Your new show for NQRA is called Bad Bunch Radio. Are you approaching it differently to your existing show on dublab?

Yes, we are consciously trying to make a different show.  We’ve done the dublab show for around nine years and, in that time, the show had become a big reason to keep searching for new music… like, what are we gonna play for two hours on the next show?  I really like what we’ve done over the years, so it’s been a little hard to conceptualize a new direction for Bad Bunch Radio.  I would say one difference is it’s more of a curation, less of an exploration without overcommitting to anything. We’re trying to talk more, too.

Your taste goes deep and wide, from the obscure end of p-funk to rare dub cuts and incendiary jazz. Are you a big crate digger? 

Yeah man, I’m always digging for inspiration.  I draw that from a lot of different places so it’s not specifically digging for records.  We have a lot of records.

There’s an aural glue throughout the show, which makes it sound distinctly “Black Bananas.” Are we getting a window into your zone as a composer with this show?  

Yes… our playlists do channel that sort of mashed-up connectivity which is the zone we write in.  We’ve been known to play unreleased Black Bananas too.  Ironically, we made a conscious decision to stick to one kinda theme or genre for the latest episode of Bad Bunch Radio on NQRA.  I don’t know if we’ll ever do that again, but it felt right this time.

I remember there was a lot of talk of the P-funk influence in your work when Black Bananas’ Electric Brick Wall record came out. How deep do you go with that stuff? Drugs, 420 Funk Mob, Quazar, Enemy Squad level deep? 

Maaan P-funk lore goes deeeep!  I know about 420 Funk Mob, but not the others.

[Ed. This is pure nerd-off on the part of our P-Funk completest interviewer who insists that the 2001 debut and only album by Garry “Diaperman” Shider side hustle, Drugs, is as worthy of your attention as any O.G. Funkadelic LP on Westbound, and is only relevant to the interview as a matter of scrambling for hardcore jollies.]

Taste shifts glacially, right? Like you barely notice the subtle shifts in what you focus on as a listener, but then you look back to what you listened to as a kid and, whilst there’s connectivity, it can be a world away. Have you found that to be true when you think about your early years in D.C.? 

Yeah, but I was exposed to so much as a kid in D.C. The Junkyard band played Go-Go music on plastic caulking and paint tubs in Lincoln Park outside my bedroom window. Further North/West was the Adams Morgan neighborhood and World Beat and Reggae vibes were thick with the Jamaican and Ethiopian communities. My neighborhood liquor and candy store sold early rap, funk, dance 12”’s… where I got the Rapper’s Delight extended 12” when I was nine. Hardcore Punk & Thrash Metal were two genres that were about the young people. There were all ages shows held often and they piqued curiosity with cool homemade posters / fliers and leather jackets. I find that, no matter how much time has passed, those early influences always play a subconscious yet inherent roll in my listening experiences to this day.

The channels by which we discover music have become way more fractured. Do you think that’s a good or bad thing, and what’s your main portal to discovery these days? 

Can it be a good and bad thing? The good part is that you have access to so much good music, while the bad part is that it’s harder to cut through. When I was coming up, you had to get your music mostly from a record store and you were limited by your budget. I’ve bought records just because the cover art was cool only to be disappointed by the actual music. Nowadays it’s easy to find music online. 

Do you ever get jaded by the sheer volume of music or are you just as feverishly hungry to hear everything as you ever were?  

I stay hungry… always looking for something new.

I always connected to your classless approach to listening. Like, for someone who makes distinctly exploratory music, you helped rewrite the rulebook on what’s legit. I want this station to be an expression of that mentality. Where you can hear, I dunno, Stockhausen cosied up to Marshall Tucker Band. Do you ever think about the wider cultural impact your open-minded curiosity has had?  

I think there is a time and place for everything. I’ve been thinking about the Bad Bunch sensibility lately in terms of being, basically, an algorithm buster.  We’re creating different flows that people are losing out on if they follow the algorithm. Spotify algorithims suck too… like, they only recommend what you already like. If just one new song cuts through and becomes a new favorite for a listener, then this approach works. You’ve got to listen to find the good stuff. 

Bad Bunch Radio is streaming now on NQRA.