Alex Osuch is a Seattle-based producer & DJ. He started making music as DJAO, and more recently has been making music inspired by Baltimore dance battles as 7777777. He’s released records on labels including Car Crash Set, Dropping Gems, and Japan’s Trekkie Trax. Topics include underage raves, writing novels, navigating a regional scene as an outsider, and his podcastPrep The Cup.

Alex and I once played on the same lineup in Seattle, around when my album I Feel Like I Feel It came out. I loved his self-titled DJAO album that came out after that, and still do. I wanted to talk to him because not only am I a fan of his music, but I’ve become a huge fan of Prep The Cup, the podcast that Alex creates with his friends. It’s become one of my favorites but I have trouble actually recommending it to anyone, because at first it can feel like you’re not in on the joke. They’ll take some phrase or slang that they’ve made up, but which actually describes something very particular in the world that there’s not necessarily a good term for. Then they’ll dig deep trying to nail down all the different variations of that thing. It’s really funny and real. Getting the hang of it actually felt like hearing some unfamiliar subgenre of music and learning the vocabulary and how it functions, which is one of my favorite things.