MR: Give us a basic rundown of what your job entails.

EY: I work with the Student Union Board advising them. My main focus, though, is working with the M-Shop. I spend most of my time on the phone with agents, sorting through music and writing and editing contracts. I also spend a lot of time talking with student groups who wish to use the M-Shop on off nights and I work to coordinate them. Oh yeah, I’m also a part-time grad student. But this is my full-time gig.

MR: How did you come to be the M-Shop Coordinator?

EY: I was hired in the fall of ’97 to work with SUB and I did that for two years, advising various areas of SUB. In the summer of ’99 the previous coordinator left. I said I’d be interested in the job, and I got it.

MR: How did you get started in music?

EY: I’ve always had a love of music. I really got started working in a record store when I was 13, and that’s when it really started piquing my interest. I played instruments from about age 7, from guitar to violin to string bass. When I was in college I was able to work on the Artist’s Series at UNI booking large acts to perform, anywhere from plays to opera singers. It was a pretty big deal, and things just kind of kept growing from there.

MR: Who is your favorite band?

EY: That’s a hard one, I don’t know if I can pick just one band. Well, if I had to choose one nationally known band, I’d have to say the Rolling Stones. Some of my favorites since I took this position that I really enjoy would be Eddie from Ohio, Sapphire, The Uppity Blues Women [and] You’re Pretty. There have been so many I’ve been able to hear while at this job. It’s one of the best parts of my job, being able to work with the student coordinator, meet the artists, and in the meantime you get to see some pretty damn good shows.

MR: If you started your own band, what would it be like?

EY: I really don’t know; my music tastes are all over the map. I listen to anything and everything. As I get older, I’m starting to appreciate old country and bluegrass, stuff I never would have listened to when I was younger. If I could roll everything up together, that’s what it would sound like. Every song would be different. One of the things about music today is everyone tries to pigeonhole, something I don’t like. Why does everyone have to have a distinct sound, can’t it just be good music?

MR: What are your plans after you leave this job?

EY: I doubt I’ll stay doing what I’m doing now. It’d be nice just to get paid to do something I love. Right now I’m working on getting a degree in higher education and I’d like to go into college administration. But who knows where I’ll end up.

MR: What do you think about mainstream music today?

EY: To tell the truth, I don’t listen to it much. In the last year I’ve stopped listening to the radio. I get tired of hearing the same song three times in two hours. I get tired of the corporate sound of it, since radio in particular has become very corporate, especially here in Iowa in the past few years. As far as the music, some of it’s not bad. It changes like the wind, so if something is popular now, it very well may not be soon. Some of it’s good, some of it’s all right, some of it’s bad. It all comes down to personal preference.

MR: What would you like to bring to the M-Shop?

EY: We’ve already got a few things coming up in the spring, that if they work out, will shock people, some big names you wouldn’t expect. It depends a lot on who’s available and we’ve been fortunate so far. We’d really like to get the Blind Boys of Alabama.

They’re a gospel/R&B group that formed in 1939 at the Talladega School for the Blind in Alabama. They’re simply amazing. They’ve recorded with everyone, having been around for so long, and they’re just now hitting their peak now that they’re in their 70s. It’s something very different.

MR: Anything else you’d like to add?

EY: I’m pretty lucky working here. The M-Shop is full of history. It’s the oldest running nightclub in Iowa, and one of the longest in the Midwest. I’m just lucky to be a part of it and leave my own mark.