What's your position and how long have you been on staff?
hmm like the summer and fall semester
What is your typical day like as a staff member?
My typical day as a staff member is waking up and getting out of bed and feeling epic. Once that feeling wears off I start planning how to organize awesome shows. The best way to do this is through research, most research is done through Instagram. I love finding local artists and it's even more interesting to find scenes in other parts of Texas that have cool underground DIY shows. Then I look through a bunch of flyers and see all the bands listed and when I find awesome music I feel epic again. Then the mainly fun part is done and I have to start sending out emails to secure venues, but honestly, even that part is kind of fun too.
What do you do outside of KVRX?
A big aspect of my life right now is living at le Pearl Street Co-op. I live there with 120 other freaks and it takes up a lot of my time because it's on the verge of a cult compound. I love throwing shows, and so I call them open gatherings for undisclosed reasons, but having the opportunity to run DIY shows in my own home is a dream come true. Throwing such 'gatherings' is a lot of fun because I get to organize every aspect of how I want it to run and be perceived by the public. Getting to be creative is really a great feeling, I love coming up with ways for people to have the most amount of fun in unique ways. I also really like creating comics, stickers, posters, poetry, music, and memes in my free time. Finally, I run a meme account and waste a lot of time sharing things that I find funny online.
What is the name of your show? What is your show about?
My show is a talk show about dreams and it's called I HATE WAR. I Hate War was a magazine concept I was working on with my sister but she graduated and moved away to attend Cornell (smarty). Anyways, whenever she lived here her radio show was called I HATE WAR and I kept the name to commemorate her. My show is unique because everyone dreams differently and views dreams in different ways. Getting a diverse group of people to come on and talk about dreams is interesting because you always get very different responses. My first guest this semester was Brendan Wyborn, he was originally super stoked about coming on the show but then he started telling his friends about it and they all scared him from being open with his experiences. This is what's interesting about dreams some people view them as very personal and almost sacred, so to share them with the local airwaves is pretty bold; while others view them as just a very weird vivid turn of events that occurred during the night. I love hearing about people's dreams and I love when they interpret them and try and find meaning from it. Tune in for real, every Friday at 8 am!
If you could only play one album on your show what album would it be? Why?
Okay, honestly I think I would run up Walt Disco on repeat if I could only play one artist on my show, more specifically their album Unlearning. I met Walt Disco last year because I let them come crash at Pearl, they were one of my favorite bands so actually getting to meet the legends behind the music felt very surreal. Getting to know them has made their music even more special to me, but the stories and messages I take from the songs out of the Unlearning album is very healing for me. First of all the songs on there really vary in vibe check, while some of the songs make you want to cry because you can't stop thinking about your broken heart, dance because they were for real giving disco, or heavily push someone in a mosh because the music just gets to that level of intensity. Okay, my favorite songs on Unlearning is Timeline, How Cool Are You?, and Cut Your Hair. It was really hard for me to decide on which I wanted to go into depth about but I'll stick with the classic 'How Cool Are You?'. I perceive the whole song as a way to make people re-evaluate things they do to be perceived as cool but aren't being themselves. It feels like the song switches vibes halfway through, at first, they are all like lol you're not cool when you pretend to be something you're not; But then they all switch up on you, they're kind of like, making you try and see you're cool just the way you are. The different vocal aspects of the song really make it unique, throughout the song they go "La-La La La-La La-La" and it really hooks you in, they go up to a Bowie-Esque vibe after asking if you know who you are and they straight up call you a "shiny-eyed streamer with an ice cream nail gun and a cold wind crier". What does that mean? Hard to say, but that's what cool's about the song, it reminds you that whatever you are and whoever you chose to be is cool. Being cool shouldn't depend on who you're friends with or the clothes you wear it should be about you being your true weird self. The whole album kind of shares a similar message, a lot of it is staying true to who you are. The awesome thing about Walt Disco is behind their music is some of the most genuine, down to Earth, goofy group of friends and whether you listen to their music through a pair of headphones or get to see them live, they have the power to move you.
Favorite concert?
My favorite concert in the entire world was one I threw with my best friend who moved back to the U.K. last spring break. The concert was undercover as a wedding for undisclosed reasons but it was a day show, and it was the first-day show I had ever thrown. Strawberry Guy, Walt Disco, Big Fun, Venus Twins, W.H. Lung, Eli Josef, oh my gosh there was another band who played too but I forgot. That is my bad. But anyways it was awesome, we watched our close friends get 'married' and our other close friends act as the priest and all the other roles of sacred holy matrimony. The crowd was small, but the acts were huge and they all just hung out with us throughout the day and stayed for everyone's act. Halfway through the show, the ceiling started leaking as it always does, and it was so much fun to see how each act used the leaky ceiling as stage design and getting all creatively dramatic with it. Running the event was very low-stress, so getting to chill out with my closest friends and listen to some of my favorite artists was literally a dream. There was moshing, table dancing, tattooing, barbequing, painting, music, but most of all there was community and you could feel it in that room.
If you could have your favorite artist sing you Happy Birthday who would it be and why?
This is really extremely hard, but I am going to go with Pierce the Veil or maybe The Beatles or maybe Selena or maybe Mac Demarco lol. I can't just choose one artist that's actually asking a lot from me and I just can't be bothered to look deeper within. I would be stoked to have Pierce the Veil sing to me because it would heal my inner emo and it would feel like the emo version of that one episode in SpongeBob when it was Pearl's birthday. I would choose The Beatles because I have Beatle Mania and would scream the entire time, maybe, but just because it would interesting to see what era of Beatles sound they would choose when crafting the song. Okay I would choose Selena because she is everything I wanted to be when I was younger, I still love her but I feel like she would know how to sing Happy Birthday to me in a way that made being a year older way more awesome than it really is. Finally, I might choose Mac Demarco because he reminds me of this one summer me and my sister spent a lot of time exploring the woods back home and were listening to him on repeat. Plus, I feel like Mac Demarco would be all funny when he sang to me honestly I would want to see him climb the wall or something. There are so many artists I would feel special having sing me happy birthday. My past birthday when I turned 21, the local band Bosh sang Happy Birthday to me on the Montopolis bridge and that was awesome. Sorry, I answered the question incorrectly please don't take points off my grade.
If you could only listen to one song on repeat for the rest of your life, what song would it be? Why?
This is really kind of hard because after listening to a song too many times I start to get annoyed of it and have to break up with it for a few weeks and then slowly let it make its way back into my life and let it ruin my listening ability again. I guess I would probably want to go with a lyric-less song to avoid any hostility to words. I would choose the song Chess by Delete Insert. I think it's considered math rock but honestly, I don't even know what that means and if I am being extremely frank with you, I don't even like math. Maybe I would choose a song by The Beatles, yeah I love them and you can sue me if you want but I won't even care.
What's your favorite KVRX memory?
My favorite KVRX memory was throwing my first-ever show for them. On August 19th, 2022, I had originally planned for a show to be thrown on the outside stage of The Ballroom. That morning when I woke up and rolled out of bed my epic feeling went away as soon as I looked into the sky, it was going to rain! If it rained, the show would be canceled! My heart for real sank and I wanted to cry, so I called Rylie and Cole and asked what to do. They were all like if you can find another venue we can make the show go on! I am friends with Baylin who does doors at Electric Church and is also the drummer of Bosh (stream them on Spotify), and he helped hook up the venue change. Thus, the show was moved to Electric Church. My favorite venues are DIY ones, so having them at Electric Church was just a lot of fun. I was really nervous no one would come because of the last-minute location change and the rain but the turnout was really good. Overall, that night was a lot of fun and definitely one of my favorite memories of booking during my time with KVRX.
Lastly...what advice would you give to the new DJs?
New DJs, listen closely. The best words of advice I can give you during your time at KVRX is to get involved. It's easy to be intimidated by the newness of it all but I guarantee you, if you can get over any fear you have and put yourself out there, it will make your time here way more special. If there is something you want to learn and we have a department for it, reach out to whoever is in charge. If they suck at responding, don't give up. Remember that we are all students so everyone has an extremely busy schedule and I guarantee you people want to see you succeed in whatever it is you want to get more experience in. So try your best to learn everything you want to learn here, but also make friends! Everyone in KVRX are radioheads, not like the band but like everyone here loves music. You definitely will be able to find people who like music as strange as you, but you have to talk to them! Finally, come out to the shows we throw, and yes I am saying this because I am booking, but also because the shows are a lot of fun. Plus, they are a great way to meet other DJs as well as people your age who like music!