… a blog post from Chairman’s Corner.

Hey there music lovers. This week, we’re going to focus our attention on community radio DJ/musician/graphic designer/all around great guy DJ YOON (aka Matt Gannon)!

Matt Gannon is one helluva busy guy. As ‘DJ YOON‘, he is deeply involved with Portland, Oregon’s beloved nonprofit, independent, community-driven radio station: Freeform Portland (broadcasting live at KFFP-LP 90.3 FM and KFFD-LP 98.3 FM in the PDX metropolitan area, and streaming online as well). Matt’s program, Planet Yoon, is “a cozy mix of pop rock, older jazz numbers, progressive synth-pop, and fun novelty stuff” (in his words). You can also find DJ YOON out on the town in PDX, spinning records from his cherished, diverse vinyl collection for folks at popular establishments such as Mad Hanna and The Spare Room. If you work at a record store, you’ll likely see him on the hunt for more vinyl to spin. As a graphic designer, he works extensively on everything from punk-rock album covers to fancy restaurant logos. When he’s not DJing or designing, he’s out performing music – as the bass player for the catchy 90’s-esque indie rock band Love Hiss, and also as the front-person for his brand new, progressive (and psychedelic!) rock band YüN.

As you know, we truly love talking about music & physical media with the folks who are heavily immersed in it, so I decided to ask Matt a few questions about being a DJ and more. Here goes:

SPINNEY MEDIA: These days, many DJs do not actually use physical media while performing. As a DJ, what compels you to work with physical media?

DJ YOON: One of the main reasons I still prefer physical media has much to do with the quality of the sound it can produce. While high-quality digital sound files (like WAV, or even compressed formats like MP3s) can produce a very clean and great sounding output, there is something to be said for the warmth that vinyl brings. There is also the tangible nature of LPs, and the thrill of cuing up tracks and watching them start to spin – quickly followed by the first instance of sound (whether that is a drum hit, a creeping drone, or captured studio chatter). People attending my DJ events also find it appealing to just see those things spin. That simple thing still has a fascinating magic about it!

As I’m also a graphic artist, my devotion to vinyl probably has as much to do with the artwork on the sleeves. I just love the jackets and all the weird stuff you might find as a gatefold opens. Or, I enjoy reading the descriptive text written on back sides of LPs. You know, someone got paid to express what the sounds contained within these albums are like – to persuade the uninitiated buying public to take a chance. That stuff is fascinating to me. Also, my approach to DJing is quite eclectic and impulsive. Having the ability to see these large 12-inch square representations of musical works helps me to strategize my flows as I only need to see the covers to know what to pull and remember where to drop the needle next.

SPINNEY MEDIA: How do you go about finding more vinyl to perform with as a DJ (any particular approach that you take while looking for albums)?

DJ YOON: I’ll try to sniff out vinyl anywhere that sells it! I quite like to hit thrift stores or antique malls. You just never know what you might uncover at those places. The further off the beaten path, the better the chance you might run across something special or even valuable. Thrifting is great for finding those old dusty gems, but I also am always on the lookout for new music from contemporary artists. As a radio DJ, I have access to free promotional downloads to review new works. If I like something enough to include it in my vinyl repertoire, I’ll seek out ways to purchase those records both online or when I’m out at brick-and-mortar shops.

SPINNEY MEDIA: What are some challenges that come with being a DJ?

DJ YOON: While I have no problem with picking a string of songs that go well together, a major challenge for me is simply keeping track of the discs and their respective jackets. I really struggle with organization and tend to want to impulsively change my mind at the last minute. Much of the selecting work happens before the gig, when I have time to figure out an order of records that have a similar sonic sensibility. That doesn’t necessarily mean genres, but they tend to clump that way. Despite my efforts to be well organized going into a situation, sometime the booth can quickly become a mess and I can still struggle to find the records I’m looking for.

SPINNEY MEDIA: What are a couple of Portland record stores that you like going to?

DJ YOON: Some favorites of mine include Mississippi Records, Everyday Music, Music Millennium, Tomorrow Records, and Variety Records.

SPINNEY MEDIA: What do you enjoy more: being a radio DJ, or going out to DJ at local establishments?

DJ YOON: Well, that one is hard to pick… I really enjoy being both on the radio and spinning for folks out in public spaces.

Being on the radio was my first foray into the DJ world. Before that, I never had touched a direct-drive turntable before! Through my volunteer work with Freeform Portland, I started to get involved with spinning out at one of our DJ nights at a local bar. There, I quickly learned the difference between what I did on the radio versus what you can do in a room of random people. While much of my limited experience of being a radio DJ applied to what I was doing at the bar, I still had to learn to read the room and how to adjust on the fly to what was happening right before me.

The advantages of DJing on the radio are that I can play pretty much whatever I want (within FCC rules, or course). There, I can really explore sounds and cast moods much more aligned with what I’m personally feeling internally. However, executing live radio is not easy since we are required to log all the track information of what we are playing so we can tell the listeners what they have been listening to. I can barely keep up with that, but I manage to pull it off.

Spinning at the bar or in a non-broadcast situation has its own benefits. For one, I don’t have to deal with logging the tracks; I can just flow and enjoy the music to some extent. Also, doing radio is a bit lonely. The reality of that situation is me in a room by myself playing music to largely, imagined listeners. While the station does have a Discord server where listeners can comment on what is being played, it doesn’t really have the same immediate feedback of seeing someone actually react to the music you are selecting. When you’re out at the bar or a dance club, you have a much better idea of how your efforts are working or not. And sometimes, folks even tip you!

SPINNEY MEDIA: When and where can we hear you DJ (on the air and/or at local establishments)?

DJ YOON: I’ll be appearing this Saturday, July 12th at the Spare Room along with DJ Preacher’s Kid. We’ll be busting out our Soul and Funk material for your dancing pleasure from 9pm until midnight. Later this month, you can catch me out at Slims in St. Johns on Wednesday July 23rd from 8pm to midnight.

You can catch my long-running radio program, Planet Yoon, on Thursday July 24th from 6 to 8pm on Freeform Portland. That show runs every other Thursday from 6-8pm from that point on. Archived versions of the show can be heard on my Mixcloud page: https://www.mixcloud.com/DJ_Yoon/.

*Big THANK YOU to DJ YOON for chatting with us about all of these things that we truly love.

Cheers,

Jeffrey “Chairman” Couch

Music lover, creator & collector

chairman@spinneymedia.com

Chairman currently enjoys freaking out & creating panic with his spastic band Nasalrod, which is based in Portland, Oregon. He created this blog to share his serious love of music, the arts, and physical media.