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Switched on Pop

Jacob Collier can make anyone sing

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music, Music Interviews, Music History, Music Commentary

4.62.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jacob Collier is a rare musician: an expert in so many musical languages (western harmony, negative harmony, microtonalism) and a phenomenal communicator about music. He's something like an Ambassador for Music, traveling the world and getting thousands of people, musicians and non-musicians alike, to sing in his audience choirs. Live at On Air Fest, this conversation, catches Jacob between projects. Last year he released The Light for Days, a comparatively minimalist collection of songs written on his special five-string guitar, a quiet turn after the massive Djesse quadrilogy, which featured over 50 collaborators from Herbie Hancock to Anoushka Shankar and wove hundreds of thousands of audience choir voices into the recordings. Given that Jacob is always improvising with the best collaborators, Charlie wanted one of his own own. Five minutes before the show, Charlie spotted Sam Sanders, co-host of Vibe Check and host of the Sam Sanders Show on KCRW, and asked him onstage. Sam's a musician and one of the great interviewers, and he showed how improvising in conversation is just as essential as it is in music. Links: ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Now, are all the traitors present?

0:02.0

Let's get started, shall we?

0:04.0

From rags to riches.

0:06.0

I'm so sick of this.

0:07.0

Working like a dog and being treated worse.

0:09.0

Yorkshire to New York.

0:10.0

Poor climbers, you and me.

0:12.0

A life dedicated to revenge.

0:14.0

Let's make this an occasion to remember.

0:16.0

A Woman of Substance on Channel 4.

0:19.0

Stream now.

0:20.0

McDonald's cards are here.

0:22.4

24 cards to find and free food in every pack.

0:25.6

Choose from a range of cards meals, including the legendary double big man.

0:30.1

Order a cards mill and get a pack today.

0:33.8

18 plus UK only, with selected meals subject to availability.

0:36.8

Ends 27th of April app may be required. See macdirals.com.ukdurals.ukukukukuk

0:43.3

Switch on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. Jacob Collier is a rare musician. He's an expert in so many musical

0:54.4

languages, Western harmony, negative harmony, microtonalism, and at the same time, he's a phenomenal

1:00.2

communicator about these complicated topics. He's kind of the ambassador for music. He goes around

1:05.8

the world, getting thousands of people, non-musicians and musicians alike, to sing in his

1:10.2

audience choirs, conducted

...

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