Inside NPR's Tiny Desk Set Full of Priceless Objects

[upbeat music]

What up, y'all?

I'm Bobby, and welcome to the set of NPR's Tiny Desk.

Lemme show you around.

[upbeat music]

So this is it, y'all, this is the Tiny Desk.

There's no tricks, there's no bells and whistles.

Under this desk, there's nothing.

It's just a desk.

And once you fit all of these artists,

musicians, and instruments,

this thing literally turns into the Tiny Desk.

Where I'm standing is where Bad Bunny sat,

it is where Dua Lipa stood,

Chappell Roan, Chaka Khan, you name it,

they are right here, front and center.

And now that I'm standing and I'm thinking about, it's like,

damn, this is really the spot where they stand.

Can you imagine being an artist

who's performing in stadiums and theaters,

and all of a sudden you're standing three to four feet away

from an audience?

It's super disarming, it's very nerve-wracking

for a lot of artists.

And the fact that this many people

would want to cram into a space,

I really, I understand the sacrifices

that have been made for me today.

[upbeat music]

For as many big names of stars that we've had,

the true star is right here, the shelf, right?

As soon as you see it, you know exactly what this is.

And all the knickknacks and shit you see back here,

this is stuff that a lot of artists usually leave behind.

Mostly everything has a story,

and every day something else pops up.

This is what I like to call set list row.

And from time to time, the bands,

they like to have their set lists printed out

and placed on the desk just to make sure

that they're right on track.

Everything from Yo Gabba Gabba!

to Usher to Justin Timberlake.

Whenever I walk in in the morning,

Juvenile's Juvie Juice,

it's always one of the first things

that really strikes a memory in my head

because Juvenile probably drank seven of these juices,

which is not exactly juice.

If you've seen Dave Matthews' very long

and entertaining Tiny Desk, he left his water bottle.

When Gary Clark was here, he was nervous as hell.

But he was drenched in sweat with a leather coat on,

and we decided to keep this rag here

because he was probably the sweatiest act

we've ever had at the desk.

I'm still not taking this jacket off.

[audience laughs]

[Bobby] This is Regina Spektor's water

that she left three years ago.

Alicia Keys has her straw over there.

And of course, Sabrina Carpenter's martini glass.

One of her team members like literally bedazzled this glass

the night before the show.

I've been watching this show,

everyone says this, whatever.

You guys are great, you guys know you're great.

This is olive oil left by Action Bronson.

And these are Bad Bunny's headphones.

From what his manager told me,

these are very, very important headphones to him.

He listens to all of his mixes for his music

through these headphones and he decided to leave these

and drew a little happy face and a sad face.

This is Babyface's relish.

Apparently Babyface doesn't travel without sweet relish,

and his manager keeps a bottle of sweet relish in their bag,

and he signed it and left it.

There is one item, one item behind the Tiny Desk

that we got jacked for,

and that would be a CD that was signed by Taylor Swift.

Yeah, we got jacked for a Taylor Swift CD.

Saturday Night Live, they did a sketch on Tiny Desk,

and this is a cue card from that sketch.

Post Malone left his boots.

Tierra Whack left her shoes.

This is Wyclef's hat,

and this is Chappell Roan's wig.

It's like so hot in here.

[audience laughs]

Also, this wig,

though it looks like it's all my hair, it's a wig.

Chappell Roan's wig

is actually sitting on Cypress Hill's skull.

And on top of Cypress Hill's skull is Devo's hat.

That Phillies hat right there,

that was left by Chocolate Dropper, AKA Kevin Hart,

who did a really cool April Fools Tiny Desk

not too long ago.

And then right up here is the Brickbear

left by Bob Weir from The Grateful Dead.

These books have almost become like a character

or a part of this set

in the way that we will grab a random stack of books

to place a microphone, to sit some keyboards on.

These books always come in handy.

My favorite show today is Sesame Street, right?

Because the whole building was able

to be a part of the show.

And of course I'm a Sesame Street kid, that's how I grew up,

so tears of joy that day.

Let's rock this Tiny Desk.

[Bert laughs] [audience cheers]

There's one dominant theme if you're watching any number

of our Tiny Desk concerts,

it's how people rant and rave about the way the shows sound,

and it's all due to our incredible engineers.

So let's talk to Josh and get more into that.

[upbeat music]

I'm the primary audio engineer and mixer for the shows.

We have a number of snakes

that feed back to our primary recorder,

which is the sound device, the Scorpio.

Everything goes into the recorder here.

I do a quick mix that goes out.

And then that all also backs up to a secondary computer.

A lot of people are really surprised actually

to find out that we're just standing right here.

And if you watch the show,

you'll see my arms coming in and out.

[Bobby] Yeah.

We do like a lot of keyboards, guitars,

bass, strings, horns,

kind of here just 'cause we have space.

Drums are typically in the corner

because I want to get them as far away

from the vocals as possible

since they are the loudest instrument.

And then we currently have guitar and bass set up over here,

just kind of typical setup.

This space sounds shockingly good for being an office,

but that said, it's not in the perfect performance space.

I'm under an air conditioning vent, for example.

A lot of the teams come in and they're surprised

that this isn't a real performance space,

there aren't monitors, so we do have to get them like,

hey, if you need to hear each other,

you all have to play quieter.

We're not using drum samples, we're not doing auto tune,

it's a very natural thing.

One of the other things we do battle

is people often bring in their own gear,

and often it's truckloads.

People are very surprised

that this isn't a proper soundstage.

So we had someone come in the other day with giant gongs

and cymbals and then,

hey, I'm playing flute and contrabass clarinet, baby grands.

We had what, a 16-piece horn band,

we had a 12-person choir, the six-octave marimba.

We've had people play water glasses on the desk.

[gentle glass music]

It's pretty crazy what people bring in

and work in the space.

We've had questions like,

how many people can you fit back here?

What we respond with is, well, what are they doing?

[Bobby] Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[Josh] 'Cause that's also a very big aspect of it.

[Bobby] So we got a few pieces of equipment out here,

but let's go into the equipment room

and show everybody what they're called.

[upbeat music]

So we have a bright piano.

Can't fit down the storage room,

but that lives in the corner.

And then this is behind the scenes

of Tiny Desk equipment storage.

We've got our keyboards and some basic amps over here.

Have one gobo in case I really need it with the piano.

This is where we keep our house cymbals.

We also have a couple in-house snare drums.

Just some of the auxiliary percussion stuff.

You need a tambourine, we got tambourines.

Guitar amps, keyboard amps.

We've got Latin percussion,

cajones, congas, bongos chimes, extra cymbal stands,

extra drum heads if people need them.

We've got music stands in case we need them.

We have leftover alcohol

in case artists need leftover alcohol.

Extra keyboard covers for our beautiful Rhodes here.

Kind of everything that people really need,

we can cover about a good 75%, 85%

of the equipment needs just in-house.

[upbeat music]

I'm the senior producer

and host of All Songs Considered in Tiny Desks,

helped get the series going in the early days.

My biggest claim to fame with the Tiny Desk

is that I named it.

I got the name from a band that Bob Boilen was in

back in the late '70s and the early '80s

called Tiny Desk Unit,

and our desks were next to each other.

And he had a little miniature desk,

like a toy dollhouse desk on his desk.

And we were trying to decide,

what should we name this thing?

I looked at the little desk, and I said,

We could call it Tiny Desk Concerts.

I think the thing people are most surprised by

is that it is an actual desk in an open office

with people working around.

It's not a set, it's not a stage,

it's not a recording studio, it's an actual open office.

So in the early days it was kind of just us grabbing people

who were coming into town that we really loved.

We did a lot of stripped down acoustic sets,

and then the productions got bigger and bigger over time.

And nowadays bands are coming to us and saying,

can I play the Tiny Desk?

[Interviewer] If current you could tell past you

that Tiny Desk would turn into what it is now,

how do you think past you would react?

I'd probably get hair implants and work out a lot more.

[Bobby laughs]

I don't think any of us would've ever predicted

that it would take off like it did.

It was always a passion project.

It was just a group of friends joking around having fun.

They were incredibly disruptive

because we were bringing bands in

to play in this open office,

and people were trying to get work done, and they were like,

what are you doing?

Do you wanna go back to the Tiny Desk

and take a look at some stuff?

Yeah, we might as well just go over there, yeah.

All right, let's do it.

[lively music]

So that's my name up there

along with All Songs Considered and Bob Boilen NPR.

So years ago, musicians would send us CDs

trying to get us to play their music,

and they would send all kinds of crazy things with them.

And this is something that one of the musicians sent in,

a guy named Leo Blaze.

And as soon as we got them,

we put them up here on these shelves.

These shelves, NPR'S facilities built these shelves,

custom made them for us to store CDs.

[Bobby] That's right.

Because we got so many CDs in the mail.

Around the time we started putting CDs,

streaming started taking off,

we started getting more downloads,

we never did fill these shelves up with CDs.

[Bobby] Not completely, no.

And we started doing Tiny Desks.

And I think if there was a patient zero,

[Bobby] it was probably Adele. 100%.

[Robin] Adele left her water bottle behind,

and one of us noticed and we were like,

oh, we should keep that.

And we wrote Adele's name and we stuck it on the shelf.

It just really grew from there.

So you know, many people don't know,

this is actually the second Tiny Desk.

We lived in another building not too far from here.

Well, we wanted to make a video out of it.

And we were thinking if we're gonna do some crazy video

where we move the Tiny Desk

from that location that this location,

what band could we have play?

And you're not gonna get a better band

for crazy videos than OK Go.

We dismantled the desk, got them onto a flatbed truck,

brought them here-

[Bobby] Played in the elevator.

And they're playing through the whole thing.

And they studied the photos

and very meticulously put everything back

where it had been in the old building.

When we moved into this new building,

they got all new furniture.

So this is not the original Tiny Desk.

The original Tiny Desk still exists.

Where's the desk, Robin?

I don't know this.

It's in Bob Boilen's apartment.

That's crazy.

It needs to be in a museum.

Well, I'm taking this one.

I'm joking. [Robin chuckles]

[Bobby laughs]

So no shortage of things to admire behind the desk,

but there are a couple little things that mean a lot to me

that no one will ever notice.

The first one is this little Curious George doll back here.

This is one of the first things that was ever on the desk.

I had this dream where Curious George and I

were having dinner with Bob Boilen.

So I got him this little Curious George

and this set on his desk for the longest time.

But my all-time favorite, which no longer exists,

is this banana.

So we brought in Run The Jewels,

and El-P felt so self-conscious, he's like,

I'm used to holding the mic, I need something.

And there was a banana on the desk.

And he grabbed the banana, so he raps into the banana.

Is it cool?

This feels more natural.

[audience laughs]

[Robin] And afterwards,

we tried to keep the banana and it rotted away anyway.

All right, so I got a few more moves to make,

but I just want thank you, brother.

All right.

All right, I'll see you later.

[upbeat music]

So we cannot talk Tiny Desk

without talking to one of the co-creators,

the one and only Stephen Thompson.

What's up, my brother?

Bobby, nice to see you.

Hey, nice to you too, dude.

I started working at NPR in 2006.

And NPR was starting to put together this project

where they wanted to do something called NPR Music.

And then in 2008, we started putting this together.

And what happened?

I mean, it's the stuff of legends at this point.

March 14th, 2008.

Yes.

Bob Boilen and I go to a concert

by the great singer-songwriter Laura Gibson.

It was held at this club, it was called The Thirsty Nickel,

and it just was not set up for live music at all.

It was March Madness too.

March Madness was going on.

And so every individual yahoo in the crowd

was louder than Laura Gibson on stage.

And so I lean over to Bob and I said, This is ridiculous.

I said, Next time she's in DC,

we should just have her play at your desk.

And he kind of, you know, like I could tell-

The light bulb moment.

You can tell when you throw out a dumb idea

and the other person is like.

He was like, Ask her.

So Stephen invited Laura to come play at my desk

and she called a week or whatever,

after we were gone and said,

I think basically I'm coming to town.

And we said, Well, we got the desk ready.

So we're gonna videotape this for our blog,

and maybe it's the start of something and maybe it's not,

but we're certainly glad to have Laura Gibson here today.

Because she jumped right at it,

because she was so game and so fun to work with,

because she came and performed and it was beautiful,

the heart and soul of it just came down to,

we loved a singer,

we wanted to hear her without distraction,

and here we are.

If you go back and watch the very first Tiny Desk Concert,

the first thing that people notice

besides kind of how generally shabby it looked,

is how barren the shelves are.

I used to work at The Onion.

And my office in The Onion

was kind of like my dorm away from home.

And I wanted to put a little piece of that office

up at the Tiny Desk.

And so if you look up in this far corner,

you see this talking Master P doll.

[Bobby] Yes.

I don't think he works anymore,

but if you press his chest, he goes,

[Bobby] Uhhh. Uhhh.

Na-na na-na.

[Bobby laughing] [Stephen laughs]

And apparently somebody told me Master P was in the building

doing an interview, and somebody took him by the Tiny Desk

and he saw his own action figure-

[Bobby] I didn't know that. And signed it.

When Harry Styles played a Tiny Desk concert,

we had this idea kind of almost on the spot.

Harry Styles has a Green Bay Packers tattoo.

That's right.

And I'm a huge lifelong fan of the Packers.

So we reached out to his people and was like,

do you think he'd sit behind the desk with us

for like a second and talk about

why he likes the Green Bay Packers?

And so I brought all my Packers paraphernalia from home.

[Bobby] That's right, you did.

And a Packer helmet that Guy Raz gave me.

And so we did this little interview behind the desk.

So when I was about six years old,

I fell off my bike and I cut my knee,

and I bled green and gold.

And at the end of it,

Harry Styles signs the Packer helmet,

and we stuck it like right here behind the desk.

[Bobby] It was there for a while.

March of 2020, and I'm talking to my partner,

and I was like,

You know, we're gonna be home for a few weeks.

I'm like, I don't know when we're gonna come back.

And she's like, Take that Packer helmet off the shelf

and bring that home, or you'll never see it again.

[Bobby] Good on her, that was smart.

And so now it sits on my mantle.

Yeah, there you go.

[lively music]

So in this area there's a lot of foot traffic,

and to get to the Tiny Desk, this is the primary way in.

And Suraya is always the first face you see.

On a typical day, I get in here pretty early.

Artists come in, we start getting set up.

There's a variety of things that we do to support

and help the musicians.

Right before the show, we let the audience in.

The room gets full, up to like 250 people.

When we have big artists come in,

like people kind of lose their minds.

And so we're always trying to figure out ways

to crowd-control.

It's tough putting on massive concerts-

It's tough. In a news organization.

'Cause people still break the rules.

You clearly got a couple things you need to get to.

I do.

Thank you. Thank you.

So we talked about the origin story,

we talked about the sound of the Tiny Desk,

but the Tiny Desk ain't the Tiny Desk without the look.

So let's talk to our mighty, mighty video squad.

[lively music]

Maia provides me and this team such a sense of calm,

and she's just brilliant at what she does.

On the video team, there are three video producers,

and it kind of works out

because there are typically three concerts a week.

We each direct and edit one of the shows.

So when one of us is directing,

the other two are assisting and helping film of course.

And then after the show, that director then edits that show.

And it also works out that we publish three a week.

So I'm like editing a show now that publishes tomorrow.

And then I'm looking at the calendar

to make sure Bobby doesn't add us a show for tomorrow.

Usually you see like a late night

or you'll see like the morning show,

they do one quick song, it feels big, and then it's done.

Here it's like they capture these human moments

within these shows

that makes you feel like you're just sitting right there.

[upbeat music]

Up next, we got the one and only

producer director extraordinaire Kara Frame.

And she always has the energy.

She's directed and produced some of our biggest shows.

I would say my favorite part of this whole process

is actually working with the bands.

Yes.

Making something that they love

and like bringing it to life

and being able to make an experience for them

here at Tiny Desk.

I'm very much a visual person,

so I love to like plot out where everybody's going to go

so I can envision where camera angles,

where they're gonna be and how that's going to look

for the overall concert.

The number one question we get from bands is always,

how many people and instruments can we fit behind the desk?

Oh, my God, what show is that?

This is the Philharmonik,

which is our 2024 Tiny Desk contest winner.

Up until recently,

there was just a giant cardboard box here of tapes,

and I'd love to show you where they're at now.

These are the OG Tiny Desks

before we recorded them on digital SD cards.

My favorite, we have Adele, Ana Tijoux, Laura Gibson.

We have Esperanza Spalding, we have The Cranberries,

Chuck Brown, Raphael Saadiq, Reggie Watts.

It's just endless and I really love having it here

because I think it's kind of special.

[upbeat music]

When you look at the way

that the look of the Tiny Desk has evolved

over the past five years,

Josh Bryant, you can thank him.

I have kind of started the whole Polaroid process here

that we've done after concerts and post to social media.

I've worked on helping get the color correction

a little bit more elevated.

And part of that, working with color

also involves getting our lighting situation

a little bit more elevated as well.

Before I started here,

we weren't using really any lights at all.

We have a lot of instances

where we will have like a big audience

or it might be like a dark cloudy day

and we need just a little bit of a punch.

So that's where I kind of came in

and helped us try to develop a lighting system that works.

[lively music]

So these are our photo albums

where we keep all of the best of our shots.

We got Usher.

Did get a good one of Usher.

[Joshua] Then we've got Denzel Curry-

[Bobby] Denzel-

[Joshua] J.I.D, Omar Apollo, Pigeon Pit.

The artist signs one, leaves one with us,

and then they get to take one as well.

Right, we always take two of each photo.

[Bobby] You look through this and you just,

you are reminded of just how much output

and just you are able to reflect on some of the-

[Joshua] And we'll fill up so many more albums,

it's just gonna just keep going.

All right, in three, two, one.

[camera clicks]

Got it.

When you watch Tiny Desk concerts,

it is such a team effort.

This group is just a bunch of music nerds,

each one of them extremely passionate about what they do.

From the shooters to the audio to our social team,

to our writers and our editors.

From our podcast team, Alt Latino, All Songs,

to our jazz to rock to R&B, hip hop, reggaeton, classical,

you name it, we have it covered here.

So whenever you see anyone playing at the Tiny Desk

it's because someone on this team

is super passionate about it.

It's just so dope to be a part of something

where you're highlighting a set,

and the set is the true star

no matter who we bring behind this desk.

All right, so thanks for hanging out today,

following us, seeing how we do it there at the Tiny Desk,

but we actually have a show to do tomorrow,

so y'all gotta go.

[Group] Bye, AD.

Yeah, there you go.

[upbeat music]