Glen Lake graduate engineers New York Times Daily podcast
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
Rowan Niemisto never took classes in audio engineering. He graduated from Glen Lake High School in 2011, then the University of Michigan in 2015 with a bachelor’s in Sociology. But as a kid he was always fooling around and getting fatherly instructions in his dad Patrick Niemisto’s Holy Wah! Studio in rural Leelanau County near Maple City. “It was a hobby, something I did just for fun,” he recalled. “I recorded a lot of acoustic rock kind of stuff in high school. And during college my friends and I continued to write and record songs.”
Little did Rowan know where all of that knob turning would take him. After college he followed friends to Detroit with a wave of creatives and found affordable housing in the rejuvenating New Center neighborhood. For three years he worked part-time for Detroit Public Television (along with other side-hustles), and that led to his first full-time job after college at WDET, Detroit’s National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate, in 2018. As a full-fledged audio engineer, Rowan was producing, mixing, and mastering broadcasts, podcasts, and live music.
And now he engineers The New York Times podcast “The Daily” with hosts Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise. It is one of the most popular podcasts in the United States. “It’s second behind Joe Rogan,” said Rowan, “Unfortunately.”
Rowan’s job is to edit and mix the podcast for the many NPR stations that air it at their own times. “My role is to take what comes from the chief engineer in London, anywhere from 20 minutes to 50 minutes, and turn it into a 22-minute radio program. If it’s 20 minutes it’s easy, if it’s 50 minutes, it’s hard! I have software that allows me to work from home. As long as I have a solid internet connection, I can work regular East Coast hours, even from Maple City!”
A month ago, Rowan visited his colleagues in New York City for the first time. “It took me a year to meet my coworkers in person and not know them as just Zoom faces. The Daily has a crew of about 40 people. Of course, I talk a lot on the internet with Michael Barbaro, he’s a really nice guy, and now I’m hoping to go to NYC at least a couple of times a year. I love going out there.”
Rowan is also a multi-instrumentalist musician, and that plays a role in the podcast. “Once or twice a week they use my music, and I get mentioned.” He crafted his first vinyl EP (five songs) during the COVID-19 lockdowns. It came out in early 2021. “It’s titled Once Again, and it’s mostly recorded at the studios in Detroit. I had been listening to soul, jazz, R&B, and some Indie, so this is my blend of it all.” When he was younger Rowan would play all of the instruments on his recordings, but this time he had a little help from his friends: Junho Kim on bass, Huntley Chamberlain on drums, Jacob Sigman on piano, and Jonah Gray on synths for the title track. “This was way better because of their skills.” You can access Once Again by emailing RowanNiemisto@Bandcamp.com.
And there’s more music in the pipeline. A couple of weeks ago, while his parents were visiting Ireland, Rowan spent a week recording solo music at the Holy Wah! studio, and during a recent weekend, four of his friends joined him for an intense recording session. So stay tuned. This local boy has done well, and he’s not finished yet.
This story was sponsored by LVR Realty.
