Ever since I upgraded my home studio to include a broadcast-quality mic, I’ve wanted to start producing a (slightly) more professional podcast. I’ll be straight up: I was totally inspired by the example of Jesse Thorn of The Sound of Young America after being interviewed by him a few years back and realizing: damn, he produces his entire show out of his living room. 1 I’m not trying to produce a public radio-level podcast but having good sound was at least a step in the right direction. 2
The idea behind the Sidebar is simple: interview a guest and find a way to work in a 3 song playlist. For my first guest, I speak to DJ Matthew Africa, a stalwart presence in the Bay Area and a heavyweight (and stealth) record dude. Matthew and I used to both be on 90.7FM, KALX in Berkeley together, back in the ’90s, and since then, he’s moved into internet radio with his show, 2 Busy Saying Yeah. Matthew knows more about records than most people I know (which is saying a lot) and very recently, he took the very big step to begin to purge his collection by selling 400 jazz/funk albums, most of them fairly top-choice. This is the first time he’s sold off records out of his collection and that formed one of the bases of our conversation.
The Sidebar w/ Matthew Africa
[podcast]http://latinboogaloo.com/sounds/podcasts/sidebar%205-8-11.mp3[/podcast]
Relevant links (based on what’s in the podcast):
Damn, Matthew Africa is selling some of his collection?I want some–
Something weird is going on with the subscription link.
Looks like Michael beat me to that comment! I’m using Firefox and when I click the link I just get a page full of ugly HTML. Any suggestions?
Thanks again for having me on the podcast. I always enjoy our conversations!
Weird:it works as it should for me in Safari. Let me see what’s up.
Ok, all fixed
Terrific debut—I’m looking forward to future episodes.
I have dutifully subscribed to Matthew Africa’s podcast.
a) embarrassed that I was unfamiliar with MA prior to your feature, Oliver. Thanks.
b) delighted that Podomatic is hosting a music podcast that isn’t featuring some variant of House (seriously, how can there be so many house music podcasts up there? It’s insane).
Very cool. Looking forward to these….
Easily my two favorite KALX alum. Nice piece Oliver, looking forward to more.
good stuff! both of you sound like scholars.
when i first met Matthew i was also kinda surprised when he didnt exactly match up with his name. Thats the quirky beauty of this world though…and i learned so much in the few moments that ive been lucky to hang with the man. he’s a true classic.
oh yeah, O, you forgot to mention another heavy record that M.A. parted with…he put up his copy of Stark Reality for an auction benefiting Haiti earthquake relief efforts. nuff said
Excellent interview. Thanks
So nice hearing you twos together –
matthew was perhaps the biggest influence on my taste and desire to learn about funk and african music. heavyweight doesn’t do the man justice.
kalx alums for life.
gah! and rap! let us not forget the raps!
This really resonated with my own process; re: moving from doing live radio to my satellite radio show 4 years ago. Most definitely a trade off in terms of spontaneity.