Global Reggae Charts - Issue #3 / July 2017

INTERVIEW
LOCAL
RADIO
SWITZERLAND
The second voter we talked to is Joel Dittli.
His show ”Groove Infection“ airs on a local youth
station in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Global Reggae Charts: Can you please introduce
yourself and your radio show!
Joel Dittli: I’m Joel Dittli. Two years ago I took over
the radio show called Groove Infection on Radio
3FACH from Selecta Iray, who hosted the show before.
We set the focus on Caribbean music - from the
60s to the future - but you will also hear some soul,
funk, African and Latin sounds now and then.
Radio 3FACH is an alternative and very young radio
station in Lucerne, Switzerland. Everyone who works
at this station is younger than 25 years. So I’ve just
got one more year left :D We try to keep it young and
fresh. We are not allowed to broadcast commercials,
but we have a vinyl record store, we run a bar at the
lakeside during summer and we organise concerts,
parties and a pretty big festival called Funk am See
every two years.
GRC: How did you get into radio and what was your
motivation?
JD: I regularly listened to the show when Selecta Iray
and my pre-predecessor played tunes, had live-interviews
and DJs who played their sets in the studio. I
really liked the vibe! And I‘ve always annoyed my friends
with reggae topics although they weren‘t into it,
so it was a great opportunity to take over the show.
GRC: You are a musician as well. Please give us a
little inside into what role reggae music plays in your
life.
JD: When I first heard Bob Marley I forced myself
to like his music cause I thought it was kind of cool.
After some time I started to genuinely love the sound
and I stopped listening to anything else but reggae.
With some friends I founded a roots reggae band
called Basement Roots. I already was addicted to this
music before but the band and the radio show made
global reggae charts
featured voter
short FACTS
Station: Radio 3FACH
Location: Lucerne - Switzerland
Show: Groove Infection
Host: Joel Dittli
On air: Sunday 14:00 - 15:00 CEST (UTC-2)
www.3FACH.ch
www.facebook.com/grooveinfection.3fach
me love offbeats even more.
GRC: Is there a correlation between the music you
play on the show and the music you make yourself?
JD: Yes there is. While my predecessor is well known
for selecting modern stuff from Jamaica and started
a real big Soca movement in Switzerland I also like to
play music from the 60s and 70s. But I try to keep it
diverse. It‘s nice to show the people that the Caribbean
has much more to offer than sunshine reggae!
GRC: Which artists have you found most inspiring
lately?
JD: I really like bands which fuse reggae with other
styles. It‘s not easy to do that. But there are some
great bands who mix styles skillfully like The Skints,
Dub Inc or the Pedestrians from Switzerland. And
I like artists who combine heavy reggae riddims
with flowing vocals like many artists of the „reggae
revival“ do. And of course I’m always happy to see
people doing authentic roots reggae and recording
it in full analog studios - Martin Zobel, Zvuloon Dub
System and the productions of Roberto Sanchez.
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global reggae charts | issue 3 / july 2017