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New Program Spotlight: Wax & Wane

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Joe Hartfeil might be known to CKUA listeners for his classical programming on Morningsong, but he’ll be spinning different tunes on Friday nights. We asked him about his new program, Wax & Wane.

Tell us about your new show. What can people expect when they tune in?

I’m hoping to capture that special Friday night spirit. That could mean a bit of wildness, a party atmosphere and a feeling of howling at the moon. We’ll hear plenty of garage rock, dirty blues, and outlaw country, as well as some mysterious folk with a touch of the supernatural. To put it another way, every kind of music Link Wray dabbled in has a home on Wax & Wane.

Who are your cultural influences and musical favourites?

Writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and the incredibly prolific filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder have always inspired me in terms of how they found strange beauty and plenty of humour in often less than beautiful circumstances. Probably my favourite contemporary act is the Welsh/Cornish pop songwriter Gwenno. The voices of Howlin’ Wolf and Nina Simone hit me hardest in the soul, while J.S. Bach and Charles Mingus are my favourite composers. The Band, Beatles, and Beach Boys are forever my staples.

How did you decide on your program’s name?

It’s primarily inspired by the phases of the moon, but it also relates to various other types of wax. Wax as in records, the wax in your ear, waxing poetic, and of course the uncanny, creepy cool of the wax museum.

What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?

Even though I live in the incredibly sprawling expanse that is Edmonton, walking is my main mode of transit. Those who know me well are surprised that I do, in fact, have a driver’s license.

What does CKUA mean to you?

It’s a place to play: experiment, goof around, hang out with friends. That is to say working at and listening to CKUA makes me feel like a kid. I know my kid sees that, and it shows her grown-up life can be a lot more than buying groceries, washing dishes, and paying taxes.