Local Files Club, a new digital label for audio fiction, is launching with a new show from Skadi’s Symphony, the creators of celebrated independent podcast Kane & Feels, on 14 November. Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop is a five-episode micro-fiction show about a witch who finds herself and her van broken down in the English countryside. Over 39 minutes and through five vignettes, Ms. Shipton explores themes of loneliness, companionship, and queerness, and stars Greta Clarkson as Ms. Shipton.
As a digital label, Local Files Club publishes self-contained, short-form audio fiction for one-time purchase. Listeners pay upfront for the show as well as bonus features like soundtracks, commentary tracks, artwork, and more. Founded by Adam Cecil, a producer on independent fiction podcasts Milky Way Underground and The Nonbinary Carrie Bradshaw and former Director of Marketing at Night Vale Presents, Local Files Club aims to provide an alternative distribution path for independent fiction producers and specifically promote short-form and experimental work that struggles in the traditional podcast ecosystem.
“I’m excited for Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop to be the first release by Local Files Club,” says Oliver Morris, writer and director of Ms. Shipton. “Local Files Club is doing something different in the audio drama field, moving away from subscription models to get full-furnished high fidelity stories with all those juicy bonus features we remember from mid-naughties DVDs.”
In addition to the five-part show, purchasers of Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop will receive five commentary tracks from the creators and cast, a bonus poem, the full soundtrack (including a bonus song), and illustrations inspired by the show.
“I’m thankful to Oliver and the rest of Skadi’s Symphony for trusting Local Files Club with Ms. Shipton,” says Cecil. “It’s a lovely, cozy story that reveals the power of short-form audio fiction, showing us that we don’t need long, sprawling series to make an impact on listeners.”
Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop also features performances from Karim Kronfli, Erika Sanderson, Lou Sutcliffe, Jon Lily, and Jude Hodgson Hann. It was sound designed by Jude Hodgson Hann and features original music by Oliver Morris, with cover art from Rosie Shooter.
Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop is available to purchase on Bandcamp as of 14 November, 2025.
More information is available at www.localfiles.club.
ABOUT SKADI’S SYMPHONY
Skadi’s Symphony have been making world class independent audio dramas for the past eight years. The team consists of writer and historian Jack Fitzpatrick, sound designer and director Jude Hodgson Hann, and composer and producer Oliver Morris. They are the creators of Kane and Feels, a horror noir audio drama, The Lightning Bottler, an experimental prose and poetry anthology helmed by Morris, and the upcoming Tales of the Cog, a fantasy anthology set in a world of Fitzpatrick’s creation. They are also the two-time winners of the biannual Silver Sounds Sonic Dash. Like the genre authors at the birth of the radio medium, this three-person core team have worked with collaborators to use speculative fiction to explore the human experience. Through horror, fantasy, urban magic, and other such imaginative soundscapes, they’ve made stories and characters that have resonated with over 150,000 podcast listeners all around the world.
ABOUT LOCAL FILES CLUB
Local Files Club is a digital label for audio fiction, founded in 2025 by Adam Cecil. Local Files Club releases are available for one-time purchase, providing producers and listeners an alternative distribution and monetization model that does not rely on free content, algorithms, or ongoing subscriptions. With a particular focus on short-form and experimental work, Local Files Club aims to promote and sustain audio fiction work that would otherwise not fit in the podcast ecosystem. LFC-001, Ms. Shipton’s Travelling Tea Shop from Skadi’s Symphony, releases in Fall 2025. LFC-002, Salt Bloom from Justin Hellstrom, releases in Early 2026.
