What is your name?
My DJ name is Captain Schmetterling. My full DJ name is Pierre Gustav Schmetterling.
What is the name of your show?
The name of my show varies from week to week, but it’s always butterfly-themed. I’ve just been impassioned by the ability of butterflies to metamorph as they do.
What’s the format of your show?
It’s totally freeform. My taste in music leans toward acoustic music – folk, bluegrass, jazz – anything acoustic, and often the older the better, but there’s been so much great new music as of the past decade – it’s mind-boggling. I will totally go out there. I’ll play rock and roll, I’ll play weird rap songs, I’ll play anything if it connects with me at that time.
What drew you to participate in KMRD?
Wow, that’s like “what makes somebody look at a pretty sunset?” It was just the most marvelous opportunity. I’ve always loved the radio, and it’s always been one of my favorite sources of media and sources of music. I was lucky enough to have a really great alternative high school and I had a radio broadcasting class in high school, and that was probably the first time I really got the bug – this would be really fun to do. When the opportunity to have a radio show on a local radio station, I thought it was unbelievably fantastic.
What’s the appeal of having a radio show? How does it fit into the rest of your life? What difference has being a DJ made in your life?
I love the opportunity to share the music that completely blows me away. Now that I have the radio show, I can’t imagine not having one. Because you’re always telling people, “Hey, have you heard that song? Have you heard that song? Listen to this new artist; listen to that great old song,” and now I have the ability to play those for people. I think just that, the joy of being able to do that, has affected my life greatly. It’s a medicine.
It’s been another outlet. I play music, which is really, really, really fun, but it’s really similar to being able to play with a band onstage, being able to share music that I love through the airwaves.
What are your hopes for your show, and for the station?
To go on forever and ever and ever.
I hope the radio station continues to succeed and expand and grow in the phenomenal way that it already has been. And the same with my show. Having my show has made me search out more new music and more old music that I wouldn’t have normally. I used to go to thrift stores and just look for old cowboy shirts, and now I go to thrift stores and look for LPs and CDs. I hope I continue to expand my music library in my head. I’m really really grateful for having this show and I’m grateful for all the positive input I have and all the great great audience I have, near and far.