John Moses featured on NPR’s “Here and Now”

Charlotte native John Moses was interviewed by “Here and Now” host Jeremy Hobson on the June 26 edition of the show’s DJ Sessions. “Here and Now” is produced by WBUR in Boston and airs on VPR each weekday afternoon from one to three o’clock.

John attended CCS, graduated from CVU in 2009 and moved to Los Angeles after graduating in 2013 from UVM, where he deejayed for WRUV. This past March, Southern California’s flagship NPR station, KCRW in Los Angeles, invited John to host a weekly program, which currently airs, depending on the rest of the station’s schedule, on either Sunday or Monday from either midnight to 3 a.m. or from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. When Hobson asked John about working “in the late night, in Los Angeles,” John laughed and said, “I have to adjust my sleeping schedule, but if that’s the worst of it that’s fine with me.”

KCRW is world-renowned for its original and innovative music programing, and it gives its DJs just one directive: “Play what you love.” And while John started at KCRW only at the end of March this year, when “Here and Now’s” producer asked the station to recommend one of its DJs to be interviewed, the station suggested that Hobson interview John about some of his favorite songs.

During the interview John played and talked about four songs, one of which is a bizarre, even surrealistic version of Julie Andrews’s “The Sound of Music,” sung by a Slovenian group, Laibach. On air, John described Laibach as “an industrial, neo-classical group”—not, he said, “the first band or artist you would think that might be invited to North Korea to perform the very first concert by a rock band ever there.” At its concert in Pyongyang the band chose to sing this and other songs from the movie soundtrack because, as it turns out, the movie is well-known in North Korea and is used in schools to teach English to schoolchildren.

John offered similarly fascinating tidbits about the other three songs he brought along, “Hot Cheetos” by MonoNeon, “This Time Around” by Jessica Pratt and “Cat Call” by Former Boy.

The on-air interview, John said, was “relaxed and fun,” though he did say that he “did a ton of research” to prepare for it, cruising the internet, talking with friends and listening to records sent to him by producers. Hear the full “Here and Now” interview and stream John’s latest shows.