Sometimes, a radio station will come along that makes statements outside of it’s music programming. Stations that speak to wider social issues while entertaining the masses with immaculate tunes and vibes. Over in Wellington, New Zealand, Mouthfull Radio moves with purpose in both departments.

Started in 2018, the independent station creates a welcome atmosphere for sharing and celebrating music. From it’s schedule of various sounds to it’s IRL activity bringing together Wellington’s creative community for discussions, games and more. Thus, actively taking a role in building bridges between creators across the wider region. In addition, much of Mouthfull Radio’s communications come in the language of the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, as a mark of respect for what came before them.

We spoke to Mouthfull’s Creative Director Jack Gittings to learn more about the station, it’s respect for culture and the bustling creative community in Wellington.

What is the origin story of Mouthfull Radio?

Mouthfull Radio arrived from a space of creative exploration in the arts. Some murmurs during university times of using a blog to release 10 songs from our friends and people we admired. We did 20 or so episodes of this, the format being inspired by the Reverberation Radio podcast in LA. Then, we would do a write up highlighting the person selecting the music and share it about to help generate interest in the other things that we were doing at the time. We were actually making films and throwing gigs so it all tied together quite nicely.

Following that period, Mouthfull Radio began holding temporary spaces in collaboration with an organization called Urban Dream Brokerage. Spaces where we would host exhibitions, movie nights, yoga, acoustic gigs, and games to build community in the sans institutional space. Meanwhile myself and Tyler started listening to the NTS Breakfast Show with Charlie Bones together and felt like we could have a good time sharing in a similar format with a chatroom and a no rules approach to broadcasting except for being interesting and good. 

So we started recording a few episodes on my housemate’s audio gear in Naarm, and shared them on Mixcloud. After a while I moved back to Te Whanganui a Tara, formerly known as Wellington, and then the pandemic allowed for a further inquiry into how we could connect through the means of music. At the time people were stuck at home, so those who had a Wi-Fi connection and a recording interface could just stream into the feed that we had paid for from a subsidy. Then the radio was effectively born again. We like to consider ourselves an art organization that does radio but the radio has been a great consistency over the past four years since that moment. 

How have you dealt with the programming of the station?

Programming has always been something we’d like to leave relatively open to those who are excited to and want to produce their own show. Although we filter through lots of similar sounding ideas and lead them into different places that might be more suitable. Like a guest mix series that hosts uptempo music rather than having many of the same tone.

We really value and enjoy collaboration, so one of the key parts of the station is actually having collectives hosting a show that highlights a whole community of people that change every week. It introduces us to so much of the sick talent that is within this country and connected in from overseas. In saying that, we have had Tyler Barrow doing lots of programming and myself too. We just make the space and scaffold the schedule with a balance of voices. We do reach out to people to collaborate as well, especially when we are excited by what they are up to. 

What do you think is unique about Mouthfull Radio?

We are unique with our low entry point, literally requiring only an internet connection and some music to share. These can tap you into being the producer of your own show. That’s pretty cool. We’re also the only ones doing it independently in Aotearoa. No ads, no rules. You run it however you would like to and we will assist you in achieving your dreams. We also really value the community building side of the radio. Hosting events every so often so all of the hosts and listeners can be together in one place, share stories, songs, opportunities, resources, that is heartwarming. We love experimentation too, it’s a place to try new things from within the comfort of your home and we can archive it on Mixcloud for safekeeping. 

What’s your formula for recruiting hosts?

There isn’t a criteria we follow. We share with the world, then the worlds’ friends see it and they come to us with fantastic ideas. In the coming months we’re going to be opening up our inbox to new proposals for new shows. We’ll do a refresh of the roster and see how we can support new voices in making the shows they want to make.

What does your studio setup look like right now?

We haven’t got a ‘studio’ right now. But in Melbourne, Tyler has a setup where he invites people in to broadcast from there. Here in Wellington, I have some turntables and a dusty Behringer mixer which seems to work just fine. All of our hosts are equipped with an audio interface and tech support to get them setup from their home, studio or space to express and then we go on from there. 

Tell us about how your experience on Mixcloud has impacted the journey of Mouthfull Radio.

We love Mixcloud. It’s where we began and it’s home to most of the shows that have ever been broadcasted. When we first started using it, it was almost like discovering a whole new world. A dedicated server for radio shows, DJ mixes and long format things. Now it’s been intertwined into how we operate as a station. It’s a special archive to us and a launching pad for how we post things on our own website. Knowing that it is safely stored there brings us a sense of ease. Having Mixcloud doing what it does lets us focus on the fabrics inside the waveforms which is just fabulous. Plus it’s always cool seeing our shows on the Mixcloud charts; it’s a nice little dopamine hit!

How does your Mixcloud community contribute to what Mouthfull does?

We tap into this aspect a little bit but I feel like there’s a whole world we haven’t explored yet. Mainly because we’ve been trying to nurture our own community here in real time. Through having events and supporting each other in smaller circles. That kind of becomes our primary objective. But then you see new people engaging with our Mixcloud profile, listening quite a lot and streaming. That ties in communities that aren’t in our original bubble, so it’s really nice that you can connect to international circles and share communities through the Mixcloud platform. You can be involved in so many, so it’s great that so many threads can ladder up in that way. They inspire you to keep going and test the waters, which ultimately pushes the boat creatively everytime.

Do you use Host Tagging? How has that enhanced your Mixcloud experience?

It’s been good. We’re starting our journey with Host Tagging but I can see the appeal for sure. We’ve actually had a need for something like this for a little while. In previous times we would create playlists of individual shows and then assign the new shows as we load them and into the playlists which they correspond to. That just got a little bit messy and then after the archive started growing over 500 shows, things just started slipping off and the playlist didn’t quite work out.

Having Host Tagging makes it a lot easier to categorize those things and what shows people are involved with, cross-pollinating lots of the shows as well. Some people will play on one particular show and then they might have their own show, but they may also be a guest of another show providing a different style of music. So to attach all of these through the hosts themselves is super awesome. Then you can see the full scope of what people are up to in the music.

How do you continue to build the community around you?

We’re involved all over the place and in many different initiatives. I feel like the people who host the shows, who we consider to be the heart of the community,  go out and volunteer their time to do these shows. It’s kind of like bringing everybody together and creating space for new conversations to happen. Everyone can bring their own insights.

We’ve hosted spaces a lot in the past. Art spaces which are kind of focused around the young people of the city in Wellington. It’s like a non-transactional living room where people can come and drink tea. Then we’ll facilitate workshops that are hosted by some of the people who come and hang out there. Using these funny social initiatives to leverage a bit of space for us to connect everyone together. Then we can be like, ‘ok so music’s not your thing, that’s awesome. We’ve got other things that you might be interested in like weaving or meditation.’ We’ve kind of had a micro environment of things happening within those spaces. Radio has been a nice constant for us to have as an extension of physically connecting. It’s an awesome medium. We’re interested in keeping these social entanglements going in a more audible way as well.

Sounds like Wellington is quite a bustling city!

For sure. I feel like it’s such a small community. It’s 300,000 people in the wider region, but in the city, it feels like you see the same people out and about all of the time. Especially in the LGBTQI+ community or the music DJ community. I think it’s important to make sure we’ve got quality relationships with each other rather than trying to compete. Having a really big, supportive community rather than a bigger fractured one.

What inspired the creative direction of Mouthfull Radio’s website? It’s incredibly interactive!

One of my friends studied web design maybe two or three years ago. He was looking for something to do and he also lived with a developer at the time. We were looking at a few websites and we were kind of inspired by the stickies app on Apple computers. How you can just click and drag them around. So we were thinking about what we’d like to add and the chat room was an important part, but also having a revolving carousel of the current shows that were playing was also something that we wanted to play with. It’s a fun one.

There is prominence of the Māori language in your website and messaging. What importance do you place on having that presence in everything you do as a station?

It’s very important. As we broadcast from Aoteaora, we wanted to implement the language into our communications. We want to be on a journey of understanding the world view of the Māori people, how to respect their land, the air, the sky, water and everything in between, which is a huge part of the culture. Using our communications and other methods to engage them, especially as Māori people are underrepresented in the media over here. Our way of fighting for more equality and diverse voices. I guess that’s what makes us unique as well; having these voices that aren’t everywhere.

What does the future hold for Mouthfull Radio? 

We’ve been in conversations about hosting another creative space. So we’re looking in the future to host a radio space where people can come and hang out and we’ll host some more workshops, play board games. Kind of like trying to just have a little hub for activities within the city where we can actually produce radio for people rather than just be there to support them producing for themselves. We’ll probably put a little bit of investment into some gear.

I feel like we have one million ideas for what the future could be but what it actually holds is probably something entirely different. We’ve thought about taking a van on the road and doing a road trip from Southeast Asia through to Portugal. With some audio equipment and microphones, stopping in most neighborhoods and playing out some music, asking for audience participation at the same time. As well as talking with people on the streets. We just want to keep things slow and steady planting seeds here in Wellington with a view to other places where we can plant our feet and do some interesting things.

What tips would you give to someone who wants to start their own station?

Just be intentional and move with consideration. You don’t need to solve all of the problems; start doing something and you will evolve and flow as you do. It may not be the thing but its a thing. Take every day as it comes and be grateful for doing what you love. Keep calm!