O-Dub Talks Love Jams, Sans Music Weddings and Nora Ephron Rom-Coms.

When I first started making a wish list of people to answer the Themes For Young Lovers questions, music journalist, scholar and DJ Oliver Wang aka O-Dub was one of the first names I wrote down as someone who I had to have answer them.

I've been a fan of his for ages thanks to his ridiculously good DJ mixes and more recently his Soul Sides blog which has introduced me to more amazing music than I can even remember over the past few years.

So when I got in touch with him recently and he said he was down to answer the Q's I expected school to be in session with well thought out answers and as you read on you'll quickly see he didn't disappoint!

Name - Oliver Wang

A/S/L - 37/M/Los Angeles

Name 3 songs that would be no-brainers to put on a mixtape for that special someone you were trying to woo - OK, so I’m probably way over answering all these questions but I have start off by saying that much as I love “love songs” as a loose genre, when it comes to my personal associations with love/romance/heartbreak and music, everything becomes audio-biographical and as someone who usually tries to talk about music through more of a curatorial perspective, all that pretty much goes out of the window. To put it another way, all three of these songs I included have much more to do with how they’ve been markers in my own life than any kind of “no-brainer recommendations” I’d give to some random person. I mean, if you’re making a mixtape for someone, ultimately, you should pick songs that first and foremost, say something to you before you can hope to have them say something to anyone else.

In any case, I’ll probably surprise some people by not including any soul songs here. In fact, I’m surprising myself by that fact.

1. Joni Mitchell: “All I Want” from Blue. My now-wife turned me onto Joni when we were merely friends but so much of what’s said in “All I Want” captured my sentiments during the time we were transitioning to being “more than.”

What it says to include it on a mixtape: “Hey baby, I’m slightly crunchy, left-leaning, like reading books and newspapers. I have good taste in the classics and don’t trust today’s singer/songwriters because they’re not as clever as Joni. I keep my sentimentality on the d.l. but “All I Want” is perfect because it’s happy, folksy pop won’t be confused with the schmaltz of a power ballad.”

2. Duke Ellington and John Coltrane: In a Sentimental Mood from Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. The gold standard in romantic jazz standards.

What it says to include it on a mixtape: “The inherent melancholy of this song reveals an emotional depth that you perhaps were not aware of when we were flirting at the bar last weekend. I too, like you, have been wounded and you will want to be with me in order to unravel my shrouded past of heartbreak that you will then try to heal.”

3. King Pleasure: Moody’s Mood For Love. My affection for this song predates ever having actually been in love and there’s an innocence in its sentiment that one can only really appreciate at an age where you’re imagining what being “in love” feels like without having actually gotten there.

What it says to include it on a mixtape: “I like Nora Ephron rom-coms too.”

You've turned the lights down low, lit the candles and poured the Dom Perignon, what LP goes on the stereo? I seriously gave this some thought and to be honest, I’ve never used music as a seduction ritual. I figure those situations are about taking things OFF, not putting things on. But hell, I guess if I were going to try to pull a move like that off, you can’t tell me that Sade’s Lovers Rock would fail, as far as a single album would go.

What is your fave romantic film of all time? This changes as I get older but the last film that I felt really nailed it for me was probably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But that feels a bit too “early 30s” for me; I don’t know if I’ve found something that I can connect to now though.

You've just had your heart broken, what's the song or LP that you play to ease the pain and get you through? John Coltrane: “Naima” from Giant Steps. Practically any Coltrane ballad seems cosmically tuned into the resonant frequency of heartache.

What song was/or would be your pick to be played during the first dance at your wedding? Unbelievably, I had no music, at all, at my wedding. It wasn’t a conventional ceremony or reception and it just never occurred to either my wife or myself that we should have music. Later on, some of my friends pointed this out and I thought, “oh yeah, I guess that would have made sense” but we loved our wedding even sans music. That said, I turned to my wife and asked, “so what would our first dance song have been?” between the two of us, we decided that we probably would have gone with something seemingly anti-sentimental yet secretly romantic like Rufus Wainwright’s “My Phone’s On Vibrate For You” from Want One.

If you had to pick one artist or group, who's music do you think has played the biggest part in helping increase the worlds population over the years? Marvin Gaye with “Let’s Get It On,” no question. When I used to do a college radio show on KALX in Berkeley back in the ‘90s, an acquaintance of mine would call to request this song so he could get his mack on.



and finally What's your fave guilty pleasure/cheesiest love song? I don’t think any song you enjoy should ever be something to feel sheepish about. But if I had to pick a song that seems hopelessly out of fashion today, I’d probably roll with Huey Lewis and the News’: “Do You Believe In Love” Awesome hook. This is one Zooey Deschanel rom-com soundtrack away from redemption.

For further reading be sure to check Oliver's published works archives and as I mentioned earlier if you haven't already visited his audioblog Soul Sides do NOT pass go, do NOT collect $200...