It has been really awesome seeing where Malaika's Costume is taking me. From close encounters with Oprah (to be told in a future blogpost) to hand delivering copies to director Ava DuVernay and singer/actress/android Janelle Monae, it's been great. Recently, one of these opportunities was doing my first radio interview for Malaika's Costume on CBC Metro Morning on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Metro Morning is a daily show that runs from 5:30-8:30am every weekday on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) Radio station 99.1 FM (to my non-Canadian friends, the CBC is our national radio and television station, it's kind of a big deal around these parts. Yow! Big tings yout'.). The show has a popular archive of podcasts on iTunes and the host Matt Galloway is a well-known local celebrity. I would lie if I told you that I listened to the show or if I knew much about the host. So, I knew that this woman's got to be prepared. I was contacted about 1.5 weeks prior for a 30 minute pre-interview. I was a little nervous the night before my interview, so I decided to listen to Matt's interview podcasts and he sounded like a nice, well-informed, intelligent, and inquisitive guy. I felt at ease at once. Not sure if there would be video cameras in the studio, I decided to do my "wash and go" into a "curly do" the morning of the interview which meant I had to be up at 4:45 am. Being that I was trying a new leave-in conditioner to the mix, I had white clumps in my still-wet-in-some parts hair. (I prayed that the cameras wouldn't do close-ups.)
I arrived at the station ten minutes later than expected (to be blamed on traffic, searching for parking, and wet hair) and got sent up the elevator to a huge nearly empty newsroom full of monitors and desks. I was glad to be led to the "green room" which turned out to be a nice combination of white and red. There, I sat waiting and taking "selfies", watching CBC news, and then before I knew it, it was showtime. I felt immediately at ease in the large light grey room with microphones, the television screen set on (gasp), rival station, CP24 filled with its trademark marquis-style news information (weather, traffic, goings-on, ads, NSE and NASDAQ), and Matt Galloway whispering the final words of an interview with caller Dr. Nadia (double-take, yes, we have a weird way of finding each other) in London, Ontario on the line. Matt's style of interviewing is more like a conversation I would have with a colleague-- no audience, no camera, just microphones, and a couple of screens which put me at ease. Then he asked me to read from Malaika's Costume which took me a little off guard since I did not expect it, but that was short-lived. Since March, I have been reading Malaika's Costume all over the place (Miami, Atlanta, NYC, Montreal, Kitchener, Boston, Toronto, Brampton) and wasn't nervous back then. Yet, knowing that I was about to read Malaika's Costume live to thousands of listeners in one take had me feeling just a little tense. I tried to pretend that I was in the room by myself, reading it with a fresh enthusiasm, intonation, and attentiveness. Before you know it, the whole interview was over. Matt ended the show with a new Carnival soca tune which was perfect since Toronto's Caribbean Carnival, Caribana, is this Saturday, July 30, 2016 when I am about to play one piece of Mas'. Below, I have included some photos and a link to my interview in case you missed the broadcast.
I arrived at the station ten minutes later than expected (to be blamed on traffic, searching for parking, and wet hair) and got sent up the elevator to a huge nearly empty newsroom full of monitors and desks. I was glad to be led to the "green room" which turned out to be a nice combination of white and red. There, I sat waiting and taking "selfies", watching CBC news, and then before I knew it, it was showtime. I felt immediately at ease in the large light grey room with microphones, the television screen set on (gasp), rival station, CP24 filled with its trademark marquis-style news information (weather, traffic, goings-on, ads, NSE and NASDAQ), and Matt Galloway whispering the final words of an interview with caller Dr. Nadia (double-take, yes, we have a weird way of finding each other) in London, Ontario on the line. Matt's style of interviewing is more like a conversation I would have with a colleague-- no audience, no camera, just microphones, and a couple of screens which put me at ease. Then he asked me to read from Malaika's Costume which took me a little off guard since I did not expect it, but that was short-lived. Since March, I have been reading Malaika's Costume all over the place (Miami, Atlanta, NYC, Montreal, Kitchener, Boston, Toronto, Brampton) and wasn't nervous back then. Yet, knowing that I was about to read Malaika's Costume live to thousands of listeners in one take had me feeling just a little tense. I tried to pretend that I was in the room by myself, reading it with a fresh enthusiasm, intonation, and attentiveness. Before you know it, the whole interview was over. Matt ended the show with a new Carnival soca tune which was perfect since Toronto's Caribbean Carnival, Caribana, is this Saturday, July 30, 2016 when I am about to play one piece of Mas'. Below, I have included some photos and a link to my interview in case you missed the broadcast.
Listen to the CBC Metro Morning Interview Broadcast below in this shareable link in google docs:
drive.google.com/file/d/0B2sCgRPpK47WdEtnR3pLZDhOUjB1SUZUTDRUci0wZUoxM25F/view?usp=sharing
Or this MP3 which I'm still trying to upload (if you know, please send me an e-mail as I have tried to load it about 20 times and it says there is an error of some sort):
drive.google.com/file/d/0B2sCgRPpK47WdEtnR3pLZDhOUjB1SUZUTDRUci0wZUoxM25F/view?usp=sharing
Or this MP3 which I'm still trying to upload (if you know, please send me an e-mail as I have tried to load it about 20 times and it says there is an error of some sort):
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