Records & Real Estate Podcast
Rhythm of the City: Mauricio Reyes on Music, Gentrification, and Life in Ukrainian Village
Prepare yourself for a musical extravaganza, as we embark on a journey filled with melodies, anecdotes, and passion with our special guest, Mauricio Reyes. Known for his time as a DJ at Chirp Radio Chicago, Mauricio's love for music is as contagious as it gets. From his early family influences and his Colombian roots to his dream of creating a band, Mauricio's stories are sure to captivate any music lover.
Together we dive into our shared love for discovering new music, exchanging our favorite bands, and reminiscing about the best venues to catch a live show. Mauricio's insights into the world of volunteer radio stations and the crucial role they play in promoting local music are especially enlightening. As we stroll through his beloved neighborhood of Ukrainian Village in Chicago, we learn about its evolution and the impacts of gentrification. His residency in the area since 2002 adds a unique perspective to our conversation.
The grand finale is an engaging discussion on the evolution of music festivals, with the spotlight on Coachella. Mauricio's chance encounter with "Trainspotting" author, Irvine Welsh, is a cherished memory, and his favorite DJs and upcoming shows are a testament to his dedication to music. It's a journey through time, locales, and music genres that ends with a fitting reflection on Mauricio's missed opportunity to be in a band, a testament to his unwavering love for music. Join us in this unforgettable episode filled with passion, knowledge, and a whole lot of rhythm.
Have someone you think should be a guest on this podcast? Let us know! Email your suggestions over to: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com, andrew.wendt@berealtygroup.com
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Mauricio Reyes
Real estate: Ukrainian Village
Link: Subterranean
Link: Chop Shop
Link: Trainspotting soundtrack
Link: CHIRP Radio
Link: JJ Thai
Link: Beer Temple
Link: Tryzub
===================================
Production House: Flint Stone Media
Copyright of Be Realty Group 2023.
Prepare yourself for a musical extravaganza, as we embark on a journey filled with melodies, anecdotes, and passion with our special guest, Mauricio Reyes. Known for his time as a DJ at Chirp Radio Chicago, Mauricio's love for music is as contagious as it gets. From his early family influences and his Colombian roots to his dream of creating a band, Mauricio's stories are sure to captivate any music lover.
Together we dive into our shared love for discovering new music, exchanging our favorite bands, and reminiscing about the best venues to catch a live show. Mauricio's insights into the world of volunteer radio stations and the crucial role they play in promoting local music are especially enlightening. As we stroll through his beloved neighborhood of Ukrainian Village in Chicago, we learn about its evolution and the impacts of gentrification. His residency in the area since 2002 adds a unique perspective to our conversation.
The grand finale is an engaging discussion on the evolution of music festivals, with the spotlight on Coachella. Mauricio's chance encounter with "Trainspotting" author, Irvine Welsh, is a cherished memory, and his favorite DJs and upcoming shows are a testament to his dedication to music. It's a journey through time, locales, and music genres that ends with a fitting reflection on Mauricio's missed opportunity to be in a band, a testament to his unwavering love for music. Join us in this unforgettable episode filled with passion, knowledge, and a whole lot of rhythm.
Have someone you think should be a guest on this podcast? Let us know! Email your suggestions over to: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com, andrew.wendt@berealtygroup.com
Connect with Karen and Andrew at Be Realty: Be Realty Group
Email the Show: karen.sandvoss@berealtygroup.com
Guest: Mauricio Reyes
Real estate: Ukrainian Village
Link: Subterranean
Link: Chop Shop
Link: Trainspotting soundtrack
Link: CHIRP Radio
Link: JJ Thai
Link: Beer Temple
Link: Tryzub
===================================
Production House: Flint Stone Media
Copyright of Be Realty Group 2023.
Welcome to Records in Real Estate, a podcast about well records and real estates. You'll be entertained and informed as we explore the intersection of these two worlds through interviews with Chicago's most interesting and successful people from both industries.
Speaker 2:That was Andrew Wendt and I'm Karen Sanvoss. We are Chicago Real Estate Brokers, property Managers, avid Music Lovers and your hosts of Records in Real Estate. Andrew, oh hi, karen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hi.
Speaker 2:We had a really nice guest on today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, music encyclopedia.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Yeah, I couldn't keep up with all the stuff he was throwing at us. It was great.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, it was lovely. Yeah, he really really passionate about music and it shows.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:He used to be a DJ at CHERP.
Speaker 2:Yeah, CHERP Radio Chicago.
Speaker 1:And one of the stories he told is that you know, when he would be talking about music, would just things would just come out of his mouth so fast because he was so passionate about it and he kind of demonstrated a little bit of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he gets kind of giddy like a yeah, like a kid on Christmas morning. Absolutely Very fun. Yeah, which is that's the kind of person you want to get new music ideas from.
Speaker 1:For sure. So it's interesting that and we talk about this during the episode that there's and we've learned this by being hosted this podcast there's so much music out there that you just, yeah, Don't get exposed to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just not enough lifetimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, you pick up what you can from who you can. Yeah, and he's a good one.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And we also got kind of one up on our little Irving Welsh story because he's got all the also connections.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah. Maybe we're not that far away from having Irving Welsh on as a guest, wouldn't that be something? Tell us the best stories about the house that you owned in Lakeview.
Speaker 2:All right, well, shall we do it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, by the way, I don't think we told people our guest's name. His name is Mauricio Reyes.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, do we have to start over? No, okay, that was my oversight. And yeah, mauricio Reyes.
Speaker 1:Let's do it While we're here with Mauricio Reyes, friend of mine from way back in the day. Went to high school together and a music aficionado. Is that a fair characterization? I would say so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think most people that knew me in high school would be like oh, you know, he played soccer and he really liked music. Yeah, so, yeah, definitely, that's my thing for sure. Where did your love of music start? I don't know, I don't know from a really, really young age. I was just mesmerized by music.
Speaker 3:I just remember sitting in front of the TV in the early 80s and whatever it was MTV or the there would be videos on on Channel 60 and Channel 50, from like 3 to 330 or something like that, and I would just sit there. I couldn't even you know yeah, I couldn't even know how to speak English, right, because I was born here but it was in a Spanish speaking household and I hadn't gone to school yet. So I would just sit there and watch these videos and just be, just like, like I said, mesmerized by the music. And just from a very early age I started asking for a guitar. You know, I was like three, four years old guitar, guitar, guitar, guitar guitar. So yeah, from very early on, and I don't know why, did you remember?
Speaker 1:what videos were playing or like what the music was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. The first videos I remember just loving were Our House by Madness and Electric Avenue by Eddie Grant.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And then, so this is probably like around like 1983, 1984. And then, of course, like Michael Jackson, yeah, yeah, it was really big then, sure, and then my father was coming out, yeah, and then, like I had two older brothers, which also really helped, so I remember, you know, just music just coming in, and then my parents were always kind of listening to music too, but it was like Colombian music that is very early on. I don't know what it was, but I was just, you know, in trance, yeah, but music and yeah just kept it going. It's like an obsession from very early on.
Speaker 2:Is it running family or?
Speaker 3:Not to my level, no, I think I took it to my dad. I took it to like everybody likes music, but I'm, you know, at a complete other level of constantly going to concerts and like always listening to music. But yeah, having two older brothers, was really helped and helped influence some of the stuff they listened to. But then I kind of took it and went in my own direction, or many directions, because I didn't stick to like, like you want genre Right.
Speaker 2:So did you get the guitar?
Speaker 3:that you want. Eventually, yeah, but till way later. I was a freshman in high school, and then I was not like the best, but I had aspirations, I tried. My oldest brother, though, was a play guitar, and he was a natural, and I think I also too. I got the guitar when I was finally got my own guitar when I was a freshman, but I started taking classes, and fifth or sixth grade my hands were too small, so it was really frustrating, and I get easily discouraged. So I tried, I tried, and I still, you know, pick it up occasionally, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Earlier on, we were talking off air.
Speaker 1:Off air.
Speaker 2:About. You know you were doing music for a while and I didn't know if that meant like being in a band or I tried very unsuccessfully, like in the mid aughts put out a Craigslist and we weren't very good.
Speaker 3:I think we only played out twice and then it was really hard, when I think one of the biggest mistakes that I made, looking back, is not trying to start something with my friends. I think that much be easier than trying to start something with four or five strangers, which is what.
Speaker 3:I try to do, because that just it's hard. You know, I wish that when I was in high school that instead of us, you know sitting in a basement, you know playing Genesis or Super Nintendo or whatever it was then that we would have been like, and because you were listening to music while you're doing this stuff, yeah, that instead we'd be like hey, because at the time I was playing guitar, I wish I would have just had it like hey, why don't you play the bass? You?
Speaker 3:can play the drums and see what we can do, but we kept it kind of separate. I don't know why. I don't have an answer to that. Video games or that dopamine games and going to like parties and having fun, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need to find a way to buckle down. That's right. I don't have too much fun. That's right. Were you influenced by your older brothers?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, For sure, I was just going to say, like my older brothers, tim was a college DJ, which you've done some church radio stuff I want to talk to you about. So yeah, men Without Hats was one of the bands. Men at Work Lots of men, yeah.
Speaker 3:Men at Work. The first music that came into our house was my uncle was visiting. My dad has an identical twin. My uncle was visiting for a couple of weeks and he took my brothers I don't remember, or all of us to record store and Men at Work was one of the first out. My uncle bought us Men at Work and the police.
Speaker 2:Oh right.
Speaker 3:Synchronicity. Yeah, and those were the first music things that came into our home that were I think he bought them for my older brother, but that were, like you know, in the house and we had, like the Fisher Price fireball flip open.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah, that's great yeah, you still have that.
Speaker 3:I think I I don't know my parents moved to Florida. I don't know if I made it down, but I think I do remember seeing it within the last like 10 years. It was still there. But I don't. I have. I think I have the Men at Work and the police album and I have some of the old albums. I have the Jackson's Victory, which is also a pretty big album at our house. Yeah, I think it's a great album.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Do you collect vinyl?
Speaker 3:Currently. I mean, it got to a point where I was like, all right, I think I'm buying too much, I need to stop. And I also I'm like a dork about it that I, if I don't open everything. And then I was like, well, if I'm not opening it, you know. So now I've, you know, I've kind of brought it down a notch, but if I really like a band, also too, if it's like a more, like a smaller band, you know, want to like, feel like you're helping out more, out more by buying some merchandise. Right, I do that more, more now than just you know. There was a period that I would every time that I would go, I'd leave with four or five. It's addictive.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that's not sustainable.
Speaker 2:No, when do you? Where did you? Where do you mainly shop?
Speaker 3:Was it at shows or Well, I live in a Ukrainian village, so there's, you know, in the area there's a lot of record stores. There used to be a record store, right like Kitty Corner, for my apartment, called Permanent Records, and it's no longer there. It's no longer there, it's actually now going to become a dispensary.
Speaker 2:Oh right.
Speaker 3:So permanent records I would go to, because obviously it was just right there, and then the ones on Milwaukee like Sugar Records and Reckless. There's a few in the area so who were you promote?
Speaker 1:like who? What's a band that you would suggest you know we look into now and buy some of their records, or something that comes to mind, or?
Speaker 3:If you give me a genre or like, locally or anywhere yeah, locally, yeah, like Chicago oh geez, something accessible, something not too crazy on the ears.
Speaker 2:I'm on a flower, let's see.
Speaker 3:There's a lot but off the top of my head, I really have loved this band, pixel Grip, for I think they put out their first full length album in 2019. I say they say they call the sound like goth disco, it's like, like dance music with like a little.
Speaker 1:It's just really really good, yeah, why does that catch your ear Like what about? It resonates with you.
Speaker 3:I don't know, you know, like it's just, the beats are great. Rita the singer I think it's just like a total badass and she's you know, she's a great, great, great front person commands the stage very well, like lyrically, it's really good, yeah, and the music, the beats are really getting live there. You know, just as good. Let's see, I like this band dead D E, h, d and they're fantastic. They're grateful that cover band.
Speaker 2:No, sorry no.
Speaker 3:They don't sound like the grateful that I just leave it, but they're they're. They're awesome. They did play. I think they played a lot of blues this year. Okay, I just did three nights at the empty bottle for like new years run what kind of music is it? It's like rock music. Yeah, yeah, they're. I really really, really like them and I like all. I'm a door kind of like. Anytime they put out any new, like t-shirts or anything like that, like I definitely buy them.
Speaker 3:Like I have like four or five or maybe like five dead shirts. It's all the same thing. Wow, they do a little play off the grateful dead, but it's a. It's a grateful dead looking bear like peeing on a flower.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I have.
Speaker 3:I have at least four of those. I think now I really like dead. Let's see who else.
Speaker 2:That's like the ultimate fan.
Speaker 3:I really like this group drama. They're also kind of like a dance pop type group. It's just two people. They're playing Coachella in a few weeks. I really love this artist called Warm Human. It's just one person Her name is Meredith who actually just put out an album yesterday and, I think, just making some of the coolest music in the city, right now.
Speaker 3:Like every time that, every time that she puts out something new, I'm just kind of like wow, you know, this is awesome. And it kind of has this sound already, even though I haven't seen her live, which is funny it kind of has this sound that like already like you feel that she should like it's stadium, like type sound.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like yeah like you know. You can see, you know her playing to like Tons and tons of people. She's not right now, but I feel like it definitely is.
Speaker 1:Is how does she create that much sound with one like I don't?
Speaker 3:know it will have to, you have to bring her. But it's very like to me. When I listen to her, it's like very there's like sucked in right away or something about her voice and like the sort of I don't know like Effects that she uses on her voice.
Speaker 2:It's very just like whoa, you know, you know, you know, have you ever, you know, had a band like that where you've noticed them kind of early on that have gone to do big things?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't know. Actually At my old job, I would, on the side, interview bands and I Interviewed drama I think in two, seven, 2017, at permanent records, when it was after permanent move to LA, and then they stayed here for a little bit but then they sold it to somebody else and it became called I think it's called joyride records for a little bit and they let me do some interviews there and I interviewed drama there like Five years ago and now they're playing Coach Ellis, yeah, yeah, but definitely, there's definitely been bands throughout that you know I was seen and there's been like 15 people and you know, five, six years later they're playing like the river.
Speaker 1:Whatever, where do you find, like I mean, how do you find bands like this? I mean you just go out and see a lot of music or to look on the back of you know kind of the old classic way where you see some this person play with that person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of probably like a combination of all that I mean now, you know, with internet stuff, you know it's, you know it's pretty Easy to you know, you just kind of sometimes clicking away and you're like oh, I like this. You know, like, are you?
Speaker 2:on Spotify or anything, and that we're kind of feeds you like. I don't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not, I Don't really like find new music on Spotify. But yeah, I read, like you know, music websites and follow Different, whatever you want to call them, like website or blogs on Twitter, instagram and they'll post something about one band and you know, or you could go see one band and they're playing with this other band and you're like, oh, who's this? You know that, had that's happened a lot or so you'll be reading.
Speaker 2:You know I also didn't follow some music writers and they'll start talking about somebody and you know, sometimes I started talking about somebody enough times they're like oh, I'm gonna listen to this and you're like oh yeah, this is really good, you know like well, before you came in, actually, I was looking at the the chirp radio Website and you're, you have sort of lists of your favorite albums of the year. Oh yeah, and it's funny because it was a reverse Chronological order and so I just saw 2013. I'm like yeah that's the year, it is right now. So I but you had, um, you had a thing that just said talking about James Murphy producing the arcade fire album Reflector. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he, yeah, I don't, I don't know, I don't remember if he did all of it, but he definitely. They definitely worked with him on that album. Yeah, I think they also. I think Always on that album too. Really he does some background vocals on the song reflector. Okay, yeah like, if I don't want to sing it right now, and you know, yeah, now that he's in heaven, disrespect his voice of my singing, but he does do towards the end. One or the same, just just a reflector, or whatever he had since David Bowie's voice.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's cool. Oh, that's awesome. All right, I'm gonna put it on our Spotify playlist.
Speaker 1:What's venues do you like to go? Catch, you know Small to medium accent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I'll go anywhere, you know, but like my favorites, like empty bottle, the metro. The metro always have a soft spot as being my first smaller venue place that I went to, because you know my first few shows were at, you know, like Tinley Park or Alpine Valley, or I'm trying to think of our other places, where, but small, like club, but you know, whatever you want to call it, the metro was the first one. I want to sell that always. Do you know what you saw there? Oh yeah, the, this band from here called smoking popes. Oh yeah, yeah, I just remember. You know we were 15 and you know the first note that they hit, and this is again like 1994 or five. So this is when like machine was like you know, mm-hmm, and the first chord they hit the place just Loaded, and I was your 15th. You're just like, you're getting crushed, but you don't care. Like now, you're like I would never do that. But back then you had like, no fear, you're like, and you're like in your head.
Speaker 3:You're like this is what you're supposed to do you know, you just go in there and you know I was like it's not so, not fully developed. Yeah, like we like 110 pounds and looks like I was like 10, you know, thrown around.
Speaker 1:Protected by some of the people that were that were there.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, I remember then like, yeah, going to no Lalo, palooza and Different shows where, like, the second stage would be on the pavement and you we'd go crowd surfing and you land on the pavement Cuz people are just throwing you like you know, like you're nothing, cuz you weigh nothing. No, it's like really too concerned to catch you. Yeah, definitely yeah, and we would always go. You know, once we started going to shows at the metro and at the air, again, you're like we need to get as close as possible, right, you know. So you'd be like against the railing, just getting just, or in that you know Area where it's just everyone's just crunched together and super uncomfortable. We would always, always do that. We were, you know. Now you're like let's sit in the back, or like I'm gonna get just close enough To feel the energy, but I'm not gonna go in there. That's how it is now. But then it was like I'm going in there and I don't care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't walk away with a little blood on your yeah.
Speaker 3:Those, you know, those shows in high school. You just walk out, just you know. Sometimes there would be like blood and stuff.
Speaker 1:I went to ween at the Riv recently and I thought we were in a good position to get a little bit of space and the crowd just packed in around us and it was just yeah. Yeah you know, in the by the bar test, terrible sound you know, yeah, find a little space. What so you?
Speaker 3:you DJ'd for a long time at chirp and, yeah, I guess, tell us, you know, tell our listeners what chirp radio is chirp is a local radio station that First started just on the internet and then, gosh, I think it's now been Quite a few years that they got on the FM dial. Okay, 107.1 FM, okay, mostly you can catch it on the north side. But you, you know, you can Listen to it on an app for free or stream it on your computer, but it's all a volunteer based radio station that has I think now geez, I don't know To 300 people volunteering, all different doing all different types of things like it's.
Speaker 3:it runs Incredibly well in my opinion. Yeah for Everybody being a volunteer, yeah yeah, you know, I think the only person who's not a volunteer is the general manager, sean, who is this amazing Person who keeps it all like together. But yeah, I think the reason that it does so well is because people are volunteering to do something that they really like. You know, like the people that do it, you know really like music or really are really Wanted to be involved in a community.
Speaker 2:Do they have kind of carte blanche to play whatever they want?
Speaker 3:No, I, there is a Albums that bring into rotation, but you're not really. You only have to play a Like two or three of the stuff in the rotation per hour and then you can play mostly whatever you want.
Speaker 2:There's emphasis on local music to, so that's great because I mean, Gone are the days of the DJs you know personalizing and then coming in with their own. Yeah, they found so rare.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's a lot, of, a lot of times, like you were saying, you were where are you know somebody's local artists and local bands. Chirp is one of the stations locally where you're gonna first hear of like a band like dead, but probably got on the air first, probably like on chirp, you know, or you know or other very local Local stations like that. So it's really important to To have that, because a lot of the stations that you listen to it's just the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah you.
Speaker 3:You know you can put on whatever XRT or Q 101 and they're, yeah, playing Like the same songs over and over. They're playing songs that they just are artists, that they always play.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 3:I don't have to hear you know Smashing pumpkin song from 30 years ago. Again, you know nothing like I like the smashing pumpkins, but you know, like XRT and Q101 and stuff like that have a have a definite formula and they do have like a Probably more of a set rotation. So I hear the same stuff like over and over again, whereas here you don't, and depending on who's DJing on what shift, you're kind of get a Completely different show. You know, so that's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Did I see that they've expanded beyond Chicago at this point?
Speaker 3:No, it's still all done in Chicago, but I mean, obviously you can listen to it anywhere in the world, right? So when I, when I was DJing, you would get you know hey, chicken from Ireland great show.
Speaker 1:You know you're like cool.
Speaker 3:This guy's an air and he just likes that. I played this song Awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you guys take submissions from like local bands?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, people can can send in stuff. Yeah, the music directors take care of all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:But you can send stuff in for sure. I think if you just go to the trip website, I think there's probably links about to do that. Yeah, to me it's a really cool thing that's happening in the city. If you're a music fan and if you, if you want to, you know, go beyond that commercial type radio that that people are more exposed to. Yeah, like this is like Another place where you can. You can really find some really cool stuff.
Speaker 1:I think there's a. I mean that, you know I, I know a lot of people and I know there's a lot of people out there that you know Listen to the same stuff they listen to in high school and that's all they listen to. Do you think they list that those people would listen to more new stuff if they were, just if it was more exposed to?
Speaker 3:yeah, I definitely think so, because it's just the way that those other radio stations work.
Speaker 3:You know they're there's a, the way they're set up is to play those certain songs for whatever, for whatever reasons. Right, money, yeah, but you know, if a good song is a good song, you know so if a good song is getting played over and over again, people are gonna take note of that. It's just getting it to to the two places and you know it's like those other stations don't really want to challenge their listeners and you know the listener probably doesn't want to be challenged either. You know so they're just here the song and it's it could be a good song. You know like no, I'm not saying that some huge artists like Drake or Taylor Swift, like they have good songs, they're really catchy, like I get it, you know. But this other artists here locally can have just a S K G of a song just getting it to those places and obviously, you know the local artist from Chicago doesn't have the money that Taylor Swift or Drake has from their record companies and their people.
Speaker 3:So but yeah, if you're, you know, my dad will always be like how do you know? You know, you know the words to all these songs, but you don't know how to. You know, do like this math problem. I was like. I was like, well, if the math problem was being repeated like every day. I would probably know the math problem.
Speaker 2:They're not playing the math. They took away school house. School house rock. Yeah, they don't do that anymore.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just getting like the the music out there, but hopefully you know something like church Like helps people. You know like, yeah, maybe you're in your car and you're going through and you know, mm-hmm, you stumble on it and you hear, oh, this is good, and maybe you are a casual Listener and but maybe they will take you to like, oh, there's this radio station. I just played this song, that was really good. I'm gonna keep on listening to this radio station for you know, the next 20 minutes while I'm driving home and hopefully the next time they get into their car they'll put on again and they'll hear Stuff that they've never heard before and then just kind of go where they go with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I mean even the streaming services. I mean they're all gonna work off algorithms which are gonna, you know, sort of keep people boxed into what they've typically been listening to, because they're Crawling the web for you know, information on a particular listener and Just sort of pigeonholing them into whatever they're searching for.
Speaker 2:I was wrong that Pandora did a really nice job of feeding new music In a way that Spotify absolutely doesn't, because they have real human beings at least they used to, yeah working there and actually, you know, vetting the songs and categorizing them. It wasn't all.
Speaker 3:I'm never use pandora.
Speaker 2:So yeah, the radios, the radio station, you know, setting up seeding a song, like seeding a radio station with just one song and then it feed you. Things Was remarkable. I learned so much new music and then I switched to Spotify and it's just like. Oh, but you know sure but now I've got sure exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why don't we take a little break?
Speaker 2:great Andrew yes, Karen. Do you have a?
Speaker 1:Week record record. Record record of the week question mark. I do great, so I went to see a concert last night, the night before we're recording this of course wasn't the night before people are listening to this, but you know we're learning.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the band was a snarky puppy and they just released a record called Empire Central and I played it a little bit for us yesterday before I was Going to the show. And snarky puppy is a a Band that has sort of rotating members. They have a few key members, the, the. The main member, the sort of band leader, is the bass player. His name is Michael Leek and you know snarky puppy's been around for I don't know 10 or 15 years. I would call them a Sort of jazz jam band.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but they're funky too. Yeah, yeah, really funky. Yeah, dance groovy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Were people dancing last night? No, really yeah, people were kind of. We're up in a balcony and people were sitting down Grooving in their chairs, a lot of grooving in their chairs.
Speaker 2:Is there not a dance like a dance floor down in the main?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so people were down there dancing because they, yeah, had no choice. They were standing. Yes, I was perfectly happy sitting right by the balcony, not dancing but grooving in my chair. Yeah, anyway, every, every song, except for the encore, was a new song from this album. Empire Central is the 15th album and seventh live album by American band snarky puppy and it won best contemporary Instrumental album at the 65th Grammy Awards. Wow, and I would highly recommend it cool.
Speaker 2:Well, you played me some yesterday before the show. Yeah and I was a little jealous Because it had horn section and basically anything live with a horn section.
Speaker 1:Well, you got me not just a horn section, but they have two horn players that play the flugel horn.
Speaker 2:Oh man, when do you get to see flugel horn live?
Speaker 1:I don't know it was delicious. I think the comment that you made was this is sexy.
Speaker 2:Yes, that opening song that you played me was very sexy, and it was that off the new album.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so check it out Empire Central snarky, puppy.
Speaker 2:Andy yes tell me, this is not funny.
Speaker 1:I used to just called me Andy, which was really through what you do, you know is that why you looked around, look behind you like what are you talking about? I go by Andy. I go by Andrew. Sometimes I don't know how to introduce myself, so I introduce myself as Andy, andrew. It's very confusing.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, I've never heard that, but I'm sorry. You're right, okay, andrew. Yes tell me about Ukrainian village.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Maratio is a big fan of Ukrainian village been there for a long time. They're for a long time and, you know, ukrainian village is sort of a a smaller portion of you know what's considered West town, between division and grand and Western and Damon, which is really just four blocks, so it is like a kind of just a tiny portion of of West town. It has. It really is truly, you know, one of the largest concentrations of Ukrainians in the United States.
Speaker 2:I wonder if people who are leaving Ukraine right now are finding their way back here.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what he said. I mean he did say that he's seen more Ukrainians in the in the neighborhood. So I would imagine. So yeah, I'm looking at Wikipedia, not that that's really why people tune in, but Began as farmland originally in German Americans. But yeah, I mean it's a really Neat neighborhood in Chicago. I mean, is very close to you know what people would consider downtown Chicago. So you know it's very the loop is Super close to Ukrainian village and so it's become a popular place for you know people to live either who are Sort of getting their start in their careers or, you know, maybe a few years into their careers and then also, you know it has some nice neighborhoods where you know tree line streets. There's been a lot of like two flat conversions into single-family homes, but yeah it's, it's a nice mix of old and new.
Speaker 1:You know, as Mauricio was saying, like division, which is kind of the border between Wicker Park and Ukrainian villages, you know Really redeveloped and in some great ways. You know he was kind of harping on the sort of the typical sports bar that you'll find there, and that's true. I mean a lot of you know places have been turned into sort of typical Sports bars and there's certainly a place for that. But they do have a lot of nice high-end restaurants. Now my family and I went to a French restaurant that took the place of a Pizano's On division and it was beautiful time. We went there for Valentine's Day, but you know it used to have more sort of inter-neighborhood dive bars that were like super popular and just wonderful places to go drink, you know, until 2, 3, 4 in the morning. Okay, less of those now, but that's what happens when neighborhoods gentrify or cities gentrify.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what I'm learning more and more about in this line of work of just you know, a city is a amorphous, you know, forever evolving changing entity. It's very much alive and all the little pieces of it change over time in cool ways, some for the better, some for not the better. But yeah, so enjoy whatever something is now. If you enjoy it like, enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you know it will be something different at some point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think that you know the truly classic places remain. You know they remain for a reason.
Speaker 2:Well, here's a truly classic place. I went there this to a restaurant in Ukrainian village, a very Ukrainian restaurant, and I'm butchering the name but I learned about it from some friends of mine who are Russian and it's called TriZub T-R-Y-Z-U-B. Okay, sure, it's not pronounced that way and it's TriZub Ukrainian kitchen, and it's very Ukrainian, very authentic food, the whole thing. You're just kind of immersed in the culture when you go there, which is really cool, and you learn about some of the history of the country, highs and lows, when you go to the bathroom, because there is this hallway that is just filled with you know, news articles and things, and I don't know if it's been updated since the recent, you know, ukrainian-russian thing that's happening right now.
Speaker 2:But you know, I learned about Ukrainian history in a way that I had no idea some of the crazy stuff that has gone on and has happened to Ukrainians Interesting, so I felt fortunate to have gotten a taste of amazing food and learned a lot.
Speaker 1:And you think it's still there.
Speaker 2:It is still there Nice yeah, I mean this wasn't very long ago that I went with my family so yeah, check it out Nice TriZub T-R-Y-Z-U-B Okay let's do it.
Speaker 1:Well, we're back with Mauricio, and you are a big fan of Ukrainian village.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty much post-college, other than this little four-year gap. I've pretty much been in that area since 2002.
Speaker 1:Wow, you've seen a lot of changes. Yeah, definitely Mostly for the better, or, you know, is it kind of lost a little bit of its grittiness that was appealing to you when you were younger?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it's definitely changed for sure you know, but you know, with time things change for the better, yeah Well, and you change with it too right, yeah, you change with it, ideally yeah you change with it, but you know what do you like about it.
Speaker 3:I think it's still you know I live on Chicago Avenue, so it's still got you know some character. It's still got you know the places with the neon signs and you still got you know some more like mom and pop type places, even though you know you're starting to get more and more places you know with like the 30 TV screens and that stuff.
Speaker 3:So there's definitely been a change in you know, like when I first started living in that area, you know there wasn't too much stuff on like division, and now division is like completely different. And just you know, in the past, like you know, 10, 12, 13 years, like that street's changed completely. There used to be a lot of buildings where you would just kind of walk and you're like I don't know what's in there, you know, and now it's, you know, it's just flooded with the type of place that I was saying, like a place that has you know like 30 TV screens playing like sports and attracts like a completely different crowd.
Speaker 3:And you know what was there in 2003?
Speaker 1:or 2004? What did you like? Were there some of the establishments you liked or do like?
Speaker 3:stuff. Well, I don't go out to bars too much anymore. When I do go out to concerts, but bars that I liked in the area you know, like inner town pub, happy village. It's no longer there. I liked it was this place that's now a condo. It was called 1056. It was just 1056 North Damon and that was pretty cool. Like on the weekends they would just have ciphers where people just can just go and like, take the mic and start rapping, freestyle rapping. But that closed, like in 2005 or six what about venues?
Speaker 1:I mean you mentioned, yeah, like that yeah, empty bottles right there.
Speaker 3:And then double door used to be in the area and it's now, you know, been famously replaced by Yeti, just just you know just hard to say that's, things change you know, sometimes for the worst you know. And then you know subterranean's around there, right around the corner, and now, like chop chop, spin around there Now for almost 10 years.
Speaker 2:And do people like seek out that area for you know a night on the town restaurants and go to a show, or is it more like just kind of quiet family neighborhood, I think I like where I like my little square, which is, I think, tech movie, called East Village, is pretty chill.
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously Chicago Avenue is a major street with a I was actually thinking about it last night, thought about this a lot on Friday nights before the pandemic. The street would just be like slammed with cars to like you know 10, 10, 30. And then pandemic and post pandemic by like 730. It's like really quiet. It's so strange because it never, it's never come back to that. You know crowded, massive cars at like eight o'clock and you're, you know you're kind of jaywalking and weaving through the cars that get across the street and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean it's, you know it's definitely Definitely change, you know like what would you like most about it?
Speaker 1:I mean, what do you? What do you?
Speaker 3:I guess I like, I like, like in my area it's like a little bit more quieter, you know it's a little bit more Away from like that division street stuff that's been going on the bar mostly most of the bars in the area are still pretty, you know, like low key.
Speaker 3:you know You're not gonna go and you know be in a crowded bar or Super slam bar where again, where there's Nothing against those type of bars, yeah it's just like what, what have, what's come in is right, those bars that have you know a million screens and it's just a bunch of people piled in to each other and so kind of a younger crowd I would assume weekend nights. Like in my area. It's a kind, it's a, it's a, it's a weird combination of like families, but then there's a lot of you know Latino, a lot of you know predominantly Mexican People living around there.
Speaker 3:And obviously Ukrainian and with the past year noticed, like you know, more and more Ukrainian people Coming back to the Ukrainian village, you know so. If you go, you know a little bit more west of Damon and closer to Western there's more and more like Ukrainian shops and stuff. There's a lot of Mexican businesses in the area to A lot of Mexican restaurants like Tucker is and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like this character and they're.
Speaker 3:you know, just on my street there's multiple Mexican places or some Thai place when do you like to eat your favorite Favorite restaurants? In the area. Yeah, I mean like I just walk out of my street and there's like 10 Just on Chicago Avenue, like I'd love this place called JJ Thai, just a tiny little place right on Chicago that I go to at least once a week. Not more what other?
Speaker 1:today Do they say more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, you know you'll be just like walking down the street and everyone just kind of waves at you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's cool, these neighborhoods in Chicago, you can still be a regular. You know, yeah, chicago is such a huge place, but there's, yeah, you can still find your home. Yeah, niche.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of my biggest goals, you know, when I was younger, was to like have a spot that I would just go in, that they would, you know, know my name and it wasn't because my last name is went. You know, I'll George, went, karen, no thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:She's like taking a note. Question mark, question mark, question mark what is he talking about? But you know I moved around too much to to really get established. But now I'm in Avondale, been there for five years, and there's a great bar down the street for me called Beer temple, which is a fantastic place. Gotten to know the bartenders. It's nice yeah. Yeah it's good. Yeah, I have a young son, but I, when I do have Evening meetings, I I plan them for after he goes to bed at the beer.
Speaker 2:Very convenient. Yes, yeah, I like that. Yeah, kill two birds with one stone, absolutely yeah, I want to talk to you just the ins and outs of like being a radio DJ. So it was sure, like the first time you'd ever been in that role.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I made a feeble attempt in college and I don't remember exactly what happened. I think I submitted my tape and I was about to do it one summer. Then I don't really remember what happened. But yeah, trip was like the first time that you know. I knew that I Worked in TV, but I knew that I needed to do something else to kind of, you know, keep me sane or whatever, and I a friend that was already DJing there and I was like I think I can do this. And then At the time I think I saw that they were doing some orientation meeting which they do, I think every six months, I think they do and I went to orientation meeting and they were looking to fill some spots pretty quickly for DJ spots. So I think they put me in a fast track for training and just Just started. And then I had a show for Weekly on Thursdays from three to six for about I think it was four years. Wow, maybe five years.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, I think it's four years. So for an aspiring radio DJ, what? Over though that course of time, you know what did you take away and what would you tell somebody who's brand new sitting down putting the cans on for the first time?
Speaker 3:I use, I don't know, I don't really I don't really consider myself like, like a, like a DJ. I just consider myself somebody who really liked music that found this opportunity to play music.
Speaker 1:Did you have like enough knowledge to sort of you know, foot the bill, or Did it expand your musical horizons, or were you kind of forced to even no, yeah, I mean there, like there's always stuff coming in so you'd hear, you know, you'd pop something in and you know the DJs, this new stuff that's coming in, people would review it.
Speaker 3:So you can you know, have an idea what it sounds like and know, you know what kind of bands it sounds like, but you know what genre it is. You'd be like, oh, this sounds interesting, they might work well. When I play this in this band and then you put it on your like, oh yeah, this is really good. And then you end up, you know, liking that band a lot. Yeah, I mean, what advice that would give somebody that was starting yeah, just Play what you like.
Speaker 2:And but what was I the talking in between? I think that would be the hard part.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you know, you just go with it. Yeah, sometimes I stumble through it and sometimes I wouldn't. I think I would just Get really excited, cuz when I talk about music I just get excited. So I don't know if it was every time coherent, or you know. You know, sometimes you'd be like you know, you, I would Like that, like I'm right now. You'd be like, oh, this is so good, you should listen to it. You know they're playing here and just go. You know, trust me, listen to it. Here's the song.
Speaker 2:But you know like, okay, yeah, yeah, without I mean cuz, yeah, cuz. Sometimes the DJs, you know, they know all the ins and outs of who yeah, I did drums on what?
Speaker 3:and they also, I mean I do like I do know like a lot of useless music, information and trivia and and stuff like that. But I definitely was not like you're listening to, right, you know, radio, that was blah blah blah. You know. Like I didn't have that. I just felt like I was like a normal person that really liked Music sure that that resonated with a lot of people, right?
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, hopefully, yeah, you know, I know, hopefully you're just, you know you're. I felt confident enough and the stuff that I was playing, that I liked enough that people would like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that enthusiasm. And for me, you know when I listen to radio if I have a good DJ who's just into what they're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and also know that there's gonna be people that Accepting that and just going with it anyways, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it'd be fun to be a DJ where you just you pick out a you know record that's on your desk, Somebody put it there and you're like I don't know what this is, but we're gonna listen together and then afterwards, you know, you know sometimes you get in a jam and, and you know, you kind of lose track of time and you're like oh shit, I have, you know, I mean in 15 seconds to play like the next time.
Speaker 3:You're like you know, like you know.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:No, at some points I played smashing but I wasn't gonna throw on like, oh, here's today. But now I definitely had like a memory bank of like when I'd be in a jam. You know like, oh shit, like think of, like you know the tab-insie really like, and or you know There'd be like a rack of CDs and you just grab something real quick and you know, yeah, yeah, oh shit, I gotta play something right now.
Speaker 1:You know I didn't know what that was and that was actually really good.
Speaker 3:Looks like they're playing, you know, at the empty bottle in three weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that makes me want to listen.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, who do you know any of the DJs and chirp presently? Oh, yeah, yeah favorites?
Speaker 3:Well, there's still Austin Harvey, who would do a show before me. He's still. He's still there from 12 to 3. Jesse D, who's I fill in for her because her sometimes, because her time slot fills very convenient, I think. Jesse DJ my wedding? Oh, yeah, probably. Yeah, just CD. Yeah, she does do weddings, yeah, yeah great.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, we had a lot of fun with her, yeah.
Speaker 3:We had nice with her afterwards.
Speaker 2:Yeah she got after a wedding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, another time.
Speaker 2:Instead of the honeymoon. You're like Jesse D.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that was our couple right there that I really like Austin trained me, so he'll forever Hold a special place in my heart. Nice, and we have very we have very similar music days, I think that helps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, chirp radio org. Yeah.
Speaker 3:The tunnel seven point one.
Speaker 2:Right, one of seven, point one, and then they've got all sorts of like DJ schedules and stuff, so you can look yeah.
Speaker 3:Right up to who you want to listen to or no you know just and you're, like I said, in time slot, you could get something completely different from each slot. Yeah, which is cool because you know the other stations. It's like you know it's set. You know you're pretty sure what you're going to hear on this station and this station, If you tune in from you know three to six, you're going to hear something completely different than when you're listening from eight to 10 pm or six to nine am because it's different people. Everyone has different tastes.
Speaker 2:And being in real estate. A lot of people are out and about in their cars all the time.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:At random times.
Speaker 1:Very true, it's a perfect station. Absolutely. Yeah, not entirely sure when this particular episode will air. So this isn't for information purposes, but just to kind of share with our audience, who you're excited to see coming up. Oh.
Speaker 2:Any shows coming up.
Speaker 3:Yeah actually April is. You know. I you know we spoke off mic about how I've started running a lot and doing marathon, so I wasn't going to too many shows at the beginning of this year. But now that I'm done with that, april is just stacked. I'm going to see the passion mode on Wednesday, which I'm very excited. Nice that was one of my first first concerts at. My oldest brother took me to 1994. Nice, what was that? Called the World Music Theater and when. You know, those first few concerts were always.
Speaker 2:They have such an impression of you and that one obviously 30 years later, it's like you know, Do they have a new album coming out, or is?
Speaker 3:it just put out an album like a couple of weeks ago. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, so that's on Wednesday. I'm like beyond excited to see that. Let's see, I have going to see unknown motor orchestra on the eighth at Radius, which I haven't been to yet what's the name of that? Band Unknown motor orchestra.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:It's a time, it's a mouth.
Speaker 2:Time yeah.
Speaker 3:Really, really cool music. I don't know how best to describe it. I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's fun. I mean I've never heard of the band or the venue.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it only. I think it opened March of 2020. So it was only open for like three weeks before the pandemic, I think it's. I think it's in Pilsen Okay, I could be wrong Right around there. I haven't been there yet, so I've heard good things about it. I'm going to Coachella in three weeks, pretty excited about because there's a lot of stuff that I want to see there, is that?
Speaker 1:do you go to a lot of festivals?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that actually. I've been to like every Coachella since 2005. Okay, so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing I'm like yeah, I have my kids Like no. I'm like a little like. It's like too many times.
Speaker 3:It's funny because I was telling somebody this the other day, one of the like the first or second year, 2006, that you can't drink out in the open there. They have designated areas. So we're in this beer tent sitting down. There's this older couple that was sitting next to us. I just started talking to them and they were, I think I forget which one, but one of them was 44 and one of them was 45. And I talked to them for a while and at the time, you know, coachella only been around for five years and when they left I was like, oh, you know those. You know they're old people, they're 44 or 45.
Speaker 3:They've been to the past five Coachella's. You know, wow, blah, blah, blah. And now I'm that person. I've gotten so many times that now I'm the 44 person that's at the festival and hopefully I'm not going to like sit down and someone's going to be like oh, your first time. No, this is like my 19th time.
Speaker 2:You know, like I was here before you were born, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully, if they do talk to you, that they, you know, appreciate what you're bringing to the conversation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then, yeah, say this old that's another thing that's totally changed from the beginning of starting to go to those multi-day festivals. You know that my first one, my first multi-day festival, was Coachella in 2005. And things have changed so much in so many different ways. You know like at the time, you know, you do, you know you would go see something or it wasn't. You know like everybody had their phone up or anything like that, cause the phones didn't have the capabilities of shooting video, so people weren't using their phones. And just how those festivals were set up, it was kind of sort of in the you know beginning stages of the multi-day festival getting popular.
Speaker 3:You know my first year going to Coachella, that was 2005 in the spring, and then that summer was the first pitchwork here Well, I think it was actually called Intonation Festival and pitchwork was like the curator. And that was also the first year that Lollapalooza was at Grand Park and it was multi-day, but it was only two days. Coachella was still only two days and then, you know, a few days later it's three days and now some of the festivals are four days. Lollapalooza is four days now and you know the production of the festivals is completely different and you know it's. You would go to, you know, the dance tent at Coachella and it was still just kind of. You know, some of the setups would just be like a table with a black cloth and the person DJing. But now you go into what is still like considered the dance area or whatever, and it's just like the lighting and the production is just. You know, something that you would have never imagined back in 2005.
Speaker 1:And some of the biggest audiences yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. Who's playing this year that you're like top?
Speaker 3:top. Well, my number one is Frank Ocean, okay, and he's playing on my birthday, oh very special and he hasn't played a live show since 2017.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, so like very, very excited. And that was just somebody who I saw, you know, somewhat early on. He saw him at the Metro when he released Channel Orange and obviously he's like one of the biggest names in music and just like a total he's somewhere else. You know, he's like his own person, he's like a once in a lifetime type artist. So very excited for that. And then this year they did a pretty good job of bringing in you know what the younger people at the festival would consider older bands. So like the Chemical Brothers, gorillaz Underworld, which I would imagine like no kid in their 20s, like has any idea who they are.
Speaker 3:But you know being in high school in the mid 90s and college in the late 90s. Like Underworld and their music, you know just the use of their song and train spotting was such a like, big like moment for me. Personally, that was one of my favorite movies ever. Who else is?
Speaker 1:playing. That I'm really looking for. Oh, I'm going to get you something real quick. We're going to do something live on air, so we get a call one day, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:We get a call one day as like an office lead and Steve Johnson handles it, and he goes to this house it's just a couple blocks from here and, you know, Steve's given him his full like listing presentation pitch. And the guy's like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm leaving in less than 24 hours to go to Miami for a book tour. I'm never coming back, so where do I sign? And also, can you just deal with everything that's in my house? So Steve's like okay, you know, usually things don't go that easily.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've got the listing.
Speaker 1:You have to explain yourself a little bit, or like sell yourself to a, to a perspective client. It turns out it was Irvine Welsh, yeah, yeah, and so we cleaned out his place. Now I think I can't be sure, but this is like a paperback copy of train spotting and I think that these are like his notes, perhaps.
Speaker 2:It's a very worn book that he's now passing. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Turned. You know his notes, maybe into the movie manuscript or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean reading the book. When I first tried to read the book, it's like you know he uses this Scottish. It's like in his Scottish, like forcing. I'm just like oh. I don't understand this, you know like, yeah, I remember trying to read it at first and being like what? This doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1:This is so. This is Irvine Welsh's coffee cup. In the office next to Irvine Welsh's dining room table. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that was from him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have a. This is going back to the beginning, when I tried to, when we first started talking, I told you hi, this craigslist band, oh yeah, and the name of the band was Renton, which is Ewan McGregor's character and trans spotting the main character Honey Lover.
Speaker 3:Yes, and it's like fast forward. When Transpotting 2 came out I was working at Channel 32 and at the time Richard Roper was working there, the movie critic, yeah, and Danny Boyle and Irvine Welsh came in to promote the movie and I remember telling Roper I was like, oh you know, transpotting is my favorite movie. And they came in. They came in separately for separate interviews but I got to speak to both of them and I told them both like individuals, like yeah, he had a band like a few years ago and it was called Renton, and we're like oh wow, that's hilarious, that's hilarious, that's so funny. You know, I remember Danny Boyle and I remember saying, also like the movie, when my like number one, number two, we have All Time, and the soundtrack To me at the time when it came out was like super influential because it had Underworld and it had pulp and blur, iggy Pop, like all this stuff like just awesome stuff.
Speaker 3:Again, when you're 17 years, it opened up like this different window to all this other music. And I remember being like yeah, you know, danny Boyle was like. You know that the soundtrack was so influential to me too. And he's like how old are you? And you know, at the time I was probably I think it was in 2017. So, yeah, whatever, I'm 38 or 39. And he's like all right, it's like we got a couple of songs in there for you.
Speaker 3:We got a couple of songs for you this time around again Nice. And then for the they did the Chicago premiere and I sat next to Urban Welsh. Really, I remember seeing that was like holy shit. I'm like watching Trainspotting too with the person who created the freaking movie. I'm just like sitting there, like you know, inside me like oh my God.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to be like hey how you doing.
Speaker 1:Remember me from Monday I had the band called Renton.
Speaker 3:I had the band called Renton and I was gonna sit down and shut up and watch the movie, Did you so?
Speaker 1:eventually you started. You said, you started interviewing some bands.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So again, music peeing like my main passion. People at work always knew that I was going to concerts and I was always talking about they'd be like, oh, what'd you do this weekend? Oh, you know, you know. And then also, oh, you know, he's gone for this week because he's going to, you know, this festival again, or here, you know, for you know, I always I like to travel also too, to go see stuff, sure. So people at work always knew that and I think around 2013, they were actually looking for somebody. That was a weekend where it was. I think it was Pitchfork, pearl Jam and Fish.
Speaker 1:World playing at the same time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I remember that weekend and like, oh who you know they were at the time they were bringing people to come on and talk about music. But you know, I don't know, they weren't like super like in love with anybody and like who can we bring?
Speaker 1:on and.
Speaker 3:I just started a DJing at chirp and somebody's like, oh, memories, I should do it. And some people were like, yeah, you should do it. And other people are like, no, no. And then they were like, well, let's give it a try. And then I did it. And then they're like, oh, you know, like that wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1:You know that was like again, I just came out, I was like, oh my god, you gotta go see this and this is like you were promoting the fish, weren't you?
Speaker 3:yeah, no but I did it, but you know it's like alright, like I'm not like super into fish, but obviously I know people that are so I talked to them ahead of time. You know, you know, you know kind of let people know, like how passionate the fans are and like you know, I had like friends that I talked to you ahead of time.
Speaker 3:They're like oh yeah, this is like my 410th time going to see them, and you know somebody was like oh, it was my 130th time seeing them and I was like so you know, on the air I was like, you know I'm not really my cup of tea, I'm not gonna be there this weekend, but you know my friend, you know one of my friends is going to see them for you know, the 130th time and this other guy is going to see him for you know that was a crazy weekend.
Speaker 1:There was a huge storm and fish was playing at northerly island and because of the unsecured nature of that stage, they cancelled that show. Yeah, and people actually left that show and, I think, went to Wrigley to see Pearl they were just delayed, yeah yeah yeah, I think.
Speaker 3:If I remember correctly, I think that year during that storm, I think it was on a Friday night and I think Bjork was playing and she only got to play for her like 20 minutes. I had to stop and obviously, like Bjork, doesn't come around as often as you know other artists, but I'll get to see her hey. Coachella she's gonna play right before Frank Ocean.
Speaker 3:I think, if I read this correctly the the people that are headlining got to pick who plays like before them. Oh cool, bad bunny was playing on Friday night, wanted gorillas. Oh nice, frank Ocean wanted Bjork. So it works out for me that's love I love gorillas, I love Bjork, I love Frank Ocean. Bad bunny like yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, I have an unpopular gorillas opinion. Oh, plastic beaches, their best album it's a fantastic, fantastic album.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I would not say that's a wrong opinion, obviously, just my opinion awesome.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't. I might put that at the top. To the new ones really really good to. I'm a big Damon Alvarn nerd. Yeah, like, whatever he does, I'm always into like I love, I love, I like, I love gorillas, but I'd like blur more than gorillas. I think gorillas is like way bigger than blur. I just kind of realized this when the new gorillas album came out and I went on I'm Spotify, just you know, tells you the monthly listeners and gorillas is like a 20 something million and blurs only at like three or four. I was like no, I didn't know that was such a huge disparity.
Speaker 1:One final question who is? You know what are some artists on your marathon playlist? I know it's four hours so we can't get no.
Speaker 3:No, my, my marathon playlist is actually at like 48 hours, so I just I just add, you know, I hear something that, yeah, now moves me, I put it on. Yeah, there's everything like you can you know? All the stuff that we talked about yeah, including, like the Columbia music that my parents were like listening to when we were little are on there like that's cool, it probably gets you going yeah, like who's a good Colombian artist we can put on our Spotify playlist oh, geez, like old, like, like any, like the old school stuff.
Speaker 3:My favorite is this guy, joe Royo. You know, it's really really good how do you spell it? Joe and then a royal ARR O Y O, so that's like. You know, that was definitely being pumped at the Colombian parties when we were little and houses has always stuck, stuck with me and you know, yeah, my siblings would say the same thing.
Speaker 1:Cool all right got such good things yeah, well, marisa, thank you so much for being here. No problem, a ton of fun talking about music.
Speaker 2:Yeah tune into chirp, ladies and gentlemen, 107.1 or online wherever you get your apps yeah thank you so much thank
Speaker 2:you yes so Mauricio is talking about keep saying Mauricio, it's just Mauricio, there's no tea in there. Mauricio was talking about sort of if he had to go back in time. You know he, he wanted really badly to be in like a band. Yeah, he did for a little bit, but it didn't turn out to be exactly what he aspired to when he was three years old watching MTV. It was a great story, by the way.
Speaker 1:It was a great story Just like a little, you know Spanish-speaking Mauricio just staring up at the MTV and yeah, and just his love of music.
Speaker 2:It just seemed to have been channeled from from I don't know the heavens or something. Yeah, because he didn't have it, like it wasn't instilled in him in any particular way, but anyway, yeah, so he had that. If he could go back into time, I have a go back into time thing where if I had to do a do-over, no regrets. I like my life, but a do-over I would have wanted to be a snare drummer in the marching band.
Speaker 2:Okay, at in college okay, I went to U of M, oh yeah, and or just any one of those drummers. You know, I think of carrying around those, those four drums would have been tough, but you know, snare drum yeah, just like the bad asses and I just didn't do that and whatever didn't even get close. Sure is there anything in your history that if you had a do-over not in a bad way, but just like, oh, that would have been really interesting to explore yeah, I mean there, you know, I have passions that I think I could have explored.
Speaker 1:Actually, music is one of them. You know, I remember I was in this. I was like maybe it was seventh grade and I was in, just like your regular music class and one of the things that we were supposed to do was take a Casio keyboard and compose a song, you know, and we could use any elements of the Casio keyboard, and so, like, I composed this song and it was really really good and my teacher was very impressed and all of the classmates were very impressed. And you know, I think, if somebody just had, like, given me a little bit of a push, I was, you know, kind of a shy kid and just didn't, you know, have somebody pushing me in that direction. I mean, I played trumpet and band and wasn't very good, and so I don't know, you know, I don't know if it would have resulted in anything, but you know, yeah, I wish I could have explored the sort of being a musician a little bit more and also, you know, being a chef would be something that I would have done at some point in my life.
Speaker 2:I love cooking, love, love, love, cooking and what's your favorite thing to cook for your kind of I don't know style of food? I?
Speaker 1:don't really have a particular style that I focus on. I mean, I don't know, I can cook anything really. I mean I, I really like cooking roast chicken, you know and. I've read that. You know the really just being able to roast a chicken well is like actually a mark of a good cook yeah, to be able to not dry out the breast meat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, undercook the other stuff, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's. We're having people over for Easter and I think I'm gonna like an Easter chicken no, I'm gonna do a salmon.
Speaker 2:Oh, poached salmon on the grill nice, are you gonna use the the rub that? Oh, andy's ripping rub and he's ripping rub that we got yesterday.
Speaker 1:I might do you know? I mean, if I have a couple different sections? Yeah, I'll try that. I could that a try. Yeah, that was one thing that he suggested it be used for so Andy's ripping rub calm. So those are two very interesting.
Speaker 2:Have you seen the movie chef John Favreau's movies? I've seen that. It's good one. He was just on smart lists and so well, just a few weeks ago and so I just listened to it and he was talking about that movie and the people on smart lists who host it were just raving about that movie and it's always been on my queue and then I forgot about it it's a good movie so now I want to watch it again yeah, yeah, I like that movie a lot cool.
Speaker 1:This has been an episode of records in real estate. Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed it. Today's episode was brought to you by be realty. Be where you want to be. Be realty.