When not singing and playing guitar for rising Seattle rock band the Black Tones, Walker is exposing KEXP listeners to overlooked Northwest musical gems.
When not singing and playing guitar for rising Seattle rock band the Black Tones, Walker is exposing KEXP listeners to overlooked Northwest musical gems. Brian Snyder

EVA WALKER (KEXP, The Black Tones)

Current top 5 favorite tracks:

Black Ends, “Maybe When” (self-released)

The Whags, “To Me” (self-released)

Brett Benton, “Alligator” (Knick Knack)


TxR, “Special Ed” (self-released)


Sol, “The Kids” (Zilla Music)


Crew/label affiliation: "KEXP."

Styles played: "I try to play the best of every style: rock, blues, electronic, hip-hop, rap, country, Americana, etc. My show is a specialty show, but I approach it like the variety shows, as far as genre. Audioasis is the Northwest music show, so I showcase music from Washington state, Oregon, Vancouver, BC, Idaho, and now Montana. I did a show in Missoula and was blown away from the talent out there. I immediately asked John Richards and DJ Morgan if we could include Montana and they were all for it! Excited to show you more from that state. There is a whole lot more happening in the Northwest and I want to make sure the best of it is getting discovered and heard."

Events organized: "Just starting the job, so I haven’t curated any events yet, but looking forward to doing so! Especially curating stages at festivals, if I can."

DJing philosophy: "To introduce the local listeners to what’s in their own backyard and to introduce the world to what the upper left United States and Vancouver, BC has to offer. It’s important to me to give a voice to the underrepresented communities making music that unfortunately usually gets looked over. There’s so many undiscovered gems in the Northwest."

Format: "I mostly use CDs or MP3/wav. files I can play directly from my laptop. I loooooove vinyl, but only being on radio for seven months, I don’t quite trust myself yet to not screw that up on air (ha ha)."

Worst request: "Honestly, there isn’t one that sticks out. The requests aren’t really that bad, I just can’t play it sometimes. Like I’ll get requests that are non-Northwest. I have to remind them that Audioasis is the Northwest music show, then I list the states and city for clarity, but will still get requests for Prince, James Brown—artists I love, but aren’t from the appropriate regions. I’ve only been the host seven months, so I’m sure I’ll have a 'worse' request recipient as time goes on."

Upcoming events: "I’m on Audioasis on KEXP every Saturday from 6 pm-9 pm!"