DJ Name: President Shrimpo
Show Name: Fireside Chats
Show Description: Do you like rock and roll? Do you enjoy eating raw onions like apples? Would you vote for President Shrimpo for four nonconsecutive presidential terms? If you said yes to any of these questions you should listen to Fireside Chats with President Shrimpo! Fireside Chats is the preeminent place to find music on this hemisphere of the Earth, so listen or you’ll feel a great sense of emptiness in your life!
I know the music you grew up listening to is a big part of the music you gravitate towards… What other influences are present in your sets?
So much of my taste in music definitely comes from my parents, but I’ve been really fortunate to have a lot of friends who also loved music a lot. And so like, I have a friend who was like, super into Oingo Boingo and that got me into a new wave phase and that definitely has influenced me. I’m also watching video essays about music which has helped me broaden my horizons and pick out stuff that I don’t think I would have ever found just by, you know, listening to the music my parents do.
What is the story behind your DJ name and show name?
Okay, so there’s layers to the story. Over the pandemic, I really fixated on American, presidential, and political history. I liked the idea of theming myself around that. I also find silly little critters like shrimp and worms and stuff funny. There was a live stream series that this guy Zach Hadel did, called the very positive stream, where he would draw things and take suggestions. One of the things that he drew was the assassination of President Shrimpo Jones. And that was just such a silly thing to me that I sort of thought of that while I was coming up with my DJ name, so I pretty directly lifted that. And then Fireside Chats is a reference to FDR and his Fireside Chats because it was like, you know, that’s sort of like the most famous thing a president has ever done on the radio. And so I thought, I should have my own Fireside Chats.
What is your favorite aspect of being a DJ?
I love the sense of community that we have here that I like and like the friendships that I’ve built with other DJs. I love being around people who care about music in the same way that I do, even if it’s not the same music. That’s just something that’s very special to me. For example, young iowa has a metal show and I don’t personally like metal but I love hanging out with young iowa during his set, Feedback, just because he loves that kind of music in the same way that I love my own music. So that’s something that’s very special to me. I also love being able to share my music with complete strangers. I have a number of people who regularly call into my set. I don’t know them… I might know some of their names but they’re essentially strangers to me. But we are able to talk about something that we both really love and that’s very special to me.
Do you have a favorite phone call you’ve ever gotten?
Okay, so I have this guy who regularly calls into my set. Before I even knew his name, I always knew that it was him calling me because he would always tell me what he was doing while he was listening to my set. He would call in and say I’m doing the dishes or I’m out in my garage or whatever. Most recently, he called in and told me after we were done talking about the music, he said, I’m gonna go back to cooking my beans now, and I just thought that was a really funny moment.
How has your show evolved over time?
I would say, like, on a technical level, my show has changed because the first semester or so of me being a DJ I would always script everything I would say beforehand. I also didn’t have a good system of structuring how many songs I would put between air breaks. But I ended up doing a joint set with my friend young iowa and he does his shows very differently from how I did mine. He improvises everything he says and has a very strict pattern of blocks of three songs in between air breaks. I tried that and found that it really worked for me and I was able to have more structure to my sets and also gave me more room to improvise more and talk more naturally on air. I also changed the sort of music I play. Early on, I just wanted to exclusively play punk and post punk. But over time I have mellowed out and have been more receptive to playing more pop stuff. I think in the beginning I had some misconceptions about what was acceptable to play on college radio, and so I think my intentions of what I want to play changed over time.
Do you have any guilty pleasure music?
I definitely have some stuff that I would not play on air, but mostly because it’s, like, more popular. Like I love Nirvana and I really enjoy The Beatles and Arctic Monkeys. But like, none of that stuff would fit in with my show and I might also get some flack for playing that on a college radio station because those aren’t like… deep cuts. I also love really goofy old country music. I play some of that on air but that’s mostly self indulgence.
Any messages for the constituents of your nation?
My 2024 campaign trail is in full swing. I’m going to keep fighting hard to institute a shrimp backed currency. Additionally, in my second term I’m going to mandate free ponies for everybody. If I’m re-elected to a second term things are going to get way better.
