TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — For many Taiwanese, it’s almost unthinkable that radio stations could still serve as cultural epicenters in the streaming age.
However, for musical artists who aspire to be discovered internationally, stations like KEXP, NPR, and NTS Radio have fostered enduring communities led by trusted, seasoned curators — forces that resist replacement by even the most finely tuned algorithms.
For Darek Mazzone, a veteran DJ at Seattle’s KEXP, it was less a matter of strategy and more of serendipity: right time, right place.
In 1992, a young Mazzone set out on a cross-country drive from Boston, a city he left behind with a heavy heart, in the company of a few close friends. Fatefully, the car broke down outside of Seattle, and he settled down.
It was the early '90s in Seattle, a time when grunge music and software giants blossomed side by side, creating a city brimming with opportunities and uncharted wonder. With previous experiences doing college radio and DJing clubs, Mazzone found KCMU (which later became KEXP), where he could continue working on music.
For a couple of months, he did the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift on Monday for the station while having a full-time job at an advertising agency. At the age of 26, he could stay up and do a job that he loved so much.
The zeitgeist compelled him to push the boundaries of traditional radio, blending in poets, sound collages, and live bands that caught the attention of music aficionados. At first, it was just a local community, but an international following soon formed, fueled by their early embrace of internet technology.
“It’s not really overly tied to a particular culture of language, so you have got a whole bunch of people that know about KEXP all over the world,” said Mazzone.
However, for years, the station operated under the University of Washington’s purview, teetering on the edge of closure whenever budgets tightened. The staff of the station finally managed to form an organization “Friends of KEXP” to get a broadcast license and go independent in 2000, and the rest is history.
It may not be easy to replicate the success of KEXP. Mazzone likened KEXP’s journey to that of TSMC, noting that such a legacy comes from years of trust and relationship-building.
“You can’t make new old friends,” he said. “ I would not suggest somebody trying to become the next KEXP. That's not going to work. Become the next thing that could make a relevance to your community.”
Sixteen years ago, KEXP launched a live session series on YouTube that has gradually become an essential stage for any artist. The series not only introduces fans to raw, unfiltered performances from every corner of the globe but also spotlights KEXP’s vast musical taste.
“Those sessions become EPKs. So we’re constantly offering an opportunity to the artists that we care about so their careers can grow,” said Mazzone.
So far, a few Taiwanese acts have been invited to the iconic studio, including math rock trio Elephant Gym, minimalist/experimental outfit Go Go Machine Orchestra, and psych-rock brother duo Mong Tong, all of which have built solid international fanbases.
“Whatever you are doing, find the DJ who’s playing music that you think could work, and then you got to pitch to them. You have got to connect. They can make suggestions. There is no bureaucracy,” Mazzone suggested to those who long to be featured.
Last month, Mazzone flew to Taipei to participate in the annual “World Music Festival @ Taiwan” event that took place at the Taipei Music Center, along with numerous international delegates and artists. In his 50s, he looked energetic with his newly-bought gimbal camera which he used to shoot around curiously.
As always, he was looking for unique stories. “What is to be Taiwanese? Where does that go? How does this Taiwanese artist connect with me?”
He kept asking these questions. Even when he saw the performance of the Indigenous songstress ChihChih Kuo (郭芝吟), whom he dubbed the “Erykah Badu of Taiwan,” he was wondering how a specific Western musical genre found fertile ground in another country and blossomed.
There is a reason why Mazzone has been drawn to world music, or to be more precise, music from all over the world. He was born in Poland, and later moved to the US in 1974 with his mother. It was definitely a culture shock to him, since Poland was such a homogenous communist country.
“One of my first friends was an African-American kid. And suddenly the other white kids are like, ‘What the hell are you doing, hanging out with this kid?’ In Poland at that time, there were no black people. It was just amazing.
“Poland didn't have colonies. Nobody speaks Polish in Africa. So there was none of the connotation of that. And so I'm suddenly learning about racism, learning about these tensions, but I cannot speak the language.”
Besides DJing at KEXP, Mazzone also launched a label recently, and during the pandemic he started SAMA, a platform that showcases deeper stories of artists from a variety of regions. “We celebrate diversity because the world is becoming much flatter.”
These endeavors complement his role at KEXP, which he has been doing for so long that he realized he could do more than that. “Anything that you do, there are certain limitations in that space. You could be writing for a newspaper or magazine, and suddenly you are like, ‘Well, it's time to write a book and then maybe it's time to do a podcast’.”
Mazzone never stops learning about different cultures. On the day he arrived in Taipei, he went to Raohe Night Market and was amazed at the taste of pepper buns, some seafood, and “honey-glazed sweet potatoes.”
“You cannot describe it, you have to be in it. I cannot even tell my friends back home,” Mazzone mused on how experiencing Taiwan’s local flavors echoed his passion for uncovering world music’s diversity. “That is why I like that genre because I need to learn something new.”