DJ Spotlight: Amanda Duling

When writing about the individual DJs that inhabit our studio, I’m always looking to find what makes them stand out from one another. Each and every DJ, no matter their experience or their background, has something that inherently makes their show unique from everyone else’s. Oftentimes this comes down to one of two things: firstly their personality and how it’s conveyed through the radio, and secondly their (for lack of a better phrase) DJing methodology. This week I had the pleasure of meeting a DJ who expresses both qualities near seamlessly, and her name is Amanda Duling.

Amanda and her show “Crackle and Hiss” are recent additions to the Big Heavy World team, but that by no means should imply a lack of experience. At university, Amanda was a DJ for her campus’ radio station, hosting a midnight to three time slot. She described it as a very “informal” deal, in which she could play her favorite music so long as she stuck within general guidelines of the station. It offered a good deal of openness and flexibility, the traits that would later on see her drawn to Big Heavy World. But even up until that point, Amanda had found ways to work music into her professional life, referring to it as her primary “side hustle.” These hustles include (but are not limited to) being the volunteer coordinator for the Waking Windows Music Festival in Winooski, VT, alongside helping to book artists and performers for Stone’s Throw Pizza in Richmond, VT. It was while working at that very restaurant that Amanda heard the call of her next hustle. She stumbled across a post made by Big Heavy World spreading the word of “volunteer DJs needed,” and saw this gig as an opportunity worth taking.

“Music helps me with momentum, you know?” she told me during our meeting. “If I’m in the middle of something or if I need a perpetual energy boost, even if it's something with just a steady beat in the background that isn’t too distracting, it’s that uplifting that I need. So that’s what I enjoy about this show. I can just escape for an hour and play whatever I want and enjoy it. I try to be kind of upbeat and conversational, I talk on the air like I’m talking to somebody. Basically it’s the conversation I would want to have about what I’m playing.”

The music in question that Amanda plays ranges all across the board, as well as all across time. Usually with some relevant context or theme strung between the beats, Amanda’s playlist jumps around from as far back as 1940s jazz, then back up to contemporary, all the way back down the timeline to 1800s era Beethoven, and then all the way back up to 90s electro swing. Without a doubt in my mind, “Crackle and Hiss” has one of—if not truly—the most diverse lineup of songs and genres to come out of Big Heavy. And it’s all thanks to Amanda and her personal tastes. She put it best during our meeting, when she said: “I’ve probably been caught dancing in the booth a couple of times, just because that’s the music I wanted to play. That’s the mood I wanted to go for.”

As far as Amanda’s DJing itself goes, she’s got a knack for fun facts and research. When you’re dealing with such a vast and diverse lineup, there’s bound to be some interesting nuggets of information to go along with the music. This, too, is part of what makes Amanda’s show unique. The way this functions, in the most bare-bones way I can possibly explain it, is through the show’s schedule. On average, one show of “Crackle and Hiss” is broken down into several different sets of songs, depending on the song’s length and how many there are. It’s between these sets and songs that Amanda takes the time to share a well-researched fun fact or two about said songs. Think of it like listening to the radio normally, jamming out to tunes, but between the jamming you get some interesting trivia as well. It’s not something that would make or break a show, but it is yet another droplet of personality from Amanda’s mind into her show, like one splash of ink in a larger tapestry.

Amanda Duling is yet another DJ added to the growing ranks of DJs over here at Big Heavy, but don’t let numbers intimidate you. What makes Amanda unique, just as what makes every DJ at Big Heavy and on Earth at large unique, is the personality behind the show. Even if every DJ to ever live played the same genres and songs on loop, each show would be inherently different from the others by nature of the DJ themselves. The personalities and methodologies of people at large vary exponentially, and thanks to that we get to have unique shows, such as “Crackle and Hiss.” You can see (or rather hear) for yourself on Thursday evenings, from Five PM ‘till Six.

“With every show I hope they hear something new and something cool, whether or not that’s the same thing. And yeah, they might hear a song and be like “yeah, that’s total trash.” But it may have been something new. That makes it worth it.”