WQSV Profile:
Joelle Aaslestad

How did you come to be involved with WQSV? And how long have you been involved?

I knew Tom DuMontier, the former station manager, and ran into him one day in Staunton about 4 years ago. I knew he was involved with WQSV, and I simply talked to him about the possibility of airing a show playing French music. He was interested, and told me he would get back to me with a time slot. He did so a few weeks after our first conversation, and I started recording Cartes Postales in January 2019. The year 2022 will be the fourth year of the show.

When did you start DJing? Are there any DJs who influenced you? Or something/someone else who influenced you?

January 2019 was my first time DJing. I had never done it before. I do not have a particular influence.. other than broadcasters I heard on public radio my whole life… (and they were not DJs…).

Talk about your connection to music/the role music plays in your life?

Music plays a huge role in my life and has played such a role for a very long time. When I was young, I listened to the radio constantly, and played records. I had very few records as they were a bit expensive, but I also played cassette tapes in tape players, and my friends and I would make mixed tapes all the time, that we would share with one another. I listened to English music on the radio and to French music of course. In France, the radio also played music from Italy, Spain, Portugal and other European countries, so we were always exposed to different genres of music and different languages.

I took a few piano lessons but that did not last long.

Today, I am constantly discovering new artists, and checking their music out on Youtube or Apple music. I listen to music in French, English, Spanish & Portuguese mostly (but I am interested in music in all languages..)

Describe your show.

The show is called Cartes Postales, which means Postcards in French. It runs for 30 minutes twice a week. The idea behind the show is to offer 30 minutes of the music of a particular French or francophone singer, in order to give a small glimpse of that artist’s kind of music.

It airs on Sunday at 1 pm, and again on Wednesday at 6 pm.

Who are some of your favorite musicians and why?

I listen to a wide array of musicians: French musicians and musicians singing in English. I listen to mostly popular music, soft rock, hip hop, and rap. I tend to pay close attention to the lyrics of the songs I listen to. I am always drawn to singers with a good voice. (or whatever a good voice sounds like to me..). I like low, deep voices in general. I am attracted to a fun and catchy melody backed up by interesting lyrics, and something I can relate to. I am greatly influenced by female artists: I like their message, their delivery and their energy.

Here are some of the singers I have liked for decades, and others who came on my radar a little bit more recently…

Etienne Daho, Enzo Enzo, Eurythmics, Haim, Kate Bush, Céline Dion, Francis Cabrel, Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, The Police & Sting, Mika, Sinead O’Connor, Zaz, & Jean-Jacques Goldman

What is your first memory involving music?

My mother would play vinyl records for my sister and I. The main ones I remember are the following:

1. “Piccolo, Saxo et compagnie.” It’s the story of each instrument in an orchestra. It was released in 1972, and narrated by a famous French actor: François Perrier. It was a way for young children to learn the names of the instruments of an orchestra and to recognize their sounds.

2. Pierre et le loup: (Peter and the Wolf) by Serge Prokofiev. This is a wonderful tale where each character is played by a different instrument. Prokofiev wrote both the story and the music for this children’s tale. The story is exciting and suspenseful, and the music is lovely.

3. Biographies of famous composers: Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin.

4. Georges Brassens: a wonderful French composer and guitar player.

So… listening to music when I was young was an active endeavor: we would sit by the record player and listen to the story that was told (as most of the first records I ever listened to were stories put to music…). It’s only when I got older that music became more of a background, as I completed my homework or did dishes etc… Later on, as a teenager, music was a way to express energy, and dance… Today, it accompanies me on walks and helps me make sense of some of my emotions.

What was the first concert you attended?

I actually think that it was the concert of Memphis Slim, the wonderful jazz pianist. I saw him in 1985 in Germany in the auditorium of the University of Saarbrücken that I was attending at the time. I was 18 years old.

How do you go about building your show?

Most of the time, I think of a song that generates an idea, either for a theme (i.e songs about colors, or about spring time etc…), or a musician that I want to feature. The show is meant to have a bit of an educational side to it by exposing the listeners to music that they rarely hear anywhere else, and to tell them a little bit about the singer’s background. I translate most of the songs’ titles and try to give a bit of information about what the songs are about. I also try to feature songs from all francophone countries, and not only France… The show is a combination of songs interspersed by information about the singer, and the chosen songs.

Do you have any particular criteria when selecting music for your show?

Yes… the songs have to be in French…

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