Walk me through this mix. How did you approach it?
When I was making this mix in particular, I really wanted something that was kind of flirtatious. I always think about the contrast between intensity and softness. Even when I play out, I'll try to mix up sort of varying degrees of soft, tender moments with driving beats. When I was making this mix, I definitely wanted to have that flirtatious slow entry into something that lets you fall into this trance without you maybe even noticing it.
How do you approach a live set differently from a mix?
For live sets, I tend to think about the whole flow of the evening, you know, who else is on the lineup? What type of venue is it? What time of night am I playing? All those factors go into the energy level that I want to come across. If you play a closing set, the energy progression is going to be a lot different than if you play peak. A lot of times, when I promote, I'll open up so that other people can have the peak time slots. So mostly, I think about how much energy I'm trying to absorb and transmit to the dancers. And then I think about the pacing. Do I want it to get faster? Do I want it to slow down? Do I just want to stay at this high energy the whole time? Then what genres compliment what I’m trying to achieve, and what's new, what's fresh? What am I excited about playing versus stuff that is a timeless and classic that will always like go off?
So do you err on the side of fan favorites or deep cuts?
I like to go with deep cuts, but I also tend to play a lot of fan favorites, depending on the venue.
How has your taste in music evolved, where did it start?
So my early childhood I spent in Stockton, California, and then moved to the DMV/DC area. And when I was growing up, I was classically trained. My parents basically got me into violin and piano when I was in elementary school and all around the house they played classical music. When I was growing up, I was classically trained. My parents basically got me into violin and piano when I was in elementary school and all around the house they played classical music. When I started getting on Tumblr it was a huge, you know, eye-opening experience because I would've considered myself a pretty sheltered kid before that. I started getting more into experimental stuff, and then got into dance music and I learned I was really interested in the sociological stuff around it. I started researching some of the cultural elements and the ethnographic elements of dance music. Since I started classically trained, I had an ear for instruments. And then, because I listened to a lot of internet music, I started thinking about machines and repetition and those sonic elements of noise and imperfection. And then, you know, then I got super immersed in the dance music world in college, which just thrust me into this world.
What cultural elements were you interested in with dance music?
I guess it was really fascinating how certain genres came up in certain areas and were influenced by what sort of drugs people were doing. Have you heard of the book Energy Flash? It’s a really thick book about dance music. But, I took this seminar about electronic dance music, and of course, EDM was huge and I was like “Oh, this sounds interesting. I like music, I’ll check this out. But it wasn’t about EDM at all. It was more about the actual roots of electronic dance music. And that was a really fascinating entry point into the methods of creating electronic music. I remember one of the first things we talked about was disintegration loops. For example, I was really fascinated by how in Northern parts of England, it was super industrial, super harsh weather conditions, most people worked in factories and had a lot of negativity towards government and all these stresses. And, they’d do like a lot of drugs. And then in the 90s and 2000s that contributed to the rise of Jungle, this super dark, speed motivated sound.And that's an interesting complement to, you know, the acid and molly fueled hardcore raves, because those drugs were engineered for more of a euphoria feeling than just pure intensity. You can see that being reflected in the music that's coming out in the 90s and 2000s. Same thing with UK garage, which is one of my favorite genres. It's really interesting to hear how it turned from being this champagne-type genre and slowly got darker and people became more experimental with it. And then you have grime coming out of that and grime was way more intense and dark. I don't know, I love studying these genres and sort of how they progressed over time.
What’s a specific track or record that’s been particularly influential to you?
I’d pick the Allyarecords 10-inch by Hyperdub, which I own, because I was really into the UK bass scene. So my favorite label at the time was Hyperdub, which is what this record is off of. And this producer Scratcha DVA is one of my favorite DJs slash selectors–definitely a huge influence on the way that I think about mixing music and combining different genres. He's so fluid, and so creative when it comes to his mixing style. And this record, is really fun, kind of a hybrid form of different club music that I was listening to. So I was listening to like UK funky and newer, deconstructed club, is what they used to call it. It’s just kind of like a fun, kind of weird, like off-kilter, not something that just fits into a format. I thought the record was just like really cool aestheticly as well. It’s a clear 10-inch. It’s so rare, it feels very novel. It represents such a crystallized moment in my music listening and my DJ learning path. Also, it's just one of the actual physical artifacts that I feel emotionally resonates with me.