KNOW a KAOS DJ: DJ Mason, Call Me Up

What's your name? Mason Bornyasz, no joke

What's your show called? Call Me Up, I'm also hosting the potentially very temporary "Tape Show!" Tuesdays at 11am.

What's your show about? Call Me Up is a show where artists of varying genres (and sometimes mediums!) perform a 20-30 minute set over a telephone call. The result is a uniquely low fidelity intimate sound. I think experimentation & oddball vibes are the unifying factor for the artists I choose to feature? Even I don't know most of the time. "Tape Show!" is an hour long show to expose the airwaves to rare & newly released magnetized compact audio cassettes! Wide range of quality and genre, all dedicated to the people’s format: cassettes. Mostly dug from my personal collection & the KAOS crypt.

When and how did you start at KAOS? I was born and raised in San Diego, but moved up to Oly in April of this year. Heavily influenced by the vast history of independent art and community here. Last summer I stopped by a few shows in Oly for the first time and immediately felt a sense of belonging and welcoming by the rad folks here. Immediately upon returning home from that vacation I knew I had to move up here & continue my education at Evergreen. I started my DJ training this past summer, started working here and DJing quickly after.

Do you remember the first song you ever played on-air? Rob Walmart - Waterskiing In Canada

Rob Walmart is a nationally touring band / man. He was found wandering the streets of Dusseldorf in 1997 with no paperwork to his name. He became a local legend, frequently breaking into people's basements to play their keyboards. No one knew where he ate or slept. Cops were fine with it, everyone loved him. At some point, between then and now, he moved to philly, then portland, and now divides his time between eastern Canada and various cities on the west coast of the United States. He's recorded over 1000 hours of fully improv'd jams, but this is perhaps his best known hit.

What’s the most memorable moment you’ve had live on the air? I try to not remember anything I say or do on the air to avoid embarrassment

How do you prepare for a show — or do you just wing it? Usually for Tape Show! I assemble something the previous week, then throw it out the night before and wing it. Call Me Up sets are more planned.

What’s something you wish more people knew about community radio? You can just walk in here most of the time! Come talk to me and the other staff about art / music, find your niche to volunteer at the station if you want! We're really nice and cool.

What’s the last song you completely fell in love with? Kath Bloom & Loren Connors -  My Baby Cries

I was listening to a long Alan Licht / Loren Connors drone jam while working my other retail job (as one does) and this came on shuffle at the end. I almost burst into tears! Even as I think about the lyrics & beautiful wailing of Connors' guitar now, it still makes me emotional. "Yesterday I talked with my father / He said that we could never win / It's so hard to tell where I end / And my father begins". Man!!!

What record made the biggest impact on your life? Welcome Nowhere by Thanksgiving. Really any Thanksgiving record. Introduced me to zen, the deeper PNW scene, and helped me start my own independent label.

What was your first concert? First one I remember my parents bringing me to (and actually looking forward to) was Weird Al at the Del Mar Fair in San Diego. I think I still have a t shirt from it? An early obsession with Weird Al contributed to my current personality in a deeper way than I can even explain. Second was King Gizzard at the Hollywood Palladium in 2018 / 2019.

What’s your favorite local music memory from where you grew up? Oh man! Too many! Shout out to The Brown Building, 61st House Ever, Make Believe DIY, and (some of) the folks at The Che Cafe. And all of you experimental show organizer homies I'm forgetting to name. Saw Little Wings once at the 61st house, he did a nearly 2 hour solo set and mid-way through a rocket launched and send a light stream through the sky as he was playing Look At What The Light Did Now. Magical night.

What’s your favorite local band or artist right now? I'm still constantly discovering new bands here! Moving to a new scene rules. Discovered that Reid Urban is doing some wacky stuff on bandcamp. Moving the local bounds a bit, I've been really heavily into Power Strip from Seattle lately.

What artist do you like that would surprise your audience and friends the most? Hard to pick since I talk about all my music with everyone, but I'm a deeeeeeeeeep Missy Elliott fan. Like to the core.

What artist do you not like that would surprise your audience and friends the most? I have never listened to an Elliott Smith song, and if I told anyone I did it was a boldfaced lie. Sorry. Its not a deep hate, just haven't dug into him. I do deeply hate Bar Italia though. Too emotionally despondent.

If you could interview any musician—living or dead—on your show, who would it be? I'm not really a big interview guy... I reluctantly do them on Call Me Up but most of the time I don't have any important questions for artists I enjoy. I mean, a lot of my favorite artists are very explicit in their music, or are so obscured in absurdity that I doubt I could get any coherence out of them.

Actually, changed my mind, the Goodiepal.

What are a few of your desert island discs? I'd take Zaireeka and spend a year trying to start all the CDs perfectly in sync. Leave it on loop for the following years to come. Really anything by the Goodiepal too, just to try and make sense of his lectures & connect the dots presented in his DJ AUDIO $VAR series. My current (incomplete) digital collection of them is over 60 hours...