Aimée Setter: Immigration, Music, Pirate Radio, Freak FM,

Aimée Setter: Immigration, Music, Pirate Radio, Freak FM,

Life History; Music

Aimée grew up in London. She works as a DJ and comments on the music scene in Cork. She also talks, sometimes critically, about the city and its people.
Aimée moved from London to Cork with her family when she was 8 years old. She says she experienced some racism as a result of her accent. Her impression of the city is that it is a dirty place.
She comments on pub culture, on the music scene, and describes her work as DJ on a pirate radio station.

Note; This interview was conducted as part of the Cork 2005 Project

5 March 2005

CFP_SR00364_setter_2005

Cork; Ireland; England; 2000s;

Cork 2005 Collection Catalogue Numbers:

CFP_SR00329_mccarthy_2004;
CFP_SR00330_odriscoll_2004;
CFP_SR00331_claffey_2004;
CFP_SR00332_hanover_2004;
CFP_SR00333_desplanques_2004;
CFP_SR00334_bale_2004;
CFP_SR00335_sheridan_1996;
CFP_SR00336_steiner-scott_2004;
CFP_SR00337_rot_2004;
CFP_SR00338_stafford_2004;
CFP_SR00339_odonoghue_2004;
CFP_SR00340_hawkins_2004;
CFP_SR00341_ocarroll_2004;
CFP_SR00342_ikebuasi_2004;
CFP_SR00343_ogeallabhain_2004;
CFP_SR00344_geaney_2004;
CFP_SR00345_wulff_2004;
CFP_SR00346_abdoulbaneeva_2004;
CFP_SR00347_gunes_2004;
CFP_SR00348_fourie_2004;
CFP_SR00349_henderson_2004;
CFP_SR00350_valdman_2004;
CFP_SR00351_carmody_2004;
CFP_SR00352_osullivan_2004;
CFP_SR00353_mahknanov_2004;
CFP_SR00354_oflynn_2004;
CFP_SR00355_akhter_2004;
CFP_SR00356_walker_2004;
CFP_SR00357_kelleher_2004;
CFP_SR00358_manresa_2004;
CFP_SR00359_wimpenny_2005;
CFP_SR00360_skotarczak_2005;
CFP_SR00361_vermeulen_2005;
CFP_SR00362_owen_2005;
CFP_SR00363_dsouza_2005;
CFP_SR00365_obrien_2005;
CFP_SR00366_botan_2005:

Published Material;
‘How’s it Goin’, Boy? radio series (six thirty-minute episodes, broadcast 2005 and available on the Cork Folklore Project website)

O'Carroll, Clíona for the Cork Northside Folklore Project (2006) How's it goin', boy? Dublin: Nonsuch Publishing.

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

English

Sound

1.wav File

22m 36s

Cork City, Ireland

MiniDisc

16bit / 44.1kHz

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com

L.C: What’s the music scene in Cork like?

A.S: Em it is thriving and people are trying to make money out of it mainly, whether it’s the drink people buy or how much they charge in. I think some places in Cork charge a fortune to get into places, and I think its ridiculous. Mind you now we’re not as bad as some places like Dublin – I know Dublin’s bigger, we wouldn’t be as bad as Dublin – but em if they put more variety into stuff, people would be more interested or if they had sort of special nights or something like that that would be better. I know Freakscene that they do that every so often, that they have balls and stuff like that, which is sort of good, if you are into the music, but em if you’re not you sort of know where to go, if you’re into rock music you know which is sort of a shame, but I mean as far as I know I mean there is a guy I know – Perry – who be friends with my friend John em; he’s into his sort of reggae and sort of stuff like that like do you know to Jamaica music, em and he, I mean he went out and he got some gigs and stuff and you know brought some of the you know African Americans and you know and people who are generally into that music, or even people from London who would be into Jamaican music around you know. They got a big crowd, a big turn out, it just shows you how to get up off your ass and do something about it, there’s no point whinging em but suffice to say you have to have money for that.

L.C: What would you say is the best thing about the Cork music scene?

A.S: Music scene? Em the variety of bands, em there is a lot of talent coming out of Cork, and em if you can just see from eh websites, and people playing. I mean nearly every night there is a band playing from Cork, if not they bring people down from Dublin, or down from wherever, like you know, so it’s growing, definitely growing, and I like to see it grow because there is a lot of potential em in Cork for the Cork music scene. Em I think we should plug Cork bands more, definitely, and Cork pubs and clubs should you know should make sure and include Cork bands because there are some damn good ones out there.

L.C: And em could you tell me a bit about what you do and about your radio station?

A.S: Em well I’m a DJ em on an illegal, I’m on a pirate station, eh Freak FM, 105.2 FM, eh well I just DJ on Thursdays 8-10, I do two hours, with my compadre em DJ Razor, em and she’s a laugh, and we just generally have a laugh, em pump out the tunes, em if people want to text in, we play their requests, if they want us to have a joke about something we have a joke; we had people ringing in about Cornettos last night, so eh that was sort of funny em.

L.C: Who is your target audience, who is your main audience?

A.S: We don’t have a target audience, em our listeners range from like anything from thirteen to sixty. I was in a taxi a few times, different taxis or cabs, and they had the station on and I said wow that is sort of cool because we’ve rock on there, and em we’ve, I mean it’s good, it’s good. Em it’s nice when you know people go oh I listen to this person, or I listen to that person, and at the end of the day it’s all worthwhile because we’re sort of producing something em for people around the city that they never had before, em and it’s good, variety is always good and if people sort of go oh you know Freak FM, we’ve got no competition em so I mean there is definitely a niche for it like you know. From the size of the people that are gathering in the pub right now for our party em there’s definitely a big thing for it like so yeah I think it’s gone well yeah.