Photo: Courtesy of Rommel Alcantrara/KCRW
Novena Carmel may the voice powering many a SoCal commute, but her latest playlist is geared towards getting drivers out of their cars and onto the Metro. The host of KCRW's Morning Becomes Electric recently teamed with the Metro Art program on Soundtrips, an ongoing series of curated playlists that tap into Los Angeles' culture, environment, history, and energy.
"My goal is for the music that I play to resonate for as many people as possible, which is a pretty big goal, but I think it's good to have high goals," the L.A.-based music curator tells UncoverLA. Listeners can play her Metro Soundtrip from the KCRW app and on the web.
Carmel's Metro Art playlist brings listeners on a sonic adventure across the City of Angels, starting with Bardo's "Funky People," then into tracks like Anderson.Paak's "Celebrate," Mark Ronson's "Leaving Los Feliz," and Kool & The Gang's "Hollywood Swinging," to name a few. To celebrate her L.A.-inspired soundtrack, Metro also featured Carmel on bus wraps, rail cards and digital kiosks.
The Bay Area-bred DJ – whose parents were the late funk icon Sly Stone and the late artist Olenka – is known for bringing an eclectic of funk, soul, R&B and more to SoCal's airwaves (KCRW, 89.9 FM) every weekday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. We spoke to her earlier this spring on the same day that Digable Planets stopped by the radio station for a surprise performance ahead of Coachella weekend one.
"[Their performance] took me all the way back to the early '90s and what I was doing then. I was in San Francisco hanging out at my best friend's house on Oak Street, and her older brother was showing us all the cool music videos on MTV," she shared.
Carmel added, "I love being in L.A. during Coachella. There's a little less people here, I think. And then being at the station, there are a lot of artists who are in town that we get to work with. They come by during the week in between Coachella weekends to do interviews, live performances and stuff like that. So my hack is actually the Coachella adjacent events that you can stay in L.A. to do."
The DJ also shared her favorite spots in her neighborhood of Leimert Park, which will host Metro's 66th CicLAvia on Sunday, June 28. The upcoming open streets event will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and Metro riders can arrive via the K line at the Leimert Park and Martin Luther King Jr. stations.
Keep reading for more from our conversation with Carmel, including a quick-fire round where Carmel reveals her favorite L.A. spots for people watching, her go-to coffee order, and more.
What's been one of your favorite recent Metro experiences?
Novena Carmel: My favorite was about a year ago, the inaugural Crenshaw Mile. And I mean, I guess this is not on the buses, but the subways count as the Metro here. It was cool, I'd never been in any sort of race before; just a mile. I had never been in any sort of race before, and this was really not a real marathon or anything.
It's just a mile, but it was a mile that started from where I live and ended about three blocks from where I live. And I was like, How am I going to get there to the beginning? Am I going to drive and try to go back and get my car? They're closing off the street, yada, yada, yada. So when I registered, they gave us a Metro card to ride the train along with our registration. And it was my first time getting on the brand-new train that goes right by my neighborhood. I live right by the Leimert Park station, the new K Line. It was so fun. It was beautiful. I loved seeing the city from a different view. There were other people on the train who were racing [in the Crenshaw Mile], and I felt free in a kind of way to just not be locked into a car or trying to figure out where to park or anything like that.
You've got a free-range day in your neighborhood of Leimert Park. What does your itinerary look like?
NC: I love my neighborhood. My neighborhood is the bomb. Harun has newly reopened; the food and drinks are good, but the thing that's exciting is that they're really leaning into a coffee shop being a third space, and they have all kinds of events there, like film screenings and DJs. It's right next to a new bookstore, which is called Lore. It has this really beautifully hand-curated selection of books, vinyl records and gifts, and they have events there as well. They'll have jazz music, book signings, film screenings.
And then right across the street is another great cafe called Ora, which also has live music, comedy nights, food. There's an art gallery on the corner. Degnan Street is just really exciting right now. And it's the same street where they're about to open up the Vision Theater, which has been shuttered for many, many years, and they've been remodeling it for a long time.
And then on the weekends, there's vendors who set up and they close off the street. There's clothes, African masks, food massages, CDs! I can just walk around my neighborhood and catch a vibe.
Where are some of your favorite L.A. "happy places" for finding creativity?
NC: I really like Venice. I like walking on the beach there, or even to Santa Monica, because there's so much movement to see that becomes a music video for what you're listening to. I used to work over there a lot, so when I go there, I can visit some of my old favorite spots. There's great people watching. Venice is kind of undefeated when it comes to people-watching in the L.A. area.
Lightning round time! Wired or Bluetooth headphones?
NC: Wired.
Do you have a favorite?
NC: Am I endorsing headphones? [Laughs] My favorites are just these little Sennheiser ones.
Speaking of analog – when it comes to music, do you prefer vinyl, cassette, or CD?
NC: Vinyl.
What's your current go-to music for winding down for the day?
NC: Elis & Tom. It's a classic Brazilian album by Elis Regina and singer-songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim. It's an album that they recorded in Los Angeles and there's a documentary for it as well. I play it all the time, and I was reminded about it recently when I did these listening sessions for Discogs with Billy Idol and Adrian Younge. It was one of [Younge's] favorite albums, and so we were just talking about it recently too.
He has a recording studio and he's from Jazz Is Dead, It's a collective that creates new recordings with legendary jazz artists from all over the world, and then they do events. He also has a hybrid hair salon and record store in Highland Park, the Artform Studio.
Matcha or coffee? And what's your go-to order?
NC: Coffee. My go-to is a cortado with almond milk. I don't need a lot of milk. It's just a little bit of milk. You can still taste the coffee, nice and strong.
Another politically-charged question! Beach or desert?
NC: Beach.
Here's a silly one: Erewhon or Whole Foods?
NC: Oh, that's funny. I'm going to say Erewhon. I love spending all my money at the food bar, and I like trying the ridiculous new smoothies – the celebrity smoothies.
What's the most recent celebrity smoothie you got?
NC: The last celebrity smoothie I got was Erykah Badu's [Mama's Bang Bang Smoothie].
How was it?
NC: It was funny because I ordered it online, and [Erewon has] this big refrigerator where they put all the smoothies for people who have ordered online, and there's one guy standing there to open up the fridge and hand them out. So I come and he's like, Hey, what'd you get?" And I'm like, "Oh, I got the Badu." I felt silly saying it. And he goes, "Oh." I go, "Oh, what is it? Not good?" He goes, "It's okay." I was like, dang, I already ordered it!
The crispy rice sushi is amazing too. Have you had those?
NC: Yeah, with the tuna on top!
Every piece of rice is like, worth a dollar, but it's so worth it.
NC: I mean, it makes you feel like you should eat every piece of rice, which is traditionally how rice is supposed to be approached in Japan. It is disrespectful to the farmer if you don't eat every grain of rice.
I read that you also speak Japanese and you have a strong connection to Japan.
NC: Yeah. I'll try to make it short, but it all started when I moved from Marin County in the Bay Area to San Francisco in the third grade, and my mom was like, "I'm going to put you in a bilingual elementary school. What language would you like to do?" And the options were Chinese, Japanese, French, or Spanish. And I had already taken a little bit of Spanish, a little bit of French and elementary school, and I was doing Aikido classes at the time, which is a Japanese martial arts, and also really liked sushi. My grandfather told me Japanese would be good for business, so I picked Japanese, and then it always was my language. I ended up studying abroad there in college, and I've been there many times.
We'll have to get your recs after this.
NC: I have some really good recs. They'll go from general recs that you could probably find in other places, to the most special place you could stay in Hakone, which is up on the mountain, and it's an area known for its natural hot springs. This place that we stayed, I felt like I was in a movie. It was the kind of thing where the person who told me and my friend about it, they were like, "Okay, I am going to tell you, but don't go post it on the internet!"
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
