Ayisha Jaffer’s full-time hosting role at The Current begins Monday, April 18. Before her first shift, Jaffer spoke with The Current’s Jade about a journey that literally took her around the world before coming to The Current.

Interview Transcript

Edited for clarity.

Jade: Starting tonight, when you listen to The Current, you're going to be spending some time with Ayisha Jaffer from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. I got to meet Ayisha for the very first time at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. And I decided, you know, I’ve got to spread the love, and that you should meet her, too! So I woke her up really early in the morning, and she's here now. Hey, Ayisha! 

Ayisha Jaffer: Hey!

Jade: How's your morning? How are you doing?

Ayisha Jaffer: It's beautiful. It's a beautiful morning. I'm up all day and all night, you'll find.

Jade: Well, welcome. We don't want to burn you out, but I'm glad you're here! All right, so first off, you know, we're gonna play a little get-to-know-you game. And I want to know what is the first concert that you remember going to?

Ayisha Jaffer: Oh, that's so easy. It was Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill tour in the ‘90s. That was my first concert ever, followed by N SYNC, but you know.

Jade: That's such a cool one!

Ayisha Jaffer: I know!

Jade: Well done, you.

Ayisha Jaffer: Such a grunge kid. That's why I still wear all the flannel. I'm still in that era in my mind.

Jade: You move around a bit. You're a little bit of a jet setter. So where has your music career taken you? And what did you do in each location?

Ayisha Jaffer: Wow, that's a big — there's a big map there.

Jade: I know. I want everybody to know this. Because it's so it's so fun.

Ayisha Jaffer: Well, so Milwaukee born and raised. And Chicago, college. And that's where I started booking shows, and you know, was a college rep for Universal at the time. And that was all those hip-hop records that you know, like, I helped invent the promo that was those Kanye glasses, those stripe glasses, I'm sorry and you're welcome all at the same time! And I worked with Common and also a legend, Q-Tip, and all of these amazing artists as a college kid, doing like the old-school listening parties and band hangs and things like that, things that don't happen as much anymore, but maybe they're recycling and coming back. And from there, I got stolen. I was a booking agent as well at Windish Agency, which no longer exists. It's now Paradigm, which is really cool. And they did a bunch of indie records. And it was like, Chicago had this thing going where like, Pitchfork and Windish, and Biz 3 all worked together to make these indie artists come to the forefront. And I was happy to be a part of that.

But I thought, "All right, I want to work with artists more directly," and I wanted to be an artist manager. And so this manager did reach out, one of the clients at the Windish Agency was like, "If you're interested, if your boss says it's okay, come to New York, and help us manage some artists." So I went to New York and did that. I helped manage Cut Copy, Dragonette, Free Energy, Architecture In Helsinki, and a little bit of Scissor Sisters. So much fun. And then of course, you know, still young and in New York, and I was like, you know, "I'm tired of music. 

Jade: Who, yeah, who doesn't have that at least once?

Ayisha Jaffer: Just one break, tired of music. And I found this cool grant or agreement between New Zealand and the United States that if you're under the age of 30, you can get a work holiday visa, and go over to New Zealand for a year and live there. And I was like, "That sounds awesome." My boss was like, "Cool, you can have a sabbatical for a year. Your job is here," which is really nice. But I ended up going to New Zealand and and not coming back for six or seven years. And and I did get tied into music. It was, first, you know, I was traveling, getting into the nature that I love now, and you know, being late 20s at the time, I hadn't traveled like some people had with their gap year. So I did the hiking, I worked on a remote island doing WWOOFing [Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms]. All kinds of fun stuff until I got that call that was like, hey, hey, Neil, from New York called me here in New Zealand, and, you know, we need help with this artist. She's blown up and you've done some records, and can you help us, even for six months? And I actually said no three times until I was like, "You know what? New Zealand's nice, and I like music. Okay, let's do this again."

Jade: I want to stay. 

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah. And that artist that I helped manage was Lorde

Jade: Oh, just Lorde.

Ayisha Jaffer: Just casual. 

Jade: What a small artist to work for. No, that's huge! And then you worked with Lorde for the next several years?

Ayisha Jaffer: A couple years, actually. It was like two and a half years. So that first record cycle, "Pure Heroine," which of course, you know the story, went from zero to a million. So I really thought I was just helping out, and it was literally, first week of releasing that music, it went from zero to a billion where her best friend, of course, became Taylor Swift, and she was at all the parties and interpreting all these things as a young, smart human being, and really rocking it with a great supportive community and family. And it was cool to see that journey. And after that, you know, I slept for 100 days! But I did, I moved on. I always wanted to be a tour manager. So, sorry, this is a long story.

Jade: No, I asked a longie. It's fine.

Ayisha Jaffer: So I toured bands in the Southern Hemisphere and took some of them from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. And eventually, you know, I wanted to come back to the States, I wanted to explore some things that people down in the Southern Hemisphere said, were so beautiful about the Northern Hemisphere that I didn't appreciate before. And so I came back and I checked out all the national parks. I went to Alaska. I saw all these things they said were beautiful. And I did it while touring with bands as well. So I got that added bonus to be able to do that.

And then I decided I wanted to go back to my hometown in Milwaukee. Yeah, Milwaukee! It had been like, over a decade since I'd been there. I basically left in high school and traveled the world as you've heard and came back and met this wonderful human named Jordan Lee, who was like, "Wow, your story is interesting. Have you ever thought about being on the radio?" And I was like, "You know, I did a little radio in New Zealand. And I've DJ as a live DJ. Yeah, that sounds fun. I'll volunteer on the weekends." Which eventually turned into me taking a sabbatical to Alaska to be a park ranger. And him calling me while I was there to say, "Hey, actually, we have a job in radio for you." And so I went back to Milwaukee and was the first Brown and female afternoon host and promotions director at Radio Milwaukee. And that was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time. I love the Midwest; I have so much love for it. So I feel like I'm being welcomed back home now, being here in Minnesota.

But the map continues! The map continues in that, of course, the pandemic, like maybe a lot of you listening, had casualties in your jobs, and things that you love. So I lost my job at Radio Milwaukee due to the pandemic and its economic effects, of course, that has happened. And that's led us to other journeys. And so I ended up in Alaska, again, as a park ranger, and then Nashville as an assistant program director, midday host and music director for a brand-new NPR music station. But when I found out that there was a position here at The Current, and I know all these, I've gotten to meet some of these amazing people ahead of time, and it's closer to the Midwest. And I got this position, I felt so honored. And I'm so glad to be back home. So that is my map.

Jade: I love it. I feel like we're gonna just keep this journey right on going, hopefully keep you in the Twin Cities for a while and happy to keep you in the, you know, public-radio-station world. It's a good world to be in. And so again, Ayisha is our new host from 6 to 10 p.m. here on The Current; wish her well. And Ayisha, thank you so much for waking up early to hang out with us. And I thought we could wrap things up today with maybe a two song sets or have like a good get-to-know-you set from Ayisha, and again, she's gonna be playing all of her own songs later on tonight, starting at 6 p.m. But I thought we could do like a little mini Theft of the Dial. So I think I'll just hand over the mic and you can introduce your your songs here.

Ayisha Jaffer: So there is a song that comes from an era of music that I deeply, deeply love. It's iconic in the civil rights movement, whether it was an accident or on purpose. I'm gonna say on purpose, because they'll never admit it. But Martha Reeves and the Vandellas did a song called "Dancing in the Street," and it's so much joy. There's so much joy in that song and so much power through joy in that song. So I'm gonna kick it off with that, and follow it with Santigold's "Banshee" because I'm your new night owl here on The Current.