5 questions with Drew Ackerman

You know this meme?

Even if you’ve never seen it before, you probably understand the feeling. I logically understand that my favourite podcast hosts are not my friends, but I definitely spend more time listening to them than my actual friends. This word gets bandied about a lot in podcasting, but “intimate” really is the right way to describe having someone in your ear for a few hours per week.

But however intimate you think listening to your favourite chat show is, it pales in comparison to inviting someone to creak dulcet tones into your ear every night, sometimes for hours on end. That’s why listeners of Sleep With Me affectionately call Drew Ackerman—also known as Dearest Scooter—their “borefriend.” The bedtime storyteller is more than a podcast host. He’s a companion for some of the darkest moments of the night.

It was an honour to collaborate with Drew on a very special crossover between Sleep With Me and our first two Local Files Club releases. If you haven’t listened to it yet, Local Sleepers Club Vol. 1 is available for pay-what-you-want (including nothing!) on Bandcamp.

Beyond recording some excellent sleepy renditions of Ms. Shipton and Salt Bloom, Drew has also taken some time to answer our intimate questions about his file organisation habits, his favourite sound effects, and the that’s influenced him the most.

How would you describe yourself to a stranger at a party?

I’m the person at the party that, at some lull in our conversation, you will say “excuse me, I need to, uh, I have to go to the… (bathroom, eat, check in with someone else, etc.).” This is a normal and acceptable reaction as my social anxious side is a bit needy of finding someone to lock into n who I can feel comfortable talking to.

How do you organise your files?

Our recent files are very well organised, in a database with the file names of the recordings and then tracking the projects, older files… well, some of those are lost, some are sitting on backup drives, and some were once organised and zipped but then I made the dreaded mistake of trying to clone the drive containing them, but formatted the wrong drive, and they all went poof. I was in a rush (no idea why) so I had not waited for a cloud backup to get done on the original drive.

Describe your favourite sound effect.

I would have to say it’s a three-way tie between the sound of water making that drop-plop sound (is it a ploop or a plonk?), the sound of clocks ticking, and any kind of foley where you can feel it viscerally.

What’s a story you’d love to hear as an audiodrama, but would never make yourself?

The one piece of audio fiction I would love to make but can’t make but would love to listen to would be something with a cooler title, but like "High School Lunch Table,” just listening into a group of friends (fictional and dramatised) eating lunch and talking.

What’s a piece of art that’s NOT an audiodrama that has influenced your artistic practice?

In high school I started reading D&D fiction by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, which in a sense was like a rewritten and polished actual play podcast. Those stories along with discovering Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Kurt Vonnegut, they all became a mash in my brain that still inspires me. And yes, my friends and I would talk about the D&D novels at lunch, but that would be more of a dullish convo for my show versus a good piece of audio fiction.

If anyone wants to make Drew’s high school lunch table show for Local Files Club, give me a holler.

Otherwise, go listen to Sleep With Me wherever you get your podcasts, and if helps you fall asleep, consider supporting the show with a Sleep With Me Plus subscription.