DJ Spotlights: Foreplaylist

Allen Nguyen

Welcome to the inaugural WVAU DJ Profile series, where we take a look at some of the lovely faces behind the microphone who serenade you with all sorts of music. This series will look at some of our fantastic DJs and give you a little more insight into all of the great people who show up week after week to make WVAU special. For our first interview, we‰’ll take a look at juniors Lindsay Sandoval and Rebecca Grushkin, whose show strives to get you “in the mood‰” so to speak‰Û_

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So what‰’s in the name of your show? Why did you decide to call your show Foreplaylist?

Lindsay: So we picked back up with our show this year, and they really stressed having a theme to your show. We have really compatible music taste but nothing very clear. And then we always joked that our music is like “music you would have sex to,‰” like that‰’s the only uniting theme. We thought, “haha, wouldn‰’t that be funny?‰” and then thought, this could be real. We were throwing around some words and it came together.

Rebecca: We ultimately settled for a reference from On the Road but it didn‰’t really catch on, Sal‰’s Paradise. But our eyes kind of met across the room, and in my mind we sort of said it at the same time, Foreplaylist.

What would you say your biggest musical influences are?

RG: I feel like somehow it always comes back to a little bit of How To Dress Well, there‰’s always an element of that.

LS: We like slower rhythms, mellower stuff.

RG: We try to do a theme each week. Like we had “Mountain Men‰” which was R&B influenced. “Hot Baristas‰” was also one that we did.

LS: It‰’s interesting because we come at music from different backgrounds, and our music works well together because it‰’s coming at different influences.

RG: I‰’m from New Jersey, so I have the whole Warped Tour background and she‰’s from Colorado.

LS: I have the weird bluegrass-topped experimental stuff going for me.

What song or album captures the essence of what your show is?

RG: I feel like Local Natives‰’ second album Hummingbird does a good job of that. I feel like it always comes back to that. I saw them last year.

LS: I‰’m actually an obsessively huge Local Natives fan, they‰’re on my phone screen. I saw them with Arcade Fire, it was so great.

What was the last great concert you saw?

LS: I think Grizzly Bear, I wasn‰’t even a huge fan of theirs at the time but I saw them and they‰’re just really tight live. I think a lot of people think their music is really down, but they put on a really lively, intense, interesting, magical live show so that was really fun. This summer I‰’m seeing Tennis and Haim, so that should be really cool.

Who are you really looking forward to seeing?

RG: I wanted to see Mutual Benefit when they were here, but I missed them. The next show we‰’re scheduled to go see is the How To Dress Well show at U Street Music Hall.

Do you ever listen to any other shows on the station?

LS: Yeah, I actually love Cameron [Meindl‰’s] show. I also listen to Becky Bock‰’s show because she‰’s from Boulder as well. And definitely Synesthesia with Julia D‰’Amico.

RG: Oh yeah, I was definitely going to say his show. We listen to We‰’re Hilarious because they‰’re on right after us.

How do you normally go about discovering new music?

LS: The rack has extended my knowledge so much. Sometimes I go on these weird Spotify down-the-rabbit-hole kinds of things, where I‰’m just clicking on all these different bands trying to find new stuff or inspiration.

If you could have anyone come in and DJ your show with you, who would it be?

LS: I think Luke Lalonde would be a cool guy to have come in.

RG: Sufjan Stevens, definitely.

Make sure to tune in to Foreplaylist every Saturday from 4pm-6pm on WVAU.Org to listen to Rebecca and Lindsay’s show.