When we talk about dance music, it is essential to honor its Black forefathers in Detroit, Chicago, and New York. It is also vitally important to celebrate and uplift the next generation of Black talent keeping dance music alive and moving it forward. While there are more artists than we can count on both hands, Gray Area has chosen 10 rising Black dance artists you should be watching and grooving to.


TSHA 

You probably already know and love London-based DJ/producer TSHA. In 2021, she released her vibey, sunny OnlyL EP, was named BBC Radio 1's "Future Artist," and made her Essential Mix debut. TSHA's productions are versatile, warm, and inviting, drawing on house and R&B and adorned with gorgeous layers of sound (her eye-catching album art is an excellent visual compliment).

The self-taught producer signed with legendary UK label Ninja Tune in 2020, who released her last two EPs. TSHA self-released her debut EP, Dawn, in 2018, which she followed up with the Moonlight EP on Counter Records.




DJ Holographic

DJ Holographic is the new generation of Detroit-bred artists keeping the city's rich legacy of experimental and cutting-edge techno and house alive and thriving, along with its funk, soul, and R&B roots. She dropped her debut EP, Parallel Shifting, three banging tracks with Alex Wilcox, in 2020 on her Hitchhiker imprint. Last year, Detroit forefather Carl Craig tapped her to deliver the Detroit Love Vol. 5 mix album on Planet E, to which she brought a groovy blend of house, R&B, and techno to, along with her powerful original track "Faith in My Cup."

DJ Holographic has found fans around the globe with her funky, joyful, and energetic DJ sets, which she's brought to Movement, Smart Bar, Panorama Bar, Output, and many more legendary dance spaces.




Ash Lauryn

Detroit-born, Atlanta-based DJ, producer, and music journalist Ash Lauryn has made it her mission to support and uplift Black artists in dance music. Seeing a lack of representation for younger Black producers in electronic music, she launched her Underground & Black blog, which she's evolved into a full-on platform including an annual Movement party, a monthly NTS Radio show, a podcast, and more.

Lauryn's sound is rooted in the rhythms and creativity of her hometown and her deep love for house music. She dropped her debut EP, Expressions, with Stefan Ringer in 2020 on Ringer's DIY Atlanta dance label, FWM Entertainment. She followed that with 2021's Truth EP, also on FWM.




HoneyLuv

Cleveland-born, Los Angeles-based DJ/producer HoneyLuv knows how to get the party going. Starting as an R&B and hip-hop (one of the hardest genres to mix) DJ in LA and across the US, she revisited her love of house music and began to make waves in the dance community with her banging house, tech house, and techno sets. She also had a past life as an NCAA basketball player and a sailor in the Navy.

As a producer, she put out her powerhouse debut single "F R E E" in 2021, which sounds like an artist's statement of sorts: "Free the people, free us all, free your mind, just let go." She followed it with a string of remixes, collabs, and another banging solo track, "PAIN."




Life on Planets

Baltimore-bred Life on Planets is the lively, soulful house project of singer, guitarist, DJ/producer, and astrology lover Phill Celeste. His music is a sweet blend of house, funk, R&B, and soul, bolstered by his rich voice, specially crafted to make you move and feel. His joyful music is made not just to get the dance floor going off but also to help revelers envision a brighter future, with lyrics that celebrate love, friendship, hope, and other-worldly dimensions.

He's been putting out groovy tunes as Life on Planets since 2014, always adding more vibes to his prolific catalog. In 2020, he dropped the Only You EP on Soul Clap Records, led by a captivating cover of Steve Monite's Afro-disco classic of the same name. His latest release, "Nomad Lyfe," is a pure groover driven by a thick, funky bassline.




Brandon Lucas

Inglewood-bred singer, producer and DJ Brandon Lucas brings his gospel and R&B roots (he grew up in the church and was once in an R&B group) with captivating house beats. In 2020, he gave a taste with his inspiring debut single, "Got That Hope," featuring words from none other than Dr. Cornell West. (He first connected with Dr. West in 2008 to help him build an online presence). Along with the single, he launched his Purple Label Sound imprint, for which his vision is to uplift fellow rising house music producers of color. He's since dropped a handful of vibey, energetic house tracks, all bolstered with his warm, deep vocals. The most recent bop is "Trippin (Vocal Mix)," featuring Life on Planets.




AMÉMÉ 

AMÉMÉ is a self-taught DJ/producer from Benin living in Berlin and Brooklyn. His music and DJ sets incorporate African rhythms with house, which is really the genre's foundation. He runs One Tribe, a global music, party, and fashion brand centered on creating community and good vibes.

The powerhouse West African artist has DJed at hotspots worldwide, including his home cities, Ibiza, Miami, Paris, and Black Rock City, and will be making his Coachella debut this year. He dropped his debut single, "Talk To Me," in 2020 and has delivered a solid, always-lively string of originals, remixes, and collabs, including his Gaou EP in 2021 and "PATCHIDO" with Don Bello Ni in 2020. Of the latter, he explains, "the main vocal of the song comes from my culture. It's a traditional chant that people sing everywhere."




Marytn Bootyspoon

In addition to having one of the best names in dance music, Montreal's Jason Voltaire, a.k.a. Martyn Bootyspoon, brings a playful sense of humor and up-front sexuality to industrial techno beats. He credits his sense of humor to his hometown: "There's a lot of slapstick and tacky things that happen in Montreal," and ghettotech producers DJ Assault and DJ Funk as early inspirations.

He served up his first dose of dance floor sexiness with the Silk Eternity EP in 2018, dropping an EP and more singles every year. His most recent are the self-released acid housey Incognito Tabs i EP and the bright, upbeat house jam "As Clear As Day" on LuckyMe.




NEZ

NEZ has already made a name for himself in hip-hop as half of the production duo Nez & Rio, whose credits include regular collaborator ScHoolboy Q's 2014 hit "Man of the Year" and A$AP Rocky's "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2." In 2020, Nez stepped out on his own as a solo artist, dropping the swagalicious bop "Wild Youngster" featuring ScHoolboy Q. He made his live performance and festival debut with an energetic set at Lollapalooza 2021. He then unleashed a series of bouncing DJ sets across the country, including opening for Seth Troxler at Circoloco's LA party.

As a solo artist, Nez sings, raps, and produces his infectious beats, tapping collaborators from hip-hop and house to bring all that vivacious energy to dance music. In 2021, NEZ dropped the Midnight Music EP, featuring Felix Da Housecat on "Lift Off" and Flo Milli and 8AE on "To The Money."




Tony H 

Panama-born, Seattle-based Tony H makes bouncing tech house, melodic house and techno gems released on Desert Hearts, Dirtybird, Observatory Music, Space Yacht, and more. He founded his own Late Night Munchies imprint in 2015, adding the techno-focused arm Munchies After Dark more recently, and is the label manager for LA's Space Yacht. He also hosts The Drive-Thru mix series on SoundCloud, highlighting other rising dance acts. He balances all this with a busy DJ schedule, sharing his energy regularly at shows in his home city, San Francisco, Chicago, and other dance locales.

He's an effortless multi-tasker, and his complimentary sonic dexterity is evident across his productions, which date back to 2014. His most recent single, "Shoulder Pop," for Late Night Munchies, is a driving eight-minute tech house burner. His groovy three-track 2021 Desert Hearts EP, She Moves The World, proves his diversity in sound. Featuring the disco-tinged title track, tech house heater "Get Physical" with swaggy lyrics from Icausetreble, and '90s house nodding "Little Pieces" elevated by Ingrid Hakanson's captivating vocals.                 

10 Rising Black Artists You Should Know

It goes without saying that 2021 is a particularly poignant year to count what we should be thankful for. Actually, maybe it does need to be spoken because being vocal about what you're grateful for is necessary. And after the dumpster fire of 2020, counting our blessings in 2021 should be required of everyone.

Dance music's return to festivals and clubs in many parts of the world was welcomed with open arms and shuffling feet. And the epic festival season that unfolded in the last half of the year was unlike any other. The house and techno community has much to be thankful for.

While we don't need a holiday to remind us to be grateful, it doesn't hurt to have the reminder. We asked a few Gray Area friends and family to share what they are most thankful for in 2021. As you read ahead, take a moment to reflect on the friends, family, events, tracks, and experiences that made 2021 an incredible year for you. We're thankful for the dance music community and you.

Will Clarke

"This year is a particularly meaningful time to reflect and be thankful. I'm both thankful for all of the time I have been able to spend back home in England and I'm also incredibly grateful to be back on the road doing what I love again."

Follow WIll Clarke on Spotify | Instagram 








Tara Brooks

"I'm grateful for the ocean & that I fully committed myself to surfing. Im grateful for everyone's who's believed in and supported me, even when things have felt empty and disconnected. Im grateful for my passion & drive to never give up. Im grateful for my friends, fam, music evolutions, & all of YOU!"

Follow Tara Brooks on Spotify | Instagram


Life On Planets

"I'm grateful for the team in 2021. It takes a village! I wanna say a big big thank you to my manager Jon McDonald for believing in me. His faith in my music lead to some AMAZING opportunities in 2021 including collaborating with Lubelski & Claude VonStroke, playing the Dirtybird main stage, becoming a Twitch partner, getting a ton of music signed to some very dope labels and so much more. 2022 is gonna be a movie. Much love to my teams at 2+2 Management and Liaison. Also a big shout to Moody Jones for taking our collabs sky high!" 

Follow Life On Planets on Spotify | Instagram




Jeremy Olander

"I'm grateful for being back on the road again, particularly being back in NYC, but also for the time I got to spend in the studio and with my family and friends. Living a 'regular' life has definitely had it's upsides but I'm more than ready to get back to business."

Follow Jeremy Olander on Spotify | Instagram








QRTR


"I'm grateful to be able to spend time with all the people I love again, dancing in clubs, grabbing drinks at our favorite dive bars, catching a movie at the theater. I've never been so grateful for the little things as I am now, and I'm looking forward to never taking anything for granted again!"

Follow QRTR on Instagram | Spotify







Dillon Nathaniel

"I’m thankful for my health and my family first and foremost. I am so happy that we have survived such a crazy time and we all get to spend the holidays together again!

“The second thing I am most thankful for is to be able to play shows again. Electronic music has stood it’s ground and we are back stronger than ever. I am so thankful I can hug my fans after my set and be able to continue my journey with music.”

Follow Dillon Nathaniel on Spotify | Instagram








Justin Jay

"Got so much to be thankful for this year. It's surreal to experience live music again. I love how music can bring people together and lift people's spirits even when times are tough. It's been surreal to experience that once again from both the stage and the dance floor. I teared up pretty intensely at my first DJ setback since COVID and have attended so many amazing shows as a fan since. 

"Enjoying live music in person has been such a big part of my life, and I'm insanely grateful to have it back. I'm also grateful to have discovered a newfound balance in my life between touring and staying at home. Leading up to COVID, I was on the cusp of being burnt out from non-stop traveling. It's quite hard to turn down gigs when they're so much fun. However, achieving a healthier balance that enables me to be productive in the studio, stay connected with friends & family and treat my body well has been a game-changer. 

"Above all, the thing I'm the most grateful for is all of the amazing people who are in my life. The isolation of COVID definitely put things into perspective for me about how important it is to not be alone. Real relationships take time and effort to cultivate and maintain, which is something I've been trying to improve on. Very very grateful to be surrounded by truly incredible friends, family, coworkers, fans, and humans. Feeling so much gratitude and hoping for all the PLUR going into the new year! <3"


Follow Justin Jay on Instagram | Spotify

We Asked These Artists What They Were Thankful For in 2021

United States

Life On Planets

Music has always moved Baltimore-born multi-hyphenate 

—aka Phil Celeste. His smooth, soulful house sways and sings with the sounds of a lifetime of musical influences that range from jazz and the blues to pop-punk and hip hop. 

When he opens his mouth to sing, his buttery voice is slick with the memory of a youngster singing to James Brown in his grandmother's living room. His silky clustered chords are thick with his father's jazz and funk influences. And his pensive, poetic lyrics are awash with his gentle, reflective spirit. His music is at once meditative and moving, thoughtful and exciting.

Lubelski & Claude Von Stroke feat. Life On Planets - Ice Cream Cone

Join Lubelski, Life on Planets and Claude VonStroke Tuesday at 6pm PT for the official premiere of the Ice Cream Cone music video!

Ice Cream Cone - Lubelski & Claude VonStroke ft Life on Planets - Out Now on Dirtybird Records
https://dirtybird.fanlink.to/icecreamcone

Lubelski's 'Happy Accidents' Album out November 12
https://dirtybird.fanlink.to/happyaccidents

Credits:

Ice Cream Boys
Lubelski 
Life on Planets

Ice Cream Boss
Claude VonStroke

Director 
Pedro Martinez 

Executive Producers 
Jonathan McDonald
Maxfield Frieser

Producer
Enya Kollek

Ice Cream Lovers
Journey Davis
Lokii Reis da Silva
Hannah Abeel
Kye Popham
Jane Zogbi 
Sofia Dresch

----

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Lubelski & Claude VonStroke feat. Life on Planets - Ice Cream Cone (Music Video) [DIRTYBIRD]

" in 2014, he's pushed a sound that fuses his indie sensibilities with an innate rhythmic sensibility. His releases on 

, and Kitsuné have earned the raconteur tens of millions of streams and performances of his hybrid live and DJ sets in far-flung festivals and lauded clubs.

Growing up in Baltimore, he had a brilliant patchwork of musical influences to draw from. He fondly remembers listening to old funk cassettes at his grandmother's house and dancing his heart out with his cousins to Destiny's Child. His father—one of his fiercest musical influences— exposed him to jazz titans like Benny Goodman and John Coltrane.

Lubelski's 'Happy Accidents' LP Explores Improvisation and Modular Synthesis

One of the most fascinating aspects of music is the relationship between artists and their chosen apparatus of creation. Jimi Hendrix didn’t simply play his guitars; he had a relationship with them. Every time he stepped into the studio or onto the stage, he further explored that relationship, and listeners continue to marvel at that exploration to this day.

Lubelski, the ascending LA-based producer, DJ, and label boss of Percomaniacs, has a studio full of different apparatuses of creation. And his latest LP, Happy Accidents, out now on Dirtybird Records, explores his relationship with modular synthesizers.

Where traditional, non-modular synthesizers retain a particular sound pallet, some of which have become unmistakable throughout decades of electronic music (the low-end womp of the Roland TR-808, for example), modular synthesizers allow the artist to create sounds that have never existed before. 

Every different knob and cable on a modular rig alters the sound in its own way. There are infinite configurations and settings, and that level of creative control opens the door to pure improvisation. 

Lubelski, real name Jake Lubell, crafted Happy Accidents through improvisation, and the title of the album refers to the basis of all 12 tracks.

“A happy accident is a found sound,” says Lubell over a recent Zoom call. “I’m letting the music itself be found in my modular jams. It’s not anything that’s pre-conceived. It’s finding the music as opposed to sculpting it.”

During Summer 2021, Lubell broadcast a series of modular jams on his own Twitch channel, under the same name: Happy Accidents. Every track on the album resulted from these jams in some way or another.

“I was able to go back into those individual recordings and nitpick what I wanted to use,” Lubell says. “Maybe I liked the drum idea and I would use that, or maybe I just like one little lead and I would start a new song based on it.”

Every time Lubell started a new stream, he searched for something he didn’t know that he wanted to find, a relationship with his modular rig that he likens to a conversation.

“It’s a conversation between me and the synthesizer,” Lubell says. “I might say for it to do something, and then it tells me something back that I didn’t expect.”

This relationship with modular persisted long before Lubell even started the Lubelski project. While attending UC Santa Cruz, he took an electronic sound synthesis course, and the school housed an extensive modular rig that students used for assignments.





One key aspect of modular synthesizers is they can grow to immense sizes. A single modular synthesizer holds a series of different modules. There is no limit to the total number of modules a synth can include, and each provides a unique quality to the music. 

Lubell used roughly 20 different modules in his setup for a Happy Accidents jam. Artists like deadmau5 and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails have synthesizers composed of hundreds of individual modules.

Each module furthers its relationship with the hardware, refining its ability to make music that sounds unequivocally singular.

“It’s like the LEGOs for adults,” says Lubell with a laugh.

Lubell applies jargon comparable in its esotericism to constitutional law or nuclear physics in discussing modular synthesis. Using terms like “ring modulation attenuation” as casually as most people use words like “the,” which expands further as he describes techniques he applied during the Happy Accidents jams.

“One thing I really love doing is throwing a pitch sequence on a filter cutoff with a high resonance on a filter. You can get these really interesting tones that you can’t get just by sequencing the pitch of an oscillator,” Lubell says. “The pitch comes from the resonance of the frequency as opposed to the actual pitch of the thing making the sound. If that makes sense.”

Most people would have lost him at pitch sequence. However, Lubell has been fostering his relationship with modular for years. It also makes sense to someone like DJ, producer, and head of Dirtybird, Claude VonStroke, who has his own decades-long relationship with synthesizers and electronic production.

Lubell and VonStroke, real name Barclay Crenshaw, had been in close proximity long before Lubell began producing Happy Accidents. 

Lubell put out his debut EP on Dirtybird, Impulse Response, in November of 2019, with a second EP, Lost My Senses, landing in September of 2020, as well as several offerings on different Dirtybird compilations.

As a seasoned Dirtybird Player, Crenshaw asked Lubell to contribute to Dirtybird Live, Dirtybird’s Twitch channel, over quarantine. Most of the programming centered around DJ sets, but Lubell had something different in mind.

“I didn’t want to be another DJ doing a DJ thing on Twitch. Everyone was doing that,” Lubell says. “I felt like I could really take the opportunity to dive into the live modular stuff.”

And so Lubell started Patchwork Sessions, a weekly live modular session very similar to Happy Accidents. The primary difference between the two shows is Patchwork Sessions wasn’t building towards a specific outcome. 

Crenshaw was aware of Lubell’s relationship with modular. Yet, after witnessing Lubell captivate audiences during Patchwork Sessions, Crenshaw asked Lubell for an LP’s worth of material based on modular sessions, a humbling and contemplative moment for Lubell.

“I’ll be totally honest I was a bit reluctant at first,” Lubell says of releasing an album on Dirtybird. “I have a very big vision for what my music should be, and I didn’t want to relinquish creative control of an album to somebody else, but luckily Barclay trusted me. He said ‘This album is about you. I want you to do your thing.’ So it felt really great to have someone I’ve looked up to for years ask me to do something like that.”

Following Lubell’s agreement, he migrated to his own Twitch and launched Happy Accidents. Crenshaw gave a strict deadline for the album, so Lubell spent six weeks streaming jams and then another three weeks dissecting and reworking the recordings into the final versions for the record.

The album took nine weeks from conception to completion. The result of the expedited process is 12 heavily technical tracks balanced by a sense of raggedy humanity. 

The improvisation in the jams provided an authentic quality to the foundation of each track while the quick turnaround left limited time to scrutinize the minor tweaks. These tweaks exist as little reminders of how despite house music’s metronomic underpinnings, there is room for some soul, some mortality, an idea advanced by Lubell’s relationship with production.

“I know myself, and if I keep working on something it will be a totally different song,” Lubell says. “I would rather call it, be done with it, and move on to the next project.”

Perhaps the only track on the album that received meticulous attention to detail was “Ice Cream Cone,” the co-production between Crenshaw and Lubell with Life On Planets contributing vocals. 

“[Crenshaw] is way more of a perfectionist than I am,” Lubell says. “He really knows his production and how he wants things to sound. He’s like ‘If it’s not perfect, I’m not putting it out.’ He’s sort of like the Gordon Ramsey of dance music. If it doesn’t taste good it’s not going on the plate.”

Lubell finalized the bulk of Happy Accidents in three weeks. Crenshaw spent over two weeks on “Ice Cream Cone,” by itself. Yet despite their completely inverse relationships with their creative apparatuses, they explored those relationships together. It’s truly fascinating, and the listeners get to marvel at the results.






"My dad was also a DJ. So he had his mixes of P. Funk [and] Steve Arrington, all kinds of stuff. He would have sped up versions and different mixes… that really inspired me and helped me find my way when it came to what I wanted to dig for and what I wanted out of music."

He picked up the clarinet and sax early in life, and in high school, discovered a love for singing in high school in an unexpected way.

"I would always ride the bus and hang out with kids that were listening to pop punk. I had a homeboy, one of my best friends who played guitar in some emo bands."

Life on Planets - Gray Area Spotlight Mix

That friend introduced him to bands like Fall Out Boy, Blood Brothers, and Panic At The Disco. He remembers singing in the same intense falsetto as their lead singers. 

"My mom would come downstairs at one or two in the morning and be like, 'What the hell are you singing? What are you listening to?'"

Around the same time, he was gifted a guitar by his high school sweetheart's sister. At first, it seemed like a prop; he wasn't sure what to do with it. But the more he spent time with it, the more it inspired him to experiment with new forms of expression.

"That summer, I just started playing the guitar and riffing. I was like, I want to tell some stories with this music. And so I started writing a concept album."

And that's when his confessional and surreal lyrical style began to develop.

"I'm thinking about this dream I had where there is this girl who would sing. And when she sang, it was like gravity disappeared. And so, I was trying to put that dream into these lyrics. And, I guess that was my first song."

Drawing inspiration from the subconscious world has become part of his process. It's a way to process and recontextualize past experiences.

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"There's a concept called recapitulation, where you take an old memory—because we tend to have a lot of stuff that's stuck in these old rivalries, whether it's fear or embarrassment, or love lost, and you're still pining over it," he explains.

"And so I was like, Oh, maybe I can use this concept and put it into lyrics and review everything that went into the relationship, everything that happened, everything that I felt, and tried to get the truth out of it and try to just pull the energy back out of it so I can stop obsessing about it and have it out into the universe, just release."

He attended art school in Baltimore and began to immerse himself in the eclectic Baltimore scene; his sonic palette expanded to include the patchwork of underground sounds thumping from lofts and warehouses.

Moody Jones, Life On Planets - Gold Action

https://instagram.com/moodyjones
https://linktr.ee/followLOP
Vocals, Lyrics & Production by Life on Planets

Bought A Lamp In Istanbul 
Rubbing On It Like A Fool
Got A Genie Im Like Woo
Ima Make That Belly Full
Lotta Smoke Fill Up The Room
Show Me Posters Coming Soon
Crystal Ball Just Like A Moon 
She Got Me In Involved, Need Some Treasures For My Tomb

Take Me To Another Land
Clouds Is Purple Like Japan 
Palms Is Itchy Feel My Hands 
Money Waiting See The Bands
Castle All Up In The Sky 
Is It Real Or Just A Lie
She Want Me To Be Her Guy 
Say A Prayer For Mine
We Gon’ Rob This Place Tonight

I Ain't Aladdin 
I Got That Flying Carpet Tho
Roll Wit’ The Baddest
We Always Above Traffic 
We In The Palace 
Let's Make Some Magic 
Take All They Assets
Need That Gold Action

Meet Her Friends And Family
Tell Them We Gon’ Get Married
They Some Devils Evil Peeps
We Gon’ End Them No More Seeds
Turn That Thing On To The Side 
Sparks Be Flying As We Grind
With A Snake Them Hands Is Tied Up
Pop The Lock Fo’ Me
Safe Is Open Time To Ride

Whistle, Whistle While I Loot
I'm About To Take A Parachute
We So, We So, We So Cool
Making Moves Wit That Attitude
Dream Of Jeannie Monday Mood
Wishy Washy But I'm Smooth
Pop That Bob That Head She Do 
Make All Of My Wish Come Tru

I Ain't Aladdin 
I Got That Flying Carpet Tho
Roll Wit The Baddest
And We Always Above Traffic 
We In The Palace 
Let's Make Some Magic 
Take All They Assets
I Need That Gold Action

Moody Jones & Life On Planets - Gold Action (Official Audio)

"It's always been very eclectic in Baltimore. I remember I saw 

 before he popped off. I would see Abdu Ali at the same concert [with] a noise guy with all these different little machines. And then another indie rock band and another experimental band.

"So you have hip hop, you've got punk, you've got house, you've got BMore club and all this stuff, contained in the same venue. So, I think when it came to making music, I was just like, there shouldn't be any boundary or limit to just sticking to one genre or having one sound that sounds the same as what's come before."

Even with the rich tapestry of musical influences he was afforded, he still didn't adequately contextualize dance music. Not until a friend gave him the movie 

the 2001 documentary that chronicles the history of house music.

He realized that dance music's history was just as storied and complex as jazz, R&B, hip hop, and rock.

"I was like, Oh, this is this is black music, you know, this is a black tradition. And, you know, it's obviously become interpreted in many lenses and made its way around the world. But this is important to really keep keep that tradition alive."

Life On Planets - Live at Mixmag x Superdry

Crew Love's sultry crooner takes the stage at our Superdry extravaganza in Brooklyn.

Follow Life on Planets: https://www.facebook.com/livinglifeonplanets/
Follow Superdry: https://www.facebook.com/Superdry

LIFE ON PLANETS (Live) at Mixmag X Superdry Brooklyn

And so began another period of transition and education for Celeste.

"My homie would take me around to famous Baltimore spots, like 

. [He'd] take me to some of like the OG spots, where it's not like, 20 year olds, everybody's like, 40. And dancing, getting down, really 

. And I was just like, damn, this is everything I wanted in a party, you know, to really dance and express myself."

And the more he's experienced dance music around the world as a touring DJ and musician, the more it's solidified what he learned about himself through his early exposure to those OG spots.

After traveling the world and creating peak experiences on the dancefloor, understanding the unbridled joy of the non-stop thump of a kick drum, he finds himself coming home to see bands play and wondering, "Why does the music got to stop in between? Just keep the party going, just keep the beat alive."

And as he looks forward, he's confident that music can't continue to move people physically and emotionally.

"At the end of the day for people who are going through the struggle, you know, we get together, we convene, and we support each other. And music can be therapy. There's been moments on the decks where we just see people in tears just having a beautiful moment or a beautiful revelation. I've been in other cities, and I don't speak the language but we're dancing together and were just happy, [we] just let it out." 

Gray Area Spotlight: Life On Planets

Music has always moved Baltimore-born multi-hyphenate Life On Planets—aka Phil Celeste. His smooth, soulful house sways and sings with the sounds of a lifetime of musical influences that range from jazz and the blues to pop-punk and hip hop.

Read the full Spotlight: https://grayarea.co/artists/life-on-planets

▪️Follow Life on Planets▪️
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lifeonplanets/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/lifeonplanetsss
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/livinglifeonplanets
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/2EtksajEPOMDkyVKMZi1eO?si=NEcTEsg9SOaMXpgYPROBgg
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Beatport - https://www.beatport.com/artist/life-on-planets/380949

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Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
04:40 - How he came up with his name
07:36 - Childhood music
11:24 - Baltimore scene
14:16 - Interpreting dreams into songs
16:22 - Discovering dance music
19:36 - Cornel West and Seth Troxler inspirations
23:40 - Speed Round

#grayarea #lifeonplanets #housemusic

Gray Area Interview: Life on Planets

Music has always moved Baltimore-born multi-hyphenate Life On Planets—aka Phil Celeste. His smooth, soulful house sways and sings with the sounds of a lifetime of musical influences that range from jazz and the blues to pop-punk and hip hop. 

When he opens his mouth to sing, his buttery voice is slick with the memory of a youngster singing to James Brown in his grandmother's living room. His silky clustered chords are thick with his father's jazz and funk influences. And his pensive, poetic lyrics are awash with his gentle, reflective spirit. His music is at once meditative and moving, thoughtful and exciting.

Since his debut single "Apollo" in 2014, he's pushed a sound that fuses his indie sensibilities with an innate rhythmic sensibility. His releases on Wolf + Lamb, Dirtybird, and Kitsuné have earned the raconteur tens of millions of streams and performances of his hybrid live and DJ sets in far-flung festivals and lauded clubs.

Growing up in Baltimore, he had a brilliant patchwork of musical influences to draw from. He fondly remembers listening to old funk cassettes at his grandmother's house and dancing his heart out with his cousins to Destiny's Child. His father—one of his fiercest musical influences— exposed him to jazz titans like Benny Goodman and John Coltrane.



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"My dad was also a DJ. So he had his mixes of P. Funk [and] Steve Arrington, all kinds of stuff. He would have sped up versions and different mixes… that really inspired me and helped me find my way when it came to what I wanted to dig for and what I wanted out of music."

He picked up the clarinet and sax early in life, and in high school, discovered a love for singing in high school in an unexpected way.

"I would always ride the bus and hang out with kids that were listening to pop punk. I had a homeboy, one of my best friends who played guitar in some emo bands."

That friend introduced him to bands like Fall Out Boy, Blood Brothers, and Panic At The Disco. He remembers singing in the same intense falsetto as their lead singers. 

"My mom would come downstairs at one or two in the morning and be like, 'What the hell are you singing? What are you listening to?'"

Around the same time, he was gifted a guitar by his high school sweetheart's sister. At first, it seemed like a prop; he wasn't sure what to do with it. But the more he spent time with it, the more it inspired him to experiment with new forms of expression.

"That summer, I just started playing the guitar and riffing. I was like, I want to tell some stories with this music. And so I started writing a concept album."

And that's when his confessional and surreal lyrical style began to develop.

"I'm thinking about this dream I had where there is this girl who would sing. And when she sang, it was like gravity disappeared. And so, I was trying to put that dream into these lyrics. And, I guess that was my first song."

Drawing inspiration from the subconscious world has become part of his process. It's a way to process and recontextualize past experiences.



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"There's a concept called recapitulation, where you take an old memory—because we tend to have a lot of stuff that's stuck in these old rivalries, whether it's fear or embarrassment, or love lost, and you're still pining over it," he explains.

"And so I was like, Oh, maybe I can use this concept and put it into lyrics and review everything that went into the relationship, everything that happened, everything that I felt, and tried to get the truth out of it and try to just pull the energy back out of it so I can stop obsessing about it and have it out into the universe, just release."

He attended art school in Baltimore and began to immerse himself in the eclectic Baltimore scene; his sonic palette expanded to include the patchwork of underground sounds thumping from lofts and warehouses.

"It's always been very eclectic in Baltimore. I remember I saw Abdu Ali before he popped off. I would see Abdu Ali at the same concert [with] a noise guy with all these different little machines. And then another indie rock band and another experimental band.

"So you have hip hop, you've got punk, you've got house, you've got BMore club and all this stuff, contained in the same venue. So, I think when it came to making music, I was just like, there shouldn't be any boundary or limit to just sticking to one genre or having one sound that sounds the same as what's come before."

Even with the rich tapestry of musical influences he was afforded, he still didn't adequately contextualize dance music. Not until a friend gave him the movie Pump Up The Volume, the 2001 documentary that chronicles the history of house music. He realized that dance music's history was just as storied and complex as jazz, R&B, hip hop, and rock.

"I was like, Oh, this is this is black music, you know, this is a black tradition. And, you know, it's obviously become interpreted in many lenses and made its way around the world. But this is important to really keep keep that tradition alive."

And so began another period of transition and education for Celeste.

"My homie would take me around to famous Baltimore spots, like the Paradox. [He'd] take me to some of like the OG spots, where it's not like, 20 year olds, everybody's like, 40. And dancing, getting down, really dancing. And I was just like, damn, this is everything I wanted in a party, you know, to really dance and express myself."

And the more he's experienced dance music around the world as a touring DJ and musician, the more it's solidified what he learned about himself through his early exposure to those OG spots.

After traveling the world and creating peak experiences on the dancefloor, understanding the unbridled joy of the non-stop thump of a kick drum, he finds himself coming home to see bands play and wondering, "Why does the music got to stop in between? Just keep the party going, just keep the beat alive."

And as he looks forward, he's confident that music can't continue to move people physically and emotionally.

"At the end of the day for people who are going through the struggle, you know, we get together, we convene, and we support each other. And music can be therapy. There's been moments on the decks where we just see people in tears just having a beautiful moment or a beautiful revelation. I've been in other cities, and I don't speak the language but we're dancing together and were just happy, [we] just let it out." 



Life On Planets

Articles

Ana Monroy Yglesias

Alexander Dias