Mød Amazing Radio

Inden SPOT Festival 2019 introducerer vi dig til flere af de internationale branchepersoner, som har bekræftet deres deltagelse på årets SPOT Festival. Her kan du møde Dani Charlton fra Amazing Radio. Du kan møde alle MXD’s internationale gæster til MXD’s Superbowl, vores årlige SPOT networking-arrangement mellem den internationale og danske musikbranche, som finder sted lørdag d. 4. maj i Aarhus Bowlinghal.

Name: Dani Charlton

Company: Amazing Radio

Based in: London

Can you tell us a bit about the media’s history and profile? Amazing Radio was founded in 2010 as an online and DAB station in the UK with the wish to promote new and emerging artists, and that’s still what we aim to do, through a main playlist and specialist programming. Artists we’ve championed some considerable time before they were signed or picked up wider coverage include Alt-J, The Japanese House, Sam Fender, CHVRCHES, the 1975 and Daughter, the latter of which connected with their current management after they heard their exceptional demo on-air.

– and a bit about the acts you personally have covered recently? My specialism is Nordic music, so recent artists I’ve featured include Fieh, iris, MANX, Julia Rakel, Sunx and Melby, but I also play a lot of East Asian music too, so bands like Otoboke Beaver, Say Sue Me, Maison Book Girl, CHAI, Drinking Boys and Girls Choir as well.

What was the moment you decided you wanted to work with music? I’ve always been into music and worked in record shops straight out of school, but I can remember what really shifted my interest was when I noticed how the music affected the environment of the shop I was working in. We’d gone from the soundtrack being a blend of tracks via an in-store radio service, to listening to the same 5 albums for a solid month, and it got to the point where I watched everyone I work with cringe in unison during the opening chords of ‘America’ by Razorlight, and everyone was becoming really unhappy at work. It made me appreciate how a good mix of tracks, and some human warmth introducing them, can change a whole environment. I’d always been an avid listener to the radio as a means to find new music to love, and with the firehose of information online I still really valued the strong curatorial voices of radio presenters, who did the deep diving and shared the pearls they found each week – a week later I’d quit that job, applied for a Master’s degree in production and never looked back.

What are your favourite Danish acts? Some of the obvious ones – Mew, Efterklang, MØ, Agnes Obel etc., but I also love artists like Kill J, Sleep Party People, Lowly, Vera, Penny Police, Cancer, Nelson Can, Lydmor, SIBA, AyOwA, Soleima….I’ll stop there for now! At SPOT I’m really looking forward to catching Goss, School of X, Ea Kaya, Ida Wenøe and hopefully to see Chinah and M.I.L.K. again, but equally I want to see artists, who I’ve never heard of before, so I can find some new favourites.

Best show you’ve ever seen hands down? Sufjan Stevens on the Age of Adz tour. Glitter, streamers, neon tape, balloons, dance routines, costume changes, actual mechanical wings and just unfiltered joy, from both the musicians and the crowd.

….and an honorable mention to Alphabeat – one of the best pop shows I’ve been to!