A/M/A
A/M/A, for those not savvy with acronyms, stands for “Ask Me Anything.”
My particular brand of this consolidates information I used to offer in my “about the show” and “about the DJ” bios, as well as answers actual questions I get from time to time.
What is The Theme Show?
Throughout its several iterations, The Theme Show remains a music program based less on genre and more on a common subject. For example, “Sun of the Beach” features all songs that have “Beach” in the title. Styles vary and have a somewhat eclectic range.
How long have you been doing this?
Short answer: Since 1999
Long answer: “The Theme Show” originally aired as a shout-cast on December 2, 1999. It aired on Thursday nights from 9 PM to 11 PM EST each week until January 13, 2000.
In June of 2006, it was resurrected in podcasting format. It continued in this format for three more years until a hard drive crash and personal reasons resulted in the loss of the physical media needed to continue.
The show returned in its third iteration as curated Spotify playlists in April 2019.
Although “The Theme Show” is my flagship project, I began exploring genre themes at the end of 2019 with the episode “Retro Futuristic, Futuristic Retro.” Eventually, my ideas of subjects I wanted to cover outgrew the confines of weekly themes. I also revised an older project of mine, formerly called “Retroactive”, and re-christened it as “Dance Music for Old People” (title lifted with due respect from Nick Hornby).
How long is each episode?
I usually try to make them in one hour. They used to be longer, sometimes even two hours, but I try to cater to an average work commute and didn’t like the idea of having to stop an episode partway through and listen to the rest later. I feel they are also an optimal length for listening to headphones during chores.
Why didn’t you play such-and-such song in the such-and-such episode?
This usually comes down to a few decisions.
The first is whether I can break a theme down into smaller parts. Sun vs sunshine. Summer vs summertime. Since I’ve been doing this for so long, two things I’ve realized are that if I break down subjects to their most minuscule parts, it would make for more episodes. In addition, whenever I tried to cover too broad a theme, the episodes would end up too long and/or too predictable, which was something I was trying to avoid.
The second depends on how songs mix with other songs in the set. I can often brainstorm two hours’ worth of material, but once I start crossfading, the sets take on a life and atmosphere of their own. Usually, I end up with tracks that just don’t fit in, so sometimes a fan favorite gets the axe.
Aren’t some of these songs a little problematic?
You betcha, something I noticed while reworking the episodes for streaming, and there’s a good reason for that – some of them are twenty-five years old. There are certainly a few novelty songs in there that mock ethnic accents, and an occasional music artist who has since been canceled.
And yes, because they are no longer fixed MP3 files, I can easily cut a song, but I do try to maintain the integrity of the original set.
If nothing else, I suppose it’s similar to how we look back on a film from the 80s (John Hughes films, for example) and realize maybe it wasn’t quite so fun a romp as we thought.
I have only ever cut (technically changed) out a song, and that was from the newest episode of Dance Music for Old People, due to the current situation with Diddy (who had done one of the remixes in the set).
Where are you from?
Newton, Massachusetts, about 10 miles outside of Boston.
What do you look like?
A.I. seems to think something like this. Honestly, it’s pretty close.
What Are Your Credentials?
I’m simply an audiophile who has rarely found music I couldn’t appreciate.
In technical skill level terms:
I’ve had experience mixing in Acid Pro. Broadcasting with Shoutcast, Live365 & WinAmp. Podcasting with Libsyn and Blubrry, listener analysis with Google Analytics, and being a very early Spotify adopter.
I have also coded my website over the years using HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver, and WordPress.
In the music industry:
1992: Guest DJ – Tom Despres show, WJUL Lowell, MA (now WMUL)
1992: Singer, Da Scoopies. Song “Mall Chick Mania”.
1998: Boston area promoter and liaison for the band Love & Rockets for their 1998 “Lift” album and tour (employer: Red Ant Records)
1999: Email interview with Aurelio Voltaire, April 1999. {The interview itself has been lost, but will be re-posted if it ever reappears.}
2000: Original composition “Covered in Bees“, featured on Blasted Bill’s Dementia Radio Show (please note: the link goes to the Podcast; my song was featured on the live radio show, so that you won’t find my specific episode on the page).
What are your musical tastes?
I’m a bit of a chameleon, as I said earlier, I rarely meet music I don’t appreciate.
This appreciation started at a young age. I have strong memories of being about 5 or 6 and already owning the following records: The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”, Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, The “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, and The Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron” on 45.
My first two cassettes, at about age 9, were Prince’s “1999” and J. Geils Band’s “Freeze Frame.”
My first CDs arrived around age 15: The Beatles’ “White Album” and Led Zeppelin’s “IV.”
Since then, I’ve dipped my foot across many different genres and social identities: metalhead, new wave fanatic, skate punk, goth, raver, and glam rocker.
The story about how I just finally settled on being satisfied as myself and liking a variety of music featured in the “How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love ‘The Bomb'” episode back on 4/27/2009.
Some of you who have been listening to the show since the beginning (1998) may remember from my old bio, I used to be Goth.
While I still like some of that music, and maybe still retain some of the dress sensibilities now and again (I’m actually wearing black nail polish right now for the first time since 2000 that isn’t a Halloween occasion); I left that scene long ago for one main reason. Music snobbery.
It’s ironic in a way that a sub-culture that prides themselves on being “different” is in fact no less cliquey than any other subculture. That’s not to say it applies to everyone, I still maintain friendships with a handful of more open-minded people; but as a whole I got quite bored with the pompous attitudes where if you didn’t like someone you weren’t “Goth” enough or if you did like someone (who wasn’t Goth; say “The Beatles”) then you were a poseur.
It seemed ludicrous to me as a music lover to narrow my tastes to such a level, especially when I have the belief that all music evolves in some manner from the music that precedes it. Therefore Goth and Industrial, which has its roots in Progressive, Punk, and Glam (and a smattering of others depending what you’re listening to); really has no right to discount another style, esp. as without those preceding movements it would otherwise not exist.
Towards the tail end of my Goth period, for a short period of time on Tuesday nights, DJ Winston would host a night of non-Goth tunes at ManRay (Boston’s now-defunct Goth mecca). It didn’t last long because attendance was low, but it was one of the best times I had ever had at that club. It was the night that introduced me to Gary Numan (or at least songs beyond the hit “Cars” anyway) and T. Rex. He was the person who influenced me to see the film “Velvet Goldmine”, and taught me it was OK to dance to the Beastie Boys even if I was draped in taffeta and wearing 5″ platform boots. I could finally dust off all those CDs I had put into hiding, fearing people would judge me. I learned not to care what other people thought what I should like, and to just be myself.
As part of this acceptance I also re-embraced house & techno (which I had liked in a previous incarnation as a raver in the early 1990s) as well as a whole slew of other styles, and haven’t stopped learning to love new things ever since. It’s one of the reasons some of these set-lists have such varied genre.
How do I listen?
Spotify is the default platform for the show (for now). I have recently begun branching out into YouTube Music as well. Mixing is somewhat limited (or not at all with YouTube), and as such, there are some helpful settings when using Spotify to maximize your enjoyment of my playlists, as outlined in the F.A.Q. Please see the next page.