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In the series Bonussporet you’ll get bonus information you don’t get through the weekly radio broadcasts. This week we focus on the music show Blah Blah Woof Woof.
mybrotherandy
Australian Andrew Rhodes came from the sunny land down under to Norway’s – and perhaps Europe’s – most rainy city, Bergen, as an exchange student this semester. He wanted to go far away from home, he says.
– Everyone from outside of Norway think of it almost as utopia. So I had to come here and see what it was like, and for me Bergen sounded like the coolest place, he explains.
He may be a law student, but Andrew’s passion for and background in music is extensive, and he says that music always wins compared to the law studies. In Australia he worked for Universal Music, and he has a background in radio since 2008. He has also worked for six years as a DJ and goes by the name mybrotherandy.
One hour in a room with Taylor Swift
His passion and love for music is presented every week through his own radio program, Blah Blah Woof Woof, on Bergen Student Radio.
– I worked in the marketing department of Universal Music for two years. I worked with international pop releases like The Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
He says this was a really fun job, and that he got to do some mixing there. He even met some celebrities.
– Once I had to spend one and a half hour in a room with Taylor Swift when we had a competition, and I had to take photos of her and all the competition winners. We did some small talk, and she was really nice. That was kind of cool, he laughs.
The idea behind the show
– Before I came to Bergen I did some research about the city, and found the Student Radio. I most recently produced a show in Sydney, but that was a political one. When I came here I knew I wanted to do my own dance music show.
When I ask him about the show name, and where it came from, Andrew starts to laugh and says:
– I’m a huge fan of Jimmy Hendrix. My best friend from back home once sent me a live recording of Jimi Hendrix playing Izabella at Woodstock in 1969, and in the massage in Spotify he just wrote like “Blah Blah Woof Woof”. That’s what Hendrix said just before the song, he was just rambling, and I don’t even think it means anything. But I have always loved that quote, and I’ve always wanted to use it for something, he explains.
The sound of Australia
The whole idea behind the show is to expose people to different types of dance music, and Andrew says that coming from Australia at this moment is kind of a big deal.
– A guy in Australia called Harley Streten (goes by the stage name Flume) released his first album two years ago. This changed the australian dance music tune, and the creativity among producers in Australia started to blossom, he says.
Andrew tells that it was really exciting to live in Australia at that time.
– Because of his new sound, a new culture was emerging.
Andrew’s ambition is to “get that sound out there a bit more”, as he says. In his show he plays a lot of australian music, and he admits that the music from his home country is a great inspiration.
The music and the process
– I always try to split the show into three: First, I start the show with more uppy, dancy, housey stuff. Secondly, I play slow, bassy music, and at the end I turn to smooth RnB and hip hop.
Finding the right songs and mixing them together is a long process, according to Andrew.
– I make sure that I never play the same song twice.
He says he has a goal of finding 30 to 35 new tracks every week that are good enough for him to play on his show. He also introduces me to a quote by Boy George. It goes like this:
– Imagine you went to see a comedian and knew all the jokes. Or a film and knew the ending. Why expect the DJ to play shit you know?
Andrew says that he tries to discover new norwegian artists as well, and that it’s always nice to pick up the sound of a certain country. But according to him it is impossible to find music that everybody likes, and that isn’t something he is trying to do either.
– It’s important to be open minded when listening to the show, he says.
I ask him what a listener can expect of his show. He smiles and says:
– A good time!
Tracklists can be found on the show’s Facebook page.
Listen to Blah Blah Woof Woof every Thursday at 21:00 – 23:00!
