Birdcage Radio: Stage for local talent - UITagenda Utrecht Cultural Calendar

In an old building on a business park in Utrecht, almost hidden from sight, you’ll find a thriving community. Starting out as a DJ collective of friends. Birdcage Radio has since evolved into an online platform for musicians, visual artists and other creative spirits.

Birdcage Radio broadcasts daily radio programmes and organises club evenings and DJ programming with Utrecht pubs, clubs and restaurants. The Birdcage DJ/Producer School offers workshops, courses and master classes, and organises Birdcage Producer Meet-ups, where people come to swap information and ask for feedback on their productions. There’s also a weekly Crafting Café, where you can try out materials and creative techniques, a clothes swap and a second-hand record market: Vederlicht Vinyl. The founder of Birdcage Radio, Rochelle Dietz, has been a DJ and producer in Utrecht for 10 years. ‘We want to provide a podium for local talent.’

How did Birdcage Radio come about?

Rochelle: ‘About eight years ago, a creative friends group I was involved in starting a podcast series with DJ sets. We recorded them in our living room and they were posted on Soundcloud. This was the start of Birdcage Radio! We programmed a monthly show of the same name on StrandedFM, where I was also working at the time. We got so many positive reactions that we decided to expand our activities and start organising events designed to combine different genres of the arts. First in the Filmcafé, and later at other places like EKKO, NAR, Kabul à GoGo and De Hondekop.’

Birdcage is a great name!

‘That comes from my time living in Vienna. I was working in the Rotkehlchen bar, this being the German word for robin. We came up with the idea of letting DJs play their set in the window, hence the name Birdcage Radio. I brought the name to the Netherlands with me.’

You don’t have any external funding. That’s unusual.

‘Yes, it’s always been our aim to run the organisation purely with volunteers. We think it’s important to stand on your own two feet. So we combine all our various activities in the hope of keeping the doors to our studio open without financial support. We’re proud that we’ve managed up until now. We’re still staffed entirely by volunteers, and we do this alongside our day jobs.’

What is your mission?

‘We want to be a platform for creative development, where we realise shared dreams and ideas together. It’s all about the community and we try to express this in everything we do. We bring creative people together in the hope of initiating partnerships. This can be within their own discipline, or in cross-overs, such as a VJ working with a DJ, a stage builder with live artists, dancers with musicians or illustrators with producers. We want everyone to grow as artists together, and not just individually, so we support each other and expand our networks. We have a WhatsApp group, we organise community evenings and make sure that DJs can play their sets together. We also work with local hospitality outlets, providing them with regular musical programmes. This generates opportunities for DJs and musicians to play in a range of different settings. We have a weekly DJ programme at Klein Berlijn, regular appearances at Ping Pong Club and we organise lots of concepts for Teatro in Kabul à GoGo.’

You’ve also got your own record label: Birdcage Radio Records.

‘Yes, this is our way of expanding the platform for talented musicians and producers in our community. We’ve noticed that there’s a lot of interest in producing electronic music, such as house, electro and techno, as well as in experimental jazz and downtempo. We’ve set up a sister label for downtempo producers: Minokawa Records. Diversity is high on Birdcage’s agenda; there must be room for every genre and subgenre of music and art. Up until now, the label has only released music online, but a house record on vinyl is due to be released later this year. We’re really pleased.’

You also promote safe nightlife and recycling.

‘Yes, we try to create a safe space and comfortable atmosphere for everything we organise. We agree points of contact with the venue, post information about how we expect people to behave, and instruct the crew and volunteers to reach out to visitors and be alert.

And with regard to recycling: we work with existing materials wherever possible. We build stages using second-hand wood, for example. And we often use objects destined for the wastebin as event decorations: turn trash into treasure. After the event, the decorations go into storage for next time or we use them to decorate the radio studio.’

Crafting Café every Wednesday afternoon, Birdcage Radio X Klein Berlijn every Friday

More info on birdcageradio.nl

For livestreams, go to twitch.tv/birdcageradio