Music, events, and other cool stuff not covered by the mainstream media.
Homoground is a queer (identified & allied) podcast focusing on bands, events and organizations that often get overlooked by mainstream publications and platforms. Run by Lynn Casper, and based out of Brooklyn, the podcast’s first episode aired in January 2011 and has quickly become a favorite of the queer community.
Casper, who was born in the Philippines, and grew up in North Carolina, became inspired to start the podcast as an outlet for a part of them that had been kept repressed, and as a way to connect with others who were in similar situations. They used the podcast to talk about music they’d discovered and to draw attention to bands that were touring in the area – always making sure to focus on artists who didn’t have easy access to a broad range of exposure otherwise.
“We aren’t blindly picking songs out of a catalog,” Casper says, “Bands seek us out and oftentimes confess their biggest challenges and successes to us. And this shit is real, people dealing with real struggles; with their music, their personal life, their identity/sexuality, mental health. The honesty of the music we feature is incredibly powerful.”
By being accessible online, Homoground is able to reach so many people all over the globe, which is super important. Homoground provides a way for people living in remote areas to feel connected. Casper recently launched a Patreon to help keep Homoground running, which is essential since it’s mostly funded out of pocket, with the help of occasional sponsors. With more funding, they’re looking to bring on more producers & hosts to create consistently better content along the lines of interviews and video series.
“The dream is to become the Queer version of MTV,” Casper says.
The motivation to continue doing Homoground is not only to provide a platform for musicians to get their music out there but to eventually be able to provide financial opportunities to artists and musicians because it’s hard for queers to make a buck these days!