ADeadHeart Interviews Her Favorite Internet DJ Part I

After much internet connection trouble, and very little preparation, here’s the result of a very scattered, yet completely engrossing, instant message conversation.

I know you have a large collection of foreign music and that obtaining more of it is a goal for you. What started this trend? Do you have any favorites? How difficult is it to find the songs you seek?

Well, I used to have no music. And I mean virtually none. I've always had an ear for music. In fact, you might say music is one of the strongest forces in my life. As a kid, we'd see the parades come by and the bass drum beating was so powerful my heart matched its rhythm. Painfully, I might add. I think it stems from my ADHD. I am actually more visually oriented in my memory and skills. Music is the big exception. I never forget a song I've heard, though I probably often could not tell you who did it, or even the title. But back to how I got started...

When you bounce around the net enough, you get sent things from people. There were two songs that started me on my collection of foreign music. ‘Slip’, by Schwein, a conglomeration of two German-American and two Japanese musicians, and ‘Guden y Steinen’, by a Norwegian band named YM: Stammen. I was intrigued and delved deeper, and soon had ‘Sigurds Kvadet’, also by YM: Stammen, to fuel my appetite. Trading music, I got Kazaa and started hunting for anything that I liked in the past or sounded interesting.

Kicked off with Schwein and YM: Stammen. The latter proved exceedingly difficult to find. The former took me a while to collect, and I'd not have it back again if I hadn't gotten a friend hooked on it. She bought the album and sent me all of the tracks after my [computer] crash. When you look something up, you often find other things you were not looking for, right?

Tis how all music lovers suffer.

Ah, but in this case, it was my boon. I found other bands listed, and downloaded them. In Extremo. Schandmaul. Subway to Sally. Lacrimosa. Letzte Instanz. I started to look up the sites of these bands as well, and get sent music from friends, and then look up those bands. I voraciously hunted down bands I used to like, but here is the real kicker.

And make your listeners addicts along with you!!!

When somebody started DLing from me? I'd turn around and check to see what sort of OTHER music they had. And based on what they were getting from me, I'd steal from them and expand my horizons further. I like music that sounds unique. That explores new sounds, that is vivid and different. I am also fond of comedy and good parodies, as I am certain people have learned.

Then I learned about radio KoL.

Fuck the RIAA? (Recording Industry Association of America)

Pretty much. Mind you, I'd love to be able to fund many worth musicians.

It's hard - I looked up some of your favorites on Amazon - puts a dent in the wallet if they can be found at all!

I don't have the funds to do it. To have the music I own now would cost me far more than I could pay. But I feel that maybe I can turn others on to it and they can in turn buy from these artists, and I can give back.

That’s the other thing. Many of my favorite bands are imports. Or rare. Or out of stock. Much of what I lost in my computer crash I have still not replaced. It’s just that difficult to track down. The US has a very small music market. At least, if you go through the mainstream channels. And it makes purchasing independent and foreign music quite difficult often. Add to that the fact that much of what I listen to is in languages I do not speak, and many sites I could order it from I frankly cannot read.

Music is one of the primary cultural expressions we all share. There are only a few that all cultures share. Food is one. Music is another.

It's always hard for someone who likes the rare stuff to feel complete - but a collection never is. P2P (peer to peer like Kazaa and Winmx) networks seem the only way to go for much of the music you seek - and even I have had problems finding much of it. Many of the artists do offer free downloads from their sites though. Has that helped? Ahhh - foreign music equals foreign language - another glitch.

Free downloads help, but sometimes they just wet your appetite for more. Furthermore, I do rigorous research so I can properly file and name my library. That is most difficult when it comes to foreign works, but vastly rewarding I feel. If I know what I am playing, I can tell my listeners and they can find it as well. Case in point, Karl Dark (a Kingdom of Loathing player) sent me a song recently. He was not certain of its origins, but I hunted and uncovered that it's the original to a remix I already owned. Knowing this now, I know the song's history and origins and can discuss it when I play it.

We have listeners who do speak German and other tongues, and that can help immensely.

Do you think your listeners can appreciate the music more if they know the history?

I do, yes. By knowing where, when, how, the music ceases to exist within a vacuum for you. You can remember where you were, or if you were even born. You can connect it to other movements of the period. You can remember hearing it once at the age of eight, and finally know what it was. Things like that matter. The little things, the details. It's the same principle I follow when I cook, or make jewelry, or write.

You mentioned that you feel the music rather deeply - can you elaborate on that at all?

It might surprise you, but writing is my true love and greatest talent. I feel that people don't want to exist in a vacuum typically. There are cases where that is alright, where that is the feeling you are going for, but otherwise... we want the world to be more tangible.

I feel the thrum of the rhythm. Each sound and word resonates within me. It is in large part related, it appears, to my ADHD. I am a visually-oriented person. I have a terrible audio memory. EXCEPT when it comes to music. Because music has such form and content and richness. Only spoken verse, theater, can even begin to compare there.

So the lyrics must mean as much to you as the music - how's that work for songs not in English?

Sometimes I understand bits and pieces, or know the translations, but ultimately? I do not have to know what it means to savor the sound, the emotion in the voice, the flavor and the tone and the hue. The voice becomes another instrument, a unique one, and part of the music.

Don't get me wrong, I am insatiably curious, and tend to try to understand what I am listening to anyhow. But more often than not, even if I know what the translations are, when I am listening to a song in another language, I am focusing on the feelings I get from the voice, the sounds it makes, the way it plays against and with the rest of the music, not the meaning. I can appreciate music as much for its own sake as for a deeper meaning.

So you feel the mood of the music regardless - ever use it to alter your mood intentionally?

Very much so. I'm highly empathic. My surroundings strongly affect my mood, just as I am able to relate to others easily and understand them well. Music is one of THE most powerful ways you can move a person. So it only makes sense that for somebody like me, already heavily influenced by environment, it's an even more potent catalyst than normal. For good and bad... music touches me.

Any favorite mood inducing tunes? Bands?

Harry Nilsson, "Nilsson Schmilsson". Lime in the Coconut always cheers me up. I have entire playlists I run if I just want to soar. Blind Guardian, Abney Park, Schandmaul, Subway to Sally, the nice, energetic tracks really bring me up. Anything humorous, also.

But humorous can distract me at times, as I try to listen to the lyrics. So sometimes it is better for me to go with things that focus more on the music and less on the lyrics. Especially if I am working on something else.

If you were feeling - well, down, what would you choose from your collection to pick you up?

Really, music that flows. That carries me with it. That is interesting and has a lot of unique sounds and instruments and just carries you along. Music that soars. Most of what I play is the kind of thing that makes me feel good, with a few exceptions, songs that speak heavily to me but I would not include in a "pick me up" mix.

No? I find I have songs that drag me out of misery – no matter how bad it is....or something humorous at the very least....

Lime in the Coconut will do it for me. I like variety. I need variety. Spice of life. I'm one of those people who has many favorites. A collection. Some might call it not being able to pick. I never was good at picking one thing, I admit. But I prefer to think of it as having broad tastes.

Ahhh…yes - Lime in the Coconut...tell me about that.

Lime in the Coconut. It's silly. It's ridiculous. It doesn't try to make a point. They don't make as much music like that as they used to. 20s through the 50s, a bit after that every so often, you'd often find songs that existed purely to exist. Nonsense songs, songs that were just ENJOYABLE. That you can smile at and not have to think about. I think a lot, awake or asleep, my mind is always running. It is nice sometimes to have something that you can just focus on... be carried away by... and not worry about deeper meanings. There is time enough for that. For me... Lime in the Coconut was one of the first of those songs I heard as a child. It brings back memories. It's my nostalgia song, one of them.

Like Sukiyaki. We all have songs that we remember growing up, that bring back memories of car rides or lazy afternoons.

Ahhh - Sukiyaki - how many versions of that song do you have? I understand you collect that one as well. What’s the history there?

Certain songs I enjoy very much. I'm a packrat. Always have been. So I collect some odd things, in real life as well as virtually, musically. Especially versions of certain songs, or certain songs about certain topics. I have large collections of Superman tunes, versions of Lime in the Coconut, Sukiyaki, Killing me Softly, Total Eclipse of the Heart... likewise, I collect songs by one-hit wonders, or lesser known songs by bands, like Velvet by A-Ha or Break It Down Again by Tears For Fears. Also soundtracks that are great but unsung, like Real Genius or Better Off Dead, or Labyrinth.

It's what strikes my fancy and I just go after. Little by little, I collect collections.

In real life, I also collect coins and stamps and dragons and spices and gems and books, including books by well-known authors that are unknown, like Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, and Lewis Carroll. I collect Atlases and Almanacs also. It's a matter of finding joy in life. Of finding perspectives that slipped through the cracks. Or were forgotten.

In many cases I feel that certain songs by well-known bands that did not make it big like other songs are sadly overlooked. Too many people, as Skully (another Radio KoL DJ and co-creator of the game) noted, listen to singles now. In doing so, you miss the full album. You miss a chance to hear individual songs that might speak to you far more than the big hit that everybody knows. Sure, I love ‘Shout’ and ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’.

But my favorite Tears for Fears song is ‘Break It Down Again’. And I'd not know it if I didn't listen. Ramble done. Go on. ::laughs::

It's a beautiful song. And it's far more complex than those other two, lyrically more vivid. But it wasn't a chart topper, and so it's not as well known. And most would never hear it if I did not play it. Or many other lesser-known songs.