Avsnitt
-
House music pioneer Vince Lawrence and law professor Dr. Olufunmilayo Arewa unpack how record companies have undermined Black musicians—and what we can do to enact change.
This past week, Resident Advisor screened and distributed a new, award-winning documentary called Taking Back the Groove. It tells the story of Bronx-born disco legend Richie Weeks, whose song "Rock Your World" with Weeks & Co. climbed to #1 on the dance charts in the 1980s.
Like many Black artists throughout American recording history, his talent was strip-mined to enrich corporate record labels. In the movie, Weeks and Still Music label owner Jerome Derradji narrate the story of how they clawed back the rights to Weeks' tracks, as well as the ongoing battle he's had to wage to restore his legacy and ownership over his creative work.
This story is, sadly, perennial, especially for artists of colour and otherwise marginalised musicians who continue to be sidelined by major players in the music industry. In this RA Exchange, Vince Lawrence—a Chicago-based house music producer and original founder of Trax Records—speaks with Washington DC-based guest Dr. Funmi Arewa, a graduate of Harvard Law School and UC Berkeley, and a current professor at George Mason University, where she teaches business law in the creative industries.
The two engage in a fascinating discussion about the history of the recording industry and the exploitation of marginalised artists that runs through its fabric. How do we make it easier for artists to claim things that are rightfully theirs? What if we could create incentives to create fairness at the core of how record labels function? Listen to their thoughts on these questions in the full episode. -
"I fell in love with the piano again." The DJ and composer discusses the vulnerability of the creative process, returning to acoustic instruments and touring her latest album.
Laurel Halo has been circling around the club music world for a number of years, but she's only recently entered the echelons of jazz and contemporary classical. Originally from Michigan, she went to music school in Ann Arbor before moving to Berlin, and now Los Angeles, where she composed her album, Atlas—a release that's been met with widespread critical acclaim. She also played alongside Moritz von Oswald in his jazz outfit the Moritz von Oswald Trio, and released a number of eclectic, UK-tinged dance floor records on underground giants like Hyperdub and Livity Sound.
In this RA Exchange, Laurel Halo discusses the new direction of her music and what it's been like to tour it live with cellist Leila Bordreuil. She also talks about her creative inspiration (namely, the Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul and books by surrealist writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and Italo Calvino), the practice of aesthetic minimalism more generally and the methods she uses to create subtle variations in pieces that are slow to evolve. Listen to the episode in full. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
-
"They were wild and crazy years." The Spanish techno icon discusses his early years in Madrid, running record labels and staying true to his sound for more than 30 years.
Spanish DJ and producer Oscar Mulero is a legend of underground techno. Since starting to play parties and make music more than 30 years ago, he's earned a reputation as an anti-conformist tastemaker who's adamantly stuck to his guns. While his trajectory began with Madrid's goth and punk clubs in the '90s, he eventually found techno in the early '00s and started two labels, PoleGroup and Warm Up, as homes for the hypnotic, spaced-out sound that's become his signature.
In this RA Exchange, Mulero reflects on the early days of the Spanish techno scene and how it's evolved, as well as his own roots and influences. Today, the artist is as active as he's ever been, he discusses how he's maintained longevity as an artist in the face of changing trend, as well as his best practices for making music at home and on the road. Listen to the episode in full. -
"I'm a noodler." The vaunted experimental producer and DJ discusses his playful approach to engaging with philosophy and making art live at Atonal's OPENLESS in Berlin.
British artist Lee Gamble has long been captivating listeners with high concept dance music. A loyal affiliate of Kode9's Hyperdub label, Gamble—whose work sits somewhere at the intersection of philosophy, computer music and sound art—has been building weird and wonderful musical worlds that have shot him to experimental stardom since the early 2010s. In this RA Exchange recorded live from Hard Wax (at the one-off weekender Atonal OPENLESS), Gamble meditates on his penchant for eschewing conventions, beginning with growing up in the countercultural, working class hub of Birmingham.
Gamble reflects on the first time he experienced what's called "future shock", a reference to a book by the same name written by sci-fi author Alvin Toffler. It set him on the pursuit of finding and making music that had a similarly bizarre quality. Gamble isn't just a producer but an avid admirer and connoisseur of critical theory, and he also discusses the thinkers who have informed his production (and even his approach to DJing), as well as his recent interest in the ethics and applications of AI and deep fakes, which he explores in a touching full-length, Models. Listen to the episode in full. -
"I always find inspiration from my city." The DJ and producer talks about her love of Naples, moving from the underground to the mainstream and her new audiovisual show.
If you've ever gone to big room techno hubs like Time Warp, DC-10, Awakenings or Rotterdam Rave, then Anfisa Letyago's name should be familiar to you. But Letyago actually comes from underground roots; before she played to thousands of people from the beaches of Ibiza, she was releasing on legacy labels like Hotflush, Kompakt, Nervous Records and Rekids, and collaborating with old guard artists like DJ Pierre.
In this RA Exchange, the Naples-based DJ and producer talks about the strategy she employed to make it to the top. Having become enamoured with Carl Cox during her first days of raving in Naples as a university student, she flew to one of his gigs and stood outside his hotel with her tracks on a USB. She was delighted when he took them and played them in his set that night. Shortly thereafter, Cox booked Letyago to play his curated stage at Ultra Music Festival and has since acted as a close mentor, teacher and friend.
Today, Letyago is preparing a live audiovisual show, Partenope, which straddles the boundary of techno and vocal-led pop. She also started her own label, NSDA—an homage to a volcanic island near Naples—and is preparing her first full-length album to be released on a sub-label of Sony Music. She also reveals some facts that fans may not know about her despite the intimate moments from her life she shares online. Listen to the episode in full. -
The annual Caribbean street parade Notting Hill Carnival has taken place in London since 1966 to celebrate the influx of immigrants brought to the UK during Windrush. Carnival is a celebration of the rich and multifaceted artistic heritage that came with them, especially in the form of Afro-Caribbean music, dance and sound system culture.
The South London-born poet, producer and NTS Radio host James Massiah is one of a generation of musicians who has been influenced by the city's Afro-Caribbean cultural legacy. In this interview, he talks to Errol Anderson of the South London-based curatorial platform Touching Bass about his connection to London's sound systems and his own artistic evolution. His output centres around hedonism and what he calls "joyful living"—a reaction to the church community he grew up in. Many of the lyrics on his most recent EPs, like True Romance, paint a picture of drugs, partying, sex, addiction and heartbreak (he's even gone on to name his recurring poetry night Adult Entertainment). Music, he reflects, has provided a powerful and cathartic means to express himself and open up.
In his youth, Massiah wasn't just shaped by his church, he says, but by the Afro-Caribbean genres circulating through his neighborhood: '80s funk, raga, garage, grime and a form of Jamaican dancehall called Yardie. Later, as he was exposed to popular rock and house music, he took the sensibilities he heard in pop acts like Fleetwood Mac and applied them to a Caribbean musical framework. His sound palette is an uncanny amalgamation of Stevie Nicks' ethereal voice with the stylings of soca—a sub-genre that fuses calypso, reggae and Caribbean zouk. Listen to the episode in full. -
"Dancing has always been visceral to me." The DJ and producer talks about bringing movement into her music practice and the role mythology and meditation plays in art and life.
The Italian-French DJ, producer and dancer Giulia Fournier-Mercadante—AKA GiGi FM—has had a varied, multidisciplinary career. Originally a dancer, Fournier-Mercadante received a scholarship for the New York City Ballet and the contemporary dance outfit Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as a teenager. Finding the dancing world difficult to navigate, especially in its approach to body image, she graduated and moved to London to focus on music. It was there that she discovered techno and its capacity to heal. She started hosting a regular show on NTS, getting booked locally and then touring around the world.
Today, Fournier-Mercadante has integrated dance into her productions, which use motion sensors to transform physical movement into MIDI. Her use of her body as her basic instrument has led to a unique, kinetic sound palette that defines all of her tracks. In this Exchange, she unpacks how she's worked with this technique and rediscovered her love of dancing, as well as how spirituality, dream states and astrology inform her life and work. Listen to the episode in full. -
"Soundscapes reveal a lot about how people think and behave." The field recordist and musician talks about listening culture, repatriating African sounds and his new album with The Bug.
Today's conversation moves away from the dance floor, focusing instead on the soft, ambient soundscapes of the Berlin-based musician Joseph Kamaru—AKA KMRU—whose work has been featured at festivals like CTM, Mutek, Atonal, Horst Music and Arts, Dekmantel, and Unsound; concert halls like The Barbican; and major galleries and site-specific installations around the world.
Kamaru moved to Europe from Nairobi, where he first became interested in music production, and field recordings specifically. As a graduate student in the sonic arts, he learned that the majority of the discourse around sound art practices is specific to Western Eurocentric or occidental ways of thinking. He's since embarked on a mission to use field recording as a means of repatriating African identities that are often left out of institutional archives and grapple with the legacy of colonialism.
In this RA Exchange, Kamaru reflects on the sociopolitical angle of his work, and his observation that listening, by its very nature, is never neutral. He also talks about how civilisation and technology has changed our collective listening habits; how sound sources beyond the human hearing range make their way into his work with the use of electromagnetic microphones; and his new album, Disconnect, made with the musician Kevin Richard Martin (AKA The Bug). Listen to the episode in full. -
"We used to roll up socks in our shoes to give us an extra inch." The childhood friends talk about coming of age in Belfast and their label and event series, CHROMA.
Bicep—the Irish duo Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar—have been winning over the hearts of fans with trance-inflected, melancholic dance music since 2009. In this interview with RA editor Gabriel Szatan, the childhood friends talk about how they got where they are, unpacking their creative process and the abiding musical influence of their hometown, Belfast, a city where emotional trance reigned supreme.
They also discuss their ongoing multidisciplinary project, CHROMA—a record label, event series and evolving live audiovisual show. Ferguson and McBriar say that the idea for CHROMA came from a sense that their DJ sets were becoming too "sugary," so they buckled down with a renewed focus on creating dynamic new productions made specifically for the dance floor and their sets. The result is a string of hard-hitting EPs which you can find online now. Listen to the episode in full. -
"I started in the clubs, and that's where my heart is." The British singer-songwriter and RA's newest cover star talks about her new album, BRAT, live from AVA London.
This week's Exchange is with Resident Advisor's latest cover star: Charli xcx. The British singer-songwriter has garnered a reputation as one of the most unpredictable and boundary-pushing pop artists of her generation, collaborating with contemporaries like A. G. Cook, Yaeji and the late SOPHIE. And she's now on the heels of her most recent album, BRAT, which came out in June and has already been lauded as one of the best albums of the year.
In this conversation recorded live at AVA London with journalist Chal Ravens, Charli xcx dives into the making of the album. She calls it a club record—that, she says, is "where her heart is." After posting songs on MySpace around 2008, she was asked to DJ at warehouse parties when she was still in her teens. She felt alive in that space, she remembers, doing crazy, embarrassing things.
Now in a different chapter of her life and career, she contemplates her desire to make challenging music that still appeals to a broad audience. It's a pendulum that swings radically in both ways, and she finds herself reinventing herself within the pop space and navigating that tension again and again. Listen to the episode in full. -
"It's a dream to share a passion with your best friend." The German duo talk about life on the road and writing their first album in six years.
Together, Felix Wagner and Aaron Röbig make up the dynamic duo FJAAK. As one of Germany's best-known nightlife exports, they've earned a reputation for being techno's "boy band," gracing the stages of festivals and clubs all over the world for the last ten-plus years.
Wagner and Röbig met in Spandau, an area just outside of Berlin, when they were both still in school. Equally interested in music (especially hip-hop), they started working on beats together alongside two other friends. The four-person group turned into FJAAK, and when they all moved to the city centre together after finishing their studies, they started living collectively and touring the project, achieving traction quickly.
FJAAK is now just a duo—the group dwindled from four people to three, and then, in 2019, to just Röbig and Wagner. They claim they're closer to soulmates than friends; they know everything about each other and seem so in tune as to be almost telepathic. "The super power we've evolved over the years is to live a harmonic life together," Wagner said.
In this RA Exchange, Röbig and Wagner talk about navigating through life with someone by their side, their thoughts on equality and meritocracy in the music industry, how they work together in the studio, their record label and their new album, FJAAK THE SYSTEM, which came out in May. Listen to the episode in full.
This episode was recorded and filmed at Pirate Studios. -
"I'm finally enjoying what I built." The DJ and producer talks about 30 years in the music industry and what it means to live a creative life.
Caroline Hervé, AKA Kittin (FKA Miss Kittin), is a household name, primarily known for her contributions to the world of electroclash. As part of the duo Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Hervé wrote music that inspired a generation of artists drawn to electroclash's punky aesthetics, no-nonsense synth production and humorous, ironic lyrics and vocal delivery. In this Exchange, she unpacks how the electroclash scene became a home for artists seeking to push back against the rigidity of techno, ushering in a vanguard of performers like Peaches who created a safe space for queerness and unconventional femininity in the early 00s.
Now 50 years old, Hervé is still very much active on the touring circuit. Behind the decks she's as likely to play synth wave and electro as she is to play peak-time techno, and in the studio, her creativity knows no bounds. Much of her latest chapter has been defined by learning to age gracefully in the music industry, especially given the undue expectations and double standards placed on women. "I've made a decision never to touch my face," she says. "My boobs are getting bigger. I'm gaining weight. I'm reaching menopause soon. But these are things we need to talk about." Listen to the episode in full. -
"My place of rebirth was New York." The DJ and producer discusses Brooklyn's queer ballroom scene and advocating for Munich's queer community at BLITZ Club.
BASHKKA is a name you might recognise from festival lineups. In fact, it seems to be everywhere these days. The Munich-based artist has seemingly blown up in the past 24 months, but her ascent is well-deserved. The Munich-based DJ has been a resident at BLITZ Club for two years since returning from a decade-long stint in New York, where she quickly found family with Brooklyn's trans community. While she's now living back in Germany, the experience ignited a lifelong commitment to her advocacy for the cultural, political and de-colonial advancement of electronic music. She is an activist for Southwest Asian and North African artists across the scene, especially those from queer femme backgrounds or who have been otherwise marginalised from the mainstream dance music narrative.
In this interview with the Exchange's senior producer Chloe Lula, BASHKKA talks about her roots and how the dichotomy of growing up to a Turkish family in Bavaria—and then living within the trans community in New York—has shaped her creativity and her outlook on family and life. She also talks about her debut EP, Maktub, on Nene H's label Umay, where she explores a mixture of ballroom, ghetto tech, house and the legacy of her years in New York. According to the artist, it's a "hot stew of seduction"—and it's only a prelude of what's to come. Listen to the episode in full. -
"We were searching for our own voice." The Chicago artist talks about pioneering the sound of acid house and the spirit of experimentation in early dance music.
The Chicago-based Nathaniel Pierre Jones—AKA DJ Pierre—may be best known for forming the "squelch" we now call acid. When he and his friends Spanky and Herb J picked up a TB-303 in a pawn shop, they captured the sound of the knobs being turned as a pattern started to run. While this wasn't how the instrument was intended to be used, they were enthralled by the result, reproducing it and releasing it as an EP called Acid Tracks under the name Phuture in 1987. The result was the birth of the acid house era and a new, international musical craze.
In this RA Exchange recorded live at International Music Summit in Ibiza, Jones retraces the acid craze and the nature of experimentation and risk-taking more generally. In his view, there's a marked absence of this mindset in contemporary dance music as many producers have become accustomed to using sample packs, presets and generally operating within workflows that stymie originality. At the end of the interview, he raises important questions around if and how the music being released today enhances our lives, as well as what a truly transcendent and mutually supportive industry could look like. Listen to the episode in full. -
The photographer and musician discusses his love of nightlife, the origins of his music practice and his new album.
This week's Exchange—falling on the first week of Pride Month—features the acclaimed artist Wolfgang Tillmans, a figure who has become known for documenting Berlin's queer nightlife culture. But Tillmans isn't just active behind the camera. He's also an outspoken activist for the international LGBTQIA+ community and the wave of conservatism rearing its head against gender and reproductive rights around the world. His evocative photos invite viewers to look at society straight in the face, question the status quo and harness the power of collective resistance to normative, capitalist ways of living. An ardent fan of electronic music, he also captures artists and DJs at the heart of underground club culture. When he started taking photos in the '90s, it was at the acid house parties blossoming around Germany and the UK.
Now entering the height of his career at 55, Tillmans has been profiled multiple times in major magazines like the New Yorker and given career-spanning solo retrospectives at the MoMa in New York, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, The Centre Pompidou in Paris and countless galleries across the world, including David Zwirner, which represents him.
While it's widely acknowledged that Tillmans enjoys participating in club culture, what might be less well known is that he actually makes music himself. In recent years, he's begun putting out albums on his own label, fragile, creating new wave-tinged electronica that nods to early synth pop. Tillmans released his debut album, Moon in Earthlight, in 2021 and he's now celebrating the release of his second album, Build From Here, where he explicitly sings about human rights and violations against the LGBTQIA+ community. Overall, its message is one of hope and excited apprehension about the future and the arts' place within it. Listen to the episode in full. -
"Being a part of this scene is already a political act." The longtime DJ discusses politics in dance music and Ex-Yugoslavia's dynamic anti-establishment creative culture.
Tijana Todorovic (AKA Tijana T) proudly hails from the Ex-Yugoslavian capital Belgrade. The Serbian city, alongside the territories now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia, were once under singular socialist rule that Tijana describes as a "utopian time" that fostered intense creativity and counter-cultural art and music. A liberal communist republic that didn't operate under the influence of the USSR, as many Eastern European countries did at that time, Yugoslavia gave birth to a dynamic, anti-establishment performance culture rooted in new wave, feminism and everything non-mainstream.
In her RA Exchange with senior producer Chloe Lula, Tijana reflects on how growing up in this environment irrevocably shaped her values and taste in music, as well as how the civil war—and Yugoslavia's subsequent fall—defined the period of intense fear and poverty that followed. In Serbia, techno and nightclubs became an energetic force for young people seeking solace, community and sociopolitical change. Tijana went on to work as a TV and radio journalist that fought vehemently against the war, and to break out as an artist beyond the Ex-Yugoslavian territory. She talks about her unlikely trajectory, her view on the intrinsic connection between politics in dance music, underdeveloped music markets, sobriety and more. Listen to the episode in full. -
"What is it about my music that's touching other people?" One of the forefathers of techno reflects on his legacy, the state of techno music and the city of Detroit live from IMS.
Most people in nightlife are familiar with the name Juan Atkins. One of the originators of techno, he grew up in Belleville, a middle-class suburb of Detroit, and would become one of the Belleville Three alongside Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. This first wave of Detroit techno artists was inspired by the late night emissions of radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo—a late-night presenter who famously mixed different synth music, like Krautrock and the German outfit Kraftwerk—and the writing of futurists like Alvin Toffler, who imagined a different, utopic vision of urban life and technology.
In this keynote interview recorded live at International Music Summit in Ibiza, Atkins reflects on his roots and the musical movement that's grown from his first experiments with techno in the '80s. Returning to his adolescence, he unpacks the origins of his electro collaboration Cybotron, his solo project Model 500 (coming to Houghton this year) and his label, Metroplex, which became a blueprint for a hoard of techno imprints that would emerge in its wake. Now 61, Atkins also reflects on the broader impact music has had on his life—he has given lectures on the intersection of physics, music and spirituality—as well as the remaining stones left unturned as he enters the (very much still active) sunset in his career. Listen to the episode in full. -
Recorded live at Brussels festival Listen, the veteran talks about leading the birth of acid techno and the sound of proto-techno in Belgium.
At the turn of the '90s, Belgium was under the twin influences of early techno and '80s new beat. It was artists like CJ Bolland who helped usher these two sounds together, bridging the low-slung sludge of bands like A Split Second and Lords of Acid with the futuristic chug of Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills and Detroit's first guard.
Bolland grew up in Antwerp and was exposed to underground music from his parents, who owned a club. Eventually beginning to produce himself, he helped create the early acid rave sound that would take over Europe. He signed to then-powerhouse label R&S Records with his career-defining single, "Horsepower," in 1991, and from there embarked on a prolific touring career.
In this Exchange, he talks to RA's senior producer Chloe Lula live from Listen Festival in Brussels, diving deep into Belgium's unique musical landscape and his thoughts on how it's evolved in response to its position between major techno hubs like The Netherlands and France. A massive gear head, Bolland also shares his favourite tools and reflects on how the state of music-making has changed in the years since he first started his career. Listen to the episode in full. -
"There's a double edged sword to success." The North American booking agency shares insights on the state of the music scene and how they grew their enterprise from the ground up.
Andrew Kelsey and Mariesa Stevens started Liaison Artists—the North American booking agency that represents acts like BICEP, Maceo Plex, Dixon, Honey Dijon and many more—20 years ago. At that time, the nightlife landscape was different than the one we inhabit today; there were fewer artists, more localised scenes and a nascent but passionate group of artists leading the development of techno.
In this interview with RA music editor Andrew Ryce, Kelsey and Stevens talk about the agency's humble origins in San Francisco and the challenges they overcame to get their enterprise off the ground, developing it into the power house it is today. They also spend time discussing the temperature of the contemporary climate: a swing towards new sounds and an influx of new, young talent competing for a finite number of club and festival slots. In their view, the environment, while competitive, is fertile ground for a new, exciting era of clubbing and electronic music—and a newfound challenge to stay true to their sound in a scene that's changing rapidly. Listen to the episode in full. -
Moby got his big break in the '90s when he released the hit "Go" followed by the hugely successful studio album Play, which has been included in countless movie and TV soundtracks. But beyond the limelight, the US artist has also gone through immense struggle. Raised in a working-class family in a wealthy part of Connecticut, he often felt displaced as a child, eventually moving to a disused factory space to make music before finally relocating to New York and trying his hand at being a DJ.
In this interview, Moby reflects on the early days of his time in New York. Rejected from all the record labels he sent his demos to, he felt like an outsider, choosing to frequent clubs like The Loft and Paradise Garage before finally becoming a resident DJ at the now-defunct club Mars. He also talks about living with panic disorder, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, and how he's turned his life towards activism and animal rights. Listen to the episode in full. - Visa fler
