In early December, I sat down with Maddie Breeden, a Barnard junior majoring in political science who has found ways to pursue her passion for music in a new setting—being a DJ for Barnard’s radio station, WBAR, and a frequent performer at Postcrypt Coffeehouse, an on-campus acoustic music venue.
GRACE: So, how many years have you been a WBAR DJ?
MADDIE: I’ve been a DJ since my freshman year, first semester. So, three years.
GRACE: What made you initially interested in being a WBAR DJ?
MADDIE: Well, I knew when I was looking at colleges that I really wanted to work at the radio station. It’s something I’ve wanted to do my whole life because I’ve always loved music so much, and especially sharing the music I love with other people.
GRACE: Can you tell me about your show?
MADDIE: I’ve done the same show the whole time; I’ve just kind of updated and expanded it. My show is called Identify with Fiction, and I take one of my favorite books every week and I make a playlist about it. I love to read, so I’ll pick out a section of the text I really love and read it out loud. My favorite show that I’ve done was for Normal People, so it’s very Celtic-inspired playlists and then I’ll quote something from the book. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple of semesters, but now I’m incorporating more poetry, or sometimes I’ll read things that I’ve written. It’s ever-evolving.
GRACE: You said you read things on the show. What’s it like being on air? Do you enjoy that aspect of it?
MADDIE: I love it; it’s so fun because I have people at home who listen, like family members, so it’s a way for them to hear me and for me to talk to them. But also, it’s just so empowering because you can’t see who’s listening, you can only see how many listeners you have. So I get very excited, like, “I have a lot of listeners today!”
GRACE: Do you ever feel like a little bit vulnerable or nervous about it? Like, you have to have confidence in your music taste; do you ever have doubts?
MADDIE: I mean sometimes, like talking to other people if they don’t like my music taste, but I feel like your WBAR show is a space to fully love your music and just share it, you know? So I don’t really feel self conscious about that in any way shape or form. If you don’t like it, don’t listen.
GRACE: Can we talk about the WBAR community? What it’s like?
MADDIE: The WBAR Community… when we get together it’s very positive, very supportive, because it’s a bunch of people who are really interesting and all like very different types of music. I feel like that’s what’s really special about WBAR. Our shows and our DJs are so different. We have such a range of tastes, so it’s really interesting to talk to people. We’re still working on rebuilding the community post-COVID because for the last year and a half, we couldn’t really do anything community-wise. So it was really individual—you’d just come in and do your show and leave. But now we can have guests in the studio… it feels like WBAR is coming back which is a great feeling.
GRACE: What is your role as promotions director for WBAR?
MADDIE: Basically I do the publicity for WBAR. I’ll post on Instagram, I’ll make some fliers. I made the WBAR t-shirts for the barbeque last year.
GRACE: Do you have any interest in pursuing a career in radio?
MADDIE: I don’t think so; I think radio is definitely a very fun outlet for me. I feel like throughout my life music has always been an outlet and it’s just taken different forms. Like in elementary school I was in band. In middle school, I was also in band. And then in high school I learned electric guitar and bass, and now I do WBAR, you know? So as long as I have that form of expression somehow.
GRACE: So you play a few instruments, and you sing, you’ve played PostCrypt a few times. Tell me about that.
MADDIE: It’s a very chill environment; they usually have three artists in one night and you just go and play… I really like it because I want to get better at recording the stuff I write, but it’s a lot of time and work, and school’s very demanding. So it’s a nice way to show my friends and people I care about what I’m working on.
GRACE: When did you start writing music?
MADDIE: I got very into female indie rock artists when I was 15. I was in love with Snail Mail. Like in love. Like I need to be her. So I started really writing a lot and I’ve been doing it since.
GRACE: What do you like to write about?
MADDIE: I don’t know. Just my feelings. Being honest about various things. I try not to have a preconceived idea of what poetry and writing should be. I feel like some people definitely do, and that’s annoying because it’s a form of expression of whatever you’re feeling. I stand by it.
GRACE: Have you ever recorded any of your stuff?
MADDIE: Yeah, during lockdown I recorded a little EP and put it on Bandcamp. I’m glad I did it but it was also recorded on GarageBand. It’s very, very lo-fi.
GRACE: Where do you see your music career going, ideally?
MADDIE: Ideally I’d really like to be in a band because I think it’s so fun to play with other people and have a full sound. And I want to record more stuff.
GRACE: Do you want to be a musician?
MADDIE: Not professionally, but it’s something I always want to do on the side here and there because I think it really balances me out. I don’t want to put pressure on it because then it’s not a hobby anymore or something you get to enjoy.
GRACE: To wrap up, what do you love about music?
MADDIE: I love music because, if you get really into a song, you’re transported… time flies by, it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just such a freeing feeling.