This month is a special one, and our first ever tandem interview — joining me for a Freerotation special are the festival’s founders @Steevio and @Suzybee. Influenced by the free festival movement around the UK in the 1990s, Steevio and Suzy created Freerotation, an annual gathering of music and arts which now takes place in Baskerville Hall, Wales, and has, since its inception in the mid 2000s, become one of the scene’s best loved festivals. Kept relatively small and amongst friends and friends...
Jun 29, 2022•59 min
Born and raised in Russia, this month's guest, DJ and producer @AnastasiaKristensen moved to Denmark when she was a teenager. Finding it hard to adapt to her new life in a rural part of the country, she went online, finding solace in her favourite music forums where she discovered not only music, but a community. Turning to music as an escape became a kind of ritual that she went back to again and again, the connection only deepening when she started DJing. In this conversation, Anastasia and I ...
May 25, 2022•48 min
Born and raised in Chicago, with roots in the footwork dance scene and many years of DJing under his belt, RP Boo is best known as a pioneer of footwork — a lightning fast genre of music that borrows from hip hop and ghetto house. Although RP came up in the 1980s and 90s, he flew under the radar outside of the footwork scene until the mid 2000s when his debut album Legacy released on Planet Mu, bringing his important and iconic work to the wider music industry, a long overdue step into the spotl...
Apr 27, 2022•47 min
Joining me this month for episode 43 is Christina Sealey: producer, live performer, and one half of Canadian industrial techno duo @Orphx. Christina and music partner Richard Oddie founded Orphx back in the 90s, early on using what few instruments they’d collected: a reel-to-reel tape machine, some microphones, and an effects pedal to craft the kind of visceral sound they’ve since become celebrated and loved for. Slowly, they added in more instruments: analog gear, software, but also primitive p...
Mar 31, 2022•53 min
Episode 42 welcomes a music industry veteran: Anthony Child, also known as Surgeon (@dynamic-tension), got his start DJing in the 1990s, Tony has long been an integral force in the world of techno, best known for his driving DJ sets, and his thoughtful productions. His music has also expanded into experimental live performance, with projects like The Transcendence Orchestra allowing him to explore even further corners of electronic music and question the very limits of what constitutes techno. I...
Feb 23, 2022•52 min
We’re back for 2022 with episode 41 of AIR, an interview podcast series with a different theme each episode. Joining me today is Spanish producer and DJ @jass-29. Silvia’s music first caught attention in 2017 when she put out her debut album Weightless, which was well-loved for its heavy use of drone, its avant-garde sound and its industrial mood, terms that JASSS’s intense DJ sets also came to be celebrated for. Now a seasoned artist in her prime, her sophomore record A World of Service, out no...
Jan 26, 2022•48 min
Can you believe?! This is the 40th episode of AIR, and this month’s guest is American composer, musician, and visual artist Charlemagne Palestine. Born and raised in New York, Charlemagne plays a wide variety of instruments — favouring hours-long pieces for piano and organ, often utilizing techniques like strumming that he himself has invented. His music is expansive both in tone and quantity, and his style has often been described as “playing an entire building.” In fact, I had intended the the...
Nov 24, 2021•46 min
Episode 39 is the second instalment of our talks about mental health with producer and DJ object blue. London based object blue has quickly established herself as a producer and live performer to be reckoned with, finding solace in the making and playing of music. She has often been outspoken about battling with depression since she was a teenager, and has talked openly about how dark thoughts can interfere with her work. In this conversation, we delve into imposter syndrome, mental health and c...
Oct 27, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Episode 38 welcomes longtime AIR favourite Seth Horvitz, also known as Rrose. Initially bored with dance music early on, Seth had in mind to leave the club scene behind altogether before his studies at Mills College gave him a change of heart — he came back to techno, albeit in a completely new way. His music project and persona Rrose has become known for a forward-thinking take on music of all kinds. Whatever form the music takes, Rrose is an incredibly thoughtful artist, and together we dig in...
Sep 29, 2021•57 min
This month’s guest is Berlin based producer and DJ Joseph Richmond-Seaton, also known as @Call-Super. Perhaps best known for his incredible, often surreal, abstract, and psychedelic compositions like 2014’s breakthrough Suzi Ecto and 2017’s Arpo, Call Super’s love of music runs deep. He’s a dedicated producer, starting every day in the studio and working away the hours, whether he feels inspired or not. Music is one of the only pursuits, alongside drawing and painting, that allows him to reach a...
Aug 25, 2021•58 min
Episode 36 meets one of my faves, German DJ and producer, @tinicouldbeworse. Although she never intended to make it her profession, tINI has always loved music. At home in Munich, she learned to mix early on and quickly fell in love with electronic music, balancing her work and her passion until she was ready to take the leap into pursuing DJing full time. Since then, she’s become an artist in her own right, putting out several releases and even starting her own now-infamous event series, @tinia...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Episode 35 is an ambient music special with one of the genre’s contemporary luminaries and a personal favourite of mine, John Elliott, also known as Imaginary Softwoods. Although he’d be loathe to describe his work as ambient, John’s music as Imaginary Softwoods is celebrated for its deep, lush tones, beautiful synthwork, pensive melodies, and thoughtful samples. Perhaps best known for his band Emeralds, which disbanded in 2012, John has been making music as Imaginary Softwoods since 2008, relea...
Jun 30, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Welcome back to AIR, an interview podcast series with a different theme each episode. Joining me for our 34th episode is musician and radio presenter @NabihahIqbal. Growing up in London, Nabihah loved music since she was little, having learned guitar, piano, sitar and flute at a young age. She tried out a few different paths — she studied ethnomusicology and later law conversion, sat the Bar, and worked in the human rights sector all before finding her way to a career in music. She is renowned f...
May 26, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Episode 33 is here and joining me this month is DJ and @My-Own-Jupiter boss @NicolasLutz. After getting his start in his native Uruguay and making stops in Berlin and London along the way, Nicolas has garnered a cult following thanks to his keen ear, his flawless mixing, and his unparalleled ability to unearth the kind of singular records that make his marathon DJ sets so special. It seemed to only make sense, then, that for this episode, Nicolas and I discuss his specialty: the ins and outs of ...
Apr 28, 2021•50 min
We're back with episode 32, and joining me this month to talk about escapism and music in the time of Covid 19 is DJ, producer, and @eerie-records founder @marco_shuttle. A DJ and producer since his teenage years, Treviso born Marco Shuttle has made a name for himself thanks to his spellbinding journey like DJ sets, and rich, eclectic techno productions that focus on the dancefloor as an escape. As Berlin moves into another phase of lockdown in the spring of 2021, however, this quiet time has tu...
Mar 31, 2021•56 min
Today’s is an important episode — and one that I’ve been interested in tackling for a while. Joining me for a talk about mental health and the music industry is producer and vocalist Seven Davis Jr. Sev became a household name with his critically acclaimed 2015 release Universes. But behind the scenes, Sev struggled with this meteoric rise to fame and life of touring and gigs. Having suffered from depression for most of his life, his music career and his social connections often paid the price, ...
Feb 24, 2021•56 min
Joining me for AIR's 30th episode is Canadian singer, songwriter, and producer @JessyLanza. A classically trained musician, Jessy has been making music most of her life, while her critically acclaimed first album, Pull My Hair Back, released in 2013 on Hyperdub. Since then, she has been creating a steady collection of work, a mixture of pop electronica and R&B that, like 2020's All The Time, often delves into her personal journey. In this conversation, we look back on Jessy’s songwriting inf...
Jan 27, 2021•50 min
Our last episode of 2020 welcomes one of the foremost sound recordists in the world, the great @ChrisWatsonOfficial. Chris has been obsessed with field recording since he was young, but his career began in the 80s when he started working for television. Since then, his work has taken him around the world, recording the sounds of animals and nature for documentaries like Frozen Planet and The Life of Birds, alongside Sir David Attenborough. His solo career is a vast archive of sounds and textures...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 9 min
This month’s guest is German DJ, producer, and label owner David Koch, also known as @DeWalta. Although a classically trained musician who studied at Hans Eisler music conservatory in Berlin, David quickly realized that the best skills and knowledge don’t necessarily come from academic training: his contemporary creative output has been largely self-taught. David’s music depends on his consistent interest in experiment and discovery, and in this episode, we discuss his different learning methods...
Nov 25, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Joining me for the 27th episode of AIR is UK producer, composer, and DJ Henrietta Smith-Rolla, also known as @Afrodeutsche-ad. Henrietta is a fixture in the Manchester's small but fervent music scene, her DJ sets incorporating everything from footwork to hardcore, techno, electro, and beyond. At home, however, she is inspired by films like Bladerunner or anything by Alfred Hitchcock — an interest which sparked the timely, lockdown-friendly topic for this conversation. In this episode, we tackle ...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 1 min
Joining me for our 26th instalment is DJ, label boss, and promoter, @Veragoesdeep. Having got her start DJing in the 1990s, Vera moved to Berlin where she has become a fixture at Hoppetosse and CDV, clubs which are also home to @MelliflowRecords — the event series and label she founded in 2016 with fellow DJ Alexandra. Vera is a master of the expressive, journey like DJ set, and in this conversation, we discuss how emotional connection between the DJ and the event, the crowd, and the music can f...
Aug 27, 2020•57 min
This month we’re celebrating 25 episodes of AIR, an interview podcast series with a different theme each episode. Thanks so much to everyone who has tuned in over the past two years, it's been an absolute pleasure making this series and I hope you'll keep listening — got some really good stuff coming soon. Today’s episode is about the art of vulnerability, featuring New York based ambient producer, new age instrumentalist, and holistic practitioner, @Laraaji. Active since the 1970s, Laraaji’s wo...
Jul 23, 2020•51 min
We're back with episode 24! Recorded in early April 2020, this episode welcomes DJ and producer Luke Slater. @Luke-Slater has been DJing since the late 1980s, and by the 90s, his many aliases had become household names thanks to important releases on labels like Peacefrog, and Nova Mute. By 2009, Luke had joined Ostgut Ton, continuing to tour relentlessly and produce music with seemingly boundless energy — a quality with which he continues to approach his work today. His stamina is endless, and ...
May 20, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Joining me this month for our first ever episode recorded remotely is Austrian DJ and producer Susanne Kirchmayr, also known as Electric @Indigo. Susanne has a long history with sound and creativity, performing live in unique spaces and in unique ways that showcase her often avant-garde listening music, while in the studio, she’s known for her use of techniques like granular synthesis to manipulate voices into music. In this conversation, we delve into experimentalism and how it influences her u...
Apr 15, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Recorded in Lahti, Finland, episode 22 welcomes Finnish producer and musician Aleksi Perala for a talk about Colundi, a microtonal tuning system introduced to him several years ago, and in which the different frequencies relate to different psychologies and beliefs. Although Colundi is still for the most part a mystery even to its staunchest believers, its frequences are said to encourage healing, relaxation, and peacefulness. Aleksi's own work with Colundi has resulted in more than 17 full leng...
Feb 20, 2020•58 min
The 21st episode of AIR is here, and this time I travelled to Huntingdon, England to speak with Scottish percussionist and musician Dame Evelyn Glennie. After suffering the loss of her hearing at age 12, Evelyn learned to listen through vibration. A trained musician and multi instrumentalist, she has since gone on to become one of the foremost solo percussionists touring and recording today. This episode focuses on feeling music, the act of true listening, and the physicality of performance. +++...
Jan 30, 2020•1 hr 10 min
We're back after another quick break last month, and this is the 20th episode of AIR, an interview podcast series with a different theme each episode. This month's guest is DJ and producer @PhilippGorbachev. After delving into the Christian faith several years ago, Philipp discovered bell ringing, a passion project that has taken both his creativity, and his music to the next level. He has spent the past three years honing this new craft, and his new album Kolokol features the sounds of more tha...
Dec 19, 2019•52 min
Episode 19 of AIR welcomes an artist who needs little introduction. Jeff Mills got his start in Detroit in the 1980s, he is considered a luminary in electronic music, recognized for his contributions not only in techno, but in classical music and cinematic composition. In this conversation, @axis-jeff-mills discusses his love of moving images, and his quest for moving forward. * Please excuse the mic handling/background noise in the audio for this episode, working on fixing it for next time! +++...
Oct 16, 2019•55 min
We're back for episode 18, and our guest this month is Canadian producer and DJ, @RichieHawtin. A fixture in techno both under his real name and under his Plastikman alias, Richie has also become infamous for his innovations in music technology, his collaborations in art and fashion, and his own entrepreneurial ventures. In this conversation, we talk about how his different projects fit in to his identity as an artist. Richie's CLOSE combined AV album and interactive app, CLOSER, is out 20 Septe...
Aug 28, 2019•57 min
We're back and our 17th guest is DJ and producer @petervanhoesen. In this conversation, we talk about the creative and artistic motivations that brought Peter to the place he's in today. Having come up in the era of new beat and EBM, Peter has long been in search of sounds that move him, thrill him, or make him think. Exploring every corner of techno, experimental, and ambient, his work and his labels @time_to_express and Center 91 continue to inspire.
Jul 04, 2019•59 min
