KALW Music’s newest addition, Maria (pronounced like Mariah) Yates, joins the kaleidoscopic sounds of the weeknight lineup, contributing a musical perspective that is rooted in synth, rock, new wave, and sprinkles of funk, and world music. She also happens to be the lead teacher for the DJ broadcast program for KALW’s Uncuffed podcast out of Solano State Prison, combining her passions for music and solidarity work around issues of homelessness, harm reduction, abolition, and disability justice. We spoke to her ahead of her first show on KALW on Monday, November 7.
How did your role with Uncuffed come about?
I applied for that job because it was very much at an intersection of a few different interests and passions. One obviously being music and the other being abolition. For many years I’ve worked alongside communities impacted by the justice system. I’ve been passionate about harm reduction and supporting people struggling with substance use and affected by the housing crisis in the Bay Area and all of these things need to interconnect. So when I saw the job posted it felt like something that had been created for me and I feel really honored to be offered the position
And then I had the pleasure of meeting Aaron Byrd, the KALW music programming director during one of the interviews and after getting the sign-off from Eli, the program director for Uncuffed, Byrd reached out to me to have some conversations about coming onto DJ at KALW and I said sure!
Tell me more about your DJing background.
Technically I had my first radio show when I was in college. I don’t think it lasted very long, and I will admit here it was a show dedicated solely to swing music [laughs]. But I’ve been DJing for the last seven years at another local radio station, which is KALX, the UC Berkeley radio station, so that is the majority of my experience. But I just grew up listening to a lot of radio and as soon as I got my hands on a Walkman as a kid, I started imitating radio. I was doing imaginary interviews with my favorite bands and when I got a little older, like everyone, I was taping my favorite songs off the radio.
I’m really a fan of radio and working alongside some of the marginalized communities, I’ve come to realize that radio is a really important tool of communication because it’s so accessible. Sometimes we forget that not everyone has the internet and definitely not everyone has electricity, but many people can still get a little radio somewhere that runs on batteries and just turn it on and have some music or a friendly voice on the air talking to them and I just think that’s so important.
So what can we expect from your radio show, if not more swing?
Spoiler alert, you probably won’t hear much swing anymore. My musical horizons have broadened since then and definitely I have a sound that diverges from what’s on the station right now. I love what’s on the station now, I think it’s such a solid place to turn to and get a good beat and great tunes to keep you energized until the end of the evening. I hope to provide the great tunes, I don’t know that they’ll all be energizing but they will take you on a journey. I definitely lean towards rock, very broadly, but more on the fringes of the mainstream perhaps. So I like things that are a little weird and different, but I don’t totally want to blow up the scene so I’m going to personally strive to find some of the more upbeat elements of the underground.
Where did your love of music come from?
I have been playing music since I was really little. I was really lucky that my parents felt strongly about wanting me to have music lessons when I was a kid. I didn’t always feel lucky, but I started playing violin when I was about three and at some point, transitioned to the guitar which turned into trumpet, and then I started singing. Eventually, I studied music engineering technology, so I have a background in sound engineering and really found my home there in live music.
Catch Maria Yates on alternate Mondays from 10 p.m. to midnight on 91.7 FM Bay Area or here on kalw.org.