Goldbutt im Verhör: DJ Sleazy T aus Los Angeles
Wir haben nachgehakt, in seinen Plattenkisten gestöbert und wollten wissen, was diesen Kerl eigentlich antreibt. Sleazy T hat ausgepackt. Über musikalische Besessenheit, vergessene Perlen, die Abgründe des Lebens und warum Led Zeppelin seiner Meinung nach einfach nur verdammter Müll sind.
Also Nadel runter, Verstärker auf Anschlag und ab in den musikalischen Wahnsinn. Goldbutt präsentiert: Sleazy T im Verhör.
THE MAN BEHIND THE TURNTABLES
1. Who the hell is Sleazy T? Tell us a little about yourself and how this whole obsession with music and records started.
Who the hell is Sleazy T? That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for years.
I’m a musician, DJ, record collector, and audio engineer who’s spent most of his adult life surrounded by loud music and questionable characters.
For me, music has never just been entertainment. It’s history, human emotion, and sometimes a beautiful accident that somebody was smart enough to record.
There’s something incredible about finding a record made 60 years ago by somebody the world has completely forgotten. You drop the needle, and suddenly they’re alive again.
That’s fucking magic.
2. Do you remember the first record you ever bought? And more importantly, do you still own it?
The Beatles’ White Album. I bought it with my mom at a thrift store.
Funny to think that’s where this whole obsession started. Digging through somebody else’s discarded treasures and finding something magical. I guess I’ve been doing the same damn thing ever since.
3. You are based in Los Angeles. How much has the city’s music scene influenced your taste and your approach to DJing?
Los Angeles has been a huge influence on me.
I’ve spent years working at places like the Echo, Echoplex, and Continental Room, surrounded by musicians, DJs, weirdos, and people who live and breathe music.
What I love about LA is that you’ve got all these different musical worlds existing right next to each other. Mexican soul, garage punk, lowrider oldies, rock ‘n’ roll, and everything in between.
I’ve never believed music needs to stay in its designated little box. A great record is a great record, regardless of who’s playing it or what decade it came from.
BORN BAD RADIO – NO HITS, JUST KILLERS
4. How did Born Bad Radio come to life? Was there a master plan, or did things just get beautifully out of control?
There was a plan. It just wasn’t a particularly good one.
I wanted to make a radio show where I could play the records I love without somebody telling me what people wanted to hear.
Then I started adding characters. An evil AI robot, Satan, a deranged doctor, a talking fly named Shit Kisser. You know, normal radio stuff.
Before long, I was writing scripts, recording dialogue, building soundscapes, and producing these increasingly ridiculous little radio dramas.
Now we’ve got kidnappings, conspiracies, existential crises, and episodes dealing with grief and the human condition.
Somewhere along the way, this stupid little radio show became something deeply personal.
And that’s probably the most surprising part of the whole thing.
5. Born Bad Radio is a wild ride through Garage, Soul, R&B, Punk, Rock ‘n’ Roll and all sorts of musical obscurities. What makes a record worthy of being played on your show?
Simple. It has to make me feel something.
I don’t give a shit whether a record is worth five dollars or five thousand. If it’s got soul, attitude, desperation, or that certain something you can’t quite explain, I’m interested.
Some of my favorite records sound like they were recorded in somebody’s bathroom with a microphone they stole from a telephone.
Perfection is boring. Give me the mistakes, the heartbreak, the guy screaming like his life depends on it.
That’s the good shit.
6. Your shows have a wonderfully strange atmosphere, with characters and a touch of dark humor. Where do those ideas come from?
I’ve always loved horror movies, old radio dramas, B-movies, absurd comedy, and anything that operates a little outside reality.
But underneath all the ridiculous characters and dick jokes, there’s usually something much more human happening.
The show has evolved into a place where I can explore loneliness, friendship, depression, loss, and the absurdity of being alive.
I think humor and tragedy are much closer relatives than people realize.
Sometimes the only reasonable response to the human condition is to laugh at how completely fucking ridiculous it is.
7. Why vinyl? What is it about those dusty old 45s that digital music simply can’t replace?
Because records are alive.
Somebody recorded that music, somebody pressed it into a piece of plastic, somebody bought it, loved it, probably spilled a drink on it, and somehow it survived long enough to end up in my hands.
Every scratch has a history.
And there’s something beautiful about the physical commitment of putting on a record. You have to participate. You can’t just let an algorithm do all the thinking.
Plus, there’s an enormous amount of incredible music that never made it into the digital world.
You want to hear some of that stuff? You’ve gotta get your hands dirty.
DEEP IN THE CRATES
8. What’s the rarest or most ridiculous record you’ve ever found? And did you get it for a bargain or have to sell your soul to pay for it?
I’d have to say Honey & the Bees’ “Almost Eighteen.” It’s this beautifully creepy girl-group soul 45 that I spent over ten fucking years hunting down.
There’s something wonderfully insane about spending a decade chasing a little piece of plastic with a few minutes of music pressed into it. But that’s what collecting does to you. Certain records get under your skin and refuse to leave.
And when you finally get your hands on one, there’s no better feeling in the world. Well, almost no better feeling.
9. Every record collector has a holy grail. What’s the one record you’re still desperately hunting for?
The problem with holy grails is that once you find one, another one takes its place.
I’ve spent over ten years looking for certain records. You finally get your hands on one, feel like you’ve conquered the world for about fifteen minutes, and then you’re right back to digging.
It’s a sickness. A very expensive, beautiful sickness.
10. Have you ever bought a record purely because of its artwork, only to discover something completely unexpected when you dropped the needle?
Absolutely. Mahalia Jackson’s I Believe.
I was digging through some record shop, and nothing was really catching my eye. But I hate leaving a record store empty-handed. It feels like admitting defeat.
So I wandered over to the gospel section and started digging. That’s when I spotted this Mahalia Jackson record. The artwork was fucking beautiful, and the price? One dollar.
I figured, what the hell? If it sucked, I wasn’t exactly going to cry myself to sleep over a dollar.
Got it home, dropped the needle, and holy shit. Absolutely incredible.
It’s now one of my favorite albums of all time.
That’s the beautiful thing about collecting records. Sometimes you spend years hunting something down, and sometimes the greatest discoveries cost a buck and happen completely by accident.
11. Is there a forgotten artist or band you think deserves a lot more attention?
Sterling Blythe is a great example of the kind of artist I love discovering.
Records like “Pictures on My Wall” have this beautiful, haunting quality that gets under your skin.
There are so many incredible artists who never got the recognition they deserved. That’s one of the reasons I love doing Born Bad Radio. Maybe somebody on the other side of the planet hears one of these records for the first time and falls in love with it.
That’s enough for me.
KEEPING THE UNDERGROUND ALIVE
12. With streaming platforms and algorithms controlling so much of what people listen to, do you think real music discovery is becoming a lost art?
I don’t think it’s lost. I think people have just gotten comfortable letting somebody else do the digging.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with streaming. It’s an incredible tool. But an algorithm doesn’t know what it’s like to spend ten years hunting for a record and finally hear that beautiful bastard coming through your speakers.
Some of the greatest musical discoveries happen by accident. You buy the wrong record, flip over a 45, or take a chance on something you’ve never heard of.
That’s the adventure.
I don’t want a computer telling me what I already like. I want to hear something I didn’t know I needed.
13. Are there any current bands, underground labels or DJs that genuinely excite you?
Jazzman Records has done some incredible work digging up forgotten music and bringing it back into circulation.
And I’ve got friends in the DJ world, including DJ Leeset, who are out there keeping real record culture alive.
I love people who are genuinely excited to share music. Not because it’s fashionable or collectible, but because they heard something incredible and want somebody else to experience it.
14. What’s next for Born Bad Radio? Any strange plans, collaborations or surprises coming up?
Well, things have gotten considerably stranger.
We’re working on Episode 9, Personality Crisis, and the story is heading into some pretty dark and ridiculous territory.
What started as a radio show about a guy, his robot, and Satan playing records has somehow evolved into this ongoing story about identity, grief, friendship, and the strange business of being human.
We’ve also been having some interesting conversations about expanding the show and reaching new audiences.
I don’t want to give too much away. But the whole thing is getting wonderfully out of hand.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
THE GOLDBUTT QUICK FIRE ROUND
15. 45 or LP?
- Short, sweet, and straight to the fucking point.
16. Garage Rock or Soul?
That’s like asking which one of my legs I’d rather cut off.
17. Best record store in Los Angeles?
I don’t have a favorite. Every record store has its own personality, and that’s half the fun. I’ve found incredible records in the most unlikely places. Sometimes the best stuff is sitting in a dusty dollar bin that nobody’s bothered to dig through.
It’s not about the store. It’s about the hunt.
18. Most overrated band of all time?
Led Zeppelin. Fucking trash. Next question.
19. One record you’d save if your house was on fire?
Lucho Gatica’s “El Reloj.”
It was my grandparents’ love song. I remember my grandmother singing it to my grandfather as he was dying.
There are records worth a lot of money, and then there are records that carry pieces of your life inside them.
You can’t put a price on that.
20. Last question: If you could play one record at the end of the world, what would it be?
Tom Waits — Blood Money.
If the world’s coming to an end, I can’t think of a more fitting soundtrack. It’s dark, beautiful, miserable, absurd, and somehow funny as hell. Pretty much everything I love about being alive.
Besides, if we’re all going to hell, we might as well have a decent fucking soundtrack.
Thanks again, Sascha! Much love to you and all the Sleazlings out in Germany
