The 80/20 Rule was first proposed by mid-nineteenth-century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. It states that 80% of the results will come from 20% of the action. Iranian-born, UK-based producer Darius Syrossian has a dance music version of that famous rule he explains to me over a video call from his kitchen.


"Don't try to please the masses," is his advice for house music ride-or-dies. "If you look at the spectrum of people that go clubbing, 80% go because they think it's the thing to do," he continues. You know the type. They only ended up at the rave because Instagram said so, and after two years, they've settled into "normal" life while you're still chasing the beat.

"Make music for yourself. Stick to your sound. Don't keep jumping on bandwagons or fads. Make what makes you in your heart feel it. And then that will connect with the other 20% of people who are searching to find artists like you."




This core principle is the key to Syrossian's years of success. After decades in dance music: first as a raver, then spending 14 years working in record stores, and finally, as a multi-hyphenate that has DJed almost every major club and festival in the world, released on esteemed labels like Defected, Hot Creations, and his own Moxy Muzik, and sat at the epicenter of several dance music institutions, his passion for house music is relentless. A man of fierce opinion, Syrossian holds fast to the core ethos of the rave movement and its counter-culture roots. "It's getting to a point where lately there's a lot of people going to the raves, and they claim to be into the music and stuff. But if you don't understand the culture of this music, you shouldn't be into it. Because this music is about forgetting my problems and bringing people together."




It makes sense that someone with this kind of unwavering dedication to the culture and music had an early life that coded dance and electronic into his musical DNA. There was seldom a time in his childhood that music wasn't somewhere nearby. He remembers his parents playing funk and disco and his uncle, who he says "used to drive around in this big American Buick," listening to New Order, The Eurythmics, and other 80's electronic on cassettes. He eventually got a dual cassette deck, where he would record rudimentary mix tapes, the beginnings of putting a DJ set together.



His brother, however, may have had the most significant impact on young Darius. "My older brother was friends with some people that used to do security at illegal raves. I used to listen to their tapes and cassettes, and it was like early acid house kind of music. I knew that it was more than just music to me. I just wanted to know more about what this music is."

When he was 16, he got the chance when his brother's friends snuck him into a rave they were running security for. At the time, big beat acts like The Prodigy and Italo house inundated the UK. Syrossian found his way to a side tent playing US house and fell in love.




And while the music was the driving force, the raver ethos of acceptance made living in England a more bearable experience. "It was more than the music for me because when I first came to the UK, I used to get quite a lot of racism at school...I knew that when I went to the rave, people did not treat me like an outsider," he explains. Syrossian was born in Iran and emigrated to the UK as a child. Growing up in conservative-led England of the 80s was challenging. The rave scene provided solace. "It was a mixture of all kinds of people. And I realized that with this music, it was bringing people together, so that in itself was something that I really liked. But I also love the fucking music!"

Beyond the sanctity of the dancefloor, Syrossian learned some of his most important lessons in the next phase of his life. For over a decade, he worked in record shops in the North of the UK, most notably at the celebrated (And now sadly closed) Leeds shop Crash Records. For six days a week, he absorbed music from every corner. It wasn't just house and techno. He picked up an education in garage, disco, and everything in between.




Widely known for his range as a performer, he says a lot of what he understands of how to read a dancefloor can be traced back to learning how to read his customers.

"So you're coming across all different types of music, but you're selling it to people and you're learning what makes people feel something about a record."



That understanding has served him well. While he may not appear on top 100 DJ lists (not that he cares to either), he's regularly called upon to play at the world's most respected events. He's held residencies at the legendary Sankeys with Steve Lawler's ViVa Warriors Tribal Sessions, Amnesia with Do Not Sleep, and was a part of Space Ibiza's historic closing season. And when I speak to him, he says he recently went B2B with Jamie Jones. He humbly mentions that while Jones usually goes "back to back with the absolute top-end DJs," Jamie cited Syrossian's range as the reason for the set.

For all the plaudits and accolades, Darius is unphased yet grateful for having spent so many years as the cornerstone of so many brands. However, in 2019 he felt it was finally time to do something of his own. After wrapping up a 19-show run to close Space Ibiza with Carl Cox, he got more offers than ever. "I was getting these gigs, where it was massive capacity, I was going all over the world. But I realized that the bigger the capacity, the less people are fully into [it]. And you get under pressure to play bigger tunes, things I necessarily didn't really want to play. And I just thought, 'I want to go back to playing what I want to play.'"



Moxy is an extension of the ideals and musical footprint that Syrossian initially fell in love with. As a label, Moxy Muzik exposes fresh talent, dropping records from Demuir, Luuk Van Dijk, Fleur Shore, and Sosa. As an event promoter, he's bringing back the chase of the underground. In his early days, he remembers parties that required everyone to show up to a secret location so they could caravan to the rave. At the same time, a fake meet-up was scheduled to take the cops in the opposite direction. Moxy Muzik parties have taken on a similar mystique. His "secret sessions" feature no flyers and no announced lineups. Just a pin dropped on a map the day of the party.

Syrossian understands that dance music has changed since those halcyon days of the open-air rave. However, if his 80/20 rule holds firm, its spirit is resolute. And despite underground cultures diminishing with more access to choice, he says house music will never die.




"So imagine the scene is a tree, right?" he explains, holding up his arms to form a trunk. "Every year, you get different flowers and blossoms. And then it goes. And next year, new leaves and blossoms come and go. These are the fads that come and go, but the trunk of the tree that's there every year, this is house and techno. That's how I see it. And these give birth to the other fads you know, the minimal, fucking garage, nu disco, fucking this, breaks, trance. But house is what gives birth to all of those things. And what I love is that it's never going to go out of fashion."
























Darius Syrossian

At 34, Italian DJ/producer Marco Faraone has both the youthful energy of his "little raver" days falling in love with electronic music at Tuscany's Tenax—where he cut his teeth with his first residency at 23—and the expansive catalog and perspective of a seasoned vet.


He wants the kids to know that super high BPM dance music they're calling hard techno is actually hardcore or gabber. While he's experimented with many styles of electronic music himself, often falling somewhere between techno and house, he is passionate about setting the record straight about the current confusion around techno, particularly because of social media.

"When people started going faster, I stuck to techno with a good vibe and groove. Groove needs to be there. Techno isn't only bass and kick," he asserts.




Yet experimentation and exploring a wide range of sounds within and across house and techno is core to Faraone's diverse sound. "I feel like it's creative to challenge yourself to make something different… I want to surprise myself first," Faraone says. Maintaining the element of surprise has allowed him to showcase his unbounded vision of techno and house on disparate labels, including Drumcode, Rekids, Desolat, Defected, Ovum, Filth on Acid, and his own UNCAGE imprint.







Not that he's done exploring and pushing his creative boundaries by any means, but he feels he's tapped into almost all the sounds he's wanted and is proud of his catalog. He even impressed legendary New York DJ Danny Tenaglia—a personal hero he's been listening to since the beginning—with the breadth of his sound.

"During the pandemic, [Danny] was like 'Marco, send me some music. I'm rebuilding my sets for when we start to play again, so I'm collecting as much music as possible from all my friends and the artists I like.' I sent him a folder with 300 released and unreleased tracks, everything of mine. He responded, 'Marco, I'm surprised by the big range of music and different styles you have produced. I went through all these tracks and they are all different from each other. Your musical spectrum is so large; it's really surprising to see an artist doing all these kinds of music.' This is just what I love to do," the "Hey DJ" producer reflects proudly.




He's most proud of his more experimental productions, including his 2020 album No Filter on Rekids, which he sees as his best music, the ambient-leaning album HOPE with reporter Ian Urbina, his most challenging project to work on, and the Our Freedom four-tracker on Drumcode, which he spent almost a year on, perfecting its intricate sound design.




Faraone relocated from Italy to Barcelona in 2018 and immediately felt at home. "Spain in this moment is on fire! It's amazing. They have so many great festivals, so many amazing events. It's a pleasure to play in Spain. The productions, the vibe, the people, the energy is unique," he exclaims when asked about the electronic scene in Barcelona. It's important to him to live in a city that exposes his joy and reflects his positivity and friendliness. He's found that there and feels it's reflected in his music.

"[Barcelona] is a city where you can grow artistically," he asserts. His favorite club in Barcelona is Input, where he'll be doing an UNCAGE showcase on June 13, during the upcoming Sónar Festival, with Alan Fitzpatrick, Avision, and a surprise special guest. He also loves Pacha Barcelona and the Brunch in the Park party series. And during the summers, he lives just across the Mediterranean Sea in Ibiza.




Ibiza has changed a lot since he first visited 15 years ago. The rising costs have priced out many potential visitors, making it difficult for big clubs to consistently draw the massive crowds they need to survive. "Big clubs are suffering. We miss the ravers!" he says. Some have adjusted by catering to VIP clientele, but not Amnesia, his favorite on the island.




"Amnesia is the one that's stayed true to its roots. I've loved it since I was a little raver. The terrace is the same as it's always been. Every place in Amnesia reminds me of a moment, that's why it's special to me. They keep it real," he says with a smile.

In his view, the change on the island isn't necessarily for better or worse. It has positives and negatives, and everyone must make the best of it. Yet because of the shifting audience base and the need to get people in the door, he feels, "You can't play a super crazy underground set in Ibiza." But at Amnesia, you can still catch that old-school Ibiza rave energy.



You catch him regularly at Pyramid, Amnesia's stacked Sunday series, and guest slots at other artists' Amnesia residencies, including Jamie Jones' Paradise.




Soon, he'll return stateside for shows in Los Angeles, San Diego, and New York—at Brooklyn's Knockdown Center for a Gray Area-hosted open-air with Will Clarke on June 9, which he's excited for. "I try to do different sets depending on the party and city, it's always different. I try to put myself there."

UNCAGE is the perfect platform to showcase his expansive sound. He's building a sonic universe alongside a select group of artists. For him, making music still feels like a hobby, and he spends six to eight hours a day in the studio. He also listens to every demo sent to him, totaling about 300-400 tracks weekly. He's proud of how many new artists they've signed "from scratch," giving them a space to showcase their vision of dance music.




"We've discovered some great talent," he says proudly, adding: "I appreciate when people keep sending us music after we sign them…the way to build a career is to believe in your project." He finds it disappointing when artists forget their roots and the people that helped them get to where they are when they make it big, instead always reaching for bigger and better. It's gratifying to do multiple releases with the same artist and be a part of their continued growth.




Speaking of roots, Faraone's are very much at Tenax in Florence, the club where he fell in love with dance music as a teen, realized he wanted to be a DJ, and had his first residency. "Tenex is a club where I really discovered the beauty of electronic music," he says with admiration. "[It's been around] 40 years and is one of the most legendary clubs in Italy. And I can say about Tenax almost the same things I said about Amnesia; they've always maintained their roots, their name, the credibility, the quality."

One of his first releases was on Tenax Records in 2008, which was one of the most prominent Italian house labels at the time. This was a huge dream come true then and still provides him with a sense of awe. He had a second release on Tenax in 2017, the Horizon EP, which featured a remix of "Double Faces" by Chicago house queen Honey Dijon.


"It was like going to school. For me, every time I was going to Tenex, musically I was learning something. I was coming back home with something; with a moment, with a track with some inspiration," he reflects. "I was coming back home sitting in my studio in the garage at my parent's house and I was literally spending my entire day making music with the inspiration I was taking from my old time ravey days at Tenax."



And Tenax is still home to him, the club he most looks forward to playing every year. He started as a warm-up DJ there back in 2012, and it formed the foundation for his dancefloor education. Now he gets to play six-hour sets there.

"I can't wait to be back. Every year I play in this club and every time it's like Christmas, it's like my birthday. I can't express the feeling. It's a place where I go and all my friends are coming to party all together. It's a party for a huge big family."




The first records that got him excited about dance music include Jaydee's 1993 classic house anthem "Plastic Dreams," which was the first electronic track he bought on vinyl, secondhand, from a little record shop in his hometown of Lucca. Another one of the early dance records he bought and loved was a popular Italian dance—the national rave sound big at the time—track, "Emergency 911" from Prezioso featuring Marvin. He recently sampled this record on a track that should be coming out soon, bringing his early Italian influences to 2023. Laurent Garnier's 2000 horn-led house gem "The Man with the Red Face" and Paul Woolford's 2006 earworm featuring Bobby Peru, "Erotic Discourse"—which got him up to techno and opened his perspective of electronic music—are also among the tracks that had a profound and lasting impact on him.




"15 years ago, I was so happy when I bought this vinyl ['Erotic Discourse'] and was playing it. [Now] I'm playing with this guy. Man, life is crazy. Music is magic!" he gushes of his recent B2B with Woolford at Amnesia's 2023 season opener.




While he's already checked off many items on his DJ bucket list, there are still a few others he has his eyes on, including playing Detroit's legendary Movement Festival and doing a B2B with his hero Laurent Garnier.




"Laurent Garnier is my favorite DJ. He is an artist that has been supporting me a lot for a long time, reacting to every promo we send from the label and all my tracks. Laurent Garnier is the fucking man! He replies to every email I send him; he's a real gentleman. Besides the respect I have for him as an artist and as a DJ, I really respect him as a person. So, it would be a huge honor for me to share the decks with him one day," Faraone says with a big smile.




Above all, he really just wants to "forever be able to make good music" and keep being happy with what he's doing and staying true to what he loves to do.




"There is no festival, no gig, no back-to-back, no track, nothing that can be more important than [being] happy with what you're doing. If you're not happy what you're doing, it's better you stop and you leave space for people that are happier than you because this is what people read in your eyes. They read in your eyes if you are lying, or if you enjoy what you're doing, if you're communicating your message with the music, or if you are just doing something for money or hype. It's always important to stay true to yourself and to maintain this is the most challenging part," Faraone implores.






Marco Faraone

With his signature cap and a killer smile, SPINALL has undoubtedly become the poster child for Afrobeats. His impressive catalog has led to a massive fan base that spans Africa, North America, and Europe. SPINALL is greatly recognized for his hit singles, supreme skills on the decks, and collaborations with the likes of Burna Boy, Wizkid, Fireboy DML, DJ Snake, and more. He is also one the few Afrobeat DJs to tour Africa, the UK, and the United States with memorable performances at MTV's European Music Awards, One Africa, and Glastonbury festivals.






When did you fall in love with music?




I fell in love with music at a very early age. I remember my parents listening to a lot of records. So I grew up listening to a lot of stuff, and I would say that that's where my passion came from.




How has the way you make music evolved over the years?




My music has evolved over the years tremendously, and that came also very organically. We can all see the trajectory, too; it's out there. I think that it's been a blessing, and I'm grateful for that.




How important is it to be unapologetically true to yourself as an artist?




That's the only way; there's no other way. It's the law, and you gotta follow the law. You have to stay real, stay original, and keep it authentic. That's the best way you can create. People will understand who you are and what you do. Stay true; that's the only way.


Let's talk about your latest album, Top Boy. Where did the title come from?




Top Boy is a genderless term for anyone who is striving to overcome. No matter what someone has been through, as long as they are always striving to be better for themselves. Whoever does that is definitely a Top Boy.










What is the first step when you begin working on a new project?




It's usually very simple. Sometimes I wait till I get motivated or inspired, and I'm not one of those artists who needs to be in the forest to be inspired. As long as I breathe, I'm inspired. I'm inspired by little things, by people on the streets, what people say, how people dance, how people laugh, how they smile, the work I'm in, I mean life itself, so everything is an inspiration, you know? Because I don't make one style of music, I spin all types of music: R&B, hip hop, Afrobeats, house. It depends on how I'm feeling.




You have a refined ability to blend different genres and support the musicians you collaborate with in bringing their greatest self to a song. What has been your biggest lesson while working on a collaboration?




Patience. Understanding that due process has to take place. Patience is not just waiting. Patience is waiting in character, waiting in your mannerisms and in your respect. So that's what I have learned so far. When you feature people or when people feature you, it's two different worlds trying to coexist. They have to coexist first before they can produce anything. So when we coexist, I understand you, you understand me, then we can make beautiful music out of it.

I'm grateful for all the talents I've been working with and who I'm still working with because they see the vision; not a lot of people see the vision. For those that saw the vision, they are reaping tremendously from their visions. So patience, I would say, and I think this applies to all walks of life as well. I think that no matter what you do, you just have to be extremely patient if you want anything to come to fruition.




You have worked with huge artists like Wizkid, Asake, Tiwa Savage, and DJ Snake. Is there anyone you haven't worked with yet that you want to collaborate with?




I would love to collaborate with basically anyone who gets the vision. And I think that I would also love to collaborate with somebody who wants to try something different. Somebody who is very open-minded to be experimental with the sound. Like if you typically make R&B, can I up the tempo a little bit when we wanna work? If you typically make rap music, can I swing you on Afro? So that's how I create my music. You'll hear someone like Amaarae on my album and be like, ooh, what is this? I try to make something unique and unexpected, and I think that's the magic we've been able to create. Also, I would love to collaborate with some of the people I used to look up to coming up. I would love to collaborate with them because I know they have so much experience that it'll be good to learn from them.




Afrobeat has conquered a large part of the world, and you are one of its biggest stars. How far can the phenomenon go?




I would say, how far do we think Afrobeats has come? That's the first question, and once we do the calculation, then imagine how far more it could possibly go. My advice is that people should just keep making the best art. I think the music is speaking for itself, and everybody gets the memo. So it's amazing to see Africa on the rise, at least in some positive news.







What has been the stand-out moment of your career so far?




There's been a lot. If I could pick one, it would be the day I made the decision I was going to DJ. So, I studied electrical electronics engineering in university. And all through my uni days, I was always sneaking out of school to go to the radio station, and I always had this confusion of whether I should practice what I'm studying or should I choose this? I was confused. I was going crazy, you know? Finally, it hit me that my heart is where my soul lies. So I just decided to follow my heart. It wasn't as easy as I'm saying now, but you know, that day, I was able to make the decision. Then I became focused. So, I bless that day.




The second day that I would say that has been one of the special moments in my career might be when I found out that I'm gonna be performing at the Glastonbury Festival; that was special. The other time that was special, I would say, was when Beyonce invited us to Parkwood Studios. She was working on an album at the time, the Lion King project. So she invited a lot of artists from Africa, myself, DJs, a lot of artists. So many people that didn't make the album were in the studio trying to work on the project. That was really special because people really don't think of DJs when they think of making a project of that magnitude. A lot of people supposedly are supposed to know that DJs are important in rooms like that. So for someone like Beyonce, who is like the boss, looks into Africa and said, "oh, I want DJ SPINALL to spin on this camp," that means I have been doing something special. I also got to meet a lot of people and learn from them; that was mind-blowing.




I always say Iyanu a Sele (a Yoruba proverb). It means "there will be a miracle." People should not be afraid to go after their dreams; go after your dreams for your own fulfillment. A lot of people are not fulfilled because they're still not doing what they're meant to be doing. I think I enjoyed the process of my come-up also. Even in studying engineering, you could tell, step by step, in every construction, and that's the trajectory of making beats when I make beats in the studio. We start small, then we build, and it becomes a big song, so I'm grateful that I get to experience all of this.




You give a lot of energy on stage. Which city gives it back to you the most?




I think all the cities I've performed at had a big vibe. If I look back in time, I say every time I throw a party, here, what's the vibe. But I'll say London, New York, and Lagos. We're excited to be back in New York in June. I've not done a show in New York in a minute, so it's for sure it's going to be a good one.




What would you like your legacy to represent in the years to come?




That's a tough one…that I truly care. I care not just about music but about humanity itself. I care about how we treat one another. I care about mutual love, I care about fairness, I care about culture, I care about life itself.















SPINALL

From his Miami-based studio, Jordan Postrel, aka m.O.N.R.O.E., grins like a child in a candy store as the camera pans across his toys. He has an easy-going yet sharp and witty air, nicely personified by his laid-back body language and "USE HEARING PROTECTION" embossed black shirt.




Curious about the beginnings of his musical life, I enquired about his familial roots within the industry.




"My dad used to be a producer in the 70s for James Brown and Tina Turner," he explains. "When we were kids, he tried getting us into it, but what five and seven-year-old really wants to play the piano? So, my brother and I never got into it."




There go my visions of family car ride sing-a-longs, and sitting in on daddy's recording sessions. But, rather than paternal inspiration, it seems that Miami's nightlife scene was what set Postrel's soul on fire.




"As a kid in Miami, you get a fake ID, you start to go out to places you shouldn't be. Before you know it, you're like, 'Oh, I like this stuff... I wanna get into DJing!' So when I was 17, I got into DJing. Very cliche thing to do."




Very few lucky souls find what it is in life that lights them up and make a career out of it, but for Jordan, it seemed to come naturally.




"When I was 18, I was like, 'Okay, I really want to make this a job. I got to get into production.' So for the first three months, I forced myself to make production fun and get myself into that habit and lifestyle. And then, from there, it just evolved. When I was 22, that's when I actually started playing an instrument for the first time. I started taking piano lessons. But from 18 to 22, it was all Ableton, and then from there, it just progressed more and more."




After he graduated high school, he was pretty much self-taught. He found mentors and collaborators, spending a few summers in Ibiza. But it wasn't until he turned 23, when he'd honed his skills and sound a little more, that he began releasing music under his name.




"I wanted to make sure a lot of my stuff was as strong as some of the things that I was playing. And I wanted to make sure that it would also fit into my sets. I kind of was like a little all over the place in the beginning and just because I just like so many different things."




It started slowly for Postrel, a few small gigs here and there, and when he hit 25, things started to kick off with bigger bookings and tours. However, COVID soon came knocking and put the brakes on. But Jordan used this time productively, and with the cards dealt to him, he managed to make the most of his time in lockdown.




"I tried doing a little bit for a sample company, and I was like, yeah, this is cool, but this is way too much, way too time-consuming. So I got into doing production and other genres for other people. And that was very beneficial because it would teach you a whole other set of skills with production that you wouldn't typically use or think of because you're doing dance music. And that was cool because I could apply different things that I learned from this to that, different songwriting techniques… It also helped me create a second source of income. So now my DJing's back up again. Now I have like two flows of cash, which is a lot nicer."




For many artists, making a career with a financial income strong enough to support themselves is tough, and they may find that family support wanes. But when a parent is already an artist, does that change how supportive they are of their offspring?




"Definitely more supportive. Connection-wise, he doesn't have any more connections in the music industry because he got out in '74. So everything I did in the music industry was just me personally going out and hustling and doing it for myself. But the best thing he provided for me was the comfort of time. And he was willing to support me my first several years when I first got into music," Postrel explains. "I know I also have other friends that didn't have that luxury, and they had to hustle their ass off and work a job on the side to also pay rent so they could focus on music. But, like if you have the ability to have free time to focus on what you do, that's the most important thing in the beginning."




I was curious to learn more about his work within production and whether or not being a producer was favorable over the sometimes antisocial hours of being a DJ.

"No, I like them the same. They're both different types of fun. I mean, I love being in a studio. It's just like there's a certain like vibe and 'je ne sais quoi' to it. But DJing's super fun! I always say I'm a DJ first, producer second, because everything I do with production it's from a DJ's point of view and how it would work on a dancefloor. I love the DJ part, but," he continues, "I don't really love the traveling."




Traveling can be an integral part of a DJ's career. However, despite the jetlag and the rushing through airport security, is the destination better than the journey?




"Berlin's always been really fun… a really trippy city. They'll be like, hey, you want to play from 6 am to noon? And I'm like, yeah, I do! I'll do that. Walk out of there like a fried twig. Also fucking Amsterdam. That place is sick. That club Bret, insane. It's tiny and it sounds great! Right now my focus is releasing on some more labels that are European based so I can come out there more and play ADE and some of the bigger parties out there."




A festival that has always bemused me with awe and wonder is Burning Man. I see it as an ethereal mythical land of which I've heard fond distant stories yet have not had the chance to experience myself. But seeing is believing, right? Lucky for me, I got to hear more stories of the mythical dusty land from Jordan, who managed to find the door to Narnia. Sorry, I mean, the Playa.




"I went with my brother, and then my dad showed up at Burning Man in a khaki suit on Wednesday, and I was just, oh my God. I was like, 'Dad, you didn't get the fucking memo.' Everyone there's running around with nipples out, wearing tutus, and all this crazy shit. It was pretty funny. I got hooked. So I started going every year. I worked with a couple of camps, and then I got adopted by this camp called DISTRIKT, and we're the largest day party at Burning Man. It's anywhere between five to 12,000 people a day that come in and out of our camp. It's a little bit like Mad Max-style partying."

From his first dust-covered experience, he's evolved into a sand-seasoned Burner veteran. Beyond the timeless memories, his work with DISTRIKT has evolved into much more. DISTRIKT is a non-profit organization that supports artists by giving them a platform to grow.




"When I started meeting them at first, I was like, you guys have a great brand. We should start a label or something. And they were like, 'Okay, let's talk about it.' A week later, they called me back. They were like, 'okay, let's do this.' We set it all up and we've been working since. And right now we're actually about to launch like eight or ten events right before Burning Man and we have a bunch of others coming up this year. And we have some really cool releases coming out on the label now too."




But beyond the studio, the DJing, the producing, and the playa, I asked Jordan what he gets up to away from it all.




"Probably learning stuff on YouTube or fishing, one of the two. It doesn't take a lot to keep me happy. I like to do this stuff, and then I need some other activities outside of the music world to center my focus. There's a saying, if you want to cut down a tree, you need to step away to sharpen your blade. So, doing this all the time, kind of drains me of all my creative juices."




I find it fascinating how when one removes themselves from a situation in which they feel pressure to create, produce or be constructive, it causes the opposite. From a personal standpoint, I find that when I'm working out, gardening, horse-riding, or doing anything that induces a meditative trance, the ideas somehow flow through to me.




"Oh, 100%! When I'm out in the water, it's that whole concept of doing something and not really thinking too much about it. And it just kind of passes, ideas will kind of just come into your head. And when we're fishing and stuff, we'll be playing music and talking shit with your friends, smoking weed, whatever the fuck. And then I'll sometimes just get ideas in my head and I'll just pull my phone out, write it down real quick, or I'll make a voice note or something. I just notice when I stay in this studio too long, and I don't get out, that's when things get a little stale."




Keep the fishing up, m.O.N.R.O.E., because whatever you're doing out on that water is working! The rest of this year is predictably jam-packed; I almost worry he might not have time to get out his pole and line! With gigs coming up in Argentina, Brazil, and Europe, but "only for like three weeks this summer just because of me being an American artist, things are kind of busy for me over here," DISTRIKT playing in New York, San Francisco, Montreal at Stereo and Vegas! Oh, and not forgetting his monthly party in Miami, "Private Parts"... Mind out the gutters, please!




There is so much going on in the life of m.O.N.R.O.E. that it really could take any direction. However, I was curious to learn what the big dream truly is.




"Just start up a successful event with a good label, tour as much as possible. I would like to win a Grammy one day for stuff outside of dance music, but who knows? If I'm enjoying it, I'm gonna keep doing it, see where it takes me. You never really know where it's gonna lead. The best part of the adventure is the journey there."




Unlike his travels across the globe, Jordan seems to enjoy the journey rather than overthinking about the destination. We look forward to seeing what comes next on his path to the Grammy. See you on the Playa, m.O.N.R.O.E!












m.O.N.R.O.E.

Only a few short years ago, Massano looked up to melodic techno figureheads such as Tale of Us and Mind Against as distant role models. Today, the Liverpool producer and DJ counts them among his close peers.




Look no further for evidence than what transpired at Afterlife Madrid in March 2023. Not only did Massano (real name Sam Rose) share the stage with Afterlife bosses Tale of Us, but the duo tested out his cinematic single, “Shutdown,” during their set.

“Madrid felt extra special to me. I’d had a month off before that, so it was a big show to test all this new music,” Rose says. “To get such great reactions was confirmation that it had been a good month of producing.”




Support from major acts and crowds in the tens of thousands is now a common occurrence for Rose. Prior to the pandemic, though, it seemed a remote possibility.




Sam Rose first discovered dance music as a child. His father would play it around the house and even brought him to a Faithless concert when he was only 11 years old.




“I remember looking around and seeing people enjoying the rave and just being like, ‘What is going on?’” he says. “It seemed like chaos at the time, but now it seems really normal.”




This initial exposure didn’t evolve into a career ambition overnight. “I wasn’t super into it from that stage — that’s just my earliest memories it,” Rose says. “I think around the time I started going to house parties was when I started getting really into electronic music and found a love for discovering new music and making playlists to share it with people.”




By Rose’s first year of university in Lancaster, the music industry started to beckon. In this nascent stage, though, he still hadn’t set his sights on DJing and producing.




“I started thinking about what I wanted to do long term in life, and what interested me the most was this music stuff that I was doing. I didn’t necessarily think ‘I want to be a DJ.’ I just started thinking about what I could do to get into the music industry in any way because I hadn’t really had experience with any of it.”




Sam Rose started applying for management internships with brands like Universal Music Group. As luck would have it, they only wanted candidates with experience. Around the same time, he started teaching himself how to produce and play music as a hobby. Not long afterward, he began to pursue it in earnest.




“I was aimlessly doing it and not really putting much energy into it. I’d say I was producing maybe twice a week at that stage, and then DJing just for fun occasionally,” Rose says. “But then, I started thinking, ‘I’m actually really enjoying the producing and the DJing,’ so I thought that it might actually be what I wanted to do within the music industry.”




He continues: “After my second year of university, I started pushing myself to do as much as I could and spend as much time as possible on it. I moved to London for an internship where I was working with Vodafone in a marketing role. But whilst working for Vodafone, I was also pushing myself to spend as much time as I could on the music.”




Rose suffered from homesickness, having yet to make new friends in London. In the long run, this worked to his advantage. Relegated to his bedroom studio on the weekends, he gave music his undivided attention. It didn’t take long for this to come back to him in the form of opportunities.




“In the six months after that, I got to a point where I was ready to start releasing music,” Rose says. “I’d try and work from home as much as I could, keeping the laptop from work open on one screen while I worked on music on the other screen. That’s when I made my biggest track, ‘The Feeling,’ — and ‘Velocità’ was also in that six months.”






Rose released his music under the name Massano from the beginning. “I brainstormed and made anagrams of my name. I thought about which ones I liked the most, and in the end, I went with Massano,” he says. “Not often do people stick with the first project, so I figured I didn’t need to think too much about it. I love the name now especially, as it’s got a lot of meaning to me.”




A lot of Afterlife artists co-signed Massano early on — perhaps most notably Mind Against. The Italian duo played his tracks at Afterlife Tulum 2020, and then again during their Cercle set later in January.




“I didn’t even have an Instagram,” Rose admits. “The next morning, the label manager from Running Clouds told me, “You need to make an Instagram now because people are looking for you. I made one, and within the first couple of days, I had, like, a thousand followers already.”




Timing was not on Massano’s side, however. Two months later, the World Health Organization declared COVID a pandemic, preventing him from leveraging his newfound popularity toward gigging.




Over the next year and a half, Rose stocked his proverbial shelves with new music and then opened for business once nightlife resumed. “Things went from zero to 100 because I’d grown so much without really DJing,” he says. “I’d DJed in friends’ house parties and smaller local clubs for university, but never anything properly as a Massano show. So then after COVID, I went from having not so much gig experience to getting booked every weekend.”




Massano has continued to gain momentum ever since. He has performed throughout Europe and South America, landing on the lineups of such festivals as Time Warp Brazil and Kappa FuturFestival in Italy. 2023 also marked his first US tour dates, including a headline billing at NYC club Superior Ingredients.




“What’s great about the shows is it’s noticeable how much if you work at it in different markets, the shows keep getting bigger and you keep engaging more fans. It’s nice to see the your effort pay off,” Rose says.




Cliquing up with his heroes doesn’t mean he’s reached his destination in the music world. Far from it, in fact. The road up to now offers a mere glimpse at what lies in store for Massano as he’s only begun to explore the depth of his sound.



Massano

After finding individual success, melodic house and techno producer Jonas Rathsman and vocalist Franz Novotny joined to create Modern Tales. Amid the pandemic, the brothers felt driven to collaborate, but rather than drawing on their individual musical backgrounds, they decided to start the project as a blank sonic canvas. Their collaborative musical vision has resulted in a sincere, naturally expressive collection of works. Their music reflects the human experience through beautiful, melancholic vocals and creative production that blurs the line between indie and electronic.




The duo has since captivated crowds with stunning live shows while supporting RÜFÜS DU SOL on tour, eventually leading to Modern Tales signing to the legendary Australian group's label Rose Avenue. RÜFÜS DU SOL established Rose Avenue, which houses Lastlings, Cassian, ANYMA, and other artists, to provide a stage for up-and-coming acts embodying the particular electronic music genre that inspires them. The most experimental project on Rose Avenue to date, Modern Tales, explores fresh sounds while upholding the label's ethereal aesthetic.




Gray Area speaks to the duo about their journey in coming together sonically as brothers to form Modern Tales.

What is the story behind you coming together to form Modern Tales?




Jonas: Well, I mean, first of all, we're brothers, so that's one connection. It's like we started this sync project together during the pandemic, where we wanted to make music for movies and films, and that evolved into what it is today. We realize it's more than a synth project. It's an artist project. We both got really inspired and motivated, and now, we've made an album together, and this is something we want to proceed and focus on as an artist project.

Franz: It was something that came very naturally during Covid. We were a bit tired of our own projects at that specific moment, and we wanted to try something new. So it just became something completely new creatively, which was very nice.





Why did you pick Modern Tales for the name of your duo?

Jonas: We went through thousands of names. We both wanted to somehow incorporate storytelling, stories, or tales. When we started off the single project, every single track had a story. Modern Tales just sounded really cool, so we both agreed on the name. We've been getting a lot of praise for the name, which is nice.




Franz: It's funny because we went through so many names, and that one really stuck with us instantly. There were a lot of serious suggestions—a lot of bad names as well, like Broforce.







How was it touring with RÜFÜS DU SOL, and how did that come to be?




Jonas: It started with us sending the music. When we finished the full album, we wanted to show it to someone. I'd met the RÜFÜS guys on tour years ago, and we became friends, and I felt like they would appreciate the music. So actually, it was John—he was the first guy I sent the music to. The day after, he sent an email saying he loved the music and wanted to sign everything to Rose Avenue. The day after that, we got an offer to support them on the European tour, and we'd never even thought about playing live.




That was your first time forming live as Modern Tales. How did you feel your audiences received you?




Franz: They loved it. The Rufus guys as well. They were so lovely, and their whole team was amazing. We felt very comfortable even though it was completely new to us.




Jonas: Yeah, it's different. Playing live is a different machinery, which is also very exciting, and it's a challenge, but it's a nice challenge. So we're looking forward to more.







Congratulations on your debut single, "Monster," can you tell us what it's about and what inspired it?




Franz: Oh, so it's funny because it started as one of our very first songs we made together, and it sounded completely different to what it sounds like today. It was called "Monster" back then. It didn't have any vocals, but it had some completely different synths and melodies. Then, after a year or so, we revisited the song and made it sound like what it sounds like today. Then we started writing on it and singing on it, and so on. I think the name came first, and then I think the lyrics adapted around it.




Jonas: I think "Monster" stands for everything that is in your way of success. Like, "How do you get rid of your monsters?" I think that this monster is about a person—someone who is standing in the way of growth or freedom.












You blend well together.




Jonas: We've tried to produce music together, but we never really found a way to work together. During the pandemic, we dropped all the barriers and [said] Let's do something new that we are proud of. I think that's how it came together. That's why it works so well, because we're making music that we both like, and we don't really care about anyone else. It's selfish.




Franz: But it's very hard too, because we're both producers and would come from two different worlds. When it comes to the music side, usually, in my experience, it's very hard for two producers to work with each other in one room because it's two producers and there's one computer.




Jonas: It's really hard to work with you…




Franz: No… but it's just very tough to make that work. Sometimes it really works. Sometimes the spark is there, but for us, I think it's really clear.




I bet you are excited to be in Mexico for the Sun Dream Festival this May. What can we expect from your upcoming live performance?




Jonas: We're on the same stage as MonoLink and Weval and Rufus! It's a live performance stage, and I love Monolink. Weval is one of my favorite bands, so just being on the same stage as them is going to be something really special. We've done the support tour, which is a bit different because you don't get the same volume on the sound, you don't get the same attention, you don't get the same light shows, but this is basically our first real performance on stage. So yeah, we're going to start rehearsing in the next few weeks.




Franz: They can expect a longer version of our live show because we had to stick to thirty minutes when we were supporting RÜFÜS DU SOL. We will incorporate some new music.




Jonas: Yeah, a bit more of a clubby vibe for sure, but also emotional.




Franz: Yeah, we're going to make sure that it fits Sun Dream and the people over there




Jonas: Yeah, we're crazy excited. They just announced the second weekend as well, so we're going to be there for two weeks, which is awesome.




Franz: Yeah, Looking forward to the spicy margaritas




What are your long-term goals: How do you wish to be remembered as a duo?




Franz: We have some big goals, I think. At least I want to do huge festivals, and we want our music to be in huge movies.




Jonas: You have bigger goals than I do. I'm just happy if I can work with music until I die and put food on the table for my kids, then I'm happy. I've been doing it for 20 years, so we're living in the dream in a way. We're doing what we love.




Franz: There are some amazing venues and some amazing festivals that we definitely want to play.




Jonas: Yeah, play a live show at Burning Man or whatever. We're both really attracted to films and the visual language connected to music. I think it makes it so much stronger. So that would be awesome to work with film. So much to do, so little time.




What can your listeners look forward to from you as individuals and as Modern Tales?




Jonas: We have Modern Tales, but we also have our individual projects, which are still going. I mean, you're producing a lot of music for other artists and yourself as well. Same goes for me. I'm producing my own stuff on the side; well, I mean parallel. I think the Modern Tales stuff is the music that triggers me more, and I feel more excited about. We've done almost two albums with Modern Tales. I get inspired to do my own stuff from the Modern Tales stuff. Also, my latest track has Franz' vocals on it. So we're helping each other out. Everything goes hand in hand.




Franz: Modern Tales, as you say, sparked a lot of creativity and a lot of passion in general for music. It's always fun to make something completely different to what you're doing. So, for example, I have EDM DJs and people that are in a completely different world that I'm producing for, but it's fun. That also, in some way, brings something to Modern Tales.




Jonas: It's a big mishmash of influences in our music. I come from one side, from disco, old-school hip-hop, and house. Franz has EDM and drum and bass, and trance. I think people are going to hear that when they listen to the album because it's a little bit of everything, and the live shows also have a little bit of everything.




Can you tell us when we can expect the album? Do you have a date?




Jonas: Yeah, I think it's in early June. It's not decided yet. There's going to be a few more singles coming out to tell the story. It's tricky because we're a new act, but we're not really new.




What has been your biggest lesson while working as a duo?

Jonas: Patience, I guess




Franz: Yeah, patience. Collaborating, coming from a world where you're used to working on your own and then suddenly jumping in with someone else…your brother.




Jonas: I rarely fight with people, not like that, but you know, getting into disputes, but with you, I do sometimes, and it's because we're brothers. I guess it's tricky sometimes, but that's why I said patience.




Franz: Patience, and you also have to understand that you have to collaborate and listen.




Jonas: That's definite.
















































Modern Tales

From an early age, UK-based producer Frameworks was inadvertently immersed into a world of creativity. His father, an artist for advertising agencies, would conjure up drawings straight out of his mind and into the hands of marketing executives. However, it was his mother who(seemingly out of nowhere) piqued his musical interests.




Frameworks remembers one holiday season when his mother allowed him and his brother to choose a musical instrument as a Christmas gift. “...he [his brother] was straight away like, guitar,” he recalls. “I sat on it for a couple of weeks and eventually said ‘I’d like a drum kit.”






Although his dedication to art and graphics would eventually lead him to art school, Frameworks pursued his percussion-led passion after joining a band where he played, you guessed it, the drums.




“We played a lot of Manchester venues and stuff like that, kind of small clubs and stuff like that,” he says of his time in a band. “It wasn’t on a big scale. It was just four guys thrashing it out.”




Having pivoted into music, Frameworks left art school and began developing his musical know-how, absorbing everything from performance to jazz and drumming. However, it was a production course that would form the foundation for Frameworks, the DJ and producer we know today.




“There was a module in one of my courses that was more production, and I just fell in love with it,” he expressed. “Just the fact that I could sit and create without having to rely on other people’s schedules and stuff like that. I was just blown away.”




After a brief stint at the renowned record label Ninja Tune, Frameworks knew his career would orbit the electronic music sphere.









“I think it just flipped my head the kind of people that were there. It was just crazy,” he says. “I actually met Diplo in the basement where they were sending out records.”




If you listen to the records that Frameworks produced early in his career, you will notice his musical influences permeate the airwaves. Percussion, strings, and haunting vocals were all part of his identity as a young producer.




“Coming into my music, it was from more of a live perspective,” he speaks on his earlier work. “So my earlier albums were laced with more live instrumentation, some strings, and stuff like that.”




Compare that to his latest album, Reflections, the change in tune is evident. Although the emotional attachment still resonates as it did in his debut EP, Vanish, there’s been a clear shift to more club-oriented releases.




When asked about his shift in sound, Frameworks alludes to his evolving ear saying, “My taste has changed. It’s just become a bit more dancefloor-oriented, especially after the pandemic.”






Frameworks joins countless electronic acts that have pivoted to a more upbeat sound post-pandemic. He recognizes this movement, saying, “I see this too, especially with the UK scene and UK garage coming back a bit,” he continues, “I wasn’t able to have those experiences. From DJing in Manchester quite often to then nothing. That was my fix, you know?”




A married father of three, Frameworks also refers to a shift in focus over the last few years. He credits his wife and children as inspiration for his recent concentration on his craft.




“I’ve always been quite prolific because I’m always writing, always creating something,” he says. “But the last four years I think really, I don’t know, really gone for it, you know what I mean?”




With a sharper focal point, Frameworks has been thriving in the festival circuit outside of his Manchester home. His intricate instrument-led productions have been heard from Costa Rica to Canada, amassing a legion of followers along the way.









Although his career has taken him across varied landscapes, there’s still much to accomplish. “I’d love to go on a big tour,” he exclaims. “I’ve never done a bus tour, so I’d love to tour in a bus. Just you know, support acts for someone big or something like that. I’d love to have the opportunity to do that.”




If Frameworks continues on this upward trajectory, soon enough he will be granted the chance to headline his own cross-country tour, bus and all.

















Frameworks

ATRIP’s biography is but one sentence: “I create audible emotion on my laptop.” By intertwining club music with dreamy soundscapes and delicate textures, the South London-based DJ/producer makes rousing songs designed for dancing and feeling. Feeling what, exactly? That’s not for him to decide. “I think that’s the beauty of emotional, wordless electronic music,” he says. “It’s up to you what you make of it.”




For the last three years, ATRIP has been on a personal journey to find emotion in his music. A desire to pivot from his heavier early sound, along with the global pandemic lockdown, catalyzed a long and introspective process: how to make music that was “honest” to oneself? He found part of that answer in the outdoors, namely at a nearby park where he walks his dog, among peace and quiet, trees and sunshine—the opposite of a dark and crowded club setting. And whereas he used to be constricted solely to his desktop to make music, ATRIP now regularly produces on the go via laptop, eager to hear what sounds, textures, and inspiration the universe will bring to him. “Now that I’m talking about it,” he realizes, “a lot of the stuff that I’m doing is almost active steps to like work as freely as possible.”









Nature and curiosity are deeply ingrained in ATRIP’s story. Before making roots in South London, he was born in Poland and raised in Munich, Germany, deep in the countryside, where he often crossed cows, sheep, and pigs on his way to school. His love of music began with long drives to football matches with his dad, who showed him artists ranging from 50 Cent’s G-Unit collective to The Prodigy. His Polish uncle introduced him to trance and hardstyle. ATRIP went through a rock phase and learned to play guitar, but soon he became enamored of electronic music’s mystique. At age 11, he downloaded production software on his mom’s laptop in a quest to uncover its layers.




“When you play an instrument it makes sense to me,” he says. “You put it into a mic, someone plays the drums, you put it together and there you have it. Electronic music was way more abstract to me. It was just curiosity, like, how do you make a synth? What is [a synth]? How do you create those weird bass sounds?”




Over the next near-decade, ATRIP continued to experiment. Initially influenced by international artists like Avicii and Skrillex, he found deeper inspiration in his adopted hometown of London through heavy-bass heroes Magnetic Man, Caspa, Benga, and Nero.




“There’s something about the energy,” he says. “If I hear a very well put-together, super aggressive dubstep tune, it does something to me for some reason.”




In time, he released his own speaker-rattling productions, bass house with flourishes of dubstep and drum & bass, on prominent labels such as Bite This!, Mad Decent, Dim Mak, and Insomniac’s In / Rotation. As ATRIP’s profile rose, he had to factor DJing—something he had only done casually at house parties and school discos—into the equation. All the while, he juggled business management studies at university and working for an artist management company, where he learned about the business side of music, from A&R to royalties to commissioning remixes.









Despite experiencing early success in his career and being armed with invaluable industry knowledge, something was still missing.




“What I learned quite quickly is that as a kid who has always loved making and listening to all sorts of music, it’s a scene that’s… there isn’t a lot of openness to people experimenting,” ATRIP says. The curiosity and experimentation that had once fuelled his love of electronic music had been suppressed. “In German, there’s a saying like, there’s a red thread going through things, which means that there’s a connection; everything adds up and makes sense. I think you can have your tone of voice as a musician without sticking to one genre.”




ATRIP was ready to move on. As he prepared for his first US tour, the universe had other plans. The pandemic shut everything down, leaving him and fellow electronic artists uncertain of when they’d work again. As a slim silver lining, lockdown bought him time to experiment.




“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says, “but I knew it had to feel right to me and not what feels right to the booking agent we’re trying to get booked by. It should always start with you.” He worked with singers, rappers, instrumentalists, and other producers from all around the world over the internet to jumpstart his journey. In a quiet, empty room stripped of the CO2 cannons, lasers, and raucous crowds that had once regularly accompanied his sets, ATRIP found the music he made for no one except himself was more melodic, atmospheric, and filled with emotion. As the world tiptoed back to normalcy, he learned to find the middle-ground between his bedroom creations and club-friendlier sounds.




The first product of this new direction was “Für Immer.” Released in February 2022, the song is both melancholy and hopeful, with a pensive melody and bright vocal sample that thaws its moody, UK garage-influenced production like sunshine on snow. “I called it ‘Für Immer,’ German for ‘forever,’ because trends obviously come and go, but I think ideally you wanna make music that is true to you and that will always last forever,” ATRIP says.




As with “Für Immer,” subsequent tracks like “Elsa,” “Salt,” and “Me + You” came together quickly and with little filter, as he meshed together textures, genres, and rhythms to create immersive songs that are both soaring and anchored by a good bassline, emotionally resonant yet inspire energy and ecstasy on the dancefloor. Songs that, like him, don’t fit neatly into one box.









A little over a year into this iteration of ATRIP, the producer has moved his goalposts for success beyond specific label signings and gigs. Through support from radio presenters and fellow producers is still on the list—though already he’s achieved it with plays from Disclosure, DJ Seinfeld, and BBC Radio 1’s Jaguar—these days, he finds more value in hearing from the people who find their connection to his music, even if they’re not (yet) electronic music fans. “The personal aspect of how [my music] has been perceived makes me wake up everyday and just want to do more,” he says.




“I have never been more honest with the music that I wanna make… it just feels one million percent right. Yeah, it’s happy times for me.”














ATRIP

Rhythm and flow are the building blocks of Emanuel Satie’s musical DNA. They emanate from his being even as we sit on opposite sides of a video call. You can hear it in how he speaks and see it in how he carries himself. Those traits permeate every element of his sonic pallet, from his love of minimal techno to a relatable guilty pleasure for Drake.



It turns out this rhythm and flow were qualities passed from one generation to the next.



“My mom was a ballet dancer and she worked also with dance with kids… she was always dancing in the living room and doing her ballet movements there… I always loved that,” Emanuel shares. “And my father had a big record collection. So he had all these vinyls at home, a lot of like Stevie Wonder, a lot of soul music… I was discovering these records. I loved sitting there just going through them, looking at them, listening to them, reading the lyrics and all that stuff. And he was also playing the piano a little bit. I loved that as well. So it really came from my parents’ passion for music and dance.”

While the music inside his Frankfurt, Germany home consisted largely of golden era soul, ballet standards, and sporadic stints studying various instruments, Emanuel, like many adolescents of the 90s and 00s, first expanded his music pallet via radio and the burgeoning music television market. Through these external outlets, he discovered his first true passion—hip hop.



German hip hop truly captured his interest. Artists like Kool Savas not only made the genre more digestible and accessible, it made it more attainable.



“German hip hop got popular at that time as well. And so I was like, man, I think just rapping in English, I cannot do that. But all of a sudden there were guys in Germany, rapping in German, and they were quite successful. And I think, ‘let’s do that.’ I actually had a little rap career. I had my first performance when I was 13 years old in a bar,” he sheepishly remembers.



“It was a one-off show. I think I forced my classmates at that time to be in a band. I was actually writing the lyrics for the whole group. I remember that. I was writing the lyrics for everyone, the hooks and everything. I said, ‘You got to do this, you got to do that. We got this gig.’ Then I even got picked up by some older guys that were doing hip hop already, like properly recording stuff, they had a studio. And so I was hanging out with these older German wannabe gangsters, you know, and doing German gangster rap,” he laughs.



At fourteen, Emanuel received his first professional music opportunity. The group wanted the young performer to join them on tour, but Emanuel felt unready to take such an enormous leap.



“I told him… ‘I don’t want to tour, I don’t want to rap in front of people.’ And I was too shy. I was way too young… That wasn’t for me. So I quit the group and I got out of music. But…” he continues. “I remember I was extremely passionate about it. I was just always carrying this book with me writing lyrics every day and for that age I was extremely committed and super passionate about it.”



While his passion for music would find nominal expression for the next few years, an eighteen-year-old Satie would soon partake in a reinvigorating and life-changing experience—the inaugural club encounter.



“That spirit came back when I discovered dance music… And it was only when I started going out when I was 18, I was allowed in clubs and then I discovered house music… With house music, I kind of fell in love with the social aspect of it because it was such a great vibe. Everybody was in a good mood. There were no fights. There was not this macho culture or something. People were very cautious and nice to each other.”



While the omnipresent vibes of house music are enough to soften even the roughest exterior, the sonic elements that captured Emanuel’s interest were a bit deeper.



“That was really with minimal techno,” Satie fondly recalls. “When I was in this club and there was this music, I didn’t even know what it was. There were no melodies. It was super simple. And then this hi-hat would start at like two minutes in the break, in the track. And it was like this minimal change, you know? But it would give you so much more energy… That was very fascinating to me. And yeah, I have to say I really understood dance music at that point.”



Emanuel’s new passion was pure. A state champion competitive boxer at the time, Satie’s club experiences were uniquely unbiased by typical experience enhancers.



“Even when I was just a raver, I was obsessed with the music… I was going to these after hour clubs, completely sober because I was still an athlete. All my friends were hammered. Everybody was on drugs… I was the only person not even drinking, driving everybody home afterwards as well. And yeah, it was fast, but I loved the music so much that I had to be a part of this. And I stayed until 10 a.m., 11 a.m., and I’m completely sober.”



As many dance music fans know, it is a slippery slope down the rabbit hole when you find your launching point. And Emanuel was all in.



“I was already more interested in the music than most other people at parties. I was doing research which tracks are being played by whom. I was listening to sets and trying to find out all the names of the tracks that I liked and stuff. And was also going to record shops and just buying vinyl.”



Satie purchased so much vinyl that he attracted the attention of another record store goer who mistook Emanuel for a DJ. The man, named Gigo, offered to teach the ravenous young fan how to DJ, and the two began a long, fruitful relationship.



“For nine months in a row, every Saturday, we would go in his basement and I would just play for hours and hours on end, like eight hours just playing a set. All the friends were there, you know, we’re having a nice time… He also got me my first small gigs and stuff and put me under his wing… We also simultaneously… started to produce a bit. And, man, I mean, the beginnings for me were, I was a student, I was like, 19, I was broke. I didn’t have any money. So I bought like a €200 laptop at a German discount, and downloaded a cracked version of Ableton. I was just producing with the stock instruments it had. And I remember my laptop would break down every 20 to 30 minutes. It would get so hot. But I actually finished my first EP like this.”

He’s come a long way from those hours in Gigo’s basement. In the years following those weekly lessons, Emanuel Satie has continued to pour himself into his passion, exploring the nuances of life across a broad spectrum of sound. Club-filling tech house coincides with worldly organic offerings in a prolific library that includes releases on labels like Defected, Crosstown Rebels, Cocoon, Rebirth, and his collective label, Scenarios. He was named 2016’s Best Producer at the Ibiza DJ Awards and even became the Godfather of Gigo’s newborn.



Much has happened and continues for Emanuel Satie, but it is all intentional. While he may not have entered the dance music space with grand designs of being a DJ and producer, his zeal for the many facets of life and sonic experience have proven to be a steadfast North Star through the creative and the professional. Enlivened by his passions, one can’t help but be inspired as Emanuel Satie continues navigating the human journey with his mother’s flow and his father’s rhythm.





Emanuel Satie

There's something wonderfully unclassifiable about Born Dirty's (aka Mika if you're friendly) music. His innovative and broad soundscapes are a musical melange ranging from the Afro-Latin "Samba Sujo" to the warped techy bass of "Crizpy" and the brightly buoyant nu-disco-tinged "Key To Me." Maybe it's his multicultural background at play. He was born in Israel to an Israeli mother and French father, his maternal grandmother is Algerian, paternal is Tunisian. Mika grew up in London and Paris, and lives in LA. Maybe it stems from the multi-genre musical roadmap he traversed in his youth, bouncing from UK rave to the goth rock of Bauhaus and East Coast golden era hip hop. Whatever it is, his singular ability to inject his music with distinctive cultural footnotes has given dance music over a decade of music that never fails to elicit incredible WTF moments that keep us dancing.

As he traces his family tree from Hungary to Sicily, the Czech Republic, and Russia, he explains that multiculturalism is a part of his DNA. He's naturally inclined to put it all in a blender while equally paying homage. He even does this when he cooks, he adds.




"In my music, if you dissect it, you might be able to hear that. My background with North Africa. Middle Eastern, for the rhythms and percussion. And then, the UK just has imprinted on me very heavily," Mika explains.




Music has always been omnipresent in Mika's life, and despite not having traditional instruments at home, his dad, who had played drums and guitar, found fun ways for the kids to make some noise.




"He would always get the pots and pans from the kitchen. We wouldn't be able to have drums, so it was just like, wooden spoons and then pots and pans. My dad's got rhythm! You can see he's a musician. He's never exploited that, because he couldn't because [of] life and choices. But I grew up in this environment where I had a dad that really was musical."

When Mika was 13, his sister's boyfriend gave him a guitar, opening a window to his raw, unfiltered talent for music. His room quickly filled with instruments and the sound of cover versions of his favorite songs. He wasn't great at school, but "I knew that I was good at music straight away. The path was super clear to me. That's all I wanted to do. I would go to bed and dream [of playing] in front of thousands of people."


In Indian religions, dharma gives an object its purpose, or as Mika explains, "The dharma is your path. It's what you're born to do. So, I know that's my dharma."




As his purpose became more evident, he was running with a group of youngsters who introduced him to underground raves and electronic music. He spent nights calling info lines from pay phones and hitting up map points that led to abandoned warehouses and distant forest clearings. He could feel his molecules rearranging to accept this new world of radically revolutionary music as he rolled up to these covert functions. And while the chase of the party was incredible, Mika always kept one foot in and one foot out.




"I was always making music, always playing instruments, always playing in bands, always singing—playing drums in one band, playing guitar in another, playing bass in another. Everyone at one point, you know, they didn't really like me, in a sense, because I was running thin. I wasn't really dedicated to anything in particular. But looking back, I've learned so much from that. When I moved to London, is really when I started to make electronic music."

Living on a meager salary, Mika devoted himself to creating. His first dance music projects were a mishmash of indie grunge vocals and hip-hop beats. He then took on the moniker Son Of Kick, a progenitor of early bass music and breaks. It was a creatively liberating time. He tells me that the music just flowed out of him. It was the first time he began to experience success, and he signed tracks to UK breaks stalwart Botchit & Scraper, SMOG, Buygore, and started his label Way Way Records.




The UK didn't embrace his music as much as US audiences did. And while he got the chance to tour in The States, he felt like it wasn't working. Crowds were more narrow-minded, and anytime he stepped out of "his lane" and maybe played something with a 4/4 beat, he got side-eyed.




"Eventually, I was like, fuck this man. I really didn't want to be in that scene anymore. Because I was like, 'This is so closed-minded.' I'm just going to start moving on, and I met Linden. And we started making music together."

Born Dirty was originally a collaborative project with Londoner Linden Jay. The music they made together was equally left of center. Their off-kilter beats made sense in a world where house music was shifting. Early heaters like "Misbehave," "Blind When I Dance," and "Daddy" carried a sound that was unique, percussive, and just a little bit dusty in the right way.



Mika always felt like he was just a bit ahead of the curve. It's something that's always been a tenant of his music. Case and point, his recent release, "So Big" on Thrive Records, is pulled chiefly from a track he wrote seven years ago.


"I just make music. I just jam and have a good time making things. I've been really shit at being on time." His way of explaining how he is ahead of the curve is wonderfully poetic and reflexive. "I don't have a good time making music that is for the purpose of being current."

Being naturally forward-thinking arises from his ability to contextualize his myriad influences. As Latin and Afro house continue to become even more everpresent, he's quick to point out that not only is this not a new phenomenon—Latin house goes back to the origins of dance music—it's also something that's forever been a part of his sonic DNA. And as he looks forward to broader musical horizons, he wants to create more diverse musical moments.




In late 2022 he posted a clip of him singing a cover of Low's "When I Go Deaf." Seeing Mika passionately belt something more indie-slanted surprised his thousands of followers. Knowing what I know now, however, it was more of a full-circle moment. The gentle glimpse into the world of his side project, Rose Ryot, was yet another signal of his immense talent, passion, and how one can make a career of peacefully driving down a musical highway with no lanes.
























Born Dirty

Growing up in the northern Italian city of Turin, Yassin Ligali Ali (also known as Yaya) is one of the brightest names in the world of minimal techno, afro house, and deep tech house. He began DJing at 17 and was soon discovered by legend Loco Dice who signed one of Yaya’s first records.




Coming up in a city rich with electronic culture would have been enough for most people to find a passion in the industry. Yaya, however, received a double dose, with his father playing a massive role in his musical upbringing.




“From my father, I learned so much about passion, rhythm, and grooves from his African heritage…My father was the lead singer of a group called M’Bamina. They were playing afro funk and afrobeat music… From when I was young, there were so many friends of my father at home, they were always around playing music, listening to vinyl. The house was always full of records and when I was super young there was just always music around me. It helped me a lot to discover an identity around music. I still have so many records from my father that inspire me today.”




When Yaya was 12, he started attending a club near his house in Turin every Monday afternoon. It was a techno/house party and love at first sight (or listen) for Yaya. Five years later, he began DJing and immediately spent summer after summer in the electronic Meca, Ibiza. The island has shaped and created many careers over the years, and Yaya’s experience was no different. There was a record store near his house and a plethora of clubs that helped him discover a breadth of music.









“I started producing music when I was 18 years old. My breakthrough was the record ‘Vecute’ in 2009. That was my first release on a bigger label. During that time period I was in Ibiza, I had a few CDs with my name and number on it, I went to Amnesia to see Loco Dice and Marco Carola. I gave Dice my music and he called me a few weeks later asking if he could release the tracks on his label. We went back and forth a bit and then eventually met up in person and began to work together. This was in 2008 and the record came out in 2009.”









Yaya returned to Ibiza for the next 14 seasons in a row. They were some of the best years of his life and it was a time he looks back upon fondly. Although he is by no means done with the island, as his profile has risen, he can no longer spend the entire season navigating the many pleasures of the island.




About seven years into his dance music journey, as his career and standing in the industry began to ascend, Yaya decided to found a label. Tamango Records isn’t just a home for his stunning dancefloor heaters. It’s a tastemaker in deep tech and minimal boasting releases from Luuk Van Dijk, Fleur Shore, Mason Collective, and Manda Moor.




“I started the label in 2016. I was wanting to start a label for a while but had to wait for the right moment. I began to collect my music, holding it back. I started to produce music just with the intention of releasing it on my label. I was also working on the team, you cannot just open a label by yourself. At the beginning the label was only vinyl but I began to release it on digital as well in order to maintain the consistent output.”









Being a label owner introduced new, unique challenges. As the lead curator for his label, he must consistently choose the right music. Although it sounds obvious, it’s not easy. He constantly receives unreleased music, and often finds himself playing out a track repeatedly, falling in love with it only to realize that just because it works in his sets, it doesn’t mean it works on his label.




Despite the personal responsibility he feels, Tamango has always been a team effort. Yaya relies on his team to help him stay true to the sound while creating unique vinyl and promo efforts. For Yaya, Tamango is about aligning with his sound, which ultimately is focused on creating happiness.









“When I play, I like to see people happy. I watch their faces and when they’re happy, I’m happy. My sound is about creating happiness.”




As Yaya has found himself living his dream life, he sometimes needs to step back and reflect on all he has accomplished.




“When you have goals and they start to come to fruition, it’s an incredible experience. I wanted to play all over the world, and I am. I wanted to start a label and I did it. This year I wanted to focus on building out events around the label. We did a tour around Tamango in South America and we are trying to continue to build off that momentum.”















Yaya

For Detroit-based, Grand Rapids-born neo-American techno producer Henry Brooks, techno music exists on a vast kaleidoscopic spectrum of differing sounds and speeds.




“There are many different styles of techno that elicit different feelings and responses, make you move in different ways,” says Brooks. Although he veers toward a particularly upbeat, cacophonic style of techno, Brooks’s guiding principle is that “whether it’s banging 155 BPM industrial techno or really slow, tripped out, spacey techno, the core of all styles of techno should be pushing towards innovation and the future.”




The central focus of Brooks’s version of neo-American techno?




“Experimentation, futurism, and breaking free from the status quo.”




After receiving multiple co-signs from Charlotte de Witte and getting booked by Richie Hawtin for the North American techno patriarch’s From Our Minds tour, it’s clear that Brooks is a central artist in the evolving techno scenes across North America.




We sat down with Brooks for a conversation about his emerging style of techno, his ongoing rise in the Detroit music scene, and his current place in the broader North American techno scene.






Can you start by telling us a bit about your sound?




I predominantly play hard, fast industrial techno, schranz, and hardgroove techno, which ranges from 140 bpm to 160 bpm and is more popular in Europe and other countries.




Hard industrial techno and schranz are all about controlled distortion. You can have a track that is very distorted yet at the same time sounds very clean and polished. Rebekah, Wallis, and Endlec are a few such producers that come to mind.




In addition to the more current industrial and hard techno stuff I’ve been making, I’ve also been trying to experiment with adding guitars. I’ve been using VSTs that sound really close to the actual thing. I’ve been doing that and collaborating with metal vocalists. I’ve been trying to experiment and build on that in the realm of techno, to combine techno and metal. I really enjoy experimenting and bridging genres with those sounds.




Looking back, can you talk about the music you grew up with in Grand Rapids, Michigan?


I grew up on metalcore, post-hardcore, and hardcore music. That’s what I listened to growing up until I was 15 years old. When I was 15, I got into drum and bass, [and] commercial big room house — artists like Calvin Harris. I came across commercial EDM, got involved in that world, and kept on digging and diving.




Eventually, I came across house music. The first actual house artists were Kenny Dope, Josh Butler, Moodyman, stuff like that. I got really involved in that scene. I started coming down from Grand Rapids to Detroit when I was still in high school. After I got out of high school, I started coming down almost every weekend just to go out. That’s when I got involved in the techno scene.





How did you first become acquainted with the grand tapestry of Detroit techno?




After high school in 2015, I was already invested in the music, but I hadn’t gone down to Detroit a lot. I did some research and saw there was a big scene in Detroit, so I went down there one weekend. The first proper underground Detroit show I went to was at The Works, it was a Blank Code party. RIP to that venue! They were playing techno, and I hadn’t listened to that style of techno before. It was eye-opening. Harder, more percussive. Different than house.




After about a year, I decided that I wanted to start DJing — I felt called to do that. I had a friend who helped me out, and after I played a couple times, she was like, ‘ok, I’m going to give you a month to practice, and I’m gonna book you for one of my events.’ My first show was at the Grasshopper Underground, and that’s where I got my start. There, The Works, and Grenadier. Those are the three venues I got my start as a DJ.


Who were some of the people in the Detroit scene that drove you to become the DJ and producer you are today?



Dezi Magby [of Detroit Techno Militia] is a local. He’s seen me since the very beginning of my career as an artist, seen my whole path. From the get-go, he told me, “I know you’re gonna make it, and I can see you getting bigger and blowing up.” I really appreciated having that support at the beginning, because I was still getting into the scene and had a lot to learn and experiences to go through.




Alan Oldham, I’ve known him for a shorter period of time, but he has been a supporter of me as well. He now lives in Berlin but is a born and bred Detroit DJ. He’s a great example of a Detroit artist that’s stayed true to himself throughout his journey. Both of these guys have given me some great advice.













What about the genesis of your Detroit-based event and party series Anatomy?



I started [Anatomy] because I noticed a lack of hard techno in Detroit—the 140 [bpm] and up, really fast bangin’ industrial [techno]. I wanted to create a space for that and have more artists come through — build a community in Detroit of people who want to hear those sounds.










How did you first link up with Barbosa and other key neo-American techno artists?



With Barbosa, my friend Alley Kay from Windsor — she’s been involved in the scene in Detroit a lot, and so she actually reached out to me a few years ago and introduced me to Barbosa, who was interested in not only booking me, but doing shows in Detroit and collabing. We got linked up, and my first show I did that I played with him was in Calgary. It was a Heist Mode party, so he brought me out for that, and I closed. We kept discussing plans with events, and I’d also signed to his label in May.




So when me and Roman, [aka Barbosa], [scheduled] the party we did in November, we both picked about half the lineup representing the next generation of North American artists. We picked some important people that are pushing certain styles. We brought out Selective Response, Decoder, Jay York, Declan James, my friend Lorely Mur, and my other friend Venus, who’s a local in Detroit. So we got everyone combined and wanted to make a really pure party.
















In addition to building the North American scene alongside artists such as Barbosa and Selective Response, you’ve had huge co-signs of your own with internationally renowned artists like Charlotte de Witte and Richie Hawtin. How’d you link up with those two?



In October of 2021, Paxahau, the local promoters in the city who put on Movement — put together a Halloween party with Charlotte de Witte and Chris Liebing, and asked me to play. Of course, I took the opportunity! After that event, I got acquainted with [de Witte’s] team. A week after that show, I got an email from Charlotte’s managers asking me to come out and play their KNTXT event in Miami. So I did that in December for Art Basel weekend. It was great! From there I got more acquainted with her whole team. They also invited me out to LA for another KNTXT party last May. [De Witte’s] a really sweet human being! It’s great to see that some of the artists at the top are still genuine people.










And what about Richie Hawtin?


Barbosa is friends with Richie. Rich has been playing [Barbosa’s] music for a while. So when they started putting together the whole [From Our Minds Tour] lineup, I got a call and was asked to join and be a part of the tour. Of course, I said yes! I thought it’d be a great experience.










How do you see the sounds and scenes of American techno evolving today?

Overall, techno is growing for sure in the US, and it’s going to keep picking up. The scenes that cater to [my] style of techno are already much more established in Europe. I’ve noticed it’s been growing in the US. There’s a growing demand for harder and faster techno artists. So I’ve been seeing more and more of those artists from Europe coming over — mainly in LA, New York, and Atlanta. They’re booking a lot of people from overseas who play that style. Which is great, cause it’ll only build the scene in the US.










What closing thoughts do you have about the broader North American techno scene?


I’m hoping that it doesn’t get too big that it becomes watered-down and too commercial. Gotta find the right balance of educating and getting people involved in the scene so they can understand the roots of where things began and where it started.




Respect and an understanding of that will help keep things in a good place overall.










































Henry Brooks

Ky William has an easy-going confidence about him. As a successful DJ, producer, label owner, and production teacher, he always has something going on. But despite having a packed schedule and mounting fame, he still seems relaxed and excited.




“I think having patience and discipline to not take everything that comes your way is important,” he says. “It all goes back to me wanting to be like, ‘I’m super pumped; let’s push super hard!’”






When we chat over a video call, he’s at home in Brooklyn, between shows for his first headlining tour. Until recently, this hometown hero has played most of his shows in NYC. Now as he preps for his next stop in Vancouver, he starts getting excited.




“You can only really tell so much from social media and streaming numbers, and it doesn’t really hit you until people come up to you like, ‘hey, listen to your music all the time. I really like what you’re doing!’ I’ve had some great success, but to actually see that in person is such a different feeling.”




Lately, Ky has been juggling weekend tour sets between music production, admin work for his label, and teaching classes about production and sound design. Mondays are his days off. It’s a steady schedule, one that keeps Ky focused and inspired.




With music underpinned by deep grooves and killer beats, Ky has built a reputation as one of New York’s premier selectors and most promising music producers. His expertly crafted blend of UK tech and deep house has earned him support and play time alongside industry titans Jamie Jones, Loco Dice, The Martinez Brothers, and Danny Tenaglia. If Ky seems to have a strong vision, it’s because he’s had years to refine it.




While growing up in the rich cultures of Brooklyn, Ky started DJing local weddings and bar mitzvahs with the guidance of a family friend when he was 12. Once in college, he moved up to playing local fraternity parties and bar nights. He eventually worked his way up to a monthly residency in Atlantic City. This steady growth allowed Ky to take time with his sets, fall in love with dance music, and learn the tricks of being a grade-A DJ and selector.




“I think you should be prepared to play a room at any time, no matter what it is,” he says. “Educate yourself on the music, go to the events, make yourself aware of what’s going on, and see how people are playing and how the crowd reacts. I think that’s something that really helps people understand what this is all about. It’s not only being an artist but also being part of the community.”




After spending years behind the decks, Ky decided to start producing. One night, after an Anjunadeep showcase at the Brooklyn Mirage lit a spark in him, he went home, bought Ableton, and stayed up all night making music.






With a love for deep, groovy sounds, Ky brings an emotive undercurrent to his songs, something beneath the surface that you can’t quite pin down. It’s allusive, but it makes the music that much more compelling. His songs carry a solid structure, a 4x4 beat with rock-steady high hats, but he adds innovative, interesting flourishes, like the glitchy hops in his first single, “Rabbit Hole.”




Ky is a music lover and a dance fan, so he understands what fans need on the dancefloor. He’s producing with them in mind, trying to connect with them. As a DJ first and producer second, he knows his strengths and weaknesses in the production booth.




“People who are DJs first typically understand how a dance record should be arranged and made. However, I think it also limits their creative side,” he says. “I’ve been trying to teach myself to let go of some of those rules.”






Shortly after he started producing, Ky acquired a record label. When he met fellow Brooklyn producer Ramsey Neville during the COVID-19 lockdowns, he joined him in running the freshly created Andhera Records. At the time, Ky only had one record out. But he knew good music, and he had a passion for learning. Before long, he was running the label on his own.




“I just want to put out good music that I honestly believe in, and more importantly, with artists that I resonate with and get along with,” Ky says. “I also think it’s important for labels to keep their sound evolving. It’s good for the culture, in general, to pump new ideas and inspiration into other artists that are listening.”




Ky William loves dance music and the culture behind it. And in his eyes, the more accessible we can make production and performance tools, the better. He’s even begun hosting his own workshops on production, DJing, and A&R around Brooklyn, aiming to support blooming creators.




“What really excites me is that it’s so much easier for people to get involved,” he says. “You don’t really need anybody besides yourself anymore. There’s so much good technology. There are a lot of successful people out there who are all self-made and never worked with a record label. They do it all themselves.”




But make no mistake, Ky knows that this isn’t for everyone. Success in the music industry means dedication, perseverance, and most importantly, passion.




“I think the strong always prevail and the ones who are in it for the wrong reasons will get weeded out eventually. But just be consistent. Stay dedicated. If you’re consistent enough and you believe in what you do. you’ll be fine.”
































































































Ky William

Despite being a relative newcomer to the dance music scene, the accomplishments of Azzecca are lengthy and a sign of a star in the making.

Her small but mighty catalog includes releases with Diplo's Higher Ground and Gorgon City's Realm—just a sample of the many high-profile artists supporting Azzecca. Her DJ sets are known to defy genre, and her prolific ability behind the decks has allowed her to share the stage with a diverse range of artists, from Tale of Us to Jamie Jones and everyone in between.



It might be hard to believe that someone who so recently began a career in music has found so much success. Yet, there are many factors as to why Azzecca has found the transition from interior design to DJing to be relatively seamless.

"I feel like my entire childhood has a soundtrack from both my parents," she explains with a smile about her musical upbringing. "My dad was super into classic rock and so I grew up listening to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Bob Seger. My mom was super into the whole synth-pop era, Eurythmics or Blondie and that really feminine fun dance music back then. I've got an older brother and he was really into hard rock music. Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead… So I've just been listening to all different types of music my whole life."



In addition to the influences of her family, Azzecca discovered electronic rock at a young age which ultimately began her eventual turn to house. Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails gave way to dubstep, followed by big room, and eventually mainstage dance music. A natural instrumentalist, she played a variety of instruments throughout her childhood. After moving to Chicago from the suburbs of Illinois she dove deeper into house music.



"I started digging into the history of house music and where it started here in Chicago, but also the roots of it in the UK. I found that house music is what really stuck with me. Then from there, I moved into techno and now, I'm in this sweet spot between house and techno where there's a never-ending amount of music for me to listen to. When I moved back to Chicago, I just immediately dove into the house scene. My entire life just started revolving around dance music and Chicago, and learning all about the roots of house music in Chicago, and going to see Derrick Carter at Queen as much as I possibly could. I'm so happy that I live here and it's really shaped who I am as an artist in a lot of ways."



With that inspiration as a backbone, she eventually began to work on producing and, luckily, had a more than competent mentor at home. Azzecca's husband, Kye Gibbon, is a prolific producer, sound engineer, and one-half of Gorgon City. He was able to provide advice and instruction to help her translate her ideas.



"I was just sitting in the studio with him all day every day, and I would give him my idea as I play some guitar. I'd play some chords and as time went on it was more like 'okay, these are really sick ideas, but I can't use these because they don't fit with my music.' And so he basically said to me one day, 'you really need to try and do this yourself.' So then I did and I just worked and worked and worked until something came together that I felt proud of. That's when I started working on actually making tracks myself, and my first song that I got signed was with Higher Ground… that was a song that I actually just made with no intention of ever releasing. I didn't think I ever wanted to release my own music."



Although it might sound obvious, the concept of making music to play in her sets ultimately helped Azzecca break through. Her edits and originals began circulating amongst known DJs, with their club-ready energy appealing to acts like Diplo. After he began supporting, all Azzecca had to do was send her demos to Higher Ground, and the rest was history. Her efforts to make DJ set-friendly music and her unique musical background ultimately led Azzecca to become known for diverse, genre-switching, high-energy DJ sets.



"I don't stick to one genre. I like going left and right, up and down. I'm doing heavy things into really light things. That's what I always like to listen to, So I want to take people on a journey through a bunch of different emotions and feelings in my set."



As her journey into stardom began, Azzecca also focused on creating safe spaces for women to enjoy nightclubs. When COVID happened, she paused everything and felt the need to reassess her career. During this time, she not only decided to pursue DJing and music production, but also
discussed with female peers the increasing difficulty and discomfort they experienced in nightclubs. She sought to take action, starting Dirty Disco, a fem-friendly nightclub experience.

"I started Dirty Disco in an effort to just create a more female friendly night. A more inclusive night where everyone can come and know no one's going to put up with B.S. There's not going to be a bunch of creepy guys here because they know not to bother coming because we're all on the lookout for it. It also gave me an opportunity to design spaces, so every party we throw I design myself. I'm in there hanging flowers, and hanging disco balls for the party. It's an opportunity for me to bring all of these things that I love together, and to also build a community in Chicago that all revolves around music."



For most artists, releasing on Diplo's label, playing major shows, and founding a blossoming party brand in Chicago would be considered career achievements. For Azzecca, this is simply the beginning. Her future is limitless, and her excitement for her career is only matched by her excitement for the future of dance music.



"People are really open to discovering new sounds which gives people who are making music more creative freedom. You don't have to pigeonhole yourself, I'm going to make tech house or I'm going to make techno. I want to experiment with sounds like breakbeat, or Drum & Bass. There is now a whole new pool of people that are interested in those sounds and discovering them which is so exciting."


Azzecca

If you’re on the prowl for dynamic music curated by an artist who intrepidly incorporates nouveau elements into their work, then you’re in luck - we’ve got a perfect talent. His name rolls off your tongue, his energy propels you to vibe with him, the flow he unleashes sets your feet in motion, and his music makes you want to look over at your friend and mouth to them, “that was mental.” Rossi’s name is as catchy as his groove.




Minimal house is a subgenre where it’s debatably easy to clip into repetition and fall on tired tropes. Yet, Rossi is adept at weaving together carefully crafted components to make his sound distinct. He has us hooked—whether through his clever use of intricate layers, basslines, minor changes in synths, or tasty drum switches.

Rossi is one of the genre’s few leading names who maintains his singularity and stays ahead of the curve. He says that’s partly due to his philosophy on writing music.




“Use the memory of a moment. There’s a track I have called “In Village.” I based the whole song off a set I saw of Rich NxT, in Village Underground at Fuse.” he says. “I went home that night, straight after the set, and used all the feelings I had of the basslines he was using, all the drums, and put it all into a track. It became one of my best tracks.”




Rossi insists that storytelling is paramount in his process. Encountering new people, exploring unfamiliar locales, discovering novel experiences, and immersing himself in diverse cultures have all been flashpoints for the stories he weaves into his music.

Performance has long been a part of Rossi’s life. From age eight to 19, he was an actor. “I starred in musicals in the Westend in London, I was in Mary Poppins, Les Misérables, Oliver Twist, at a professional level at a young age. The DJing started coming in when I found myself unemployed as an actor,” he remembers. “I was always the kid with loads of tunes, and I think from being in musical theater, I got a love for music in that sense.” Rossi made an impressive transition from one highly competitive and cutthroat performance career to another.



Rossi’s early career set the tone for his go-getter personality. Every goal he set for himself, he made happen. After checking playing a set in public off his list, a friend told him about producing, leading him to hop on Ableton and make a track that got released.




“I never planned to be DJ, which is probably why I ended up doing it because I think if you do the things you love, you will usually start to become somewhat successful in it and you never work a day in your life in the end,” he says. He was still a teenager when Jamie Jones rinsed one of his tunes at Kappa Futur Festival in Italy, and then things began to snowball.

During his first two years, he quickly established himself in the London club scene, performing regularly at venues like Ministry of Sound, Cargo, Lightbox, and Basing House. In 2019, he had two releases, "Paradise" and "kerithym," roar to number one on Beatport’s minimal and deep tech charts in two months. One year later, Checkpoint spurred DJ Mag tagged him in their Artists to Watch for 2020. Along the way, he released with tastemaking labels like FUSE, No Art, and Eastenderz.



In 2022 his wicked four-track Welcome EP, released on his Homegrown imprint, left the minimal house community awestruck and pressing the replay button. His label was yet another way Rossi used narrative to convey a message.




Initially, Homegrown was a radio show featuring Rossi and friends playing DJ mixes. Rossi was keen on the idea that an artist’s music was a product of their environment, and he made their story a part of introducing their mix. The need to dive deep into every artist’s story shaped the homegrown ethos of his record label.

“I didn’t want to limit it to one style on the show, I was obsessed with the idea of listening to people’s influences, and how they make music, everything they listen to, the food they eat, the television they watch, all those things add up to who you are as an artist, whether you realize it or not.”




He shared via Homegrown’s Instagram page that choosing to start a label was part of his overarching narrative. “I’ve started to learn about cultures and how people work, I’m obsessed with the world in that sense, and that’s why I love my job because I get to travel the world and see it as a worldwide experiment, I’m fascinated by people and I think that’s why I wanted to be an actor. It makes it a personal thing if you call it Homegrown because it’s about that person and what impression they want to make on you.”

Given Rossi’s affinity for storytelling, we inquired about the artwork for his Welcome EP. He and his friends brainstormed an idea that would complement the EP’s lead track, “DJ LOVER,” resulting in a drawing of a charming DJ surrounded by hearts, with a girl gazing at him in adoration. Hence the artwork featuring cartoon hearts scattered around the cigar-smoking DJ, giving the image a playful, whimsical vibe. Following that theme, Rossi recently released his follow-up EP, I’ve Been Waiting. It features more melodic elements and highlights Rossi’s growth and maturity in his sound. The artwork features a woman sitting with a deck of cards in her hands, her solemn longing gaze fixed on the door. Upon closer inspection, you can spot the character from the Welcome EP featured on the cards in her hand. The connection is understated but striking, providing a subtle yet powerful nod to the EP’s theme. 




I’ve Been Waiting also has a vinyl edition made using an eco-mix. Each record is sustainably manufactured using materials from recycled discs. The unique process means that each record also stands as a unique piece of art, a one-of-one, kind of like Rossi’s sound and personality.






Rossi

Justin Marchacos is one of the most exciting upcoming house and techno artists out of New York City. With roots originating in film, the triple threat composer, producer, and performer's unorthodox journey into dance music led him from composing music for award-winning independent films to becoming a resident of the premiere dance music events outfit, Cityfox and dropping dark, driving and beautifully cinematic releases on Desert Hearts Black and Sven Väth's Cocoon.

For many years Justin composed ambient soundtracks for award-winning documentaries and films. Not your average 9-5, he explained that it wasn't even something he studied in a formal setting. Despite taking piano lessons as a kid, which he hated, and writing intricate string and orchestral arrangements for film, he doesn't remember how to read music. All of his success is due to an incredible ear. In middle school, the self-taught multi-instrumentalist learned to play the guitar, drums, and bass.



Despite a flourishing career in the film industry, electronic music had always captured his interest. At first, it was under the guise of hip-hop, which shares a historical link to dance music and many of the same production techniques. He produced, aside his principal work, as a hobby. He says that the hip-hop scene was thick in his hometown of Denver, Colorado, and as a dancer and graffiti artist, he was embedded.

It wasn't until one night when he saw one of his heroes, DJ Premier, that his life would change forever. For those unfamiliar, DJ Premier is one of the most influential producers in hip hop. He was a part of the foundational Gang Starr duo with Guru, and his repertoire includes hits for Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G, Nas, and many more.



After the show, Justin went on stage to talk to Premiere. At the time, Marchacos was considering moving to New York to become a hip-hop producer.



'"Hey man, I'm a really big fan. Can I ask you a question? If you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be?" Justin remembers asking the hip-hop icon.



Premier responded, "You make music you think that I would like. You make music that you think I would actually like and play. And you don't settle for anything less."



It forced Justin to reconsider his direction. "So I had to be honest with myself, would DJ Premier like this? No, he wouldn't like this. I keep what he said in the back of my head, so whoever my favorite producers/DJs were at the time, I kept in mind what he said."



It took over a decade following that night for Justin to finally get his music to a level where record labels would consider releasing it. First, he had an EP signed to Cityfox. Then they asked him to perform a live set on New Year's Eve of 2014.



He had never performed anywhere, not even a house party. Justin prepped his set for months. Then, the day before the show, as Justin ate lunch in his neighborhood, he saw DJ Premier sitting across from him at the restaurant. Unable to deny the work of fate, Justin walked over to speak to him.



He told Premiere the story, explaining how impactful that night had been. "If it wasn't for that advice you gave me," he said, "I wouldn't be where I am today." They exchanged phone numbers, became great friends, and now their studios are a few blocks apart.



The CityFox New Year's live performance proved to Justin that performing was where his heart lay. He played for over 2000 people and absolutely loved it. He realized that moving forward, performing was where he would direct his energy.



"It's great seeing films with your music in, but it's much more fun performing to a live audience," Justin told Gray Area.

Asking any successful individual who their influences are, provides some interesting, sometimes surprising, answers. So when I asked Justin about this, he hesitated.

"I always have a tough time answering this question. I listen to all kinds of stuff. So I honestly don't have an answer to who is my biggest influence."

I rephrased, and instead asked what his biggest driving force to create is.

"Performing for sure. A lot of people were making a lot of productions during the pandemic, but I lost all my motivation during that time because I couldn't imagine performing. If I can't imagine the space of performing then I have a hard time creating. I love communicating with people through my music. I'm not a DJ at all, every bit of music I play and perform is all my own, every single drum sound, every single thing. While there are a lot of live sets like mine that are really freestyled with a lot of machines. I actually prepare pretty much the entire thing from start to finish and practice it and create a real story from start to finish. I've got it planned out. I enjoy watching everyone get involved in my story and me going on the same journey too," he explains emphatically.



"I'm making music that's my favorite music. I want to make music that I enjoy more than anything else, otherwise what am I doing? When I play I'm drenched in sweat. I move like crazy. I never play the same way twice. I always create and prepare a brand new thing every time. I love going on a journey and communicating with people without saying a word. I sometimes have a hard time talking to people for an hour after I play, because for so long I was communicating in this other language."

Justin's performance style is certainly unique, and this seems to originate not only from his innate creativity but simultaneously his career in composition.



"It's impossible to separate them. It took me longer to pull some of that cinematic stuff out of my music. I had a period of time where there was too much of this cinematic, moody stuff with big breakdowns and epic sections where it was just too much. I had to figure out how to strip it back and under-compose. But 100% both are a part of me forever."

After such an impressive and eclectic career thus far, Justin is excited to look toward the future.

"I wanna keep pushing the envelope of boldness. Big and bold memorable tracks that stand the test of time, that aren't too trendy. There's a lot of trends in music that everyone gets drawn to but I think you've gotta be careful of that."

So watch out for this New York powerhouse gracing a stage near you. It is only just the beginning for Justin Marchacos.



Justin Marchacos

Between a fabric residency, US tours, and the launch of his Midnight Parade label, Jaden Thompson has covered a lot of ground for a 20-something house music DJ and producer. To be fair, though, he had a head start.



The Swindon-born, Manchester-based artist started learning to produce music at only 11 years old. “I’ve always been interested in music since I was very young, and that sort of just came from listening to all sorts of soul music, funk, R&B, hop-hop,” he tells Gray Area. “And then I slowly became interested in making music.”



His first exposure to production came courtesy of Timbaland’s Playstation Portable game called Beaterator. “I was making beats, putting together loops and trying to make hip-hop/R&B,” he says. “And then I slowly got into house through YouTube, Boiler Room, that sort of stuff, and then got more involved.”



It’s true: Jaden Thompson set his sights on house music before he was old enough to set foot in a club. When, at last, he was able to experience dance music in its proper setting, he got his first taste at the Warehouse Project in Manchester.



Jaden was only 16 or 17 when he got to see Seth Troxler and The Martinez Brothers perform at Store Street, considered by many to be the spiritual home of the Warehouse Project series. Around the same time, he delivered his debut release, the All Day EP, via Cuttin’ Headz. Stripped-back and to the point, each track on the effort reflected an innocence reminiscent of early Chicago house records.



Not long afterwards, Jaden’s parents took him to see Seth play once again at nightlife destination DC10 during their family trip to Ibiza. It just so happened that Seth’s parents were present as well. The two made a strong connection, and Seth continues to play a key role in Jaden’s career to this day.



“He's like a mentor, and a friend to me as well,” Jaden says. “He’s just been very supportive of my career. I feel like he’s very much trying to help push forward the young dance music scene, not just myself but other artists.”

Jaden Thompson landed his first gig at the Bay Bar Beach Club in San Antonio, Ibiza, and then he played one-off sets in Newcastle and Nottingham. After racking up releases on labels like New State Music and Material Trax, he turned a major corner in his career. At only 20 years old, he became a resident DJ of world-famous London club fabric.



“It was around the time when they were looking for new Friday night residents,” Jaden recalls. “And Ellis Coles, who's actually now my one of my managers, he works for fabric. He approached me about becoming a resident, and this was actually before he started managing me. It was such an amazing honor, and I was very shocked, as well, to get it so early on in my career.”



Jaden credits his fabric residency as teaching him how to hold a crowd’s interest once he’s caught their attention. He says, “Creating the vibe is one thing, but actually maintaining it and keeping the crowd entertained for hours is another, especially when you only play like an hour and a half to two hours, which is what I was used to.”





When the COVID crisis put nightlife on hold, Jaden Thompson shifted his focus back to his first love, music production. His single “Closer” landed on Three Six Zero Recordings, and “Only One” arrived by way of Kitsuné Musique.



Then, shortly after nightlife resumed, Jaden made a power move. He launched his artist imprint Midnight Parade with “Move Your Body,” a single he said was influenced by the likes of Kerri Chandler, Derrick Carter, and Omar S.



“Starting my own label was something I've been wanting to do for a long time; I was sort of debating for a while whether it was the right time to start it,” Jaden recalls. “And I just thought you know, there's never really a wrong time to start it.”



On the contrary — his timing couldn’t have been better. In October of the following year, Jaden Thompson embarked on his first of many US tours. From Spybar Chicago to Art Basel in Miami, Stateside dance music fans welcomed his distinctive sound signature with open arms.



Jaden says US crowds can be quite different from those of the UK. “In some areas, they’re more switched on and aware of the underground scene, not just the more commercial side,” he says. “But certain places, like Miami and New York, are among my favorite places that I’ve been able to play.”

But perhaps one of the biggest full-circle moments in Jaden Thompson’s career came when he got to play back to back with his mentor, Seth Troxler, in fabric for nine whole hours in 2022. “It was incredible,” he recounts. “One of my favorite nights.”



Having come such a long way by his mid-20s, is Jaden ready to rest on his laurels and ride into the sunset? Not even close. He’s only at the start of his journey, with bigger and better things lying out on the horizon ahead.

Jaden Thompson

"What's in a name?" Shakespeare's tragic heroine, Juliet Capulet, posits. She may have implied that names are irrelevant, nothing but a convention with no meaning, yet how artists present themselves through a moniker makes all the difference. As an artist matures in step with their sound, how they communicate a clearly defined image and convey how they feel about themselves also changes.



It may seem that the well-refined maturity and grace that Seattle-born DJ and producer duo Max Low present in their music, stage presence, and aesthetic came in short order. That is if you only base your opinions on the age of their socials. However, the explosive growth that Jamie and Kiralleigh have experienced, including releases with hau5trap, In/Rotation, Farris Wheel, and gigs crisscrossing the US from New York to Chicago and back, wasn't born overnight. And their journey from fun-loving club kids to fledgling female duo No Pants Party to emerging industry mavens is a story that parallels the trajectory of modern dance music.

Jamie and Kieraleigh met while working at the Seattle arm of an international retail clothing store. They were 21 and 18, respectively, and immediately knew they'd be a force together. Making music wasn't exactly on their minds immediately, though.



They both grew up immersed in music. Jamie in ballet, giving a clue to her innate rhythmic inclination. And Kira—in the most Seattle way—recording clips of grunge songs off the radio on cassette tapes and then singing in high school choir, though she admits, "that hardly counts. I think they just put me there."



"The first time I met Kira, she was only eighteen, and I had just turned twenty-one," Jamie says. "We were very young, and she told me some story about how she'd gone camping over the weekend and drank a twelve-pack of Corona, And I was like 'What is wrong with you? How did you do that? We're going to be best friends. I Like this girl.'"



Jamie's newfound interest in dance music led the pair to explore Seattle's burgeoning scene. Tucked away in the furthest reaches of the North West, Seattle's community of ravers was smaller and more underground than Vancouver to the north and San Francisco to the (distant) south. It was the late aughts, and dance music had yet to rise to the prominence it now experiences.

"We saw Steve Aoki, and there was like thirty people there. I think [that was] one of our first Seattle shows," Kiraleigh remembers.



"We would go out to dance music nights, but it was never really about the DJ. We just went for the party. The company that we were working for moved me to a store in Canada, and I lived there for a year and a half. They were way ahead on the whole electronic music scene," Jamie adds, explaining that her co-workers in Canada exposed her to the fandom of dance music. "That concept of going to see a DJ had never occurred to me before. So, I moved back, and I told Kira, 'We have to go see all these people.' And we would drive up to Vancouver because they were not coming to Seattle to perform because it wasn't really a thing there at the time."



Dance music was still counter-culture. And even during previous peaks in popularity, ravers often had to seek opportunities to experience it in a live setting, depending on the recommendations, not algorithms, to supply the daily dance diet that kept you going between nights out. Everything seemed to happen by chance or simple twists of fate. Like when they discovered an unlabeled CD at work. "It was just this random CD we found in the stock room that had all this weird music on it. And then it had Green Velvet."

Despite all the signs pointing to more than a passing obsession with house music, they still hadn't seriously considered performing. A play for the DJ big leagues didn't drive their move from the rainy Seattle suburbs to Los Angeles. Beyond escaping the weather, they came to party. Still, they weren't blind to the disparity in representation on stage and began to think they could be the female DJ duo they never saw on any lineups.



Jamie explains that DJing felt like a natural progression. "I think we thought about it for so long before we actually did it, we were committed already. By the time we started, we talked about it, and we're like, 'Wouldn't it be cool if there were two girl DJs?' Because we hadn't really seen it at the time."

Gigs didn't come easy at first. They sent cold emails to promoters hoping for a chance to play out in public. When I ask about their first gig (at Adults Only Bar in LA), they laugh, explaining that it wasn't exactly a booking. "Was that the very first place that actually let us play in public?" Jaime asks Kiera. "Not asking us play. It was like letting us play because our friend worked there...Letting us play for free." she adds.



They adopted the name No Pants Party, partly as a joke and partly because they weren't entirely sure where to take their DJ career or if it was a career. Things started to get serious after a few years in LA. They'd built a following and were performing more frequently at hotspots like Sound and The Standard. And naturally, production followed.



"Once we were becoming what we thought was mildly successful DJing. We realized that was the next step. We really got to be better at producing, learn how to do this, and start putting out tracks, and meet with people who can teach us things. You can't just be a DJ in this climate," Kira explains.



So enlisting the help of friends, they hit the studio dropping tech house heaters on labels like Vanilla Ace's Wyldcard, Seattle-based Late Night Munchies, and ultimately their big label debut, "Never Knew" with Vanilla Ace on Toolroom at the top of the pandemic.



Thrusting into a world without gigs, Jamie and Kira took the pandemic in stride, ultimately viewing it as an opportunity. "We already had releases lined up, and then we were like, 'this is kind of cool because instead of having hustle to get gigs, we can make our own and just stream. [It made it] a little bit easier to get noticed."





By the time clubs began to open again, No Pants Party didn't seem to fit anymore. "We'd been thinking about it for a long time anyway," Kira said about the difficult decision to rebrand amidst the building momentum of a serious career in music. "[No Pants Party] kind of all started silly as kind of a joke, and as we became more serious, we realized we were kind of [ready to split] with No Pants Party now."



Since rebranding, they've continued on a path of explosive growth. And while their rebrand comes with a sense of maturity and focus, it'd be reductive to attribute that growth simply to a name change. Especially when you consider the winding journey they've been on together. As Juliet Capulet would say, "A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet."



Max Low

French DJ and producer Mathieu Mourareau, aka Space 92, exploded out of the gate in 2019 with a heavy arsenal of grinding, synth-laden galactic beats that quickly pushed him to the top of the techno charts and into sets of everyone from UMEK, Oliver Heldens, and deadmau5 to David Guetta, Andrew Rayel, and Joel Corry. He quickly achieved unprecedented universal appeal in a genre that often attracts black-clad, chin-stroking purists due to his ability to fluidly bridge the gap between soaring trance-inspired melodics and warehouse-rattling rhythms. By the end of 2020, he was crowned the top-selling techno act of 2020 by Beatport, replacing long-time techno champion and friend UMEK.




Dispelling the myth that selling records is directly linked to touring, Mourareau hit his stride amidst a global pandemic. In his first year, he topped the charts three times with brilliantly crafted techno bombs that are dancefloor-ready and beautifully sophisticated. And in the short time since, he's become a sought-after artist collaborating with HI-LO on 2022's "Mercury," UMEK and Popof on "Control," remixing for Eats Everything, and dropping dozens of original works across labels like Reinier Zonneveld's Filth On Acid, Codex, and UMEK's 1605.






Growth like this is remarkable and a testament to how effortlessly he manipulates sound into emotionally drenched sonic soundscapes. And while it may seem like he came out of nowhere, guns blazing, his relationship with dance music goes back to his teenage years, even before he started producing under his previous moniker, Matt Minimal. He discovered dance music much like anyone else in the late aughts through covert downloads loaded onto his iPod. Growing up in Carcassonne, France, he didn't even realize that the pounding rhythms of Stephen Bodzin were meant for the dancefloor, yet he was immediately transfixed.




We caught up with Space 92 to dive deeper into the years in between him initially falling in love with dance music and his rise to being one of techno's most potently talented and highly recognized artists.






So you started the Space 92 project fairly recently, in 2019, but you've been producing and putting out records for much longer. Can you tell us how you first fell in love with dance music?




Hey guys, thanks for having me! I fell in love with electronic music when I was a teenager. I mean, I was always a music lover, but one day I downloaded a bunch of stuff on my iPod, and in there was Stephan Bodzin. I immediately had a revelation. It's as if this type of music had always been inside my head, and I wasn't aware of it. I instantly knew I had to do this.




You've said you always had melodies in your head. Do you come from a musical family?




My parents enjoyed and still enjoy listening to music, but that's it. I did not grow up in a specifically music-oriented family background at all.



What were your parents listening to before you started to develop your own musical tastes?




Good old pop music and a few 'serious' French songwriters, pretty much like everyone else. I do, too; I like listening to pop music, indie bands, and French chanteurs. I love music of all shapes and colors.







How did that influence your music, if at all?




Well, every [pop] song has a structure, a chorus, a beat, and a certain bass sound, so why should it be different for techno? Pop music has shown us how to make catchy choruses. The Bob Dylans and Jacques Brels of this world have demonstrated the importance of words. Hip-hop is built around the power of the beat. The sound of factory machines has perhaps contributed to the birth of techno music in Detroit. Every musical genre, every sound or noise, is an influence.






When you discovered dance music while BMX biking, what was so compelling to you?




I instinctively understood electronic music's physicality—the translation or conversion of a beat into body movements. BMX biking was another way to express what I felt while listening to these pulsating beats. Then I found out that people actually danced to that at parties [laughs].


You started things off with the Matt Minimal project, but you've said you always were driven by the melodies of artists like Tale of Us. What was it about the minimal wave that caught your attention?




I guess it's a combination of several factors, but mainly minimal had a purity to it that I admired. Also, it was very big at the time, and, as a young producer, I was obviously influenced by what was going on. I must've been 19 at the time, so I kind of followed the trend.




You had a lot of success as Matt Minimal. What prompted the change in name and style?




Since I started producing at a young age, it took me a while to determine what I liked and who I was. It took me ten years to find my true identity. In this process, I learned that trends do not matter, that you should never try to please everyone and that you always have to stay true to yourself, no matter what. And, most importantly, you have to work like a beast, which I did since we were in the middle of COVID lockdown, and I really had nothing else to do.


Space 92 was almost an instant success. Why do you think it did so well, so quickly?




I am indeed so grateful and blessed because things happened almost overnight. I think the reason is because I stayed true to myself, worked hard, and made no concessions about what I wanted. Of course, I was lucky to meet the right people at the right time—my manager especially.




You had your first Beatport #1 at the strangest time in the world. What was it like having so much success with a genre meant for the dancefloor when no one could dance in the club or at a festival?




This was absolutely crazy. I remember the first articles about me being published and how almost all of them were amazed by the fact I had never played in front of a crowd, ever, as Space 92! And it was true. I had to wait for a year before finally being able to perform.




Having so much success without being able to play in front of a crowd drove me almost insane. I was dying from frustration. I did a couple of livestreams too, and they did super well, but man…The day I was finally able to play was the happiest day of my life! This is perhaps why I'm always so enthusiastic when I'm performing. I guess I'm afraid deep down that it'll be taken away from me, so I enjoy each show like it's my last.




UMEK told you weeks before being named the #1 best-selling techno artist of 2020 that it would happen. After looking up to him for so long, how did it feel to get such a prophetic message?




UMEK is one of my all-time heroes, and when he sent me a DM on Instagram telling me he believed I would be the next Number One, I thought I was hallucinating or something. Then, after I read and re-read his message, I felt so proud. His validation gave me so much confidence; it really boosted me. I will eternally be grateful to him for his encouraging words.







There's been a tremendous amount of crossover between the anthemic melody-driven techno and trance recently (and historically). You've received massive support from across genres. Do you think breaking down the barriers between genres ultimately benefits everyone in dance music?




Electronic music sub-genres, just like all other musical sub-genres, suffer from some fans' extreme gatekeeping, and I am not a fan of that. But yeah, I have indeed seen the lines between genres getting blurred these past years. Some EDM producers have been playing harder styles, while some techno artists have remixed popular songs. For me, it's all good. As long as people dance, I don't see the issue. Music is music.




You have a collaborative project with Popof, Turbulences. Can you talk about how that came to be?




Turbulences is a young project which was born last year. Popof and I were getting along so well on a personal and musical level we thought we'd try setting up a B2B for fun. It worked so well [and] the chemistry was so strong that we decided to take it up a notch and come up with a hybrid/live act that would include custom-made tracks and edited classics. Turbulences' global debut took place in Tokyo, on the Ultra-Resistance stage last summer. It actually worked so well we're due to perform on the Ultra Resistance Miami Megastructure headliners' stage in March. In addition, [we're] headlining Ultra Resistance Brazil, playing at CRSSD Festival in California, and more. We are super happy!




Besides having originals together, you also have re-edits of classics. Why is this sense of nostalgia so important to both of you?




For us, it's not so much about nostalgia as it is about playing beautiful music that appeals to all ages. This being said, it's nice to play those classics to our younger fans who weren't born back then. I wish I had been old enough to experience the Detroit Techno era.




What is that drink you're always drinking in your Insta videos?




[laughs] Everyone's asking! It's maté, a South American herbal drink.



Space 92

When you meet Riva Starr, his upbeat, playful music makes even more sense. He is warm, positive, humble, and kind. The type of person you'd hope is behind the dance records that bring you joy.

Born Stefano Miele in Naples, Italy in 1974 and based in London since 2008, he has released infectious house records on important labels like Defected, Glitterbox, Hot Creations, Cajual, Black Book Records, and his own Snatch! Records for over a decade.



He started the Riva Starr project in 2006 when he began exploring house and electro, and before that was deep in the breakbeat world under his given name. You likely know Riva from one of his big soulful classic house-leaning records, like "This Is The Sound" with Todd Terry on Hot Creations, or one of his massive tech house bops, like "Beat Freak" with Chris Lake and lau.ra on Black Book.



"This Is The Sound" was a big 2022 track for both Starr and New York house legend Terry, who are good friends and work with the same management. He explains that they made it in an afternoon, after he asked Terry about doing something based around a sample of one of his (many) house classics, 1988's "A Day in the Life," released under Terry's Black Riot alias. They collabed together before on the 2018 house groover "Feelin'," under Starr's Soul Speech alias, which was dropped on Snatch! and was "quite well received," according to Starr. But the reception to "This Is The Sound" was next level.



"Jamie Jones liked it and released it on Hot Creations and, boom, it went straight to the top of the [Beatport] charts and people were going crazy. It was a nice surprise," Starr says. "One thing that I never forget that Green Velvet said is that you can't get too attached to the tracks. Sometimes you make a track that you think is going to be number one everywhere and you put all your effort and passion in it, and then the track doesn't do anything. And sometimes you do a track in an hour and it's super powerful."



Collaboration is a big part of Starr's creative output, which includes Star B, his disco and funk-infused project with British artist Mark Broom. Six of Starr's Top Ten tracks on Beatport right now are Star B jams, including their remix of Bob Sinclar's 2000 rave classic "I Feel For You," "I've Got Joy," and "House Massive" featuring MC GQ. He reveals that there are more Star B tunes on the way, along with a Floorplan remix of their Love Will Remain EP. (He's also currently working on a new Riva Starr album, the first since 2018's Curveballs.)



Starr describes the joy of working with Broom: "It's been amazing, actually. I've learned a lot from him. He's a very humble, down-to-earth—as I call him—super producer. He's one of the old-school guys that still manages to keep it current and relevant. He's got a very easygoing approach. No superstar attitude. And we work well together. We love funk and grooves. And he inspired me to go simpler, to not over structure your productions. We have fun playing together as well."

When asked if it's important for him to have different aliases to keep things dynamic and unrestrained by other people's expectations of what Riva Starr sounds like, he says, "Well, they're gonna have doubts about what Riva sounds like anyway, but yes, it's majorly important."



"When I started with Riva around 2006, I was still a bit more on the electro-y sort of vibe, pulling from my breakbeat experience. From then until 2011, everything I was producing was going out as Riva Starr, even more experimental stuff and slightly different genres. I even did an indie-influenced album in 2013. I found out that people get confused, at my expense… So from then on, I started all my 2000 side projects. [Chuckles.]



I have Riva Starr, which is the main thing, I have Soul Speech, which is house, slightly more crossover. I have Genghis Clan, which is the bass house project I use for Dirtybird, and those sort of labels, a more American sound if you want. There's Hyperloop, which is more techno; I did releases on Drumcode with Green Velvet. I have Star B. And I have even poppier projects, a project called Santa Maradona Football Club. There's definitely more, but these are the ones that are still active right now. It's fun for me because I can try different things and move left to right without confusing people and without confusing myself as well."



Across his eclectic and expansive catalog, you can feel that Riva Starr energy. It's housey, funky, joyful, and free.



"One thing I'm very proud of is that both my sound and Snatch! Records seem to be very recognizable. Sometimes I even read reviews saying 'This is kind of a Riva sound' from other people's productions, so I suppose I have my own take on music.

It's definitely bouncy. I like the grooves to be solid and the bass coming from breaks, it has to be quite powerful, even if they're deeper tracks. My sound is ever-evolving, so it's pretty hard to cage it into precise definition. But usually it's quite driving, it's quite solid in the grooves and the bass and it's funky," he says with a smile.



Defected is also an important collaborator and supporter of Riva, as they've been putting out his music since the beginning, tapping him for big remixes, and booking him for their lively, beloved global parties.



"They gave me a lot of chances to put my sound out there. They gave me the Miami in the House compilation in 2010 when I was basically just starting," the "Piknik" producer explains. 

He also loves playing their parties. "They're very open-minded. They give the DJs a lot of freedom to express themselves and keep the quality high. The crowd has a very strong knowledge about house, so you can play old stuff and new stuff and mix it together and push new music as well, without the pressure of delivering a super big-time set."



The creative playground Defected and sublabel Glitterbox create continues to inspire Starr. "I'm finding myself playing these more eclectic sort of DJ sets more and more. I did a three-hour set at Press Play at Defected Croatia, which is a special stage where you can play everything from left to right. That was fun. That reminds me of when I started DJing in the '90s, I was playing hip-hop to breakbeat to rock, chemical beats, funk, and everything in between. It excites me because I need to get out of my comfort zone and pull the rabbits out of the hat and make it work. I like to mix different styles because that challenges me as a DJ as well," Starr says.



Like these eclectic free-wheeling sets, his label, Snatch! Records, is also a call back to his early Riva Starr days. Founded in 2010, he's released a wide range of housey heaters from Carl Cox, &ME, Adam Port, KiNK, Cajmere, and many others. 



He explains that "Snatch! means freedom," and that it's important that it stays a small, independent, boutique label releasing music he loves, free from external agendas. He loves having a platform to push new producers forward and celebrates all the now-big artists he championed early on. One of his proudest moments is hosting Snatch! stages at Tomorrowland and Creamfields, although he decided to keep things focused on the music, and not get lost in also being a fashion brand and event producer.



"[Snatch!] is so important because it gives me the chance, first of all, to release whenever I want without getting stuck by other labels' agenda. It's been proved more than once where we really believed in a certain sound and release and no one wanted [to release them] and they ended up super successful. For me, having the label is freedom of expression in terms of sound, and it gives me the chance to push new producers.



We had early releases of Solado, Dennis Cruz, Michael Bibi, and I had the chance of hosting Fatboy Slim, Nina Kravitz, Jamie Jones, and Carl Cox. It's my baby. We have over 300 releases now since we launched in 2010. For me, it's an integral part of my work as Riva because it gives me a laboratory where I can test and see how it goes," he says with gratitude.



When asked how he's been able to keep it underground, he responds that while he's not sure if he's underground, but he is himself. He's been DJing since he was 12, so he sees himself as a DJ first and takes his selections seriously. 



"I need to be able look my audience in the eyes with pride," he states, adding he'd hate to feel like he'd have to play music he didn't like. He is grateful for spaces like Defected parties where he can engage with the crowd and play a great set of great tunes, versus getting trapped in a more mainstream, trend-thirsty hype machine.

Even so, he's had some accidental hits that exposed him to a much wider audience. There was the absurd 2013 rave anthem "Eat Sleep Rave Repeat" with Fatboy Slim and Beardyman, giving birth to a now ubiquitous phrase that took on a life of its own. Starr explains that the song sat on a hard drive for a year, before Slim decided to include it on his 2013 Mixmag compilation album. (The trio had worked together on 2012's "Get Naked" and "Flexi Lady.") 



The phrase "eat, sleep, rave, repeat" came from Slim's lighting tech, he and Starr had the idea to use it in a track. Beardyman came into the studio late and stayed for 15 minutes, just long enough to drink a beer and freestyle that absurd tale of a bender. Starr and Slim finished the track but weren't sure what to do with it. After its release, Calvin Harris remixed the track in 2014, shortening the spoken word part, which blew up and became the perfect crazy rave anthem for that peak EDM era.



Yet, it was another humorous song that most impacted his career, back in 2010. "The track that changed my life was 'I Was Drunk.'" He'd been wanting to explore making a track with Balkan and Italian sounds, and even though he wasn't sure about it, Jesse Rose loved it and dropped it on at Made To Play. Soon enough, Starr touring a ton thanks a track that he didn't even play in his sets until after it was released.



He asserts it was "all the stuff I did for fun" that happened to have the biggest reach.

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