There is a great difference between a radio personality and a DJ, even though the two are often confused. Most mainstream radio stations are stocked with radio personalities. Like conveyor belts for commercially viable pop-music, they indiscriminately pass along sludge to the masses. A listener’s loyalty to a station won’t depend on the kind of music the station plays (they all play the same music after all), so much as it depends on the plucky hijinks and gimmicks mustered up by the radio personality. The “DJ’s” personality ends where the music begins because the station’s music programmer has determined all of the musical choices. And his choices are made by careful statistical analysis of the market trends and… probably a whole lot of charts and graphs. Aaron Byrd, on the other hand is a DJ. As a DJ for KCRW, he is among only a few “tastemakers” left in the business. And just like Mike Hynson and Robert August searching for the perfect wave in Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer, Aaron Byrd constantly travels the world’s music “in search of the perfect groove.”
“I want the show to sound seamless,” says Byrd. This sounds relatively simple and self-evident, but it’s much more difficult than it may first appear. “In a three-hour program,” Aaron explains, “anybody can pick 40 to 60 great songs or really good songs. But three great songs in a row don’t necessarily sound great back to back to back. And sometime that means that you literally have to become very intimate with each individual track that you’re playing.” Aaron’s fluid style of DJ-ing stands in contrast with the abrupt, intrusive, and sloppy work of many mainstream radio personalities. And while these personalities are only allowed to shine a few minutes here and there between impersonal blocks of music and commercials, Aaron’s personality infuses itself throughout his entire 3-hour show.
In the course of a single block you’ll have gone from Brazil to Greece to Tuva to Peru to Louisiana to Germany. “The station is about being eclectic. That’s the KCRW motto,” says Byrd, “so in that realm of being eclectic it makes it that much more difficult to have the seamless transitions, and surprise people, and go from a funk tune into a salsa track into a psychedelic folk song.” And this is an art form Aaron is always improving. The attention he pays to his craft and his ability to dig deep and mine out unique musical experiences are what have placed him among the well-respected ranks of KCRW DJs.
Since the inception of shows like Morning Becomes Eclectic in 1978, KCRW has earned a reputation as champion of new and excellent music from all over the world. Aaron grew up listening to KCRW. And for the past three years he has continued to reinforce that reputation.
Aaron Byrd got his start from Garth Trinidad, another KCRW DJ and ardent defender of the art of the DJ. While pursuing an engineering degree at UCLA, Aaron moonlighted as a volunteer at KCRW. “To my surprise, when you volunteer, after a certain amount of time you have the option to eventually become an assistant to a DJ,” Byrd explains. He was given three training sessions from three DJs of his choice, the third of which was Garth Trinidad. “After the show… he said, ‘Look, man, to be completely honest with you, I’ve been looking for a brother of your caliber for a long time. If this is something you’re interested in doing, let me know’… I was amazed. I was thinking—and I still tell Garth to this day—‘You are crazy!’ I had literally just met him three hours before him offering this.” Just a few months prior, Aaron had made the commitment to somehow make music his career. “I loved music too much and I needed to pursue it somehow, someway. And this is actually after the course of years of people telling me I had a great voice for radio . . . But when Garth presented this opportunity, I felt like it wasn’t something I could pass up. This was the universe telling me, ‘Here you go.’ ” This impromptu meeting in the KCRW parking lot had suddenly taken a spectacular turn. “My favorite quote,” says Aaron, “is ‘At the moment of commitment the universe conspires to help you.’ ” And when the universe conspires to help you like that, you don’t turn it down. “Garth is as smooth as butter, cool as a fan. So in front of him I had to act real cool. I was like, ‘Yeah man, ok, ok.’ But I was jumpin’ up and down like a little girl on the inside—believe me.” Eventually Aaron earned a weekly spot on the schedule, and he pursues each show with excellence. “It only happens once a week, so I want to make it special each and every time. I want it to be an experience that people remember.”
About his show, Byrd says, “I try my best to really have a constant groove and sort of seamless transitions. I want the entire program to just kind of blend in together.” Aaron balances a careful, close attention to his craft with a visceral, intuitive approach that gives way to the rhythm of the universe. “I think perhaps the best and easiest way to doing it is by not thinking about doing it,” says Aaron. “And what I mean by that is staying true to myself and staying true to what I feel like sounds good, feels good, and just the overall sense of what feels right.”
These people who provide the soundtracks to our lives: Gurus of the good groove; shamans of the sound waves; ambassadors of the eclectic; cultivators of culture—DJs brave the chaos, rocket around the globe, bringing pieces of the human experience we’d otherwise never experience. Aaron Byrd is miner, a deep-sea diver, an astronaut—a true DJ, who lives in the realm of the eclectic.
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Written by Adam Hildebrand
Aaron Byrd, KCRW DJ, sweeps the globe week after week in pursuit of great music. Listeners tune in to his show as he practices the art of the DJ and creates that elusive “perfect groove.”
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