In her hopefully long-lasting column “Stanford Sonar,”Micah Chung ’30 interviews random Stanford students about their favorite artists and most pressing recommendations.
Hello ladies, gentlemen and all in between, and welcome to the “Stanford Sonar,” your bi-weekly stop for music recs courtesy of the Farm!
I begin this inaugural edition with my first foray into the wondrous world of spontaneous interviewing …. a foray which, sadly, turned into failure. I picked my subject from the bustling crowd at Old Union — only to find that the young adult typing furiously into a laptop was not actually a Stanford student.
Why would someone choose to LARP as a stressed-out undergrad? That’s a question for another column to answer. Luckily, though, I was able to ambush my peer tutor, Sam Kraus ’29 by Tresidder. As with all my subjects, I asked him three questions:
- Who is your current favorite artist?
- What is your favorite genre?
- Any music recs for the Farm?
Kraus — who’s currently on a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra kick — recommended the 1982 recording of Mahler’s “Symphony No. 9 in D Major,” conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
“The last movement, it fades to absolute nothing, which I think is perfect,” Kraus said. If it wasn’t immediately obvious, Kraus’ favorite genre is classical music, specifically late Romantic and impressionistic jams.
While searching for an activity to justify procrastinating my Japanese homework, I happened across Nic Chesterman ’30. Chesterman’s pick for number one favorite music artist was Hozier!
“[Hozier is] goated … the lyrics of his song can be written out, in my opinion, as poetry,” they said.
Chesterman then qualified their statement by adding that their favorite genre is “Weirdly, rock, which is not Hozier.” As for their recommendation, the indie pop band MUNA is currently their must-listen!
After that wonderful interview, I found myself, like many writers for The Daily, in the unenviable position of having too few sources. To fix this problem, I decided to go to the one place on campus that I know people with good music taste hang out at, Florence Moore Hall. The fact that I live there is just a coincidence.
Vedika Arora ’30, a distinguished member of Stanford’s very own Axe Committee, has a love of music that’s roughly comparable to her hatred of UC Berkeley!
Arora couldn’t decide on a favorite artist (“There’s too many good ones!”), but narrowed her favorite genres down to house and R&B music. She suggested fellow students listen to “Free Your Mind” by Prospa, Cloonee and Sybil and Doja Cat’s “Planet Her” album. Young Thug’s general discography also got a shout-out.
Satisfied that I had spent enough time wandering around the edges of campus, and intimidated by legions of put-together students who seemed too locked in to approach, I got on my bike and fled to Main Quad, hoping to find another interviewee. But all I found was a legion of tourists, none of whom were particularly inclined to talk with this scrawny reporter with a bad hairdo …
… that is, until I spotted a figure in a red hoodie toting an electric scooter! My keys jingling from my carabiner like some kind of lesbian early warning system, I hurried to catch up to Peyton Vincent ’29. With my masterful timing, I caught her right before she had to clock in for her job. All the same, she left me with a few high-quality recommendations before blitzing away, presumably to do something productive with her time — something probably unrelated to harassing students for music recs.
After learning Vincent was a neo-soul fan, I wasn’t surprised R&B artists claimed top spots on her playlist. SZA took the title of favorite artist; Vincent also recommended checking out Kelela.
Satisfied with my reporting for the day, and with the spectre of a Japanese test looming over my head, I once more hopped on my Hurley and zoomed back to Florence Moore to get some rest.
At Thursday morning breakfast, with my deadline fast approaching, I capped my interviews by talking to Sophia Gomez ’30. Saving me from certain obliteration by The Daily’s arts and life editors, she agreed!
Gomez anointed the ever-provocative band Jockstrap as her current favorite artist, and added that her favorite genres are alternative, rock and pop. As for recommendations, there were a litany: Talking Heads, Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner, Caroline Polachek, Black Country New Road and last but not least, Björk.
And with that, that’s all for the first edition of the Stanford Sonar! Thank you very much for reading, and for my own shoutout, I’d like to recommend you give a listen to Shane Malone and Sprig! These two indie artists released the very catchy and very good single “Waiting” in 2022, and they are extremely underrated.
If you’d like to be interviewed for the Sonar, reach out at [email protected], or ambush me at FloMo, where I am often found daydreaming about finally being good at drums.