Subverse Radio

Subverse Radio is a new electronic dance music station and club night in Oxford. On air every Sunday to Wednesday in the run-up to their fortnightly slot at Cellar, they’re owning EDM in all its variety right now – from the nostalgic grooves of their show ‘The Attic’ to the deep house and old school garage of ‘Just Say No’. Skins (Alex Hinkson), PRVDNT (Maria Fred Perevedentseva) and Jezebel (James Shirley) let us know what they’re all about.

Tell us about the playlist you’ve done for the Oxford Tab.
It’s basically a hotchpotch of what we’re digging right now, and the types of tracks you’re likely to hear if you tune in or come to one of our nights. Also if you’re new to this kind of music, it’s a good springboard because it has the classic masters in there as well as new heavyweights.

Why did you get started?
Raw Cuts, which is one of our shows, used to broadcast on Oxide last year but we wanted to create our own hub, which would play only the music we wanted, set the tone we wanted. I guess we just wanted to do things on our own terms.

Tell us a little bit about what you do.
The radio is the main bulk of what we do, we broadcast in the evenings from Sunday through to Wednesday. Everyone rolls up with a motherlode of new tracks, and we get to sift through them all, it’s great. All our shows have totally different sounds, and different approaches so it’s wicked when we get to sit and watch someone else work the studio.

Then we have the club night at the Cellar (on Wednesdays of odd weeks of term) with us as resident DJs and special guests. We have two cracking acts lined up for 3rd and 5th week, by the way, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Alongside this is our blog (subverseradio.com) which we want to expand big time, to feature reviews, articles etc. We want it to be a go-to place if you want to find out what’s happening on the Oxford scene.

How would you describe your music?
It’s electronic dance music, across the spectrum. We want to air it all as long as it’s good. We use the House/Techno/Garage/Bass blanket because it conceals all the sins as it were but if you listen to the shows then there’s Hip-Hop, UK Funky, Hardcore, even dubstep.

Though people are mad scared of liking dubstep these days so we don’t talk about that one too much!

Who would be your ideal guest?
That’s a tough one. I guess Joy O is big cheese right now, so that would be cool, or the Hessle Audio crew because they’re so bloody laid back and groovy. On the rare occasions when Burial gives interviews, he’s got a really interesting attitude to his music, but that’s never going to happen is it – that boy doesn’t like publicity.

What are your plans for the station?
We want to take over the world man! No, that’s not true. We just want to expand, broadcast for more hours, represent everything we can get our mitts on, that sort of thing.

What do you think about Oxide?
Ah well it’s not great is it. Student radio was a big deal, and it should still be but I don’t know, no one seems to care what Oxide is doing unfortunately…

How would you defend claims that you’re the coolest group of kids in town?
Hahaaa have such claims been made?! That’s one thing we really don’t want, this hipster barrier or whatever it is. It’s about the music and that’s that.

On facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SubverseRadio
On twitter: https://twitter.com/SubverseRadio
Blog: subverseradio.com