He provides an entry point for new rock bands
Lowe’s Fresh Meat segment cleared space for the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, The Killers and Bloc Party at the start of their careers and has been pivotal in shaping Radio 1’s focus back on to rock: his Hottest Record slot has more recently catapulted artists such as Mallory Knox, Gallows, Twin Atlantic, Enter Shikari, Lower Than Atlantis to the forefront of the less niche Radio 1 playlists. While Dan P Carter’s Radio 1 Rock Show is the ultimate go-to-place for fledgling rock bands – Lowe’s show is a crossover between daytime listeners and an audience who tune in solely to seek out new music.
He’s the go-to guy for major-league interviews
Such is Lowe’s positivity, extensive knowledge and eternal fan-boy approach to interviewing, that he’s capable of lulling even the most prickly and impenetrable characters into a state of openness. It’s because of these attributes that most of the major names in the music business will hand over their exclusive UK interview to Lowe, safe in the knowledge that he’ll neither antagonise nor try and tweeze out irrelevant personal information. From Kanye West to Rick Rubin, Morrissey, Beastie Boys and Eminem, Lowe’s uncritical approach to chatter has led to some rare insights into rock, rap and pop’s most important figures.
He is the most enthusiastic man on Radio 1
In a world where the general tone of social media is one of deep snark and satire, it is often a relief to hear the infectiously enthusiastic on-mic articulation of Lowe. His presenting style is exhaustingly upbeat, like a personal trainer if he were earnestly forcing you to “LISTEN TO THE RIDICULOUSLY MASSIVE NEW BIFFY CLYRO TUNE” rather than to “KEEP GOING ON THE THIGH STATION UNTIL YOU’RE SICK OR CRYING”. The antithesis of aloof and understated, his on-air performance is far from the generic banter a lot of prime-time radio hosts, blasting through a track with a voice that even his nearest and dearest find ridiculous. “My wife tells me off for using my radio voice at home,” he told the Guardian. “’Don’t talk to the kids in your radio voice!’ she says. ‘I don’t have a radio voice!’ I say. ‘You have a fucking radio voice,’ she says.”
His enthusiasm invites criticism
From the merciless dismissal by Nick Cave during his Culture Show interview, to Adam Buxton’s masterful mockery on Adam & Joe, Lowe’s full-throttle approach to communicating has opened him up to mimicry and at times malice. You wouldn’t think it to look at him, but as it turns out, Lowe is something of a sensitive character: “I find being in big crowds quite stressful sometimes so I keep my head down and do my best to fit in,” he told the Guardian. “I’m quite shy, in my own way. I find expressing myself in and around music works for me as it’s kind of a direct conduit to what I wanna say.”
He is forever loyal to rock‘n’roll
In a rare act of Mr Nice Guy being Not That Nice, 2011’s Glastonbury coverage caused a slight Twitter storm after the DJ expressed a subtly sneering disdain for the Pyramid stage headliner Beyoncé. Panning back to Lowe and co-host Lauren Laverne, who launched into a zealous eulogy in defence of pop music, Lowe stubbornly explained that he instead went to see Queens of the Stone Age. Because, who in their right mind would rather watch Josh Homme’s desert rock over a career-defining headline performance from one of this generation’s most impressive stars, featuring fireworks, hydraulic platforms, Tricky, choreography, more fireworks and an Alanis Morissette cover? Zane Lowe, that’s who. And that’s why rock fans and Radio 1 will miss him.
