Bird comes by. Exactly, exactly. It was really special. And one of my more recent favorites was the 31 Minutos. That is a puppet show from Chile.

6:25And what was really incredible about that is it kind of pushed the boundaries of Tiny Desk. They had puppets under the desk. We had people, we filmed people under the desk, in front of the desk and behind the shelves, which we've never done before. And it was a lot of chaos and it was a little absurd, but it was so much fun. And I just love being in that type of environment where everybody's like really excited to try to make this work and none of us know if it's actually going to work. And, you know, it always works. Robin, do you have different favorites? Yeah, well, hearing Kara mention Sesame Street reminds me of another thing that's so special and distinctive about the Tiny Desk series, and that is that it is multi-genre and really, really wide multi-genre.

7:19Oh, yeah. Everyone focuses on the big, you know, pop or hip-hop artists we've had. But, you know, GWAR. GWAR! And in PR, they said it couldn't be done. If you know that band, GWAR played the Tiny Desk. We're actually a little nervous here. It's the home of Nina Totenberg. Terry's friggin' gross. Hey, Terry, watch your mouth. Lots of classical artists. Daniel Trifnov, a classical pianist. We got a full grand piano back behind the desk for him to play. That's one of my all-time favorites for sure.

7:56But I always think of Run the Jewels, Tiarawak, and Coldplay. I think of as my top three. Joy was at the center of all of those performances. They all really understood sort of the parameters and the guardrails and what they needed to do to really make the performance special. Coldplay had a gospel choir with them.

8:35Run the Jewels, I remember, you know, like I said, we don't amplify voices for the room. And so, you know, LP said he felt really weird standing back there not holding on to a microphone. So he grabbed a banana that just happened to be sitting on the desk and he wrapped into a banana, you know, and then Tierra Whack. I don't even know where to begin with that one. That was an incredible performance. I'll just say at some point the Philly fanatic showed up. The Philly's mascot was dancing behind the stage with her. Really, really incredible. But just so much fun and just memorable. Yeah. I loved the Coldplay Tiny Desk with that gospel band.

9:11There just seemed to be joy radiating out of Chris Martin. I'll never forget it. And I routinely rewatch it because it makes me feel joyful when I watch it. He was having so much fun. And I remember sitting there watching him and thinking, he's played the biggest venues in the world. And he seems so happy just to be sitting here at this desk in this kind of weird, funny, special little moment. And he had played some of those songs countless times in his life, but was singing it like he had never sung it before. It was fantastic. And can I just add, I think that's what's so beautiful about what we do is that, you know, when you become a really big musician, there's a lot more production involved in everything, whether that's in the studio or on stage.

9:52and Tiny Desk brings you back to center. This is where it all started. It was your voice. It was your love of music. And we challenge these, you know, a big range of musicians, but especially these big pop stars. I think it like draws them back to where it all began. Yeah. That is Robin Hilton and Cara Frame of NPR's Tiny Desk concert series. Thank you so much. Thank you, Sasha. Thank you. This episode was produced by Lina Muhammad, Jordan Marie Smith, and Gabriel Sanchez. It was edited by Adam Rainey. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Sasha Pfeiffer.