Name: Kiani Ned
School & Year: BC ‘16
How did you become interested in WBAR?
A few of my friends had done WBAR and were really passionate about crafting their show’s theme and playlists– to me it looked like an awesome forum in which to play my favorite music and talk about artists, musicians, politics, and happenings around New York.
What characterizes your music style?
My music preferences are really dependent on who, where and how I am at any given moment. I can vibe to just about anything and do! I love r&b, pop, rap, hip hop, alternative, ambient, movie scores, classical, rock — everything, really. All of my playlists have a mix of all of that stuff. Music preference is less about genre for me and more about feeling. There are a million songs across genres that capture, I don’t know… the feeling of walking New York’s streets at dusk after a fresh rain. Crisp, light, clean, hard-hitting, a little funky. That’s what I listen for. Those moments that piece it all (it being life) together.
Where did you develop your taste in music from?
My musical preferences come from that desire to piece it all together but also from living in a musical home– my mother played music morning to night, mostly 80s hip hop and rap and 90s r&b– and having musical friends– I went to an arts school for vocal performance and all of my friends were musicians. I listen to the stuff that they made and the stuff that inspired them. Honestly, all of my friends have such interesting and lovely taste in music. I like to hear the music that was formative for them and ask them to make me playlists. Also, I spend a lot of time on the internet fishing around and looking up music in commercials, movies etc.
If you could only have 3 songs on your iPod, which would they be?
If I could only have three song on some sort of portable listening device they would probably be Pretty Wings by Maxwell, Heartbreak Dream by Betty Who, and Flashing Lights by Kanye West.
Where do you want to be in 5 years?
Thrust me into an existential crisis by asking me to envision my life after college why don’t you! I think in five years I might be in grad school for art education or art therapy, honestly. But I would LOVE to be working with music or publication or musical publication on the side!
When you’re not in the studio, where else can we find you?
When I’m not in the studio… I’m not often there, tehe. But I’m usually somewhere with headphones on scribbling furiously in a completely pretentious looking black Moleskine notebook about all the stuff up there ^^^.