There’s a whole host of reasons to celebrate Beats in Space going strong for a decade and a half. For starters, there are the full-family clubnights – one of which Boiler Room will be hosting on Thurs 13th November. There’s more year-defining piano house bangers to look forward to from the burgeoning label. Plus, the indefatigable namesake broadcast itself. Having cruised well past its 700th edition, there seems to be no end in sight. Which other college radio station can boast artists as diverse as Daniele Baldelli, Xosar, Kim Ann Foxman and DJ Hell dropping in on a weekly basis, not to mention Tim’s ever-present boyish laughter?
But all the above pale in comparison when it comes to Tim’s Instagram account (naturally). The man’s itchy trigger finger has led to a trail of polaroids littered from Osaka to Oslo, as well as a mounting stack from the guests popping into WNYU. We trawled through hundreds and presented some choice picks – a nice round 15, fittingly – to the man for further explanation.
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“I started collecting postcards as another way to interact with the listeners. It’s just fun to see where they’re from, and what they wanna send you. They’ve been from all over: from Hawaii, Finland, Australia; this one came from the Embassy of Pakistan in Budapest–that’s awesome, I was pretty psyched!”
“…yeahhh. [Laughs] That was a really fun show. The whole talking segment was basically made up of calls from the hotline number, then some weird Turkish and Russian music Harvey brought through. I couldn’t use all of the calls them though! Harvey‘s a character, so he had his typical answers.”
“Ah, I like fucking around with people.”
“Doing these nights where I can book all the guests and bring all my friends together is a treat; it’s nice when they really go off. People may not have been friends at the beginning, but by the end everyone gets to know each other; from being on the show, I know these people will get along. Hunee and Mr Ties had never even met before they played all-night together – and they ended up basically naked!”
“[Heavy laughter] Studio Barnhus has a little basement room that is kind of an office, but also has all three of their studio setups. As soon as you walk in, there’s a wall of Backstreet Boys clippings for inspiration. You know, I didn’t ask too many questions about it…probably for the best.”
“I have boxes and boxes of these. First cassettes, then DAT tapes, then MiniDiscs – and this was using RealAudio files, which took a really look time – then CDR and finally I migrated to recording into a hard drive. It was a big pain in the ass.”
“That was probably six or seven years ago, something like that. Mid-00s. That poster that I’m pointing at is probably 2001, at Plant Bar, which is how I connected with DFA and James Murphy.”
“Being on college radio is inherently based on being more DIY. I still reckon the show is unprofessional, completely. Recently, we had three bands from Dark Entries Records out of San Francisco, who are DIY synth-y in style. Unlike Lightning Bolt, none of the setups are too big, but I still can’t believe we did all three in 90m! We’ve had The Crystal Ark and !!! – we have two rooms to work with, but our space is still tiny, so you can imagine how much we had to pack them in.”
“I always want the show to sound good as a whole, but sometimes there’ll be a specific plan where the first and second halves of the shows are going to gel together. For this, Beautiful Swimmers and Ron Morelli are friends, so I wanted to make it happen. This week is Jackmaster and Fort Romeau, who are both in town at the same time. I mean, who else can get them both on a Tuesday night in New York City? Jack already said he’ll be bringing the beers, so I’m sure it’ll work out just fine. [Laughs]“
“Prosumer is probably our most frequent guest – it’s our tradition that he swings by whenever he’s in town. Last time I made him cookies, as thanks for this show. There’s a gun shop down in Little Italy, which is apparently one of the oldest in America, so he went and got me a couple of target practise posters. Of course we had to get a shot of him and the bear…”
“I’ve known Todd for a really long time. He came on way before I started taking polaroids, back in ’08, but this one was ’12 I think. He’s all about that Nordic…humour…thing. Terje is the man.”
“Ugh, I was so rough that show. But it’s every Tuesday 10.30pm, and I’ve gotta keep going. I don’t cancel, ever. There’s been times where I’ve gone to Australia or wherever, and I’ve needed to do a prerecorded show, but that happens only around once a year. Let’s take Jack and Mike this week: these two guys are on the show live, we’re drinking and chatting, having fun; mistakes get made, but I cherish that feeling.”
“[Spluttering, uncontrollable laughter] I mean…it is just the best.”
“I need to do that for the Beats in Space hotline number. That’s already what it is, basically.”
“It’s been almost four years I’ve been doing these polaroids now, so I’m going to keep them going. Maybe when I reach the 10 year mark, I’ll do something with them. I have them at home in books, and it looks amazing. It would be really cool to do something at some point, for sure.”
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Well, hopefully this will suffice for now. For more information on our BiS anniversary broadcast / party, head over here.
– by Gabriel Szatan
