Can I ask what the pinks bit is about?
The pink came from, I guess, as a teenager I always wore pink. Now it’s kinda toned down a bit, I’ll wear bits of pink, seriously from what it was. I used to wear head-to-toe pink. I had pink extensions in my hair. My theory on it is this voice. I’ve always had this ridiculously deep voice, so my psychological analysis is that I was trying to reaffirm my femininity by wearing lots of pink.
You're still wearing a fair bit of pink though...(For the purpose of you, the readers, Lucy is wearing a pink belt, pink socks, pink trainers and pink specs)
Yeah that’s the toned down look. I remember my first day at uni I wore pink trousers, pint buffalo boots you remember those big boots you used to get? Pink tee shirt and pink hair. I thought I was amazing but I wasn’t.
What made you want to get into radio?
It was actually something that came fairly late on. It wasn’t something I was doing as a kid. I was always more into acting, like my mum was an actress and my dad was a musician in the theatre band and it was all about acting and then it just came to light that wasn’t what I wanted to be ‘me’ I think. Then I got to university and started on student radio and thought ‘Yeah I’ll just do this ‘and it just kind of snowballed. I ended up doing weekly shows and being on the committee and just really getting into it and not really concentrating on the degree, concentrating on radio more because it was immediately like ‘this where I feel comfortable’ and I just carried on.
How did you go about it?
My degree was in film on a total random tip but when I was at uni I did student radio as much as possible and when I left I was like: ‘Right this is what I’m going to do’. So I moved to London, as you feel you have to, and I had family here so it kinda made sense and I just worked at it, making radio shows at home and researching it and doing hospital radio, which was a bizarre experience, but I did it a lot. Grafting. Doing the day job and every single night going to do hospital radio and then finding community radio stations and doing the one in the morning show and then going to my day job at eight in the morning. Just working at it and then when the whole podcasting thing came to light, going to as many events as possible, recording shit and learning to edit. I didn’t have any training at all, I did it all myself by blagging it and trying it and just being at home and getting the programmes and kind of being really geeky about it and trying to learn as much as possible. Through doing all that you meet people and learn more about it and which route to take. I probably could’ve taken a more conventional route, which is what I now tell other people to do, but just living it, breathing it and working at it. I think with everything you have to do that.
How did the show on Diesel come about?
I started out with Diesel as an assistant producer which was amazing, so I wasn’t even doing my own shows. I was producing other people’s shows but I always wanted to do my own. While I was at Diesel I was still doing weekly shows at community stations and stuff like that. Every now and then they’d let me loose on the air waves and let me do my own show and it was good because a lot of the producers working at Diesel are from the BBC. They always knew I was more into producing and they’d throw me in if there was someone who came in and wasn’t confident enough to do their show, I was like a step-in presenter. So I’d have an hours notice and they be like: ‘This artist is coming in, you have to lead the show’ and so they kinda threw me in the deep end but there was that trust as well. I think they were nurturing my talent, if there’s a talent there or if it’s just blagging, I dunno. So, that was May 2008 and we did it as a pop-up and then I went back to the community radio show and the day job because I didn’t take the conventional route. Like the BBC is kinda this big thing, I dunno, I could’ve applied but I wanted to do the more underground route as well.
You have your own UK hip-hop radio show on Diesel, What makes your show different?
The UK hip-hop show just came naturally I guess ‘cos that’s what I was listening to. At uni I did a hip-hop and drum and bass show because I was working for ‘Drum & Bass Arena’ and that all kind of linked in and I was more on the hip-hop side of things and then you meet people and all your contacts are more there. So, when Diesel first said ‘Do you want to do a show?’ I did a pure hip-hop show because, again I was so passionate about it all and there wasn’t really anything going on with it so I was like: ‘I’ll do this’. I like the contradiction of it as well. I don’t look very ‘hip –hop’ or I don’t act very ‘hip-hop’. I don’t sound like Tim Westwood. That’s why it’s different; it’s like the mum friendly hip-hop if there’s such a thing. I like to think, maybe, I could be that bridge between. Coming back to Westwood, to listen to his show you kind of have to be a hip-hop head and on my shows I want it to be hip-hop but someone, not necessarily ‘hip-hop’, could listen to it and not feel alienated by it. Diesel have given me total freedom on it, they said ‘You can take care of the hip-hop side of things’. They’ve given me total freedom on play lists, on guests, on everything. They’ve put a lot of trust in me and they’re rolling with it and they still are, and now it’s regular and its weekly and they’re putting stuff behind me.
What’s it like being a female on the male dominated UK hip-hop scene?
Generally, if you just got to nights, it’s as intimidating as you wanna make it. If you feel intimidated then it will be. If you just go then it’s alright. Again when I was doing that, going to events and just podcasting shit, I’d go on my own. I’d go to Speakers Corner, I’d go to End of the Weak. I’d just be like ‘Fuck it. I really like this music and I don’t care if that guy next to me doesn’t think I look hip-hop enough’. Fuck off, that’s not what it should be about. I hate the cliqueness of it. So, I think it’s what you make it. If you go somewhere and you’re like ‘I’m here and I’m enjoying the music. Bothered’ then people just leave you alone. I just don’t really care but professionally, it almost makes it a bit easier because you walk into a room full of rappers on your own, which I have done, like you walk backstage and you’re like ‘Hiya!’ people will do interviews ‘cos they almost feel they wanna not look after you but they’re not going to be as bravadoish, they’re a bit more open, a bit more friendly. I kinda have that northern way of going in and being like: ‘Alright, how you doing? I like your tee shirt’ and so immediately, they kind of loose that, I dunno, hip-hop arrogance maybe? People just don’t know quite what to make of me, so they do chat a bit more and open up but I think, again, having a bit of balls to go in there in the first place, I think they respect that as well or you hope so. Maybe when I leave they’re all like: ‘fucking hell! What was that?’ but I don’t care cos I’ve got the audio and I can go away with that.
That’s what I want to do with my show, because people not into hip-hop may look at the scene as very cliquey and very hard to get in to but it’s what you make it as well. I want do that with the show: make it accessible and that you don’t have to have this certain ‘swagger’ and things like that. It’s music really, if people want you to listen to their music they can’t be like: ‘Well you can but you can’t.’ That’s what I don’t like. It’s a bit shit.
Do you do a nine to five as well?
I have always done a nine to five until now. Now Diesel is my nine to five. My aim was always: ‘I want to work full time in radio’ and now that’s kind of happening. How long for I don’t know. Diesel is a project that is ongoing but we get a months notice at a time. It’s not like it’s permanent and they could cut it at any moment. At the end of the day, it’s a brand and this is a marketing campaign but they’re really into it, it was only supposed to last four weeks and a year and three months later, we’re still there and we’ve got a huge building and it’s really nice. The nine to five I would still do, I mean I was still working in a pub until last week. I was brought up to be a grafter and I kind of always do that and I get bored really easily. So, literally as of August the 9-5 has become the radio, hopefully that will stay. Hopefully. I’m never going to sit here and be like: ‘Right, I’m comfortable now, I can kick back and get blasé’, I‘ll still always feel I need to prove something or need to keep working harder and things like that. I’ll never get lazy cos I can’t sit still.
Is radio per se quite a male dominated arena?
On the production side yeah. I mean, again, if we’re talking BBC it kind of is. My producer is a guy but at Diesel it’s fifty-fifty. There’s three female producers, me being one of them, and three male producers. So it’s a nice and our boss is a woman. She kind of thought up the project that is ‘Diesel’ and pitched it to Diesel. So, we’re quite female dominated. The rest of the radio world maybe a bit more male but I think we’re going to change that, defiantly, we will change that (laughing)
Do people assume as a pretty blonde it’s been easy for you to get here?
Thanks for calling me pretty (laughs). I don’t know. Yeah maybe. I’ve never had anyone say that to my face. I don’t know if they’re thinking that. No, no one treats me like that. I think again because I’m not just a ‘presenter’, because I do a lot of the production and I do a lot of the production on my own shows as well. All the work behind the shows, I do. I’ve not got someone else doing it for me and I came from the production side. I think people got to know me more from doing the podcasts as well, which I’d got out and record and I’d edit and I’d promote the whole thing myself. So, hopefully people see that I’ve put a lot of hard graft into it. Diesel didn’t employ me for my looks and things; they employed me firstly as a producer. I’ve not had any of that attitude yet. Maybe it will come. I guess in situations people may have been thinking that but I immediately override it by just doing basically.
What’s your ultimate goal?
The ultimate goal is what’s going on now. Working full-time in radio and to have a weekly show and to just keep doing stuff. To keep challenging myself and to learn something new everyday as well. I don’t ever want to get into that bored stage. I think 1Xtra, radio is what I really want to do, I don’t think I could do something like a Capital daytime show, I think it would just send my insane. I want to be playing the music I like but I understand, if I go to that level, then I’ll have less control of it. I’d like to, in my own little way, elevate that UK hip-hop scene, make some people who may not have listened to it or had bad feelings about it, start listening to it and not have bad feelings. Oh and just live happily ever after.
In pink?
In pink, with loads of pets.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
My mum always has a saying. Well, it’s more advice, I don’t know if it’s a saying. Anything that happens to me she’s like: ‘Is it the end of the world?’ and you can never say ‘Yes’ because its not really is it? Again, it all comes back to my mum. My mum’s a big person in my life. A huge person in my life, as I’m sure is the case for most people. She always just did everything. She let me know that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, you can do anything and don’t let anyone get in your way. You can learn anything you want if you put your mind to it. If I decided tomorrow that I wanted to learn Japanese I could. Any one could. Having that belief in yourself that there’s no restrictions. Some people do have that, they think ‘Well I couldn’t do that, I’m not gonna bother because I might not be able to.’ Try it. Worst thing that’s going to happen is you don’t and then you’re still in the same position but at least you’ve had a bit of a laugh on the way doing it.
What females do you look up to?
My mum. Radio wise, I have a lot of respect for Annie Mac. She’s got a good presenting style and I know she got into it by doing that hard graft and by speaking to people and not giving up either. Believing that she could do it and her eclectic music as well, I don’t know how much control they have over it but it seems like she kind of chooses a lot of it. My boss at Diesel as well. Her story, the way she did it is: she just did it. That whole thing of just going ‘Right let’s have this idea, I’m just going to do it’.
What advise would you give any ladies who want to get into radio?
Don’t be scared, just do it and just work hard at it. It’s not working hard labouring, it’s having fun, it’s just stimulating your mind in that way to get the best out of yourself I guess. Just literally, ‘ Just do it’ to quote Nike. I dunno, just don’t be scared, just know you can do shit if you actually put your mind to it. Put feelers out, get speaking to people, again contacts in this are huge, even just hearing about opportunities. Radio is quite an internal thing, like radio opportunities come up in radio and if you don’t know anyone there, you’re not going to hear about it. So, just get out there and whatever music you’re into just go to as many gigs as possible, get to know the scene and the audience and things like that. Don’t just say you want to go and do presenting either, because everyone wants to be a presenter. If you go to someone in radio and say you want to be a presenter, they’ll be like ‘Right….’ because everyone does. Work your way, learn the production side, learn to edit, learn about the history of radio, learn about all aspects of it. You’ve got to be a jack-of-all-trades whatever side of it you want to get into. Learn about the whole thing, radio’s this huge thing with about ten million off shots to it and you need to know about it all. It sounds like an unachievable task, it’s not, it’s just learning about it and speaking to people. Do everything - do hospital radio, do community radio, do podcasts. Anyone can do a podcast, anyone can do a radio show from their own house. Equipment is so cheap to get now and you can get free editing software to train yourself up on quite similar to software you buy, so you can learn tricks from that. Listen back to stuff. Listen to other radio shows and kinda analyse them. Do your own shows and listen back to them. A lot of people say ‘I can’t listen back to them, I hate them’. You’ve got to. You’re your own biggest critic so it can’t get any worse.
What projects are on the horizon for Lucy Pink?
Diesel, Diesel, Diesel. Building the weekly show, really concentrating on it and upping my game basically. Building the podcast site, teaching. I’ve started doing the Diesel student courses and it’s just been really good to do. I’ve really enjoyed telling people what to do (laughing). I’ve just finished one course and I’m doing another. Hopefully more international travel, doing shows in New York and Berlin was ace. I’ll be doing one in Italy in September and I’m doing Bestival radio. That’s as far as I’ve got. I haven’t got a five year plan or a ten year plan, I’ve got a six month plan and that’s kind of how I’ve always been. I’m very kind of ‘live in the moment.’ I’ve still got a lot to learn. I don’t feel like I’m at my peak, I think I could still do a lot more. Oh, and I’m going to relearn the Saxophone.
Catch Lucy's show is every Thursdays 6-8pm Diesel U Music radio
Check out her podcasts: http://lucypink.podomatic.com
