Hello and welcome to another week of The Sounds of State. This week, I interviewed a trio of new KCR DJ’s from our Indie Invasion block. I was late on Wednesday afternoon when we met in the studio and walked out to Campanile and sat right down on the grass in a circle for our discussion. Here’s how it all went down:
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Cameron Satterlee: Okay, so I’m here with Kiana, Kiersten, and Renee. Alright so let’s start off with an easy question, so what is your radio show and do you have any DJ names?
Renee Ramirez: You want to start?
Kiersten Sukert: Okay our radio show is called KRK, it’s pretty simple, it just stands for Kiersten, Renee, and Kiana. And we have the title of Indie Invasion, we didn’t come up with that though, that was just given to us. But yeah we basically play genres of indie music, we kinda play EDM-based too.
Kiana Malekzadeh: Alternative, kind of.
KS: Yeah, it’s just very different music.
CS: Okay, and your show is when?
KS: It’s on Wednesdays at 4, so listen.
RR: 4 to 5.
CS: 4 to 5 alright, yeah yeah the Indie Invasion block I think is for everyone who has shows at that time of the week. So you said you play indie music but also a bit of EDM, do you all personally sort of have your own niches that you like to play?
RR: I don’t play that much EDM.
KS: That’s kinda my thing. I wouldn’t really categorize it as EDM though.
KM: It’s really hard to describe.
RR: EDM-indie, is that a thing?
KS: Yeah if I had to describe it in one way it would be EDM indie.
RR: Laid back but still upbeat I guess.
KS: Electronic based indie.
KM: Yeah. Also I feel that you like to put slower songs and then, me, I don’t know, I can be all over the place. I just know that you like the slower, more mellow stuff.
KS: Yeah.
CS: Alright, so I’ve been trying to get into this music, cause I’ve found it more interesting as I’ve been in college and I guess exposed to new things, so that’s a more recent interest for me. But what’s the back story for the three of you, how did you get into this sort of music?
RR: I just started to listen to it my senior year, that’s when I got into indie because I started going to more concerts. Because they were cheap tickets, they were fifteen dollars, twenty dollars, and my friends would be like “let’s go see it” and I don’t know who they are but okay. And then as I went to more shows, on Spotify, I put them in the radio section, I would type in Young the Giant and I would see all these related artists and new songs would come up and it kind of just filled my playlists. And that’s how I started liking it.
KM: For me, I guess I’ve just had an interest in bands my whole life, just from my parents too. And I remember in fourth grade I liked bands, that was my thing. But then as I got older, I’ve always been prone to trying to find new stuff to listen to, it’s just fun, cause I get sick of skipping songs and you want to find new stuff. So Spotify definitely helped me too, plus it’s updated now, you can go and discover and things like that. And me and my friends from back home have the same taste in music too and we’d go to shows as we got older and could drive. You’d end up liking the opening band and stuff like that. Yeah, it just grows and grows I guess, I would say.
KS: Am I doing this one too?
CS: Yeah, sure.
KS: Okay. I think it started when I found my parent’s vinyl collection. They had a lot of 80’s, so I started getting slowly into the 80’s, and I think I kind of just worked up the decades. And I kind of realized that when I met people who liked the same music as I did, we had the same or similar personality traits. And it’s kind of like its own culture within society. You know you meet cool people, you listen to the same music.
RR: That’s how we met.
KS: That’s how we met. Yeah and these girls are awesome.
CS: Great! That’s sort of a Segway to my next question, I’m interested how the three of you partnered up at KCR.
RR: It was very random.
KS: We were just talking about that.
RR: We all just went in solo, we just wanted to make friends, wanted to get involved in school, I’m a freshman and they’re both sophomores and so I was like “KCR, might as well get involved”. And they were like “yeah get involved now” and then I met Kiana first, the very first night they were signing up for what show you wanted to do and she actually thought I didn’t like her first. Because I was in a rush to go somewhere and she was trying to get to know me and I was like “yeah where’s the paper, where’s the pen, let’s sign up, let’s go”. And then, the next day, we meet Kiersten the next day randomly and she’s like “what kind of show are you guys doing” and we say indie and that’s how music brought us together because she was like “oh I listen to that too, we should all be cohosts together” and I was like “okay I guess three makes it easier if I had to back out on one day” (all laugh).
KS: (laughs) You were thinking about backing out?
RR: No I just was thinking if I couldn’t make it to a show (all laugh). But yeah it was fate.
KM: Yeah.
CS: Alright anyone can answer this question, would you say that you have good chemistry on the air.
KM: Yeah. I can stumble on my words but for the most part they make me feel more comfortable by talking as if I was talking to anyone else.
KS: We’ve got our own movement too, Kiana’s always usually on the laptop playing songs and she usually introduces them too. And Renee and I switch off controlling the laptop and talking. But we usually do the intro or closing. We have our own system going (“yeah”’s all around).
RR: “Kiana, what song’s next?” (laughs).
KM: And we try to talk about upcoming shows with artists who are playing and stuff like that.
KS: Right now our big thing is Coachella.
KM: Cause it’s in a month.
CS: Alright, so are there any songs or bands or albums that you really like to play on the air right now? What’s the new big deal for the three of you?
KS: I don’t know. We don’t have a specific person that we always play.
KM: We played a few alt-J songs, I’ve noticed. I’m the one that puts the songs on so I can remember more than you guys.
RR: Oh yeah.
KM: But definitely alt-J, I’m trying to think.
RR: San Cisco.
KS: I’ve seen a lot of Glass Animals.
KM: Oh yeah, definitely.
RR: But I guess with indie, there are so many indie bands that we don’t really stick to one artist.
CS: Alright, so last question, I always think it’s a fun one to end with, I want to know how your perfect show would go. Just if everything was awesome and you left the studio just thinking ah yeah we nailed it! How would that be?
KS: Honestly, we talk a lot while our music is playing.
KM: On accident.
KS: No I mean about our personal lives, and you can definitely tell we each have a different personality. And I feel if we put that personality on air that would be a perfect show. Just be comfortable in the studio and talk with each other like we normally do.
RR: Well we don’t really talk much on our show because it’s music so I don’t know if the audience really gets to see our personality. Cause we just kind of introduce a song and talk a little bit about the artist or their show, so I guess they don’t really know our personalities yet. And I don’t want to talk too much cause it’s a music show.
KS: We kind of established that in the beginning too, to not talk that much.
KM: But the perfect show would just be us not messing up. We get some technical difficulties sometimes.
KS: We’ll be giving away tickets and getting the people who call on the air is hard.
CS: Oh, we’ve all been there. Alright well, thanks, this has been a great interview.
All: Thanks.
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Afterwards, I had to go do my own radio show so I stayed in the studio for that while the girls walked off, hopefully to reward themselves for a job well done. Kiana later messaged me a few songs to give you readers a sampling of what they play on their show, check them out:
If you liked any of those songs, be sure to check out KRK, Wednesdays from 4-5 pm on KCR Radio, the Sound of State.
(Also maybe stick around till 6pm cause that’s when I’m on air!)