Strong Songs Is the Best Music Podcast You’re Not yet Listening To
Run down a list of your favorite music podcasts. There’s a good chance Vox’s Switched On Pop is on there; maybe even Goin’ Off; Dead End Studios’ Is the Mic Still On? Could be; Slate’s Hit Parade? Highly likely; but have you ever heard of Strong Songs by Kirk Hamilton? Chances are you haven’t, and you’d be remiss to have not.
The name “Kirk Hamilton” might not sound completely unfamiliar to some. Before he took up the duties of hosting his own solo music podcast, Kirk was a recurring co-host to Kotaku’s own gaming podcast Splitscreen, and while he’s still part of the core podcast crew, he’d dropped all editorial responsibilities from Kotaku by the end of 2018. There’s great literature he made for the gaming outlet, but Kirk wanted to resume his passion for music. Along the convoluted detours of life, he’d ended up writing about video games when deep down, his passion for music was still brimming even as he failed to turn it into its own produce with an identity and a true voice of its own. Strong Songs is a product of months of prior planning, but also, ample expertise gained by producing and co-hosting Splitscreen for almost four years.
A version of Strong Songs had prototypically already lived on in Splitscreen before it was developed into its own entity. With every week’s episode, Kirk would share a favorite musical piece of his, but it was very clear that his addition to the podcast wasn’t exactly…
