CJSW Profile: The AM Mixtape

By Andy Williams

Marc Affeld and Hayley Muir take to the CJSW airwaves at seven every Tuesday morning to provide listeners with a dose of their unique personalities. Their show, AM Mixtape, is an eclectic concoction of anything from mo-town to electronica.

Gauntlet: What’s the overarching theme of the show?

Hayley Muir: I could do three hours of motown soul, funk and blues, but for reasons, we can’t really, so we try to fit in other things. Sometimes we bump heads, but not often.

Marc Affeld: We mostly just want to have fun with fun music.

HM: We dance all morning. We try to keep it light, even if we are talking about current events or politics. We have pretty similar taste in music. Between the two of us, we play funk, motown, soul, a little bit of blues, a little bit of indie rock and a little bit of electronica stuff.

G: Does the fact that it’s so early play into the decision of what you guys bring to the air?

MA: We try to keep it family friendly. A lot of kids, if they do listen to CJSW, they wind up listening at that time. We have a creative license to kind of be, and a lot of shows do end up being a little more for adults, and we try to be for everyone.

HM: There’s something to be said for shows that play stuff that will ease you into the morning. I don’t think we really do that. It’s pretty much, you’re in your car, you’re on your way to work, you’re sleepy, but now you’re dancing to Stevie Wonder or Sam Cooke or something.

G: What are your favourites right now?

HM: Humans — a lot. They are coming in Febuary. I’ve also been getting back into ’60s and ’70s French garage pop. I used to listen to Serge Gainsbourg a lot, but I kind of just stopped. Marked played a France Gall song . . . and I started researching similar artists and boom — French everyday.

MA: I’m always a year behind. There’s a new Bruce Springsteen album that I’ve been jamming. I’m listening to a lot of Ariel Pink. There’s so many Pitchforky bands that I don’t want to like and they’re the definitely the biggest ones. Everyone loves them and part of me wants to be like, “I don’t like it.” But it’s really good, I like it. My New Year’s resolution was to listen to more country but I haven’t really done that yet.

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