Welcome to “electronica <3,” where music is waves of neon hues, strobes of bright pink, and flashy purple – the brainchild of senior Neuroscience major Zahra Ismail. As she herself would describe it, her show is a “celebration of many genres… because that’s how I feel when I listen to electronic music. That’s a part of me, that’s literally who I am.” The show airs every Wednesday from 3-6 p.m. and features programming that spans the multiverse: techno and house music, surrealist sounds, and EDM-inspired genres such as electropop. 

“electronica <3,” which is Zahra’s third show with RadioUTD, serves as her entrance into the music multiverse, where she challenges herself to spotlight specific genres and place an emphasis on “production and sampling choices within subgenres, and on black, female and LGBT+ artists/producers/DJs for their contributions to electronic music.” Zahra first began her journey with Radio with her trainee segment “The Speed of Sound,” where she interviewed local creatives, discussed album production and sampling, and played music that leaned into “R&B and indie rock… with maybe just a little bit of pop.” With her second show, “Comme des Garçons,” Zahra played a variety of music that ranged from pop music to more experimental tracks, while still maintaining her love for electronic music. “That’s why I decided for this show to just be fully electronic because I was like, I’m kind of tired of the variety. I just want to dedicate myself to one category and then, from there, I can kind of push myself to stay there, stay in that world and find more music,” she said.

When asked about the inspiration behind “electronica <3” and her love for the genre, Zahra cites Tumblr as her main inspiration. “The good old days, the glory days,” she reminisces from when she was active, “there’s an audio and visual component that inspired me… a lot of surrealist images, a lot of photography.” The show obviously has an auditory component, but there’s visual art within its aesthetic if you know where to look. Zahra herself designed the show’s icon, which is an image of dark, fractured glass lit up in rainbow hues. As she quotes, “it adds a futuristic touch” to the show. The tuner page on the Radio website further encapsulates the vaporwave aesthetic with other gifs and images. As for the music Zahra personally listens to, she finds that she needs some kind of visual, as it’s “the only way I can listen to music… I like both of them so much. So they have to be connected, you know?” For this reason (despite my insistence that Spotify is the superior streaming service), Zahra streams albums on YouTube, where both senses are fulfilled. A few of these albums on repeat are “Fountain Baby” by Amaarae and “Shower Shoes” by Malcom Todd. While discussing Amaarae’s latest album, she described it as “electronic, and then there’s also an afrobeat aspect to some of the music. And then there’s also, like a ballad, and then there’s some rock in there… some R&B, some indie. Big fan of that. That’s top tier.”

Along with being a DJ at Radio, Zahra is also involved within management. As a Programming Director, she enjoys training new people and helps trainees navigate the process of going on-air. Once the trainees are adjusted, she performs air-checks, where she listens to past shows and brainstorms ideas for improvement and engagement. In addition to assisting trainees, Zahra creates the programming schedule for new shows every semester which reflects Radio’s “niche, creative music tastes.”

Zahra realizes that joining Radio is what helped her outside of Radio as it’s helped her creatively in other aspects, including photography, filmography, and music production. She’s fascinated by surrealist photography, which “translates into electronica because I like surreal sound as well, so… experimental music, that’s a big thing for me.” These cohesive ties between audio and visual media are what compose the Zahraverse: the celebration of “songs that make you want to dance.”

As for the future, Zahra teased a resurgence of “Comme des Garçons” in collaboration with “electronica <3” (affectionately titled “Comme des ‘Tronica”) in honor of her first show. “It was pretty fun because it was my first, actual, full-fledged show… but I think I like ‘electronica <3’ more,” she laughed. Zahra is a combination of media, magic, and excitement. Her interest in music, photography, and filmography all stem from a love for self-expression and identity, and all synthesize under the broader umbrella of the Zahraverse.

Next semester is Zahra’s last semester at UTD, but the effect that Radio had on her will always stay with her. “It’s been fun,” she smiled, “because before joining radio, my hobbies were… they weren’t as intense, if that makes sense. And there wasn’t really a balance of, like, my brain being engaged in an academic way and then my brain being engaged creatively.” She laughed as she recounted memories of her earlier semesters without Radio, where she essentially didn’t have anything to do. Student Media served as the beginning of her creative ventures, and Zahra found herself meeting friends and exploring new music. As she says, “I think that’s like the common reason for a lot of people [to join]… you wanna dedicate time to something creative, something outside of school, but still something that, like, benefits you in the long run. So that’s been fun for me.”

“electronica <3” is a testament to Zahra’s love for music and creativity, as well as her love for the work she’s done at Radio and the people she’s met. As Zahra says herself, “Stream ‘electronica <3’ for clear skin!”