Melding arpeggiated basslines and glowing melodies into incandescent dance music, Tony y Not - aka Mimi von Koerber - inspires pure elation through all that she produces. Her tracks, infused with the spirit of Chicago house, the richness of deep house, and the euphoria of '80s disco, have fueled unforgettable nights in New York City, Berlin, Black Rock City, and beyond. She has released through imprints like Critical Monday, Nein Records, Trampoliner, and Tächno. 

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, von Koerber's friends and family played a central role in impacting her music taste throughout her childhood. 

"My whole family is very musical," she explains. "I spent a lot of time with my sister who's just one year older than me. Being in high school, you're obviously influenced by what your friends are listening to. But I was listening to a lot of pop punk, rock stuff, and a lot of other people in my school were listening to a lot of hip-hop." 

As an 11-year-old with a keen enthusiasm to delve into new music, von Koerber was perhaps most influenced by her eldest sister, who would arrive back from New York with an array of music to share. "She came back bringing albums by The Fugees or Jamiroquai… I loved it... listening to these albums on my little Sony Walkman. So [my taste] was definitely really influenced by my older sister."

Legendary Berlin mainstay, Watergate, which stands in mesmerizing beauty overlooking the River Spree, was the location of her first rave experience back in 2012. 

"I remember being into electronic music before that, but I went there with friends and stayed there until way after sunrise. I was definitely like, 'Wow, this is so cool'… It was my first 'going-to-Berlin clubbing experience'."

Watergate's unwavering music-first culture was part of what drew her into dance music. And when she played there in 2019, it was a remarkable full-circle moment. 

In her life as a producer, von Koerber's determination for success has always been unyielding. In 2018, she was adamant about working hard on the first track she produced until it reached a standard where she was happy to release it. 

"Maybe this is just my German brain… but I was like, 'If I'm going to start something, I want to finish it'… I remember being so strict with myself."

She's honest about its imperfections but proud that it features her vocals. 

"I really liked that I used my voice. I'm a singer, which not a lot of people know. I'm currently working on an album, singing more, using my voice more." 

Becoming a successful musician is a dream that started early in life for von Koerber. "I think I always wanted to become a pop star when I was a child. I think everyone wanted that of course." 

After completing a Bachelors's and Master's Degree in New York, she began taking music more seriously. "I think once I started taking pressure off myself, and also when my Dad passed away a couple of years ago, I think my whole perspective [shifted] on what I'm supposed to do in life and on following your passion." 

After moving to New York, her connections in the city's music and events industry drew her further into the dance music sphere. 

Collective BAE, a New York women's collective, was instrumental in von Koerber's career. Their events ranging from music to poetry reading, life painting, yoga, and beyond, aim to make women feel more comfortable with self-expression. Founded by von Koerber's good friend Reem Abdou, aka DJ Dreeemy, Collective BAE was the first place to book Tony y not as a DJ.

"She brought me in and was like, 'I know you're DJing at home, but do you actually want to play in front of people?', and I was like, 'Oh my god, yes please!' So that was kind of the motivation for me… to step out there and find a voice." 

Attending music festivals was also of crucial importance. They helped spark the desire to delve into her creativity and immerse herself in the dance music experience. 

She explains how a great festival is defined by more than music. "I think festivals are about friendships, so going with a good crew, your mates, and having fun… makes the whole experience." 

Burning Man holds a particularly special place in her heart. A dedicated Burner since 2014, she's found family in her annual adventures. And naturally, it was the reason for her happiest musical moment. In 2019, von Koerber played a set on Burning Man's other-worldly Mayan Warrior art car. 

"Playing there [had definitely been] a real goal [for me] as an artist," she recalls. "All my friends behind me, all of these people in front of me… it was such a magical moment. I really, really loved it. Just thinking about it makes me so happy."

Von Koerber believes in the importance of self-expression and freedom in music. She makes a clear distinction between the role of the artist and that of the label. While she appreciates the niches labels curate, she doesn't believe artists need to follow suit.

"As an artist it's cool [to] open up a bit more to different sub-genres, or broaden it up a bit. A label is a label, a label's not a person. But an artist is a person." 

This limitless ideology translates to von Koerber's decision to release all of her future material under the same moniker, regardless of shifts in genre. "Every artist is different. I think some artists with different aliases it's cool because that's just how they present themselves. But at least for me… I like just releasing everything under one name. I think it's cool to show that you're not just stuck to one thing, you can be different, you can also work with different artists, you can collab with different people even from completely different backgrounds." 

She's become increasingly inspired by music that wouldn't work in club settings. Some believe electronic music must be either dancefloor music or ambient music for home-listening. She believes that it can transcend this boundary and breach new ground.

It doesn't need to be separated. It can also be together… the music that I'm making and working on is more synth-poppy. It's still electronic music because it's made on a computer." 

Her willingness to convey her identity, personality, successes, and struggles on social media forged a deep connection to her audience. And imbue a greater sense of humanity in her music. 

"I'm Tony y Not but I'm also Mimi, I'm just one person. I talk about my personal stuff, it's not just a "brand" that I'm representing." 

Her concern and care for others extend to the mental health implications of the pandemic. 

"We're living in a really hard time right now, at least for a lot of people… I think going inwards and focusing on self-healing and not listening too much to your outer environment is really important. My heart goes out to everyone suffering from depression and anxiety right now: stay strong, keep believing in yourself, this will not be forever, and better times are coming; just trust the process."

Yulia Niko is a Russian-born DJ and producer of melodic-minimal techno— a style she imagined into existence that incorporates steady beats, precise layering, and the occasional breathy, other-worldly vocal. She is a current resident of Watergate in Berlin, which is where she technically lives, but her talents have her traveling the world more often than she is at home. 

Niko grew up in the south of Russia, in a small town called Anapa right on the Black Sea. Anapa is known for palm trees and sandy beaches, unlike the cold and snow that usually springs to mind when one thinks of Russia. Niko feels blessed to have grown up in this sunny tourist town and feels it's part of the reason she's so drawn to the beaches of Tulum. 

She fell in love with techno music when she went to the clubs for the first time at 14 years old. Although the music scene was small, lacking in age restrictions, and she couldn't name the DJs who played, she instantly connected with the music. 

She played her first gig at 15 years old in neighboring Sochi. Her parents were surprisingly supportive of her burgeoning music career. They preferred she spend her time at clubs playing vinyl than at random boy's houses alone with the potential to drink vodka. Despite their support, Niko felt the need to sneak away to Moscow when she was booked to play at Russia's biggest club. 

"When I was sixteen, I went for the first time to a gig in Moscow," she explains, "I was lying to my parents that I was going to sleep at a friend's in the next house and then I took a flight and played and after a couple of days I come back and I thought, I can't lie. And I told my mom, and my parents were like, 'What?? You went alone? You're sixteen!' And I was like, 'Yes, and I was playing at the best club in Russia!' And then my parents just accepted that I was impossible to stop. I was unstoppable."



Since starting to make music, Niko's process and style have changed completely. Her early influences included Brazilian electronic producer Gui Boratto, and German techno DJ, Stephan Bodzin. She developed a taste for house music through Luciano and Erick Morillo as she started to travel. She credits Luciano as her number one influence. He's even inspired how she performs and moves around the stage. 

She studied music production in New York, and once she began to produce, her hunger to play only her own tracks became insurmountable. As for collaborations, she's open. Niko likes to work with artists with an energy that can match hers. 

Music is undeniably Niko's calling, which became abundantly clear when she quit producing for a few years to study law. She tried to do both, but playing nocturnal shows on weekends and turning up to class the following Monday became unsustainable. While separated from music, she felt its significant absence and quit her stressful job as a lawyer to return to her passion. 

"Music also makes me independent, if something happens in my life, you know like break up, or whatever… I just sit in the studio, I make music, instead of crying and make drama and overthinking. I'm just focusing on something, and music makes me happy and free."

Niko radiates positivity and hopes to spread joy to those dancing at her shows. She often holds up her hands in the shape of a heart for the crowd. Recently she has adopted a pre-show ritual where she steps into the DJ booth and envisions rays of gold light emanating from her body out into the crowd. 

Sessions with a somatic psychologist introduced this ritual to her life, and it's working well, "I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but it's working." She laughs it off, but she believes in her practice, "So before I come to play, I go to DJ booth, and sometimes I close my eyes, sometimes I'm just looking at the crowd, and I imagine a gold ray coming out of my chest and going in the people, in the crowd. … I'm feeling the energy, and the room is high. It's so high, I start to have goosebumps."

Her glowing confidence and newfound meditation practice have kept her going throughout the pandemic, while live music was hit hard. Niko feels an artist must create during difficult times and thus released Ambient Meditation Mix (Manifestation of Love). 

As the world opens, offers for the gigs of her dreams flood her inbox. Still, many shows get canceled. So when disappointment strikes, she reminds herself of where she is now and how far she has come, and she can't help but be grateful. 

The greatest feeling comes when listeners connect with her music, "People who really understand how much you put into looking for this music, making this music and then you share this music, and you share this message, and they say to you, 'You changed my life,' and its priceless. I'm so addicted to that."

This edition of Gray Area Spotlight is presented In partnership with Femme House. They foster more equitable opportunities for women and gender-expansive individuals in the technical and behind-the-scenes areas of music. Femme House is creating the future producers, mixers, engineers, DJs, artists, and executives of the industry by providing education and scholarships, cultivating community, propagating visual representation, and offering professional development opportunities.

Change is the only constant. The wheel of life spins uninterrupted like the drive belt on a turntable, and everyone changes with it whether they like it or not. Throughout her decades as a DJ, producer, and label owner, Catherine Britton, who engages with dance music under the common colloquial name of Cassy, has watched the scene change, but she’s also changed herself.

Everyone involved in music has witnessed the business indelibly change due to COVID-19, and Britton was expecting change even before all the shows were canceled. 

“I felt very strange. I felt like I needed a break. I had never felt like this actually,” Britton says over Zoom from her current home in Austria. 

Britton took time off DJing and moved from Ibiza back to Austria with her son and mother. All in all, she embraced the shifting circumstances and made the best of them.

“The world is never going to be the same,” Britton says. “My life is going to change forever. Whatever I’ve done so far was okay, and something new has to happen now.”

Britton grew up in Vienna, Austria where the history of classical music is so deep and foundational it permeates the city’s infrastructure. She went to the opera at a young age, and she has an attachment to the works of the Romantic period, specifically Tchaikovsky’s ballets Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. 

“Listening to music from a ballet like Tchaikovsky’s teaches you how fulfilling music is because classical music is extremely enlightening,” Britton says. “I think it gives you the door to know how to enjoy music or why you enjoy it or what it means to you.”

As a youth, Britton used every listening device at her disposal. She bought records, then tapes, then a radio, she recorded music from the radio and her vinyl onto tapes. She dug through the crates of Tower Records every weekend to buy music.

The passion and love of music was certainly there, but Britton would not make the change towards DJing for a bit longer.

Britton initially trained to be an actress. She attended drama school in London, where she also studied classical singing (a talent she would exquisitely apply to her productions in the future). 

Going to music school after drama school was her “official plan,” but that plan changed after she moved back to Vienna, and she started going out more regularly. Smaller DJs she knew before were now famous, and it was in this phase she met the revered techno DJ, Electric Indigo, who twisted Britton’s arm to become a DJ herself.

“She said to me, ‘You’re always at the parties. You’re always staring at the records. You’re really interested in the music. You like standing in the DJ booth and watching,” Britton says. 

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More than the arm-twisting from madly impressive artists like Electric Indigo and Miss Kittin, Britton herself became enthralled by their character and lifestyle.

“I just thought they were very interesting young women that were out there with their personalities. Definitely completely different to the drama students I hung out with,” Britton says. “This is their passion. They’re making money with this, they’re actually paying rent with DJing, and they get to tour the world. This is an alternate lifestyle that I really enjoy.”

Once Britton decided to make that change for herself, it was life-altering. She landed residencies in London, Ibiza, but most notably in Berlin at Panorama Bar when the club opened in 2004.

Upon mentioning Panorama bar, Britton’s face lights up as all the memories come rushing back. She goes deep into the history of the club. The Friday label nights. Saturdays and Sundays for residents. The hedonism. The individuality. The freedom.

Most of all, Britton recounts her growth as a DJ in the now legendary institution of dance music culture, where she would play for five hours multiple times per month.

“Playing in the same place a lot makes you have a very distinct relationship with the floor. You get to know it really well. You get to know the soundsystem really well. You start to develop a sense of how a type of record sounds. You get the sense of what the soundsystem sounds like with 100 people,” Britton says. 

“What does it sound like at the beginning of the night? What does it sound like after hundreds of people were sweating? You really start to develop this extreme sense for how everything you do has an effect and how it has an effect, and that was fucking amazing.”

After her experience at Panorama Bar, Britton knew she was on the right path as a DJ, and the natural change that came next was production. In the early 2000’s she was putting out EPs and remixes on labels like 3rd Floor Records, Ostgut Ton, and Uzuri Recordings. The culmination of her evolution as a producer came in 2016 when she released her debut album, Donna.



This complete body of work encompassed all of Britton’s musical talents. Her ever-advancing production skills, her years of vocal training, and a type of diversity in sound that only comes from years as a globe-trotting professional DJ.

“It was a personal artistic expression,”  Britton says. “I wanted to do something that is not just house and techno that is really more like an artist album where you can see what music inspired me.”

Beyond the music that inspired her, another massive influence on the sound of Donna was Britton’s son. Throughout much of the writing and production process for the album, she was pregnant, and her son was born around the time she finished.

“Feel,” (her most heavily supported track o Spotify) was inspired fully by her son, and Britton says overall transitioning into becoming a mother brought a sense of femininity to Donna. 

“This is also why I called it Donna,” Britton says. “‘Donna’ means ‘woman’ in Italian and ‘Donna’ in German but written differently means ‘thunder,’ and the album is not thunder, but having a baby is a thunder in your life.”

Having a son was one of the most significant changes in Britton’s life. Yet, she embraced it, adapted, and continued her work as an artist. She maintains that being a DJ mother is her proudest accomplishment. 

With the pandemic, Britton gave her focus to being a mother, and now with the pandemic easing around the world, Britton is ready to transition back into that balance and give it her all. 

“It’s our responsibility as veterans—if you want to call us veterans —to set a certain tone and to not give up,” Britton says. “Even if 2022 is going to be rough, and even if it’s going to be a challenge again, we’re going to really go for it and make it what we say we can make it.”

Named one of DJ Mag's artists to watch in 2019, DESNA has only continued to make an imprint on the world of techno. She first broke onto the scene in 2017 with a massive residency at the former Output club in Brooklyn, NY. Her unique brand of techno brings a fresh perspective to the genre, never becoming repetitive while also maintaining her futuristic industrial style. 

DESNA is an amalgamation of storied influences. From her breakbeat roots in Tampa, Florida, to the gritty underground house and techno scene of New York. She's found a way to marry her influences cohesively into something that unifies the raw grit of Brooklyn with the precision and power of Berlin. 

Growing up near Tampa, Florida, what was your first exposure to electronic music and how did it influence your sound today? 

Breakbeats were really my first introduction to electronic music. I’d hear these cool beats on the radio (breaks originated in Tampa, FL) and we would have all these breaks remixes of pop tracks which to me always sounded better than the original.

Your career really began in 2017 when you created the DESNA alias and secured gigs in NYC. You cut your teeth playing at Verboten and Output, can you tell us about that time period? What did you learn, were there any challenges? 

Yes! I had a door open for me when I played a charity event at Verboten. The director of the club heard my set and gave me his info to have a meeting. He really helped me get some momentum going there and when the venue closed, I had enough credibility to go to Output.
I remember my first gig at Output. I had a four-hour opening set for Mark Knight. The place was completely packed/ sold out and it was rocking!! That was really the turning point for me. That gig gave me a taste of what it feels like to play at the best club in the world at the time, wall to wall packed. It gave me a sense of belief I could make this my profession.


What is it about vinyl that you enjoy so much and do you ever plan to bring vinyl into your live performance? 

I love spinning vinyl more than playing on CDJs because you have to get into your body more. You can’t think your way through a vinyl set. The reason I don’t use records in my club performances is because the way I DJ live is a lot different (layering multiple tracks and using my drum machine) I have played records at after hours gigs which is something I’d like to do more of.

The timeframe you’ve been in New York is very interesting, the electronic and underground scene has changed tremendously. Both the clubs you came up in have new ownership and new vibes, and there are tons of new venues for better or for worse. Have you observed the scene change here and do you feel it’s in a better place than it was when you first arrived? 

There are things I liked about the scene before and now. When I came here in 2010, underground was really underground. warehouse parties were so much fun and Brooklyn was still raw and untouched by corporations. Now, there is a lot more structure but I do like seeing how popular underground music has become here, being able to fill these mega venues.

Do you believe that there is still a strong underground scene in New York or has it made way for the influx of bottle service clubs and large-scale venues?

I'd say that in Brooklyn, bottle service stuff is not really a thing. That's for Manhattan and to each their own. I don't frown upon that world, it's just not my thing. 

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You have cemented yourself as one to watch in the world of techno. Techno, alongside most electronic genres, gets a reputation as being this singular sound and style. We often just think of high BPMs, hammering kick drums and dark warehouses. How do you try and make your sound stand out, and do you feel that the genre as a whole is in a good place creatively?

I am making techno around solfeggio frequencies now so that is my signature you can hear in my tracks. I am making my tracks around a pure tone which was challenging at first but now I have the hang of it and the music is coming out very cool. I wanted to add value to the music I put out and wasn't sure what that really meant for me until this year. This is a way to offer healing tones in music other than meditation.

Do you have any pieces of hardware, or software plug-ins that you find yourself going to often with your music production?

I always use my TR8-S live in clubs and in my production. It comes with so many great samples and presets that it really helps my creative process on stage and in the studio.

Who do you find yourself listening to regularly, whether it’s other techno artists or other genres completely? 

I listen to a lot of frequencies lately and have been studying the medicinal effects they have. My go-to for working out or partying is usually minimal techno. I love a good Ricardo set playing in the background at one of my house parties.



You recently dropped your remix of "Techno Monkey." It has such a distinct feel to it and showcases your versatility alongside tracks like Insanity and the 'From Frou EP.' How do you approach a remix versus an original track, when it comes to making your style on the track being felt?

I always try to keep the meat of the original intact and not butcher it too much while giving it my own signature (like in the drop of this particular remix). I felt that the drum pattern was a nice layer to her track that made it my own while highlighting her original.

What do you hope to accomplish in the next couple years with your career? Any venues or festivals you’re dying to play? Labels you’d love to release on?

I am going to start pushing out my frequency project in 2022. So by the end of this next year, everyone understands DESNA makes frequency techno. I'd love to play Exit, Tomorrowland, and Awakenings are probably my top 3 desires. As for labels, I've never been stuck on any labels. I just want to work with cool ones that like my work and have a nice platform.

Master manipulators of trippy vocal elements, tech house rhythms, and acidic analog, Irish brothers Disfreq - aka Joe and Cahir Kely - have energized dance music fans worldwide with rave-ready stompers. Born and based in the picturesque, coastal setting of Moville, Ireland, the duo produces electrifyingly powerful material from unexpected surroundings. 


Hellbent on ascending in rave scenes across the globe, Disfreq was featured on BBC Radio 1 on numerous occasions and released tracks through Trick, Top Flight Records, and Tech City.  


The Disfreq brothers roots in dance music run deep. They started producing music together ten years ago, releasing under various aliases and experimenting with multiple genres. 



As Joe explains, "We were crazy into dance music and Danny Howard's show, and then we were like 'how can we make tunes ourselves?' I think that Cahir actually downloaded a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation): FL [Studio]. Of course, we were lost for the first few years, lost for a good few years actually, and making a lot of bad music. We skipped through a lot of genres. I think we've done them all nearly, trance, dubstep, even progressive house like Eric Prydz-vibe stuff with other aliases."


Having made most of their progress through the COVID lockdown, the pair are a shining example of the fruitful outcomes that isolation and copious free time can occasionally bring. 


As Joe recalls, "We've had a few aliases, but lockdown really is what started Disfreq. We actually had time to go at it because, during lockdown, there was nothing else to do. We were living in a house, just us two, and basically had the laptop and speakers hooked up in the living room. It was just a matter of getting up, eating, going and making tunes, and then you might stop to eat again. We were living and breathing it, just making tunes and having parties." 

Their open-mindedness towards electronic music took them on a journey with a purposeful conclusion. They eventually landed on a unique form of tech house, earning them the respect of esteemed club giant Patrick Topping.


The duo's eclectic outlook was never restricted solely to dance music. Joe explains that as a child, he was a fan of Arctic Monkeys, Paolo Nutini, and acoustic artists, but that electronic music always came first in his eyes. Their passion for house and techno thrived even though few of their friends mirrored this enthusiasm. 


Joe tells us, "There's only really a couple of my mates that listen to [house and techno] … where we live it's in Donegal. It's a bit far north. The next big techno artist [from around here] I would say is Rebuke, he's about 45 minutes away. But there's not a huge, huge techno scene in Donegal." 


Similarly, Cahir confesses that growing up, his friends listened to different music to him. Living in a fairly remote town, the duo's closest clubbing destinations continue to be Belfast and Derry. According to Cahir, the former has a particularly buzzing nightlife scene.

READ THIS NEXT: Creamfields: Transforming a Club Night into a Global Dance Icon

"Belfast has actually got a massive scene at the moment with lots of artists. Shine does events. They've had some of the best artists you can think of, like Fatboy Slim, Alan Fitzpatrick. Patrick Topping did a Trick event in Belfast. There's a big scene there, Mall Grab, Brame & Hamo, Floorplan. There's AVA [Festival] as well. So, with Belfast, there's no comparison with anywhere else on the island." 


Disfreq's artistic inspiration came from an amalgamation of family, friends, and their surrounding environment. "On a broader scale," Joe explains, "Listening to [BBC] Radio 1 all the time, digging deep into YouTube and Soundcloud. We used to work in the factory, and we used to listen to music all day long. Earphones in and listening to Soundcloud, YouTube, Spotify, just all day." 




But what influenced Disfreq's sound more than anything else was hardware. 


Joe says, "We very rarely look at software, it's all just hardware and synths. I think that was definitely the most influential thing for Disfreq." 


The brothers' social media pages are teeming with photos and clips of an array of synth and drum machine wizardry, ranging from the Roland 909 and TD3 to the Behringer Wasp and beyond. Their investments in gear like this reflect a tunnel-vision desire to pursue music full time, no matter what the costs. 


Cahir admits that "I wouldn't be interested in much else. I know that's probably very narrow-minded, but [dance music] is the only thing that I could really, really focus on and be interested in." 


Eventually, tech house aficionado Patrick Topping saw the brothers' potential. In October 2021, the brothers released their All My Friends EP through Topping's Trick imprint, acting as a launchpad for their career in the dance music industry. 



But in Disfreq's eyes, their biggest turning point to date came when Topping dropped one of their tracks live at Creamfields. It was this, above all else, that shifted their gaze towards taking music more seriously and fueled their unstoppable ambition. Beaming smiles expand on the duo's faces as they reminisce about that crucial transition. 


Joe reveals that he's "getting shivers thinking about it," while Cahir explains, "We didn't even know that he was going to play it!" 

Creamfields was the culmination of the brothers' decade-long struggle to get their music heard on a bigger scale. 

As Joe recounts, "Before Disfreq, with all our projects and aliases and stuff like that, it was really hard to get anyone, anyone, to play our music. We sent thousands of demos to labels. If you got a listen, you were buzzed. There were so many kicks, so many kicks in the backside, and then all of a sudden, that Creamfields video was there. It was mad."


Topping's decision to expose Disfreq to wider audiences didn't come out of mere kindness but out of an unfailing commitment to elevate high-quality music regardless of its origin. 


"He's a great guy. He's really personal with the artists," Joe tells us. "He gets back to you fast. You send him a tune. He loves it. He doesn't. It's just really simple. Whenever you're connecting with him, it's just so easy. You know what I mean?" 

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In an industry oversaturated with new tracks from unsigned artists, it's refreshing to hear that Topping is indifferent towards the following of upcoming producers. Instead, as Cahir explains, he focuses exclusively on whether he likes their material. 


"It doesn't really matter who you are because it's all about the music. He doesn't care about your following … if he likes the music, he's game." As Joe puts it, "Trick's class because if the music's good, it'll get on Trick. It's not about, 'I've got 3 million followers, and I played this, and I played that, and I've done a massive release for this, massive release for them'. It's just about if you've got a good tune, and they like it, you'll get on Trick. That's what it is, and that's why it's good and why it's succeeding."


The development of an artist is marked not only by significant achievements like releases and performances but also by smaller, more personal achievements, which can be equally instrumental in the long run. Disfreq are quick to highlight this fact. 


Joe remembers the excitement of signing to other labels that we of some stature. And the disappointment of finding their music didn't always resonate with that specific audience. An important lesson for any producer that makes for even more triumphant moments when you find a label where things hit.


Their wins have paved the way for an exciting future. They look forward to releasing with Topping's label regularly, as well as other large label signings. 


Joe says, "We're making music every day."

If there's anything he's learned in the music industry, Paradoks says to "Never stop believing in your own music." When Paradoks – aka Kobe Motmans – emits powerful energy through melodic house, crowds and fellow artists gravitate towards him. 

Paradoks is grateful to have strong support for his music, but his true friends in the industry are most important. He dropped the galactic track "Floating" via Stil Vor Talent. He has a handful of releases on Parquet Recordings, and the new track "Sense of Wonder" is his latest on Nora En Pure's label Purified. 

He first connected with Nora En Pure after she started playing "Floating" in her sets, and he commented on an Instagram post to thank her for the support. They met for coffee at 8 am in Zurich and spent two hours discussing life. Since then, she has been pushing Paradoks to the masses. Soon after, he dropped the Flying Particles EP in 2020 on Purified. 

His followers quickly grew while embarking on a handful of show dates in Uruguay and Argentina late in 2021. But success does not always follow every production–sometimes great tracks fall through the cracks before the world hears them. 

"I've gotten used to the no's and the ghosting," Paradoks says. "Not everybody has it in them to be an artist at this higher level, because you have to learn to grow through this rejection and not take it personally." 

On the day he touched base with Gray Area, Instagram suspended his account for no apparent reason. He's worried about losing that line of communication with fans. Luckily, he eventually regained control of the account, but the experience underscored artists' everyday reliance on social media. He's back to sharing images of clubs packed with ecstatic people at his shows. 

Growing up, his family moved around between Belgium and Switzerland. In his adult life, he chose to live in different cities around the world, landing in Zurich for the longest period.

In videos of his live sets, we see aerial views of the Swiss Mountains and other scenic locations close to where he's settled. 

"If I get the privilege to run in the forest, I like to just listen to the birds and nature and my own breath, focus on my own rhythm," he says. He's a faster runner when he's got his headphones in listening to melodic beats, but his mood "depends if you want to go for performance or just to oxygenate the brain," he says. "Slowly, I evolved into this type of person. I've always liked to move."

He organized his own 2018 South American tour and learned his travel style. "I like to take my time," he says, remembering when he did four cities in four days on little sleep. "I don't want to sacrifice my health and my relationships." 

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Paradoks enjoys soaking in the present moment. He uses yoga, sports, and meditation to take pressure off his mind and put himself back into his body. Rest is key to gaining the stamina for the studio and stage. He works on musical ideas in a small chunk of time and then takes a much-valued break. "This is how I do the best music I can. The most conscious music," he says, to inject genuine emotions. "I cannot do it in a fake way."

In 2021, he split his attention between making music and completing a master's degree in entrepreneurship and innovation. When it comes to applying that to his role in the industry, he says, "It definitely gave me a better perspective on the long term strategy…It helps 
to brainstorm different ideas and to bring more value as an artist to the scene in the long term."

Before he began DJing, he started on the piano and produced tracks for several years. After his first club gig, he'd close his eyes and "imagine playing that beautiful music with the people. 

I felt in my heart, wow, this is amazing. But there's this big paradox: ever since I wanted to try to achieve this, I felt the contrary." This is how he became "Paradoks": "This pursuit of living the life you love and sharing these moments with the people, and then the anxiety on the other hand," that comes from doing this. "I decided to put the K from Kobe," he adds.  

In the present moment, his focus is entirely on shaping his sound. Paradoks' signatures are dynamic shifts, crisp claps, and progressive sections that make the cool synth leads flow and drop like waterfalls. 

"I mostly want to focus a lot on my own productions and get as much good music out myself," he says. Paradoks also dreams of starting his own label. "It would serve as a home base for my music." 

Although he puts tremendous pressure on himself to achieve his vision, he realizes, "There's no clear way to get there, there's no path." The decision to make music his life led to sleepless nights and anxiety about making his dreams into a reality. He uses mindfulness to step back and realize what it all means. Paradoks says his ethos is "Worry less, let go more, and trust life."


Interview by Ryden

While Russia's dance music scene may not be as well known as others, the country has produced many brilliant DJs over the years. A stand out among them is Eskuche. Known for impactful drums and intense bass lines, the Relief Records regular is one of Russia's finest exports.  

"Now, back in the day when I was living there, it was very different. It was mostly commercial house remixes of just popular Russian tracks. I never liked it that much," he says. Even then, his style skewed underground, a sound that Russia wasn't quite ready for yet. 

"Now I feel everyone is going crazy about dance music, specifically the Solomon type of style. There is also a big minimal scene that's been growing. But with Covid, there is not really a lot going on, you know? And Russia is also very strict with all the laws and stuff. So it's a different vibe there."

He honed his craft as a resident DJ at a friends club in Russia. Yet somehow, Eskuche found himself stateside with an incredible opportunity to jumpstart his career. Although he has now settled into a home in Miami, Eskuche first lived in Brooklyn, NY, then Manhattan, and Ibiza. 

Despite his northern roots, the cold weather was a deterrent for Eskuche. And while living in New York City for almost ten years allowed him to play regular gigs and take his music production to the next level. The cold winters and dense crowding of the city eventually pushed him out. He truly hit his stride during a two-year stint in Ibiza. 

"2016 I went to Ibiza for a week. I'd been there before in 2013, but it was like I was too young on the trip, and it was just going crazy above the clouds and stuff," he remembers.

"I came back and it was really open for me [in a new way]. I really loved the island and I decided, I want to try to live there. I was there all summer, and it really changed my musical tastes like what I want to do. A lot of things that I came up with, like the tracks 'Activator' or 'Concentrate' became hits. So basically, 2016-2017, was my real starting point with the musical style I have now."

Ibiza helped shape Eskuche into an artist both in sound and how he connects with nightlife.

"The vibe and the culture [in Ibiza] are so special. The island is so beautiful, and it's so connected with the nightlife, so you know, they go together, and you never see any other places like this." 

"Activator" and "Concentrate" were released on Hot Creations and Relief Records, respectively. Eskuche was already well established, and these two tracks thrust him into the spotlight. 

Most importantly, "Concentrate" introduced him to Green Velvet, an icon of the electronic scene who helped Eskuche grow his career and take significant steps towards improving the quality and quantity of his catalog. 

"So I actually met him for the first time in Ibiza. I went to one of his shows and introduced myself in the summer of 2018. And then the 'Concentrate' track happened. It had been sitting on my computer for three months, and I was like, what am I going to do with this track? I said you know what? I've never sent anything to Curtis [Green Velvet]. I sent it to him, and 30 minutes later, he replied, saying that he loved it and wanted to release it the following week. 

"It wasn't my plan for the track to release that soon but he said to trust him and I of course agreed. Soon after I began playing shows with him and playing at his La La Land showcases. We just became really good friends, he's a great guy and I respect him a lot."

Eskuche's future is bright. As he prepares to take on a US tour with Relief Records label mate and friend Mihalis Safris, he reflects on how his DJing has changed over the years.

As his sound has constantly evolved, he's worked hard not to rely on his older hits. Recently he's drifted into melodic, minimal, and deeper styles. He likes to experiment and keep his mixing creative while oscillating between old and new. 

He also used to play his own tracks exclusively. In recent years, however, he has made an effort to highlight other artists' music. He recognizes that 
part of the art of DJing is music discovery.

Lilly Palmer plays with tension and release in her songs "Temptation," "Aether," and "Vertigo" from her label Spannung Records. The German techno artist likes to explore dissonant realms. 

"In German, Spannung has two meanings. On the one hand it means voltage, and on the other hand it means tension," she explains, smiling. "I love this wordplay because tension can be either positive or negative. But it also reminds me of the job of a DJ – you're always under tension." 

Spannung Records' sleek logo resembles the power cell in an electric circuit. She promotes the label through a new webshop with original designs, including an elegant unisex bomber jacket. As a techno artist, Lilly fully believes in rocking different shades of black. 

Raised in Nuremberg, Germany, Lilly Palmer came of age in Berlin, exploring the techno scene. As a teenager, she was a metalhead until she began clubbing at 17. 

"It was in Switzerland (that) I really fell in love with deep house especially," she says. Every week she had favorite tracks to share with friends, and one day they suggested she start DJing. In 2015 Lilly made her debut, releasing an EP Teaser on Natura Viva Records, including the sizzling track "Before Acid." 

Lilly lives in the dance music mecca of Amsterdam with her boyfriend, DJ Egbert, and a Bengal cat named Dirk. While taking things slowly at home, she set time aside to learn kitesurfing. Despite a few faceplants, she gets back up and keeps flying. 

Similar to making music, she overcame the challenges that come with developing new skills. "If you don't understand how to break or speed it up, sometimes I went faster, faster, faster and couldn't stop anymore and fell," She describes. "I hit the water, and yeah, you're a bit shocked at first, but then you're going to do it again." Lilly is determined to go with the flow, and as a DJ, she has a masterful control of the environment. 

"I have this energetic side in me, and that took over," Lilly says, recalling her beginnings with deep house. "My sets are sometimes still melodic. Now I prefer hard techno even though a lot of people wouldn't consider my music as hard techno as there is in Berlin. There, it's much harder than what I do." 

She isn't far removed from the early-career jitters. "I remember very clearly, the day I opened my Facebook 'Lilly Palmer' fan page. I was sitting in front of the laptop, and I was shivering." But once she launched, she was relieved with the support of friends and, eventually, new fans. 

Coming up and getting support from friends within the scene was even more difficult than initially expected. In fact, she lost friends and wasn't immediately bolstered. 

"As soon as I started, I kind of lost all of those male DJ friends I had before," who didn't seem to approve of her artistic debut. However, her worries faded with each sign of encouragement. Lilly jumped the hurdles of entering a male-dominated scene and saw the bright side of being a female DJ, "You get to reach a lot of people very fast because you're very unique."

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And had she listened to every piece of advice, she wouldn't be a DJ with the traction she has today, so she knows not to take everything personally. Instead, curious and ready to explore the world, she would tell her younger self to "Keep going, go on with that." 

Lilly Palmer's resilience and independence comes from a do-it-yourself mindset. She invested in her setup and skills to produce 15 live streams without relying on a big team during the pandemic. She beams, "I love that feeling - I feel really independent."  

Online, Lilly Palmer DJs amidst gorgeous backdrops, including rooftop sunsets and the Eiffel Tower. The sounds are dark and industrial. ice-cold acid and scorching techno. A Lilly Palmer track wouldn't be complete without thrashing snares and chilling vocal samples.

Building anticipation is what Lilly Palmer does best, and fans are left shaking with excitement and satisfaction. Soon, Lilly hopes to have her visa to play in North America. 

She wants to add more tracks and artists to the Spannung Records roster, valuing quality over quantity. Singles merit their own releases, and they have to be something she'd play in a Lilly Palmer set, she says. So she plans to keep building. 

"If I came home from a gig and thought, wow that was the best ever, then something is wrong." Lilly explains, "It's in us artists that we always want to develop and always do better." 


Interview by RYDEN

If you're looking for explosive sets that blow the lids off of warehouses around the globe, look no further than AK Sports. Fusing techno hybrids, acid house, and rapid breaks into a unique vision of high NRG nu-rave, she continues to release high-powered material from her twin bases of London and Los Angeles. 

Her Warp Mode events play a pivotal role in bringing the LA underground to new heights, igniting it with the inimitable flavor of UK styles, and underscoring local and international talent. But, more importantly, her events focus on elevating gender minorities, queer, and BIPOC artists. 

Growing up on the sunny shores of Bondi Beach in Australia, AK Sports – aka Madi Carr – was surrounded by a band scene. Her dad opened the gateway into electronic music. He introduced her to the sounds of big beat artists like Fatboy Slim and Groove Armada. And timeless icons like Moby and Daft Punk. 

A tight-knit relationship between electronic music and her love for skateboarding and skiing blossomed. Listening while cruising around bends put her in a rhythm and groove that heightened the overall experience. She also noticed she improved much faster. 

"When I was younger my dad would drag me down to CD stores and definitely encouraged me to get into big beat … we were also obsessed with Blink 182 and the whole punk scene … just like a bit of everything when I was younger," she remembers. 

"It always crossed across from band to electronic, because I actually grew up skateboarding and my dad would make me listen to my discman [whilst skating]. I think most parents would probably say, 'Absolutely not … you need to make sure that no one's going to run into you.' But yeah, it was a range for sure."

While attending university on the Gold Coast of Australia, she was disappointed to discover a music scene tinged with touristic tackiness and commercialism. Her subsequent return to Bondi took her on an upswing and paved the way for her entrance into the music industry. 

Becoming a promoter plunged her into a scene replete with incredible DJs, creatives, and artists. The events she threw proved successful and sparked a domino effect. She quickly climbed the ladder of the events industry throwing bigger parties at every rung. 

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"That's how I got my start in the music industry because I wanted to chat to the hot band guys. I just started to become a promoter. I went up to this cool bar and asked them who books the bands and asked if I can give it a go."

Dissatisfied at her pay rate, AK Sports' first shot at DJing stemmed from a lightbulb moment. 

"In Australia, unless you're an artist, the money's pretty bad. I would complain to my bosses about getting a pay rise, and they told me, 'We can't give you any more money, but you can teach yourself how to DJ, and then DJ at your own events and get paid by the venue.' So, I would hang back at the office after work, set the decks up myself, and practice."

For her first gigs, she chose to team up with a friend. It wasn't long before she had bigger slots at better events. These days, when AK Sports performs, it'd be hard to detect the slightest ounce of anxiety in her appearance. But starting out in her career, she recalls that a degree of nervousness was sometimes unavoidable. 

"There was one time I remember driving to a club for a solo headline gig or closing for someone. I was so panicked about my abilities. The taste was there, but my abilities … I felt like it was a little bit too premature to be playing, or maybe it wasn't… I don't know. I remember driving there and thinking, 'I don't have to put myself through this stressful experience. I don't know why I'm doing this to myself!' Once you get past a certain technical ability, I think it's smooth sailing. Those were my own experiences of DJing, and it was always very rewarding and always lots of fun."



When asked about her first significant achievement in music, her eyes light up. Several vital moments spring to mind within seconds. The release of her debut EP was a big one and happened organically through a friend who had set up a record company called Gallery Recordings, based in Sydney. 

Over time, her music has evolved and taken on new forms and trajectories, with releases on Club Glow, Tooflez Muzik, Start Local Records, and Of Leisure. 

Playing shows in other countries always felt great, but a key highlight was a gig in Edinburgh. She was also immensely proud to have gotten a show on BALAMII Radio, one of London's top electronic institutions. In a world increasingly influenced by music streaming services, she insists that radio appeal is unique.

"I started out in a similar one in Australia called FBI Radio. That was another big achievement actually, getting a show on there. These smaller stations, and even the bigger ones like Jaguar, the work she's done on BBC Radio 1 with her show Introducing, it's all about community. You feel connected to everyone … for me, I really found my community in BALAMII. I was playing a certain type of jacking house, breaksy stuff, but I always wanted to play crazy breaks and heavy techno and just go a bit psycho. I wasn't getting the gigs at the time, or they weren't the right time slot or whatever to do that, so the radio show gave me the opportunity to go wild. Also, I took different shows to explore different genres, so I did the history of jungle in one show, the history of DnB in another show. Radio was also a place for DJs to practice during COVID when all these gigs were cancelled. So yeah, I think that it's an exciting new place to do things that you wouldn't necessarily do in club spaces, get some work, and connect with the online community and producers and fans that we love."

Passionate to embrace creative expression in all its forms, AK Sports has released several music videos to accompany her tracks, which showcase the skills of various female, trans and non-binary artists. 

The clip for "Houdini" plunges you into a Matrix-inspired reworking of a Brixton night out, all transmitted through the lens of a retro video game. These imaginative and vibrant videos bring music to life in a new way, yet it was a shame to reflect on the general absence of music videos in the dance music industry as a whole. 

"I wanted to put out a video with my first single but I was advised that it wasn't cool to do a video. It's just an untapped market, so let's go crazy. I particularly like to work with female, trans, and non-binary artists, so I'm trying to find those people and any other way, shape or form that I can connect with them to help me express myself and themselves."

"I think we could do more, but sometimes people just don't have the time or the money," she posits. "This animator from Berlin, Stacie Ant, did the video for 'Tank Girl.' She basically made avatars of me and my friends. It was amazing, her style was very cool. It was influenced by the Berlin underground - very sexy, very female gaze. But the hours that go into making those sorts of things are not cheap. So, it's not always that viable to get music videos, unless you've got a big label who are going to pay for it, or if you've got homies that I was lucky enough to find to help do it for the cheap, sometimes free, because they were just down to jump on."

Her dedication to her craft is uncompromising. Despite a hand injury that left her arm in a splint for several months, she chose to carry on DJing regardless; her one-handed mixing soon gained her a reputation as the 'bionic-armed Aussie DJ.' Thankfully, the splint's now off, and a current of new material continues to flow.  

She finds inspiration through real-life experiences. For example, her recent release on Justin Jay's Fantastic Voyage, "Cops In The Club," resulted from a warehouse rave gone wrong.

"I wrote it after a warehouse party that I was at got raided, and it was terrifying. It's a bit tongue in cheek with the vocalI put on like a European accent to kind of express the universal voice and connect the experience to [people] all around the world because it's just a thing that can happen everywhere."

Every so often, there's a performer who captivates the crowd by channeling multiple genres while shifting the conservative bounds of sound. Spada, aka Ermanno Spadati, is an Italian producer and DJ who amassed over 100,000,000 streams worldwide. He’s etched out a global footprint from his home base in Prague with past performances across Europe, Asia, and America. 

Initially, his sights were set on becoming a pharmacist. However, Spada relinquished his studies in his final year of school to follow his dreams of becoming a musician. His style sits at a crossroads between progressive house and melodic techno. 

With releases on labels such as Anjunabeats, Diynamic, Spinnin, and Armada, Spada traverses the musical realm yet prefers to stay an independent artist. He draws inspiration from the melancholy elements of nature. The snow and rain become motifs for rolling melodies. 

Currently, Spada is fusing the vocals from the electroclash era with a canorous beat to bring the two worlds he loves together. 

Can you elaborate on when you decided to pursue music full-time? 

I was a student at a pharmacy university in Italy. I remember that I was always thinking about writing melodies instead of studying. So I wrote some songs with my first personal computer and uploaded those into MySpace, and after some time, I got requests to sign some of my unreleased tracks from vinyl labels in Germany.
That moment I realized I should follow this call and spread more of the music I do and not stay behind a desk selling pharmacy products. So I decided to quit university (I was missing only eight exams, four of the five years) to dedicate myself to creating music and following my inspirations. 


What inspired you to differentiate yourself by fusing various genres and styles of music?

I started listening to electro-clash music, which is the kind of neo-pop, electro-pop developed after Kraftwerk and became popular during the early 2000s with bands like Crystal Castles, Fischerspooner, Quarks, Miss Kittin, and The Hacker. Then after a few years, I discovered progressive house and techno, thanks to DJs like Sasha and John Digweed, Richie Hawtin, and James Holden. So now I'm doing a mix of the two things, getting the indie vocals side from the electroclash era, and the techno melodic beats from the DJs that influenced me.



How did you end up in Prague? 

Initially, I decided to move here because Klara, my girlfriend, is half Czech, we were deciding whether to move immediately to Germany or another closer country. In the end, we decided to move to Prague, and we never left after we realized it’s a very good country to live in with so many good and working services, artistic activities, and places to go.

How has the city of Prague embraced you as a citizen and musician, and what sounds are you expecting to trend there in the future? 

I am Italian, but I moved to Prague in 2016 because I knew I would find more inspiration. The area is promising because it's very close to Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Munich, Wroclaw, Krakow, Wien, and so on. It is like living in the center of techno capitals, and this is perfect for clubbing anytime, any day of the year.

Can you tell us about Anjunadeep and how you started working with them?

I remember I was first approached by them in 2014. They contacted me several times asking for unsigned music. At that time, I was under an exclusive agreement with another label that didn't want me to sign my records elsewhere. 
This period helped me to realize even more that I don't have to give anybody else the possibility to decide for my music in the future. So once the deal expired, I came back to them in 2020, showing them "Part Of Me," and they liked it immediately. 


What is your musical philosophy?

I like the motto of Diynamic's records. "Do it by yourself.'' I think I have the same feelings. I couldn't say it better. As long as it is made by yourself, it is good.

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What communities have you been a part of which led to your success? 

I'm still considering myself an independent artist and not particularly in need of a company behind me or management right now. I write the music I produce. If anything is happening, it means I am doing it right. If requests no longer arrive, I will just keep it going the same because this is the music I do. Maybe it's more difficult to do it all by yourself, less time focusing on everything, a bit slow to process all the music and events requests I deal with by myself, but in the end, I like it. It's part of my "job." 

A few of your records contain topics on longing and heartbreak. Is the topic directed to a particular individual, or are you speaking conceptually? 

No, it's more generic. I like people who can identify themself in these background stories. I like to bring messages. 

What are some of your favorite festivals to play at?

I have not one in particular, but one time, many, many years ago, I played in a small one called Magneet Festival north of Amsterdam, and I liked the concept. I think it's similar to the concept of Burning Man. Just a smaller audience for sure, but the same kind of festivals, with so many different tents and many hippies. It reminds me a little bit of Goa, the small village in India.
 


Do you have any dream destinations you would like to perform at? 

I would like to play in the US again soon. I see the clubbing scene is growing fast, with more techno and melodic scenes now. I would like to play in Russia and China as well.

What are some of your hobbies outside music, and how have they influenced your art?  

I like wine tasting in vineyards, walking alone in the woods, and hiking alone in the mountains. I like cold weather, rainy and snowy days, which inspire me the most.


When you create music, do you prefer to do it on the road or in a studio? 

I live in a small flat, and I produce in my bedroom, my studio is the bedroom. I couldn't have a  studio so far from my place. So I need the computer just immediately next to the bed, sleeping on it. When I wake up, the first thing I do is press the on button, then coffee. Then I open my eyes.

In terms of being a well-known Italian DJ, do you have any messages for the youth of your home country?  

Don’t just focus on influencers. Try to discover more musical genres. Look to the past of the electronic music scene, back in the ‘90s and 00's. Maybe that will open the doors to new music genres.

Mary Droppinz, aka Alyssa Johnson, understands the power of faith in herself. The LA-based producer and DJ captured the attention of dance music fans because of her infectious positivity, unsurpassed skills on the decks, and a sound that seamlessly blends house, techno, and breakbeat electro. The latter is one of dance music's least represented but most impactful genres. And Johnson hopes that as a champion of nasty acid growls and rumbling 808 bass, she can help diversify the sound of the dance floor and the people who make the noises that keep the crowd hyped.

Before she fell in love with dance music, she was an emo kid from Nebraska. Her dad, an amateur drummer, instilled a passion for the classics. As a result, she grew up on a diet of Pink Floyd, the Doors, and late afternoon drum sessions banging from the basement.

"He wasn't a professional drummer, he would do it after work every day. Come home and just go down [and] start drumming," she reminisces. "So, I was used to the flow of having a little music practice at the end of the day. And so that's just kind of like where it all began."

She credits her love of emo-rock for opening her heart enough to accept dance music as her singular passion. She explains that while emo does not sound like dance music, the ethos and feeling are united.

"That style of music, it takes you away. You can escape reality for a bit. And it's head banging. It just takes you out of your body. And in a sense, it's emotional and passionate."

When she moved to California from Nebraska with her former partner, she was inaugurated into the underground scene of Southern California at a steak house in Orange County. The bizarre locations, passionately connected community, and peak dancefloor experiences of the rave scene made an indelible mark on her soul. And there was no turning back.

"Everything clicked. I was like, What the heck is this kind of music? This is what I've been looking for. I had no idea." 

Like other ravers who made it their life's work, she was quickly hooked. "I went to Coachella every year and Desert Hearts and started going to festivals. And that's when it was just like, this is what I want to do for my life."



Inspired by her dad's daily drum sessions, she started her own routine. She came home each day from her ad agency job, powered up her laptop, and emersed herself in becoming an expert in digital DJing.

The budding bedroom DJ continued to explore the laser-lit recesses of the underground. And in the process discovered a community of house heads at her job. They helped give her growing love for dance music context in the local scene. Finally, she started to feel at home in LA and had a rave crew showing her the ropes.

But life in the ad world wasn't cutting it anymore. She wanted to do something that she cared about.

"Ultimately, I was sitting there at my job and just feeling so unfulfilled," she says. She was tired of advertising products she didn't use or even care about. And she asked herself, "what can I do with the skill set to get more integrated into music?"

The universe responded with a job at Native Instruments in marketing. And as she planned and executed events for a company that is one of the most well-known in producer circles, she solidified a network of other passionate creatives.

Her journey was far from complete, and she still had another massive leap of faith to endure. She decided to quit her day job to devote herself entirely to music.

"I had saved up enough to be able to support myself for the next six months. And so I was like, I'm gonna do this, I'm going all in. And so that was the game plan, but then that all the shows that I had booked, all canceled, and everything shut down."

The pandemic kneecapped the industry. Unexpectedly, however, it offered her an immense opportunity to put herself in front of thousands of people stuck at home in front of a screen.

"I felt a bit depressed about it." She tells Gray Area. She thought to herself, "I don't know, what's gonna happen, why did I make this decision? Now I don't have a steady income, I have to get on unemployment, I've got to figure something out. it freaked me out at first, but then it fueled me."

But she realized she had immense opportunity to help change people's worldview.  

"I realized, why I'm doing this. I'm doing this to give love and to help heal people through music. To share my passion with everybody and make people smile."

Throughout the pandemic, she dominated Twitch streams, appearing on the most prominent channels like Insomniac, Desert Hearts, and Dirtybird. And despite the physical distance of streaming, she found herself connecting with her audience in more profound ways.



When people wondered how she could make lasting connections through a screen, she told them," We grew up in a digital age. I know when you are being passive-aggressive when texting me, I can tell the vibe that I put out and what they're feeling by their messages on chat.

"And so I just really honed in on that. Going out now in the real world, and DJing again, it's been super rewarding running into a lot of the community that I built online."

Her goal to spread joy was successful in the most pivotal time.

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"Them saying 'You saved me during 2020. I had nothing to do and nothing to look forward to. But every day like you came on and you brought vibes and music, and energy.'"

And she says that "You just got to make what you can out of it and always remember what your intentions are with doing this."

It also led her down a path to a new sound. LA is a house music city. But Johnson knew that with the breadth of dance music, other sounds could move dance floors. And she found a home in one of the most storied and influential genres, electro breakbeat.

It's the sound that in the 80s gave birth to dozens of classics like "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaata and the Soulsonc Force, "I Need A Freak" by Egyptian Lover, and "Jam On It" by Newcleus. 

Establishing a fan base during the pandemic allowed her the leverage to implore promoters to look outside of the tech house bro scene and book her for her sound. And she gets to provide a valuable service to the dance floor in the process.



Johnson is one of the many women in dance music that is helping shift the conversation and move the needle for more diverse lineups. Her work with Desert Hearts allowed her to book more women on lineups, and she's part of LP Giobbi's Femme House collective. In 2022 she'll begin her own DJ course there.

"I'm glad that we had that platform to do that, because they actually helped a lot of those women get on the path of their career," she says. "there's obviously main big goals of doing like a femme house festival one day, and if I had the opportunity to curate stages, I absolutely would take it and put on everybody that I can that's that's truly crushing it and and then give them you know, an opportunity to shine that maybe they wouldn't have that because it is, it's tough to get out there really is like, you know, maybe like 5% Get lucky or in their way. But yeah, so anyway, I can help and do that. But it just, it makes me happy to do it."

David Morales is committed to evolving with every new phase of dance music. He’s been there since the beginning, DJing, producing, remixing, and running labels for 40 years. 

Frankie Knuckles, who is rightfully lauded as the Godfather of dance music culture, was close friends with Morales. They toured the world together. And they also founded Def Mix Productions together. Morales refers to Knuckles as the “Liberace” of dance music.

“We were like Batman and Robin,” Morales says. “That was my partner in crime for years. We were partners in crime and in soul.” 

Within the soul of David Morales lives stories and experiences of how the culture went from an unknown scene inhabiting decrepit and dilapidated warehouse spaces to a business of celebrities and millionaires. 



Morales was there for all of it, he’s still here today, and he acknowledges the beauty in what’s happening today. While people half his age with one-tenth of his experience sneer and demean, he never diminishes the current state of dance music.

“People can talk shit about EDM all they want, but EDM opened up a lot of doors for club culture in the United States,” says Morales (he alludes to working with Avicii when the EDM superstar was only 18). 

Morales sees all these changes in music as a part of a larger game, and after playing the game for so long, he has picked up timeless knowledge along the way. Simple gems that any aspiring artist can follow to make a career extend for decades.

When it comes to DJing, Morales’s means of entry into the scene, he emphasizes the idea that every DJ is a bedroom DJ.

“You’re supposed to be a bedroom DJ for life. Always. Because nobody can ever take that away from you ever.” Morales says.

Morales, of course, has played records in far more places than his bedroom. After first being enthralled by the art form at the age of 15 when he saw Ernie Dunda spin at a club called Starship Discovery (he had to bribe the security to get in), Morales evolved through every phase of what it means to be a DJ.

 “I went to Yale, I went UCLA, I went to Harvard, I went to Columbia, I went to every university and graduated Magan Cum Laude in the art of DJing,” Morales says.

Pivotal in Morales’s history was a club called The Loft in New York City. It’s where legendary disc jockey David Mancuso taught him about selection. There was no mixer—just two turntables. Morales would put on a record, let it play beginning to end, then the audience would clap before the next record came on. You had to get the next one on quickly.

It was about the music. Not the mixing.

 

As technology evolved to include the two-channel mixer, Morales’s love of the music fueled his coinciding evolution. He landed residencies around New York and New Jersey at clubs like Zanzibar and 1018, playing all night. From the first record to the last.

Where open-to-close sets are few and far between in modern culture, in the time of Morales’s residencies, it was the standard. One DJ curated the whole night. They created an ebb and flow on the dancefloor and around the club that kept people coming back to see the same resident DJ week after week.

“You needed to understand sound. You know how to peak the room, but you have to bring the energy down for the bar to create revenue, and so you don’t tire the people out, and so that they get a chance to socialize,” Morales says. “You know you’re going to lose some people from the dancefloor, but it’s OK. You’re not stressing. You ain’t going nowhere. There’s nobody judging you because you knew what record to play to bring those people back.”

As Morales evolved with culture, though, the skills he developed with those early residencies were less in demand. Sets became shorter. Lineups became larger. But Morales remained a bedroom DJ at heart. He loves playing records no matter how many people are in front of him, and as a result of the pandemic, he found a new place to express that love: streaming.

Most DJs have abandoned Twitch as gigs begin to return, but Morales continues to host his Twitch program, Sunday Mass, a five-hour broadcast of nonstop DJing, every Sunday from 10 AM-3 PM EST. Sometimes it’s Morales himself for all five hours. Other times he has guests like the 14-year-old JusTheDJ.

“My favorite DJ gig in the world right now is my Sunday Mass virtual show,” Morales says.

This is the case because unlike many gigs today, even headlining gigs, Morales can play whatever he wants on his stream. Just like he would when he was a bedroom DJ.

Overall, the idea of enjoying the basics as a bedroom DJ leads to another piece of wisdom Morales learned throughout his evolution. This piece of wisdom came from none other than the queen of soul herself, Aretha Franklin: 

“She taught me the biggest phrase: ‘Less is more and more is less when it came to vocals,’” Morales recalls. “It really connects with every aspect of life.”

Around the time Morales did remixes for Franklin (one of the hundreds revered artists he’s remixed, including Backstreet Boys, Kylie Minogue, Jamiroquai, U2, and Michael Jackson), he released the biggest hit of his career, “Needin’ U,” and the production of this track was precisely in line with Franklin’s advice.

“The fastest and the cheapest record I’ve ever made, and my fuckin’ biggest record,” Morales says. “I did that record in my studio in my office, and I did it just for me. I took two of my favorite old records which were ‘Let Me Down Easy’ [by Rare Pleasure] and ‘My First Mistake’ [by The Chi Lites]. I put a beat on the rig. I did it all in Akai S950 sampler.”

Morales first played out “Needin’ U” in Los Angeles after printing it on acetate, and people at the show begged him to release it. He thought it was beneath him. He had already been producing for pop stars like Mariah Carey (which landed him one of his Grammy nominations).

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“It’s a fucking sample record I slapped together. No way,” Morales said at the time, and yet he is still making money from “Needin U” today. 

As long as an artist remains open-minded, a worldwide hit only needs to be a slapped-together sample record, and according to Morales, that’s the key.

“I think the most important thing is to be open-minded,” Morales says. “You have to welcome the evolution of the game. That means technology. That means music.”

Morales knows that to welcome evolution, he needs to look to the younger generation to learn.

“You hear about some new kid on the block. What has he got to say? Whether it’s the technology he’s using or whatever, it doesn’t mean that that kid can’t teach me something or inspire me in some kind of way,” Morales says. 

Morales furthers this open-mindedness towards the new generation by creating platforms for young artists. In 2018 he started his new label, DIRIDM, which explores world sounds and signs young artists from all over the globe. He’s signed people in Sicily and Spain, but he’s also signed his own music to DIRIDM because as much as he welcomes the game’s evolution, he’s still a player in it.

Morales released his latest album, Parkside Ave., via DIRIDM this year, and he has another album already coming next January. At 59 years old, he’s still DJing, making music, running labels, playing a role in the future of the culture. 

“I’m 59. Next year I’ll be 60. Even though I’m 25,” Morales says with a laugh. He’ll be playing the game for another 40 years at this rate because he welcomes the evolution.

Mihalis Safras has been making a name for himself since the early 2000s. Growing up in Greece, Mihalis cut his teeth as a resident DJ in Mykonos. After a decade of honing his skills and releasing high-quality music, he broke through in 2015 when he signed tracks to Toolroom, Saved Records, and Knee Deep in Sound. Soon after, he found himself under the wing of Green Velvet. That relationship has propelled Mihalis to the front row of the tech house world. 

You've been in the scene long enough to understand how electronic music has grown and developed in the states over the last 10-20 years. Can you tell us what you've seen regarding the growth of the scene here? 

What can I say? The USA, for me right now, is the center of the global electronic scene. It used to be Germany and Berlin, then the UK. Now it's the USA. Just look at how many major festivals and events are in the EU compared to the USA. Of course, each territory is unique and different, but in the last decade, the USA scene has rapidly evolved.

One of the things that often gets overlooked with DJs is how long it can take you to gain international recognition. In 2016 you had a massive breakthrough year and won a few awards to commemorate this. But, your journey did not begin in 2016. I know you started putting music out in the mid-2000s with songs like "Highs and Lows" and "Bomber." What were those early years like for you as an up-and-coming DJ? Any fond memories? 

You went way back… 2016 feels like ages ago. I pressed my first vinyl in 2004, though, and started my own label, Material, two years later. Sometimes I feel like I need to retire, but that's the good thing about music, numbers make you feel old, but the energy it gives you always makes you feel like a teenager. I recall staying up all night producing beats without caring about success. I think that's the key. Do what you like, and the rest will follow. What I clearly remember is talking to Mark Broom (we had our first vinyl together) while listening to his records. The rest is just history. 



When Americans think of electronic music in Greece, they typically think about Mykonos and the posh scene. What was your experience with house music growing up in Greece, and how do you feel the scene has progressed, if it has, over the years? 

Not only Americans, the whole globe when they talk about the club scene in Greece, they think of Mykonos. That's normal as it's something like the Ibiza of Greece. 
I was a resident DJ for some time in Mykonos, and I can say that the island helped the growth of the electronic scene in Greece. Having recognized DJs every week spinning fresh music to the crowd helps educate clubbers. 
I think Greek people are very well educated in terms of separating good and trash music. The only bad thing is that there are not too many Greek DJs that can represent Greece in the electronic scene. The scene has been evolving, and I'm positive that once more, Greeks will take over :)




You worked tirelessly for years to get your name out there. Finally, in the mid-2010s, it felt like you started to pick up momentum. In 2015 and 2016, you began hitting it on more prominent labels like Toolroom, Saved Records, Knee Deep In Sound, to name a few. When did you feel like it was happening for you on a bigger scale? 

I never felt that something started to happen to be honest. So far, I just do what I started 15 years ago. I produce beats, send to labels that I like and release my stuff. The only thing that changes are the personal relationships you build over the years with label owners or other producers. So it's like creating a musical family. I feel exactly the same, excited for every release I have. 

As someone making music for well over a decade, do you think music production software has improved, and do you have any favorite plug-ins or pieces of hardware that you go to regularly? 

I started producing with the iconic AKAI MPC, so the transition from hardware to software was not easy. But imagine things started slowly, Reason then Live, etc., etc. 
I still prefer the raw sounds of hardware. But on the other hand, it is much easier to work on software using VSTs. This connected almost half of the globe to music production. Now every young or old person could produce in a home studio. The result is that out of the thousands of new tracks produced, some were literally diamonds!
New artists emerged that are now legends, and the scene evolved faster. I loved the old way of production, but I'm excited to see that software still keeps pushing forward. My favorite plug-in is my T-Tracks C1 compressor.


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You're a big proponent of vinyl throughout your career. At the same time, we've seen the CDJ progress so far. What do you like and dislike about each form of DJing? 

Oh yes, oh yes, as someone might say. I've been a vinyl jockey since day one. Of course, the issues I was facing the last two years (club sound systems not set up for vinyl DJs) made me start DJing with CDJs. As said, technology makes things easier, so CDJs made things way easier, but at the same time, you can be more creative on other things when you are spinning. 
I [prefer] the classic 12-inch style. I love the feeling when I touch the wax and see the covers in real paper, going through each one in my record bag. I even like the fact that sometimes the needle can jump (if there is tiny dust on the wax) and create this classic feeling of the 80's DJ. I just love it. That's why all my DJSounds videos are with vinyl.


We obviously have to discuss Green Velvet and Relief Records. When did you first meet Curtis, and what has that relationship meant to you personally and your career?

By far, Green Velvet is the person that I had the most collaborations with. So far, ten singles together and still have lots to come. I had heard him obviously when I was a clubber, and it was meant to be sooner or later, to send him my music. He liked it, and we started discussing and planning more and more. But the key is that he is not just a label owner or artist. He is a friend that helped me a lot through some problems I faced many years ago, so that builds a strong friendship. 

Lastly, the tech house genre has become increasingly popular in the last five years, with artists like Fisher, Chris Lake, and John Summit bringing it to a broader audience. How do you feel about the progression of the genre?

Whatever brings our music to a wider audience is good. Some of the tracks are mainstream. Some are underground. The key is to have a balance and not go party to mainstream tech house expecting underground and vice versa. Both are good; both help our scene to develop. We are all here for the love of music. Damn, I sound like I'm on ecstasy pills or what? Thanks for chatting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Since his 2016 debut, Portuguese DJ and producer PEACE MAKER! has blossomed tremendously in the electronic dance music scene and continues to captivate listeners with his electrifying bass-house soundscapes and hypnotic tech-house melodies. Of course, growing up in the dance music-loving country of Portugal impacted his phenomenal taste in music. Still, it was his burning innate desire to revolutionize house music as we know it that's led him to where he is now.

PEACE MAKER! 's passion for music originated at a young age, and it was the distant memories of listening to top radio hits on long car rides with his parents that spiked his appetite to learn more about the intriguing sonic artform. 

In middle school, he was fond of heavy metal and rock music legends like Metallica, Slip Knot, and Guns & Roses, which somehow led to his heightened appreciation for early 2010s emerging dance artists like the one and only Skrillex. From that point on, he found himself indulging more in genres like dubstep, drum & bass, and electro house, and that's when that spark ignited in him to aspire to make it in the dance music world someday. 

Like most millennials, he turned to Limewire and other illegal music download sites to discover new music and eventually became addicted to digging for unfamiliar tracks and the rising artists that would later become some of his favorites of all time. His journey to stardom was beginning, and despite a few inevitable bumps in the road during his upbringing, the goal-driven musician showed no signs of ever slowing down or giving up his dreams. 

"My friend sold me his guitar when we were 13 or 14 and I was still in that heavy metal and rock phase. I tried to learn how to play it, but it was super hard, and I just didn't have that flame inside of me that I expected. I knew I wanted to pursue something involving melodies, something with power and drive. At the time, there were a few walls in the way for me to pursue music, I just didn't have the tools to learn on my own and my personal and social life was a mess back then."

He decided to quit his job as a bellman and dedicate his all solely to making music when the dance music scene was evolving faster than ever before. So he chose to look forward and envision himself making a long-term impact on the scene rather than succumbing to what was popular at the time.

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Rather than focus on the Portuguese demographic, his goal was to release music that would ignite and stir up dance music lovers across the globe. He's done exactly that. However, an unforeseen benefit was that his unmatched house sounds are now flourishing tremendously in his beloved home country, and that's what happens when an artist creates music simply for the love of it. 

"I think bass house and tech house are getting bigger in Portugal, so the parties are getting bigger here," he explains. "I feel even more blown away because I never focused on releasing music to the Portuguese fan-base specifically. I knew they didn't have the most futuristic music taste, and I always look towards the future when it comes to my music. I knew my sound was going to come to Portugal soon enough, but people here were still listening to older genres like big room and progressive house, which I'm not against, they're just booming genres from the past."



Before the pandemic hit the world, PEACE MAKER! made his grand debut at ADE's Fraudublanc Bass House Summit and then conquered his first international performance during his New Zealand run. These gigs were monumental moments in his career, and despite an ongoing worldwide pandemic, he managed to excel, garnering 1.5 million Spotify streams on his banger, "Isolation," in the spring of 2020. 

"In the end, the best thing to come from that trip was the friends that I made, the people that I met, and the overall experience. I made real friends, like people that I still talk to everyday. I never stop thinking about these small things, they're the most important aspects of doing all of this to begin with. The pandemic came right after unfortunately, but with bad things come good things, and somehow "Isolation" became a top-hit in the country I just had this crazy experience in."

His latest releases, "Stay" with HROLEX and "Think Of Me," portray his all-encompassing production capabilities in their unique light. Still, both singles radiate with that one-of-a-kind PEACE MAKER! touch fans can't seem to get enough of.

Authenticity always tends to lead to success, and PEACE MAKER! flawlessly demonstrates this concept with his forward-facing artistic vision.

For VNSSA, loving house music is easy. "These are my people," she explains. "This is my music." 





In her home, a disco ball and plant hang behind her head, and shelves of vinyl surround her. The Los Angeles-based producer is kicking back on her off days before her gig at San Diego's Audiotistic Festival. 

Her latest outing, "When Will I See You," is on the Splits 001 EP with Lenny Kiser and Neon Super Block. In November, it came out on Rules Don't Apply records, which is Walker & Royce's new record label. She first joined forces with Walker & Royce on "Word" and "Rave Grave," which helped launch her towards major festival lineups in 2019.

Growing up in Newport Beach, California, Vanessa Barnes' journey as a musician began when she took up drumming and started a band with a friend. 

"In the beginning. I just wanted to get it down and just be a good drummer," VNSSA remembers. She felt drawn to live music, picking up the clarinet and cello, but set them aside when she found her true calling as a DJ. On Fridays, it was house night at a small Costa Mesa rock venue, and that's where she fell in love with electronic music spun by the local DJs. 

She dropped her first original track, "Do You Wanna Play," with Fantom Freq in 2018. Shortly after, she quickly went from attending to headlining Dirtybird events. She learned about house music from heavyweights like Claude Von Stroke, Justin Jay, and Justin Martin. With her five little letters next to some huge names on recent lineups, VNSSA bounces around genres without relying on anyone's star power but her own. 

VNSSA trusts her instincts when it comes to expressing style. "I just noticed what sounds I like and I use them all the time," she explains. "It's kind of subconscious. I don't know that I'm making a VNSSA track until it's done, and everyone's like, Oh, yeah, this sounds like you!" Rocking oversized frames, braids, and an all-black ensemble, she looks club-ready while simply eating her cold oatmeal and returning from an afternoon walk. VNSSA's chill demeanor backs up her approach to unique house beats. 

"If it sounds good, it sounds good," she says, reflecting on her production techniques. She's not out to please producer snobs with expensive sounds, templates, or following trends. The only tools she swears by are the SoundToys effects bundle, which she uses on every track. But she's equally a fan of using free synths and plug-ins. 

"The one thing about Ableton and these programs that I love the most is that to accomplish one thing, there's 20 different ways to do it. There's no right way or wrong way. It's just your way." 

She makes up her own rules. "I like doing everything from scratch because I feel like that's my warm up. It's like setting your canvas." VNSSA describes her sound as "Classic melodic break tech house." 

Obviously not bound by any one label, she's focused on the process. "I like to have a lot of arps and different melodies in my music," she explains. "I like to have pretty elements in it. Classic snares, super reverbed 80s drums." Her tracks have dabbled in acid and breakbeat, too. Simply know that everything VNSSA delivers will make you sweat. 



While emitting cool confidence, she is acutely aware of the challenges she and other women face in the music industry. "When people think about women doing things in male-dominated industries, the first thing that people will think is like, 'oh look, she's wearing a low cut top, no wonder she's where she is now,' or 'She probably slept with that guy to get there,' you know?"

"Unfortunately, that's the world we live in," VNNSA says. "They're gonna comment on you regardless, because you're a woman."

In 2020 VNSSA adapted to the extra challenges of working in the industry during a pandemic by turning to streaming. She was part of the GOOD TV collective and appeared on Twitch channels, including Insomniac Records and Desert Hearts. 

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When Gray Area catches up with VNSSA, it's on a laidback day ahead of a weekend where she attends a friend's wedding. There, the DJ ends up spinning VNSSA's edit of Toto's "Africa." 

She's got a new car, a RAV4, which she nicknamed the "Rave 4." 


Last month she also played Chris Lake's Black Book Block Party in San Francisco. She will continue to serve up spicy tech house singles, having recently finished an upcoming remix for NYC-based DJ QRTR. 

"I'm having a lot of fun just making music and touring right now," she says. Without a second thought, VNSSA lives in the moment and feels satisfied with where she's at. She's happy with the hardware she's got. She has massive dreams for the future but wants for very little. At this exciting point of her life, the only advice she'd give her past self is to stay on track. She tells herself, "Keep going. You got this." 

Interview By: RYDEN

Known for his unique brand of high BPM tech-house groovers, Daniel Orpi has quickly made a name for himself, despite first releasing only three years ago. Born in Barcelona but based in London, Daniel has had the opportunity early in his career to play some of the best venues globally and count artists like Claude VonStroke, Solardo, and Eli Brown as supporters.

"I start raving when I was 17 years old… I didn't know what electronic music was, I was just a typical rebel kid. I was painting graffiti on trains and all that stuff… I met some people and they started to bring me to afters [parties] in Barcelona… I was like, Wow, this music is crazy. I was going there every weekend, and I fell in love. Soon, one of my friends introduced me to DJing... Step by step, we got like a small controller. Then I got rid of the small controller, and got some CDJ 300s, and we tried to mix properly without any computer. It took me like one month to figure out what was the BPM and all of that stuff because I was in my in my rooftop bar like trying to figure out what the fuck is this?"


After cutting his teeth in Barcelona, playing all night into the mornings, Daniel decided it was time for a change of scenery. Once he determined he wanted to pursue a music career full time, he went to the United Kingdom. 



He quickly made a trip to Liverpool, where he ended up staying for six months. Although he made great relationships and gained experience, the trip proved difficult for Daniel due to the language barrier. After two years back in Barcelona, Daniel decided it was time to go back to the UK for good. He saw the opportunity that DJs had in London and quickly made it his new home. 


As he has grown and developed his career, Daniel's sound has become more defined. As a result, he operates in a space that tends to be more minimal, without being repetitive, and often maintains higher BPMs than one would typically find in tech house. 


"I'm trying to bring it down now, trying to bring it to 128, between 128 and 130 because when I play, I really think it gets all the people dancing more when the beat is faster. It sounds better. I don't know why," he posits.

"But also now when I make tracks, I always, even if I do it at 130, you're going to always bring it down when you're playing. So at the end, it's not that much difference. As long as there is no 134, which is crazy stuff, you know, I got some training about like 175, like I would never play that in a club like 134, you know? I just feel that the groove is more driving, so it invites more to dance."

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For Daniel, finding the right groove is always the goal. It has allowed him to secure gigs in Ibiza, as well as high-level support on BBC Radio One. 

"I feel that what you put into your work life will get back to you… I had this in mind [playing Ibiza] for a long time. And now to be seeing all of these goals getting real, it's so crazy. But at the same time, I was already working on the vision of my career for a long time." 

Knocking out the goal of any rising DJ to play in Ibiza is a massive accomplishment. Getting support from BBC Radio One meant even more to him. 

"I feel so grateful. Every time I look at things like it's cloudy again, Covid, political issues, I'm just grateful to be where I am and be able to play shows." 

Going forward, the future is only bright for Daniel Orpi. He is scoring gigs worldwide and just wrapped up his debut US tour. In addition, he will be releasing an EP with Elrow records on December 10th, cementing his place with the brand as one of the hottest Spaniards in the business.

London duo Late Replies—aka Josh and Kas—are no strangers to topping charts with their vibrant tech house grooves. Their Orbit EP rapidly rose to Beatport's top tech house track. Exceptionally infectious energy behind the decks has seen them play at some of the UK's most prestigious venues, including London's EGG nightclub, with which the artists have a special relationship. Their mission: pioneering a new London sound. 


Long before Late Replies was conceived, music had already played a significant role in both Josh and Kas' lives, creating an uncanny parallel between them before they met. Josh's parents encouraged him to make his way through the grades as a pianist, and Kas played the Oud, influenced by his father, an Arabic singer. They both turned to production as teenagers: Kas focused on hip hop and reggae, while Josh made UK rap and grime. They both lost interest and soon fell in love with the London rave scene, where their friendship flourished after meeting through friends. Inspired by the duo Solardo, they began producing together.


In many ways, then, a passion for raving itself was responsible for birthing Late Replies, and it becomes evident from speaking with the duo that this passion remains at the forefront of their careers. Josh becomes suddenly animated when asked about it, transmitting glimpses of the same energy the duo are renowned for.


"It is authentic...As a raver, before DJing was even a thought, we were on the dance floor trying to create a big vibe. If you were around us, you knew," Josh explains. "You'd hear us, you'd see us. It was always about creating good vibes…We are just focused on translating that through music and translating that through DJing. So, when we are playing, I don't care about looking cool. I wanna rave when I play a tune! Being in a duo is cool because I can play a song and then he takes over the decks and I can rave to the song I just played." 


It's clear the duo are deeply entrenched in the London scene, and they speak with telling expertise about its undercurrents.


"There's a great community here in London," Kas says, "Even though behind the scenes there is a split. There is that minimal London crowd, then there's the big tech house crowd. What I like about London is that everyone supports each other." 


"Our sound is now mainly influenced by a cross between the two. We have come into the scene making what we would consider a bit more European, South American style tech house, in terms of a very heavy rolling tech house, that is lots of percussion and rolling basslines," Josh adds. "Now, because we live in London, where the minimal scene is so big[...]We are kind of crossing the two together and trying to put out our interpretation of that." 



Kas hopes that Late Replies can build a legacy. "We're hoping this is going to be part of the London sound." 


Their vision of a new London sound comes to life in Orbit, released with Deeperfect. Produced during lockdown, the EP features two deliciously groovy tracks, "Orbit" and "Sexting." They feel almost like day and night, respectively, a contrast which the boys tell me is their objective when releasing EPs. They describe their methods for both as contrasting too. Orbit manifested progressively starting from the signature vocal and the bassline, whereas with "Sexting," Josh tells me, "I put one sound in there and it just clicked." In the spur of creativity, he even decided to use his own vocal.



Kas and Josh's excitement in detailing their production methods reconfirm their genuine passion. As authentic as producers come, the duo comes across as real people with an unadulterated commitment to music and each other. And, of course, football, which I'm reminded of as they suggest buying me an Arsenal top. The duo will undoubtedly grow as they promise to continue with their momentum, with more tracks on the way and potentially starting their own label in the near future.

Tara Brooks is a trailblazer of sound and scene. Her desire for growth and evolution keeps her sound on the cutting edge, always favoring the challenge and freedom of new untapped sounds over the safe bet of the latest generic trends. Her tireless drive and resiliency have transformed her into an influential female artist in a male-dominated industry. Anyone who's had the distinct pleasure of attending one of Tara's live sets can attest to what she describes as "A collaboration with the energy in the room." She proudly allows her emotion and crowd connection to effortlessly ferry her eclectic sets from hypnotic, ethereal techno to deep, dark disco, and everywhere in between.
 

For Tara, this innate connection to music started in her earliest days.
 



"It kind of runs in our blood. My mom and my dad were both very musical. My mom sings, plays piano, my dad plays guitar… My sister and I grew up singing. My mom is from New York, so she was always going to Broadway shows and musicals. Stuff that I'm maybe not so much into today, but she used to have Beatles records, there was always some sort of record playing in the background."



That home-grown musicality eventually pushed her towards dance music when the LA-native started exploring the West Coast rave scene. Tara soon fell in love with the experimental music, the community, and the judgment-free space for expression found at warehouses, clubs, and events like How Sweet It Is. When Brooks moved to San Diego for school, her exposure to the expansive culture of house and trance grew while working in the nightlife industry. Little by little, Tara's connection with dance music blossomed until she finally began the path from fan to contributor.
 

At that time, Tara connected with her now ex-husband over a mutual love of music.
           

"He actually had a DJ set-up at home, and he had vinyl, just for his passion… I would go with him to the record store, and we would dig for records for hours. I never actually mixed them, I was just playing them for fun, I was just falling in love with them. And I knew nothing. I didn't know all these artists, what was what, all I knew was what I liked and didn't like… It was all about digging through white labels or I liked the cover of this record to find all the sounds that I love… When things were tough, I just said, 'I think I need to start a hobby, I need to figure it out… I was going through confusion and feeling a little hurt and wondering, 'What am I gonna do next?' I just started playing all these records."
 

That dip of the toe into mixing turned into a full plunge when Brooks first mixed two of her favorite records, Mylo's "In My Arms" (Tocadisco remix) and Deep Dish's "Dreams."
 

"It was the first time in a long time I felt just pure joy and happiness," she recalls. "There was no stress or worry, I didn't give a fuck about anything… And that was the first time it actually mixed properly when I didn't really know what I was doing. And that feeling, having that third beautiful mix, that third record created that you might never even see again, that feeling was everything. I just had to keep going and I never wanted to turn back."
 

From her first major gig in 2007, Tara was never one to shy away from navigating new territory sonically and professionally. A self-described weirdo, she relishes the opportunity to take listeners on a novel journey. The endless hours of crate-digging gifted her with a vast array of sounds and themes with which to connect to her audience in nearly limitless ways.
 

"It's one thing to have that sound, you're in this safe zone so people will book you. They always know what they're gonna get… With me I feel like I've gotten to the place where they don't exactly know what they're gonna get but they know it's gonna be me, they can always hear me in it… and I don't know how but somehow it all flows… the journey makes sense… Since I'm so emotional and sensitive I feel like especially when I'm playing live, I go off the crowd. So, they're the ones that really drive the direction I go, I don't really know where I'm going, without them, I'm just gonna' be doing my thing," she smiles.


Brooks' commitment to herself and her evolution is what draws those crowds. Her listeners know they are going to be a part of a uniquely personal experience. A deep-rooted appreciation for all music and the feelings it can convey sits at the core of Tara's willingness to explore. This same determination to blaze new paths fuels her navigation through the heavily male-dominated dance music industry.

Tara has experienced it all, from sound techs mansplaining how a mixer works before a headline set to general disbelief that a woman could land the performances she has. But rather than let the weight of doubt and preconceptions hold her back, she used it as a constant source of motivation. While it can improve further, female representation is currently at an all-time high in dance music, and Brooks forecasts a brighter future for female DJs and producers.
 

"I know when I'm listening to these badass women's production… most of my favorites are women today. They're incredible but they just haven't had that outlet, that opportunity, and they weren't getting the support in this male-dominated industry. When I'm discovering them today it sounds like they've been doing 10, 20 years, but we're not seeing them or hearing them. Now more than ever it's beautiful… that it's all about the music. Our music is quality, it's not a sex thing. It's like dude we have boobs, that doesn't change how the music sounds," she laughs.
 


Through it all, the triumphs, the trials, the lessons, the stories, Tara's humility, and recognition of her roots keep her grounded in gratitude. She recognizes the unique opportunity she now has to convey the same feelings of community, fun, and safe acceptance that she first fell in love with all those years ago. She even holds gratitude for the professional challenges she faces, approaching them as further opportunities for growth. Her embrace of the unknown and commitment to evolution have carried her sound and spirit to infectious heights. So it's impossible to hold back a smile and a nod in cathartic agreement when she spares this advice for new artists (and all humans):  
 

"Keep it real for yourself, play the music you love. Don't just play what everyone else is playing because that's what's popular. Because when you play the stuff you really love, that's where the happiness is. No matter where the money, where the future fame comes, if that's what you're into, at the end of the day what is that all gonna' mean if you're not doing exactly what you really love. It's ok to shift and to complement, and to be open-minded and respectful of your environment. Just keep it real."

SNBRN—aka Kevin Chapman—emerged during the SoundCloud era with a sound that effortlessly blended the weight of main stage house with the musicality of something much more profound. As he settled into his sound, what surfaced was an artistic inclination towards moving melodies, infectious grooves, and an understanding of how underground music can at once be compelling on the dance floor, emotionally reverent, and fun as hell.


He grew up on a diet of the Eagles, The Beatles, ABBA, and Queen. He concedes that his parent's musical taste had a considerable influence on his musicality. And by the time he started to form his own musical opinions, he continued to pull the rock and roll thread. Interestingly, although hip hop plays a heavy hand in his production influences, he didn't begin to appreciate it until he was in college.

"I was never too big into hip hop, it was a lot of rock music. I remember The Carter 3 coming out and that was a big transition. So, I got really heavily hip hop at that time. And, no one was playing the music that I was listening to really."


He was attending Cal State Northridge as a film major. And around the same time, he made friends with a hip-hop producer. He discovered that all the tools needed to produce a dope beat lay within a laptop, and any ambitions he had with film faded into the rearview. Instead, he wanted to be a musician.


"I bought a NuMark controller for Traktor. [It was] plastic and 10 inches by 10 inches. And then me and my homie would like DJ on rooftops. And then I met like, all the blog guys from Gotta Dance Dirty, and Dancism."


At the time Beatport was still emerging, iTunes reigned supreme, and the only way for DJs to find this new raw, home-cooked house was through direct downloads from blogs. It was also the early days of YouTube tutorials. Chapman absorbed everything and eventually started to build his brand.


Remixes drove the SoundCloud era. One well-received bootleg could turn a bedroom producer into a touring DJ in a matter of months. So Chapman's approach to exposing the masses to his budding trademark style through remixes was just as strategic as it was necessary.

"I had wanted to create originals and then sitting down with like, my manager at the time, it was like, we don't have strong enough vocals to like be at the level that they need to be and weren't sure exactly how to go about getting those or even didn't know how to write record them. And then I started, like thinking to myself, I'm like, okay, like, what can I do that no one else is doing. And it's like, we're set out to remix songs that didn't have remixes."


SoundCloud was full of remixes of Billboard Top 100 tunes. They popped up in droves every time a new song broke through. So instead of following the trend, Chapman trodded off the beaten path and remixed 90's hits, songs that struck a nostalgic tone with millennials.


That's how he landed on one of his most popular covers, of Ace of Bass' 1993 "All That She Wants." While he reveals that although he had permission from the publisher to release the song, he says he eventually did end up in some legal hot water because of it. However, it connected him with the right people to take his career to the next level.


"The publisher—who I'll leave anonymous—reached out and was like, 'Dude, we love this remix. We'll let you keep it up if you come have lunch.' And then he's like, let me put you in the room with this new vocalist. She's from Estonia. And let's see what happens.' And that's kind of how 'Raindrops' was born. And the whole start of my career."

"Raindrops" features the vocals of Estonian singer Kerli. It was the first of many songs he signed to Ultra. What followed was an avalanche of hit records, including "California" with Kaleena Zanders, an official remix of "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye, and "Gangsta Walk" with the late Nate Dogg. Chapman is one of the only people to produce a posthumous song featuring vocals released by the estate of the late great hip hop legend, Nate Dogg.


While all this success was brewing and bubbling, Chapman found himself in a state of darkness that came to a head as the pandemic hit its peak.


"I Tried to take my own life in March [of 2020] and I pretty much like cleaned up my act and got sober. It was some pretty bad drugs. It was a wake-up call for me and kind of really was an inspiration."


While conversations around mental health are increasing, they are far from being normalized. Chapman hopes to help erase some of that stigma and promote healthier choices and more open conversations.


"There's gonna be a lot of stuff that I want to do via mental health, and drug addiction," he explains. "I'm lucky to be here, and I'm grateful to be here. And I don't know how but I am. And that has given me this, like second opportunity to really make sure that whatever I do, I can help however I can and just, you know, be there and share my story. And hopefully, it rubs somebody to serve, you know, making their life better."



He says that the experience set him on the path to writing his most personal work to date. His upcoming album is half breakup record, half proclamation that SNBRN is back, he's healthy, and his music is better than ever. The initial single "Home" pulls on a thread he wove when he first began to produce—weaving an iconic sample of "Your Woman" by White Town through a rousing breakbeat and shuffling house drop.

"There's a lot of voicemail stuff recordings from friends who passed away and other stuff through that year. And that kind of sparks the whole intro and then it kind of takes you on this huge journey." Chapman and two friends wrote the album over several months of the pandemic. His penchant for finding a union between nostalgia and modern-day sounds has never been more effective.


Chapman's musical DNA is steeped in soul, rock, and disco. His earliest influences ended up being the stuff that created a pathway for his career. As a result, his recent work is full of nods to the past in the most mysterious ways. He's crafted a world of easter eggs, tiny bits of nostalgia-inducing sonic candy.


"Yeah, it is fun for me putting in Easter eggs and stuff that you would never even know that are there. [There's] all this stuff that you would never really know where it came from, because it's out of context."

Hannes Bieger has lived a multitude of musical lives. The Berlin-based producer, engineer, and analog synth expert has been a guitarist, rare grooves DJ, live performer, and one of the most lauded studio engineers in all of house and techno. Yet, through it all, he's maintained a deep reverence for the philosophical impact of music and a love for how sound moves people. At his core, he holds the spirit of a songwriter. Yet, his deep love for the warmth and raw power of analog synths and drum machines informs him. A true titan of techno, Bieger's years of experience engineering records for the world's top-tier producers, have given him an invaluable understanding of how dance music is most compelling.


But long before he discovered the captivating power of the electronic kick drum, he was a child obsessed with classic rock. His earliest musical memories are heavy with the sounds of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The Rolling Stones.

"A typical afternoon for me, age six would be sitting with headphones in front of the home stereo and flipping over the Sgt. Pepper vinyl over and over again," he remembers fondly. "And the record now is absolutely destroyed. I think it's still in my mother's house. And it's it's full of fingerprints and crackles, and scratches."


His father was a vinyl collector. And fortunately for young Hannes, he wasn't too picky about the condition his records were kept in. The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is a significant record for many people, but for Bieger, it helped unlock something that he wouldn't fully realize until much later in life.


"It was significant because it was so wild, it was so colorful. I always had the feeling that this drug infused period of the Beatles kind of resonates very well with the children's mind, because it's so playful and very innocent. And that really had a profound impact on me. I would even go so far that probably Revolver by the Beatles is maybe my earliest exposure to something that you could say, is electronic music. The way they started to use the studio as an instrument by itself. And for example, use the various speeds of the tape to kind of pitch down the drum recordings. I think it's these little bits and pieces, which really laid the foundation for what I'm doing today."


His real role model was Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. He wanted to play guitar just like him. However, his guitar teacher had other plans. 





"He was more of a jazz guy. And I was [one of his] younger students. I think his vision was to kind of lead me towards jazz at a very young age, which he didn't succeed with because I always just wanted to learn how to play the intro riff of 'Honky Tonk Woman,'" Bieger laughs. "What was great actually is that he never really directly showed me how to play these things, even though he could probably play them in his sleep, but taught me how to learn figuring [it] out myself. For this I'm very grateful."


Ever the voracious consumer of music, Bieger found his way into some of the more wild and experimental records in his dad's collection. And as he dove deeper into the obscure, he discovered acid jazz, breakbeat, and trip-hop. 


The bands he was in transformed from straightforward rock music to the fringes of electronic music. At one point, he played in a band that had a scratch DJ. Yet, it wasn't until he moved to Berlin in 1999 that he discovered the unrelenting power of a synthesized kick drum.


In Berlin, he says the kick drum was inescapable. And as compelling as techno and house were, his background in songwriting initially made it difficult for him to get a firm grasp on how club music is contextualized.


"You're used to [a] different density of information per time. And club music, obviously works in a very different way with time also being perceived in a very different way on the dance floor."


He had to relearn how to structure music. "I had experience from being in the club as a dancer, but not as a live performer in the club environment like I'm doing now, and certainly not as a DJ. And so the first tracks that I produced were more like songs with beats, and in that sense, not really playable from a DJ perspective. And in those years, I was part of several projects, where I fulfilled the role of the instrumental player and studio engineer."


His skills as a studio engineer increased in demand. And he says that as he dedicated more time to that, he left his own goals of producing and performing behind.


"I think those those years were important. I stopped, I started taking a break from from producing in 2006, I think, which then lasted over 10 years. And in that time, obviously, I got very busy as a mixing engineer. And so thousands and thousands of tracks flowed through my system here. And, of course, I condensed a lot of that information into my musical thinking."



When he returned to production and performance in 2018, he had a decade of experience working with dance music's most lauded artists like Adam Beyer, Adriatique, Stephen Bodzin, Dixon, Georgia Anjuli, and Dubfire, to name a few.


He also had a renewed drive to return to his roots. His musical inclination had always been to perform music. DJing was fine, but he wanted to helm the controls and recapture the visceral feeling of a band manipulating the sound on the spot. So he developed a dynamic live set that allowed him to expose the long musical arcs and slithering, sultry melodies of his music.


Even when he was listening to the Beatles on repeat, he absorbed a fundamental truth about music and musicians. As an artist, you are merely a conduit for the music, a vessel for the sound to channel through. And when he wrote "A Million Souls," that fact couldn't have been more evident.


After six weeks on tour in South America and a two-week delay to get home, he arrived in Berlin with very little time to work on his own music for 2019. He returned home halfway through January of that year and went straight into the studio for a string of client projects. He tried to write some personal music in the short time he had, but it just wasn't hitting right.

"The pressure was mounting … And I was I was getting in the danger zone of not having any music I could release in 2019 because I was so late at it. I was nervous, and I felt the pressure. And then I basically just wrote 'A Million Souls' on a Monday morning in a dream. I woke up with the groove and reverb melody in my mind, and I sent myself an email from my bed with a couple of notes. And luckily, I could recover the feeling that I had about the track later at the studio from the notes that I took."


The haunting vocals of Francesca Lombardo elevate the entrancing melody of "A Million Souls." It's as if together Lombardo and Bieger brilliantly captured the feeling of a waking dream. And in a way, he's translated the brilliance of the 60s records he voraciously consumed as a child into modern melodic techno.


"I think [that] characterizes the ideal state of making music. And I think this is really how we, in general should perceive making music [with] some sort of humble attitude, tapping into some kind of energy flow. I don't I don't see myself so much as a designer of my own music. It's more like a gardener in a way, or somebody who receives these ideas and then tries to help them grow into the final musical pieces."

"Even during the NBA, I would always have a club at my house and I would play music for my friends. House music was always it, you know, disco was kind of the beginning that turned into house music, and it's morphed into many, many different genres of house music. But that's where the original kind of music came from. I still today have a club in my house, and I still play music for my friends. That is my passion and that's what I love the most."

Rony Seikaly's life story is something out of a movie. Born in Lebanon, Rony moved to the USA at age ten for four years before moving back to Greece at age 14. While in Greece, he discovered disco and basketball. So he began hosting a "club" in his parent's garage, inviting his friends and teammates over to party while playing any sort of house music he could. 

At the same time, he was discovered by a former Greek basketball player when he went to buy size 15 sneakers at a local shoe store. Despite never having played before, Rony used his incredible athleticism and drive to quickly become one of the worst-kept secrets in Greece. He attended a high-level basketball camp in the United States and got recruited by Syracuse University. 

After a successful four years, he was drafted in the top 10 by the Miami Heat. Rony was an impact player for twelve years before retiring to Miami. Over the years, he has built relationships with artists worldwide and shared his passion for house music with anyone who would listen. After being convinced by close friends Erick Morillo and P Diddy to pursue a career, Rony went on to host a weekly radio show on Sirius XM while touring and eventually producing music.

"I never really wanted to kind of play out and get judged and have people say, what the fuck is this guy going on? Well, what the hell is this guy doing? Why is he deciding to be a DJ? Does he miss the limelight? And honestly, like, that's the last thing I miss. I don't miss the limelight. I don't miss being judged. I don't miss traveling… But for the love of music and Eric Morillo, may he rest in peace. He used to come to my house to listen to me and he says, Rony, you need to play out. You've got a different style, you've got a different sound and you need to play out. You need to let people hear your sound. And he was the one that kind of pushed me to get into this... I know that I have a certain style of music and it's not going to resonate with everybody… I'm here to put happy smiles on the dance floor and to kind of bring back the energy that we had back in the 90s, 2000, where the club was there to go dance and to go have fun and to smile and take pictures and be a celebration of laughter, of joy."

Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg's images jump to mind when we think of artists or celebrities jumping into the booth. Rony wanted to do everything he could to avoid any of these comparisons. One listen to a set or track from Seikaly reveals a sound steeped in underground music culture. He does not abide by any one genre. It's melodic but not melodic techno; it's progressive but not fully progressive house. He prefers to stay somewhere in the world of dark progressive with a hint of house music, vintage and new. Furthermore, he has worked tirelessly to stay up to date with the times. 

"I don't want to get stuck in a certain sound, and that's why you actually hear [a difference] 10 years ago versus now… I feel that the music continues to change and I'm just going to keep following it as far as it goes. When people stop liking the music, I'll stop making it." 


Although he began his journey into DJing early on, learning and understanding music production was a more serious undertaking. Once again, at the behest of his good friend Erick Morillo, he began producing music for Erick's label. Rony studied production like he did basketball, pouring his life into learning the tricks of the trade from the very best. After spending countless hours absorbing the knowledge of other artists, Rony eventually felt comfortable enough to create music that fell into his identity rather than fitting Erick's label. Since then, Rony's production chops have been recognized by some of the best in the world. His collaborators are wide-ranging, including Sasha, Bedouin, Harry Romero, and most recently, P Diddy. 



"Diddy has come to my house so many times to listen to me play... My dream was always to have some influence of hip hop and R&B in the house music where the two can blend, but without moving too much on either side... He's got such a distinct voice that I just, you know, I never wanted to push my friendship and say, 'Hey, I want to do a track with you or something like this.' But at some point, we were just chatting and I said to him, can I use some vocals from you on a track? And then he said to me, 'Well, you know, if we're going to have to get into the studio, I'm going to push you, I'm going to make sure that it's what I want.' So he then sent me a voice message, telling me the same kind of thing like, 'we've been talking about this for so long, and I'm so happy that it's finally happening and I can't wait.' I took that voice message and just kind of put it on the track itself, and it fit perfectly because it's [an example of] my story with him, and that's the story I wanted. It was a personal message to me." 

Given Rony's financial stability from a lengthy NBA career, he can focus on his music career as a pure passion project. He no longer feels the pressure to accept gigs for a paycheck. He only makes music he wants to make and only works with those he wants to work with. His passion for electronic music is undeniable, and his body of work is remarkable. 

Although shows are less common these days, Rony is as busy as ever. Not only did he release his single with Diddy, he has an album coming in March of 2022 that will feature a high-powered remix package. Rony is also politically active, using his voice as much as possible to encourage the citizens of Lebanon to vote and fight for democracy to push back against an authoritarian regime.

Few members of the house music community have the wealth of experience to match that of Ki Creighton. Having signed with Underground Artists Agency in 2015, Ki’s career is currently experiencing an impressive acceleration. But this acceleration did not just magically manifest. It comes from three decades worth of industry experiences that span the spectrum of DJ, producer, promoter, and label boss. In that time he’s diligently worked to become one of the most connected and respected figures in the game. His story starts in the late 80s when he was 13 with nothing more than a couple of tape recorders and an ear for a groove.


“When I started high school in the UK, in first, second, and third years I would do the local parties… whether it was in a barn or one of the girls had a birthday I would go and do the music for that and sometimes just be doing two tape recorders. So I’d just have a tape recorder here and press play and pause, another tape recorder here. So it wasn’t mixing, it was just playing tunes so there was no gap, just stopping and playing… That sorta got the go for mixing… At school I was into people like Prince, Big Audio Dynamite, ya know random things… Michael Jackson, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses… I actually listened to a Big Audio Dynamite album the other day just driving about, it’s still fantastic.”

That affinity for diverse 80’s sounds took a turn when Ki bought Chicago producer, Lil Louis’, 1989 single, “French Kiss.” The famously head-turning track caught Creighton’s ear with its rolling bassline, synth work, and infamously promiscuous breakdown.
           

“That was my first recollection of thinking, ‘What is this kind of music?’ That’s the first-ever record I can remember buying… The first sort of house, bouncing into a different genre, was 'French Kiss.' To me that’s where I started my sound off.”
 

That curiosity sprang into an all-out devotion when a 16-year-old Ki discovered the infamous UK rave scene in 1991. He learned about the illegal parties and hardcore raves like Technodrome and Rezerection from coworkers and knew he needed to investigate further. Undeterred by his young age, Ki packed eight of his friends in a VW transport and went to Technodrome in Ayr, Scotland for their first rave.
 

“We were all young, and we looked ridiculous,” he recalls. “With ponytails and whistles and boiler suits and white gloves and the whole thing. There was Shades of Rhythm, Carl Cox, Pete Tong, all the hardcore DJs… the one thing I can remember I was violently sick all the way home. We snuck in drink… I just remember being sick all the way home and thinking ‘I’m never doing that again.’ But I had a sleep, woke up. There’s no social media so you meet your friends, say ‘How good was that,’ sobered up and I was like, ‘We’re going again next week.’… I forgot all about being sick in the morning.”

Before GPS, social media, and cell phones, Ki and his friends searched for flyers and announcements in record shops to target the next party. 
 

“We traveled all around north England… finding either clubs or raves to go to. We were basically working all week getting our money on Friday and spending it on the weekend getting to either Blackpool, Liverpool, Manchester, Boatland, Wigan Pier was a big one. We went there religiously every week for about three years. We just decided we’re going to dedicate our lives to the rave… Some of the locations were illegal. Some were in farms, barnyards, service stations, wherever they could set up a sound system… We basically ended up touring the country as a group of ravers just having a good time and getting off to the music.”


That commitment to the rave later evolved into a commitment to dance music as a whole as Ki soon set his eyes on the vinyl. A self-proclaimed vinyl junkie, Creighton pivoted his focus from raves to records and amassed a massive collection of around 25,000 records. He acquired two Numark belt-driven turntables (later switched to Technics direct-drive turntables), a mixer, and some less than favorable speakers and took over his parents’ loft and pool table for eight hours every night. Those hours on the decks gradually led to small local gigs and in 1998, Ki decided to give music his all.



Ki’s best mate, Yousef of Circus Recordings, had just gotten a residency with Ministry of Sound in Edinburgh. Seeing one of his friends in a high-end gig inspired Creighton to not only take his drive and ambition in music to the next level, but to also dial in his sound—a sound reminiscent of the American house music scene championed by artists like Roger Sanchez, DJ Sneak, Derrick Carter, and CJ Mackintosh. That same night in 1998, Ki met the promoter for Ministry of Sound and exchanged numbers. The following week, he would get his chance to prove his resolve. The promoter contacted Creighton to inform him a DJ for Ministry of Sound in Edinburgh had fallen ill and needed a replacement. Ki accepted.
 

“For the lead up for that, I was absolutely bricking it… I had done parties… but to get into these big clubs… that was the break,” he remembers thoughtfully. “I practiced that two-hour set maybe 25-30 times leading up to that night and I played really well. I’m my own worst critic. If I have a bad night and I play bad I beat myself up about it. Nobody’s perfect, nobody plays well all the time. But that night for the first-ever set, I came away and I thought ‘Yeah yeah, you can do this… Leading up to it I was absolutely shitting myself, I was like Woah hold on” Ki laughs. “What if this goes wrong what if that goes wrong? But it went well,” he smiles.
 

Soon after that, Ki met Matthew Tyson, owner of a DJ shop in Carlisle. The two became good friends and partnered for an event called Lucid in 2000. In 2006, Lucid evolved into their current promo brand, UBER. The brand hosts some of house music's biggest acts like Solardo and Camelphat, as well as impressive local talents. They've also garnered a proud reputation for exceptional professional care and practices. As its resident DJ, Ki may also be able to lay claim to the longest standing residency in all of Europe at 20 years and counting.


Creighton’s career has surely blossomed since that fateful night in Edinburgh more than 20 years ago. In that time, Ki has released music on a long list of labels including Elrow, Sola, 8bit, Circus, Cajual, Glasgow Underground, Underground Audio, and New Violence. And that doesn’t even include all the music he has released under his own label, Under No Illusion, which he started in 2013. Since its inception, UNI has marked over 200 releases and counting—an impressive feat for that time frame.
 

“We release every two weeks. I was planning on releasing every month but when I started off I had that many connections in the music industry, I was getting demos and emails, I was getting management sending me things, I was like there’s no way I can do one a month. I’m getting all this great music. I made the decision to do two releases a month which is a heavy heavy workload. You’re continually having to get masters done, get artwork done, promos, videos, it’s non-stop. We’ve done that from the off.” 
 

Heading Under No Illusion also provides Ki an outlet to give back to the community that has given him so much. As an artist with years of experience, he knows the road of an up-and-coming artist better than most.

“As a producer and an artist, me sending music and getting the rejection, I also know what it’s like to get given a yes and that’s the best feeling of it,” he confesses. “For me, I love the fact that this unknown kid or somebody who sends me music and says ‘What do you think of this?’ And I’ve tested it and the next day I can say ‘You know what? I’m gonna take this for Under No Illusion’… You hear it in their email. That sounds strange but they come back and they’re like ‘This made my day, my year, this is my dream,’ I get that a lot… and you’re kinda’ making that dream become a reality. We’ve given breaks to a lot of touring artists at the start of their careers.”
 

While Ki wears many hats in his life as DJ, producer, promoter, label boss, and family man, an air of gratitude permeates it all. His love for his family, friends, associates, and city is proudly expressed. His love for music is unrestricted. He cherishes the opportunity to help make an artist’s dream come true. His experiences have afforded him friendships, memories, and the opportunity to immerse himself in a life and career around music.  Most importantly to him is the perspective that holds the fitting comfort of a father when he calmly shares this advice for brand new up-and-comers.
 

“You should never ever give it up. Just always stay true. Stay true to your sound as well. You’ve got to have a focus on your sound, what your sound sounds like to you. If it’s different, stay different, because fads change, genre’s change. There’s minimal sounds now, and there’s tech-house sounds then, disco is coming back, maybe in two years time garage might come back, UK house has always been great. So stay true to your sound and you’ll not go far off.”

Life is better with friends. People by your side with whom you can share wonderful experiences. People who help you discover who you really are. People who guide you on the path to reach your goals. Danny Goliger and James Thomas are two friends on the path of music production with their hardware-driven dance project, DiGJiT. 

Collaborating for just over a year at the time of writing, Goliger and Thomas built this electronic band on a dynamic of similarity and reciprocity. 

Both Goliger and Thomas have solo projects. Under his moniker, DJ Health. Thomas has released two EPs on Justin Jay's Fantastic Voyage. In 2021 alone, Goliger released his debut LP, Meaningful Pursuits, also on Fantastic Voyage and his latest EP, Sustain, as a part of Dirtybird's White Label series.

Goliger and Thomas share many creative attributes and interests, but their differences allow them to learn from one another and grow as musicians. 

One of their similar experiences was exposure to music at a young age, but not the kind of exposure they asked for.

"[Music] was something I had to do. Something I was being forced to do," says Goliger.

Like many kids, Goliger's parents coaxed him into taking classical piano lessons, and as is common with many of those kids, he didn't love it. He didn't love the pieces he was playing or the solitary nature of classical piano.

Thomas's father sent him to a piano school when he was very young as well, and it wasn't his favorite experience either. He clearly recalls a memory of plunking through his first recital after watching one of his classmates expertly perform.

Despite their initial aversion, these early experiences, however unpleasant, planted the musical seed in both of them. Some years later, they each gravitated towards electronic music. Goliger torrented a copy of the popular production software Logic on Limewire, around the same time he fell in love with playing the drums. Thomas also began fiddling with synthetic sounds.

"We had this really bad practice keyboard in my New York City apartment and the piano sounds I hated, but there was one sound with an electric piano with a chorus you could add to it, which is like the closest thing to a synth. I always wanted to play whatever we were playing on that," Thomas says. "That added a little bit of sonic interest to whatever I wasn't connecting with at the time."

From there, they each continued their musical pursuits. Goliger studied audio engineering at the University of Southern California Thornton School Of Music. Thomas began DJing, primarily focusing on vinyl. Both of them were producing their own music as well.

The two would eventually connect in Los Angeles through mutual friends, and the defining moment was when Goliger saw Thomas DJing at the Downtown Los Angeles hotspot for house and techno, Pattern Bar.

"James was throwing it down; a really really good set," Goliger says. "I was like 'Damn this guy is a sick DJ.' I knew pretty quickly that our tastes had a lot of overlap."

Their taste in music had a lot of overlap, and their preferred method of production overlapped in a significant way. Both Goliger and Thomas share a fascination with hardware. Drum machines. Samplers. Modular racks. These machines define the DiGJiT sound.  

Interestingly, while they were both fascinated with hardware, each had very different experience levels with it when they started collaborating. 

Goliger had been building his setup for years at that point:

"I started working for different producers when I was in college," Goliger says. "There were a handful of producers that I worked for that had insane gear collections, and as a young twenty-something I was very envious of the stuff that they had and I was like 'I want to start buying and collecting.' So basically since then I've scraped together all the spare money that I can and put it right into my studio."

On the other hand, Thomas had just received his first drum machine as a birthday present right before he and Goliger started working together. Thomas primarily produced in-the-box before acquiring his new apparatus, but when he brought it to Goliger's studio, the two of them jammed for six hours on hardware.

"That was the beginning of hanging and jamming," Thomas says, and hanging and jamming became the foundation of DiGJiT. 

Being able to manifest music in the moment with different synthesizers combined their early instrumental inclinations with their love of hardware, but the experience truly resonated with both of them because it was something they shared as friends. They had (and continue to have) tons of fun when they jam. 

Furthermore, their varying skill levels with hardware and improvisation allowed them to grow as producers. Thomas was just starting his journey with synthesizers while Goliger already had considerable experience.

"It really changed my approach and my workflow," says Thomas of working with Goliger. "I was coming at making music from the computer-beatmaking perspective. I had two synths and now this drum machine at the time, and I was treating them like plugins. I would have an idea, take it to the synth, record it in, and I only had an interface with two inputs at the time. I was super limited in that way. So, coming over here and jamming almost entirely with hardware, really just using the computer to track, totally changed the composition and the compositional style."

Beginning to work together in the middle of the pandemic, both Goliger and Thomas had more time than ever for music, and thus they began churning out track after track. Some of their sessions were side-by-side in Los Angeles. Others were remote when Thomas moved to Colorado temporarily, but their production dynamic remained strong. 

Currently, there are three DiGJiT singles out in the world. All three are very synth-heavy with tight-knit drum patterns. According to Goliger and Thomas, these were some of their earliest works, and now they have many more songs that push the boundaries of dancefloor music even further.

Soon their pallet of original tracks started to expand as their sound as a project started to solidify. Coincidentally, this was happening right when live events began to open up, so they took the opportunity to craft a live hardware set based on improvisation.

Essentially, they were hanging and jamming with an audience.

Both Thomas and Goliger wanted to perform with synthesizers for a long time, and in developing their setup, Thomas's advanced skills as a DJ helped Goliger grow as a performer. 

"James has a really good top-down understanding of structure and form in dance music. [He has] an ability to see what's happening, bigger picture, and arrange on the fly," Goliger says. "It's real easy when you're improvising to get lost in what you're doing. Being such an experienced DJ has given him a strong sense of arc and contour. In a song. In a set."

With that kind of understanding, Thomas naturally took command of the drums during DiGJiT sets. He provides direction while Goliger pushes the limits of his Eurorack and different samplers (watch/listen to the interview for a full technical breakdown of their live performance).

After figuring out their different performance roles, the only thing left was having the courage to get on stage, and with their strong friendship, any nervousness evaporated.

"I was shitting a brick when we were stepping up to the table the first time to play it live," Thomas laughs. "Having Danny, who's pretty experienced in touring and playing on fairly large festival stages, I really appreciated the calm energy he was bringing to the performance which went really well.

"I've played in some friends' bands that have been fairly successful. I've toured a bit, and I've gotten the chance to play on pretty big stages because of them," Goliger says. "Having the support of friends being like 'Holy shit we're about to go on to this huge stage, but at least we're doing it together' is really important for me. It's easier to do it with friends."

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