Brigid Ochshorn has a big heart.
Not only is she wearing a palm-sized, heart-shaped red pendant the day of our interview — picked out, she says, "because it reminded me of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz" — she's also known for an open-hearted attitude toward music and musicians that has made her an integral part of the local experimental music scene.
Her ingenuity and hard work have won her respect in a variety of roles. A WMNF-88.5 FM DJ, she organizes WMNF's indie-experimental music showcases and is an accomplished engineer and musician herself.
Her next WMNF event — at Mojo's Books & Music on Dec. 18 — features No Milk, Ochshorn's solo project. In her act, she sings, manipulates sequenced sounds on analog equipment and incorporates random instrumentation. Also on the lineup: Austin's OS OVNI, Tampa band Alien House and DJ BCR, aka Brian Repetto of the Dark Esquire and Dumbwaiters, a friend and frequent collaborator.
"I try to be all-inclusive," Ochshorn says. "I believe in diversity and social justice. I collaborate and perform with people who have a story to tell and who are 100 percent into their music."
On her late night/early morning WMNF show, Freedom of Choice (2-4 a.m. Tuesday), you can hear a range of under-the-radar tunes from past and present — and some music that sounds like it was channeled from the future.
"I grew up listening to a smorgasbord of taped records," the 29-year-old Tampa native says with a laugh.
Recent selections have included the Smiths, the Rolling Stones, Italian disco band Decadance, Afrika Bambaata and local experimental acts from Tampa's Cephia's Treat label. Each show is archived at WMNF.org.
A WMNF "Radioactivist" since 2005, Ochshorn has helped rejuvenate the counter-culture music offerings of the community-funded station, doing her part to revamp its reputation as the last bastion for aging hippies.
Has WMNF been supportive of her efforts? "Very much, from the very beginning," she says emphatically, adding that the station has added many of the bands she's worked with to its music library and has been generous in promoting her live showcases.
But WMNF doesn't always get the credit it deserves, says Ochshorn, so her goal is to solidify connections between the station and the venues where she and her fellow musicians play.
Moving among the Bay area's people and places comes naturally to Ochshorn. She grew up in South Tampa during "the corporate infusion" and "homogenization" of her neighborhood, she says. These changes influenced her DIY ethos and love of local culture.
"It's not as big a deal to me as I've gotten older," she says. A happy compromise: She works at the organic gourmet emporium Whole Foods.
Ochshorn's self-possessed originality and old-fashioned standards combine to make her the iconoclast she is today, whether she's cutting out letters for fliers she designs by hand or fiddling with old gadgets onstage (she forgoes laptops and anything digital).
She learned to play piano by ear and grew up writing what she describes as silly songs. Her dear old dad (literally, he's 91) is a survivor of the New York beat generation and friend of the late Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Her mother, Kathleen Ochshorn, is an English professor at the University of Tampa and has written for the St. Petersburg Times and Creative Loafing.
Other traditions beat strong in the Ochshorn family. "I grew up with four generations of women playing Scrabble together," she says.
Says collaborator Repetto: "Brigid Ochshorn has come a long way — the DIY queen of the scene — always working to better herself, musically and otherwise, and as a tireless supporter of the more esoteric/out-there folks in the music world."
