Swan Song R&D 5 – Radio Broadcast 1

To prepare for my residency with Resonance Extra, I did a very short impromptu broadcast on the 28th of October to test out how it works on my computer. Going into the studio, I set up everything in the dark sound booth with a mixer and a mic. I learned Ladiocast for the first time and it wasn’t difficult to use altogether, it was a bit stressful knowing it could go wrong any seconds even though you just let it run automatically once you’ve set it up. The main thing is the content though in any good broadcast, what do you say, how do you say it? What do you present and share? I have had the luck to be working in the station for a while now, so I have seen many different people doing it their own way, the way they imagine radio to be.

For this tiny broadcast I just did whatever came to my mine with the knowledge of this is a radio broadcast. I started off by playing a disco hit from Hong Kong called 花花宇宙 (flowery universe), and announcing weather in Hong Kong. Then I started explaining I am doing a residency here next week, and what is my project and I played some edits of materials I have been playing with. I ended it with saying how much Cantonese pop music I’ve been listening to because of how much I miss home, and sang karaoke to 如何掉眼淚 (How to cry) on air with a very dramatic voice (which also clipped so much). It was very fun to just improvise have just a mic and a mixer.

I have been learning how to do things with a mixer since I started working on the station, and it has really changed my way of thinking about sound engineering as a creative tool. The gain, the three-band EQ, the AUX and outputs. basically the tiniest you can do to an input, but the most essential and actually enough manipulation you need. and the fact that I could mix all the channels together to a stereo output, the things I can combined to make one sound object, to not consider it the final output, a piece, a song, a live performance, but just a sound source, is fascinating.

I am then planning the five broadcasts I am doing for the two weeks I have in the studio. I suddenly have so much air time to work on on top of this huge creative project. Which is amazing, it takes my mind off my narcissistic way of working. To be facing outwards everything other day, to get my progress out in the world for people to understand and not just deliver the end product. I am also thinking about these broadcasts as a practical research, into Hong Kong and for the project.

To plan ahead and to send these out to the station for them to promote the programmes, I am writing lots of descriptions to these show. Which is super helpful in making sense of my project in the most accessible way for everyone would tune into the station. It is so important to make clear of myself as an artist and not just be extra secretive with my thoughts and feel precious about them.

So The first two shows are now planned and completed. The first one is on Monday 6pm, a narrated version of Elephant Song. This is the first time I explained the full story of Elephant Song in public and it is an introduction to my work and my background. It has been very fun recording narrations over the tracks and a great way to remind myself of the work I did and in what ways I intend to move forward.

The second show is a fairly straight forward presenter/music show. I am presenting Canto-Pop with the theme of break up songs with a very odd character in an odd accent. I also included a phone in session where my friends picked songs and they would make up ridiculous stories to support it. This show if you don’t understand Cantonese would be so normal to you, and you would just think that’s how people talk in Hong Kong. But actually it is so filled with inappropriate jokes and weird conversations. All and all is just good fun and I did actually pick some good songs to share.

For me to do a ‘traditional’ music presenter show is a form of learning from the basic. How to do the most standard radio show, to say in the end I know how to and have experienced it. I have seen people playing music on vinyls, CDs and with their computers using different ways. But I came up with using QLab, a software we use in theatre for sound cues. I think this is the best way to prepare materials and to lay them all out like a script. I have to relearn a few tricks but it is so simple and good for this purpose I found. I then practise the whole show and timed myself to make sure it is all in time and I would have said everything I need. This process of creating a show based on traditional broadcast is very essential for me to be more crazy in the coming ones.

I am planning to have guests in the coming week to do live performances and interviews to celebrate the people around me as they inspires me in a non-linear way creatively. And I will update the progress later here.