Family members: Christina DeSouza

With her lively set, Christina sparked my interest! I asked her a few questions about it and also about her musical influences. Let's meet our friend!

---

1) Hi Christina! Thank you so much for joining us here on the Balearic Breakfast Blog!

You did a very nice mix for the 208th episode of our beloved show, congratulations! While listening to it, it seemed to me that all of these songs depicted your very own personality: friendly, open, unpredictable and varied! How much do you find yourself in that mix when listening back to it?

I wanted the set to be almost "ipod shuffle-mode" like. I used to love shuffle mode as it would often bring tracks up that I'd totally forgotten about or massively underplayed. The set is an insight into music that I listen to daily, I have music on pretty much all day whatever I'm doing and consume all sorts of stuff from all era's. The problem I had was getting it down to an hour: I wanted to showcase tracks & artists that are lesser known, I love the excitement of hearing an artist for the first time and then going deep into their back catalogue. I so admire brave DJ's who don't play it safe, playing a wide variety of genres in their shows/sets! Colleen is the queen of this, what makes her so special is her ability to maintain a coherent vibe* amongst such variety, It shows she truly loves the art of music (Vibe - I recall speaking to a respected Radio DJ once who told me sometimes it's all about "that short gap in between the records" - I often think about that).

2) How did you choose the songs? Are they all very important to you? Can you give a few examples of songs that resonate specifically with you that you added to the mix?

They are all songs that I have already have, or would request, for the Balearic Breakfast Show. All tracks mean something to me:

• Will Powers "Smile" is very me, it doesn't take itself too seriously. I love the LP "Dancing For Mental Health" its satire with a groove, so very clever and still holds up today!

• Michael Franks "Jealousy" has Such smart lyrics, the guy is blaming the girl for how she makes him feel - Men!...

• Malcolm McLaren " Deep In Vogue" reminds me of going to the Sunday kiddie Disco in Lisbon when I was a child, I used to get shipped off to Lisbon every Summer school holidays. If I behaved at church on the Sunday morning my Grandparents allowed me to go to the Disco on the afternoon. Aged 13 I thought voguing was so grown up and I loved that Disco!...

• Robert Palmer "Deadline" : In a work capacity I actually had a long chat with Robert a year or so before his passing, my father was a big fan of his, so I knew all his albums, I think he thought I'd only know his "hits" and he was quite impressed when I told him my fav was the LP "Pride", he said that he was so disappointed that the album was not a commercial success as he felt at the time that he'd nailed a fresh new sound. I love the lyrics of that song, massively underrated artist and came across as a really nice person who had a real passion for music.

3) There is a sensational part in the mix halfway through, with three incredible songs: Have Mercy on Me / Our Lives Are Shaped by what we love / Sweet Marylin. Do you remember how these three songs came together in your mind? 

On my MixCloud page I post mainly Soulful stuff and this part is the most soulful part of the set. I just felt that three tracks worked well together and are lesser known. Hopefully listeners may then want to investigate the artists further! The Gospelettes track is something I heard Mayer Hawthorne play on one of his YouTube shows, I do enjoy many soulful gospel tracks, the vocals and melodies tend to be so good!

4) Was it the first time you were doing such a mix? How do you remember the whole experience? Was it something hard to do for you, were you a little bit afraid when Colleen asked you?

I do put together MixCloud sets but putting something together for Colleen's show was quite daunting as I'm purely an amateur music lover and I know her guests are often pro-DJ's and/or musicians. I found it hard to get a varied mix down to an hour, I wanted to showcase a wide variety which can be very difficult in such a short time frame!

The thought process was to create something where people may not have heard the track for a while. or even never at all, with a view for them to investigate further. This is what I get every week from Colleen's show! I love discovering new songs/artists.

5) One of the most pleasant aspects of Balearic Breakfast is sharing music with members of the family, and often this happens when Colleen opens the request line on Saturdays. Do you remember the first request you made? I remember I was so scared not to miss the point when requesting my first song that I played it safe by choosing The Ghetto (laughs)! Please, share with us this memory!

I think the first track I requested was Mike Francis "Times Out Of Time". I just felt that the whole vibe fitted with the show. TBH, I tend to suggest two, three or something four tracks most weeks in the hope that Colleen might well like at least one of them!

Same Here Christina (laughs)! Thank you so much for sharing this moment with us!