… a blog post from Chairman’s Corner.

Hey there music lovers. This week, we’re going to focus our attention on one of my favorite folks in our local Portland music scene: DJ Barbarella.

For 7 years, DJ Barbarella (aka Hannah; pictured above with yours truly) has been very heavily involved with various community-driven radio stations, such as Freeform Portland, XRAY.FM, and Portland Radio Project. She has conducted many thorough interviews with talented local artists (of numerous genres!) about their upcoming releases, their shows, and their inspirations. Additionally, Hannah has been known to occasionally spin records at local PDX establishments. DJ Barbarella has just completed her final show on XRAY, as she’ll be stepping aside from radio to focus on other aspects of her career. As a result, I wanted to provide a spotlight on her awesome DJ career – as a way of saying THANK YOU for all that she has done for the PDX music community over the last seven years.

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 Hannah a few questions about being a DJ and more. Here goes:

SPINNEY MEDIA: I’ve noticed that both Freeform Portland and XRAY have a fairly large collection of vinyl and CDs. What compelled you (and these radio stations) to still work with physical media?  

DJ BARBARELLA: I used all sorts of media for the show, mostly due to the unique format of my show. I asked that folks bring on a small playlist of tunes that represents their taste or influences. So we ended up with quite the variety on the show, from streaming Bandcamp to CDs and vinyl. It was always super neat to see what people brought in! I really love all the variety of media I see and get to work with, but I love physical media because it’s so unique to the history and story of the music. Sometimes folks brought in super rare or unique vinyl pressings that don’t exist digitally… that is part of the draw to working with physical media I think. A lot of care and thought has gone into making these things, and it feels like you get to see history up close working with physical media. 

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

DJ BARBARELLA: I guess technical stuff? I’m actually not much of a technical DJ, so a little tech stuff can trip me up easily. It’s a fun learning challenge always! 

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

DJ BARBARELLA: Ooh! Such a toughie, we are so blessed in Portland with an abundance of record stores, but I have to give props to Mississippi Records for being the hands down best prices. Next two top faves are between Little Axe Records and Landfill Rescue Unit Records (you’ll find treasures there)!

SPINNEY MEDIA: How did you go about finding more music to showcase as a DJ (any particular approaches that you took while looking for artists, albums, etc)?  

DJ BARBARELLA: Mostly, I was blessed that folks reached out to me to come on the show. However, when I first started the show it was quite the opposite – where I would mostly attend shows around town and approach people after their set! 

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

DJ BARBARELLA: Ooh this one is tough because they are actually very different for me! I really enjoy both, but I operate sort of different for both. Because my radio show was typically more interview based, I chose less of the music (as I was less in the traditional DJ mode). DJing out is much less social. You’re sorta in your head the whole night planning the next track. I definitely enjoy both! DJing out is nice because I get to share my collection (which I’ve spent a lot of time curating)! But DJing on the radio was a blast because I learned about a lot of new music. I just aired my last interview with Dead Magic, as I’ll be taking a little pause from radio! Happy and thankful for roughly seven years on air! 

*Big THANK YOU to DJ BARBARELLA for chatting with us about all of these things that we truly love – and also for her significant, impactful contributions to Portland community radio (and the PDX music scene in general) over the years. Feel free to keep up to date with Hannah by visiting her tattoo/art page HERE, and also (for those in Portland) by going out to local shows (where you’ll likely run into her)!

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.