Trent Radio: Pink Noise

Caileigh Morrison: Hello. State your name, programme title, and when it is.

Greg Wilson: I’m Greg. My programme title is Pink Noise. It’s on Tuesdays at 1PM.

CM: Excellent. Now, what is Pink Noise about? What do you do on this programme?

GW: The gist of it – Pink Noise for Dummies – is that it’s “cool music”. Just a bunch of cool music that I come up with. But the real idea behind it, and behind the name specifically, is to say that music should not be white noise to us. We can go so far with it now with electronic music, as well as our artifice with real music, live music, acoustic music, what have you. Bringing those two things together and broadcasting the results is important.

CM: What kind of artists do you play on your show?

GW: I’ve been playing a fair bit of Jaga Jazzist, which is a Norwegian band. A lot of artists associated with the label Ninja Tunes. This show specifically, I played a lot of nu jazz, so artists like Kneebody, Cue FX and Scalpel. A lot of stuff that’s starting to fuse wilder jazz with electronic aspects, like sampling, throwing in a little more post-production, screwing with the drums and such.

CM: Do you think nu jazz is something that you’ll stick to or will you be delving into different genres throughout the season?

GW: I’m going to be looking at as many different genres as possible. I think it’s important to not limit myself, having this one constructed idea of music and playing only what I think is right. I’m going to dig into other things, perhaps things that might even hurt my own ears but that will be candy to others.

CM: When did you become involved with Trent Radio and why?

GW: I became involved with Trent Radio a couple weeks ago.

CM: What drew you here?

GW: What drew me here was my desire to start building more technical knowledge of the production of culture. I spend most of my spare time poring over the knobs and doodads in my room. I make a lot of “bedroom music” – electronic music that I hope to release in the future. I thought of radio as a good way to get started with having a public voice, as well as developing clearer ideas of how to approach music and how to approach putting my own music out to the public.

CM: What has been your impression of Trent Radio so far? As someone who’s new to the game, what’s it like coming in for your first show and meeting everyone here?

GW: It was nerve-wracking initially because I am just an anxious person, but it’s actually a pretty comfortable environment. The people at Trent Radio are very welcoming, and it didn’t take very much to figure out how to use the system here, the mixer and such. It wasn’t foreboding at all, is what I’m trying to say.

CM: What is your life like when you’re not on the air?

GW: When I’m not on the air, I’m all over the place. I’m on campus, I’m walking around – just ‘cause I like walking around – and thinking of music. I’m somewhere daydreaming about music or listening to it or making it. Like I said earlier, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my “bedroom arts,” the music in my bedroom studio, and trying to help build a small net label with a friend of mine. The objective of that is to publish my own music and to publish the music of others, and I’ve been starting to work with some more people in the Trent community.

CM: Are there any other shows on Trent Radio that you listen to?

GW: The Electronic Hour, 10AM on Tuesdays.

CM: Tell me about that.

GW: There’s a man by the name of James who I met in my music and society seminar. We got to talking about things like producing music and enjoying electronic, and he offered a hand in helping with label business, promotions and such, and also to collaborate and jam. So I must say I am quite partial to his show, because my show is quite partial to electronics.

CM: They go hand in hand. Any parting words? Things are going well so far?

GW: I would say so. I’d like to stick around.

CM: That’s good.