- 6/26/2025
Today, AD steps behind the scenes with Bobby Carter to tour the NPR Tiny Desk Concert set. What began in 2008 as a humble, stripped-back performance series for NPR’s blog has grown into a global phenomenon, with unforgettable sets from stars like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa, and more. Despite its viral fame, the heart of Tiny Desk remains the same: a real desk in a real office, surrounded by shelves packed with priceless mementos left by artists–from Adele’s water bottle to Sabrina Carpenter’s martini glass and even Chappell Roan’s wig. Meet the team behind the production, and discover how Tiny Desk became such a beloved series.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00What up y'all? I'm Bobby and welcome to the set of NPR's Tiny Desk. Let me show you around.
00:14So this is it y'all. This is the tiny desk. There's no tricks, there's no bells and whistles.
00:20Under this desk is nothing. It's just a desk. And once you fit all of these artists, musicians,
00:25and instruments, this thing literally turns into the tiny desk. Where I'm standing is where Bad Bunny
00:31sat. It is where Dua Lipa stood, Chaperone, Chaka Khan, you name it. They are right here front and
00:38center. And now that I'm standing, I'm thinking about it like, damn, this is really the spot where
00:42they stand. Can you imagine being an artist who's performing stadiums and theaters and all of a
00:48sudden you're standing three to four feet away from an audience? It's super disarming. It's very
00:52nerve-wracking for a lot of artists. And the fact that this many people would want to cram into a
00:56space. I really, I understand the sacrifices that have been made for me today. For as many big names
01:04of stars that we've had, the true star is right here. The shell, right? As soon as you see it, you know
01:09exactly what this is. And all of the knickknacks and shit you see back here, this is stuff that a lot
01:14of artists usually leave behind. Mostly everything has a story. And every day something else pops up.
01:20This is what I like to call set list row. And from time to time, the bands, they like to have their
01:26set list printed out and placed on the desk just to make sure they're right on track. Everything from
01:30Yo Gabba Gabba to Usher to Justin Timberlake. Whenever I walk in in the morning, Juvenile is
01:36juvie juice. It's always one of the first things that really strikes a memory in my head because
01:40Juvenile probably drank seven of these juices, which is not exactly juice. If you've seen Dave Matthews'
01:46very long and entertaining tiny desk, he left his water bottle. When Gary Clark was here,
01:52he was nervous as hell. But he was drenched in sweat with a leather coat on. And we decided
01:57to keep this rag here because he was probably the sweatiest act we've ever had at the desk.
02:01Still not taking this jacket off.
02:03This is Regina Spector's water that she left three years ago. Alicia Keys has her straw over there. And of
02:11course, Sabrina Carpenter's martini glass. One of her team members like literally bedazzled this glass
02:16the night before the show.
02:17I've been watching this show. Everyone says this. Whatever. You guys are great. You guys know you're great.
02:22This is olive oil left by Action Bronson. These are Bad Bunny's headphones. From what his manager told
02:27me, these are very, very important headphones to him. He listens to all of his mixes for his music
02:31through these headphones. And he decided to leave these and drew a little happy face and a sad face.
02:36This is Babyface's relish. Apparently, Babyface doesn't travel without sweet relish. And his manager
02:41keeps a bottle of sweet relish in their bag. And he signed it and left it. There is one item,
02:48one item behind the Tiny Desk that we got jacked for. And that would be a CD that was signed by Taylor
02:54Swift. Yeah, we got jacked for Taylor Swift CD. Saturday Night Live, they did a sketch on Tiny Desk.
03:00And this is a cue card from that sketch. Post Malone left his boots. Tiara Wack left her shoes.
03:06This is Wyclef's hat. This is Chaperone's wig. It's like so hot in here. Also, this wig,
03:12though it looks like it's all my hair, it's a wig. Chaperone's wig is actually sitting on Cypress
03:19Hill's skull. And on top of Cypress Hill's skull is Deebo's hat. That Philly's hat right there,
03:24that was left by Chocolate Dropper, AKA Kevin Hart, who did a really cool April Fool's Tiny Desk not
03:30too long ago. And then right up here is The Brick Bear left by Bob Weir from The Grateful Dead.
03:35These books have almost become like a character or a part of this set in the way that we will grab a random
03:41stack of books to place a microphone, to sit some keyboards on. These books always come in handy.
03:48My favorite show today is Sesame Street, right? Because the whole building was able to be a part
03:53of the show. And of course, I'm a Sesame Street kid. That's how I grew up. So tears of joy that day.
03:58Let's rock this tiny desk.
04:02There's one dominant theme if you're watching any number of our Tiny Desk concerts. It's how people
04:08rant and rave about the way the shows sound. And it's all due to our incredible engineers.
04:13Let's talk to Josh and get more into that.
04:20I'm the primary audio engineer and mixer for the show. We have a number of snakes that feed back to
04:24our primary recorder, which is the sound device of Scorpio. Everything goes into the recorder here.
04:28I do a quick mix that goes out. And then that all also backs up to a secondary computer. A lot of people
04:33are really surprised actually to find out that we're just standing right here. And if you watch the show,
04:36you'll see my arms coming in and out. We do like a lot of keyboards, guitars, bass, strings,
04:41horns kind of here just because we have space. Drums are typically in the corner because I want
04:44to get them as far away from the vocals as possible since they're the loudest instrument. And then we
04:47currently have guitar and bass set up over here. Just kind of typical setup. This space sounds
04:52shockingly good for being an office, but that said, it's not in the perfect performance space.
04:56I'm under an air conditioning vent, for example. A lot of the teams come in and they're surprised that this
05:00isn't a real performance space. There aren't monitors. So we do have to get them like, hey, if you need to hear each
05:04other, you all have to play quieter. We're not using drum samples. We're not doing auto-tune. It's
05:08a very natural thing. One of the other things we do battle is people often bring in their own gear
05:13and often it's truckloads. People are very surprised that this isn't a proper soundstage. So we had
05:17someone come in the other day with giant gongs and cymbals and then, hey, I'm playing flute and
05:22contrabass, clarinet, baby grands. We had, what, a 16-piece horn band. We had a 12-person choir,
05:28the six-octave marimba. We've had people play water glasses on the desks. It's pretty crazy what
05:34people bring in and work in the space. When the question comes back, how many people can you fit
05:37back here, what we respond with is, well, what are they doing? Because that's also a very big aspect
05:42of it. So we got a few pieces of equipment out here, but let's go into the equipment room and show
05:46everybody what they call.
05:52So we have our upright piano. Can't fit that in the storage room, but that lives in the corner. And then this
05:56is behind the scenes of tiny desk equipment storage. We've got our keyboards and some basic
06:01amps over here. I have one gobo in case I really need it with the piano. This is where we keep our
06:05house cymbals. We also have a couple in-house snare drums, just some of the auxiliary percussion stuff.
06:10You need a tambourine, we got tambourines. Guitar amps, keyboard amps. We've got Latin percussion,
06:15cajons, congas, bongos, chimes, extra cymbal stands, extra drum heads if people need them. We've got
06:21music stands in case we need them. We have leftover alcohol in case artists need leftover alcohol.
06:26Extra keyboard covers for our beautiful roads here. It's kind of everything that people
06:30really need. We can cover about a good 75-85% of the equipment needs just in-house.
06:40I'm the senior producer and host of All Songs Considered and Tiny Desks. I helped get the series
06:45going in the early days. My biggest claim to fame with the Tiny Desk is that I named it. I got the name
06:51from a band that Bob Boylan was in back in the late 70s and early 80s called Tiny Desk Unit and
06:57our desks were next to each other. They had a little miniature desk, like a toy dollhouse desk,
07:03on his desk. And we were trying to decide what should we name this thing. I looked at the little
07:08desk and I said we could call it Tiny Desk Concerts. I think the thing people are most surprised by
07:14is that it is an actual desk in an open office with people working around. It's not a set, it's not a
07:19stage, it's not a recording studio, it's an actual open office. So in the early days it was kind of
07:25just us grabbing people who were coming into town that we really loved. We did a lot of stripped down
07:31acoustic sets and then the productions got bigger and bigger over time. And nowadays bands are coming
07:36to us and saying can I play the Tiny Desk.
07:39I don't think any of us would have ever predicted that it would take off like it did. It was always
07:55a passion project. It was just a group of friends joking around, having fun. They were incredibly
08:01disruptive because we were bringing bands in to play in this open office and people were trying to get
08:06worked at and like what are you doing? Do you want to go back to the Tiny Desk and take a look at
08:10some of my stuff? You might as well just go over there. Yeah. All right let's do it.
08:19So that's my name up there along with All Songs Considered and Bob Boylan NPR. So years ago
08:25musicians would send us CDs trying to get us to play their music and they would send all kinds of crazy
08:30things with them and this is something that one of the musicians sent in and a guy named Leo Glaze.
08:35And as soon as we got them we put them up here on these shelves. These shelves NPR's facilities built
08:41these shelves custom made them for us to store CDs. That's right. Because we got so many CDs in the
08:46mail. Around the time we started putting CDs streaming started taking off. We started getting
08:52more downloads. We never did fill these shelves up with CDs. Not completely. And we started doing tiny
08:56desks and I think if there was a patient zero it was probably Adele. 100%. Adele left her water bottle
09:03behind and one of us noticed and we were like oh we should keep that. And we wrote Adele's name and
09:07we stuck it on the shelf. It just really grew from there. So you know many people don't know this is
09:12actually the second tiny desk. We lived in another building not too far from here. Well we wanted to
09:18make a video out of it and we were thinking if we're going to do some crazy video where we move the tiny
09:24desk from that location to this location. What band could we have play? And you're not going to get a better
09:31band for crazy videos than OK Go. We dismantled the desk, got them onto a flatbed truck, brought them here.
09:39Played a little back in there. And they're playing through the whole thing and they studied the
09:44photos and very meticulously put everything back where it had been in the old building. When we moved
09:49into this new building they got all new furniture. So this is not the original tiny desk. The original tiny desk
09:56still exists. Where is the desk, Robin? I don't know this. It's in Bob Boylan's apartment. That's crazy.
10:02It needs to be in a museum. Well I'm taking this one. I'm joking.
10:06So no shortage of things to admire behind the desk but there are a couple little things that mean a
10:12lot to me that no one will ever notice. The first one is this little Curious George doll back here.
10:17This is one of the first things that was ever on the desk. I had this dream where Curious George and I
10:22were having dinner with Bob Boylan. So I got him this little Curious George and this sat on his desk
10:28for the longest time. But my all-time favorite, which no longer exists, is this banana. So we brought
10:35in Run the Jewels and LP felt so self-conscious. He's like, I'm used to holding the mic. I need something.
10:39And there was a banana on the desk and he grabbed the banana and so he wraps into the banana.
10:43Isn't it cool? This feels more natural.
10:47And afterwards we tried to keep the banana and it rotted away anyway.
10:52All right, so I got a few more movies to make, but I just want to thank you, brother.
10:55All right.
10:55I'll see you later.
10:59So we cannot talk Tiny Desk without talking to one of the co-creators, the one and only
11:03Stephen Thompson. What's up, my brother?
11:04Bobby, nice to see you.
11:06Nice to see you too, dude.
11:07I started working at NPR in 2006 and NPR was starting to put together this project where they
11:14wanted to do something called NPR Music. And then in 2008, we started putting this together.
11:19And what happened? I mean, it's the stuff of legends at this point.
11:23March 14, 2008.
11:25Yes.
11:25Bob Boylan and I go to a concert by the great singer-songwriter Laura Gibson. It was held at
11:30this club. It was called the Thirsty Nickel and it just was not set up for live music at all.
11:35It was March Madness.
11:36March Madness was going on. And so every individual Yahoo in the crowd was louder than Laura Gibson on stage.
11:44And so I leaned over to Bob and I said, this is ridiculous. I said, next time she's in DC,
11:49we should just have her play at your desk. And he kind of, you know, like, I could tell.
11:52A libel moment.
11:53You can tell when you throw out a dumb idea and the other person is like, he's like, ask her.
11:59So Stephen invited Laura to come play at my desk and she called a week or whatever so ago and said,
12:04I think basically I'm coming to town. And we said, well, we got the desk ready. So we're going to
12:10videotape this for our blog. And, uh, and maybe it's the start of something and maybe it's not,
12:15but we're certainly glad to have Laura Gibson here today.
12:18Because she jumped right at it, because she was so game and so fun to work with,
12:22because she came and performed and it was beautiful, the heart and soul of it just came down to,
12:28we loved a singer. We wanted to hear her without distraction. And here we are.
12:33If you go back and watch the very first Tiny Desk concert, the first thing that people notice
12:38besides kind of how generally shabby it looked is how barren the shelves are.
12:43I used to work at The Onion and my office in The Onion was kind of like my dorm away from home.
12:49And I wanted to put a little piece of that office up at the Tiny Desk. And so if you look up in this
12:56far corner, you see this Talking Master P doll. I don't think he works anymore, but if you press his
13:01chest, he goes, and apparently somebody told me Master P was in the building doing an interview
13:12and somebody took him by the Tiny Desk and he saw his own action figure and signed it.
13:18When Harry Styles played a Tiny Desk concert, we had this idea kind of almost on the spot.
13:22Harry Styles has a Green Bay Packers tattoo. That's right. And I'm a huge lifelong fan of the Packers.
13:28So we reached out to his people. I was like, do you think he'd sit behind the desk with us for
13:32like a second and talk about why he likes the Green Bay Packers? And so I brought all my Packers
13:36paraphernalia from home. That's right. And a Packer helmet that Guy Raz gave me. And so we did this
13:41little interview behind the desk. So when I was, when I was about six years old, I fell off my bike
13:48and I cut my knee and I bled green and gold. And at the end of it, Harry Styles signs the Packer
13:55helmet and we stuck it like right here behind the desk. It was there for a while. March of 2020.
14:01And I'm talking to my partner and I was like, you know, we're, we're going to be home for a few
14:04weeks. I'm like, I don't know when we're going to come back. And she's like, take that Packer
14:09helmet off the shelf and bring that home or you'll never see it. Good on her. That was smart.
14:13And so now it sits on my mantle. Yeah, there you go.
14:16So in this area, there's a lot of foot traffic. And to get to the tiny desk, this is the primary
14:25way. And Soraya is always the first face you see. On a typical day, I get in here pretty early.
14:31Artists come in. We start getting set up. There's a variety of things that we do to support and help
14:37the musicians. Right before the show, we let the audience in. The room gets full up to like 250 people.
14:45So we have big artists come in, like people kind of lose their minds. And so we're always trying
14:51to figure out ways to crowd control. It's tough putting on massive concerts in a news organization.
14:57Because people still break the rules. You clearly got a couple of things you need to get to.
15:00I do. Thank you. Thank you. So we talked about the origin story. We talked about the sound,
15:05the tiny desk, but the tiny desk ain't the tiny desk without the look. So let's talk to our mighty,
15:10mighty video squad.
15:15Maya provides me and this team such a sense of calm. And she's just brilliant at what she does.
15:22On the video team, there are three video producers. And it kind of works out because there are typically
15:28three concerts a week. We each direct and edit one of the shows. So when one of us is directing,
15:34the other two are assisting and helping film, of course. And then after the show,
15:39that director then edits that show. And it also works out that we publish three a week. So I'm
15:44like editing a show now that publishes tomorrow. And then I'm looking at the calendar to make sure
15:51Bobby doesn't add us a show for tomorrow.
15:53Usually you see like a late night or you'll see like the morning show. They do one quick song,
15:58it feels big and then it's done. Here it's like they capture these human moments within these shows
16:03that makes you feel like you're just sitting right there.
16:10Up next, we got the one and only producer, director extraordinaire, Cara Frame. And she always has
16:16the energy. She's directed and produced some of our biggest shows.
16:18Cara Frame I would say my favorite part of this whole process is
16:24actually working with the bands. Making something that they love and like bringing it to life and
16:30being able to make an experience for them here at Tiny Desk. I'm very much a visual person, so I love
16:38to like plot out where everybody's going to go so I can envision where camera angles, where they're
16:44going to be, and how that's going to look for the overall concert. The number one question we get
16:50from bands is always how many people and instruments can we fit behind the desk? Oh my god, what show is that?
16:57This is the Philharmonic, which is our 2024 Tiny Desk contest winner. Up until recently, there was just
17:04a giant cardboard box here of tapes and I'd love to show you where they're at now. These are the OG Tiny Desks
17:11before we recorded them on digital SD cards. My favorite, we have Adele, Anna Tijoux, Lara Gibson,
17:19we have Esperanza Spalding, we have the Cranberries, Chuck Brown, Raphael Sadiq, Reggie Watts. It's just
17:27endless and I really love having it here because I think it's kind of special.
17:35When you look at the way that the look of the Tiny Desk has evolved over the past five years,
17:41Josh Bryant, you can thank him. I have kind of started the whole Polaroid process here that we've
17:46done after concerts and post social media. I've worked on helping get the color correction a little
17:53bit more elevated and part of that with working with color also involves getting our lighting
17:58situation a little bit more elevated as well. Before I started here, we weren't using really
18:03any lights at all. We have a lot of instances where we'll have like a big audience or it might be like
18:08a dark cloudy day and we need just a little bit of a punch. So that's where I kind of came in and
18:14helped us try to develop a lighting system that works. So these are our photo albums where we
18:22keep all of the best of our shots. We got Usher. They get a good one of Usher. Then we've got
18:28Denzel Curry, JID, Omar Apollo, Pigeon Pit. The artist signs one leaves one with us and then they get
18:35to take one as well. Right. We always take two of each photo. You look through this and you just,
18:39you're reminded of just how much output and just you're able to reflect on something that will
18:43fill up so many more albums. It's just gonna just keep going. All right in three, two, one.
18:51Got it. When you watch Tiny Desk concerts, it is such a team effort. This group is just a bunch of
18:59music nerds. Each one of them extremely passionate about what they do from the shooters to the audio to
19:05our social team, to our writers and our editors, from our podcast team, Alt Latino, all songs,
19:12to our jazz, to rock, to R&B, hip hop, reggaeton, classical, you name it, we have it covered here.
19:19So whenever you see anyone playing at the Tiny Desk, it's because someone on this team is super
19:23passionate about it. It's just so dope to be a part of something where you're highlighting a set and the
19:28set is the true star, no matter who we bring behind this desk. All right, so thanks for hanging out today,
19:34following us, seeing how we do it there at the Tiny Desk. But we actually have a show to do tomorrow,
19:39so y'all got to go. Fighting!
Recommended
22:23
20:37