Meet the Crate Brothers!
Theo Severson and Chris Wood take Tampa’s first Emo Night Tampa to the radio waves! Sounds different? It is! (PHOTO BY DAVE DECKER)
1. For the uninitiated, how do you describe the “Emo” genre?
Emo spawned from the DC hardcore scene in the mid 80's. Rites of Spring and Embrace are widely considered the first "emo bands". The term Emo is short for Emotional Hardcore/Emocore. Like most genres, a slew of subgenres has grown under it's umbrella. There's stuff like screamo or skarmz, there's a specific midwest sound, there's that mid-2000s mall/MTV mainstream era sound. Bands who lean heavily on a math-rock/twinkly or this noodling sound. It's a pretty big genre that's more than just skinny pants and black eyeliner that most people associate the genre with.
2. You started out DJing clubs. How is being a radio DJ different?
(Theo) Other than being in a club, I don't think much has changed. I still scout out new bands via blogs/social media like I did when we had a weekly club gig. I might spend more time now on curating a playlist. Where in the club, I would have a general idea of what I wanted to play, but most of the time you would go off of the crowd. On the radio, we have much more of a blueprint or outline. We also do themed nights for the radio show, where we wouldn't really do that in the club.
(Chris) On the positive side, the radio is a cleaner, quieter smoke-free atmosphere, and I don’t have to worry about my hair or how cool my outfit is. Also, it’s nice to be able to concentrate on songs that might not work as well in a club setting because they’re too mellow or complex, but are great nonetheless, and deserve to be heard.
3. Has your “live” crowd followed you to WMNF?
(Theo) Oh for sure. We will throw an event & someone will come up and be like, "Hey I listened to the show on the app on my way to work Friday morning. You played a song by Origami Angel...So crazy to hear them on the radio" I have a friend whom I met through our live event and she sends me a message almost every Friday letting me know she listened. We even had a guy who found us through the station who had no idea we even existed and actually came out to our last event.
4. Have you found any challenges being in an isolated studio where you can’t see listener reaction versus directly being with your audience?
(Theo) This might be the biggest challenge. In a club setting, you can see what's going on. If you're killing it, the dance floor is packed and you can build off of the crowd's reaction. If you're bombing, you can build off of that and get the crowd back on your side. On the radio, you really don't have that person-to-person connection. So you can only hope that your show is going great & people are enjoying it. That and there is also a lack of spilled drinks.
5. What similarities do you see between radio DJ and club culture?
(Theo) I think they overlap more than you would think. I think we spend just as much, if not more time, looking for new music. As a club DJ, you never wanted to be that person who just played the same things every week. So we both spend a good amount of time looking for new stuff. Especially with dealing with one genre, it's more focused. I still take it as seriously as I do a paying gig.
(Chris) One thing that club DJing has prepared us for is the ability to think on our feet. The transitions between songs happen fast and someone might be yelling at you or requesting a song at the same time. All these things have made it easier to tackle the technical side of radio DJ'ing
