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.
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Relevant links (based on what’s in the podcast):
