Author: WKNC Admin

Get Psyched intro music was created by PME, used by permission. Find PME on Spotify.

Get Psyched Podcast Episode Highlight: DIY Series ft. The Saw

Photo contributed by The Saw
Erika aka ‘The Saw’ is a DJ at WKNC and has also been the Chainsaw music director for over three years now. She’s worked multiple other positions including Content Creator and Content Manager. As NACC’s DJ of the month for June 2019, The Saw has also emceed the state fair and introduced the buried and in 2018 and 2019. She also taught 2 workshops at the CBI convention! The Saw’s work is endless also including Interviewing bands, writing blog posts for WKNC and a personal website, hosting ‘The Saw’s Electric Chair Heavy Metal Podcast’, and so much more.

In this episode, The Saw gives us insight into how she got into metal and how it set her on her current path. Both her parents are metalheads who met in a moshpit ‘It’s in my roots’ she said. The DJ was also exposed to metal through her brothers who were in local bands and was involved with the scene as early as age 14 when she first went to Carolina Rebellion. ‘This is where I’m supposed to be, this is where I belong’, she said she knew this as soon as the show started ‘it filled a void in my heart’, after this she said ‘metal was always there for me’.

As far as getting into working at WKNC the DJ says her father told her about the station and suggested she try out DJing Chainsaw. She said she had no idea before and when she checked she saw that no one was currently in the genre. This is where she decided to fill the gap and started her mission to share metal with more people and make sure people see how special the genre is.

This is where Erika’s mission comes in. ‘There’s a stigma that metalheads are mean and you can’t talk to them’ she says. ‘The music might sound one way but the people are very kind’. Erika wants to show people the truth behind the genre and that there’s no need to stigmatize or judge based on how the music might sound. Since metal got her out of a rut, she wants to do anything she can to give back to the music. She says metal is an underground genre right now, so she wants to do all she can to shine some light on the genre and the bands in it, ‘I wouldn’t be here without the local bands’. This is why the saw started ‘The Bone Cruncher’, her local band metal segment at WKNC. This helped ‘The Butcher Shop’, another segment of The Saw’s, take off. 

As I mentioned, The Saw has a website, attached below, is where she showcases all of her work. She plans to use the site to continue her work after college, using it as a ground base. She soon realized ‘I can really do something with this website’. She considers all of these platforms a way to show off all the band’s hard work, and she enjoys her role in the community. Especially being able to support these bands. She said she loves ‘Seeing the community come together’ and that ‘The DIY scene in all genres, it’s all helping one another out’. She’s participated in many benefit shows and says seeing the people come together is really what makes it worth it and what keeps her going. She enjoys the friendship and commodity of the scene. ‘You can be happy, metal isn’t that sad to be honest’.

As The Saw says ‘i’ve been a metalhead my entire life, it’s a lifestyle for me’ ‘my blood type is type O-neg, (which is) a metal band… that’s not a coincidence’.

– ‘You can’t get rid of DJ Psyched and The Saw’
Learn more about The Saw in The Saw’s Butcher Shop. The PsychoSaw Series continues on The Saw’s Electric Chair podcast.

Get Psyched intro music was created by PME, used by permission. Find PME on Spotify.

Get Psyched Podcast Episode Highlight: DIY Series ft. Pat Danger

Pat Danger, photo contributed by the artist
Pat Danger is an independent musician from New Jersey who’s been making music for almost two years. On describing his sound he says “I don’t want to box myself in but it’s definitely hip-hop… lo-fi to houseparty, or anything in between.” A lot of his music can be found on his SoundCloud, but he’s also recently been posting his newer tracks on Spotify. He is now on a personal mission of releasing a new track every Friday.

When I asked Pat about how he got into creating music he said he’s always been a big fan of music and was known to freestyle at parties around friends. It was just for fun and he never really saw it as anything else, until he decided he wanted to try making an EP. He went out to Best Buy and got a starter mic, some software and found some beats online to start recording over. This was around the time he moved out of Jersey and had a bit of free time, but when we recorded together he was back in the city and full-time in school and work; all his free time still went to music.

We then talked about how he balances all of his commitments with his music making, and he told me that the way he sees it, it’s all about not allowing yourself to make excuses. “Anyone can do it, I’m not superman or anything.” He switched all of his classes online so he could be in control of his schedule, and said that making excuses is in the past. “There’s a lot of time in the day, the less time you spend on the phone or wasting away…  you do have a tone of time even if you are doing a bunch of things.”

After he started creating, he also started using Reddit as a place to share his tracks with others and also find people to collaborate with. This is how he ended up meeting his first producer. He says he does not have any goals of being rich or famous, but just wants to put his words out there.

When we talked about ‘making it’ he said he feels like since he was able to put music out there he’s made it, but something cooler can always happen, and each new milestone feels even better then the last; and he’s always happy to see where things go.

What matters to him most is to just be genuine and get himself out there naturally. He’s not into networking or looking for clout, he just does what works for him. We talked about putting work out there and how scary it can be sometimes, especially being nervous for judgement. He says he wants to make sure he’s never too stubborn, and has been focusing on receiving criticism and feedback well. “I try to take the mature mindset (with feedback).”

His charismatic nature and love for freestyling led him to meet his most recent producer at a party. He said it felt kind of like fate since he was looking for some beats and his producer was looking for someone who can rap. The first track they put out together was “Tennessee” and, on his most recent mission to release new tracks every Friday, Pat has put out “Dead by The Morning” feat. downside and “Gritty Freestyle” on Spotify.

On his recent releases he says ‘I’m trying to make something that I think is good’.

Learn more about Pat Danger on Soundcloud, Spotify and Instagram.

– DJ Psyched