As we near the end of Women’s Week 2018, we spoke to Heather D. of Late Risers’ Club and Backpacks and Magazines for a featured show interview! You can hear Heather on the air hosting LRC today from 10am-noon, or every Saturday from 8-9pm hosting Backpacks and Magazines.
Women’s Week runs from March 5th-11th, featuring a week of women-centered programming in recognition of International Women’s Day 2018.
* How did you get involved in WMBR?
HEATHER: I became a part of the WMBR family via Late Risers’ Club DJ Mully, who I knew from outside of WMBR. I did a stint on his day of LRC after fundraising a few years ago. I had such a good time that he encouraged me to become a member. I applied for my first show in Spring 2016. I was willing to take any time available. I guess I got lucky because Backpacks started that season on Monday mornings, alternating the 7am slot. Since then I have moved to Saturday nights and it’s been amazing. It’s the best part of my week!
* What’s the inspiration behind Backpacks and Magazines?
H: Conceptually, I’m really going for that scene from The Lost Boys where Tim Capello is all greasy and playing uplifting saxophone to a bunch of vampires with cool jackets… Hilarious movie references aside, I find inspiration from the music I would hear at long-gone Boston nightclubs like Manray. They featured a wide variety of new wave, post-punk, goth, industrial, and electroclash. It was dark and yet totally dance-able. I loved it! Those DJs really opened up a whole new world for me. It also doesn’t hurt that we currently seem to be in the midst of an incredible post-punk revival thing. There is no shortage of interesting new music coming on to the scene right now that mesh so well with the older sounds. I love bringing what I find to our listeners.
* You’re a rotating host for LRC, which delves into a lot of genres where women have traditionally been underrepresented. How does that affect the experience of hosting LRC?
H: Female representation is definitely something I am looking for when pulling together an LRC Playlist. When I was going to a lot of hardcore shows in the late 90s, I can’t recall ever seeing more than a handful of bands who had a female member, let one one that sang from a woman’s perspective. They were out there, but it was still a boy’s club. These days, I am coming across A LOT more bands in all loud rock genres who have femme members and that’s really exciting. I think all of our LRC DJs do a great job finding diverse, new loud rock from the depths!
* Any favourite femme new releases that you’ve been listening to?
H: DAME – S/T 7″ on Charm School Records (Boston), Boy Harsher – Country Girl EP (Northampton, MA), Ötzi – Ghosts (Oakland), Sally Dige – Holding On (Berlin).
By paul from somerville Fri Mar 9th 2018 at 9:57 am
manray. miss that place.