Barry Leonhard, the host of the Friday night music show "Club Cuts" on WYSO, is the station's new music department coordinator.
In this interview, he discusses his background in electronic music, starting as a DJ in the Dayton area, and his musical influences, including the Berlin techno scene. In this excerpt from WYSO Weekend, Leonhard also talks about his monthly vinyl night at Tender Mercy, where he encourages customers to bring their own records for him to play. As the new music department coordinator, Leonhard is helping with the launch of WYSO's all-music channel, Novaphonic FM.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Jerry Kenney: So you've obviously been doing the music show a little longer than you've been on staff, but how has your overall experience with YSO been?
Barry Leonhard: It's been amazing. I really feel like I'm in my element. And slowly but surely, they've been giving me more responsibilities and I'm just so hungry for more. And yeah, it's been a blast.
Kenney: Your arrival is perfect and very welcome, I know, to Juliet and Evan because of the launch of Novaphonic, WYSO's all music channel, so you're helping out a lot with that.
Leonhard: Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot to be done with like the logs and making sure all the timing is right with the shows, getting the programming done is a big part of my job and before Juliet was doing all that and yeah, I'm happy to take the load off of them.
Kenney: Yeah, that's great. And so let's talk a little bit about music and the music you play on Friday, some really nice club mixes and tell me a little bit about your origins with music
Leonhard: Yeah sure, I mean as a kid I grew up playing the cello, and then I played the drums for a couple years. But I got into electronic music and what really interested me about it was I could do my own whole thing. I wouldn't have to be a part of a band or anything, I could just do it. And also, it's way easier.
And I always loved working on the computer, so all those things kind of made sense to me when I came to DJing and electronic music. Just started off DJing around 2012 when Skrillex was really big. And I kind of traced that all the way back to Acid House and the roots of electronic music. And then I went from there and I started off actually here in Dayton at what was then Therapy Cafe. I was going to the EDM Tuesday nights. I walk in and John Chapel is like, hey, are you a DJ? And I was like, I just wanted to thank him for, you know, hey, like this is my first time going out to a night. And then he put me on immediately and like that kind of Daytonian support like was a huge part of why I'm still doing this today.
Kenney: Is it all digital work that you do or do you do turntables and all that?
Leonhard: Yeah, we'll pull out the Technics, and we'll do vinyl sometimes on Club Cuts. Vinyl's expensive, so I don't do it as often as I'd like. But yeah, and then some of the DJs I bring on do vinyl as well. The last guy I brought on, he did Happy Hardcore, which is kind of a more retro, kind of like '90s rave kind of style, and his whole set was vinyl.
Kenney: Okay, who are some of your favorite artists?
Leonhard: Favorite artists? Oh wow, that's hard, there's so many. I definitely really like The Bristol Scene. They do a lot of pushing club music forward into unknown territories. Yush comes to mind, and then I really like Ben UFO, both as a DJ and a label owner, curator, and Forrest Drive West is another random name. Yeah, and then I guess. What kind of like my formative stuff, you know, like the Berghain scene, like the Berlin techno scene, really heavy techno, kind of sparked my passion and kept me interested. But yeah, now I've been getting into more like left field kind of stuff.
Kenney: The reason I ask is it's good for our listeners who may not be familiar with Friday Night Music to figure out what's a good starting point for them, who might get them really interested in the genre overall. So if there's anyone else included in that selection of picks that you just mentioned, let us know.
Leonhard: Definitely the Berlin techno scene and Basically anyone who's DJed at Berghain or Panorama Bar, that's like a world-famous club for DJing some names that come to mind or like Marcel Dettman, Ben Klock, Avalon Emerson DJed there. Yeah, definitely look at that club if you want some good dance and stuff.
Kenney: What else should we know about you?
Leonhard: I grew up skateboarding a lot. I grew here; Clark County raised. I went to school Southeastern and then after that I went to high school at the Global Impact STEM Academy in Springfield. Definitely local guy.
But yeah, skateboarding is another big, huge part of my life and I'm active in that local scene as well.
Kenney: So maybe outside of WYSO, but still including your musical interest, what do you have on the horizon?
Leonhard: Sure, I do a monthly vinyl night at Tender Mercy. It's on Tuesdays. I think it's the first Tuesdays of every month. But it's a bring your own vinyl night, where we encourage all of the customers to bring their own vinyl, and I play it on the system for them. And it's really fun, because I get to talk to people about the music they bring in. And if it's on vinyl, it's probably something cool, pretty much all the time. And even if it is something silly, like we had someone bring in bagpipe music and you know later on in the night that's just so much fun you know it's like it's basically like touch tunes but a hundred times cooler.
Kenney: Okay, so if I show up with my double vinyl Oingo-Boingo vinyl, then we give it a spin?
Leonhard: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, well the thing is people were bringing in their favorite records but like I know there are some vinyl collectors that are like really really sensitive about their records like I bet those people probably wouldn't bring their records.
