In this conversation-style article, we aimed to learn more about each other through our encounters with music growing up in different places. As new digital press interns, we bonded over our unique and shared experiences and reflected on how our tastes have changed since becoming involved in LA’s music scene. We only hope that these memories and personal musical histories continue to grow as we spend more time working in digital press for UCLA Radio!
– Digital Press Interns W25
How do you feel your experience growing up affected your music taste?
Anna: I grew up in suburban, hillbilly Texas — pretty much surrounded by hunting and country music. I definitely strayed away from that, so I don’t think my geographic location had an impact on my music taste as much as not having access to, or hearing, that many different genres did. I mean, I straight up strictly listened to classical music and opera until age eight because that’s all my parents played. I didn’t know about American pop music or music culture at all. In addition to that, I played classical instruments in orchestras my whole life, so I think that really shaped my understanding of music and creating music as a very disciplined, perfectionist thing. I’ve been trying to break out of that and just become more creative and curious with how I engage with music, instead of it being so rigid.
Sofie: I lived in the Bay Area, so I had access to many great venues, like The Fox in Oakland and The Greek Theater in Berkeley. One of my favorite things to do was to secure (relatively) cheap tickets and see some awesome artists like Charli XCX, Clairo, The Backseat Lovers, and Kings of Leon with my friends. I also grew up doing musicals, so I had a lot of Broadway thrown at me at a young age — I still occasionally love revisiting those soundtracks. Though I will say, I think the biggest component that shaped my music taste was my family’s shared love of music. They showed me bands such as Phoenix, Band of Horses, and Young the Giant, some of which we’ve seen together in concert. That’s how I got introduced to a lot of indie and alternative music, through my family, actually.
Jackie: I grew up in San Diego, but I feel like what had more of an effect on my music taste was my family and my family’s Mexican, so obviously, we listened to Spanish music. Interestingly enough, when I was a kid, I rejected it because at school I was friends with people who listened to music in English or “Top 40” pop music, and I wanted to fit in. I think now I’ve found a good medium between the both of them and have returned to my roots. At the end of the day, my split music tastes were connected by a love of songwriting, and I’ve really tended to music that tells stories. In Mexican music, we have corridos, a genre that tells a narrative throughout a song. And although I was trying to reject that when I was younger, I liked Taylor Swift, which seems like a silly comparison, but songwriting is a big part of her appeal to people. So, I guess I was always interested in singer-songwriter music.
Mya: To frame my experience growing up with music, I would first have to tell the story of my dad, who had that California dream. He was from the Midwest—from Gary, Indiana, specifically–and he moved out West with his best friend and his brother with ambitions to start a band and to make it big, to work in Hollywood. He lived right here in LA for most of his young adult life… pursuing that dream, and it didn’t work out. He ended up becoming a science teacher, but he never really gave up his passion for music, and he transferred it to me. Even though I’m an only child, if I did have a sibling, I would definitely be the black sheep, the prodigal son, if you want to call it that, because he really did try and get me into his music, which was mostly ‘70s to ‘90s R&B music, Babyface, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston. I don’t think I’m that great of a singer, I was probably a little bit more pitch efficient than he was, so I sang a lot of his songs. And when I was a little girl, he would put me on stage a lot and get me to sing. Eventually, I got tired of it. I was rebellious. Then I had a reintroduction into music, into a passion for music, in my teenage years. I grew up in a small town called Rancho Cucamonga, and there’s not really much going on out there. It’s the Inland Empire, and it’s all a disparate place, but it shares a similar culture. A friend of mine introduced me to the underground indie rock scene that’s out there, which reflected a lot of the feelings that I felt about music, about my upbringing, about the relationship I had to where I was from. I say all of that to say that the IE favors a lot of angsty music: punk, heavy metal, goth, just anything that’s very angsty. It was the first time I ever felt connected to music in a real way. I wasn’t just a marionette doll. “I felt … alive,” sounds so saccharine, but that’s the word I can say. I felt really connected with it.
What’s been your biggest musical influence?
Anna: For a long time, I really, really loved R&B and pretty much stuck to that genre. After moving to California, one of my friends introduced me to hyper pop, and from there it spiraled — super hyper pop, ug rap, EDM heavy. It’s changed how I explore music and find artists, and has taught me a lot about music production as well. That’s why I’m shifting away from learning instruments and just performing to becoming more creative. My current plot is learning how to DJ for giggles and to have some musical projects of my own.
Sofie: I think my biggest musical influence, as I mentioned earlier, has been my family, especially my dad. He got me hooked on many of the artists I still love today, like Lana Del Rey and Beach House, who have become very nostalgic to listen to. He has definitely made the biggest impact on my music taste, and I still enjoy getting texts every once in a while with a new band or artist recommendation.
The Fox Theater, Oaklan
Jackie: I feel like my biggest musical influence was coming home after elementary school and sitting on my iPad, scrolling through iHeartRadio, and just clicking on any music I could find. When I got a little older, I started watching those YouTube music reaction channels and music reviewers. Since I was like 12 at the time, I hadn’t really thought about music critically, so I feel like this influenced how I interpreted music through more social or political lenses, which was especially important as I’m not really into making my own music, but I am interested in analyzing it. Plus, I think just having access to the internet and the time alone gave me an appreciation for all types of genres.
Mya: My biggest musical influence, if I had to be more granular, would probably be the indie scene in San Diego. I used to go out there a lot, literally every weekend during the summer, practically every day. I’d spend weeks there with my friends, just going to concerts, going to backyard shows, and it was really my first encounter with subculture. I don’t know if I would characterize the San Diego scene as countercultural, but I definitely would characterize it as subcultural. I feel like that’s what a lot of our generation is missing. Of course, we have internet subcultures, but we don’t really have places where you can go out and experience something and meet people while you’re doing it. It’s a very novel concept; we don’t really have stuff like that anymore, and something that’s affordable too, not like $500 to go see your favorite artist, or even more than that. I think that was such a big influence, and it changed the way that I look at art: something that requires context when analyzed, when made, and when written about.
How have your music tastes and experiences changed since spending more time in LA and starting college?
Anna: I already touched on this too much, haha, but exploring new music scenes has led me to so many cool events, venues, and communities. Just having that exposure to so many different artists from the diversity of all my friends and people here has shown me so much new music. Music can be such a big, formal production sometimes — I think there’s a huge disconnect there. When music is really big and artists are really big, you’re just such a fan. It’s so much harder to have the same appreciation for the music.
Sofie: I would say my music taste evolved through discovering smaller communities and sub-genres I became aware of once I started exploring LA. There are so many things that begin here; it’s much more personable, and it’s been interesting, as Anna mentioned, to encounter people from different places with such unique musical experiences. Because of that, I’ve been introduced to music I didn’t even know existed. Also, I grew up performing in open mics at little cafes, but a smaller, more intimate concert, where attendance caps out at around 200 people, was something new to be introduced to. In the Bay, most of what I was familiar with were more formal concert venues, and LA has opened my eyes to the variety of performance venue possibilities. I think that’s how my music experience has changed, which I love because my interests have only grown.
Mya: Honestly, I don’t think my taste has changed as much, or not in a way that’s really spurred by L.A. or by being at a university, but I will say that my proximity to music definitely has changed. After a while, I kind of aged out of the indie scenes, both in the I.E. and San Diego. But because there’s such a wide breadth of music in L.A., just being here, I’ve been able to do so many more pieces: going to concerts, concert reviews, interviews… I would only ever do interviews a handful of times out of the year. I don’t think I ever did a concert review prior to being in LA, and now I have so many lined up.
Jackie: In high school, I didn’t party a lot, so since coming to college, I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more into electronic and house music. Also with the friends I’ve made in college, I’ve had a way bigger space to be with other queer people, so I’ve gotten into artists like Arca and SOPHIE and that type of music. It’s been really cool, because I didn’t really get that at home. It’s also been fun to see college bands at house shows. Who knows, maybe they’ll blow up, and even if they don’t, it’s cool to support music by people who are our age at our school.
What is your most meaningful or defining music memory?
Anna: I only started going to concerts when I was in my senior year of high school because I was basically three hours away from a city big enough that anybody would ever come to. Shoutout my dad — the most supportive person ever — he took me to my first concerts. We went to see The Weeknd on a whim, and I bought the tickets 30 minutes before while we were stuck in traffic and somehow secured floor for 100 bucks. It was literally the best experience ever, getting to see one of my favorite artists at the time, and I always think back to how awesome and loving, and just cool my dad is.
Sofie: I think the most meaningful music memory I have is Outside Lands. That festival changed my life. It’s very close to my heart; it’s a family tradition, and the experience just reminds me of home. Outside Lands happens in Golden Gate Park, a beautiful part of San Francisco, where I have been lucky enough to see artists like The Maria’s, TV Girl, Cigarettes After Sex, Ethel Cain, Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Men I Trust, and more. Without fail, I eagerly anticipate it every year. My family actually already got our tickets–just counting down the days till mid-August!
Jackie: Okay, it’s gonna sound kind of corny, but my first concert was Panic! at the Disco when I was in eighth grade with my best friend, and I loved them so much at the time. It was really cool to be 13 and feel the euphoria of a concert – I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to recreate that dopamine release again. It was the first kind of moment where I felt I was surrounded by a room of people who had similar interests, and there were 15,000 of them. I think just being so young and being exposed to that was just really fun. Now, Panic! is my guilty pleasure music, so sometimes I’ll listen to “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” in secret.
Mya: I went to this concert at the Malibu Aviator Nation and saw Arcy Drive. Their music was super cool. They’re amazing live, but I wasn’t actually there for them. I had a friend who got me into the scene, both in the I.E. and elsewhere. At the time, they were such a big inspiration for me because they were doing what I wanted to do; they were working in music media. They were working on a documentary. They became great friends with the bands and they became good friends with one of the openers at the time. So that’s how I was able to meet Arcy Drive and Marlon Funaki and all of these really, really cool people. Being in Malibu at that time, the drive on the Pacific Coast Highway—that stretch of coast—was so beautiful. I had this loathing of being from California. I’ve always had this idea of myself as a cosmopolitan. Going abroad to a “real city,” and not having to deal with the stigma that comes from being someone intellectual from the perceived simulacra that is California. Someone who wants to be taken seriously. Someone who wants to be a writer. There’s so much stigma. I mean, take Joan Didion. Her whole conceit was writing about California as both the Promised Land and Hell. A land diametrically opposed to “serious” life. And to some extent, I internalized that. But for that day, I was so proud to be from California.
What are you most looking forward to in music?
Anna: I’m super excited to cover Rolling Loud since it’s my first big festival, and I’m also looking forward to Beyond since it’s my first big rave, too. Overall, I want to go to more events! Big festivals, underground raves, house shows — I’m just trying to consume as much music as I can. I love live music and getting a sense of the different communities around it.
Sofie: Flying to Denver in May to see Beach House live. I think that will be a full-circle moment for me because I’ve been listening to them for so long. I love their discography, and I’m hoping that their concert becomes another personal defining music memory, right up there with Outside Lands.
Jackie: I don’t really have any concerts coming up, but I’m excited about the new Bon Iver album that’s coming out in April. I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be produced with Jim E-Stack, who I love, and HAIM, who is one of my favorite bands. I feel like when I listen to Bon Iver, I tend to listen to his more acoustic, folk stuff, so I’m excited to get into this different side of him.
Sofie: Yes! I’m also so excited about the upcoming Bon Iver album. While his first few albums leaned more acoustic, especially his debut and For Emma, Forever Ago, his recent projects have taken on more of an electronic influence, which I’ve enjoyed a lot. I’m very excited to see what he does with this album, it’s been way too long since he’s released!
Mya: I don’t have anything I’m looking forward to in music. I’m just excited to get started in UCLA Radio!
