DJ Knix of WERU's The Knix Mix Q&A

I've done a few Q&A profiles of artists and other WERU programmers along the way, and I thought it would be a bit of fun to answer a few questions myself.  Of course, you know I spin electronic music on The Knix Mix every Friday night from 10 p.m. to midnight. If you don't, you can listen by going to weru.org and live stream or listen to a previously recorded show.  I'd always been aware of WERU being from this part of Maine. I graduated from Brewer High School in 1988, which happens to be the same year WERU was getting underway at the Hen House in Blue Hill. When I returned to Maine after a decade in Massachusetts I moved just down the road from the station. There's a great sense of community at the station, and it doesn't hurt that I get to play the kind of music I wanted to hear. I've been at the helm of The Knix Mix for over two years and counting.  Which is, come to think of it, one of the reasons I coined "Knix Picks." So I could keep track of all the new music in that span of time that I love, love, love!

1. Favorite genre of music? My heart belongs to electronic music, which encompasses a range of styles. Basically, I’m a total child of the 80s. British New Wave was the soundtrack of my youth, and I subsequently love anything that has synthpop origins. Ah, nostalgia!  Electropop, electro house, electro clash, French house, club/dance...Sensing a theme here? Really, I adore anything you can dance to.
2. Favorite band? It’s hard to name just one, but there is exceptional music to dance to coming out of Europe. Artists like Röyksopp, Etienne de Crécy, Autokratz, Vitalic, The Bloody Beetroots, Yuksek, Simian Mobile Disco and Soulwax. I also love music to brood to. Bands that have that angst-ridden post-punk influence like Motorama, The Juan MacLean and White Lies.
3. Favorite song? I’m really crushing on Etienne de Crécy generally, but “Someone Like You” on Essentials (Best of) is amazing. It also appears on Super Discount 2 as “Fast Track.” Other tracks that I adore are Vitalic’s “Poison Lips,” “On a Train” by Yuksek and Simian Mobile Disco’s “I Believe.”
4. What was the first LP or CD you bought? The first album that I picked out on my own was Shaun Cassidy’s second studio album Born Late. I was kind of obsessed with Shaun Cassidy in elementary school. I swooned over him as little brother Joe in The Hardy Boys. I remember bringing the album to my 3rd-grade class’s show and tell. I sat up front and held the album cover open while the teacher played the record for the class. I couldn’t have been prouder.
5. What hobbies and interests do you have outside of music? I love hiking and snowshoeing, which I get to do a lot of living in Orland. Besides conveniently living very close to the station, I also live very close to the Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust trail system and a short drive from Acadia National Park. I love nature photography, and I take a lot of photos on my hikes. I have two rescue dogs who are my hiking partners and frequent subjects of my photography. This doesn't mean I'm especially outdoorsy. I'm not the person you want with you on a mountaineering expedition.  I wouldn't last a hot minute. I have a romantic notion of nature and am fascinated with natural history and anthropology. I’m a voracious reader, and I love to browse the library or used bookstores on Saturdays. I love all things vintage, so flea markets and antiquing are fun for me too. I value learning new things. I’ve dabbled in acting and working with clay, and I’ve continued to take writing classes over the years.
6. If you could hang out with anyone, alive or dead, who would you pick and why? I would love to meet Gary Numan, who is one of the pioneers of electronic music. I’ve seen him in concert a couple of times, which was great fun. He smiled at me when I yelled for him to sing “Down in the Park.” I’d especially love it though if I could hang out with Josh Gates for an Expedition Unknown adventure or two. He’s kind of cute (and very married), true, but I’m also exceedingly envious of his job. Something that combines travel, adventure, history, archeology, and anthropology? Sign me up! Just don’t sign me up for a spelunking adventure because the movie The Descent scarred me for life.
7. If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why? I would want to be an owl. Owls symbolize intuition and have highly evolved senses - seeing what other can’t. They seem wise and cerebral, but they are also stealthy and can use those talons pretty effectively when they need to.
8. Favorite food? I could probably live a long, long time on pizza and cheesecake. I won’t. But I could.
9. Favorite book? Honestly, I could probably expound more on books than on music. Music I like specifically. Books I like generally. Though I’ve come to prefer reading nonfiction. I think everyone has a story to tell, and real life is often more interesting than fiction. Devil in the White City is a great example of compelling historical nonfiction. I read a lot of adventure books where people overcome – or don’t – seemingly insurmountable obstacles like Touching the Void, Into Thin Air and Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. I love satirical memoirists like Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris too. Laugh out loud hysterical!
10. Favorite movie? Henry and June, 1984, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children, The Shining, and Out of the Blue.
11. If you could have any super power, what would it be? To know the unknowable and solve life’s mysteries. Like where did the settlers from the Roanoke Colony go? What happened to Amelia Earhart? What’s up with the Bermuda Triangle? That kind of omniscient knowing.
12. If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be? New Zealand is at the very top of my bucket list. Amazing flora and fauna sans large land predators or snakes. Perfect! Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to summit Everest, was a Kiwi!
13. What would people be surprised to know about you? I have two teenage sons who are amazing. They spend their school year in Massachusetts. They’ve co hosted The Knix Mix a few times. Keston, my youngest, has a boy band aesthetic, plays piano and prefers dance pop. Keegan, my oldest, looks like he could have been a Seattle rocker circa 1990, plays guitar and is into progressive rock.  They both love WERU but neither are into electronic music, and they are spectacularly unimpressed that their mom has a radio show.
14. What three words would best describe you? Complicated, introspective, sentimental.
15. What three words would your friends use to describe you? Honest, loyal, intelligent.

Q&A with WERU's Sarah O'Malley

Sarah O'Malley is the longtime host of WERU's World Around Us, a weekly (Saturdays at 8:30AM) science and nature short feature show.  Sarah is a Maine native, having grown up in quiet North Castine where she fondly remembers summers spent running around in the woods and biking the four miles into town.  Sarah attended George Stevens Academy in nearby Blue Hill.  Sarah currently resides in Sedgwick with her two dogs, two cats, chickens, and her mountain guide husband, Dick Chasse.  Sarah’s extended family still live in the Castine area, and she has the good fortune of enjoying being an aunt to niece, Caitlin and nephew, Will.  Regular listeners might recognize Caitlin from her guest stints on World Around Us.

Sarah teaches Ocean Science at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.  Her interest in the natural sciences grew from a love of the outdoors.  Not particularly interested in sports growing up, Sarah’s primary focus was on the arts (see Sarah's blog post http://treeswiththefuron.bangordailynews.com/2014/04/05/home/finding-identity-how-i-became-a-runner-part-1/).  She dabbled with outdoor recreation in high school, where she was active in the Outing Club, and participated in Summer Adventure hiking trips.  In college, Sarah studied Natural History and became more involved with outdoor leadership.  Sarah pursued a master’s in Science Education as she grew to enjoy the subject matter enough to foresee making a career of it.  Besides teaching at the Academy, Sarah also works with the Maine Master Naturalist Program, which develops a corps of naturalists across the state.  Sarah describes the corps as people qualified to lead nature walks and help connect the people of Maine with “the amazing natural environment we have.”  "Why," says Sarah, "so many of us live here!"

Sarah says that she develops ideas for features on World Around Us by letting her mind wander or by researching interesting topics in the science news.  She explains, “I finally figured out that if you develop a series of shows on the same topic you can get a lot more bang for your research buck, so I've done several series.”  A couple of her personal favorite features were “A Robin’s Life Work” and “Gender in Nature.”  Sarah says the best compliment she got about World Around Us was at a party when a friend described the concept of the show to another friend as “always being about sex.”  Sarah says, “At the time that was true.  I was always talking about sperm and eggs and sex in nature and how different organisms reproduce.  Recently the show has been a lot less about sex (Sarah just completed a twenty-one episode series on climate change), but now that spring is here I'm going to try
to get back to the birds and the bees!"

1. Favorite genre of music? I love electronica and hip-hop, though I know very little about it. Da Vibez (Fridays 8-10PM with Sam West & DJ Marquard) is probably my favorite show on WERU, as surprising as that might be for people to believe!
2. What is your earliest music memory? Giggling over the real zipper in the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers LP album cover. When you unzipped it, you could see the tighty whiteys underneath! Also listening to The Grateful Dead's American Beauty, The Beatles' Revolver, and endlessly lip synching to the entire Michael Jackson's Thriller album in front of the mirror with my sister.
3. What was the first LP or CD you bought? Men at Work's Business as Usual on vinyl.
4. What was the first band you saw in concert? Taj Mahal at the Stone Church in Bar Harbor closely followed up the next year by an Amnesty International concert in Philadelphia with Bruce Springsteen as the headliner. 
5. What hobbies and interests do you have outside of music? Trail running, reading, farming and growing food, writing, and photography. 
6. Where have you traveled? Europe, Ireland, Ecuador, Spain, Lesotho, Alaska, and throughout the United States. One place I keep going back to is Utah, particularly the Canyonlands National Park area. My next trip will be to Iceland! 
7. Favorite book(s)? The Urban Bestiary by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, The View from Lazy Point by Carl Safina, and Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux 
8. Favorite movie? Pride and Prejudice 
9. Favorite holiday and why? Winter solstice because I love the slowing down and drawing in of that time of year 
10. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? To be able to fly! 
11. If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be? I'd go back to South Africa, specifically Namibia in southwest Africa and Botswana in southern Africa, Japan, New Zealand, India, and Argentina. 
12. What would people be surprised to know about you? I hate swimming! I'm a sinker. I have no interest whatsoever in scuba diving, and I am basically afraid of the water. And, yes, I teach ocean science. 
13. What three words would best describe you? How about one? Overextended! 
14. Any special talents? I can tie a cherry stem into a knot in my mouth without using my fingers. 
15. Who has inspired you? Anyone out there doing selfless work to alleviate suffering and help the truly needy. People like Paul Farmer, who is an American anthropologist and doctor who works to provide healthcare in developing countries. 
16. What makes you laugh? Just about everything! 
17. Biggest misconception about you? That I am a crunchy granola vegetarian and must drink a lot of coffee. I guess because I am so lively in the morning. In fact, I raise my own meat and do not drink anything caffeinated. 
18. Are there any issues you feel passionate about? That the rules of nature apply to us humans too. Our bodies are evolved to move and not be sedentary. 
19. Do you have pets? Two dogs and two cats. My house is ground zero for dander. 
20. Is there anything else you would like readers to know about you? My dream job is one where I can bring my dog to work and wear flip flops every day!