PDB: What’s going on now?
This very minute I am ‘coming down’ from the Sunday morning madness that is Sunday Girl! Today was the Christmas Show so lots of indies, a couple of oldies, some non-Christmas tracks. Usual Sunday Girl eclectic mix but with a festive twist. The show airs 9-11am every Sunday morning but I am really at the go from about 7.30 to 12.30 plus, just chasing my tail trying to keep up with all the interaction on social media. It’s crazy but fun crazy.
PDB: How long have you been a Sunday Girl?
My very first show for Lincoln-based station, Siren FM 107.3 was on 11th August 2013. Today’s show (21st December 2014) was my 68th Sunday Girl. I really can’t believe that I have done that many!
PDB: What’s it like getting up early on a Sunday Morning?
Hell – I am a lazy sausage! I am terrible at getting to bed. Last night I was writing some of the next show until nearly 3am. I’ve always enjoyed lazy Sunday mornings but now I am running about the house like a mad thing trying to get ready and it’s straight on to social media which, once started, doesn’t let up for the next few hours.
PDB: How important are social media?
Immensely. I have accounts on all the main sites but I really only have time to fully service Facebook and then Twitter. As my listener base is global and in various time zones, getting show reminders out regularly is very important. Every week I take the time to put together a photo-playlist which has all the links, of the indie artists and authors, on as I love to be able, in my small way, to promote all that great talent that is out there but bubbling under the radar.
Also, without social media, I wouldn’t be able to communicate so easily with Artists from all over the world. I never take it for granted how easy it is to communicate with someone from New York, Japan, Costa Rica or even Poland! Actually – that can account for some of my late nights…
PDB: Which of your projects are you most proud of?
Oh gosh, that is a tough one. I am amazingly proud that I have my own radio show – I would never have thought that I would have had the nerve to do that, even though it was something that I wanted to do from being at school. In those days DJs were rather revered and I remember always dying to go to the Radio 1 roadshow when it came to Cleethorpes. With their big glitzy trailers it all seemed very glam!
I am also an artist and I am very proud that I have had very well received solo exhibitions and I am looking forward to getting back into painting, after a small hiatus.
I also have written some short stories and have been very flattered by the response to those. Writing more is also on the agenda and getting more published. It was a Tigger-moment to have ‘Memento’ accepted for the anthology “Off The Record 2 – At The Movies” and that book is very proudly sitting on my bookshelf. I have also written a continuous story blog called PI GY. It is a mix of fact and fiction and basically ‘me’ being a Private Investigator in Grimsby – a bit of a (very) low level NYPD or NCIS! I did record some for a radio series. That was my first experience with Siren FM – in fact my first experience of doing anything for radio, other than being interviewed on Estuary Radio about a smaller solo art exhibition I was showing at the time.
You can listen to that interview, and find out all about me as well as watching a slideshow of my work, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5depLM8R6RU The first radio series of PI GY can be heard at: http://www.sirenonline.co.uk/archives/3274
I also write a column for a magazine, The Peoples, called ‘Girl About Town’. That is available, free to read, on Issuu.
PDB: What’s your favourite film/ book/ song/ television programme?
Oh, blimey – I hate this question! I really don’t know – it’s usually the last one I enjoyed. I like to relax when reading, watching or listening so nothing too heavy or esoteric, although I like to be carried along by the ride – one that twists and turns and makes you wonder what is going to happen next.
I am a really frustrated bookworm and, as I’ve moved into a house that needs a lot of work, I haven’t had the time to read much. I have just been engrossed in ‘After The Storm’ by Jane Lythell, which I have reviewed for a Sunday Girl Book of the Week feature (that was my 3am work last night!) and I will always have a soft spot for Tony Schumacher’s brilliant debut novel “The Darkest Hour”. I was lucky to be able to read that as he wrote it – bit by bit. That was frustrating and exciting in equal measure. It was also very interesting to see the journey it took from conception to being taken up by a major publisher, the editing process, and ending up on the bookshelves with the ensuing marketing and promotion. I also love Luca Vesta’s books, I have his second, in-waiting and so many more. I have a biography by Liz Kershaw, half read (brilliant as all about radio!) and “Pretty Broken Punks” by Martin Belk, madly waving at me to get them read.
I’m not really a film person, in an academic sense. I did watch Brief Encounter, for the first time last year, and it has inspired me to get going on a painting project based on that – the fleeting moment. That needs my house to get sorted out first though. At the moment I can’t get into my Art Studio for chairs (don’t ask!)
Music – all and everything. Sometimes I’m in the mood for something tinkly and classical, mostly I’m still a punk girl though and like a good blast. I love discovering new (to me) music and I find that the Indie radio presenters are such a great bunch that they are not at all precious and love to share the people they play so I have listened to a lot of people that I may never have come across otherwise. I have started to get into Electronic bands such as Naked Lunch, Rossetti’s Compass and Attrition – not a genre that I have ever really known much about but there is some really great new, and reinvented, music coming from that direction. I can’t say that I am a great fan of Country or Folk but I can even be turned in that direction by great music. Americana by Jane Allison is great and I even enjoy a bit of Yee-Haa-ing supplied by the likes of Mark Glazier and Morgin Breen. I am lucky to have some great local bands such as Kismet Ryding, Sunny and Boo-Boo, The Moth Lantern and many more.
Phew – TV! I have to admit to liking a good ol’ US of A television series. At the minute I’m watching Stalker and have just finished the first season of Nashville. As I said – it’s relaxing stuff to just flop out with. The Mentalist, Castle and sci-fi, such as Fringe are all favourites. I’m also watching the radio/podcast based sitcom, Maron.
PDB: What’s next?
Just carrying on, carrying on. Expanding all that I am doing and making it all even bigger and even better. Crossing fingers and working hard. I’ve tried to drop one thing or another but I have realised, that for me, I need to do less of all but more as the whole and bring it all together. I may start to include music and words in my Artwork, for example. You never stop exploring, learning and discovering and that is what I love doing. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Bio: Tracey Edges is an Artist/Writer/Radio Presenter from Cleethorpes. She has lived in Oxfordshire, where she had great fun for 2 years at Art School and then loved studying Graphic Design, Illustration and Advertising at High Wycombe, Bucks.
After a few years, in a beautiful area of Cornwall, owning a village shop and post office, and pretending to be Mrs Goggins, she returned to Grimsby to concentrate on her Fine Art career. The past couple of years she has extended her creativity to include writing and radio presenting. Starting off with Estuary Radio, in Grimsby, she now has a weekly, Sunday Morning, 2 hour, well-received show with Lincoln’s Siren FM 107.3.
Links: Sunday Girl: www.sirenonline.co.uk/section/shows/sunday-girl
Facebook: Tracey Edges (profile) Tracey Edges Presenter (page)
Twitter: @tedges
Website: www.traceyedges.co.uk (woefully out of date – it’s on The To-Do List!)
Blogs: www.alittlebitoftraceyedges.blogspot.com (short stories)
www.traceyedges.blogspot.com (PI GY, continuous story blog)
