Success did not come overnight for NYC DJ and producer Jean Pierre. His path took him to Colombia and back again, steeping him in the underground club scene of the Big Apple before sending him to stages across the globe by way of Miami. It’s a career that stands as testament to the power of perseverance, and it’s only begun to unfold.




“I was born in Queens,” Jean says. “I mostly grew up with hip-hop culture and was really into that … My older brother started putting the bug in my ear that he was going to the Sound Factory and telling me all these crazy stories about what happened in that club. I was intrigued by it.”




Before Jean had a chance to dive into dance music, though, his mother had different plans. “During my freshman year of high school I was a little more rebellious and going out — you know, crazy stuff that you get into when you’re going to high school — and my mom said, ‘You know what? I’m sending you to live with your dad,’” he says.




Jean Pierre’s Fresh Prince story of sorts sent him to Colombia, where his father lived. Jean had been visiting every summer, so he already had friends and knew his way around. The synchronous pull of club culture managed to reach him a continent away, however.




Colombia’s two biggest clubs were Privilege and Mission — the latter of which had sound and lighting specifically designed to emulate New York’s legendary Sound Factory. Mission introduced European DJs like Carl Cox and Marco Carola to the country’s dance music fans during that time.




By comparison, Jean’s first experience behind the decks was far more modest.




“A year later, I was at a friend’s house and they were partying,” he recalls. “They said, ‘Hey, we can’t play because we’re too drunk … There were no CDJs, just two boomboxes playing CDs. They were like, ‘Yo, this does this, this does this, just figure it out.’ I did, and it was one of the experiences that changed my life. I was 15 years old.”




Four years later, Jean Pierre returned to NYC — but he chose to hone his craft before getting his feet wet. “I came back and I was just watching, not really pushing myself,” he says. “I felt like I still needed a lot of work DJing and getting more experience. My older brother had a lot of friends, so I started building my little network, going to Pacha and all these other clubs that were open at that time, looking and listening.”




Jean first performed at after-hours events in Queens before landing a gig in the Pacha basement courtesy of the late promoter Robert Hernandez. “He did a lot for me and my career,” says Jean. Rob would get him gigs at Cielo, the Pacha main floor, and Asseteria, opening up for the likes of Oscar G, Boris, and Chris Vargas.




“I just kept on doing my thing with my head down, trying not to get lost in that New York City scene,” Jean says. “It was intense and pretty nonstop — every weekend there was something.”




The 2010s saw Jean Pierre build a home studio and produce music as often as he could, releasing on Nervous Records and Victor Calderone’s Waveform Recordings. When the rise of social media platforms triggered a shift in the scene’s power structures, Jean remained relevant by landing a job at the since-shuttered NYC record store Halcyon.




“It helped a lot for [NYC club] Output to see my face consistently,” Jean says. “They started giving me sets in the Panther Room, brought me into the main room, and that’s kind of how the whole story went until Output closed and the record store closed a couple months later.”




Jean then relocated to Miami and built another music studio with a friend. The timing of the move turned out to be advantageous, as the COVID-19 pandemic gave him no option but to stay at home and focus on writing tracks. He honed his skills in the studio and tapped into a new revenue source by offering mixdowns as a service, stocking up on his own music before restrictions eased enough for him to hit the ground running again.




Calling Miami his home base has allowed Jean to travel easily between South America and Europe, solidifying his presence as an international artist. He also now runs his own record label, Pakate. It has given a home to releases by up-and-coming talent such as FLETCH, Daniel Orpi, and Reelow.




Even after two decades in the house music game, Jean Pierre’s story feels like it is only just beginning. Time has told that nothing will stop this persistent talent from taking anything he pursues to the next level.



Jean Pierre


“Live wild. Write honest," four words born from a lifetime of experience, a heart full of purpose, and a spirit full of ambition. You certainly could call
Jeffery Hartford, bka ATTLAS, a music producer, but that label barely begins to scratch the surface of his depth not only as an artist but as a human. In an industry largely dependent on marketability and capturing the latest trends, Hartford has relied on his heart to lead his writing. The result? A library of rich organic sounds, breathtaking cinematic textures, and soul-inspiring melodies.




But one is not simply born into the role of "artist." A person is not haphazardly thrust into the part of "composer." Steps are taken, experiences are shared, and decisions are made. At the end of it all, a story is written and lived.




“The first time I started playing music is when my family moved to Michigan when I was six years old,” Jeff begins.





“It was an old house with an unfinished basement, and the previous occupants had a 120-year-old piano in the basement. My parents aren’t musicians, they aren’t musical, but it was just down there near my Legos and hockey stuff, that’s where all my fun stuff went. So the piano was just another really fun thing to figure out. I’d toy around and figure out melodies on the piano that matched what was happening on the radio.”




As the years went on, it became increasingly apparent that the 120-year-old piano was more than another toy.




“When we moved to Ontario after Michigan, my parents thought, ‘You know what, Jeff’s liking the piano, why don’t we bring it with us.’ It wouldn’t fit in the basement of our new place in Ontario, so it had to take a more prominent place in the living room. Because it’s such a big chunky piece of furniture, they wanted to make sure, ‘Jeff are you still going to play it? Do you want to take lessons?’”




Jeff jumped at the opportunity and dove head first into the next level of piano exploration. Piano lessons were soon joined by guitar, trumpet, and others as music tastes evolved to include sounds of pop punk, classic rock, blues, jazz, classical, and folk. The eclectic nature of these sounds went hand in hand with the diverse nature of Hartford’s other interests.





“I was very very busy, and I still am, in a lot of different areas of life. I was always trying to be top of the class, played a ton of sports… everything I did was full throttle. Of course music too.”




Despite consistent interests, the groups to exercise those interests with were anything but.




“My family moved around a lot growing up. Every two to three years we were in a new place. So there’s not a lot of consistency with your friend group. It could be a bit socially isolating and you need some kind of consistent thread through your story. Mine was my hobbies. A lot of books, a lot of imagination, and music was the one.”




While this kind of inconsistent connection would be tough for anyone in their formative years, the dive into art, story, and music that followed became the foundation of Hartford’s artistic direction.




The ATTLAS sound is more than a chugging bass line, intermittent synth stabs, and a cheeky vocal hook. Instead, time, patience, purpose, and emotion thoughtfully intertwine in a rich tapestry of both organic and synthesized compositional themes. Melodies dance in delicate balance with harmonies and counter-melodies telling stories and sharing experiences with room for personal connection imbued by every listener.





Listening to a singular ATTLAS track would provide no more than a glimpse into the depth of experience the library holds. Rather, one should listen to an entire album or a full mix to understand the journey lies within the compositional intricacies. Projects form from sonic transpositions of a vast spectrum of inspiration ranging from existential turmoil to profound geographic experiences (thus the name ATTLAS). It is a musical exploration of the human condition.




“You can write character, you can use an instrument as narrative development… There’s a lot you can achieve with wordlessness. There’s very little room for interpretation when a track has a lyric like ‘Shake it off,’” he shares.




“That’s pretty obviously about shaking something off. But a big piece like a Wagner piece or a Beethoven, or I was a big Chopin guy because I was a piano player first, you can convey a lot of emotion but that emotion can be interpreted a lot different based on the emotional context of the listener. What’s sad to one person might mean something very personal. But what’s sad to somebody else might be weather inspired and I think I appreciated being able to take my own story and understand it through all this wordless music. It was just beautiful and I wanted to try and give back to the music that meant so much to me and got me through a lot of isolation.”




This deep appreciation for the challenge of composition led Jeff to follow that same course of study at university, later taking on internships with commercial studios and professional composers. Through these opportunities, he honed his technical aptitude for studio hardware and later fostered his love of dance music.





“The first time I was exposed to electronic music knowingly delving into it as a genre was Boards of Canada's first album. For a long time, electronic music for me was just Warp Records, Ninja Tune, it was less the dance side and more electronic music,” Jeff remembers.




“Then, after a breakup, I did a whole backpacking thing and you go to places in Berlin that only open at 4 am and I’d never even had the guts to dance with a girl let alone. Not only was the music awesome but you can actually dance by yourself. You are someone before and after you come to that realization.”




While Jeff found himself working in LA after university, waves were crashing in the realm of dance music that could not be ignored.




“I knew the process to work up in LA, and I knew what the composer route was gonna be. But that was the time when deadmau5 was sort of setting a new standard on not just the writing but the sonic fidelity of what he was pulling off. And I said ya' know ... If they sign my records, then I’ll switch [from commercial composition], I’ll really go after the dance side of electronic music. Fortunately, deadmau5 and his team did sign me and he was the reason why I was excited to switch to the dance side,” Hartford recalls.




Jeff was soon opening on deadmau5 tours, co-producing records, and developed what is to this day a meaningful friendship. But Jeff wanted to explore the ATTLAS experience even deeper.



“Even if you get fortunate enough to find your voice, what are you going to say with that voice… I know what I care about, I know what I love, I know what motivates the writing, but is that coming across properly,” he ponders.




That determination to find the truest conveyance of ATTLAS has led Hartford to explore the deepest facets of himself while writing albums. But will those explorations—self-reflections—be accepted in an industry that demands digestibility and predictability? That is a question that, like music, has many shades of gray.




“That’s been the challenge of most musicians that I’ve spoken to personally. Finding the balance of doing something that truly feels like your own while retaining some semblance of forward momentum career-wise when tastes are a lot more middle of the road,” Jeff examines.




“You talk about a Michelin star restaurant and they’ll struggle on their margins and you’ll get a Subway that has a million restaurants. What is a successful restaurant? Is it how much money you make, how interesting it is, is it being critically acclaimed but commercially under-appreciated? I think that’s a bigger question, but there’s an evolving version of success for anyone in a creative pursuit.”





Indeed Hartford brings to light an undeniable point.




When speaking to a person like Jeff Hartford—a lifetime disciple and devotee to music and the wonder of all its abstract power—it becomes apparent that there’s so much more than the play counts, nominations, and metrics we’ve grown used to monitoring. ATTLAS has scored millions of plays and has multiple award nominations, but Jeff still searches for ways to open doors to new worlds and feelings through mode and melody.



Will he ever be able to fully capture the feeling of immense calm required to control one's autonomic system when plunged into waters barely above freezing? Will he ever be able to communicate the rush of fear that follows a deafening thunderclap? Is music capable of transposing the tumultuous duality of feeling pride in how much one has grown while simultaneously struggling to reconcile the relationship with past versions of self? The pursuit is one with no guarantee of closure or solace, recognition, or reward. But it is one Hartford will choose to traverse time and time again because his guiding light is, and always has been, the music.

ATTLAS

Combining his unrelenting passion for music with an inextinguishable desire to positively impact his community, Shimza is a totem figure in South Africa's music scene and arguably the leader of the new Afro Tech movement. Renowned for his deep and rhythmic strain of underground music, Shimza's back catalog includes his full-length Shimuzic album and a long list of collaborations and singles. From his stunning collaboration "Uwrongo" with Prince Kaybee, Black Motion, and Ami Faku, to his Eminence EP on Cadenza and his Kings And Queens EP on Knee Deep In Sound.



After making worldwide waves on those two landmark imprints, Shimza launched KUNYE (which means together in Xhosa/Zulu) in November 2020, a label that bridges South Africa's emerging producers and the global stage. Inviting a selection of artists to perform in KUNYE's weekly livestream sessions, Shimza formed a new movement for Afro Tech while amplifying the label's mission to unite people through the love of music.







Let's go back to the early days. How did you get started as a DJ?

It stemmed from the love of music that I grew around. My parents and my brother used to play a lot of music in the house, and I think by that time, there was a youth radio station, which was starting in South Africa called Y-FM, which was very on the piles and pushing new music to people. We were exposed to much more music as a country, South Africa. We were exposed to new music from all around the world. I think that influenced me into loving music and wanting to be a DJ.




What were some of your main creative challenges when you started, and how have they changed over time?

My biggest challenge was obviously learning how to DJ, which took a lot of practice, but over time, that got better. Even now, I listen to music that I'm going to play. I don't sit and practice DJing anymore because I feel like I've got the rhythm. Now it's just my brains and putting together music that I've got during the week or some of the new songs that I think will make sense for my sets. But obviously, you have the normal challenges as a young upcoming DJ or a producer where you need certain doors to be opened for you, which is not that easy. With time, patience, and always trying to prove yourself, you'll always find a way to open those doors.

In 2020, you launched KUNYE records. Could you tell us a little bit about this project? How did it come to life?

KUNYE records is our voice as South African artists in the Afro sound. We're using that vehicle to push our music out to people. We're creating our own parties that play that sound we've commercialized. We are literally opening up the space for people to learn about the music. To say yes, we can come as Shimza, Da Capo, Zakes Bantwini - as individuals. But we have a movement that we can come with as a collective that will properly express how our music is and properly deliver it how we would want people to learn about the music. So, it has been doing very well.




What do you hope for the future of KUNYE? What plans do you have for it?



Our events have been growing over the past year or so. We plan on taking everything all around the world, doing remixes with international artists to expose the music to a wider audience. Most of it is mainly just putting on guys that ordinarily wouldn't [have] such big labels support them because of the type of music they make, which is not really radio commercial stuff. So, we want to use KUNYE as a vehicle to drive our music.





We remember your performance at Robben Island on Nelson Mandela Day in 2020 as the first South African to have a musical performance there. What did that special moment mean to you?

I feel like we were in a space during COVID where we felt like nothing really mattered, and I needed to use my music to inspire people. To say, guys, this is a place that had a lot of hardship. It carries a lot of bad vibes for a lot of people that were on that island suffering and being treated somehow. And here we are years later, and we can express ourselves the way we want to because of the sacrifices that people who were on that island made for us as South Africans. So, I used my talent to recreate that story and give it a much more appealing and relatable way for young people to want to learn about our culture and where we come from as a country. What better way than to use music, which helps us connect with every generation in South Africa?



That was one thing that really inspired me to teach the young people who follow me about our history. Because when they see me playing on this island, they ask themselves, 'where's this guy? Why is it so important that he is doing this thing on Robben Island?' So then we get to educate young people, and hopefully, they will also learn and teach other generations so that our history does not fall with the past. We keep it going and keep educating people about where we have come from as a country.

The music coming out of Africa is currently driving the sound of the global dance scene. What are your thoughts on how African dance music is being embraced?

It's doing quite well, and we're seeing ourselves being embraced in different parts, which really matter to the growth of our music. Like today I'm playing in Ibiza at Ushuaïa for the first time, and as one of the Africans that are going to be on that stage, it's quite amazing that someone decided that this will work for what we are trying to do.



It's something fresh, and we want to give it the platform to shine. It's all up to us to make sure that we open up those spaces for the younger DJs and producers so that we don't hog the space and say, this is just for me. I think the world is warming up nicely to us. We need to take advantage of this time and make sure we put out as much music and mixes and just connect with the world as much as we can right now.

Locally in South Africa, there's such incredible talent. What do you look for when seeking out new acts?

Originality and, honestly speaking, effort more than anything. As long as people put effort to make sure that their sound is clean, they become unique in their sound and offering. We're seeing the likes of Mpho.Wav from South Africa, we're seeing it with Inuna Aba, who is also doing well in the international markets, and a lot of other African artists like the guys from Gondowana are putting out music from everywhere that's quite cool. We're all pushing in different directions. And I think the more we do, the more we inspire, and the more we will grow as a community.







Do you think there's a certain responsibility when it comes to more established artists cultivating new talent and sharing the opportunities?

It's not a must. You know, we must not think that people who are at the top owe us anything. You need to put the responsibility on yourself to work hard to be noticed so that people see your value in certain spaces and not wait for handouts. It's inevitable when you put in the effort, and people see, and they feel it. It will always come back, and it will always bear results that you want.









The relationship between a DJ and the audience is crucial, and it seems you have mastered this fragile relationship. How do you see the balance between giving the crowd what they want and treating them to something new?




It's always a matter of knowing your crowd and what you're giving to them. When we play for totally different crowds, they're more receptive to receive, but if you're playing in a place like South Africa where there's a bigger culture of a certain sound like Amapiano, you always have to educate but always bring them back. I don't know how to explain it, but it's an art that I feel, and that's how I think I've managed to stand out as an artist. So I think it's very important to know who you're playing for, what they like, and how you can introduce something new to that audience.




Who are some fresh talents we should be listening to right now?




Mpho.Wav, for me, is doing quite nice stuff. There's an EP that was just dropped by Frigid Armadillo, and then Vitoto is also doing quite well. I work with him a lot. Artful Fox, brilliant producers, Karyendasoul is working on a new album. Caiiro just dropped. There's just a lot of music that's coming out of South Africa, and I think there's potential in a lot of these guys.




Can you hint at any upcoming projects you are currently working on?




For now, there's something big that I'm working on with a big UK artist, and then another UK artist hit me up for us to work together. So I think there's a lot of music that I'll be dropping quite soon, a lot of collaborations, and hopefully, work towards an album.







Follow Shimza on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud | Beatport



Shimza

Brother sister duo Shermanology, neé Andy and Dorothy Sherman, have a sound defined by a rich musical and cultural background woven into every note of their soulful grooves. Over their decade-spanning career, they’ve released on some of dance music’s most lauded imprints, from Defected to Spinnin, Armada, Dirtybird, and Cuttin Headz to Afrojack’s Wall Recordings. They’ve seen many iterations bouncing from R&B to Motown to garage to EDM. However, over the last half-decade, they have redefined themselves, infusing a uniquely crafted brand of tech house with their Dutch-Caribbean roots for a sound that is the sum of a lifetime of passion for musical expression.



Their father and uncle were part of the 70’s R&B group the Sherman Brothers, and they grew up amid a hum of activity, creative work, and DIY ingenuity. While they watched their family perform, craft outfits, and write music, Dorothy always knew that she would eventually follow the same path.



“Our lullaby was the metronome from the Atari,” Andy laughs. “My dad was making music while we were in the room trying to sleep. It was all day, every day, just music.”






Dorothy was the first to enter the professional world as a singer saying that when she was 13, her father laid a stack of money on the table and told her, “if you do the backing vocals, this is all yours.”



While Dorothy had a natural inclination toward song, Andy jokingly says he still needed to learn how to sing before he could join the family band. Still, Dorothy adds, his musical ability was innate. His pitch was so sound that even as an observer, he was often the first to notice when someone was a bit off-key during practice.



By the time the siblings were well into their teens, they were on their way to their first collaboration.



Andy explains that when Dorothy was invited to a singing competition for the Dutch islands of Curacao, Aruba, and Bonaire, “She said, No, I’m only doing it if she can do a duet with Andy. We did ‘Endless Love.’” Three months later, they started their first R&B group.



Dorothy was Andy’s entré to performing. And as the two progressed, he opened a gateway to dance music. In 2002 Andy replaced Craig David as the front man for iconic UK garage outfit Artful Dodger. While he traveled the world playing at festivals and clubs, Dorothy fell in love with dance music. And when he returned to Holland, he brought her on stage to sing with him while MCed at events.



“Before I knew it, I became an MC,” Dorothy recalls. “But I didn’t like that because you can only sing the songs they allow you to sing to.” Six months later, fed up with a lack of creative capital, they decided they could make music independently.



At the time, EDM was striking big, and the Dutch scene was producing landmark talents like Avicii, Fedde le Grand, Laidback Luke, Don Diablo, and Sidney Samson, all of whom were collaborators. And while it became a lucrative period, they felt they had strayed from the soul and depth that had inspired their musical path.



“The EDM period for us, gave us the chance to know what we stand for. And the music that we made at that time, we wouldn’t play it ourselves. We never played it at our parties or in the car. So, we did it as a job,” Andy tells us. “With all the respect for everything that happened in those years with us— because we learned so much and we have so much fun— we never felt it was ours. We always felt like we had somebody else’s shoes on.”



So, they stepped back from promising careers at the top of the game to reassess and recalibrate. And while they were both undeterred by the risks of a pivot, they admit that it was one of their most difficult periods.
“At some points, we were like, how long is it going to take? Because I’m starting to lose inspiration,” Dorothy says.
“And funds,” Andy adds.



Feeling professionally and creatively fulfilled was difficult, and so was shaking the EDM image. It was challenging to earn the respect of the often insular underground house music community.



“It all changed when I saw Jamie Jones at a festival in Holland. That was way before we started the Shermanology thing,” Andy recalls. “And then I got his email from someone, and I sent him a picture and said, ‘I met you a couple of years ago at Extrema, I’ve got a few tracks for you. Let me know.’ And he replied, ‘I want all three of them.’ And when that happened, that’s when we knew the sound that we are making is working for the scene.”



“Get Loose” and “Champion Sound” were two of those songs, and while they ultimately ended up on Rawthentic, Jamie became one of their fiercest supporters. Choosing to keep those records for Rawthentic and wait for the right time for a Hot Creations release proved a smart decision. Not only did they earn the respect of two landmark labels, but when the chance to do an EP with Hot Creations came around, it ended up being one of their most poignant musical stories.







“Bon Bini,” written entirely in their native language, Papiamentu, translates to welcome. And they’ve said that it represents everything they stand for. The shimmying rhythmic precision and chant-like vocals are indicative of their culture-fusing style.



Shermanology explains how they took inspiration from Snoop Dogg and D Smoke’s “Gasper Younger.” The song samples “Bre, Petrunko,” by the Koutev Bulgarian National Ensemble. The haunting vocal sung in a traditional Baltic style became a lightweight obsession for Dorothy. When she found the acapella and sent it to Andy, he suggested they make it their own.



They signed the record to Hot Creations with the sample intact; however, the original rights holder wouldn’t clear it. “So we redid the whole vocal in that week,” Andy explains. “A friend of ours passed away. And we said, let’s write this lyric for our friend who passed away. And we redid the whole track in our own language.”







The result was far more indicative of their unique musical style than it would have been with a sample. The tight harmonies, complex rhythm, and uniquely touching beauty intertwine with Shermanology’s penchant for playfully syncopated percussion.



Dorothy’s ability to mimic the song’s vocally demanding stylistic elements while still infusing it with her sense of soulful sophistication makes it one of the more compelling tech house offerings in recent memory.



The ingenuity and self-awareness it took to write something so passionate and personal speaks to the nature of their music and why Shermanogy’s moment will continue to last. The fusion of so many musical traditions is exactly what dance music needs, especially when so much music remains a paint-by-numbers affair. Shermanology stands out because they insist on authenticity.


Shermanology

The climate of the dance music scene is changing. More women and those identifying as females are taking over the charts and lineups. Historically, house music was dominated by men, who are also behind some of the most significant events and labels. However, Nostalgix doesn’t let that bother her as she keeps a laser focus on dominating her own space within house music. Since bursting onto the electronic music scene in 2017, Nostalgix has seen a rapid rise.




Born in Iran, Nostalgix spent her first eight years there until her parents decided to move to Vancouver, Canada.




“My parents wanted to move from Iran to Canada because they had two girls," she says. "They always tell me if they had two boys, ‘we would have just stayed in Iran because they would have been fine. But because we had two girls they wanted to move to Canada to give you girls a chance to be what you want in your life .’”









That support truly meant everything to her and guided her to remain assertive in her decision to pursue music full-time. A self-proclaimed DIY type, she taught herself the basics of DJing after seeing the legendary Hardwell at a rave in Vancouver.




Rarely do we see an artist who can command crowds at some of the largest festivals and sell out club events regularly in such a short amount of time. But Nostalgix does just that.




“I go up there and I do me. I just put my best foot forward and I don’t think about gender or anything because I could easily outshine a guy any day of the week.”




That confidence guided her trajectory towards signing with esteemed labels like Confession, Night Bass, Thrive, Insomniac, Dim Mak, and UKF. In addition, her unparalleled skills as a producer have put her behind the boards collaborating with the likes of Dr. Fresch and AC Slater.




“It’s honestly the strangest and [most] full circle feeling ever. But I just feel very grateful to get to work with people that I looked up to when I was just starting out. I remember seeing Zed’s Dead, I remember seeing Dr. Fresch from the crowd. And now to get to be peers with them, and to have them support my music and make music with them. It makes me feel very proud that within a four-year span, that could become possible.”









It's no accident that the self-starter floats in the orbit of her role models. In the span of time it takes many producers to sign their first record of note, she's carved out a clearly defined lane and continues to take on challenges with a DIY spirit emblematic of the dance music's origins.




“I can figure anything out myself, even right now I’m going through a phase in my career where I’m doing a lot of new things for the very first time. And I’m always like, 'you know what I’ll figure it out. I'll do it myself. I don’t need anybody else and I’m gonna do this thing.'”




She took that go-getter spirit and learned music production, even joining an artist development program to help hone her skills and further her education.




“I taught myself most things for the first part of my career and then i joined an artist development program back in 2018 called Cosmic Academy. I learned a lot about the technical side of things and how to really run a project. To make music, as much as it’s a creative thing, you have to really have the technical side down to understand how to produce a record. To understand what actually sounds good, how to mix something, to actually get it to translate to the people listening to it.“




Her music is translating to the dancefloor. She's garnered over five million streams across her growing catalog, been featured on the cover of popular Spotify playlists, and earned a coveted spot as one of the top 100 bass house artists on Beatport.









One of her most poignant success stories is her flourishing relationship with fellow Candian artists Zeds Dead. She debuted on their label Deadbeats in 2021 with her Black Mirror EP, written at the height of the pandemic. Like most people, the pandemic hit Nostalgix hard. The world began to shut down just as things took off for her. The weight of the pandemic was truly reflected in that EP and featured a darker, grimier sound than her typically fun and energetic tracks.




“When I was writing Black Mirror, it was right when Covid had started and I had just gotten my US Visa. I was about to come to the US to do my first shows and move out here. And I was so excited about it," she recalls.

"And then everything was just getting canceled before my eyes and I felt everything that I had worked for was disappearing."




She says that weeks spent alone in front of her computer put her in a darker headspace. "When I was writing that EP, that’s where I was at, hence Black Mirror. It was just a very interesting time.”




Her sophomore Deadbeats release, titled “Heat Rush,” is a melodic, bass-heavy track that features the ethereal vocals of Dyer. An homage to hope and emotion, “Heat Rush” honors the euphoria that can accompany love.









“That’s been one of my favorite songs that I’ve been wanting to release for such a long time. It was the last song that I produced when I [was] still living in Vancouver, so it was kind of the era that I was just sitting in the studio producing and all up in my feels. I really wanted to make an emotional song based on what I was feeling. And I found this amazing vocalist Dyer. I hit her up and the song came to be." Its release marks the end of an era for the young artist.




“Heat Rush was kind of at the end when the world was actually coming back. There was light at the end of the tunnel, there was actually hope. You know it’s a bit more of a euphoric and emotional song," she says. " There is love out there, there’s beauty out there and euphoria, all that, all that beauty exists. “








Nostalgix

"Gukuba; this means it beats, it bangs, it claps back big," an echoing voice announces on the opening title track of the collab album between Never Normal Soundsystem and ANTI-MASS two heavy-hitting underground Black-run electronic music collectives from the U.S. and Uganda, respectively. (Gukuba comes from the indigenous Ugandan language, Luganda.) The collectives worked on GUKUBA virtually during the pandemic, building a diasporic sonic quilt as their countries faced political unrest. The expansive, experimental 16-track album was released on Suzi Analogue's (who also led and contributed to it) Never Normal Records on April 20.




We caught up with Never Normal head honcho Suzi Analogue as she was on the go in her city of residence, Miami, to discuss the ambitious project and how it came together, her anthemic track "MAKE IT SHAKE" with Turkana and Queens D. Light, and how she first got connected with ANTI-MASS' Authentically Plastic. Suzi also takes us through her journey as a producer, creating an artist-focused label and community with Never Normal, and what she believes is essential for inclusivity in dance music.









The seeds for the collab were first planted back in 2015 when Suzi did an audio production workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. She stayed in touch with her students, active members of the burgeoning electronic music scene there. She helped connect her with the organizers of Nyege Nyege Festival, which launched shortly after she left in 2015. When she returned to Kampala in 2019 for the fest and its month-long Pan-African residency, she forged deep connections with local electronic artists—including Authentically Plastic—fashion designers, and other local creatives.




While in Kampala, Suzi kept running into Authentically Plastic, who was hosting their inclusive, queer electronic ANTI-MASS parties—which they'd launched the year prior. They quickly developed a friendship and explored the city and scene that Authentically Plastic is so vital to together. After Kampala, Suzi had plans to keep traveling internationally and was set to play in Brussels with some of the other Nyege Nyege artists. But the 2020 lockdown struck, so she reached out to Authentically Plastic about doing a collab project between their collectives in their newly acquired downtime. The ANTI-MASS members (including Turkana and Nsasi) chose Never Normal artists to work with and spent the next year collabing.




It was important for Suzi not to rush the process, so they could do it on their terms and really connect with the project.




"As Afro-Indigenous and diasporic artists, we always—especially in a commercial sense—have this expectation to rush our work. Because it was our own project, I made sure that I embedded this process to not have anyone feel rushed," Suzi explains. Yet the connections among the artists happened swiftly, as they all found common ground as Black artists committed to underground electronic music.




They tapped into their sonic wheelhouses and pushed boundaries, exploring a wide range of Afro-diasporic electronic sounds on GUKABA. As Suzi explains, Chicago house greatly influences Never Normal, specifically footwork and juke. GUKABA also incorporates techno, the frenetic singeli music from Tanzania, and their electronic interpolation of traditional Ugandan wedding songs known as Acholi.




"We were dedicated to making these maps of sound. There's a lot of sonic stories, with interludes from found sounds from each of our environments," Suzi explains. And as they forged connections across borders, cultures, genres, and scenes, the result is a cohesive, eclectic, experimental, and energetic quilt that, together, is something wholly new.




"[Working on GUKABA] confirmed to me that it's societally imposed that we're divided. Everyone worked together so smoothly."




"This project is a testament to true electronic music by any means. We talk about electronic music like it's just a sound, but it is an artform and it really relies on electricity. So, for anyone who makes it globally, especially outside of the American power grid, it really is a true labor of love… We take electronic music kind of for granted."









Besides managing the project and releasing it on her label, Suzi also contributed to the intro track (with Nsasi) and the banging eighth one, "MAKE IT SHAKE," with Turkana and Queens D. Light. The latter has an infectious mantra-like hook, written and rapped by Oakland's own D. Light: "Baby you good, baby you great. When life is ass, then make it shake."




As Suzi explains, a core element of its instrumental is the West African shekere, an instrument made from a dried gourd that you shake. After Suzi worked from the stems that Turkana sent over, she shared it with Queens D. Light while visiting her hometown of Oakland. (They also shot the super fun music video there.)




"She's such an intentional rapper and writer and is always saying lines that are very enlightening and uplifting," she says with a smile. "The verse is so perfect. We've performed it together a couple of times so far, and it's just so fire every time to see people react to it. I've been hearing people say it's their summer anthem." She reveals that the duo has another song they worked on together and that they hope to do a complete project together.




In 2014, the "Super Smooth" producer started Never Normal Records with the desire to create an artist-centric label where they could make the music they wanted to make. She knew she had the skills and experience to support fellow artists in their goals as an experienced underground, independent artist—"but to do that outside the gaze of the traditional music industry."




"I know how to make things hot!" she proclaims with a laugh.




As she and Never Normal spread more sonic fires, she realized she wanted to focus her efforts on supporting her community of fellow Black electronic artists.




"Over the years, I realized I wanted to help out my community, coming from an Afro-Indigenous perspective, and seeing that electronic music is so segregated in this country. I started to shape it into a meeting place for Black, Afro-diasporic music technologists because I realized there's no label that really—I have contemporaries, and I have friends who have labels—is for Black electronic artists. And it's so important to do that from a Black perspective, specifically me coming from a Black femme and a Black queer perspective. That's even more important. That's the tradition.

I knew that I wanted Never Normal to represent the traditions of what I always knew was Black music; house music, techno, jungle, drum 'n bass. I was always coming from this informed perspective that innovation is my musical heritage. And I wanted to have a label that represented innovators."




Even though she's been singing for most of her life and started producing when she was just 15, she explains It took bravery to call herself a producer. She points out that there have always been women producers, but they weren't always encouraged to call themselves that. So with Never Normal, she claims her role as a producer and community leader supporting others with the tools and confidence to do so.




"I was always elevated by my community to participate in music from a very young age," she notes when discussing her musical journey.




"Never Normal Soundsystem is a community. It's very important for me to show people that community can support you and it doesn't always have to come from a commercial standpoint… Our community and collective encourages people to do their thing and support each other and ask each other questions, and play each other's music."




When I asked her what the dance music community can do better to create safe spaces and equity in dance music, she underscores that we need more queer and Black-owned venues. Having ownership over a space lends to different results and power dynamics than doing pop-ups. It also allows the space to be used for impactful programming beyond the party, with workshops and the like that benefit the community.




Suzi's proudest Never Normal moments include GUKABA and all the projects she's helped bring to life. She takes the successes of artists she works with to heart.




"Every time I'm able to get an artist a feature or covered by SoundCloud—any win is a big win because we're completely independent and Black-owned… It's important that the work we do helps artists be able to see themselves in the context of the 'music industry.' That is a challenge, especially when you're Black, especially when you're queer, to even feel seen at all. So to see artists start to feel seen and then [see what] they do with that, those are high achievements' for me."



Suzi Analogue

Perhaps the most fascinating and unmistakable aspect of speaking with Dutch DJ and producer Prunk is his unbridled love and admiration for the American roots of house music. The reverence the Amsterdam-based artist (real name, Nilz Pronk) has for the icons who paved the way for his career and label PIV Records is evident in everything he touches. From his imprint’s thoughtfully curated lineups and catalog to own his soul-infused sets that pay homage to dance music’s deep history.




As PIV Records establishes a greater presence in festivals and clubs worldwide, Prunk continues to work towards a mission he conceived when he began DJing as a teenager: To build a deeper and broader global community rooted in the love of soulful, authentic house.




One might ask how the musical influences of Detroit’s Motown and Chicago’s house classics migrated nearly 4,000 miles across the Atlantic to pique the interest of a Dutch teenager. For Prunk, it all started in the family.




“My mother was a soul singer when she was young. There was always a Motown record on in our house,” he says. “My older brother was also a big influence. When he turned 18, he began partying in Ibiza, Mykonos, and clubs throughout Amsterdam. He got me interested soulful music and what he called the ‘real house' sound.”




One of his most memorable encounters with this fascinating sound, Prunk recalls, was receiving an Ian Pooley record from his brother on his 11th birthday. From that moment, Prunk knew a life behind the decks was his destiny.




He began DJing at clubs throughout Amsterdam at 15. At the time, he was attending a professional football prep academy. However, his new path meant it was time to hang up the cleats and lean on his small burgeoning dance music network to further evangelize the soulful sound he'd grown up on.




His vision wasn’t without its naysayers. A seminal moment came at 17 while spinning at one of his largest gigs. A headlining DJ starkly told Prunk that his style of house didn't belong on the main stage. That singular comment lit a fire under the young artist, catalyzing what’s now a globally renowned career spanning decades.







Notably influenced by the deep, hypnotic rhythm of Detroit house, Prunk’s sonic style blends passionate vocal motifs, percussive flourishes, and a unique tech house flair all his own. The artist has released music on iconic labels, including his tech house heater “The Machine” (2016) on Nervous Records in collaboration with friend and fellow deep tech evangelist Chris Stussy. Other hits like "Through the Walls,” released on PIV Records in 2020, demonstrate Prunk’s finesse for passionate, piano-laden, deep house.




His presence and poise behind the decks has steadily elevated him to bigger and bigger venues worldwide. Prunk is a resident at Amsterdam’s STRAF_WERK Festival, a regular at Club Jenja in Bali, and has performed at festivals including DGTL Barcelona, Amsterdam’s Loveland, and Welcome to the Future — helping further cement soulful house’s rightful place in the dance music spotlight.









Having established a unique, globally-inspired spirit all his own, Prunk’s next calling was to codify that brand with the launch of PIV Records in 2015, an imprint with a self-described “soft spot for US classic house… with a modern European touch.”




“PIV initially stood for Prunk Invites,” he says. “But as we grew and became more successful, I realized it wasn’t just about me.” PIV evolved to the more inclusive “People Invited” with a hidden message in the name that harkens back to the label’s ethos. "If you flip 'PIV’ around, it’s ‘VIP.' We want everyone to feel like a VIP at our parties."






Inclusion in the groove is the name of the game at PIV. The label and its roster of more than 20 artists continue to expand the culture globally, with stage takeovers at acclaimed music festivals like Defected Croatia and sold-out parties in all corners of the world—from Ibiza and Lima to Brooklyn.




In 2022, the label even launched its inaugural PIV Festival in Spaarnwoude, North Holland, featuring more than 30 international artists, many within the PIV family. Among the lineup was UK duo RUZE, whose contemplative, vocal tech house track “Mindset” has become one of the label’s biggest hits to date.




The PIV sound has become more focussed and refined over the years. "It’s a really big compliment when people talk about the PIV sounds, when something is not a PIV release at all.”









Prunk’s Resident Advisor bio aptly states, “Prunk is working at his own pace, but this doesn’t mean he’s taking things slow.” By the looks of things, the now-veteran DJ and his label are on the precipice of rapid acceleration and significant expansion.




"It’s our goal to feed the people again,” says Prunk, speaking on the instant gratification implicit in modern dance music. “When you give people the groove. They respect it. It’s refreshing. You realize you don’t always need constant build-ups and breaks in the music."




The same analogy can be applied to Prunk’s career philosophy of “steady success."




“For me, it doesn’t matter who you are. If you create good music — we will support it. We created from nothing, something. That’s the power of PIV. I always say: never believe your own eye. If you stay humble, if you believe in your sound, you can be doing this for a really long time.”






Prunk

It’s easy to become fond of music as an art form when you’ve been surrounded by it your entire life. Culture plays a significant role in someone’s creative pursuits, and that notion speaks volumes for Brooklyn-based producer and DJ AKKI.




Born in Malaysia to Indian parents, she moved to Australia at a young age. She emigrated to Singapore as a teenager before making her grand move across the Pacific to attend Columbia University in New York City. Surrounded by such a radiant array of cultures her entire life, she was bound to become an affluent creative one day.




For AKKI, a collection of small moments and realizations led her to exactly where she is now. Her devotion to house music might have been something that unfolded slowly over time, but now, it’s become a soul-stirring passion that she can’t even begin to imagine living without.




She was first introduced to the scene in Singapore, coincidentally when there was a tremendous burst in its club and nightlife ambiance. At the time, the opening of Singapore’s Ministry Of Sound attracted a plethora of European and American DJs to perform, and attending these events was what initially exposed her to all things house music.




Without realizing it, sound production and design were always her forte. It was the driving force of everything in her life. It was her calling all along.


In college, she managed all of her Latin dance team’s music and sound editing. She was always the one to bring her friends together for concert and club nights. And ever the curator, exposed them to unfamiliar artists and distinct genres. She always found herself writing song lyrics and practicing her self-written vocals in her free time. Eventually, she began to play around with producing music in Garageband and finally decided to experiment with DJing.




She grew fond of both art forms, and she was especially excited about the idea of being able to merge her vocal expertise into her own music and mixes. Her adoration for electronic music had become boundless.




“I love production and I love creating music. But if I can’t connect with people and I don’t have that opportunity to really move people on the dancefloor, then I’d be at a loss. It’s just one of the best parts of working in this industry. Being able to connect with people whether its friends, new followers or other artists is all just so beautiful.”




Everything transformed for AKKI when her instilling life in New York City began. She plunged into a new world of opportunity, cultural beliefs, and creative endeavors. Her “Aha” moment ignited while passing the renowned Webster Hall in Downtown Manhattan with a close friend.




“It was actually an accumulation of little moments that led to that big moment where I realized this was something I wanted to pursue full-time. A few years ago, I was walking by Webster Hall with a friend while I was still in college and thought to myself, ‘Wow I’d love to DJ at a club like this one day!’ and he replied, ‘well, why don’t you?’ And that’s what did it for me. One thing just led to another and here I am today. Life is crazy man.”




Not only was she exposed to a side of the underground scene she had never witnessed before, but the city’s liberal culture revamped her outlook on life and redesigned her artistic vision. The Big Apple inspired her to intertwine her love for house music with her political positions and philosophies to make her voice heard, something many artists are too afraid to do.




Aside from being a phenomenal producer, vocalist, and performer, AKKI is a tremendous female empowerment and women’s rights advocate. Her dedication to this movement emerged from involvement with the women’s Barnard College at Columbia. That experience made her unafraid to stand for something that had always affected her as a woman of color. It empowered her to utilize her creativity in a unique manner and as a way to speak up for what she strongly believes in. And that’s exactly what her most recent projects illustrate.









A few years ago, she began her Midnight Snack mix series, a project created to connect female trans and non-binary artists from all over the world. She then became involved with 23 by 23, a nonprofit organization with a goal for labels to increase their percentage of female producers to 23% or more by the end of 2023.




Enamored by 23 by 23’s forward-looking concept, she submitted her hypnotic re-work of J.Worra’s “You” and ended up winning the remix contest along with two other fantastic female producers. The track was released just in time for PRIDE month in early June on Club Sweat records. After this rewarding experience, she aspires to continue to collaborate with other like-minded artists like J.Worra and LP Giobbi, among others.









At first, there was very little conversation regarding where women stood in the music industry. But today, that’s a different story, thanks to artists like AKKI.




Her presence in the NYC underground scene continues to flourish, and her progressive artistic vision is one bound to resonate with house music aficionados to last a lifetime.




She’s performed at exemplary venues and festivals like elrow, Elsewhere, The Brooklyn Mirage, Quantum Brooklyn, Brooklyn Steel with Chris Lake, Elements Music & Arts Festival, and more.




For AKKI, sticking to a singular house genre is a nonexistent concept. Her extraordinary soundscapes encompass a stunning blend of deep, acid, tech, and piano house notes that continuously leave listeners begging for more. Her foreign cultural influences are evident in every release.




“I want the soul of my music to be groovy and for people to really be able to move to it," she explains. "But I love surprising people with distinct elements and twists and turns during my sets. It’s kind of like a rom-com meets a psychological thriller but in music terms. That’s the vibe I’m going for.”














AKKI

When Matisa steps into the DJ booth, she becomes a superhero. She wields power she can’t describe but knows how to use. With almost every new set, she wears a new, custom outfit from some of the finest tailors in the world who also happen to be her friends. Kind of like a super suit. Each unique look integrates ornate colors, patterns, and designs, a visual representation of the type of music she plays: inspiring, unpredictable, and powerful.









From Matisa’s point of view, being a superhero and being a DJ aren’t that different. Both pursuits are about putting the needs of others before the needs of yourself.




“Being a DJ is not only for me, but also for the people. I am doing this for all the people,” says Matisa, real name Isabella Erculei, dialing in from Florence, Italy.




Music does have the power to save lives, after all, but Isabella’s superpower doesn’t come from the music itself. It comes from knowledge. She's spent a lifetime absorbing information about as many different topics as possible.




For example, when it comes to fashion, Isabella earned a master’s degree in Fashion Product Management from the Polimoda in Florence, so she has an in-depth understanding of what it takes to design her different outfits for each show.




“I know how much you have to spend to create a dress. To create a boot. So when I put these things on my body I give them importance. For that reason it’s like a superpower. I can’t describe this emotion,” says Isabella.









Throughout her life, Isabella has approached dozens of different topics through her quest to learn. She studied traditional Greek and Latin philosophy. Then she moved on to science and politics (if she wasn’t a DJ, Isabella says she likely would have worked in politics as an ambassador). She also spent time as a football player, which taught her how to be a team player.




“When you start learning something, your brain is more open to different stuff,” says Isabella. “All this stuff together helped me understand who I am,” speaking in clear English through her Italian accent. Languages are another extension of her polymathic approach to learning.




Another crucial aspect of her education is, of course, music. In her youth, Isabella studied piano and oboe for over ten years at a music conservatory. That knowledge remained with her throughout her life until she was 23 when a friend let her borrow a full DJ setup.









Isabella had complete access to speakers, turntables, and a mixer; in her endless pursuit of learning, she taught herself how to DJ.



“For me, that moment was so nice. When I opened the box I was like a child,” Isabella laughs.




However, this was only a temporary loan, so after six months, her friend took everything back, but Isabella was already hooked. So she bought her own gear and reached out to other DJs in Perugia—a small town in central Italy where she was living at the time—in order to continue the journey.




Plus, with her considerable past musical experience, Isabella already understood the artform, which gave her a headstart as a DJ.




“When I played piano I remember that I felt that energy and when you’re a DJ a lot of people think that it’s different from playing an instrument, but I think it’s the same because you start a connection with people. And when you mix records together it’s the same emotion,” says Isabella.




Right around the time Isabella received her gifted DJ setup, she also started buying vinyl records, and now she can’t stop. She often uses modern technology like CDJs when she performs, but she spins vinyl sets as well, taking music from the past that can only be found in the format and combining it with newer sounds.




“My actual style is to merge these two,” says Isabella. “I usually play new stuff mixed into old stuff and it’s very nice. It’s hard to do it, but it’s very nice because the harmony is different.”




After establishing her style all around Italy, a country she laments is not the best place for musical exploration at this point in time, the art director of Cocorico, the legendary nightclub in Riccione, reached out to Isabella for a residency, which she continues today.




She has supported some of the most respected artists in house and techno through her residency, including Seth Troxler, Patrick Topping, and Maceo Plex. She even played back-to-back with one of her biggest inspirations, Jackmaster.




Isabella and Jackmaster first met before their shared set when she was playing before him at a party in Rome. She was DJing with three vinyl decks, and Jackmaster, real name Jack Revill, was blown away by her talent.




Revill invited her to play with him in his hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, where the two would eventually DJ together at the historic dance music establishment, SWG3, in February of 2020.




“Jack for me was the person that opened a big door,” says Isabella. “He has a very strong personality, identity. When he’s playing his energy is very nice and I love his way to perform. He’s very spontaneous and also eclectic.”




Another artist who has played with Revill numerous times and one whom Isabella considers a mentor is none other than Skream, real name Oliver Jones. In June of 2022, Isabella found herself playing in London during one of the nights of Skream’s residency at the newly remodeled club, KOKO, and the two closed the evening with a back-to-back set.




“I play very different stuff from him and when we did the back-to-back at the end of that night [it] was crazy because at some point we played similar stuff. It was very strange, but we felt the energy a lot,” says Isabella. “And his productions are very strong I must say.”




Production is yet another area of artistry where Isabella is always learning more. Currently, she has a handful of releases on labels like Optimo Music and On Loop, with music soon coming on Steel City Dance Discs.




Similar to her DJ sets, fashion, and other areas that reflect her creative spirit, her vast accumulation of different facets of knowledge serves her production as well. One example of this comes in relation to her debut EP, Organza, which gets its name from a type of fabric.









“I remember that I wanted to create something that was similar to textiles,” says Isabella. “Organza is a very strange fabric when you touch it, so I remember that when I produced it I put in my hands organza and I wanted to create the same, but with music. I’m doing this stuff every time with a lot of things.”




When Isabella is on the decks, the environment she curates goes beyond what she hears. A student of the world, the music feeds her history and ignites her senses and the senses of the people in the crowd in a powerful way. This is a power she’s spent her life developing and one that will ring out on dancefloors for years to come.



Matisa

Baghdad-born Dj and producer Saeed Younan is your favorite DJ's favorite DJ. The technical powerhouse is lauded for his precision and effortless blend of house, tech house, and tribal. A globe-trotting performer with a case full of DJ awards, he's worked the most infamous dancefloors of Ibiza, Tokyo, Mexico, Hong Kong, and the US for over 20 years. As a producer his trademark sound continues to evolve, garnering support from revered artists like Carl Cox, Danny Tenaglia, Mark Knight, Nic Fanciulli, and Loco Dice.



Before he became their peer, he was a young protege and novice DJ, yearning to one day sell out a club show of his own.





“I used to take the Greyhound bus from DC to New York in the mid-90s, go check out Tenaglia who’d play at Twilo, hop back on the Greyhound and go clock in, work a shift at Fresh Fields—now they call it Whole Foods—and then do it all over again. They were pretty cool about giving me weekends off, which was great because I needed those days to DJ.”




Fast forward into the digital age, Younan is a successful touring DJ and label head of Younan Music. The imprint’s name was a fortuitous accident.





“Younan Music was never meant to be named after me. Somewhere along the way, my company Younan Inc. became Younan Music and we just kept it,” explained Saeed. “I started the label to shed light on new artists, people who were trying to make it. We wanted to focus on smaller acts, people who were starting out who needed an avenue to get their name out there.”



Since 2004, the label has churned out over 300 releases including singles and compilations, according to Saeed. Supported by Carl Cox, Hot Since 82, Carlo Lio, and more, the imprint forges on preserving and maintaining its original mission—to help the outliers, the strays, and the new kids on the block build out their legacy, just as Saeed has.





“We sign personalities, but we stay away from signing anyone that’s too cocky or has an ego. Everyone on our label produces their own stuff, they’re making their own stuff, working hard in the studio—no ghostwriters. We focus on humble people who are really trying to make something happen for the culture, for music,” said Saeed.


The selector is a humble artist with a tenacious work ethic and an unwavering love for music that stemmed early on in his life. Born in Baghdad in the early 70s, Saeed, his parents, and two sisters lived in Iraq until they fled in 1981 due to an ongoing war.






“We had to flee the country, but at that time you couldn’t leave or go anywhere so we had to say we were going on vacation,” said Saeed. So the family escaped to a bustling London, as punk music and fashion were approaching their pinnacle. During this tumultuous time, Saeed turned to music as an escape.



“I was seven or eight years old, recording music on a tape deck I always had on hand. It was a little boombox I would tune to little European stations. The tape deck had a space for a cassette and I’d record on it any chance I’d get when I heard music I enjoyed,” Saeed shared. “That was how it all started. Sitting in my room, tuning into European stations and sifting through the channels for music, grasping different sounds and listening to everything I could.”





Saeed recalled that music wasn’t as accessible in those days as it is now. So his favorite method of exploring different sounds and genres was through terrestrial radio. For the young producer, this meant he spent hours tuning through stations, sifting through static and white noise for any clearly defined snippets of music—much of which included a lot of disco and ABBA.




“It was difficult to find stations sometimes with clear sound. I’d have to keep tuning the dial if the reception wasn’t clear and then, when I found a good one, I would keep it locked in. Majority of the music I was listening to was disco, occasionally some rock.”



The family stayed in London for a year-and-a-half while his father filed the necessary paperwork that would allow them to transfer to the United States as refugees.



“But we were living like refugees then. We couldn’t go to school,” explained Saeed. “We hunkered down. There was a lot of politics going on and we didn't want to run into the wrong people, or else they’d say we’d escaped the country. So we did the best we could to stay quiet, in the meantime, until we got our paperwork.”





For Saeed, who had trained all his young life to fight in a war, the sudden move to London was hard on him. “I didn’t speak any English, and it was even harder as a kid, living in London, where it’s already difficult to understand what anyone’s saying,” he recalled.



However, the move proved to be serendipitous. Arriving in the UK at the brink of the punk movement in the early 80s was pivotal for Saeed. “I grew up seeing punks everywhere—the mohawks, the leather. This really opened up my eyes to a new world, a new genre of music and culture.”



After the brief stint in London, the family arrived in the US and settled on the East Coast. Saeed enrolled in school, and it was around this time that the burgeoning musician fully began to embrace the arts. After school, he dabbled in breakdancing and eventually picked up DJing when a friend gifted him turntables to tinker with before jetting off to college.



“My friend in high school was into hip hop and DJing. This guy was friends with Sir Mix-A-Lot, so we’d be at his house, listening to Sir Mix-A-Lot records. He had these turntables, and started showing me how to scratch…I was blown away. I knew that this was what I wanted to do,” said Saeed.



“I had never seen two turntables and a mixer set up, but something clicked within me. I gravitated toward it and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I would skip class just to go to my friend’s house and mess around on the turntables.”





Upon graduating in 1991, the friends went their separate ways but promised to keep in touch. Before he departed, Saeed’s pal offered his turntables and DJ gear to the aspiring DJ, knowing he would put them to good use.



“I started giving my demos out to promoters, and booking small gigs at house parties, weddings, proms…any chance I got to mix, I took it. It wasn’t about money to me—I just wanted to play out,” he said.



The producer’s ear for music remains as diverse today as his early setlists. In the beginning, Saeed said, he would only play hip hop because that’s what was most requested. Gradually, he began incorporating the dance and club music he enjoyed listening to into his sets. A few of his favorites from his earliest club gigs included L.A. Style’s “James Brown is Dead,” Petra, Co’s “Just Let Go” Dub version, and D.H.S.’ “The House of God.”


“Going to the clubs and seeing DJs bigger than I was, seeing the crowd reacting to the music—some of the songs didn’t even have words, it was just the rhythm, the synth, the drums—seeing that did something to me,” he shared. “That’s when I started going to the record store to look for those exact records. I’d sit in record stores all day long, sifting through [records], just to find that one record that I heard at the club the night before. That’s how I gravitated toward DJing.”



Though the days of taking Greyhound buses to and from clubs while working a part-time job have ceased, his love for dingy venues and clubs remains.



“I like clubs. With clubs there’s more of an intimacy, especially when it’s a dark room, there’s a low ceiling, I love that vibe. I don’t like the clubs that are all bells and whistles, bottle service all over the place…that to me will never be the vibe that I want,” said Saeed.



The label boss-DJ has headlined Ultra, Electric Forest, and EDC. While he agrees there’s nothing quite like playing for these festivals and the crowds they amass, they don’t compare to the vigorous buoyancy generated at a club venue.


“Sometimes when you play at a festival, you can’t get that same energy. I’ll look at that sea of people and sometimes I won’t see as much movement. Maybe hands in the air during breakdowns and the buildup, but it’ll never be the same in the way the interaction is at a club. They’re two different worlds,” he said.









Like many well-versed DJs and producers, Saeed is not only an avid music listener—his love for music also extends to instruments. From drums to guitars, keyboards to shakers and didgeridoos, Saeed’s instrument collection is expansive. He houses it all in his work studio in Washington DC. Lately, his favorite instrument to tinker with is the latest addition to his collection—a Native American flute.









The musician recently had to consolidate the collection due to the proliferating mass of vinyl records overtaking his studio. “I’ve been buying records in bulk up until 2003…I still have hip hop records from 1988,” he said. “I still buy records sometimes, but definitely not like I used to. I only buy them for my listening pleasure now since I can’t really play ‘em out anymore.”









Saeed’s detailed curatorial skills come in handy when he records the impromptu sets for his Hot Crate Classics vinyl series, which he uploads to Soundcloud weekly. So far, the producer-DJ has mixed around 40 curated sets.




The vinyl sets are unrehearsed, unplanned, and always hand-picked. The series showcases proper mixing—the way DJ’s spun in the 80s and 90s.



“When I do want to play records at clubs, a lot of them don’t understand how to set up turntables. You’ll show up and the tables aren’t right, the needle will start bouncing when there’s people dancing behind you…Sometimes I bring my own stuff, but even then it’s hard when you’re traveling, trying to carry two turntables, and all your records—it’s ridiculous,” he explained.



It’ll be a long time before he rules out playing vinyl though, said Saeed. If there’s a club with low ceilings, minimal lighting, and a crew that knows how to set up the tables just right, he’s more than happy to spin the hits, and his latest, the old school way.

Saeed Younan

As a multi-hyphenate DJ, producer, and vocalist, Bklava seamlessly mixes impassioned toplines into a signature blend of house and UKG. Her proclivity for cross-pollinating sounds traces back to a childhood where her mother listened to commercial dance and Arabic pop while her father was a guitar player and singer-songwriter. Growing up with belly dancing and songwriting as part of her everyday environment, she affirms that her “roots are definitely tied in with dance and music,” a notion that followed her into her teenage years as she attended the BRIT School in London to study musical theater.




Performing Arts School exposed her to a breadth of music, including the electronic sounds that would come to influence her as a creative. It also imbued Bklava with a sense of discipline that would eventually inform her artistic approach.




“I was so passionate about what I was doing that I was willing to work hard and put the extra hours in. I would voluntarily stay at school hours after everyone had gone home to rehearse and catch up on anything I knew I could improve,” she recalls. Her studies were essential as they “proved to me that I could be an artist and creative as part of my career … I’ve kept the discipline through until now, and I’m always putting in more hours than I probably need to.”




Bklava’s deep-seated dedication to the craft shines through her rich, soulful vocals and intensely versatile production. She shapeshifts through genres with ease. One of her catalog highlights is “Leave,” an intense cut with brooding instrumental flourishes underscoring a fiery topline while the synthwave-infused “Sober” snaps into an anthemic, upbeat bounce. Her music is incisive and intricately crafted as it moves through stirring emotional beats with maximum impact.

In her creative process, Bklava explains, ”I think lyrics, melody ideas, and toplines come more naturally to me than producing. I still say I’m a beginner in production, but I’m excited to see what I’ll sound like in 10 years. However, I’ve had ten plus years of practice with my vocals and writing, so I’m more confident in the outcome. Even if I know, I’m having a bit of a block with one area. I can always focus on another.”




Another crucial aspect of Bklava’s music is her visceral lyricism, whether it’s romantic contemplation or club-oriented catharsis. The tension is thick when she finally walks away on “Leave,” and the scorching passion is palpable on “Only For Tonight” as she proclaims, “I just want this to be real.”




Constantly seeking new perspectives as a lyricist, Bklava explains, “My lyrics are inspired by my own experiences whilst also looking through the lens of others on issues that affect the world. I feel like I think a lot and ruminate, which may not always be a good thing, but it helps my songwriting in the long run.” Undoubtedly, it helps her songwriting as it’s tailor-made for vicarious listening with every lens she peers through.




Bklava has also proven to be a brilliant remixer with standout cuts like her flip of Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity.” Whether it’s a longstanding classic or a modern essential like James Vincent McMorrow’s “Gone,” she brings fresh and invigorating energy to each new take. Behind her process, she explains, “If I want to keep more elements from the original, then I will! But, for me, it’s mainly the vocals and drums as I like to create a remix as if it’s a whole new song I can mold.” The creative risks she takes while reimagining songs create thrilling results as she breathes new life into tracks, making them an unmistakable part of her artistic milieu.






As a performer, Bklava maintains her streak of versatility as she walks a tightrope between DJing and live singing. It inspires captivating performances like her 2022 Boiler Room set, where seamless mixes make way for raw toplines that highlight her staggering vocal range.




Bklava recalls, “When I started combining the two, I was fumbling around a lot, and the transitions were not as smooth as they might be now, but I enjoy it so much!” She takes the format as an opportunity for experimentation, using her gigs to debut fresh material and singing covers to unfamiliar instrumentals as she infuses the art of DJing with a fresh artistic outlook. As the roles of the DJ and the vocalist blend, a thrilling experience through Bklava’s sets unfolds.




On the live circuit, Bklava recently wrapped up her debut United States tour with Femme House mastermind LP Giobbi, a match made in heaven as both artists use their platforms grounded in brilliant art to emphasize the need for equal representation in dance music.







Continuing her journey through the States, Bklava is slated to perform at CRSSD DAY.MVS XL. With two sets in store for the festival, she looks forward to bringing a “lighter, more summery set for the daytime show” and “a darker, more underground set for the evening.” As an artist who flows between a range of modalities with consistent clarity, it’s only fitting that she’s bringing multiple sides of her style and sound to San Diego this weekend. As for what comes next, Bklava keeps it simple: “More singles, lots of shows, and world domination!”



























Bklava

There is a delicate tightrope strung between the world of the DJ and that of the producer. Being a storyteller behind the decks and crafting the gems that connect to the dancers are two separate but equal talents. When both co-exist in harmony, it’s unique.




Archie Hamilton has spent years gracefully walking that high wire. His releases on venerated underground tastemakers like Cuttin’ Headz, Toolroom, Nothing Else Matters, and his own Microhertz imprint have ingrained his singular sound into the minds of clubbers worldwide. Deftly moving between minimal house, techno, upfront club cuts, and classics, he’s helped guide a new European sound while staying true to the roots of dance music culture.


Behind the decks, he’s intuitive and technical, leading dancefloors on expertly crafted journeys. Beyond his audio-visual experience Frequency, he’s a fixture at London’s legendary FUSE parties, establishments like fabric and Ministry of Sound, and a regular for brands like CircoLoco, elrow, and Music On.




It was almost a foregone conclusion that Hamilton would walk a path towards dominating dancefloors. He grew up in a home surrounded by a brilliant patchwork of music. His earliest musical memories were early flashpoints for the kind of musical adventures he would eventually lead the dancefloor on.




“My grandfather was a concert pianist. I have very vivid memories of listening to him play for hours and hours to whoever would listen,” he wistfully remembers. “And at some points it [was] totally psychedelic and trippy. You’d sit there in the afternoon and the sun would be going down. I was only like 9/10 [and] in this half, dreamlike almost asleep state listening to him play these incredibly complex pieces.”


He also credits his mother, a former member of a punk rock band, for establishing his love for digging through the crates. Her extensive record collection ranged from the Star Wars double-disc soundtrack to Lynyrd Skinner. She always encouraged his artistic growth and was the person who bought him his first set of decks at 14.




“I didn’t even ask for them. That’s the funny thing,” he explains with a smile as he recalls the beginning of his journey as a selector. “At the time she was she had a boyfriend and he was a rave promoter. And, and my mom was like, ‘You got to get into DJing it’s so cool.’ So, I just I had these decks, had no idea what I was doing.”




Despite being a novice, he had an ear for the compelling and unexpected mixes he’s become known for. “I was going out and buying garage records and breakbeat records and trying to mix them in with the stuff from [my mom’s collection]. I’ve actually got it recorded on tape. I managed to mix. Zed Bias “Neighborhood” (which was a garage anthem) with the Cantina Theme from Star Wars.”

He envisioned a career as a DJ. However, a less than encouraging teacher at a rigid school quickly eviscerated that dream. Instead, he was pushed to join the army because, as the teacher told him, he “didn’t have much going on.” In a twist of irony, the budding artist failed the Army hearing test five times.







So he went to university and, like most university students in the early ’00s, spent his weekends at raves and clubs, fully reigniting his love for dance music and DJing. Instead of going home for the summer during his second year in college, he locked himself in his dorm, learned to properly mix, and recorded tons of mixtapes.




While cutting his teeth in London’s DJ circuit, he learned to produce in his bedroom and never stopped clubbing. And while living down the street from 93 Feet East in the heart of Brick Lane in London, he became a regular punter at the legendary FUSE parties, which unknowingly helped kickstart his career.

“When I moved in, there was no excuse not to go pretty much every Sunday. And [I] just happened to be there once and someone was playing the track that I’d made a few weeks before. I went up and introduced myself.”




It was one of the first times he’d ever experienced hearing his music on the dancefloor, leading to him becoming a resident for FUSE a few years later. Almost by chance, that brief interaction with a DJ playing his music helped catapult his career into overdrive. In the years that followed, he started two record labels, performed at shows worldwide, and released records with top-tier record labels.




Among his most notable career highlights was his 2020 Essential Mix. Indicative of his live performances, he fully displayed his audio storytelling, leading listeners through the strands of his musical DNA.




“It was it was very exciting. It all happened incredibly quickly but it was a real honor. I tried to try to cram everything that I love into there. House, deep house, tech house, bit of old school, a lot of the new stuff. And then ending on Francoise K ‘Hypnodelic,’ which is one of my all time favorite records.”




Tracing his musical progression from listening to his grandfather playing psychedelic piano concertos in his living room to Archie throwing down genre-spanning extended sets at the world’s finest clubs and festivals, it’s easy to see how he became such a dynamic and well-rounded artist. Equally future forward and rooted in a rich history, he will undoubtedly continue to excite and enchant audiences.





















Archie Hamilton

For many years, BRUX didn’t want to show the world her face. Like numerous artists of various disciplines before her — from Marshmello and Malaa to Banksy and Thomas Pynchon — she sought the creative freedom that came from nebulous identity. No one can expect anything from you if they don’t know who you are.




But also contrary to the previous examples, all of whom are men, her decision to shroud herself under a shadowy cloud cover of gothic design also stemmed from the shallow and insipid impressions of non-male artists predicated by male artists and other male figures in the industry—as in she didn’t produce her own music or that her music was supposed to sound a certain way.




See, BRUX, the Sydney-born producer, DJ, vocalist, and visual artist (né Elizabeth Maniscalco) had already gone the female pop-adjacent-singer route under her previous project, Elizabeth Rose, wherein she was determined to express a diverse pallet of influences.




“There was a whole lot of dance/electronic, but there was also a lot of folk, indie, singer/songwritier, pop, rap, R&B, everything.” says Maniscalco, dialing from her home studio in Brooklyn, New York. “But I think the common thread with all the influences is that I firstly gravitate towards tracks that are really rhythmic or really left of field be that sonically but also lyrically.”




Maniscalco put out numerous works with that project, telling stories in the same manner as Joni Mitchell. She produced beats inspired by her brother, dance music producer Hook N Sling. She remixed tracks for fellow Australian outfit Flight Facilities, for whom she would later record the vocals on the single “I Didn’t Believe.”









But around 2016, when Maniscalco released her debut album, Intra, the continuing expedition into pop territory was limiting her ability to fully and completely express herself. Soon Maniscalco found herself in the throes of a mid-career crisis, leaving her agent, manager, and label, essentially hitting the factory reset on her artistic career.




“I started to feel restricted about what I could talk about in the music, and also soundwise what I should be using to have maximum exposure, and writing for radio, and I just started to focus on too many limitations which was really making it quite boring for me,” says Maniscalco. “I knew that I wasn’t being authentic to myself and I had to change things up.”



Maniscalco separated herself entirely from the Elizabeth Rose name and started BRUX, her current alternative electronic project, under cover of darkness. After experiencing the woes of life as a female pop artist, anonymity provided a certain amount of empowerment in the early phases of the transition.




“I was really sure of the music and felt like it was true to myself. I felt like I could really express whatever I wanted. I still feel that. I feel like I can say whatever I want in this project and make the music as expressive and sometimes as aggressive as possible. I have a lot of energy in my personality as it is in my day-to-day so I feel like I want to express that,” says Maniscalco.




Maniscalco continued anonymously with the project for several years, signing to Steve Aoki’s Dim Mak and sharing multiple releases, continuing to honor her influences lyrically and sonically, except with an added sense of darkness and controlled rage.




But someone with Maniscalco’s energy couldn’t keep herself hidden for long. And after a conversation with Nina Las Vegas, her fellow Australian-born DJ, and producer, Maniscalco, decided to come out of hiding and bring her visage to the BRUX project.




“It’s up to us, as in female identifying artists, to lift each other up. [Nina Las Vegas] was empowering me, encouraging me to embrace my identity,” says Maniscalco. “That left quite a big impression after the conversation. I really sat with it and realized I should be doing this.”




Maniscalco’s first EP following the reveal was a release on Zeds Dead’s label, Deadbeats, entitled Take. Among the grueling four cuts, her talent for pairing honest songwriting with intuitive production shines through, along with featured vocals from New Zealand’s Kimbra on the title track.




In her years as Elizabeth Rose, Maniscalco authentically expressed her influences but found herself dictated by the pop music industry. However, in her anonymous years as BRUX, there were no limits to her creativity, yet she was inherently separating her true self from the project.




Now both worlds have come together in her new phase of BRUX, and she is ready to crack skulls.




“I didn’t expect it to happen, but even more empowerment, even more energy came rushing in. I had accessed this new level where I felt even more vulnerable, obviously, by showing my face, but emotionally as well,” says Maniscalco. “I want to go more in that direction of making music that is a punch in the face.”




One offering from Maniscalco that serves several punches to the face is “BADBOI,” the first single from her upcoming EP of the same name.









A collaboration with Vancouver-based artist Pat Lok, it harnesses the heaviest bass anyone could associate with techno at a controlled tempo. It doesn’t rely on high speeds. Instead, it relies on the energy Maniscalco has stored in her creative reserves for years. The energy she is now expressing without inhibition.




With this energy, she will take her music wherever she wants, no matter what’s popular in the industry or anyone else thinks of her.




Maniscalco tells us, “Now is the time to say what you mean and mean what you say.”



BRUX

Versus, aka Dave and Scott, have forged a unique path over the years to pursue their dreams. Specializing in all things house and techno, their Rinse FM radio show has allowed them to connect with the greater dance music community and break new artists. At the same time, they've kept up a release schedule that's earned them the praises of Marco Carola, Jamie Jones, Carl Cox, and Skream. Their growing catalog of upfront bangers have landed them sought-after releases on venerated labels like Armada, DFTD, Gorgon City's Realm, Solardo's Sola, and Ultra. The latter being a rave-tech remix of Kathy Brown's iconic "Turn Me Out."




They came up in the UK, hustling and doing anything they could to get a foot in the door of the world of electronic music. After meeting at a local radio station, the two developed a friendship and moved through the industry on parallel paths.




Over the years, they each secured residencies at local clubs, and as they began to network and discovered more genres of electronic music, their paths diverged. The two friends eventually decided to team up and produce music. Their unmatched creativity has led them to boundless sound that eschews genre boundaries. Drum n' Bass, hard house, and UK garage are just a small sampling of some genres that influence their music.




When they brought their combined knowledge together, it accelerated the growth of their project exponentially, and as Versus, they've established a growing footprint on the live stage. Their infectious stage presence has put them on stage for some of dance music's most reputable brands, including elrow, The Warehouse Project, Sankeys, and Ministry of Sound.




You guys had a chance introduction at a local radio station in South Manchester. Can you tell us this story and how you knew immediately that the two of you wanted to work together?




Dave: We both managed to get shows on Wythenshawe FM, a community-based radio station in the center of the biggest council estate in Europe. God knows how we even got on there! I did the 9-11 pm show playing UK garage, and Scott did the 11-1 am show playing club land and hard house. We knew each other back then from having some mutual friends. We didn't know we would work together as we were both on our musical journeys.




For each of you, what's the background on your discovery of electronic music? The UK, of course, has a vibrant scene, but how did you both find this passion?




Scott: I grew up listening to D&B. I would always buy tape packs listening to Mampi Swift, Ray Keith, Kenny Kenn, Randall, and Brian Gee. I started going to the Hysteria raves, following these DJs up and down the country. I liked the harder sound. It led me down the path to discovering speed garage going to raves in Sheffield, and then into the dance world and club land, hard house in Wigan Pier. So yeah, I've been about electric music alright!




Dave: I was a resident DJ at a few bars in Manchester, playing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. I played R&B, hip hop, and bar music (not house).




After my set finished one Saturday night, a friend and my cousin said to me, "Wanna come to Sankeys with us?" I didn't even know what Sankeys was. I remember getting out of the taxi and seeing a HUGE queue down the road. Bare in mind I was DJing in small bars on Deansgate Locks, so I didn't see queues like this. I remember the rumble of the bass shaking the building outside. We walked in during Solomun's set (at the time, I didn't have a clue who he was. Oops!). The whole place was electric, with whistles, cheers, smoke machines, strobe lights, and that famous sweat drip from the ceiling in the basement. Everybody was absolutely having it. I was hooked, and every Saturday after my set in the small bars, I would go there partying all night, learning about this new music I'd discovered, listening to DJs mixes, and getting my ear around this new electronic sound.









Scott, you ran a record shop which Dave joined you at after your connection. What was that time in your lives like? Was this the beginning of your DJ career, or was it simply a phase of pure musical discovery?




Scott: It was definitely a phase of musical discovery. I'd been DJing and producing for a few years when we opened the record shop. We used the money from the first vinyl record we put out to open the shop. I look back at that time of my life as a big learning curve. I learned a hell of a lot about what to do in the music industry. And a whole lot of what not to do. It was fun, and it was great to get all the latest vinyl first. Plus, I also got to see what tracks other DJs would buy and become huge hits which I suppose influenced me in so much as learning what elements make a banger.




Your influences range from artists like Chris Lake to Boris Brejcha, and your music reflects it. Certain tracks are acid based. Some are piano-heavy. Some are pure uplifting. Although this question may seem generic, I have to ask you guys how you would define your sound?




Scott: We're influenced by a lot of artists. Who doesn't love Chris Lake and Boris Brejcha? They're dons, but both have different styles and sounds. You really can hear both our musical journeys in the tracks we make. You will hear elements from D&B to speed garage to hard house to UK garage. We like to bring elements from the past into the future. We love big dirty synths. The kind that Bad Company would make a few years ago in their D&B productions, we like to mix it up.




Coming up in the UK, did you feel it was hard to break through because of how much competition there is, or is there simply enough going on in the nightlife scene that there's space for everyone to get gigs?




Dave: it's not hard to break through if you go out networking and put yourself out there meeting the right people at the labels. There are endless interviews with label managers on YouTube from ADE, IMS, and Ultra Music. Watch them, see who the person is managing the label, and search their name on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Add them, message them, and chat with them. They won't come knocking on your front door if they don't know where you live! There's enough space for everybody.




How do you feel the nightlife/electronic music scene has changed in the UK throughout your lifetime? Are there any cities or clubs that you think fly under the radar?




Scott: I feel the smaller clubs go under the radar. We've had some incredible nights playing at smaller clubs around the UK. Sadly some have closed now. Everybody wants to attend the big supers, the Printworks and Tobacco Docks.




2019 felt like a breakout year for the project. With releases on Sola, Solotoko, Armada, and Realm, you guys were starting to get some recognition. What does this feel like as artists who have been working for years to get heard? Do you have any advice for upcoming DJs?




Dave: Thanks! To get any recognition is the best feeling in the world. You spend hours and weeks working on a track, questioning if it will be any good, will people like it? Then when people play it, it gets signed, release day… it's the best feeling ever!! Advice? Don't watch others. Focus on your musical journey. Don't be too precious with your music. Learn to deal with no's from record labels and the big one network, network, and network!












Do you have any software plug-ins or pieces of hardware you like to use regularly in the studio?




Scott: Our Ableton Push has been a game-changer in the studio. If you haven't got one, we highly recommend checking it out. It will increase your workflow by ten. Moog Minitaur, Serum, Diva, Fab Filter, and UAD are pretty much what we use.








Versus 





Known as the international man of leisure, Gab Rhome is a producer and DJ based in Montreal. His music reflects elements from Africa, Brazil, and Cuba with releases on highly coveted labels such as All Day I Dream, Anjunadeep, Last Night on Earth, and more. 



Having played at major festivals worldwide, including Burning Man, Tomorrowland, and Nocturnal Wonderland, the French-Canadian continues to conquer hearts with his soft hands and sumptuous melodies.




How did you discover that you wanted to make music?




Did I ever discover that? I don't know. This being said, I used to be in bands when I was younger, and although I like to relax, I enjoy efficiency. And bands are the least efficient thing on earth. It's impossible to get a bunch of friends to do anything productive. So I got pretty fed up, discovered dance music, and never looked back.




How was that? How did you discover dance music? What led you there?




Shoegaze? So, this is very affected rock music. I discovered it through punk rock and shoegaze. And this led me to people like James Holden, and then somehow, through James Holden, I discovered his old trance music. And then I liked trance music, which is the very opposite of shoegaze to me. So, interesting move. From there, you know, I just started digging, digging, and digging and discovered new music.

Would you say that your childhood impacted who you are as an artist today?



Oh, definitely. I was on stage at five years old. From the very start, I was performing. My parents put me through music school, and I learned a few instruments early. So I got on stage when I was very young. It led me to being very comfortable in front of crowds. I enjoy being on the stage, so I think it comes from my childhood. It's pretty fun. Honestly, it's addictive.





What is your secret to evoking such emotion and groove in your music? 



You have to be very cutthroat with the music you play and present to the world. Both that you produce and that you play when you DJ. If you're not feeling it, why would others feel it? If I'm not dancing, I don't expect people to dance. To me, it's very important to feel everything you do, so that's the same thing with my music. If I don't get goosebumps from what I'm writing, I'm not expecting others to have goosebumps listening to it. Even if it means you have to delete a bunch of projects and give the best, I think it's better than mindlessly releasing anything you create.



What were some of your main creative challenges when you started out, and how has that changed over time?



My main creative challenge when I started was to understand house music, not understand it, but I would not go out that much, and I didn't necessarily know how house sounded. So what I was creating was my idea of how it's supposed to sound. So it lets you have pretty interesting results. I almost try to keep it that way now, so it's a bit of a challenge but also quite a blessing. Now, when it comes to challenges, I tend to be in a hurry, in a way, and my songs can reflect that there's not much downtime anymore. When I produce, they get a very short and snappy arrangement. Again, it can be good, but when you play it out, it can be hard to teach it to people because the songs are too short. But again, I think I prefer this thing to that kind of music, short and sweet.





There is no denying that you are the 'international man of leisure.' So, what are some things you like to spend your time doing when you're not working?



Oh, I think I only work. I don't like unproductive things, but I love to relax, which is a bit of a paradox and leads to a lot of inner conflict. So I try to relax while staying productive. When I'm in the studio, I try to get massages. I meditate a lot to try to make sense of my scatterbrain. I enjoy a good sauna. I love cooking. Cooking is the thing I like doing. It's the one time I'm relaxed. I just got into Korean food recently. I've always enjoyed eating it, but I never tried cooking it, and it's interesting and tasty. Something I've always been doing is Indian food in general. I love it so much. You have to work out twice as much after because it's heavy. 



What have been some of the greatest highlights in your dance music career so far?



I've always found this question difficult because you tend not to see them when you're in it. It's like that movie where basically you dream of being in the ocean, but you don't see that you're in the ocean until you look around. I played Tomorrowland. That's a pretty big deal, I guess. My touring schedule has been increasingly getting better and better, so I feel like every week is a new highlight. Yeah, it's been pretty good. And honestly, being in the music industry, it's a very saturated market. I'm thankful for being able to operate at the level I'm at right now. Although I want to keep growing, I'm still thankful for where I am.





Could you tell us any upcoming releases and plans for the year?



I'm actually working on releasing my set that I did at SXMFestival. This is a festival I did in the Caribbean in March, and I actually enjoyed my set quite a bit when I played there. So I'm working on clearing the songs and releasing the mix on Spotify and Apple Music. In the mix, there are two unreleased songs of mine that will also be available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Music but won't be out until later. It's going to take a few weeks. I'm flirting with a new way of releasing music to see how it works out. I like the idea of previewing the music like this.



I like how you're always experimenting with whatever you're doing. You keep it fresh all the time. That's why it's always a highlight.

It's always different. One of my core values is to try to do things differently. If everyone's doing things the same way, it becomes very boring very quickly. And not just for the creators but also for the fans. Repetition is not always good.





Gab Rhome

Purveyors of bottom-heavy tech-house Truth x Lies have been serving up their wonky body-moving beats for nearly a decade. The duo, Ian Bertles and Ryan Howard, first got their start in New York City as local promoters spinning at their own events. From 2012-2014, they were producing across the genre spectrum and cramming their friends and fans into any venue they could find.

When they decided to break off and focus on house music, the journey was a slow burn. They secured as many gigs locally as they could, but their true breakthrough came after winning the Insomniac Discovery Project in 2017. As they realized that their dreams were slowly becoming a reality, they decided to begin turning down gigs in NYC to focus on producing music and shaking the label of local DJs.




After years of perseverance, they are finally coming into the national spotlight, getting booked at festivals all over the country, and gaining recognition for a sound that is patently their own.










With any duo, we always have to ask about the origin story. So how did the two of you first meet, and what led to creating this project?



In 2012, Ryan and I started throwing events together in downtown Manhattan with a mutual friend. At the time, we were making Moombahton and Latin trap music under the name Tres Leches. Eventually, Ryan and I split off and started making house music in 2014 or 2015. We wanted to find a name that represented the duality in our backgrounds but also something easily brandable. Thus Truth x Lies was born.




Your first big breakthrough came with the Insomniac Discovery Project. Although you had earlier success on Hypemachine and Soundcloud, this was a proper sign-off, especially given how many artists submit. Did it feel like things changed for you guys after this, and when you submitted “Controlled,” did you have a sense it was an exceptional track?




At the time, we had yet to put out a single original track, so our modest success before the Discovery Project was based on our remixes and bootlegs. Our first ever single, “City Lights,” was the track we submitted to Discovery Project, which was selected as the winner. It absolutely changed everything for us. The first original we ever wrote brought us to a major music festival, so from that point, it really started to feel like this was something we should get serious about. “Controlled” was our follow-up release on the Discovery Project imprint following the festival. We have a lot of love for Insomniac, and as a matter of fact, we recently had the chance to play EDC Las Vegas 2022.








You started the project in 2014. As an NYC native, I know how competitive and rewarding the scene can be. You also have been around long enough to witness dramatic changes in the electronic music scene in New York. What were those early days like just trying to get gigs and get your name out there? Any memorable nights?



Oh, man. The city has changed so much just in the last decade. But yes, there were so many memorable nights that all contributed to our path. Watching Louie Vega, Francois K, and Sleepy & Boo play at Cielo (with free entry and free open bar from 10-11) was a formative part of our growth to become house music artists.



I have so many good memories from back in the day when we used to throw body paint parties at a grimy little dive bar in the West Village. After one party, the owner of the bar called us and asked us to come back and help them clean. We ended up having to mop paint off of the ceilings. Good times.



Honestly, I still feel like we are in the hustle to get our name out there. There is no doubt we have made some moves. For YEARS we took any gig we could, both for free or $50. Then, about a year before COVID, we got serious about writing music, and we decided that we weren’t going to play shows as local DJs anymore, so we ended up not taking any more shows in the city for a long while. In many ways, we had to take that hiatus to level up and become a touring act rather than a local one.




Do you feel NYC has changed for the better, or has it become more commercialized?




Overall, I think there was absolutely a wave of commercialization. It really hurt to watch house music take a huge hit in Manhattan with the closure of Webster Hall and Cielo. I don’t think it’s any fault of the music scene. It’s hard to be a small underground club when your rent is $200,000 per month. Thankfully Brooklyn has picked up the torch, and although I deeply miss Output, Brooklyn Mirage is amazing. There are a ton of other post-COVID places opening up, along with all the fan favorites that have survived, like Schimanski and Elsewhere. House Music will never die in New York. There are too many househeads, and you better believe we’ll find a way to get our fix.




How did you fall in love with dance music?




Ian: I got into dance music pretty late. I had some trance and house music in my iTunes for a while, but it was never something that I listened to religiously or went to events for. Then, around 2011, a buddy of mine showed me “Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites,” and it blew my mind. After that, I got pretty deeply into EDM before eventually finding my way to House in 2015.



Ryan: I was introduced to electronic music through a college friend when he showed me Justice back in 2007. I was in school studying classical music, and it was totally different than anything I had heard. Once I moved to New York, I started going to shows (there weren’t any shows in Louisiana when I was in school), and I won tickets to the first Electric Zoo in 2009. From there, I was hooked.








As with any electronic music producer, your knowledge of your DAW of choice continuously improves. Are there any pieces of hardware or plugins that you find yourself going back to time and again?




Ableton is our baby. We definitely have some workhorse plugins too. I will start by saying that we absolutely love Ableton stock plugins, and you will find a bunch of those on every one of our chains. Other workhorses include VolumeShaper, SoundToys, UAD plugins, and FabFilter. We tend to gravitate toward Sylenth, Serum, Arturia, Monark, and Diva for synthesis purposes.




Although veteran producers can whip up a track in a matter of hours, it can be a daunting experience for newcomers to even look at a DAW and try to understand how to make it work for them. Do you have any advice for up-and-comers on how to maximize their time learning the software?




If you have the time and money, going to a production school like Icon is not a bad move. Most people don’t have that sort of time and money as adults, so the best move would be to teach yourself using the available tutorials on Youtube. There are plenty of artists that have incredible tutorial series. Reid Stefan, Zen World, and Westend all create tutorial videos fairly regularly. We have also released a couple of tutorials if you want to check those out.



The most important thing is being dedicated and finding the time to practice your art. Hard work ethic is more important than natural talent. No matter what, you will still have to put the time toward making progress.




At the end of 2021, you had the opportunity to remix Zhu. How did you connect with him, and what did it mean to you to get that opportunity?




Man, that was such a trip getting that email. Zhu has always been a massive inspiration for us, and GenerationWhy is one of the greatest dance albums of all time, in my humble opinion. Their team reached out to us and said that Zhu was digging our music and that they were looking for a remix, so that kind of blew our minds. When Zhu asks for a remix, you give him one. After we turned it in, he sent us a DM on Instagram saying, “that shit is groovy,” so that felt good.




From a production standpoint, how did you decide which elements of the original to keep versus giving your unique spin to it?




Honestly, writing the remix for Zhu wasn’t all that different from our normal process. We wrote the bulk of the remix in one session, which is usually how we write our best tracks, as the creativity is just flowing in the studio. Our usual method for writing a remix is to only use the vocals and some of the synth and ear candy sounds. We always add our TxL-style bassline and arpeggiated synths so that the track sounds more like us than the original. We had a blast writing that remix. Zhu, feel free to hit us up anytime.




Tech house has become so popular in the states that it now permeates the main stage at festivals and is slowly becoming more mainstream. You’ve been at it for almost a decade now. Do you feel this widespread acceptance is good for the genre, or are we heading towards a breaking point?




I don’t think house music is going anywhere, at least not anywhere anytime soon. If you turn on the radio, all pop music is essentially house music. It’s what you hear on the radio in Europe too. Sure, we have seen a wave of commercialization, but the underground is alive and thriving too.

I’m excited for the future.





Are there any subgenres of house music that you think will blow up soon?



The next big subgenre is this Latin tech house wave 100%. We’ve been playing a ton of it in our sets, especially stuff from CID, Black V Neck, Wade, Roxe, etc.




Who is at the top of your dream collaborator list?




Chris Lake, Chris Lorenzo, Dom Dolla, Biscits, Cloonee, Noizu. I could list for days.







Is the NYC rave scene underrated, overrated, or properly rated?




For everyone that’s from NYC, the scene is underrated. For everyone that’s outside of New York, I think they probably see the scene is overrated, solely because the city is huge and there are tons of hidden gems.









Truth x Lies

From starring in children’s plays in elementary school to winning small contests and praise for her compelling voice in the early days of her budding music career, the fun-loving, charismatic, and eloquently spoken vocalist-producer Kaleena Zanders continues to spur critical acclaim for her live performances and house productions.




With a vocal dexterity comparable to the likes of CeCe Peniston and Whitney Houston, Kaleena Zanders is one of the most sought-after voices within the house genre.




The artist’s collaborative tune with SNBRN, a piano-house cover of 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s “California,” was the first to catapult her to the upper echelons of dance music vocalists. Today, it sits at 20 million streams on Spotify, but it pales compared to the roughly 100 million accumulated streams her discography has on the streaming platform. 




“With my song in 2015, I didn’t really know how to write in top-line format, the style of writing is much more minimal, and it was different from what I was used to. As I began going to more festivals and going to clubs I began to see that sometimes minimalism is better, because it’s easier for people to sing along to,” said Kaleena.




“For a while I was quite resistant to it all but now that I’m writing for myself and djing now too, I’m able to extract the good parts and accept the way that dance music tends to work. I love house music and I love that my voice is soulful—I’m owning it now and finally understanding that I can make hits for myself after doing it for a lot of people for so long.”




Armed with a penchant for songwriting, storytelling, and the gift of song, the Bay-Area-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s voice is as distinct as it is dynamic and widely recognizable. She has lent her vocals to a spot for the 2018 Winter Olympics, a piano edit of her moving song “Stronger Than I’ve Ever Been” for Super Bowl LII, and an unreleased track for Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger show on Freeform.




The proud queer icon also provided an emotive ballad for Bravo and NBC’s Pride commercial campaign. The harmonious, soulful, and uplifting “We’ll Stand Together” was written with her friend Erick during the pandemic.




“We wanted to make a hopeful song and we made it but didn’t know what to do with it for a while,” she explained. “Then a sync company found my song and wanted it for Bravo for Pride and we were so excited.”




With Kaleena’s emotive voice at its center, she admits it strays from the rest of her uptempo discography. She hopes it provides listeners with comfort, “like being wrapped in a warm blanket.”










Whether it be singing for commercial use or simply off the cuff for friends, fans, and family, the vocalist says she feels lucky to be able to wake up in the morning and do what she loves every day. The artist previously starred in an alternative rock ensemble in college and says she never expected to break into the industry so quickly.




“I started off as a singer-songwriter. I’ve written K-Pop, pop music, and for plenty of artists in dance music and I’ve loved it. I used to journal all the time, writing poems as a little kid. I won contests at school and so writing has always been a huge part of me,” said the producer-singer.




“I remember being in the play Annie, which I performed at San Jose’s huge theater, and I remember my friends thinking I was this big superstar and having a great time performing.” Then, later on, as a resident advisor in college, another resident advisor—a rock and roll inclined drummer—heard Kaleena singing around the hall and asked her to be in a band with him.




Their first performance was in the school’s courtyard—Kaleena had an afro then and recalled wearing “a bright headband, ripped t-shirt, and dickies, and thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna be this person. Rock and Roll!’”




“It was a funk, rock-soul band…We were trying to be like the Red Hot Chili Peppers meets Rage Against the Machine meets the old Incubus,” said the artist.




Many of her first performances were small shows for college students working on homework in common areas and small lounges for hip-hop and funk enthusiasts.



Today, she rocks festivals and events for thousands. Most recently, the artist (now also a DJ) performed at the Governor’s Ball Music Festival, OUTLOUD, and DJed at EDC Las Vegas for the Femme House artcar takeover.




“LP and I have been friends since before she started Femme House, we’d hang out, make music, and then she basically took over the dance world and of course, I became a part of it, we’re so close,” said Kaleena.




Leah Chisholm, aka LP Giobbi, founded Femme House in 2019 to “foster more equitable opportunities for women and gender-expansive individuals in the technical and behind the scenes areas of music.”




Femme House has since expanded its programming to include an array of music production workshops led by industry experts and a weekly radio show on SiriusXM. They’ve also collaborated with music software juggernaut Ableton, W Hotels, and the iconic Roland to take the programming on tour with the 2022 Femme House tour.




“I love that she’s spreading awareness and creating a very inclusive culture. It’s brilliant, and now there’s more women on lineups... It’s only going to get better from here. This is the right movement and we needed it,”




Kaleena was one of the few queer black women who performed at EDC Las Vegas in 2022. She says knowing this made the performance that much more meaningful.




“At one point, as I was playing EDC, I looked over and saw Coco & Breezy’s visuals at the Stereo Bloom stage,” Zanders recalls. “I started tearing up because I was like dude, we’re here together playing. It’s crazy because dance music belongs, and started with, Black queer people. So it feels weird to be emotional at the fact that there isn’t enough in the space. But it felt beautiful to be represented there, and I hope it continues. UNIIQU3, Coco & Breezy, Moore Kismet, HoneyLuv… just seeing and knowing there’s more Black people, more queer people, it’s beautiful.”














Kaleena Zanders

The amount of talent coming out of the United Kingdom can be overwhelming sometimes. For DJs from the UK, it is a hyper-competitive micro-community where standing out is never a foregone conclusion. Discovery can take years. Farrow, however, got the formula bagged with his first EP, Let's Just/Can't Explain, in 2020, which set him on an immediate upwards trajectory. The lead single released on Stress Records earned him a nod from BBC Radio 1 as the "Hottest Record in the World."




Growing up in a musical household, Tommy learned how to DJ from his sister. She introduced him to Disclosure, giving him an early love for garage and breakbeat. She then handed down an old set of decks when he was a teenager, and everything changed from there. Tommy immediately dove deep into the world of electronic music and began crafting incredible tracks with a unique style reminiscent of the 90s while adding his modern flair.




He's garnered deep respect from industry titans like John Digweed and has compared to the likes of Bicep for his deeply touching music that stirs emotions and keeps the dancefloor in motion.










You managed to come out of the gates super strong on your first EP. But, it would be foolish to assume that your career started in 2020. You learned to DJ as a teenager, following in the footsteps of your older sister Katie. Did you always know you wanted to give this life a shot, or would you say Katie played a significant role in pushing you to try it out?




I've come from a very musical background! My dad used to listen to music 24/7 and show my sister and me his collection of CDs all the time. It was mostly soulful house and R&B music. My sister was into dance music first, and she then got me into it when I was around 13. The first song that transformed me was Disclosures remix of Jessie Ware's "Running." She started DJing, and she passed them down to me. I was instantly hooked and formed a duo with my best mate, Josh, when I was 14. We named ourselves 'Bad Standards,' and we absolutely killed it! We broke the servers of our debut radio show on our local station and were gigging at birthday parties and whatnot. Relating to the question tho, if it weren't for my sister, I would not be where I am today!




How did you first discover electronic music? Was there a strong local scene in Sheffield where you grew up?

I think what got me into underground house music was Social Festival and Creamfields in 2016. My taste went from deep house and EDM to tech house and techno, and I was hooked! Sheffield has a great music scene too. It was a lot better while I was at uni, though. There were parties left, right, and center! I became a promoter during my first year in 2017, and that helped me get my foot in the door as I was always djing at the parties and booked some pretty big names! Detroit Swindle, Jasper James, Big Miz, Hammer, and Prospa, to name a few.





Can you give us some insight into your later teenage years, exploring clubs around the UK and Ibiza? What did you learn about the electronic music scene during that time?




My first Ibiza season was 2018. I didn't know a single soul on the island. I learned a lot about the culture of music and how special and almost life-changing some of the club nights can be. As cringe as it sounds, going to the right party can take you on a journey, and the people you meet and connect with on the dancefloor are like no other. Everyone is so like-minded out there, and you truly realize the power of music.





Following up on this, I want to talk about your musical style. Your tracks evoke history, borrowing themes from the euphoric trance days of the 90s while also implementing modernized melodic techno. You've mentioned artists like Agents Of Time and Ejeca as influences. Take us through your musical style and how you would describe your sound. Do you feel the area you exist in is appropriately represented?



It's always tricky how to define my sound; it changes quite a lot depending on what I'm inspired by. I like to make big room records that take listeners on a journey. My records always have emotion, as I find that important to keep them timeless and to really connect with the listener. I think breaking through the scene as a melodic artist in the UK is hard. A lot of parties and festivals prefer housey or electronic artists in my opinion. The marker is smaller for progressive house and melodic artists. Camelphat are great leaders in this and are paving the way for young artists like myself.







What was your reaction when you got the call from Hot Since 82 to remix his track "Rules?"

This was crazy, to be honest! My manager at the time rang me and told me he needed a remix, but it had to be done by the weekend— three days! So I spent three 12-hour days writing the remix, and each day the remix was completely different. I was about to give up on the last day. I was like a man possessed! I had the lead for it and knew I was keeping that, as I wanted it anthemic, but I couldn't get the drums right. Anyway, I decided to use the bass stem from the original track, and then after that, everything just glued together, and I knew it needed breakbeat tops because of the sustained bassline. After my manager sent it off, they got back 10 mins after saying it was accepted! Mental.



Do you find it challenging to incorporate your sound into an existing track when making remixes?



I love writing remixes. I normally only take the vocals from the original and then make the whole track my own. I don't listen to the original after I get the stems, as I want my imagination to be limitless and create something completely brand new.










Do you have any pieces of hardware or software plug-ins you find yourself going to often when producing?




I don't own any hardware! Just use my Mac keyboard and monitors. I feel I'll be procrastinating too much if I had hardware at the moment. Maybe something for the future. I use Serum for nearly everything now. Ana 2 is amazing too.




"Running From New York" carries major big room energy. Tell us about producing this track and what inspired you to go so big on this one?




Yes, maybe my clubbiest record to date. So this record started as a remix that got rejected. I took the kick bassline and pads from it and made it my own, but it did take a year to get it right with so much back and forth. I nearly gave up on it many times, but the record label believed in it, and we finally made it work. It started dark, but I wanted to create more energy and brightness to it. I think the piano helps that a lot.



Tommy Farrow

UK house producer and DJ Joshwa has risen the ranks into the upper echelons of the house scene on the back of a steady stream of stellar and varied house heaters. Yet, despite the inability to truly pigeonhole his sound, his production carries a signature without being firmly similar. It's a rare talent to be such an auditory shapeshifter.




His entré into dance music came via trance hits from the 90s golden age of the genre. However, his music carries a distinct influence from American R&B and rap of the same era. This patchwork of influences is immediately apparent in a recent string of highly successful releases on lauded labels like Sony Fodera's Solotoko and Lee Foss' Repopulate Mars.




He broke through in 2020 with the release of "Energizer" on Solotoko, followed up with releases on Cr2, Nervous, Sink or Swin, and EMI. After his 2021 collaboration with Ossey James, "Pary's Jumpin," was signed to Rep[opulate Mars, he stayed on the ears of Lee Foss. This eventually led to their collaboration on "My Humps." The infectious Fergie sampling tech house stomper was one of the scene's most sought-after IDs for nearly a year before its release late in 2021 and helped put Joshwa on the map.







Your track "My Humps" with Lee Foss was one of the hottest IDs of 2021. How did it come together with Lee, and did you feel it was going to be this big? What about the original vocals attracted you to it?




This was a super exciting time for me and has helped shape my career in music moving into 2022! I sent Lee an early version of it. He played it out and then asked me to work on it together to finish it, which is now the track you hear today. The buzz around it after Lee and John Summit first started playing was crazy. Once people realized who the track was by, my DMs were going mental with people asking for a copy of it. Before we knew it, every DJ was asking for a copy, and it was getting played worldwide - mental feeling!!









You have often relied on vocal samples from American R&B and hip-hop, going back to one of your first releases, "Shake That Thing." Was American R&B and hip-hop your entry point into loving music? What prompted you to center your tracks around these samples?




I have always loved Rap and R&B and grew up listening to this genre which is why you hear a lot of influence from them in my catalog. House music and R&B/Rap work well on the dance floor together and often create a sense of nostalgia for party-goers which gets great reactions. It's a formula that works really well, and I think that's clear after the success of tracks like "My Humps" and ACRAZE's "Do it to it," which is why we saw a surge of similar-sounding tracks following these last year.




When did you first really discover electronic music?




My Dad is to blame for this! I first got into electronic music when he played me a compilation CD in his car called Rush Hour, which was full of 90s trance belters. I instantly fell in love with the sound of it and used to pester him to listen to it whenever we went anywhere.




Can you give us some insight into the early days of your career? Your first official release was in 2016, but it's safe to assume that you didn't start DJing in 2016.




I started producing when I was 13 or 14 and bought my very first set of Gemini CDJs by selling sweets at school. I taught myself how to produce and how to Dj by watching YouTube tutorials and reading music production forums such as Laidback Luke's.




I was hugely into EDM - music from artists like Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, Laidback Luke, etc., was really popular at the time, so I naturally gravitated towards making this. I also played football (soccer) at the time and was in an Academy, but looking back, music has always been my passion.




I pursued the football career for a while but then decided music was where I wanted to devote my time, and things got more serious later down the line while I was at University. I finally got to a stage where I was happy with how my music sounded and wanted to share it with the world.




In the last two years, your productions have varied. You've shown versatility with a few piano-heavy tracks, "La Vida" and "Be With You," acid twinges on "Energizer" and "In the 1980s," and, of course, a healthy dose of tech house bangers. Do you find you're making a conscious decision to switch things up in the studio, or is it just about what's inspiring you that day?




I don't sit down and think, 'I'm going to make a piano house track today' or 'today's a tech house roller kinda day' because I find this stifles creativity. I always try to write what I feel at that moment, and I think that's why I have a variety of music in my catalog. I think it's fun to show versatility and also means my sets never sound the same the whole way through when I play live.




I also think an element of this is that I was still discovering my sound and what worked best for me. I have a clearer direction for my sound now because of this, and you'll hopefully hear this over the next year with my releases.












Now that you've spent some time touring, what do you think the most significant difference is between the scene in The States and the UK?




I LOVE both scenes - both are very similar, in my opinion, but the US crowds sure love to party hard. Tech house has gained huge popularity recently in the US, which is exciting for me as I can really dig deep into the tech house tracks which were popular in the UK a few years back and play them.




What are your favorite secret weapons to play out in your sets?




I have an official remix of Madison Avenue's classic "Don't Call Me Baby," which is coming out soon and has been a real crowd favorite from my sets. I cannot wait to drop this one. I've also been playing some killer cuts from these boys, which have been getting a great response - Hyde (OFC), Damelo, Thomas Garcia, VLTRA, and a few others.




Any advice to up-and-coming DJs on how to break out?




Spend the time developing your own sound and branding so people can familiarize themselves with your sound. It's easy to copy what's popular, but in the long term, you'll see better results if you have your own unique touch to your records. Don't be afraid to be different. Networking is so key, too. It sounds cliche, but taking the time to build relationships with other artists on social media and in-person has been pivotal for me. Most importantly, enjoy the ride!!!








Joshwa

When it comes to authenticity, one artist does it right. New York-based DJ and producer CODES is an artist who defies the meaning of staying true to oneself while trying to make it in this competitive industry.




For him, it’s all about making the art he wants to make. It’s all about creating the melodies he wants to create. It’s about playing the sets he wants to showcase to his fans and nothing more.




While many artists out there attain their inspiration from living in massive, music-loving cities, he lives in Rochester, upstate New York keeping him close to where his passion for music began. The tight-knit community he grew up around inspired him to pursue a long-term career as a musician. His father played a tremendous role in instilling such a profound admiration for music as an art form.




He spent hours of his youth observing his father bringing out his extensive music collection and playing with various instruments at home, inspiring him to pick up the guitar and follow in his footsteps. The music industry was rapidly evolving in the early 00s. MTV was still in its heyday, and underground raves were booming, CODES became even more intrigued by the thrill of it all.




Since he was a teenager, watching DJs perform on programs like MTV’s TRL always fascinated him. Turntablists like DJ Skribble gave him a spine-chilling feeling that he couldn’t quite explain but laid the groundwork for CODES to explore scratching and cutting.




When a cousin took him to his first underground rave, it was game over. He continued to explore the rave scene and immersed himself in record crates and mixtapes, soon realizing a love for jungle. That’s when the exceptionally curated CODES sound was born.




“Jungle music is what really got me at first and is what progressed me to loving what drum & bass is now. I bought this DJ Venom Return of the Jungle Warrior tape and hearing this tape was like reading the bible to me. As soon as I heard it I was like, ‘this is what I want to do. This is what I’m going to do forever.’”






Down the line, he experimented with intertwining jungle, hip-hop, funk, house, and disco into his DJ mixes. He figured, “why not mix all my favorite genres and turn it into my own signature sound? There are no rules to this profession.”




CODES was a DJ before he was ever a producer, and he decided that if he were going to make it in the production realm, he would make a living off creating the music he wanted to make, not what the labels or anyone else expected of him.




Luckily, as his presence in the scene evolved, he crossed paths with industry mainstays who could help shape his career. Over the years, he’s released his twist on house music on renowned labels like REALM, Dirtybird, Night Bass, STMPD RCRDS, and Box of Cats. He’s performed at some of the scene’s favorite festivals, such as Electric Forest, Elements Music & Arts Festival, Dirtybird Campout and CampINN, and many more. Yet, despite his accomplishments, CODES longed for something of his own.






Today, he’s the proud founder of Holy Molé Music. Before bringing his vision to life, he knew he wanted to bring something to the table that defied genres and allowed his expansive artistic vision to shine.




“Although I was releasing on all these great labels, I wasn’t doing as much as I wanted to be doing,” he explains. “This idea and vision that I had a long time ago was kind of just put on the backburner. But once I put time aside to come up with the whole vibe of it, the look of it, the name of it, etc., records started signing right off the bat and it’s been a beautiful process.”




After struggling with what to name the label for quite some time, the name Holy Molé just felt right. His intention to showcase his one true love: music, had to be reflected in its name. A symbol of something he loved deeply that felt close to home. Growing up, his grandfather always used “holy mole” as an expression, and his family was big on guacamole and getting mole poblano everywhere they traveled. The mole-making process goes hand in hand with what CODES’ sound is about.









“To make mole sauce, it takes lots of love and dedication. It takes days and all these different ingredients. You have to roast it and grind it and it’s a 24-48 hour process. You can make it rich or spicy or tangy. There’s just so many variations. That’s where the inspiration for my label name came from. That process resonates with my own creative process.”




CODES has managed to design his own perfect, one-of-a-kind recipe that continuously prepares sensational, genre-defying records that appeal to a wide-ranging audience. In CODES’ house, there are no rules. There are no genres. There’s just great music. With a little bit of creativity, a little bit of experimentation, and a whole lot of passion, he’s managed to spice up the house music scene on his terms.









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