Quest of time

U.K. DJ, broadcaster, journalist and student mentor Mary Anne Hobbs finds the good shit for you

At the age of 21, Mary Anne Hobbs sold everything she owned and left England to live in California—a place she had only seen on the pages of an encyclopedia. Spending half of the last $600 she had, she bought a motorcycle, rented a pool house and began to explore the L.A. music scene of the early ’90s. Fast forward just over 20 years, and Hobbs still has the same thirst for discovery.

Between warehouse raves featuring Jane’s Addiction and her recent work as mentor to university students, Hobbs has spent two decades as a well-respected music journalist and, frankly, adored radio host and DJ, keeping ears glued to her BBC radio show for 14 full years until leaving the public broadcaster last year. Known for showcasing and spreading dub-step over the past half-decade or so, Hobbs champions the new, innovative and interesting, expanding listener conceptions of electronic music.

Having just announced a return to radio—a primetime Saturday slot on London’s famed XFM, starting July 9—Hobbs is on tour across North America, bringing fans the best of bass. But that’s not all she’s doing. Constantly at work, she’s producing videos for YouTube, blogging for URB and dropping articles for Billboard, all the while making sure to give the students at Sheffield University shout-outs on Twitter. In between all this, the Mirror was able to catch Hobbs for a chat.

Mirror: How important is the internet to finding new music?

Mary Anne Hobbs: The internet is right at the epicentre of everything that I do. It’s a really interesting phenomenon for me. It’s like the whole landscape has opened up in the past five years or so. I think that the internet connects this generation in a way that I could never have conceived of, growing up as a child in a tiny, isolated village in the north of England. And yet sometimes, it really does feel that it atomizes you as a human being. Much as you are reaching out to almost thousands of people at any given time across a multitude of different platforms, you can some­times become very isolated and alone. I think that’s why touring is important. The types of festivals I’ve been playing at recently, especially Coachella, are extremely important in terms of draw­ing together kindred spirits to exchange our great passions, our ideas, energy, emotion in human form as well.

M: How do you see your role as broadcaster or DJ?

MAH: I feel the role of myself, as a DJ, is quite simple. An audience can turn to me and know that I will, consistently, provide them with the very best of music that I’ve drawn from this process of searching through what is available out there. These days, time is our most precious commodity, and I’m acutely conscious of the fact that people don’t have a lot of it. They want a shortcut. There is no way they can navigate the high seas of the internet themselves—not because they wouldn’t want to or be able to, but because they just don’t have the available time. I think that you have to understand that trust on behalf of that global audience. If they commit to your radio show, then you need to make sure you have really put in the research and done the work for them. I’m lucky that I have earned this trust.

POST-PEEL SESSIONS

M: What have you learned or gained from your work mentoring students in radio, television and journalism?

MAH: I always wanted to do this. I guess it manifested itself because of John Peel, who is my greatest hero—this is probably well documented. I always felt that when John died, at the age of 65, it was such a huge tragedy that he didn’t get to share any of this vast knowledge that he had about broadcasting. I always thought to myself, after John died, that it was necessary to share some of that knowledge, but also try to instill a sense of bravery in the next generation of broadcasters, the sense of never betraying what you believe in and really fighting, pushing to get high art and meaningful dialogue on air, rather than just getting sucked into the mainstream—showing people there is another pathway, as Peel had demonstrated to me.

Having been involved with about 700 students at Sheffield University Student Union and been amongst them every single day, I learned what excites them and interests them, and what they demand. I’m delighted to report back that they are exactly what I thought they were. They are not just an egocentric, self-centred, selfish generation that are only interested in themselves. Not at all. They are so far removed from that. ■

WITH MEAT PARADE, THE GULF STREAM, RILLY GUILTY AND LEXIS AT CLUB LAMBI ON FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 9 P.M., $12

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