By Tate DeCarlo

As KUPS rises from the ashes of the Covid-19 pandemic, the organization and the DJs who support it grow stronger with each semester. Though life may be headed back toward normalcy, KUPS DJs are anything but. This extraordinary group of students, musicians, and general music enjoyers are the station’s lifeblood, the far reaching roots of radio that connect KUPS to the campus community. Through my role as the loud rock MD, I have gotten the chance to see a group of these DJs excel both on and off air, and am so grateful to be able to share this semester with such a wonderful loud rock crew. This year, the loud rock genre has been blessed with a crowd of kind, outgoing, talented, and hilarious individuals, and I thought it only right to take the opportunity to amplify their voices. In the following series of interviews, each DJ who occupies a loud rock slot has been given a space to share a little bit about themselves, their show, and their experience within KUPS. Hopefully these interviews allow DJs and readers alike to find common interests and form connections outside of their respective genres and maybe even outside of KUPS. Listed in chronological order by the time of their shows, these are the faces of the fall ‘22’s loud rock team.

Belinda Garrow (She/Her) – Firefly Fistfight – Saturday @ 10pm

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

“I’m Belinda! I stand at 68 inches and chia pets make me nervous!”

Tell us about your show! 

“My show is called Firefly Fistfight which I affectionately shorten to FireFist for a chuckle (and mild to moderate efficiency). When not having technical difficulties, I play midwest emo and adjacent tunes from 10-11 pm every Saturday. You may like my show if you were particularly into Ed, Edd n’ Eddy as a wee ‘un.”

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

“My sincere-midwest-emo-fan days are behind me for the most part. It’s my profound suburban nostalgia that drives Firefly Fistfight. My current favourite songs are: When It Doesn’t Work Out by Cass Elliot, Suck My Dick by Lil’ Kim, The Butcher by Larkin Grimm, and Cheers by Faye Webster.”

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

“I’m pretty sure I was humming and tapping my toes in my hospital bassinet.”

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

“I recently saw Bonnie Raitt with Mavis Staples which was obviously amazeballs. I also saw Julia Jacklin with Katy Kirby in Seattle so that was just drooling and weeping and drooling and also weeping.”

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

“The booth is a great spot to hide from your life and take a breath.”

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

“I would like a personalized lullaby, written and recorded by Eliana Goldberg, to safely send me into slumber each night.”

Max Ketterer (He/They) – Simple Misunderstandings – Saturday @ 11pm

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

“I am Max Ketterer, I am the showrunner for Simple Misunderstanding this semester. I’m coming out here all the way from Grand Haven, Michigan. It’s a tiny, tiny town, so I really wanted to get out to a more big city kinda landscape. This place is really perfect to fit that need, especially because getting out of state was a high priority for me in going off to college. I’m a physics major and a music minor, those are pretty much my two primary interests in life, music especially. I love playing music, I play the drums, I recently got my first guitar so I’m trying to crank out and learn that. Isaac and I have just started a band, which I’m super excited about.” 

Tell us about your show! 

“My show is Simple Misunderstanding, I play music with lyrics that are garbled and incoherent for the most part. I usually start it off kind of tamer, somewhat slower maybe or the lyrics are mostly understandable, and then I’ll work it up to some bands later that are more obscure or you just can’t understand a single word they say.” 

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

“I listen to a lot of other ones. This kind of music has been sorta like a recent venture for me, I thought of how cool of a show it would make so I went with it. I listen to a lot, I love jazz, I was in the jazz band for two years in high school. Jazz is one of my favorite genres. Also prog rock and punk rock, as well as a little bit of hip hop, little bit of pop, you know.”  

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

“It was a bit of a build up. For much of my life, I didn’t really have music taste.  I guess I just listened to what was on the radio when I was in the car with my family. I didn’t really go out of my way to go and seek out music, but eventually I started listening to like, classic rock, and that’s what really got me hooked. From there I started collecting records, and that got me more into prog rock and jazz and whatnot. That’s kinda where my taste flourished. It’s mostly stayed somewhat similar, just kinda expanded outward since I started listening to classic rock. I started playing an instrument through the school system, where I went you had to be in some kind of music ensemble for some amount of time, and eventually I just stuck with percussion in band. Then I branched out to a drum set from there.” 

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

“The most recent big concert I went to was, I saw Roger Waters at the Tacoma Dome, that was amazing. My friends hyped it up and they were so right about it. It was incredible. Since then, I’ve just been to a lot of the house shows around here, that’s like the weekend activity pretty much. I’m hoping to eventually become a band playing at those house shows. Isaac and I are trying to set that stuff up. As far as artists I’d want to see, that’s a hard question. Since I saw Roger Waters, I’d want to see David Gilmore. Since Pink Floyd isn’t exactly together as a band anymore, I can at least see them in bits and parts. I wanted to see Nick Mason, he was in Seattle but it was on Halloween, and it was kind of expensive so I was like “I can’t justify it”. So many of my favorite bands are all dead so it’s hard.” 

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

“It’s been a lot of fun. As soon as I got to campus, during orientation week, one of my activities was getting a tour of the booth. I remember when I walked in the DJ area for the first time, I just said “I’m gonna cry”. It was just so cool, so I knew that I just needed to have a show, I needed to be a part of this. There’s so much freedom to it, it’s not like you have to check your music with anyone beforehand. There’s a few restrictions here and there, but especially with safe harbor you can pretty much play whatever you want. It’s just so much fun, I’ll bring friends in and sometimes we’ll just do little bits on the air. Sometimes we’ll just chill out, regardless it’s so much fun.”

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

“I don’t know, really. That is hard to say. I don’t think anything I can think of right now.” 

Cole Simkin-Boyar (He/Him) – Plug Yer Ears – Saturday @ Midnight

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

“My name is Cole Simkin Boyar, I’m a loud rock DJ here at UPS. I’m from Ithaca, New York, which is like, in the middle of New York State, far away from here. I’ve lived there my whole life, my parents lived there, I went to middle school and high school there. I always did sports, I ran cross country and track, I did wrestling. I never really got into music until late in high school. I always liked listening to music but it never like, played a large role in my life, until recently.”

I know you play music, what got you into that?

“Literally, one time my dad and I had just gone out to get a christmas tree, and he has this old classical guitar that he tried learning it several times, but he kinda gave up. He just had it sitting in the corner, sometimes his friend comes over and plays it. We had just finished setting up the tree, and I just sat down on the couch and started like plucking the guitar, and I was like I fuckin’ love this dude. I just played it everyday since then. I had never even touched it before then, but I loved it. I’ve just been playing every single day since then.” 

Tell us about your show!

“My show is called Plug Yer Ears, it’s at midnight on Saturday nights. Basically, the premise is that, I have the belief that everyone likes to talk about their favorite music, just as much or more as to listen to it, so I have like, a guest on the show. They bring a small playlist of songs that I don’t know, and then I prepare some songs I know they don’t know. Then we just alternate playing our music and talking about it. It sparks a good conversation and everyone learns about new music, the listeners learn about new music. It’s a lot of fun.”

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

“Yeah, most of what I listen to is like ‘70s, ‘80s rock and metal, although I do listen to a lot of blues, a lot of folk music, acoustic stuff. I’ve been listening to, in the past couple days, I’ve been listening to a lot of Migos, ‘cause of the thing, cause of Takeoff. That was my shit in like middle school. I mean, my big three of all time are Black Sabbath, then Alice In Chains, and then Tool. I love Death, I’ve been listening to a lot of Death. There’s this singer called Leah Senior who I’ve been listening to, she has some great songs. I saw some good shows, I just saw King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, I’ve been listening to them a lot recently. That’s most of it, also some bluegrass, some Doc Watson, ‘cause I’ve been playing with this bluegrass band recently, I’ve been trying to learn all the tunes. The band is called Dirt, with Holland, who’s a fiddler, Paige who’s a fiddler, Ellie plays a mandolin, and Avi on bass.”

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

“Oh yeah so, I’ve gotten to a couple shows in Seattle. I saw Iron Maiden up there, a few weeks ago at Climate Pledge. I went up there with a couple friends, it was super fun. They put on a great show. They’re in like their mid 70s and they have so much energy, the bassist was just jumping up and down for at least like 25% of the time they were on stage. The lead singer was like running around, he had flamethrowers on his arms, it was really really awesome. Then I saw  King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, up there, and they were great and loud. That was a much smaller venue so it was a cooler thing. Then there’s this band I think everyone should check out, I-90 Fiasco. The lead singer of I-90 Fiasco is the sister of the drummer in my band, and they’ve been really grinding and playing a lot of shows. I’ve seen them a couple times in Seattle, they have really good music. It’s like a combination between surf rock and punk, with a female lead singer, and the bassist does backup vocals. They have these contrasting styles, it sounds really cool. In a couple weeks Cannibal Corpse is gonna play in Seattle, so I’m probably gonna see that.”

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

“I just like how late it is, ‘cause being in the studio at midnight through 1AM with like another person or a few people and then you get to play music, it’s a very vibey type of experience. It’s been a lot of fun, and also you get to learn about people. Like all of the guests I’ve had on so far, I’ve like got to know them better after playing a show with them and hearing their music that they like.”

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

“I like it so far. I mean, I wish it was a little more clear what all the knobs and sliders did, but it seems to be working out so, I guess it’s not a problem. I’m glad to be doing loud rock.” 

Dev Habib (The Dev, He/She) – Emo Overnight – Sunday @ 10pm

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

“Hey what’s up, It’s Dev! I’m a loud rock DJ here at KUPS, I host the Sunday 10pm show, Emo Overnight. I’m originally from Texas, San Antonio, but I transferred from New York City. Now I’m a sophomore here at UPS and a very proud member of the KUPS community. I perform a lot of live music, I play a lot of various instruments. I mainly get down on guitar and I sing a lot, but I also do like, bass, drums, other weird stuff. I play the Occarina for like zero fucking reason, just ‘cause. You know, just weird stuff like that. I do perform live music, I just recently this last week performed at Komadre Kombucha along with one of our other loud rock DJs, Isaac. It was sick! Other than that, I perform at the open mic nights and stuff. I performed live before at other various open mic nights at bars around my hometown, I’ve performed in a few jazz bars in New York for various gigs and stuff. I actually have a video of me singing up there with one of my mentors, he basically made our final for our class to go and perform at a bar. We played at this place called like, Menkins, or some shit. Anyways, it was like a really established jazz bar in Harlem, so it was cool to go there and perform. It was fuckin’ sick.”

Tell us about your show!

“So, Emo Overnight is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. I basically just play a bunch of emo music, and that varies between like midwest emo, indie rock in general, I play some math rock on there. I’ve been going through a bit of a ska phase recently, so I’ve been some emo-ska type shit, it’s been pretty fun. There’s this dude who does ska covers of popular emo songs, so I’ve been playing his shit on there a lot. It’s been really fuckin’ groovy. I play a lot of Mom Jeans, Sorority noise, Remo Drive, P-Daddy (Prince Daddy and The Hyena), some MoBo (Modern Baseball), hell yeah. I’ve been trying to get some more weird stuff on there recently, so I’ve been trying to find more math rock-y bands. There’s this one group I’ve been listening to a lot recently, they’re called Archipelagos. Dude, they’re so fuckin good! They get weird. I really like them, they’ve got some interesting use of time signatures, just changing between shit. And then American Football too, of course everyone listens to them.” 

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

“So, I listen to a lot of different genres actually. The stuff that I play on the KUPS show is a lot of the stuff that I like to make myself in my free time. I write a lot of indie rock, sort of like midwest emo-y type shit. That’s just what I really like, but I actually do a lot of composition. I do a lot of like thematic music. One thing I do in particular is that I’ll do commissions for my friends, they’ll basically have characters from either comic books they’re working on or D&D games they’re playing and they’ll have me write them theme songs. Dude, it’s fuckin’ tight! Sometimes I orchestrate it, I’ll get a whole symphony going but then I’ll also add like a trap beat on top of it or something, get it really fuckin’ sick. 

“So I listen to a lot of really weird shit. Lots of the London underground rap scene, some grime. I listen to some people like Kano, Stormzy, Wiley, Giggs. I just try to listen to a lot of really broad shit, I’ve also got some Japanese Jazz that I’ve been listening to recently. There’s this one dude I’ve been listening to called Tatsuro Yamashita. He made a bunch of music in the ‘90s that was kinda like if the Beach Boys used jazz theory. It’s so fucking good dude, his music is so brilliant, but its only available on YouTube because of Spotify contracts and whatever. It’s excellent. I listen to so much random bullshit dude it’s ridiculous. I also listen to a lot of anime soundtracks, because for some reason they slap so hard. My top two favorites are JoJo’s, it has an incredible score, and then either BananaFish or Beastars. Beastars has no right to go as hard as it does.” 

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

“Nah, not at all dude. My music taste has seriously evolved so much. I remember when I was growing up my mom raised me on a lot of like ‘80s R&B/Hip Hop, and really whatever else was out on the radio at the time. I listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye, Twista, and then like a good amount of Eminem, but like his Slim Shady album. I also listened to the album he did with Dr. Dre, that was really fuckin’ good. A bunch of like older rap, not super old but like the late ‘80s and ‘90s era, going into the late ‘90s as well. I grew up on that a lot, but then I started listening to the radio a lot more later on, just like the various pop songs that were out at that time, so I listened to a lot of Owl City, and like whoever else from then. I can’t remember, I don’t listen to ‘em anymore. You know, various really mainstream pop stuff for a little bit. Then, as I was growing up, I started branching off. I went through this weird dubstep phase, and then like a really heavy trap phase. 

Then, when I was in like 7th grade I went through my really hard emo phase, but not like the type of emo that I’m listening to now. It was like MCR (My Chemical Romance), Pierce The Veil, all those really classic edge bands. You know, I listened to those for a long time until like freshman year of highschool. Then, I started listening to this group called The 1975, who completely altered my entire view on what music could really be I guess. They had this like pop-y sound, but they weren’t like a pop band, all the lyrics were just so fuckin’ hard hitting and just tapped into something every time I listened to them. It was around that time when, on a whim I was on a trip, and I met this random chick in New York City who just showed me Mom Jeans, the Best Buds album. From then I was just like ‘this is it’ and from there it just kinda spewed off. It was because I found Mom Jeans and all the shit like that I started to explore all the just weird shit you can do with rock, and just music in general. After that I started listening to Jazz and soundtrack music and stuff like that. It’s been all over the place man.”

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

“I think the real most recent show that was also like the main, big thing, was like the Prince Daddy show. Yeah dude, that shit was sick. They were opening for Citizen I believe, and they also played with some other dudes, with Militarie Gun, who are so fucking good. I went there having never heard of those guys and was just like let’s give it a try. Dude it was one of the best sets I’ve heard in a while. They were crazy live, the lead singer has such a time, he just jumps around on stage and throws shit, it was sick. 

How they did it at the Crocodile in Seattle, where the P-Daddy show happened, was they had one section for the under 21, and one section for the over 21. All the real mosh shit was happening in the over 21 section, because that’s like where the majority of people were. Me and my friends who were all in the under 21 section just created our own eight person mosh pit. There was this one giant of a man, I was like ‘there’s no way you’re not 27, like what the fuck are you doing here’, who would throw his whole body into my friends and I. I was like dude, one of us is gonna die. These other dudes played too, I think they were called Restraining Order or some shit like that. They were pretty good, couldn’t understand a word the dude was saying, but that’s what made it great. 

Then P-Daddy played, and that was just like fuckin’ incredible. Their musicianship is just crazy, they’re so talented and it’s so easily overlooked when you’re listening to these bands. In person though, it was like ‘oh shit! These guys aren’t just good, they’re fucking incredible at their craft’. The lead singer, Corey, the way he’s doing all these really vocally intense screams while at the same he’s also doing incredible riffs, it truly astonishes me. I’m like I don’t know how the fuck you have that amount of focus to be playing all these sick ass riffs, but also keep the technique to not absolutely destroy your voice. He’s been doin’ this shit for like fuckin’ years, and he’s always screaming, every single night. Then he talks and he’s just like ‘Hey guys! You guys havin’ fun? Me too!’. It’s fuckin’ sick man.”

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

“I really just like the amount of community that KUPS gives to UPS. I don’t know, I’ve personally thought like some of the best on campus, and even off campus, school oriented events have been the KUPS hosted ones. I’m sorry, the open mic night and the bowling night? Dude. That shit was so fucking tight. I haven’t been to a single event that could compare. It’s a really cool way to get not only just all the KUPS personnel all together, I met a bunch of really sick DJs at the bowling alley that I otherwise never would’ve known existed. 

If anything, I’d really love just more like DJ oriented stuff so that we could all meet each other. We should definitely do more cool shit like that, either for DJs in general or even like a loud rock DJ thing. I will say, I was honestly really appreciative of all the shit that you’ve been doing for the loud rock DJs. Like setting up a group chat, that’s already such a good step in the right direction. All the messages that get sent out that are like ‘oh hey guys, we’re doing this or this is happening’ have allowed for other DJs to put shit out there. Like the other day when Mitch was promoting all those house shows and shit, I was like thanks, ‘cause then I was able to go to the house shows, and see They Exist and all that jazz. It was actually because of that that Me and Mitch have actually grown pretty cool. They’re the show right after me and I never would’ve fuckin’ knew. KUPS is just like a really great entity on campus that just allows everybody to come together, whether or not you’re like officially affiliated with KUPS or not. It allows for a cool place for people to come and hang and meet other cool, like-minded people. You know, just vibe, like have a good time!”

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

“Like I said, just keep doing what you guys are doing, ‘cause honestly it’s been good. I’d love another open mic night soon, that’d be sick. The school-wide events are dope, but I think personally I’d really like for a more KUPS oriented thing just to meet the other KUPS personnel. The bowling thing was really cool and I was able to meet a lot of KUPS people there, that was really, really good. I just want something like a DJ mixer for instance, that sounds tight, that sounds sick as fuck. Even having some sort of KUPS get-together of some kind. I think that honestly would be good for me, gettin’ to know more of the people that I’m like, workin with. I think also, personally, I want to find more ways to get more involved with KUPS, as opposed to just being a DJ. I’d really want to help out, if I can, in the establishment of KUPS. Having resources that advertise internships and stuff like that for those interested would be huge. Every time I’m walking out of the sub and I see people posted up at the little booth playing music, I’m just like “that looks tight, I want to do that”. Selling merch and setting up the open mic nights and stuff looks so tight, and I really just want to get involved. I’m really good at like, spreadsheets and shit so…”

Mitch Pereira (They/She) – Nothing, Stuff – Sunday @ 11pm

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

“Well, I’m Mitch, I’m from Walnut Creek, California, bay area. I have four rats, I’m a psych major, theater minor, what else about me? I’m a super senior, about to finish up, got one more class left.” 

Tell us about your show! (what do you play, explain the name, when is it, etc..)

“So, my show is just, well lately it’s been a bit different from what I decided it was gonna be. It’s just kind of a guiding theme that’s been bringing me through the week, things that I’ve been finding that I want to talk about, or tell a story about. It’s been kinda in my own way, centered toward my own life. It was more open when I was going into it. For example, I think I mentioned before that I had an idea that I was going to have a dad rock show, but my shows have been more about things to do with myself. My own things I’ve been listening to throughout the week, things that I find, and something on my mind that I build off of. Lately, it’s been different because one, it’s been centered towards me more than I was intending, and two, because I’ve been splitting the playlist. When I find that there’s two themes that kinda work together, I’ve made my playlists a dual type of thing which has been cool.

My last show was like that, but more. It had the two themes, as well as was an ode to the weird, bizarre two weeks that I had before. It was literally about my life, because I had a very bizarre couple of weeks. Anyways, I saw a couple of shows so I played music from each of the shows. I also played songs to do with some health stuff I found out about and dreams I had, and so it’s like all these different things. So like, I burnt my hand during that week. I had a very stupid moment where I was cooking something, and I had to put an entire pot you use on the stove in the oven, and after I took it out of the oven and grabbed a bowl, my brain just kinda defaulted and I grabbed the hot handle, so “Shoot! I burned my hand this week” was the first half of the title. The second part was called “Where am I?”, cause I kept ending up in random places and situations and things felt pretty surreal. It was a whole big amalgamation of just whatever I wanted, which I feel like people probably can’t differentiate, unless you’re me, but it’s kinda fun. Kind of like a diary for my own life.”

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

“My show probably captures the biggest part of my music taste, that’s what I like the most, that’s why I chose this. I’m definitely not just limited to that though. It’s funny, because the band I’ve been listening to a lot recently is this band (referring to the band playing on KUPS radio during the interview), the Backseat Lovers, just because they came out with a new album last week. It was really good, bit of a different style. So yeah, I don’t just listen to emo, a lot of other things.”

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

“So my family is super big into music, like it’s been a pretty pivotal thing in everyone in my family’s lives. Like we’ve all got pretty different tastes, my dad is just all across the board. My mom is definitely into some like classic whatever, mom music. That kind of influenced all of my siblings, my sister is definitely the indie child. My brother is the one who got me into more, I don’t know, rock music – my dad too. But when I was younger, my brother had his little like, grunge-y punk-y phase. I was like oh, this is so cool. 

By the time I was like ten, I was emo, early 2010s, a lot of Black Veil Brides, stupid stuff. It’s a little funny, I’m still there, but it’s not the same type, I’m definitely just an elder emo. It’s transcended, but that was an intentionally pretentious thing I just said. I also just love using the word emo because it sounds so silly and stupid. I feel like some people get really specific with it, whereas I think it’s pretty general, it’s a bunch of different things. I honestly think it’s a funny word, and obviously I wasn’t very liked when I was younger, because I was like, you know, the kid who wears skinny jeans and a My Chemical Romance jacket every day. Now it’s just like ‘what ever’, it’s just funny, like it’s not that deep guys.”

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

“Yeah, I saw Prince Daddy and the Hyena, they were playing with Citizen, which I didn’t even realize that they were playing together before. I had just seen that there was a Prince Daddy show and I was like ‘yeah, I’m really interested in going’, and didn’t really look into it. Then, so I got a new coworker around that same time, and we bonded over liking pop punk music, so I went up to them and was like ‘You know these people are coming around?’ and she was like ‘Yeah! The Citizen show, you wanna go?’, and I was like, ‘Yeah!’. The next day, they were like ‘also, there’s an A Day To Remember show’, and I was like, ‘That’s nostalgic as fuck, lets go!’. Also, Movements was playing with them, but I missed Movements, which was sad. Saw The Used there. 

Then, my friend’s band was playing, I forget if it was the day after that or not. They’re called Stage Antics, super cool, a local band around here. My friend Tyler plays the drums. I’m forgetting the names of the other people who were at that show. Then, Halloween weekend I went and saw the cover band stuff at Beyblade House, and then at Psych Ward, two of those bands, Polly’s Pocket and They Exist. I feel like there are other things that happened. I was gonna go to two other shows, it was the same person who’s dating the lead singer of my friend’s band, Alex Vile. Just wanted to shout her out, because she plays cool music even though I didn’t end up getting to see her. There were a lot of things going on, those were the shows I saw recently.”

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

“I mean, playing off of what I said earlier, people don’t really, being the emo kid, no one really passes me the aux, no one really wants to listen to my music, but this has always been a way to be like, ‘haha, I can play on the radio!’. Someone might listen! I just think it’s cool that I can have something that’s not just my own speaker. Also, I wasn’t super into making playlists, well not like I wasn’t super into making playlists, like I’d make CDs. I like CDs, I used to make people or myself CDs, but I can’t do that anymore because my computer doesn’t let me. After that time, I just didn’t really make playlists for a while, but then KUPS got me making them again. I was like ‘oh, I’ve gotta start thinking about how to synthesize all this music’, and that was really influential, because now I really like making playlists. 

I’m trying to remember moments. It was fun the other day, after meeting Dev I was like, they’ve got the show before me, and I was just like ‘you can hang around if you want’, and then they just stayed and we talked about music for like forty-five minutes. And then, the next person came in with like a few people to watch their show, and so a bunch of random people just came in and I was like ‘I don’t know who you are, but welcome!’. That wasn’t very long, but it was kind of a funny moment, cause there was a lot of random people and I was like ‘oh hello!’.”

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

“I really like what you’re doing with like, trying to create more community, like I’ve felt like there was a lot of disconnect before, which is a hard thing to navigate. I like having the groupchat, because every single year I’ve been here, they’ve been like ‘We’re gonna make a groupchat!’, and then they don’t. I’ve literally been a DJ since 2019, and that’s been every semester. I mean yeah, just having more things is pretty cool, I think it would be fun if loud rock could even get together, stuff like that. Obviously, it’s really challenging to find time, so not like saying necessarily right now, and I guess I’m leaving this semester so maybe in the future. Even if you guys do it next semester, I’d love to be invited even though I’ll no longer be a student. Then, obviously the streaming, but that’s above people’s pay grades. That’s not like a shade type thing, it’s like an obvious one but I know it’s above y’all, like I know every single person wants that, including everyone on KUPS staff. KUPS rocks! Listen, join, I don’t know.” 

Isaac Lasky (He/Him) – Feel It In My Teeth – Sunday @ Midnight

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

“Well, I’m Isaac, I’m from Portland, I’m a musician, and I’m thinking about majoring in music. Yeah, that’s about it.” 

Tell us about your show!

“My show is called Feel It In My Teeth. I kind of just ramble and then play loud music that I like. I sometimes I have my friends in the studio and then they scream. I have this bit I came up with a while ago where I have my friend come into the studio. It was originally gonna be that I was just gonna call him and just ask him how the streets were, it was gonna be Johnny in the street, he was gonna be my man on the inside basically. You know like shows have reporters and it’s like maybe ‘We’re gonna go straight to our man on the street!’, it was gonna be something like that, my idea. Recently, I’ve just had him in the studio anyway, he has like, better memory than I do, and he just knows what’s going on more. I don’t know where the Johnny came from (his name is Max), I think someone called him Johnny and I thought it’d be funny to call him Johnny for a while, so now he’s Johnny in the street. The last show that we did was like the Halloween show, and I just went up and like, for the bit, was like ‘we’re gonna take a brief interlude and talk to our man on the inside of the stories, Johnny on the street’, and he like came up and was like ‘Oh my word you would not believe, I was out in the streets and they broke open and ghouls and ghosts came out everywhere!’, he just kind of rambled on for a while. I’ve just been trying to come up with random bits to do on the show, I had screaming, just the last show I had my friend pretend to be a ghost, we had a fake ghost on the show, that kinda stuff. Shouting sometimes. 

Based on the title, the music is supposed to be kind of like music I can feel in my teeth, that’s in air quotes. In reality, it’s just music that I like, it started out as like pump up music, it was mostly heavier music that was pumping me up more. It kinda grew to music that was not necessarily loud, not necessarily indie, but something in between the two that met, there’s a whole range. There’s music I have that’s from the early ‘60s, then there’s music that I have that, you know, came out this year. I’m starting to get into doing themes with each show. The last theme was like, kind of shoegaze based, this next show is gonna be hardcore, that kind of stuff. From there I’m gonna do something that’s kinda like a garage rock kinda thing. Those themes aren’t really solid, kind of like guidelines. It’s all pretty progressive, pretty small artists.” 

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

“I mean it’s always what I’m interested in but there’s definitely like bigger artists that I listen to outside of the show, and there’s definitely like the other genres I listen to. I listen to a lot of country but I’m not playing like a country ‘cause it doesn’t really really fit. I have this one song that’s like this country rock song by a guy called The American Himself and but I don’t think I’ve played that one yet. I don’t know if I will. I kinda go through phases of being into a genre at a time. The ones that really have stuck have been  folk music and punk and emo.  I got really into, a while ago, EDM and I was really into Electronica. I don’t know, I just kind of I kind of jump genres and for the most part right now what I’m listening to right now is the music I play on my show. There’s also these other things that I’m listening to but not playing on the show ‘cause I just don’t think it fits.” 

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

“So, when I started, my parents were really into music. My dad grew up in New Orleans, and both my mom and my dad were into music that was, for the most part, classic shit. My dad was really into New Orleans jazz and that kinda shit. I grew up listening to a lot of that. Over time, around the time of like, freshman year, I got really into rap. I don’t really know when it happened but somewhere between then and senior year, I got really into rock and other music genres. Much louder, more aggressive music. I was trying to start bands and it was like this complete weird switch in how I was into music. I think definitely in these last three years is when I’ve been getting into music that’s coming out today. Before then, it was for the most part shit that had all come out in the last century. There was also a while where I was into the really really early recordings of blues, and listening to like really shitty recordings of some guy humming. That kind of shit.” 

How has being a musician shaped your music taste? Has the music you played always paralleled the music you’ve been listening to?

“I think the way that I got better was like that, because it was the music that I was interested in, the music that I liked. Basically, it was all the stuff that I was learning. All the stuff that I would teach myself. If I really liked a band or an artist, I would like try to learn that. Then I would be like “oh, now I can see how they wrote that, or that”. Then I could start writing like that, which can be good, but sometimes you’re jus playing this song and you’re like ‘oh shit, this is this song by this artist’, and I just accidentally rewrote it. That can be good, that was how I was doing it for a while, but nowadays I try to like think of it as ‘oh, I’m going to write a riff today’, it’s just going to happen. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s more internally driven. That background influence still very much builds into how I write today though.” 

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

“So, I’ve been going to the house shows that have been around, but I haven’t really been listening as much to them. Avi and Miles and them had a band, we went and saw them. We left pretty early to go to KUPS bowling, but we saw the first half of it and it was really good. The power went out halfway through, and it was just Avi playing, andI forget who was on saxophone, but those two were just playing because they had the only acoustic instruments. Maybe the drummer was playing too, I don’t know what was going on. I actually worked really well though, even with the power outage. It was sick. I think that space is more conducive to house shows, compared to some of the other spaces I’ve seen, the basements. Most of the house shows that I used to see in basements, people would take like weeks or months to like craft it into like the perfect house show basement. It’s a lot more raw here, ‘cause it’s just like people who are looking for venues and areas where they can play their music. 

I also went and saw Prince Daddy and the Hyena, that was great. I got a shirt signed by all four members. It was sick as fuck, but like it was this weird shit at the venue where they divide the room into under 21 and over 21. They had like a little area for the kids, and none of them wanted to dance or mosh or anything, so it was like me, Devlyn, and like my friends all just in a little seven person mosh pit. Then this one giant dude, who like felt bad for us, he was super supportive, he helped me get all the signatures, he jumped in because nobody else was moshing. The one problem was he was like seven foot two, so he’s just like throwing elbows and everything and it’s six other people so he’s knocking everyone out of the circle. It was still pretty cool, but I don’t recommend the Crocodile in Seattle, unless you’re over 21. 

There’s tons of bands I want to see come to Tacoma. There’s a couple bands from Portland that were coming up to Seattle, Sea Moss, they were coming up. I didn’t end up going to see them because I had too much work. I think there was some other band that was doing a tour that I don’t remember now. These are like local bands from Portland. In a bigger sense, I would love to see Idles come to Seattle or Tacoma, but they only go to the East Coast, and when they do come to the West Coast they mostly hit just like California. Most bands that are out of country will never really hit Tacoma, maybe Seattle.

The Who went through Portland, and I ended up going to see that recently. I was good, ‘cause like they’re like this huge band, and they had a whole orchestra with them. It was great, my friend’s dad bought me and my three friends tickets as our graduation gift when we graduated high school. I was the only one that was really into it, I think he just bought it for the other two ‘cause he’s like an old dude and wanted them to listen to that kind of music. We were like the only kids there, it was like all people in their mid 60s. It was kind of heartwarming ‘cause people who were like balding and shit like that were just having the time of their lives, dancing and drunk as fuck. Just running around, reliving their youth. It was great, but I remember kind of looking around and being like ‘wow this is a weird dynamic to be part of ’.” 

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

“I really like just being in the booth, it’s a lot of fun. Like the first day, the first two shows, I kind of felt like I was still getting into my stride, but I feel like now, because my show is so late, I have a lot of freedom to make mistakes. I’m not as worried about broadcasting to the world because I’m pretty sure the only people listening are like my friends and UPS students. It’s been, for the most part, I bring three friends and on the spot I’ve been coming up with random shit. I just start talking, and it’s really nice to have that kind of opportunity. The other thing that’s been great is the whole community of KUPS, everyone is very welcoming. I was surprised how many people, like everywhere I go, I just see KUPS people now. Shit’s great.”

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

“I can’t think of much. This is kind of off topic but it will come back on topic, me and Max created a band, we signed up for KUPS fest and all that, and just last night we recorded us playing, and decided we want to do a house show. I was wondering, it would be nice if there was a way that KUPS could be able to promote artists that are coming into into the scene and want to get into music that might be KUPS DJs and have their own music. I think it would be really cool to have, you guys pretty much already do this, but just like have a platform to broadcast all that stuff out. The community is already pretty tight-knit, which I think is pretty great.” 

Charlie Dahle (He/They) & Tate DeCarlo (He/Him) – Left Leaners – Monday @ 10pm

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

Charlie: 

“I’m Charlie, I’m from the underrated city of Indianapolis, Indiana, and I absolutely love music. I love meeting new people, and I’m a big fan of college radio. I’m a double major in computer science and French. Outside of school, I’m really interested in politics and social justice as well as listening and playing music, skateboarding, being outside, and spending time with friends.”

Tate:

“I’m Tate, I’m the other half of Left Leaners, and one of Charlie’s besties. I’m an English major with a minor in econ, and I’m the loud rock Music Director here at KUPS. I also work as a writing advisor at the CWL, and in my free time I love to skateboard, thrift, and this is probably no surprise, listen to music.”

Tell us about your show! 

Charlie:

“Well Tate, this is a show you may know very well. I run Left Leaners, which is a Monday night loud rock show from 10-11pm. The point of this show is me and my friend Tate, who’s giving this interview, dig into some of our favorite music, primarily within the sonic range of punk and hard rock, to talk about how that music has leftist themes that connect to progressive conceptions of society that we both believe more people should be in tune with.” 

Tate:

“Yeah, Char, I mean you pretty much nailed it. Our goal was to put together a show where we play music and explain how it is politically left. We play a ton of punk, everything from hardcore to surf punk, some alt/indie rock, and the occasional sprinkling of hip hop. We like to think our show is kinda genre-breaking, capturing punk aesthetics and values across all styles of music. 

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

Charlie:

“Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think a big benefit of this show is that it’s really pulling me in new directions musically. Outside of the show, I’m a big fan of hip hop, that genre has always had my heart. I listen to a lot of rock music and jazz as well, but I hadn’t really gotten into the hard rock side of things. I’ve been really grateful for this show to push me to try out some genres of music, some styles of music that I don’t always listen to. It’s a bit of a challenge each week to put together a setlist that I feel fits within the theme but is also enjoyable for me to listen to. Usually that challenge is worth it in the ways that it stretches my music taste”

Tate:

“I’d say my music taste is pretty aligned with our show. I listen to predominately punk rock, everything from classic stuff from the ‘80s to the current post-hardcore scene. I also dabble in a lot of alt rock across eras and a fair amount of shoegaze. Recently, I’ve been into a lot of math rock, and every fall I have a big emo phase. I love the ‘90s wave of emo a lot, but also can get into the midwest stuff as well. Really, if it’s got cool drums or distorted guitar or an angsty singer I’m probably into it.”

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

Charlie:

“Yeah, my family is really musical, there was always music playing growing up, especially when my Nana would take care of me as a child. It was always Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, The Beatles, those definitely influenced what primarily got me into music. I fell in love with ‘90s hip hop in middle school, and pretty much haven’t looked back since.”

Tate:

“My musical journey has had a lot of stops. I started where most people do, I think, my dad is a huge music nut and I just started listening to what he liked. I remember him showing me Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring Of Fire’ when I was like six. Generally all types of classic rock from my dad too, Rolling Stones to Van Halen, the like. When I hit middle school I had my little rebellious phase and transitioned into a big dose of punk, mostly pop punk, a little emo here and there. Then, in high school I got really bummed that nobody was listening to what I liked so I started getting into hip hop and rap. I had a huge soundcloud phase that I’m pretty embarrassed about but then eventually ended up getting into the more cool, kind of experimental artsy hip hop that I still really enjoy. By my senior year of highschool I had returned to punk, and really just kind of dove into that scene. On top of exploring everything from classic hardcore to folk punk I also tried open myself up to all sorts of genres, I got pretty into indie rock and house music at that time as well. I still have a lot of love for everything I’ve listened to, and despite my big focus on punk and loud rock I definitely like to explore outside of that genre.”

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

Charlie:

“It’s been a big summer and semester for rock music. I saw Courtney Barnett, opened by Sleater Kinney, I saw Bikini Kill, I saw Julia Jacklyn. Last semester, I also saw Tyler the Creator at the end of the year. Been on a good string of concerts if you ask me. Anybody I want to see soon, great question. I’m going abroad next semester and I’d like to experience some concerts in a different country just to see how the music and the social dynamics change. Maybe no specific artists, but like I said, I want to see some concerts in a different country that go down in a different way. Some good French bullshit.”

Tate:

“I haven’t been to a ton of shows recently, I saw Bikini Kill with Charlie, that was a really sick show. Gonna plug myself, I wrote a little essay about that’s also posted on the KUPS blog, you should check it out. After that, I went to maybe the best show I’ve ever seen, I saw Drug Church and the Chats, which was insane. Those were like two of the bands I listened to most over the summer, so it was really sick to see them live. Scowl also played that show which was tight, and The Bronx as well, which I didn’t really care that much about. As far as shows in the future, as soon as I get paid next I’m gonna buy tickets to see MIKE in the spring, and I definitely want to go to the Seattle stop of the Joyce Manor tour with PUP this March. Our friends at KSFemmes are also trying to convince me to buy tickets to see Yo La Tengo, so I may end up seeing them as well.”

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

Charlie:

“My favorite part of having a KUPS show, oh man. I mean there’s the piece of it I talked about before, which is that it stretches my music taste in different directions. As someone who loves music, that’s really rewarding, but, you know, I really feel like I’m a part of something. Especially last year when I was trying to find my place at this school, KUPS was instantly an area where I gravitated toward and was accepted. I’ve become really good friends with a lot of people who occupy different areas throughout the organization, and it really does feel like one big family of people who all have something in common, which is that they love being on the radio and playing stuff that makes them happy.”

Tate:

“I mean, once again Charlie said it really well. Obviously, I love KUPS so much and am so glad to be involved with this organization. This year has been super sick because of not only the sense of community as a whole, but the community within loud rock, there are so many awesome DJs that inspired this project, and I’m just really grateful for them and all the cool stuff they’re doing. As far as our show, I think I’m just really glad for the hour it gives Charlie and I together. We both have a lot goin’ on, get so busy you know, that it gets really hard to find time to get together and just bullshit about music. That has always been like a cornerstone of our friendship, and I’m really glad KUPS allows us to maintain that.

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

Charlie:

“I think they could hire more MDs like you Tate, who really care about the group of DJs who they oversee, because the way that you send concert recommendations and schedule things like this interview, that makes me feel appreciated and motivates me to engage more with KUPS and the broader campus community. Definitely MDs who care a lot help the DJs a lot.”

Tate:

“Charlie you are way too nice man, I know you’re obligated to hype me up as my friend but I really appreciate that. I mean I guess this question really reflects back on me, I feel like I’m always finding things I want to do better for the DJs, for KUPS. I think a big one for me is gonna be trying to attend more of my fellow loud rock DJs’ shows, and to try and host something that gives all of us a chance to get together and kick it, a kind of loud rock bonding night. I think I’d also love a little class that teaches us how to do cool effects while we’re on air, but I think it’s gonna have to be my responsibility to fool around in there and figure it out myself. I don’t know, I feel really happy with KUPS this year, and I guess I really just want to be doing whatever the DJs say that they want or need.”

Betsy Brown (She/Her) – Rockin Boots – Monday @ 11pm

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

“I’m Betsy, I’m from Portland, Oregon. Obviously, I like to listen to music. I’m a biology and environmental policy double major. I actually accidentally declared the other day, I was changing my advisor and it was like the same google form, isn’t that weird? They were like ‘congratulations!’ and I was like ‘wait no! I’m not ready!’. Let’s see, what else do I like to do? I like bein’ outside, I’m a part of PSO (Puget Sound Outdoors), everyone should be a part of PSO! Go on trips! I like camping, backpacking, hiking, you know, the whole shebang.” 

Tell us about your show! 

“Well, my show Rockin Boots at 11pm on Mondays, is kind of a play on words. My family nickname is Boots and I play rock music, it’s like a play on the phrase ‘knocking boots’, so it’s like sexy rock music by me, Boots! I was at dinner with Abby (Hip Hop MD), and we were like ‘you know, it sounds like knockin boots, wait, rockin boots’, and it just kinda fell into place. I was thinkin’ about it for like eight months beforehand. Originally, I was going for like rock music to hook up to, but then I was like ‘eh, I don’t really wanna do that’, so then it became just like capturing a vibe of a super cool, sexy rock song! Like imagine a band where they got the long shaggy hair, and they’re just rippin’, definitely ‘70s oriented. It started with that, but then I was like maybe I’ll just do like subgenres of rock, doing a different subgenre each week, exploring that and finding the sexiest songs I can find from each subgenre. It can be either my interpretation of sexy or just wow, like this is cool. I don’t know, it’s kinda just music that I like in there, with like a hint of sexiness. I’ve done like blues, hard rock, other genres I can’t remember right now.” 

Is your music taste outside of your show pretty similar, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

“Probably mainly rock, I like a lot of, you know, classic rock, but it’s sorta shifted. I’d say, yeah, mainly rock though. I don’t know, sometimes like indie or alternative as well. As far as favorite artists, I love Peach Pit, Peach pit is so good. They just seem so awesome, so fun. I like them. Otherwise, one of my current favorite songs is Toothache by Topaz Jones.” 

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

“It’s kinda different. Ah It’s kinda both, because I have a pretty classic like ‘my dad showed me music’, he would play me music and I’d be like ‘ah I don’t like this!’. He would play a lot of Grateful Dead growing up, and I didn’t really like that when I was a kid. I’d listen to a lot of my own stuff, like what was on the radio, Taylor Swift. Pop oriented, but then in middle school – I feel like I had a pretty classic music arc – I started to branch out. I started getting really into Queen, Queen’s like my base. I will always love Queen, always will have Queen in my heart of hearts. That, and like Bob Seger. I remember there was this one time where my dad and I were in the car and he showed me Night Moves by Bob Seger and I was like ‘ohhhh!, I loved it so much. That was like kinda the start, I started getting into it, started exploring Queen, and like The Stones, more surface level, then I got more into it.”

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

“In the first weekend of school, Abby and I went to see Greta Van Fleet, that was the last one I saw, and that one was super fun. I love them. Over the summer I didn’t see any live music. I’ve been going to house shows and stuff, that’s been super fun. I love watching people play music especially when it’s people you know. Also, people, when they’re playing like cello or saxophone, that’s not really stuff that you get to see live that often, unless you’re going to jazz concerts, which I don’t do. So it’s super fun to see. I want to see Peach Pit, I wish I went to go see Little Feet in Portland. They came and they played in like July, and I was thinking about going but I didn’t, and now I’m sad that I didn’t go. That’s another artist I’ve been listening to a lot, Little Feet. I don’t really know of any shows coming up soon, nothing off the top of my brain.”

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

“Definitely my favorite has been listening to different kinds of music. Like when I start looking up, for example, blues rock, which has been my favorite so far, and I didn’t really know a lot of blues rock artists, it was super fun and now some of my favorite songs are from that genre. It’s really broadened my knowledge of what’s out there. Lots of exposure, which has definitely been my favorite part. Just finding that one song that fits perfectly and you get all excited, it’s so fun.” 

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

“Not that I can think of. I would love to learn like how to use the effects, I think that’s big. I would love to learn how to like fade in and fade out, do cool things. I want to be able to make my show more official, make it sound professional instead of like having those weird gaps between each song.”  

Katie Kittlitz (DJ KT, She/They) Sage Matkin (DJ Sag, She/Her) – KSFemmes – Monday @ Midnight

Who are you, where are you from, tell us a little bit about you!

Sage:

“My name is Sage, I am one half of the KS Femmes. I’m originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, shout out to the mountains there, kinda miss them. I’m a NatSci – Bio major with a Spanish minor. The Spanish minor is fun, ‘cause I kinda like Spanish music sometimes.”

Katie:

“I’m Katie or KT, I’m from Dupont, Washington, the small military town just 30 minutes south of here, so I’m pretty much from the Tacoma area, I pretend. I’m a senior here, whoa, I’m a psych major with a religion minor. My niche intrests include listening to Femme Fatale cover songs, which apparently I’m lacking in. Thank you for pointing that out, Sage.”

Tell us about your show! 

Katie: 

“Well, we’re KS Femmes, the inspiration is from Gordon Gano, the Violent Femmes. Maybe not specifically him, but the Violent Femmes in general. We just like to play some good rock music. Some good classic oldies once in a while, but we’ll try to bring in music from other concerts that we’ve been to, like incorporate current bands as well as members from older bands, bands that are supergroups and collaborate together. We try to do themes every week, try to keep some commonalities between the songs of every show.”

Sage:

“True. Yeah, the shows are really fun. I’d say that we push the loud rock boundary a little bit, you’ll hear some quirky tunes on our show. Definitely a little bit of hip hop. It started when Katie and I were like, “oh, that’s a cool playlist, that’s a cool playlist”, and then we, you know, developed it into the baby that is KSFemmes.” 

Would you guys say that your music taste outside of your show is pretty similar to what you play, or do you listen to a lot of other genres/styles?

Sage:

“Yeah, like I said we kind of push the loud rock boundary a little bit. Yes, but also you’ll catch us listening to some folk sometimes, not really loud rock material. I like some hip hop, you know.” 

Katie:

“Yeah, I would say that we normally stick with a lot of the punk rock roots, which I feel like I listen to a lot, in my own time. I try to get in on the scene of some of those concerts going on around here. Outside of that, I listen to a lot of the more operatic female vocalists, I would say. Sometimes it doesn’t really fit into our niche as well, but yeah. I could also have a more type of indie rock thing going on. Depends day to day.” 

Do you two have a couple favorite artists off of the top of your heads?

Sage:

“There’s like so many. I don’t know, I feel like I’ve been listening to the Beastie Boys since I was like six. I feel like they’re always a deep inspo for everything. I like REM, you know. I dabble in bluegrass sometimes, the banjo is really cool. Who else… You know, the classics like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, yeah.”

Katie:

“Yeah, The Ramones are always at the top, and Sleater Kinney. I always listen to a lot of Weyesblood, and some Francoise Hardy too, to get the French contemporary genre in there. I’ve got the tat to prove it. Yeah, that’s always at the top. Oh, and Taylor Swift is always my number one listened to artist. I have to admit it.”

Sage:

“Yeah, that’s where Katie and I differ.” 

What got you into music? Is what you like now similar to what you liked growing up?

Sage:

“I hate to say it, but I feel like it kinda started with my parents. They definitely conditioned me to like some stuff, some certain bands. I think the first ever concert I went to was a Phish concert, I was like a baby. There are photos of me in front of the band, yeah. So, like a lot of that, but also like, variations. I don’t know, I feel like I’ve really gotten into the punk scene or like the rock scene pretty late in the game.” 

Katie:

“My parents always listened to a lot of The Velvet Underground, the Ramones, Blondie, and stuff. We would go to a lot of concerts growing up, so I’m pretty influenced by them I’d say. Then into music in general, I don’t know, I did the middle school band, played the piano. That is my experience. I guess I was just like, “whoa, you can do a radio show and get to force people to listen to your music?”, which I already like to do anyway. Making playlists and stuff.”

Have you seen any live music recently? If so, who have you enjoyed? If not, who do you want to see?

Sage:

“Oh god, Katie and I went on a bender with concerts. Oh, it was insane. We saw like, Julia Jacklin, Of Montreal, The Chats, Katie saw Bikini Kill, which I didn’t get to go to. I think that’s it.” 

Katie:

“Yeah, all of those. I saw Florence and The Machine, Illuminati Hotties, Durand Jones, The Killers. What other bands, I don’t remember anymore. But yeah, There were a few good concerts recently. There’s been a lot of good ones coming up too. I might be able to get to go to more of them, but the funds are low. We’ll see what’s coming up next.” 

Sage:

“So true, we’re just broke college kids. If I had one wish, I would teleport myself back like fifteen years to when the Beastie Boys were doing their farewell tour, and I would heavily attend all of those shows. That’s my one wish.” 

Katie:

“That would be amazing. I want The Goonsax to get back together (Sage: Oh fuck yes!), and to come to Tacoma. Even though they already were, I guess they were in Olympia. And Weyesblood is coming, but I want her to come at a price that I can afford, that would be fantastic.”

Sage:

“I would kill to see the Grateful Dead live.”

Katie:

“Oh, that would be amazing too. If you had asked me this like a year and a half ago I would’ve said “Sleater Kinney is my number one dream band to see”, but now we’ve gotten to see them twice! Like twice, that’s the dream.” 

What is your favorite part of having a KUPS show? Any favorite moments?

Sage:

“I like the themes that we create, they’re kinda fun. I don’t know, it’s just kind of like a communication system between Katie and I, whenever we add to the playlist I always get to see what Katie is listening to. Katie always gets to see what I listen to, we each get to add to it, so that’s fun.” 

Katie:

“Yeah that’s true, it’s a fun bonding moment. It’s fun just getting to chat on the air, and have our little banter or commentary on whatever we are playing. It’s always just really nice at the end of the day to escape to the booth and play the music, especially when our show is Monday night. It’s always like “oh, you’ve had school and work all day”, so it’s really nice to just get to go play music and hang out in there for a little while.”

Sage:

“One of my favorite moments was when we played the Julia Jacklin “Someday” cover and we just bumped it in the booth.” 

Katie:

“I think we played it like twice too, it was so good.” 

What could KUPS do to make the DJ experience even better?

Katie:

“Provide snacks in the booth, drinks in the booth.” 

Sage:

“Let me get my fair pick of CDs that y’all are hoarding in there. My library expertise could help you with your organization system. Hire me to the KUPS team! Also, follow our instagram, @ksfemmes.”