Interview #8 vol.2: Kate Hutchinson: Culture Journalist / Radio DJ2 min read

Kate Hutchinson is an art and culture journalist of The Guardian covering various genres from interviews of celebrities such as Kate Mckinnon to reports of music festivals.

Also, she works as DJ in various types of programs, such as Worldwide FM.

This time, I hunted her opinion and view to such a diverse London art scene, especially focusing on how she tries to tell people these through media.

RADIO

As a DJ working in various places and occasions, you take us to great journey of worldwide music… How do you discover music by yourself?

“Nowadays people discover new music at online platforms, such as Spotify, Apple music, Amazon etc.

“But I don’t do it.

“First, because of my job, fortunately, there are people who introduce new/recommended music to me.

“Second, I prefer to use Bandcamp which is a great place to discover new music as it’s an independent platform where the money for the tracks and albums that I buy goes directly to the artists.

“Therefore, we can encounter smaller stuffs on Bandcamp instead of playlists collected by someone.

“It’s a nice way to discover grassroots and new music from around the world first, whereas other streaming platforms and music platforms are far more commercial in the types of new music that they offer.

“Of course, having an insight into what people talking about on social media and listening to DJ sets are all helpful too.”

 

How do you make your radio shows?

“The approach is like a DJ sets.

“Firstly, I download all new music that have been released over the last month and look for the music-related stories to tell audiences. I tend to choose new artists’ stories.

“Then, I arrange these pieces. As a popular DJ sets style does, I usually kick off my show with a punching, up-beat or excited music.

“To compose the rest of the show, what I do is cut down some parts from the songs out and bring them together into my show.

“Sometimes I even change tempo, pace, etc,.

“I try to take the listeners to a musical journey in my show.”

 

How do you select the songs?

“To make a good combination, I do it according to whether the song has an interesting story/message or not, as well as whether the song can fit into the overall vibe or not.”