spoke with
@eoin_murraye
for
@DJmag
about what gymnastics & raving share for me (both taught me everything i know about commun*ty & how to push my body to the limit), my (lack of) ambition as a dj, nowadays biz, my all-nighter & more
i could give a fuck about clout, being cool or becoming famous, and increasingly i've got a lower & lower tolerance for anyone who clearly does. like pls i am begging some of you to get some perspective and see that there are far more important things than your dj career
tbh sometimes i am very lonely in this game. i desperately crave community and instead mostly encounter cliques & transactional relationships. that's why i do things like open decks + book club, it helps me feel genuine connection and roots everything in a sense of togetherness
i love clubbing in brooklyn, raving in general and electronic dance music of all kinds & spent the last 7 years trying to facilitate that as much as possible for everyone until i was fired bc i advocated for my coworkers & gaza. yet not a peep on this website about that!
this is so indulgent but humor me for a sec. as my life has fallen apart over the last month i’ve held on to what’s good by writing down the music-oriented experiences i'm grateful for this year. it'll never be complete but for now i think the list is ready to share:
Time and time again I see the evolution of an artist’s sound into something more safe / less adventurous as they get bigger bookings and play more often and it never fails to bum me out
if you're a dj and you love music i promise it's okay to go and get a day job. it's kinda weird to act like being in the club is a miserable experience unless a check is getting cut. you're cool with your usb essentially becoming a time card? nahhh
no more djs signing solidarity statements without first passing a basic vocab + reading comprehension test pls 😭
also i hope people realize that the signature is not the act of solidarity itself. the signature marks the commitment to act in solidarity going forward. no?
sustain recap:
this year i was begging the rave gods for a social atmosphere that would lean more goofy, loose & and deranged. safe to say my wishes were granted : )
& batu is king. 👑🫡
friendly reminder that i will not be intimidated or silenced, there is no threat that you can leverage in my direction that will get me to cave and stop talking about palestine at this point. i also refuse to have my tone policed on the topic of genocide. get a fucking grip 💙
if you don't get a kick out of being confused, overwhelmed, and maybe even a little afraid of the sounds you're hearing on a dancefloor then i can't relate to you. definitely all parts of my definition of fun
birthday nonstop exceeded my expectations, beyond. i saw every dj and every single set was perfect, they all absolutely nailed the assignment. wild to realize i've hit my stride doing something right as it's being taken away from me 💔
thank you so much to
@eoin_murraye
&
@DJmag
for this feature. it includes the first mix i have recorded in over a year. i'm more proud of it than anything else i've ever done and have so much to say about it. sadly i am unable to find the words right now.
had to check for myself and sure enough, i'm blocked. but what is absolutely hilarious to me is they also blocked my tiny book club account - turns out they really do their research!
at this point if your set is still up with them you're making a very big statement in my eyes.
So H😵R are blocking people who have opposed them? Im blocked on their IG - confirmed.
Are ppl still playing on there? Cos thats a seriously awful look at this stage
As a DJ and booker at NYC club Nowadays,
@voices_______
champions music imbued with adventure and experimentation, forever favouring "energy and drama over genre". This month, she tells
@eoin_murraye
about how a devotion to community and authenticity informs everything she does
the fact that we only get one of these stories every five years or so is a crime. we deserve a laugh at the expense of wildly overpaid & entitled hacks a lot more often than that 😭
#1
accomplishment for me of 2022 by far was healing from depression. it was a long & rocky road, i'm certain it's not smooth sailing from here on out but it's been wild to feel okay for the first time in my adult life. also i used to find these kind of tweets annoying sorry 😇
i absolutely love djing, it's pretty much saved my life and brought me more joy than anything else ever has, but it certainly won't be what stands between me and doing what i feel is right, or expressing views that i hold as firm truths...like come the fuck on now
almost a year since my dad died, with the months that followed culminating in truly the worst year of my entire life...and yet at this point i feel better than i have in near decades. maybe now i'm grateful to have hit rock bottom because it got me here? a wild feeling💙
i've had a show on
@TheLotRadio
since they opened but have always been shy about getting on the mic. this year i've gone for it with confidence though...and maybe a bit too much as i didn't realize echo was still on the whole time 😇😅
stupid motherfuckers talk more about how safer space monitors are "the police" but i've literally never once heard them say this about straight up security guards roaming the dance floor
turning down clout-y gigs makes me wonder if i've lost all ambition but then i remember a less-is-more approach literally saved me from quitting djing a year ago. i’ve gotta tune out the constant exposure culture and trust my intuition is onto something deeper here
please do not project your personal notions of success or a dj career onto me. i do not want a dj career, i just want to dj. mostly in NA (but i'm open to checking things out anywhere) & definitely not every weekend. the smaller the room the better.
i'm sure most ppl saw it as unbecoming, dramatic, misdirected, annoying or god forbid unprofessional, but publicly expressing relatively unfiltered rage over the last few days has def made me feel better. love therapy but sometimes you just need a bunch of people to bear witness
curating hemlock nights def going down as one of the greatest honors of my life...thank you honcho for the trust thank you deejays yibing, razrbark, lis dalton, scott zacharias,
@lycheefrut
,
@_succubass
, yumi &
@JADALAREIGN
for the music 💙
love injection is an incredibly important project archiving dance music in nyc (and beyond). i’m honored to have somehow ended up on the cover for this issue (!) with an interview by LI co-founder & dear friend Barbie Bertisch and photos by
@Guari1x
aug/sept in my world 🌐 -->
8.18 HÖR, Berlin
8.19 Panorama Bar, Berlin
8.20 Noods Radio, Bristol
8.20 Strange Brew, Bristol
8.26 Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
8. 27 Tengu, Dublin
9.3 La Trabendo, Paris
9.9 Nowadays, NYC
9.15 Sustain Release, NY
ty to all involved 💙
the reason we will never get wider solidarity in nyc nightlife is because this war is so polarizing and divisive. been in this world almost 10 years now and i've kind of never seen anything like it. but that's exactly why such solidarity is so important right now.
In my book there are only two ways to approach social media successfully as an artist: with humility and authenticity. Aloof coolness and excessive thirst are out. I’m not rewarding that behavior anymore.
totally blown away and nearly speechless after
@nowadaysnyc
last night. i played my little heart out and it ruled. the energy from andrew and chris did a number on the place. every single dancer and dj truly gave it their all...i'm in awe and in love with you all!
it's cool and exciting to be on your own path and not have your trajectory as an artist look the same as everyone else's...or am i the only one who feels this way lol
my opinion about mixing in key is that it's so cool there are no rules or right or wrong ways to do anything related to djing despite what others may tell you !
really wanna release my opening set from the night with two shell but that feels like putting myself at the crossroads of scrutiny from dj twitter right now lol
really wish i was able to sum up these thoughts more eloquently, or at least more succinctly, but either way this is why i'm here and how i'd like to do things, in case anyone is interested xx
in 2018 id like to see less apologizing for "self promotion" which is really just you letting other people know that you're doing a thing you love and inviting friends along for the ride
music is very powerful, i'm sure we can all agree on that. so djs/musicians...we have a lot of power in that sense. that's why it especially creeps me out to see silence from so many artists. it says so much about your heart. you shouldn't have the power of music in your hands.
each day begins with the fact i was treated as disposable by a lot of people & one very important place this year. the rest of the day's energy is spent restoring a sense of self-worth, and that's why for four months now i haven't been able to get much else done. fantastic year🎈
big thank you to everyone who gave me a bit of their time & attention on the nowadays dance floor yesterday. i really needed to play that set and process some things alongside you all. feeling a lot of things today as a result, mostly good : ) thank you again.
💙🇵🇸💙 🇵🇸💙
will never forget the feeling of watching some one be moved to tears as a result of my djing. i'm feeling deeply seen in a way that is so rare. the night was honestly very emotional for me, i'm glad i'm not the only one who felt like we tapped into some deeper shit 💙
okay i'm terrible at promoting anything over here but some of you did ask to be alerted about the next book club (and tbh i forgot, but fixing that now!)
may 14 / 8pm / @ trans pecos
we going --> 🌀🌀🌀
A Darker Electricity: The Origins of Spiral Tribe Sound System
don't know if i'll ever really have the words to properly describe what patrick russell's set this morning at no way back did to me. also i need him to explain what djing is to me now, it totally shattered the limitations of what i thought it was possible to do with sound
often artists i book from overseas ask about other places they can play in the states. i'm looking to create a list of NA promoters for them, have a lot so far but don't want to miss anyone. if you throw parties & would like to be included, dm me (they're actually open this time)
first time i've ever been booked for a halloween party this year. it's a few days before the gig and i'm deep in a youtube wormhole of halloween edits, which is totally normal right?
some of you musicians, who continue to remain silent on anything that matters but post clips of some of the least interesting & most predictable music to ever grace god’s green earth…some of you are really tempting me to risk it all for another taste of that long lost thrill
this should go without saying & applies year round, but since it's worth repeating: if you're coming to nowadays rn i need you to come fully & entirely correct. best behavior type shit. tip extra at the bar and make sure your friends do too, etc etc. pls & thank you 💙
always bittersweet to see how the lit world can swiftly mobilize & ppl will step down from beloved publications w/o hesitation when most djs won't even seriously consider forfeiting a gig at a venue they constantly talk shit about & that's paying them an unimpressive fee
just over 2 and a half hours of me playing in the woods at honcho campout (the last 30 mins remains between me, the dancers and the trees)
peaks and valleys + mood shifts in an attempt to repair broken hearts, even if only temporarily 💔❤️🔥
also apologies to anyone who i told to shut up on the dance floor this weekend. but that music is what i call "being high on the dance floor music" and not party music so i can't stand the chatter i'm sorry
I consider myself a reformed mean girl. It took many years of unlearning to realize that not every situation called for me to say the words that will make the deepest cuts. But…
a dance floor is only as good as its dancers, & still to me none are better than that one. thank u to my favorite dancers on my favorite dance floor, you've made me into the dj (& in many ways the person!) that i am today 💝 gonna miss you so fucking much
beloved fellow djs, your silence is not actually the silence you think it is. by remaining silent you are very much chiming in on the conversation and making it very clear exactly what you stand for right now.
the dance floor is often my classroom
& i tomorrow i get to contribute to the lesson.
🗣️🕛✍️
nowadays nonstop // sat-> sun:
22:00 Honey Bun
01:00 Justin Carter
04:00 Eamon Harkin
06:00 Ben UFO
12:00 DJ Voices
15:00 Carlos Souffront
18:00 livwutang
21:00 Chris Cruse
just realized i never shared this here - bit of a wholesome reprieve if you need it. can't stand the sound of my own voice but the conversation is worth it. big love to these two major legends and the dripping crew <3