When KALW’s newest addition, Eryka, thinks about music, they think about frequencies. As in beats per minute and hertz, but also, as in the frequencies that our souls are attracted to that make us feel connected with light and spirit. Eryka (who uses they/them pronouns) grew up in Southern California listening to the classic rock their dad was obsessed with (even though he couldn’t understand English but just knew he liked what he heard and felt), as well as their grandfather’s eclectic selections of boleros, cumbia, European classical, and country music. These early influences inform their musical perspective, which reflects in their programming. They aim to build connection and community through sonic journeys that transcend time, space, and genre; something they recall experiencing during the 90s rave scene. We spoke to Eryka ahead of their first show on Sunday, April 9.
Can you tell me a little bit more about your DJing background?
I don't like to isolate it to DJing. Just because I feel that when we isolate things, we minimize the experiences and the spaces we've been in that have to do with that. So, when it comes to music in general, it's something I've been surrounded by, and I think has been an elemental key for me and communication skills. Truly, I tell everyone, music has taught me how to listen more than any workshop or person. And the DJing was built out of me wanting people to listen to certain things and be evoked with emotions. As a teenager, I was in the rave scene in the 90s and 2000s and I would do some underground stuff – house parties and things like that. And also would play at regular house parties and introduce people to what rave culture was. I really used to love hardcore, jungle, and house.
What do you think is the power of that kind of music and those kinds of spaces?
I think of those scenes that first evoked so much from me, and I think one of the key things was the intentional lack of words in the music. And how many people were there listening to the lack of words that then enabled us to hear each other's emotions and vibrations on a deeper level because we weren’t distracted by words.
You are, I feel, trying to facilitate these kinds of connections. How do you think that's going to translate through radio?
It’s super cool because already, if you're listening to the radio, you're not feeding your ego. Streaming services, they're great, but they serve our ego, right? They're going to play what we play, they tell us what was released, what we like. The radio challenges us and invites us to experience frequencies we may have never heard, that we may have missed, that we may have never thought of in a certain way.
So what can listeners expect from your show?
They can expect genre bending around a similar frequency theme. When I think of a song, I think of it from a meditative frequency type of ideal. There are things that connect us with light and spirit. There are things that attract our souls. There are vibrations that remove toxins. There are vibrations that repair our DNA. When I'm playing music for the community, I'm thinking of that.
Catch Eryka Sundays from 2 - 4 p.m.