DJ DJ, Quite Contrary: Gaylord Fields Tells How He Prepares (or, Rather, Doesn't) for His Show

Every program on WFMU is a unique mixture of loam and silt, manure and peat, each lovingly tended to to bring the finest harvest of ephemera, flotsam and mixed metaphor that can be guaranteed. In this installment, Gaylord Fields explains what makes his garden grow.

As I type this in the room at my home in which I keep my media library, at my feet are two bags lying rather indelicately on the floor. One, a knapsack, is filled with, let's say, 60 CDs, the top third or so of which I just played on my most recent show. Lying next to it, also inviting itself to be stepped on, is a messenger bag with approximately 40 LPs; the ones in the front of the bag are the ones I've already spun. (I also store a few 45s in a front pocket of that CD-holding rucksack.)

On Sundays at 4 PM ET (that's an hour before my two hours on the air begins, and I'm still at home, mind you), I remove anything I played the previous week from the two bags, and top them off with new recordings. The process of procurement is as simple as my scanning my thousands of non-alphabetized (!) LPs and CDs, and if a title catches my fancy, it goes in a bag. My home preparation for any given show is that minimal. That process takes 10-15 minutes tops, and then it's a short drive to the WFMU studios.

Now in the WFMU music library, if I'm in the mood I scan the WFMU new release bin (most weeks, I'm too overwhelmed and intimidated by its size and breadth to peruse it). At most, I'll pick out a title or two to review. If a song happens to be lodged in my head that I didn't bring or don't own, the greater WFMU record collection can help me extricate it from my brain and infect yours instead.

In any given show, anywhere from 95% to 100% of the music I feature comes from my personal collection. That familiarity allows me, like a minority of WFMU DJs, not to bother planning a show at all. I know there's one in my two magic satchels.

I next transfer my various discs into a big gray cart and then I'm off to perform my assigned janitorial chore (if you ever notice how well-swept the first floor vestibule of WFMU is, yup, that's me). I return to the library, which abuts the main broadcast studio, and wait for Bill Kelly, the DJ on the air before me, to poke his head in when there's about five minutes left in his program to let me know he needs my opening song. That's when I look at the 100 albums I've lugged from home and hastily choose one as my first cut.

I let the first song inspire what I select as my second cut, the second informs the third, and so forth. Rarely am I more than one or two songs ahead, and many times I don't have a follow-up until the preceding song has almost run out. 

I did a few pre-planned shows in my very early days at WFMU, but I quickly realized I preferred employing the seat-of-the-pants method. It's less of a commitment, and I like both the process and the results a little bit more. There's an excitement to musically painting myself into a corner to see how I rescue myself from my weekly sonic cliffhanger, to mix metaphors like a good freeform set. So if you're often surprised by the musical twists and turns I may employ in a given set of music, that makes two of us.

Illustration of Mr. Fields by Adrian Tomine for Yo La Tengo

Comments

[Marcus]

nice insight. thanks

[Ricky Grove]

Man, if I were a DJ that's exactly how I'd play out. Like a jazz musician riffing on each new rhythm as it comes up. Sweet

[boil]

Sounds really fun. "Bad Beatles" was an exception of course.

[lipwak]

What about the dreaded "dead air"? What if nothing pops into your mind or you can't find the song you want to hear? The pressure of having to play "something" is what scared me away from being a DJ. Sure, you can play "anything" but that pressure to play something can be pretty intense. I'm past the point now of having to hear something anyway. Listening to something nice is fine but I don't need to follow it with another. I'm getting old... Silence is fine too.

And you don't alphabetize your records/CDs? So how do you ever find something you want to play? Doing that with 45s would get old fast. OK, spontaneous has it's place but organized does too.

Cheers,

John L

[Laura]

Finally I understand why there's no archive playlist! #comfortablewithlabelsandmaps

[Jonathan M]

That's good information, but it's only half the story.

I'd really like to know how Gaylord developed the background to be familiar with the music he plays. Does he consistently spend a lot of time listening to music? Did he acquire his knowledge when he was younger?

Gaylord's not big on disclosures, so we may never know.

[pierre]

Having a portrait drawn by Adrian Tomine is already pretty cool.

[Gaylord Fields]

@ lipwak,

The proof is in the pudding, isn't it? I have yet in my 19 years on WFMU allowed dead air to creep over the airwaves due to indecision. (Fumbling with CD players is a different story!) Yet the instance has never arisen when i've have nothing to play. There's always something that will work. As for spontaneous vs. organized, what would work best for you wouldn't be best for me, as you say yourself. The very unusual musical brain i seem to possess is where all the organization takes place, not in the physical realm. I wouldn't do it this way if it didn't work, and as i point out, i like the results better than if i pre-plan.

@ Laura,

It's a big distraction to do a live playlist when i'm in my "radio show trance." Also, the evanescent relationship i have with my show — before, during and after — is another reason i don't normally do playlists. Also, unlike the show-planning DJs who have time to gestate, my spontaneous and intuitive decisions don't lend themselves to rumination on my part afterward: Any given song is here one minute (or two, or five) and gone the next.

@ Jonathan M,

As you indicate, i've revealed much more than i usually do in just describing my process. Being a paradoxically private person who happily operates in the public sphere, i don't know if i'm that comfortable in talking about my musical history. I do drop a few hints on how my brain works in the preceding replies. You can probably extrapolate from there.

[Duncan Walls]

I can relate. Did years of on and off on a local college station(s) and followed the same proceedure. Also did it hen I DJ'd dances. I was used to 'carrying' at least four long orange crates (about 150 12" singles per), 100 + CDs (in the later years) and Cassingles (when they were HOT). I purposefully keep them unsorted mostly to prevent folks from looking at them and pulling out 'requests'. That allowed me to remain open to inspiration and yess, every once in a while there was a little dead air in every situation. But when it flowed it FLOWED organically and by in large WORKED.

[lipwak]

Thanks, Gaylord. Yes, it works for you and so many others and that's great.

(Further philosophical ruminations that may be better suited to another thread...)

I'm curious though to hear any explanations for why one feels the need to play music back to back for X hours. I used to feel that way but have forgotten what it's like. I'm curious to hear how others explain this compulsion. What is this power music/sound has over us that we give in to it like an addict? And when you don't do it, how long is it before you crave doing it again? I went through that from my teens 'til some time in my 40s. All I wanted to do was listen to music. I tried to figure it out then but I'd be curious to hear what others think of this affliction/wonderful obsession. Now I can see a song/tune here and there but 2 or 3 hours of back to back with very few breaks? That ain't natural especially when done for years. On the other hand, people do it professionally and otherwise in all kinds of forms (musicians, etc).

And do you think better (more clearly) when listening to music/sound as opposed to with nothing going on? I do. I get more done, move on with my life, yet I love music/sound too and "think differently" when I'm listening.

Is it because we want to be distracted? Do we yearn for that perfect sound because we realize we live imperfect lives and this brings us closer to a better life? It is a sort of spiritual quest, isn't it? Indulgence sometimes too.

(Who's written about this elsewhere? Who/what should I look up? FMU DJs would be the best sources for reflections on this kind of stuff since we've listened to them for so many years.)

Thanks.