TL: As a female musician, I encountered a lot of sexism. Male recording engineers, club promoters, and male musicians assumed I couldn’t play and rarely took me seriously until I proved myself, which often meant enduring patronizing or, worse, outright hostile gigging environments. Have you found a more welcoming atmosphere in your end of the industry? How is it for female djs, in general? I imagine you might get some pretty fucked up emails from bands you’ve rejected or irate listeners. And, I am curious if there is any proving for you as well.
KC: Oh, tons, and the women are just as bad as the men in the biz. It’s very competitive. There are only a finite number of spots available, so it’s tough to get in. You must have a very thick skin. Fortunately, I work with a great bunch of people right now and that isn’t a thought in my head, not like it was when I was starting out. I had an old Program Director once say he was thinking of making me and another aspiring female dj mud wrestle for an open part-time slot. I quickly told him where to stick his mud idea. You have to be ballsy and propelled by a blind faith that it will all work out in the end. As far as listeners, well, they’re very important, and I appreciate anyone who hangs out and tunes in. I get the love emails and occasionally the hate emails. The emails of hate stay with you for a while. They come from nowhere: “I hate you and your voice. Why don’t you shut the fuck up.” I don’t know this person. All I said was, “Radiohead up next on KROQ.” It’s hard to shake it off sometimes. Band rejections are difficult. I have a policy on my page that says we’ll hit you back if we like it. No one likes rejection, and I do not take it lightly when I toss a cd away because it’s terrible. If I can offer suggestions I will, like get your singer to a voice coach STAT.
TL: You are working on your first novel, The Darcy Effect. What inspired the burst of creative writing?
KC:
I’ve always written stories, but this one in particular was inspired
by a trip I took to
TL: This past spring, you made “This is My SX,” a documentary film on the SXSW Music and Media Conference. What was the impetus for the film—why a film about SXSW? What was your favorite part of making the film? And, where can readers view the film?
KC: The film wasn’t planned. I went to SXSW with a bag of tapes and a camera with the attitude of let’s just see what I get. As it turned out, I got a ton of interviews with bands, shot them live and a few hotel room POV shots and I had my adventure on tape. I just wanted to show my personal experience at the festival. It can be viewed on my page at www.kroq.com. My favorite part of making the film was watching the raw footage. People lose their minds at SXSW. Some of those shots were left on the cutting room floor.
TL: As a multi-genre artist, do you approach each medium differently? In other words, how is your approach to writing different or similar to your approach to your radio work or filmmaking?
KC: I write a lot for my radio show. Sometimes I think of something that might sound funny on the air and I’ll scratch it down in my notebook, so I can bust it out at a later time. I do the same for my novel. Writing a book takes many hours of isolation. I guess you could draw parallels to my radio job, as I stand alone in a box for a few hours talking to myself.
TL: What makes you want to express an idea in writing rather than in film?
KC: I love the collective effort of working on a film, but with writing I can do it all on my own. It’s a one woman show, which is nice because I do not have to work around someone else’s schedule. With the book I can manipulate the mood of a scene just by changing one word. I find that fascinating.
TL: OK, Kat, what is in the works for the future? New projects?
KC: Funny, you should ask. I’m currently shooting footage for a documentary on “The On Stage.” I am interviewing dj’s from all over about their experiences. I think people who go to concerts will find it interesting. I whacked my head on an amp and fell into the audience during my first onstage. The stories are endless.