Step Into The Podcast Bus, a New Recording Studio on Wheels

Daniel Lobell has been podcasting since the art form was introduced in 2004. He started the first podcast to feature interviews with comedians, Comical Radio, and has interviewed over 1,000 entertainers, including George Carlin, Chris Rock, Larry King, Marc Maron and Maria Bamford. 

In his latest venture, Lobell, who is also a standup comedian and comic book creator, conducts interviews from his favorite corner in The Podcast Bus, the only mobile recording studio in Los Angeles inside of a converted school bus. 

“For a long time, I’ve had the idea to convert a bus into a studio,” Lobell, who is married to Community Editor Kylie Ora Lobell, told the Journal. “It’s finally come to fruition.”

The bus can record audio and video for four people at a time. It’s fitted out with top-of-the-line equipment, atmospheric lighting and comes complete with a fully stocked mini bar.

The bus can record audio and video for  four people at a time. It’s fitted out with top-of-the-line equipment, atmospheric lighting and comes complete with a fully stocked mini bar.

With the vision of a pioneer, the counsel of friends and a vast amount of technical research and inexhaustible energy, Lobell customized his studio on wheels. “I wanted it to be a certain way,” he said. “It took a lot of time, investment and energy to get it the way you see it today.”

Lobell first had to figure out how to build a spotless, high-tech studio in a compact space. He also needed to install air conditioning on the bus, which could reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit on hot days. “The A/C needed to be silent,” he said. “You can’t hear it, even though it’s on full blast.”

Lobell, who started out in traditional broadcast radio, covets the freedom podcasting provides. “Broadcast radio, which I also love, was a different thing,” he said. “You would be told, ‘You have to go to commercial break at this time,’ or ‘Your show has to be done at this time,’ whether you get to what you want to do or not.”

When Lobell isn’t working on The Podcast Bus, he’s putting out his autobiographical comic book series, “Fair Enough,” which is in the style of Harvey Pekar’s “American Splendor,” recording his comic book podcast of the same name or doing standup comedy.

“People say, ‘You are doing so many different things,’” Lobell said, who has released two comedy albums on Stand Up! Records. “I would say I am doing only one thing: storytelling. I tell stories on stage, on a mike standing up, on a mike sitting down, by writing the stories, by having them illustrated. It’s all the same skill on different platforms.”

Growing up on Long Island, Lobell, who has lived in Los Angeles for 10 years, would draw comic books and sell them to fellow yeshiva students. With “Fair Enough,” he hires a different artist for each issue.

“I work hand-in-hand with artists after I draw rough sketches of what I want each panel to look like,” he said. “I give detailed notes and, when possible, I give reference photos for them to work from, like from my childhood bedroom, because these are real stories.”  

Putting together each comic book takes about a year. So far, he’s released five issues, and his latest one is about his lifelong love for Costco. “Each story takes as many pages as it takes,” he said. “That’s the good thing about not having a publisher to answer to.”

On The Podcast Bus, Lobell will focus on working with professionals who want to start a podcast to promote their business, as well as nonprofit organizations. He is also recording his own show; his latest interview was with Seth Glass, “a wonderful musician, singer, songwriter andguitar player, who has an incredible story,” he said.

“He’s a spiritual guy with such an eclectic knowledge, a student of Shlomo Carlebach and Aryeh Kaplan; a Jewish soul brother. I grew up on his music.”

Lobell also works closely with his chiropractor, Dr. Daniel Rudé, who launched a show called The Wellness Source Podcast.

“He is a great on-air personality,” Lobell said. “I have been producing his podcast from the bus, and I get a lot of joy out of doing that.”

As public as his life is, Lobell insists, “I don’t have to be on the air to enjoy it.”