The Night Shift Podcast

Stories, nature sounds and music for parents and carers soothing little ones at night.

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The Night Shift is created by Fox & Rocha - the musicians behind BAM, and produced by Curiosity Productions.

We are excited to offer parents and carers a new nocturnal companion as they tend to little ones through the night. Warm, magical and evocative podcast series The Night Shift combines captivating storytelling, vivid music and natural sonic landscapes, to create a space for escaping into the imagination. The spellbinding stories will keep you company and help you stay awake whilst feeding and soothing. Then nature sounds and original music are there to help you drift back off again.

Fox & Rocha have worked with writers Rochi Rampal and Emily Ayres, and carried out field recordings, often using contact microphones and hydrophones made by Jez Riley French; capturing the internal sonic worlds of trees, the gentle lapping of water, and other rustling, chirping, bubbling natural sounds. These were captured at the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust’s haven and base, The Centre of the Earth, as well as other natural beauty spots across the UK and Portugal.

This podcast is made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England with additional support from Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust and Midlands Arts Centre.

Click here to listen to The Night Shift trailer:

The Night Shift will be available from 23rd November on all major podcasting platforms.

‘Fox & Rocha’ is a music project run by myself and my partner (in art and life), and we are the parents of a one-year old baby boy who still frequently wakes through the night. Many times I’ve been awake under soft lamp light, trying to feed with one hand and search for a podcast with the other. A headphone in one ear and the other trained on the breathing patterns and the snuffles of our baby. During these long nights I’ve wished to have the company of something like ‘The Night Shift’ podcast. Other content has either felt too domestic, too dark or just hasn’t grabbed my attention enough to help me stay awake when every ounce of me wants to be catching some shut-eye.

And now we’ve made a podcast that is both gripping (the stories) and soothing (the music and nature sounds) and we couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve made. We can’t wait to share it with the world, and hope parents and carers like us will enjoy something bespoke for them and their very specific night-time soothing needs.’

Sam Frankie Fox - musician, narrator and co-creator of The Night Shift.

What to expect in the podcast episodes:

There will be six story episodes released between 24th November 2023 and the end of February 2024. All of the stories will be underscored with beautiful original music by Fox & Rocha.

To soothe listeners back to sleep once little ones are settled there will be original music tracks and natural soundscapes created by Fox & Rocha.

We will also release bonus episodes that provide a peek behind the scenes of the podcast creation process with interviews from the creative team and partners.

The stories:

The Following - by Emily Ayres (3 episodes)

A single(ish) mum comes face to face with the wild side of the natural world in this beautiful and witty magic realism three-parter.

A Jewel in the Corner by Rochi Rampal

A new mother reflects on the horrors and the beauties of parenthood.

The Silence of the Woods by Rochi Rampal

A woodcutter learns what lies beneath the quiet and the loneliness of the forest.

Changes in Light by Rochi Rampal

The darkness of the night and the light of the Moon offer three women new discoveries.

About the writers:

Rochi Rampal is a Birmingham based writer and performer. She creates and performs theatre regionally, nationally & internationally, and has written & scripted theatre projects for Black Country Touring, Birmingham REP, Birmingham Literature Festival, So Festival, Birmingham Young Rep, Foursight Theatre, Women & Theatre. She has devised theatre with Stan’s Cafe, The Play House, Upstart Theatre, Pathos Munich and Highways Athens. Her work has been performed in regional theatres, on national tours and internationally, in empty shop units, caravans, and through headphones to audiences on an outdoor 4th floor public library terrace. She has written and created work for digital audio spheres including short story podcasts and podcast series’, and regularly collaborates with sound designers and musicians. Such work includes commissions for Humans Not Heroes with China Plate Theatre, Voices of the Fairground with Black Country Touring, A Practical Guide to Death for She Wants a Dog Productions and #SpringsCalling for Culture Central. Rochi was co-director of the regional work-in-progress platform PILOT Nights up until it’s closure in 2022, and is a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where she teaches playwriting, community theatre and performance skills.

Emily Ayres has worked as a performer, dramaturg and narrative designer for over 15 years. She co-founded the Birmingham-based KILN Ensemble, where she worked to craft myths and personal stories into interactive theatre pieces that toured the UK and Europe. She has produced work for Birmingham REP, the RSC, Coventry University, Friction Arts, Mercurial Dance and Creative Partnerships. She is also a qualified English teacher, and has created industry-leading resources for key stages 2-5. Her 2015 research into the promotion of Oracy in the classroom was published by Warwick University and the Royal Society for the Arts.

The Creative Team

Sam Frankie Fox - musician, narrator and co-creator

Ricardo Santos Rocha - musician and co-creator

Emily Ayres - writer

Rochi Rampal - writer

James Covell - sound engineer

Curiosity Productions - producer

Jane Grove - adviser, nature and nocturnal behaviour

Holly Close - adviser, podcast marketing and strategy

‘Partnering up for The Night Shift project has been a lovely opportunity to share with the writers some of the night-time magic of our wild spaces and its inhabitants. Having these details woven and transformed into tales that may offer company, comfort and even a bit of new knowledge of our wonderful wildlife to those awake in the darkest and quietest hours of the night, helps to bring nature into podcast storytelling and hopefully reach a whole new audience.’

Jane Grove - Senior Centre of the Earth Development Officer, Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust.

The creative team would like to thank all of the families who helped us to develop this odcast through our focus groups, and Jane Grove and Holly Close for their advice, wisdom and generosity.

If you really enjoy The Night Shift, then please consider supporting us directly by donating the price of a track download (or even an album) via this link: https://ko-fi.com/thenightshift or help others find us by leaving a review. Support of any kind allows us to continue creating more of these beautiful stories and sounds together