In Interview with CIUT radio
Made by: Jay-Daniel Baghbanan
Radio Music: Inside Look
In Interview with CIUT radio
Made and Hosted by: Jay-Daniel Baghbanan
CIUT 89.5 FM radio is one of the last radio stations to incorporate live performances. A staple of the Toronto music scene for the past 35 years, the station plays music from a wide spectrum of communities and genres. One Friday night in July, I found myself lost in the Hart House, a student activity center at UofT, and ended up in the CIUT studio. There, I came to meet some incredible people in one of the most beautiful parts of the city.
Ariel Samonte is a member of CUIT 89.5 staff and also a DJ by the name of Etnomas. Every Friday from 8pm to 10pm, his show “RAW” plays on the station. You can find him on instagram at @withthepowerofraw.
The following interview is a series of questions with Samonte, asked in hopes to better show the musical parts of the city that seem almost completely hidden to Toronto Youth.
Jay: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this.
Ariel: Thank you Jay⸺thank you for actually asking me to do something like this. I don’t really⸺This is new to me. Usually, I’m the one on your end, you know. I’m asking for like interviews or it’s just⸺you know⸺I’m going out there to see if people would like to do interviews, or even just to have conversations, so, this is really cool, this is refreshing for me⸺you know⸺I’m usually not on this end.
Jay: Yeah, I mean, I know that there’s a lot of people that have heard of CIUT, and a lot of people who haven’t, and I think this is kind of like more of an insiders look, and then hopefully more listeners. I know radio’s become⸺like it’s dwindled in the past few years, especially live radio.
Ariel: I mean yeah, just wanna comment on that. I do feel too as if live radio has taken a hit, I mean, people had to navigate during a pandemic a new way to get out there, or even just put themselves out on the radio⸺you know⸺if you do a live broadcast and, I mean, here we were pretty much. We were exiled, you know what I mean? We couldn’t do our shows live in studio for like 2 and a half years, I mean, there’s still people who are not doing their live shows⸺they’re handing in pre-records. Not my thing. As soon as we were able to get live, on it right away, because there’s a whole charm and there’s a whole mysticism with live radio, you know? That energy, that feeling that you get just being live on air. That energy⸺you can’t get that in a pre-record. I feel pre-record can’t capture the essence of what you’re trying to do or what you’re tryna, the energy you’re tryna capture at least, and there’s no substitute for live radio. I mean, if any of my brother and sister programmers are ever hearing this, I invite them to come back because it’s a lot of fun—you know—you’ll get the bug. The first day I came back to studio was one of the greatest things. I was so happy. I was getting PTSD doing pre-records. Couldn’t do it anymore.
Jay: Yeah. I wanted to ask, what is your role at CIUT? And can you talk about your experience with that?
Ariel: Yeah, uhm, how ‘bout I start from the beginning?
Jay: That’d be great.
Ariel: ‘Cause it’s evolved, if you wanna look at it like Pokémon,I started off I was like a little Squirtle and now I’m getting on to becoming like a Blastoise⸺ not the mega level yet but like, getting there. I started off CIUT as a volunteer. It was about⸺ 10 years ago. It would have been my 10th year as a volunteer this last June, but I joined the staff in November, and that’s how my evolution began. Started off as a volunteer⸺ you know⸺ just swashbuckling and wanting to do everything, wanting to learn from everyone. I started off⸺ the very first thing that I ever did here at the station was that we did a live to air or a live broadcast activation at Steve’s Music over on Queen street. I was asked to come in by Ken Stowar⸺ who was the station manager, programme director at the time⸺ just to give away free swag. You know what I mean? Street team kinda stuff. And the way I did it⸺ I mean I love the station⸺ the way I did it was just like, you know we showed up, we were there, I was⸺ I had to give out frisbees. Uh like the egg shakers, I dunno if you’ve seen those?
Jay: Yeah.
Ariel: Yeah the egg shakers, frisbees, t-shirts, keychains, little memorabilia, little like knick-knacks⸺ and you know, it’s Queen street! Busy street! Especially that area, so the one thing that I did was you know I made sure, I wanted people to know about CIUT so I didn’t care if you didn’t⸺ if you ignored me or not⸺ I put that in your hand. As like, you’re walking away from me, say “whaddup” and put that little thing in your hand, you walk away. Frisbees or anything, you know, just communicating with people. And yo from the corner of my eye I can see Ken Stowar just staring at me, and I can see he’s laughing too he’s just like “oh my god” this guy’s like, putting our merchandise into people’s hands not even caring if they wanna hear him or not. He’s just giving ‘em, like giving ‘em, like dogs, like, going there and do the job and, you know just, make sure that CIUT is heard ‘cause yo this is a gem. I mean I mentioned to you before, CIUT is something that’s like, it holds a very special place in my heart. I can get to how I found out about it, but yeah I started off as street team, earned a little bit of trust and respect from the crew here, which then gave me the opportunity to become a technical producer. And a technical producer is someone who mans the boards, and pretty much⸺ I like to look at it as if you’re directing traffic for the show. So of course the show’s going on, but your producer’s gonna give you a bunch of information of what exactly is gonna happen in that show. I was in charge of monitoring phone calls, monitoring interviews, getting them ready, and just making sure that all the levels are good. From there, I mean Ken always asked me what would I like to do with the station and I told him I wanted to do a music show. Of course you know everyone wants to do a music show here at CIUT. I mean CIUT is the sound of your city. Every DJ in the city wants to be here. We have some of the best DJs come through here, our alumni of DJs have been amazing. They started a lot of the scenes here, you got Marcus Visionary, even DJ Grouch was here, you know what I mean? Higher Ground, Jason Palma’s still doing his thing and it’s just that like⸺ yo, other DJs wanna get here. You know, and of course like, you have to do your time. So I did my time, but I was given the opportunity to do some overnights, even like fill in shows, and you know I just took it, didn’t even run away from it, just wanted to go towards it. So yeah, I did my time for about like, maybe, 4-5 years, and then eventually from there I was trusted to do my own program. It was a bit of like dog-fight, I mean everyone wants, I mean, the one that was up for grabs was Friday’s 8pm to 10 pm, that’s a party slot. You know what I mean? That’s a timeframe that, like, everyone’s listening ‘cause it’s on their way to somewhere or they’re at home but they have no plans. So, it was a bit of a fight for that one, and I’m very appreciative too of you know, Ken giving me that time slot of Friday 8pm to 10. I was able to become a programmer now, that’s how I evolved into that. And being a programmer was a lot more different than being a technical producer, of course I’m gonna do all the technical stuff, but, it’s the weekly planning, you know what I mean? Being a programmer⸺ I have so much respect for programmers here at CIUT because they come week in, week out with new fresh content. You’re finding Can-Con too, we have to adhere to Can-Con man, so you’re finding 35% Can-Con every week. Know what I mean? I’m diggin’ every week. Even to this day! For the past like, whole time I’ve been doing this show it’s like, of course I can do you know, my mixes of like music I’m comfortable doing, it’s usually records that I buy, you know I already identify what I’m gonna play there, but the real challenge is finding Canadian content, week in week out. ‘Cause you don’t wanna play the same things over and over again. Just gets boring after a while right? So that’s the real challenge. From there I stuck with it, just also helping out at whatever festivals I can, just learning. Learning from a lot of the older heads who’ve been here who have a lot to teach you. I mean my time as a technical producer, the one thing that I value in that time was that I was able to sharpen up my organizational skills. I came in here a straight up clutz, like walking into things, not organized, never had a day plan or none of that. But, shoutouts to Donna G, shoutouts to Thando, they straight up put me on to like, being organized and organizing myself on the board which then helped translate to my life, you know organizing myself in my personal life. Being organized has definitely helped me out to become a better human being. And yeah, once again shoutout to them. Thando and Donna G, they made sure, they saw how unorganized I was⸺ they literally took me aside and said, “No no no no no no, we cannot work with you if you are like this.” So, I had to evolve myself and become a better person, and it helped me out in my life, you know what I mean, look where I am today now. Now I’m on staff.
Jay: On that note, what was your life like before CIUT?
Ariel: Oh my god, I was a wild ruffian. You know I don’t wanna say out loud but yeah, you know, y’all had to make money somehow. So it’s just like, I was doing things I’m not 100% proud of. But at the end of the day, that put food on my table, that allowed me to you know get TTC money to come here, ‘cause I didn’t own a car then, you know I had to park myself at Kipling, come down here on like⸺ almost 8 am to 5 pm⸺ and just volunteer on as many shows as I can. My life before this, I was like a vagabond, just all over the place, just tryna make money just selling things and just lead to where I am today. I never really thought that I’d just have to sell things just to make a living, just to get some money in my pocket but I never really thought there’d be something I’d wanna make my career. I mean when I was interested in a radio career I thought about, you know, doing like radio production, never really wanted to be an on air host, but I wanted to learn to like write⸺ or like better focus my writing and better focus my production skills. But the opportunity for sales just came my way and like you know, an industry like this where it’s very dominated by⸺ you look⸺ it’s not you have to but, if you look around at the radio industry they all look the same. For someone like me who doesn’t fit that build, it’s very hard to get in. So if you see an opening, you go, and you roll with it, and you work hard at it, and that’s what I did. I worked at Indie 88 last year and I learned a lot of⸺ a lot about the sales world, a lot of those people you know I still contact them and ask them for advice, but I learned a lot just from working through commercial radio. And a lot of it translates to over here, so I mean, if you’re listening to this right now and you’re also⸺ this goes for any career⸺ don’t be afraid to go out into something that you’re not comfortable with, you know step outside your comfort zone. I don’t care about commercial radio whatsoever, but I learned a lot there. I learned a lot of the skills⸺ people wouldn’t have even looked at my resume here if I didn’t do that time there, you know? And it’s just like, that scene, that indie world, Indie 88 world, was not me. I had a hard time selling in the sense that, I would be like, “You know Indie has the best music,” just things you’re gonna say as a salesman, right? But deep down inside I’m like, “Nahhhh,” CIUT’s got it. You know what I mean? So, I was just appreciative of my time there and all the information and all the knowledge that was shared with me. I met people in the industry who I can still talk to to this day and I can ask them for advice, and I know that my time there was positive. Like I learned a lot too.
Jay: Yeah, I mean, you’re definitely like, the world’s biggest CIUT lover.
Ariel: Haha! I feel so! You know what I mean like, I straight up like go to events too and be like, “Yo you listen to CIUT?” And if they say no like, then I’m just having an hour conversation with them like showing them the website like, “Yo check out this show, check out that show,” because yo, I honestly love this station. It really helped me out, like I said my⸺ may have a bit of like, edgy crazy background but it’s like⸺ yo through CIUT, finding, or at least identifying that that’s somewhere I’d like to be in my future really helped me focus. And become, how I feel a better person. I’m not on the streets anymore. I’m not slangin’ not doing any of that no more. Because I wanna be here I wanna⸺ I want this community to grow. I see CIUT as such a beautiful plant and I want it to grow in the proper light so that’s why I wanna be on staff, and just be like, keep continuing that tradition that was laid down from the staff before me. Just keep it going, you know what I mean, just keep the marathon going, keep the rally going, hold that torch and pass it onto the next person. Because ideally too it’s like, I’m looking at you across the table here and someone like yourself is the next generation, know what I mean? So my goal right now is to excite people like you ‘cause you said it yourself at the beginning of this, you think radio is dwindling, you think it’s going down? Or it’s at least not going in the path of what it used to be in terms of like, it doesn’t have that muscle anymore.
Jay: Yeah, I mean, I know when I think about radio, or a lot of people in my generation think about radio it’s like Top 40 hits, like just that stuff. It’s not⸺ if you wanna listen to music you don’t really turn on radio you go on spotify⸺
Ariel: Spotify, youtube⸺
Jay: Or like, streaming services and these things.
Ariel: Yeah yeah yeah. But that’s the beautiful thing about CIUT is that, if you really pay attention to us, we are that outlet for you to find the alternative, new, spoken word music, like, we have literally people here who are volunteering their lives to do that for you. And you’re not gonna find that anywhere else in the city. I mean there are the internet radio stations but, I mean the power of what we have, we’re just as big as all the commercial Top 40 radio stations. We have just as big as a radio section as they do. We don’t have the same audience, but that’s cool, ‘cause the people who do find us they’re hooked for life. I get emails from listeners being like, “Listen that ad you played? Sucked.” Or, “That ad you played was so amazing I can’t wait to go to this event next week.” Like you know what I mean? My time in commercial radio I never got that. I never got feedback from listeners. Because at the end of the day, they just⸺ Top 40 and all that stuff, to me personally it’s just like, it’s bubblegum. You chew on it for a bit, flavour’s gone, spit it out. Goes in through your eye, out the next. Know what I mean? Here it’s like, content here is like stuff that really really resonates with people and when they digest it, it’s going through their whole system, where they don’t have to fast for like, days to get some stuff. The information sits with them, it stays with them, they’re talking about it with their friends or with their bubble, or they’re talking about it⸺ bring it back to emails. I’m so sorry to those people who hear this, there’s so many emails that I get on my show, and I just don’t have time to respond. Like literally, that show that we did on Friday, you know how many emails I got the next day? 80+, and then the next day again, another like 60. So it’s like, damn! I’m so sorry to the people that I don’t respond to their emails, it’s not that I don’t, it’s just that like, I just get swamped with emails, and it just doesn’t stop sometimes. I try to get through as many as I can, but CIUT is a powerful thing. The more I talk about it, I hope that whoever reads this or whoever listens to this, you know, you’re motivated to go check us out. www.ciut.fim whoa what! Hahaha!
Jay: Obviously a lot of positives, but I have to ask, what would you change about CIUT if you could?
Ariel: Oh, ho huh, there’s a lot of stuff. I mean there’s stuff that I can talk about certainly on the team, but it’s like what could I change about this station itself, it’s just yo, get the new generation excited about what we’re doing. That’s what I can really change about this. Because if you look at what’s going on or what our landscape is, it’s really weird. We don’t have an identity of who we’re trying to target. I mean it makes sense cause we’re a community radio station, but I feel as if we’re letting a lot of potential listeners go through the cracks and not talking to them, you know what I mean? Or at least, not presenting ourselves so that’s why with me in advertising I’m tryna fix that up. That’s being more present at places where everyone’s gonna be showing them where we are and talking to them. So where I think⸺ what we can change right now is maybe start talking to the next generation. Of course you know we got like a student levy here, but as soon as they’re gone from school are they gonna donate to us? That’s my goal, my goal is to get this next generation excited about CIUT and wanting to listen to CIUT. I feel we do a really good job with the older folk, but I mean, people like yourself, you saw on Friday what it’s like here. And you’re not gonna see that in any other radio station here in the city. And the thing is that we don’t do a good job communicating what exactly we’re doing, or maybe we’re tryna fly under the radar, you know? But at the end of the day where I feel we need to really put ourselves out there is like, you know, brand ourselves and show people what we’re doing a lot better than what we’re doing now. Because these internet radio stations that are doing what we’re doing, but not at the level we’re doing but they have a lot more eyes on what they’re doing. A lot more people are seeing what they’re tryna put out there and you know trying to get on that and be more involved. Where it’s like, you know if you throw a CIUT party right now, I’m not confident that a lot of people would show up. That’s where I feel that we can fix ourselves. But I mean in terms of like, what goes on behind the scenes at CIUT, that’s⸺ there’s always gonna be stuff like that. Wherever workplace you go to, you know? And we’ll find our way, I mean we have a new station manager now so it’s just like we have to let the guy do his thing, believe in where he’s gonna put us, and then yo we go with it. Of course you know everyone here at the station has their own ideas, but at the end of the day we all have our own ideas because we’re all good people who wanna see this grow. So we’ll get that going, and yeah, but the thing that I feel we really need to work on is putting ourselves out there for the next generation. ‘Cause they’re the ones who are gonna support us. The people who are supporting us right now, it’s sad to say but, they won’t be around forever, you know?
Jay: Yeah. I think a lot of people I know would be a lot more interested in, and definitely listen to CIUT if they knew what it was. But anytime I’ve met someone that does know what it is, they get really excited.
Ariel: Oh my gosh, yeah!
Jay: And they’re like “Oh god! I know what that is! That’s the UofT radio! That’s the Toronto radio!” So I know the listeners are loyal.
Ariel: They are oh my god. They’re rabid fans, know what I mean? They’re like, crazy! They’re literally crazy fans! Like, people call in when I’m doing my show and wanna talk to me about their whole week, and I’m like “yo i can say hello, goodbye, what do you like this song,” and stuff like that, but I can’t⸺ they wanna talk to you! Because they identify and they want⸺ they already identify with us and they just want us to be more part of their lives. So it’s a little bit hard in that sense that we can’t stick with them for the whole time, but, yo they’re out there, and they love us, like, dearly love us. But, like I said, our problem right now is trying to find the next generation of people who are like that. Who are calling in and getting excited, getting involved. Like I said, if we were to throw a party right now for CIUT, the only thing that would really worry me is if people are gonna show up to it. ‘Cause we’ve done parties where people haven’t shown up, so yeah if you hear this come out to CIUT parties ‘cause they’re the best. Yeah that’s my thing, just getting onto the next generation and getting them excited to show up to CIUT events. Because yo, in the past like this hallway used to be full of programmers, people just coming in, wanting to be part of the culture and community. We’re still here, but it’s just⸺ you know, through the pandemic, sort of like, took a sledgehammer to that.
Jay: Yeah, I mean, for all the crazy rabid fans, what’s something you wish that more people knew? Like your best piece of advice. About CIUT or life in general, anything.
Ariel: I wish that they knew that CIUT is always gonna be there for them. You know what I mean, ‘cause there’s sometimes there’s content where, you may not like it⸺ and that’s cool⸺ but just be like, yo, you’re invited back all the time, it’s always gonna be there for you, it’s always for you. So this is what I want people to know, moving forward, CIUT even though you may take a break on it, it’s always gonna be there for you. It’s never gonna⸺ the names may change a bit⸺ but the spirit of what community radio is lives on within CIUT, and it’s something that you may take a break for a bit, but we’ll always be here. You can be mad at us, but we’ll still be here.
Jay: Heh, like family?
Ariel: Yeah! Ideally like yeah, CIUT is like family. You know what I mean, there’s a lot of people here who like⸺ like I mentioned earlier my programmers here are like my brothers and sisters. We’re all fighting for the same cause, we’re all doing the same thing too so it’s just like, yeah like I said the one thing I wish is that the newer generation get excited about us and help us grow together. Because ideally, like I said we’re not going anywhere and it’s just like, you’re all invited, c’mon in. That’s what CIUT is, we don’t exclude anything. You look at the content that we have here it’s so diverse, it’s like⸺ literally represents almost all faces within the city of Toronto. You have content that speaks to the Punjabi, Desi; you have content that speaks to the African; you have content that speaks to Latino, French, Gospel music, like, wake up at 7 o’clock in the morning on Sunday, you got a Gospel show.
Jay: Yeah I listened to the things on Sunday, the Blues. That was nice.
Ariel: Yeah yeah, the Calling all Blues.
Jay: Yeah that’s the one!
Ariel: Yeah yeah yeah! They play some⸺ I mean Ken plays⸺ Ken Kawashima⸺ he plays some like crazy content. I remember I was tuned in two weeks⸺ two Sundays ago⸺ and it was stuff that like, wasn’t super clean and someone didn’t censor it, but it was pretty cool to me for him to play stuff like that. That’s another thing with the station! I want people to know too there’s like, yo, everything that’s played at the station here is, it’s different. No one else is going out in the landscape of Toronto. You’re not getting music shoved down your throat, or it’s not some record label with an agenda tryna push their next biggest artist. Literally all the content here is from programmers who appreciate music or they have a passion for a topic and they just want you to know about it. They’re not trying to force feed it to you, it’s presented to you in a fun, safe, family way as well. I bring back the word family because this is what CIUT is. ItIt’s just like I said it is, you can go away, you can come back, it’s like your family, you know? You can piss off your family, run away from them, come back, and you’re still family. So yeah, that’s what I hope people really get from this. That they get excited about CIUT and they wanna look into us. Tune into RAW, 8 pm every Friday, what!
Jay: I’ve gotta ask, do you have any advice for people interested in getting into the music industry?
Ariel: Yes. Show up.
Jay: There we go, that’s the big one.
Ariel: Show up, that’s the big one. Show up to people’s events, show up to DJ events, make yourself known. Either like, dance on the dancefloor⸺ go, just go to their events, you know what I mean? As a DJ in the city, myself and Kalliopi, you know who’s dancing, you see those faces, and if they come multiple times you recognize their faces. When you go out for a cigarette these are the same people who come up to you and be like, “yo wicked set,” they’ll talk to you. That’s all I gotta say, show up. Show up and support, because if you’re looking to get into the music industry there is also about a thousand other people tryna get into the music industry as well. But the thing that will separate you from them is that you show up and support an artist that you really are on the same level with, because they’ll come to your shows too. And they’ll bring their friends, and they’ll hype you up. And it’s⸺ it’s not a vicious cycle, it’s a pleasant cycle. I mean, you came out Friday, Tony Price was someone I met through going to shows, telephone explosion shows. Telephone explosion is a local record label here in Toronto, go check them out. Putting out a lot of good Canadian music. Shoutout to John. It’s just like, yo, you go to shows, you meet DJs, even bands. You’ll meet people in the crowd who are probably doing their own thing as well. So I mean if you’re very introverted it may be a little tough for you but just know that if you’re at a show, you can talk to someone, it’s cool. If you’re not vibing with that person that’s cool, walk away. Go converse with someone else. Not everyone is gonna get on the same energy as you and that shouldn’t deter, or make you scared of anything, it should just make you wanna improve yourself in terms of wanting to be better so you’re able to communicate with that person. But you shouldn’t be like, “aw man I fucked up,” now I can’t. Don’t go to an event like that, there’s other people just talk to them. There’s a reason why you’re at that event, ‘cause you’re there for something that you like. And the people there are also there for something that they like so you already have something in common. So it’s just like, go out, support local music, support local artists, and just show up. That also translates into this world⸺ into radio⸺ if you wanna get into radio. It’s showing up, know what I mean? ‘Cause people can ask you for assignments, for projects, for stuff like that, and the only way they can trust in you⸺ or even ask you for that⸺ is if you show up. If they can rely on you. There’s so many volunteers⸺ I mean my short time here being on staff I’ve asked for volunteers, I’ve already had people flop on me. Now my general response to that is I’m never gonna ask that person to help me, because they didn’t show up. We’re very small here too at CIUT. we’re big community but those who are involved, very small. So if you don’t show up to something, I already know, and I’m not gonna ask you next time. So yeah, showing up is a key thing. Course hard work is important as well, but that should already be in your skillset, but showing up is such an underrated thing. You show your face, you talk to people, and they will remember you. If they don’t remember you they’ll remember your face. I’m in that situation so many times, like I don’t remember your name but I remember where you were, what you were doing, what you were wearing. You know, if you did something funny I’ll remember that too. And the only way you can get those kinds of memories is if you showed up in the first place. So yes if you’re hearing this, showing up is a biiiiiiig thing.
Jay: Alright, and last question, it’s a bit of a doozy but you can kind of give whatever answer you want. What’s your favourite thing about music?
Ariel: Oh my god, my favourite thing about music? It’s universal. It doesn’t matter what the beat is, what the language it’s sung or spoken in, if you⸺ sorry for a lack of better term⸺ but if you fuck with it, you fuck with it, you know what I mean?
Jay: Yeah.
Ariel: Like, your head is bopping, you’re smiling, you’re hitting repeat, like you know your body is moving. If you feel music, you feel it. You really do feel it, and it’s like, it’s a universal language. It doesn’t matter if you’re like⸺ even in a vegetative state, you can hear something, you’re moving. I volunteer, shoutout to Patrick Roots, reggae rhythms every Saturday night, 10 to midnight. But Patrick Roots, like I was saying there’s so many interesting people here at CIUT. Patrick Roots is the host of reggae rhythms and he organizes a weekly thing at, it’s up at Christie and Dupont. It’s a long term care housing, and these are people who you know, seniors or people with disabilities, who their families can’t take care of them. SO you know that. They’re not being taken care of all the time. They’re getting medical needs but like, just having that interaction with another human being. So Patrick Roots he organizes every once a week, he goes there, brings DJs, and we play music for them. Share music with them. And like I said, there’s some people who are in a vegetative state, their eyes are closed, you don’t even know if they’re sleeping or not. But I remember seeing one guy in front of me, who looked like he was sleeping but was tapping his feet and moving his hand to the rhythm of like Bill Withers Love, like that song. He was moving to it, but like, he wasn’t consciously awake, he’s not there with you but I can see this guy moving his body to it. And that’s what I love about music, is that it’s universal. Doesn’t matter if you’re tall, small, wide, thin, if you’re missing a leg, missing an arm, missing teeth, missing eyes, even if you can’t even hear! Now it’s universal in a sense that there’s people doing sign to it. Even like, feel the vibrations from the music as well. Like yo, music is a very powerful tool, very powerful thing in the world. We’ve made it where it’s not complicated, even complicated music, like, I didn’t understand some music growing up, like disco and like, things like that. Dance music didn’t translate to me when I was a kid, it was a skip right away, I was like, “nah, not down.” But now yo, I play disco edits, I play house music, because I see what it does to people, and I feel it within myself too. Becomes more than just hearing, becomes like a feeling inside of you. And it’s just the only way you can get that stuff out is to move your body. You don’t even have to dance choreographed! Dance however the hell you want, and it still translates to DAMN that was good! Like the best compliment I can get as a DJ is not like, someone saying, “oh that was awesome,” it’s the look on their face. They got like, stank face on. That’s how I know something really resonated with them. And it translates to my music show, know what I mean, I get the emails⸺ swamped with emails all the time, I get swamped with phone calls as I’m doing the live show, and it’s just because people are digging the music. I don’t know if I can speak the language cause blalaglalabla I speak crazy, but I like to think that I at least have an understanding of music and how it affects people, and what it can do for people, both strength wise and break them down. I mean like, I played music when my dog died and yo, it was straight up like tear-jerker stuff. And then there’s music that makes you move and stuff, motivates you, like people listen to music when they work out and stuff. So it’s just like, yeah, music is a universal language where it doesn’t matter what you look like, what you’re up to, it’s just like, there’s something for you. There’s so many different subcultures and my goal in life⸺ with music⸺ is to bring it all together somehow. Create a space⸺ create a platform⸺ where yeah it doesn’t matter what you look like or what you listen to, you’re always invited, you’re on the team. Yeah, that’s my thing.
Jay: That’s a great answer honestly.
Ariel: Haha! Thanks I don’t know it’s a little bit unfocused and stuff, but that’s music too! Music to me, it’s not really that super focused! It should be formless, it should be⸺ you know you’re playing punk music in one second, and the next time you’re playing jazz like right away, you know what I mean? It shouldn’t have like⸺ and that’s what my show is if you’re interested in something like that, tune in to RAW, every Friday night, 8pm to 10pm. It’s like, maybe right now we’re playing like a soul tune, and you keep tuning in, in like 10-15 minutes later you’re listening to like a jungle tune. It’s how I feel, it should be formless, shouldn’t be⸺ I mean, I’ve tried to do shows, even just DJing, where it’s stayed to one. Like I got asked to do a motown show one time. And I played motown music⸺ the whole night was probably like 6 hours⸺ I probably played an hour and a half worth of motown and I was like, “god damn this is boring.” I was just like! I had to switch it up! Because that’s the way it is! That’s the way I am too! There’s so much music out there where it’s like, I don’t feel as if you should really be doing just focused your style in one thing, you should be open to listening to everything. At the end of the day even if you call it world music, it’s still music. House music, is music. Right? It’s just we put those labels, and everyone likes labels and stuff, but I just feel as if music’s one of those things. I mean, I can’t even categorize music! My record collection is based on how often I play it and like, energy level like BPM. It’s not by like, jazz goes over here, Brazilian goes over there, Latin goes over there. It used to be and then I was like, “this is weird.” I can’t really organize it in this kind of way. It doesn’t really work out for me. So yeah I organize it different now it goes by like how often I play it⸺ so it’s easy for me to find⸺ and the BPMs. That’s just the DJ way of looking at it.
Jay: I mean, there’s no wrong way to look at music.
Ariel: No, there isn’t! Yeah even myself like⸺ there’s probably someone who reads this or listens to this and is like, “this guy’s talkin’ outta his ass,” but it’s just like, yo, there’s no right or wrong way of looking at music. It’s just open up to interpretation. How you wanna look at it. You can look at it through a positive lens or a negative lens, and that’s whatever way you look at it that’s on you. I’m not gonna beat you down about that. There’s even pop songs that like, I won’t listen to all the time but I’ll be like, “damn that’s a jam right there,” you know? And that’s the way it should be. You shouldn’t be afraid to listen to music, just be open to listen to music. If there’s something you wanna expand to what you’re listening to, just know that there’s a lotta people out there in the world to help put you onto other stuff, put you in the right direction to listen to something different. But that also comes back to⸺ here we go, full circle⸺ showing up and talking to people. You’re not gonna meet those kinds of people unless you show up to their events, or you go to events that you’re interested in. And that’s the showing up. I brought that back. Hahaha!
Jay: Thank you so much for your time.
Ariel: Ayo Jay, thank you so much for coming out! Coming out and being involved, straight up it’s⸺ you’re the next generation man. Maybe you’re not even gonna like radio afterwards but, through my lens, you’re the next generation of like, the people that we’re tryna talk to, get excited, it’s people like you. You’ve done it too! You showed up, you came on Friday. That’s big for me, that’s why I agreed to do this, because you showed up. That’s respect right there. And yo if you keep doing this, I mean you’re young, you keep doing the stuff you’re doing now, it’s only gonna lead you to a road of success. I’m not even lying about that! I’m not even sugar-coating it or nothin’. Straight up, as someone in the industry, someone’s been doing their thing for like, what, more than 10 years now? Like, you’re doing the right stuff. Getting involved and showing up is already two of the things you need to do. So just keep doing what you’re doing, keep your head up and like I said before, you’re gonna experience times when it’s fucking amazing and you’re like, “oh my god, YES!” And then the next week you’re like, “fuck, am I doing the right thing? Is this really what I wanna do?” But just know that there’s a reason why you wanna do it, it’s ‘cause you like it. And if it does change for you, like yo, you’ll find something that you love. And at the end of the day, do the thing that you love, and let it kill you. Hahaha!
Jay: Alright! Sounds like a plan.