How did you come to call your show Strictly Kosher?

Drew Sher: Before Strictly Kosher, my show‰’s name was Fur Sher. As with all of my names, I was joking around with Mikey Creedz, Mike Creedon, and we came up it. I like for my show name to be a play on words.

What would you say your biggest musical influences are?

DS: My music tastes have been cultivating from age five when I started taking piano lessons. I‰’ve always been a music lover and my mom used to play the Beatles and the Beach Boys when I was a little kid, I loved that. And then I grew up, and School of Rock was a huge turning point for me right around when I was 10 years old, a very impressionable age.

I wanted to start playing guitar because I had been playing piano and saxophone. It was pretty easy to learn, and then I got into rock. I didn‰’t want to listen to music unless it had really loud distorted guitars. I got really into Metallica, metal, and then Nirvana in middle school.

In high school things started to mellow out a little bit, and things started to change a little bit with my music tastes. I got really into the Grateful Dead, and listening to the Beatles again but more of the experimental stuff like Rubber Soul, Revolver, and the Sgt. Peppers stuff. Then came Sublime, but then I did a bit of looking and got into Deerhunter and Animal Collective.

Deerhunter and Animal Collective were probably the first indie bands I listened to, and I got into Real Estate as well. And of course Wavves because Wavves sounded like Nirvana. And since coming to college, it‰’s really blossomed — my musical tastes.

A lot of what you mentioned is guitar-based or guitar-driven music. How do you feel about electronic music or rap?

DS: I listen to rap, and I like electronic music too. I just don‰’t like when the music sounds like the computer made the music, not a person or musician. As a musician myself, I don‰’t really like that. I like the sounds of electronic instruments, I think they sound really cool and interesting, but I don‰’t like it when it‰’s just programmed MIDI that‰’s mindless.

It‰’s really easy to do, I take classes about it and it‰’s really easy to make, you don‰’t need to know anything about music to do it. And I like a lot of old school rap, stuff like Wu-Tang, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Snoop Dog.

You have a really musical background, and you mentioned you play the saxophone, too. Do you make music with that? And coming from that background, do you ever listen to music analytically as opposed to simply for pleasure?

DS: I like jazz a lot, too. I started playing sax in 4th grade. And I‰’ve just been getting into it recently, Indian music too. It‰’s really very relaxing. I still play baritone sax in the AU Jazz Orchestra. And I think it‰’s hard not to listen to music without analyzing it in some way. I don‰’t think I can really ever listen to music and not analyze it, I‰’m always listening for different things.

Who else do you enjoy listening to in WVAU‰’s programming?

DS: I really like to listen to Rhyme and Reason with Cameron Meindl, and The Touchy with Mike Creedon. Really everyone in my Monday night football arc, we all have similar tastes.

What was your favorite song from 2013?

DS: It was either “No Destruction‰” by Foxygen, or “Goldie‰” by A$AP Rocky.

What album captures the essence of you and your show?

DS: In Utero by Nirvana. No question. The first line of that album is “Teenage angst has paid off well / Now I‰’m bored and old.‰” There are just so many lines in that album and especially that first song that just speaks to me as a person. I can relate with Kurt Cobain. And that album is probably one of my favorites.

What was the last great concert that you saw and what are you looking forward to seeing?

DS: I think the last concert that I saw that was just “whoa‰Û_.dude‰Û_‰” was probably Animal Collective. They are just really, really amazing to watch live. I saw them twice last year.

And I‰’ve seen them twice already, but‰Û_Real Estate.

How do you normally go about discovering new music?

DS: I take the suggestions of friends which I have a lot of who are very hip-happening into new music. A lot of people like to listen to new music exclusively, but I definitely don‰’t do that. I like to listen to a lot of jazz, and a lot of old music too. Last.FM is pretty good at recommending artists, too.

If you could have one person come in and DJ and hang out on your show, who would it be?

DS: I‰’m going to go with Dave Grohl because he‰’s had so many projects. It must speak to the fact that he‰’s a really nice guy, and even Richard [Murphy] met him! He‰’s rich, he doesn‰’t have to go see Pissed Jeans at the Black Cat, but he does, so I‰’d love to hang out with that dude. Plus he‰’s been in two of my favorite bands.