LISTEN NOW!This interview is part of our series, “Get to Know Your DJs.”
How did you first get involved with Freeform Portland? Got kind of tired of packing and unpacking, town to town, up and down the dial…. OK, just kidding, sort of. I was at my last station before Freeform for 15 years and that was in Portland as well. And before that it was 10 years at the same station in Olympia, WA. Throw in 2.5 years in Bellingham, WA and it could probably change to “up and down I-5.” But through each station in my past there was always a struggle of one kind or another between the paid managers and the volunteer DJs. So when the buzz went around that there was a Portland station where everybody volunteers, I had to listen and learn how to become involved!
What does being a part of the Freeform Portland community mean to you? I LOVE listening to Freeform. It is on right now as I type this. The other programmers give so much to learn from. Everybody at Freeform does their show as a labor of love, and it shows. I’ve made some great friends at the station and really appreciate the constant effort to bring in new people who want to try doing radio.
Tell us about your show! “What’s This Called?” began in 1993 and has run continuously ever since, except for a two-year hiatus when I relocated from Olympia to Portland and found a new station to host it. I play Expunkimental Music. Meaning that while Sun Ra is my very favorite artist, I first learned of him because the MC5 covered “Starship.” Postpunk greatness such as Sonic Youth and Einsturzende Neubauten connected with me first in my late teens (which is also when I first became a DJ). It led to reverse engineering the other genres that the contemporary underground rock bands were pulling sounds from. I started the Olympia Experimental Music Festival in 1995, which ran until Covid stopped it 25 years later, and I was involved with every show as a player, booker, or both. From the start it grew out of the Oly DIY punk scene. So “What’s This Called?” has always been a show where you might hear noiserock, free jazz, plunderphonics, and chance determinist compositions–all in the same set. Since coming to Freeform in 2018, I’ve really taken to the station’s ethos of giving a voice to disenfranchised artists and populations and it has made the show grow immensely. I make an effort to play sound art from all over the world which includes all genders and orientations. I also let my two kids help do the show quite frequently these days, as they come up with ideas and artists to play I never would have! They’ve been in radio studios their entire lives.
Outside of radio, what are your other interests or hobbies? I love cooking as a cathartic release. I read massive amounts of science fiction literature, which has led me to also become obsessed with the Traveller tabletop RPG. I run a weekly Traveller campaign called Outside the Imperium. I play and record music with experimental (also really, expunkimental!) music group The Dead Air Fresheners since 1996ish, and we have a vanity label that also puts out other artists called Kill Pop Tarts. Our studio in my garage is called The Elusive Hangar. I take photos constantly and use them in digital art. My family has seven cats (mostly rescues) Ava, Mewpers, Sylvie, Osiris (Ozzie), Elric, Mateo, and Zephie.
“What’s This Called?” airs alternating Saturdays from 6 – 8 p.m.
