ALICE NOT JOHN Episode 21: A Fictional Radio Transmission Guest: Luc Van Acker
ALICE NOT JOHN
Episode 18: A Fictional Radio Transmission
Guest: Luc Van Acker
Host: Joeri Bruyninckx
A conversation I overheard in a record store:
Customer: “Do you have Coltrane?”
Record shop owner: “In the jazz section.”
Customer: “I mean Alice, not John.”
Record shop owner: “In the jazz section.”
ALICE NOT JOHN is the name of a fictional radio show. The idea is this: for every episode, I ask a musician the same questions. The answers I receive are the “playlist” of my fictional radio show. The questions are these:
What song do you associate with your childhood?
Luc Van Acker: ‘POPCORN’ by Hot Butter, my first encounter with electronic music!
What’s your favorite shower sing-along song?
‘Oooh Denneboom,’ it’s on loop in my head! HELP!
What was your favorite song as a teenager?
‘TUBULAR BELLS’ by Mike Oldfield.
What’s your favorite air guitar song?
Never played air guitar, but ‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple, it’s a guilty pleasure.
What song do you associate with your adolescence?
‘How You’re Gonna See Me Now’ by Alice Cooper. Heartbreaking.
What song do you know the lyrics to by heart?
‘John Cooper Clarke’ by Working Men’s Club.
What song makes you feel better when you’re feeling down?
‘SEPTEMBER’ by David Sylvian, basically everything by David Sylvian solo.
Name a song people wouldn’t think you liked.
‘To the Hellfire’ by Lorna Shore! Also Spiritbox and Sleep Token, etc.
Can you name a song you think people should listen to, if they don’t know it yet?
‘Yesterday and Karma’ by Osamu Kitajima (1976), featuring Minnie Riperton!
‘Wonderful Tonight’ by Eric Clapton is a breakup song. It’s about a couple who have decided to split up but not tell anyone yet because they don’t want to ruin the party they’re going to. Oddly enough, this song is often chosen as the opening dance at weddings. Tell me about a song you misunderstood the first time you heard it.
‘ZANNA’ is a textbook example of a love song that isn’t one. It’s about “the avoidant” and “the anxious” and their super toxic relationship that can never exist, yet is experienced as love by two opposites stuck in the pain of being… impossible love.
What’s your favorite song right now?
‘Another Baby’ by Dijon! The whole album is amazing!
Which song brings out silly dance moves in you?
‘I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free’ by Muslimgauze.
Which song do you quote most often? Which line?
‘Take Yourself Home’ by Troye Sivan, probably the most beautiful song of the last ten years!
Joeri Bruyninckx
Headline photo: Luc Van Acker
