WHEN THE RED PHONE RINGS: Prof By Day, Punk By Night

Assistant Professor of Linguistics Andrew Nevins leads a double life.

When office hours are over, the second year linguistics prof trades in academic study for record spinning to man his own show on Record Hospital, the punk-rock department of WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting Company). Via the red phone, Nevins confides in FM about orgies at Record Hospital and whom he wants to rock out with.



FM: So what do you do for WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting Company)?

Andrew Nevins: I was an occasional deejay on Record Hospital in 2000, 2001. It was just a standard Record Hospital show which involves playing punk and noise and art rock and some hip hop, but mostly punk. The show I’m doing this semester is the top 20 albums [played on Record Hospital] for this week.



FM: What’s your favorite part about dee-jaying for Harvard nerds?

AN: What’s fun with the Harvard radio station is that they have these things called orgies, which involve playing the entire career of a musician and they devote two days or six hours or whatever it takes to that one artist’s career. I’ve done three orgies at Harvard for the radio station.



FM: What are your favorite groups?

AN: I like a lot a band called Tuxedo Moon, the Gang of Four. I like The Fall. I like jazz in terms of Eric Dolphy, Lee Morgan, Thelonious Monk.

FM: If you could perform with any musical talent, living or dead, who would it be?

AN: Fela Kuti, he’s from Nigeria. He was one of the most energetic performers and band leaders of all time. He had his own genre, I guess you’d call it Afro-beat. That’s what he called it.



FM: How many languages do you speak?

AN: That’s a question people like to ask that of linguists. I think the correct answer is two and half at any given time. People from North America don’t find themselves having to speak more than two and half languages on a daily basis. So I’ve studied a lot of languages, but only use two and a half at any one time.



FM: Make up an anti-Yale chant in another language.

AN: I don’t like promulgating competitive sentiment.



FM: Has your linguistics background ever gotten you out of trouble?

AN: Well, sure I mean. I had some close calls in other countries and things like that. I had to talk my way into or out of certain situations with bureaucrats and policeman. It’s very useful.