Skip to main content
GRAMMYs Breaking News
Breaking News
  • MusiCares Launches Help for the Holidays Campaign Apply HERE
  • Recording Academy
  • GRAMMYs
  • Membership
  • Advocacy
  • MusiCares
  • GRAMMY Museum
  • Latin GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
  • Advocacy
  • Membership
  • GRAMMYs
  • Governance
  • Jobs
  • Press Room
  • Events
  • Login
  • MusiCares
  • GRAMMY Museum
  • Latin GRAMMYs
  • More
    • MusiCares
    • GRAMMY Museum
    • Latin GRAMMYs

The GRAMMYs

  • Awards
  • News
  • Videos
  • Recording Academy
  • More
    • Awards
    • News
    • Videos
    • Recording Academy

Latin GRAMMYs

MusiCares

  • About
  • Get Help
  • Give
  • News
  • Videos
  • Events
  • Person of the Year
  • More
    • About
    • Get Help
    • Give
    • News
    • Videos
    • Events
    • Person of the Year

Advocacy

  • About
  • News
  • Issues & Policy
  • Act
  • Recording Academy
  • More
    • About
    • News
    • Issues & Policy
    • Act
    • Recording Academy

Membership

  • Join
  • Events
  • PRODUCERS & ENGINEERS WING
  • GRAMMY U
  • GOVERNANCE
  • More
    • Join
    • Events
    • PRODUCERS & ENGINEERS WING
    • GRAMMY U
    • GOVERNANCE
Log In Join
  • SUBSCRIBE

  • Search
Modal Open
Subscribe Now

Subscribe to Newsletters

Be the first to find out about GRAMMY nominees, winners, important news, and events. Privacy Policy
GRAMMY Museum
Membership

Join us on Social

  • Recording Academy
    • The Recording Academy: Facebook
    • The Recording Academy: Twitter
    • The Recording Academy: Instagram
    • The Recording Academy: YouTube
  • GRAMMYs
    • GRAMMYs: Facebook
    • GRAMMYs: Twitter
    • GRAMMYs: Instagram
    • GRAMMYs: YouTube
  • Latin GRAMMYs
    • Latin GRAMMYs: Facebook
    • Latin GRAMMYs: Twitter
    • Latin GRAMMYs: Instagram
    • Latin GRAMMYs: YouTube
  • GRAMMY Museum
    • GRAMMY Museum: Facebook
    • GRAMMY Museum: Twitter
    • GRAMMY Museum: Instagram
    • GRAMMY Museum: YouTube
  • MusiCares
    • MusiCares: Facebook
    • MusiCares: Twitter
    • MusiCares: Instagram
  • Advocacy
    • Advocacy: Facebook
    • Advocacy: Twitter
  • Membership
    • Membership: Facebook
    • Membership: Twitter
    • Membership: Instagram
    • Membership: Youtube
Hot Since 82

Hot Since 82

Photo: Courtesy of artist

News
DJ Hot Since 82 On 'Recovery' & Boy George dj-hot-82-talks-healing-through-debut-recovery-boy-george-collab-nu-disco-meets-star

DJ Hot Since 82 Talks Healing Through Debut 'Recovery,' Boy George Collab & Nu Disco Meets 'Star Wars' Track

Facebook Twitter Email
The album is "about picking yourself up and getting yourself in a better headspace ... it's more of a healing album," the "Nightfall" producer recently told GRAMMY.com
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 15, 2020 - 3:41 pm

British DJ/producer Hot Since 82 (a.k.a. Daley Padley) swiftly become a dance festival and club staple around the world with dark and moody tracks that were crafted with a sweaty dancefloor in mind. His rise came shortly after he began releasing bangers in the 2010s—there was his 2013 emotive melodic house jam "Shadows," his massive remix of Green Velvet's summer 2013 dancefloor epic "Bigger Than Prince" and 2015's tech house gem "Veins" (still one of the top purchased tracks on his Beatport), to name a few. He's since served up clubby remixes for RÜFÜS DU SOL, Foals and Joe Goddard of Hot Chip. He's also released many more singles and completed three residencies at Ibiza's legendary dance club Pacha.

Yet a lot has changed for him in recent years. He faced a huge tragedy when his best friend died by suicide in 2017, just two weeks prior to kicking off his debut Ibiza residency. To help himself cope with the loss, Padley created a beautifully emotive EP in honor of his friend: 2019's 8-track, whose proceeds he donated to U.K. mental health organization MIND. Not long after, he began working on his debut full-length album, Recovery, released Nov. 27 on his Knee Deep In Sound label.

"[The album] was more about picking yourself up and getting yourself in a better head space. If Recovery is anything, it's more of a healing album," the "Nightfall" producer recently told GRAMMY.com. He also talks diving deep into the creative process of the album—including the Boy George track that was five years in the making, what he thinks makes a great dance track and more.

Hot Since 82 · Recovery
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You just dropped your full-length debut, Recovery. Congrats!

Thank you.

What has it felt like to share this project with the world, particularly in 2020, the year we can't dance together?

Weirdly enough, the album was never going to be aimed fully at the dancefloor. The tracks are not seven, eight, nine minutes long like you would expect a dance record to be. They're all pretty short, around four minutes, five minutes. It was more like a real full album. I don't think people really listen to six, seven-minute songs on Spotify. With the rise of streaming platforms, music's so disposable now. I'm sure there's some algorithm or whatever that tells you three-minute records will do a hell of a lot better than long dancefloor ones. With that in mind, I did shorten the tracks. They weren't specifically meant for a dancefloor, but they are made for the dancefloor if that makes any kind of sense.

It feels great to have it out. Obviously, no one's in clubs right now, no one's dancing, but at the same time music is such a big thing. It's such a personal thing. It can really elevate or decrease your mood. We all need positive music right now ... 

It does feel like albums are becoming a bit more commonplace in dance music. I'm curious what caused you to want to release a proper album, and how the creative process felt different for you versus when you've released EPs and singles in the past?

I think definitely with the streaming platforms, it's really accessible to get your headspace in a full-scale album where you can visually see which track goes after each of them. Sometimes when you're buying music on Beatport you just buy one, two or three of the tracks out of 13, and you don't really understand the full philosophy behind why the tracks are scheduled in a certain position. The ethos behind the whole album is lost when you buy individual MP3s. With streaming services, obviously, you can choose which one you're going to play, but ultimately, it's all there.

I like the challenge as well. I write music at home. I write a lot of music. I think the whole concept of an album tells a stronger tale than one or two tracks on an EP. I've been writing dancefloor bangers for forever really. I guess it comes with maturity because with an album you are putting yourself out there for criticism because it's not 13 tracks of banging dancefloor records. I tried different things with different musicians—slower BPMs, working with live musicians like keyboard players, saxophonists—and different instrumentation which I wouldn't use before. The whole idea of it is exciting to me. I've got to keep it interesting for myself, never mind the people buying the music and dancing to it. An album just works for me. If you would have asked me 20 years ago if I'd be writing an album, I'd think you were crazy. Could I even do something like that? Now I've done it and it's out, and people seem to be enjoying it.

The best thing about this album is no two tracks are the same. You ask one person what their favorite record is and they'll tell you one track and you ask someone else and it's a totally different one. I've never had that with any of the projects I've done before. There'd always be one or two tracks that everyone headed towards. With this project, it's really sporadic. I love that.

What do you feel like the journey or the through-line is?

The name of the [title] track, "Recovery," I named it last year when I finished the 8-track album, which was a personal project. My best friend passed away and the 8-track was dedicated to him. It was very much that kind of project [that] definitely told a tale throughout it. Coming back on something like that, Recovery just felt like it made sense, title-wise anyway. It was more about picking yourself up and getting yourself in a better headspace. If Recovery is anything, it's more of a healing album.

I guess the next project after this would be strictly for the dancefloor, but I think I'm going to take a year off. I'm definitely not going to write an album next year. I think I'll probably return to doing EPs and that next year, which is quite exciting now. After doing my two albums consecutively, it's quite exciting for me now to get back in the studio and just make some dark stuff.

"It was more about picking yourself up and getting yourself in a better head space. If Recovery is anything, it's more of a healing album."

How long did it take to make the album?

Actually, it takes me forever [to make an album]. Writing a track is easy and I can do it in a few hours. I'm just meticulous and I never stop rehashing it, just going over it. Ninety percent of the time, the first version was better than the twentieth version. I need to know when to stop. My wife goes insane with me because she knows when it's finished. I end up just ruining the whole record. It wasn't as bad this time around. 8-track was a nightmare because it was a personal project and I wanted to do the best that I possibly could. It was a tough project and was a tough period. With Recovery, I made the tracks quite easily and let them go. In terms of "it's finished," wasn't as hard. In January I started properly on it.

I think most creative people can relate to the perfectionist struggle.

They're your babies for a short period of time, aren't they? It is hard to let them go.

I love the early U.K. rave vibes on "Body Control"—and with Boy George, what! I'm curious about the inspiration going into it, the creative journey of bringing him and Jamie Jones in, and how it all came together.

I was supposed to do a record with Boy George about five or six years ago. We were going back and forth for quite some time. I could never write the right record that really worked for his voice. It had to be sassy but I kept writing something too dark. We shelved it for a little while. I still had all of the vocals he sent me on my computer, waiting for the right moment. With the new project, I thought it was a great way to get this track finished and, obviously, it would look great on the album to feature somebody so iconic like George. I was working on some bass lines and made a super minimalistic, upbeat demo. I sent it to George and he said, "I love this." Then, I went back to my old self and started going over and over it and just making the record worse.

That's when I sent it to Jamie, and he said he loved it. So I asked, "Do you want to get on board? Just need a bit of help on the breakdown and whatnot." I gave it to Jamie and he had a week or two on it and sent me some stems back. Then it all felt quite organic between the three of us, we finished it off. It's not a super long track. It's only just under four minutes, but I don't think a track like that needs to be any longer. It tells a tale, it does its thing and that's that. I'm really happy we managed to get it all done. It's kind of the unlikeliest of collaborations. George being a British icon, it's amazing. Actually, my dad called me the other day and he was just blown away that I managed to get Boy George on the record because he doesn't really know the ins and outs of the success I've had with DJing and what not. I think it was a bit of a wake-up call for him. He was buzzing.

Watch: GRAMMY Rewind: Watch Boy George & Culture Club Win Best New Artist In 1984

I love that your dad was like, "Okay, you've made it. Boy George."

Yeah. That's basically what did it. He was at work and he called me and he was like, "Wow, this is insane." [Laughs.]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIQvgl1nSHv

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hot Since 82 (@hotsince82)

I also want to talk about "Naboo"—I mean, Miss Kittin is also iconic. What was on your mind when you were creating the beat? And when you sent it to her, did she then come up with the lyrics on her own?

I actually made three tracks, and they're basically the same, over a day or two. I wanted to make something kind of nu disco, kind of an indie vibe, kind of Todd Terje. I had this vision in my head. I saw Todd play in Barcelona in 2013 in this old castle and he was playing disco and everyone was losing their mind. It was amazing. I wanted to make something like futuristic disco, just something totally different that people wouldn't think was a Hot Since 82 record. That's how I set about it. Then I got a little catchy "do do do do" [hums beat], super simple but it just works.

As quick as it was, I needed somebody to elevate it, and I just thought of Miss Kittin straight away. We're friends already, and she's a fellow sci-fi nerd. She loves Star Wars—she has a lightsaber tattooed on her arm—and we get along really well. She's one of the sweetest women in the world. She's an icon in her own right. I thought, "How amazing would it be to not only put a record out that doesn't sound like me, but to feature somebody that's known as a techno/electronic icon legend." She's been putting music out forever.

She just said, "Look, I don't play your music, but I love you. Let's do it. I think this is really interesting." She literally did it in an afternoon. I sent her the track and a couple of hours later she sent me a voice memo. I was like, "This is amazing. This is exactly what it needs to be. Don't take it too seriously. Let's have a bit of fun with it. Life's too serious anyway." I just asked her to say a couple of little more things. The next day she sent it to me acapella and then I finished it that week. When records and collaborations work like that, they're always the best ones as well. I really like that one. "Naboo" is the record that people are surprised by and the Boy George one as well, but I think this track really is a "wow" kind of thing because it doesn't sound like me, which is great.

Related: Gene Farris Talks "Space Girl," Rave Safety & The Return Of The "Bedroom DJ"

I love that. Nu disco meets Star Wars meets techno legend.

It doesn't make sense, does it? But it works.

Recently, you did the hot air balloon set which looked super fun.

Oh my god. I survived.

What did that feel like for you?

It was freezing at about five degrees. It was 5 a.m. when I first got there and [it was] pitch black. It was 7 a.m. when we finally went up in the air. The basket was small and we had three people in there. The guy who is steering it was an absolute legend. He was off his head, seriously. Obviously, I've got to play and it was super loud. He always seemed to pull it when I was mixing. It was really difficult to mix. There's another dude who's twice the size of me to my right who was the guy from Minirig that installed the sound system in there. They did a great job, by the way. He needed to stay there just in case we had a power issue. My manager told me that a lot of people on social media [were] like, "Why have you hidden this guy?" It's like, "Dude, it's the sound guy, he's gotta fix it."

Anyway, it was a very unique experience. Definitely ticked it off the bucket list. I won't be in a rush to do it again. It was scary! Let me explain: The thing is because I'm a short dude they put a step in the middle, one of those Reebok steppers they use for fitness classes. It was wet outside so the whole basket was soaking. I wasn't strapped in, there was no harness. I was elevated above the basket, so if I fell back I literally would have tipped over and hit my head on the back of the basket. Seriously. If you notice, I'm mixing while holding on. At the same time, when you're up there it's the most beautiful feeling ever. It really is. You probably could tell that I'm like a little kid on Christmas.

Annie Mac just named your track "Rules" her Hottest Record in the World. I want to know what your favorite track by another artist is right now.

In general? In the last two days, I've been listening to, on Spotify, a playlist called R&B of the '90s. It's super cheesy R&B. All I've been listening to is my album. I need to listen to something completely different, so I've just been listening to loads of '90s R&B. That's been rocking my world this week. If you're looking for a new artist, I couldn't tell you one. I can't find a new album that I like. Usually, I'm really lucky and I go on Spotify and find an album and I absolutely obliterate it. This year, I've not been able to find one album I love. I don't know why.

What do you think makes a great dance track?

A track that takes your mind somewhere else. Music's made for emotion, isn't it? If I'm on the dancefloor I want a track to take me somewhere. I think a good record has to have a good lead, something that you can sing along to a little bit. I like vocals in records—not on every record, but I think a vocal will always elevate it. If I can leave the club at the end of the night and still be humming that lead sound or vocal then that's a hit record, I think. I try and inject both of those kinds of things into my music.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIgP-k9H4mP

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hot Since 82 (@hotsince82)

What's your biggest hope for 2021?

Just to put all this crap behind us. It's been dark. The last month has been dark. The last month has dragged on more than the rest of the summer and that's probably because I've not been able to go out and go to the gym. I feel better now, but just the normality of going out and eating and just doing normal things with family and friends—to just say goodbye to this year.

It's not all been a disaster. We had a baby four months ago. It's been great being at home and co-parenting. We want to take him out and show him off and do all the things. The best that we can hope for now is for everyone to get better, the vaccines to work, everyone to stay healthy and just live a normal life. You don't realize what you miss until it's gone, do you? Some of the stupidest, tiniest little things.

Brandon Lucas Talks Staying Hopeful, Working With Dr. Cornel West & Empowering Dance Producers Of Color

BLOND:ISH

BLOND:ISH

Photo: Courtesy Of The Artist

 
News
BLOND:ISH Is Living In The Present blondish-finding-real-community-twitch-staying-present-remixing-foreigner-fela-kuti

BLOND:ISH On Finding Real Community On Twitch, Staying Present & Remixing Foreigner & Fela Kuti

Facebook Twitter Email
GRAMMY.com caught up with the lively DJ/producer to chat about her latest music, finding inspiration in the present moment, advocating for sustainable parties with Bye Bye Plastic and more
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Nov 23, 2020 - 8:47 am

Vive-Ann Bakos, a.k.a. BLOND:ISH, is a vibrant being who creates joyful soundscapes and spaces for all to dance and play in. The Canada-born, Los Angeles-based DJ/producer has been a global force in the underground house music scene for the past decade-plus, which is fitting for someone whose sets take you on a journey with rhythms from Colombia, Nigeria, Berlin and beyond. While she's played major clubs and festivals around the world, including all over Tulum, Mexico, Miami, Ibiza, Spain and at Coachella 2019, it's perhaps her Burning Man sunrise sets for which she's most beloved.

Now, with the global shutdown of 2020, Bakos has brought her sunshine personality, love of collaboration and joyful music to the world via Twitch with AbracadabraTV. Every week, fellow artists and dance music lovers gather virtually for the lively music from resident and rotating artists on "Magic Saturdaze," as well as yoga, meditation and music during "Self Love Sundays."

Collaboration and connection are at the core of her ethos. Her label, Abracadabra Records, launched in 2018, is another expansion of the BLOND:ISH universe. 2020 releases on Abracadabra have included the Troublemakers Vol. 1 compilation EP and two-track EPs from Canada's Gab Rhome, Paris duo and AbraTV regulars Chambord, Greece's DSF and others. Look out for a new single from the label maestro herself on Dec. 11: a mystical house collab with Rowee called "Garden Of 3Den."

And with Bye Bye Plastic, also created in 2018, Bakos is paving the path for a more sustainable global community with plastic-free, environmentally friendly guidelines for dance music events and festivals.

GRAMMY.com caught up with Bakos to chat about her latest and upcoming music, finding community online, sustainability, collaboration and more.

 
Your birthday just passed. Happy birthday!

Thank you.

I'm a Libra, too. I'm sure you know, Libras are known for being social, diplomatic, creative and other fabulous things. Do you identify with these qualities? And how do you feel being a Libra influences your creativity in your art and your music?

I didn't know that Libras are creative. My girlfriend's looking at me like, "You knew that." [Laughs.] But no, I just do my thing, you know what I mean? I didn't realize that it was potentially a Libra thing. Today, I was walking on the streets, I'm just really inspired by my surroundings. I was walking around New York and [there are] so many inspirational quotes and stuff everywhere. And I'm just so inspired by all that. I could be in Egypt, walking into a hotel and the door's creaking, and I get inspired by that sound and I'll record it. So it's really random for me. I didn't know it had to do with Libras.



View this post on Instagram


A post shared by BLOND:ISH (@blondish)

So, you're sort of constantly amused, entertained and inspired by the world around you?

Yeah. I was hanging out with a lot of kids during quarantine. And I was making songs about plastic and poop and stuff. It really depends who I'm around.

Earlier this year, you officially released your fun remix of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is," the only remix they've ever approved. Can you talk about the journey behind the remix?

It was a long journey. Every year at Burning Man, I try to make a special edit for those sunrise moments. And I like it to encapsulate that feeling of being completely free—and the sunrise—in the middle of the desert with your best friends. It's just the best moment ever that exists, so I like to make an edit for that moment. Somehow, Foreigner came on and it's a super cheesy track. For some reason, I thought it would be good for Burning Man because it would encapsulate that moment. I thought it was risky because it was so cheesy, but then I realized, "It's OK, let's take that risk." And I made the edit because it was really fun to play with it and to replay the basslines and stuff.

When I played it, it was one of the last tracks at the Robot Heart set and, literally, hundreds of people took videos. And I realized after I played it that, "Wow, this is actually a track that people really connect with. And it brings back people to so many different memories." So I was like, "I want to release this. How can we do it?"

We tried so many different routes. I got a lot of nos: "No, they're not going to release it." It's not even [from] Foreigner—I was even asking my friends, "Who knows Foreigner?" And I had a bunch of friends who knew that was someone's dad or someone. So we got connected with them and they said, "Yeah, we would love to release it."

But at the end of the day, they don't own it, so we had to get the publisher to release it. And sometimes these are just people sitting behind a desk. They don't really understand. It was an edit, right, it wasn't a complete super remix. And I think some of those A&Rs, they need some EDM remix or something to make it valid. I don't take no for an answer; I just try to find another way. I think that's great advice for people, is if you hear no, just find a different way, potentially. And yeah, finally we got to the right person and we got a yes, and we got it released officially. It took a year and a half.

What's one of your other favorite edits that you've done for Burning Man over the years?

What did I do? I don't even remember. I'd have to check my computer and check my tracks. My girlfriend's like, "Do you need help?" My brain doesn't work like that. I'm so focused on the present or the future; whatever happened in the past is passé.

What are some of the ways that help you stay present or grounded? How has being present in the moment become so natural for you?

Morning rituals, for sure. Morning meditation to start off the day. It's best, when you wake up, to stay away from those distractions as much as possible. So stay away from your phone and laptop. I mean, it's really obvious advice, but it grounds you for the day. It sets up your day in the right direction.

I try to do my morning rituals as much as possible. I try to do some yoga, stretching or Pilates in the morning. I would love to get more into Qigong; right now, that's calling me. I've practiced it, but I don't have it in my daily practice. You know when you just get those downloads? I got that download, I just haven't pressed play yet. And literally, honestly, I try to stay present. I turn off all my notifications and all that stuff. I don't even use Facebook. Have you seen The Social Dilemma?

I still need to watch it, but I've heard good things.

Yeah. Watch Social Dilemma and My Octopus Teacher. I mean, those are two totally different documentaries, but very important for understanding the idea of presence. So even just walking around New York—when I'm walking on the street, I am just listening to the sounds and observing people. And that's also presence, but in a different way. So simple things like that, just being aware.

That's so true. And you're right, it is technically simple, but I think we're so used to being on our phones.

Yeah, for sure. So the whole goal is to get more in your heart, into where your second brain lives, your intuition, which is near your solar plexus. And right now, as humans, we're so in our heads, which is just really top layer, where we're constantly distracted. And that's the furthest away from our true essence. So it's about turning those things off so we can get deeper into ourselves.

Abracadabra TV · Fela Kuti - Mr. Grammarticalogylisationalism Boss (BLOND:ISH Remix) (ABRA006) [clip]

You've remixed a lot of great tracks and a lot of really different stuff—Fela Kuti, Black Coffee and Kaskade with Sabrina Claudio, to name a few. How do you typically approach a remix? And what do you feel is the BLOND:ISH touch?

[Laughs.] Honestly, if I like the track, [I'll remix it]. Fela Kuti is such an inspirational character in so many ways. The BPM was so hard to work with on that track, but I was like, "F*** it," because it has such a positive message and he's such an incredible human being that I was inspired by that. And also the whole idea of Africa and the drums; that inspired me.

And then for the Sabrina Claudio remix, they were like, "Oh, they want to release it in two weeks. Can you do a remix in a few days?" And this was at the beginning of quarantine, when there were no clubs, nothing. I was just at home quarantining. And I thought, "The only place you can really listen to music is at home and in your car." I was inspired by the fact that people like to escape from their house and go take a joyride in their cars, so I wanted to make a remix that sounded good in a car. Also, it's that kind of thinking, what's relevant to me in that moment.

I'm working on a remix right now for Christmas. Universal's doing some sort of Christmas album, so I'm remixing an old Temptations track. I remember the Temptations because my parents used to listen to them, and I'm inspired by those really nice basslines they had. I was listening to music all over the house, so I'll make it sound like something you'd like to listen to in your home.

I love that. BLOND:ISH beyond Burning Man, beyond the club.

That's great. Actually, that's a good tagline. I like it.

What's your favorite part about collaborating with other artists?

My favorite part of collaborating is the unknown, where it's going to go. It's like at Burning Man. The reason why Burning Man is so special is because everyone is coming there, sharing their passion or their arts. You'll have the Orgasmatron and then you'll have someone that's really inspired by, I don't know, bourbons or tantra. And they're all living, camping beside each other, and they're interacting. From there comes all the spontaneous moments. That's what art is. It's mixing two creative people.

If you draw two circles, each circle is a collaborator. And there's a part of them that overlaps, and that overlap is unknown. That, to me, is where the magic happens. That's why I love collaborating with other people because you don't know what's going to come out of it. You trust the process because you love what they do, you collaborate with people that you respect and that you're inspired by. So out of the collaboration, new things are born. And you had no idea, you just trusted that process.

Obviously, Burning Man didn't happen this year due to the pandemic. It was just in our hearts. In its absence, what element of magic from the Playa do you feel society could use most right now?

You don't feel lonely at Burning Man. No matter where you are on the Playa, you just feel together; it's one unit. And [there are] 80,000 people there. You feel you all have similar goals and it's all positive. I'm generalizing, but it's really that togetherness, the unity feeling, I guess. And right now, in this world, I'm very optimistic, but things feel so f***ed up and like there's no way out. I hate to say that, but at Burning Man, you don't feel that. You feel everything is going to be OK and that we're all in this together. I feel that's definitely what we can use in this world right now.

I feel like I live in a bubble and I want to make this bubble the size of the world so every human can really feel that freedom and happiness. It's one of our rights. That's what we're trying to do with AbracadabraTV on Twitch and stuff. We're really building the community that way so that they get all those positive reinforcements and those tools. And happiness, ways to feel happy, and music. We go live on Saturdays and Sundays on Twitch, and when we're not live, there's a community gathering on our Discord. There are all sorts of different channels on our Discord: There's a general channel, one on music, on weed, all our different interests. And we talk there when we're not live, so we're still hanging out.

That's where we share a lot of mindful practices, just to hit the messages [from the Twitch programming] home. I've noticed that a lot of people introduce themselves and share they are having mental health issues. And they really find Abracadabra to be a safe space where it actually brings them a little bit of breathing space, out of their mental health issues. I'm all for helping with that.

Wow. That's really powerful. With AbracadabraTV and everything you're doing on Twitch, what has it felt like to have that space to share your music and your message while not being able to do live events and to connect with people in person?

It's such a breath of fresh air. Because if this never happened, I would have never discovered this. I'm so grateful to have discovered it and to actually witness it. Being so connected to the community when I'm playing live—listen, it's amazing, that feeling. And I know DJs miss it very, very much. But honestly, when you're playing a gig, you don't interact with the crowd. You can't get instant feedback. Twitch has chat, which is instant feedback. You can basically have a conversation with your community while you're playing. The conversations they are having online can dictate how your live set progresses and evolves. So it's super cool. The community has never been able to speak with the artists while they're DJing or be connected so closely. That's been an amazing discovery during—whatever this is called—2020.

The thing that is 2020. In addition to the weekly Twitch content, you also hosted the two virtual Abracadabra Festivals. What was the most fun part of the fests for you?

The most fun part, honestly, was being live in the studio in L.A. with the production team, and Channel Tres, Paris Hilton, Diplo, everyone coming through. And everyone just being happy to be a part of it and to be a part of that bigger message. The second festival, we decided to do 80 hours—I don't know why—in a row. It was very exhausting.

But when we were in the studio and everything was just running and we were live and there [were] millions of people watching, I was like, "Wow, it was all worth it." And then getting the feedback from people from all around the world, friends and people that just discovered us. And again, I got that sense of unity for a second. And unity, if you want to backtrack, is one, right? And so this presence, everyone being completely present, also equates to unity as well—they're all in the same space.

Read: Dave Maclean Is Livestreaming With The Band & Chatting With Cats

I've experienced those moments on Twitch where the chat is really fun, the music is really good and I'm dancing with my cat. I never expected a livestream or the internet to be a place where I could really feel present.

The one vibe.

Yeah, it's cool.

It is, right? I'm trying to show the other DJs. Because there's a bunch of DJs that are really not into streaming at all and everyone's different, of course. But I have a feeling that a lot of DJs just haven't gotten that experience, of the chat on fire and all the goodness, of that one vibe on Twitch.

I wonder what the future looks like when we're able to gather again at festivals and in clubs. It would be really interesting to see if artists do more livestreams, where people that can't physically come to the festival can still feel like they're a part of it, too. Do you have any idea of what you'd want to do?

Want me to tell you the future? I'll tell you how it is going to work. So physical events are going to come back. And you have the people that buy tickets and will be there. But you also have another layer, the livestream component. So you have another revenue stream now, where you're going to be selling tickets to the people around the world. For instance, Tulum is open in January, as of now, so we're planning a physical event, obviously reduced capacity, and we're also planning a livestream. So we're going to sell tickets to that as well, for the people that can't be there because many people are not going to travel to Tulum this year, especially from Europe and stuff.

And then, VR is actually getting a huge push because of COVID, and it's all these different worlds. You can come as an avatar to the event; we can build an Abracadabra world in VR. And with a drone, you can control cameras at the event. There are all sorts of different experiences you can have around this one event. And [there are] also ways that—we haven't figured this part out yet, but we're working on it—the audience at home will be able to interact in the physical event somehow.

Read: Bye Bye Plastic: BLOND:ISH, Annie Mac, Eats Everything & More Advocate For Eco-Friendly Parties

To the point of raving in person again, I want to talk about Bye Bye Plastic, because if we want to keep partying, we need to do it in a way that's sustainable. Can you talk about how you are approaching sustainability at events? I'd also love to hear about the initial experience of getting a bunch of DJs on board with the Eco-Rider?

Yeah. I mean, we're trying to just produce the least amount of waste as possible and also being conscious about any fuel we're using to minimize the footprint. We think about the whole circularity of the sustainability process—any waste we produce, what are we doing with each and every thing. Like cigarette butts, where are they going after we collect them? And the compostable cups, where are they going? There isn't any plastic at our events, but even if [there are] bottle caps ...

At our last Tulum event, there was something little that was plastic, and we made sure to repurpose everything. We always make sure it goes to the right place. Even when we do a beach clean, we don't just put the plastic in a recycling bin. We figure out where it's going and make sure it's processed properly because the waste management systems are not trustworthy right now, so we handle it all ourselves.

So [there are] a lot of things that happen in the background with the beach clean. It's not just you show up at the beach, pick up some garbage and that's it. We take inventory and we distribute it properly, so it's upcycled. There's a really cool machine that they've developed in Tulum called Petgas that we're working with. Basically, you can throw any grade of plastic in it and it creates some sort of clean fuel. It's a great collaboration because that will create wealth for the locals.

And your question about the DJs—I mean, listen, I had an assistant last year when I had extra cash. And we had this strategy where it was like, "OK, well we know all the agents, managers, DJs and business. Let's reach out to every single one of them. Let's start a movement." We spent six months getting everyone situated and organized, and then we did a viral push with the video. And that was that. Now we're expanding with more DJs. And working with more agencies and artist houses that have a lot of DJs, so you get 50 artists at a time, not one by one.

I don't know how many times I've wanted to cry leaving an event and walking over crumbled plastic water bottles. The plastic-free Eco-Rider is so smart and seems so common sense. But it is different than the status quo. Were people excited about it?

Yeah, totally, people are excited about it. But then there's a lot of work that's babysitting, basically. When you go to a gig, the DJ doesn't really have time to make sure about all that stuff. So the logistics team, or whoever's helping with the gig, needs to make sure a week before—there's a whole bunch of steps to take care of in the babysitting process.

Right now, there are people doing parties at home, safely or however they're doing it. We want to create a culture of people not buying the red plastic cups, so we're creating a guide for the U.S. of what the alternatives are and how to do a plastic-free event for small private parties and stuff. I noticed people just don't know what to get.

Can we talk a little bit about your label, the other side of Abracadabra? What do you look for in an artist or a release for it?

Well, this is changing right now. Typically, we had a certain vibe, but now there are a lot of artists that come through ABRA TV that are super, super talented and have different styles. It's not just about a genre anymore, it's about the message. So we're expanding that horizon to a positive message with the music.

What BLOND:ISH releases can we expect in the next couple of months, beyond the amazing Christmas track you mentioned?

I did a remix for Sony of [Ethiopian singer] Aster Aweke. It's a really emotional track. You don't understand the words [unless you speak Amharic], but when you feel it, you get the emotion out of it. It's another super cool car track to listen to in your car or dance to in your backyard. That's coming out next. And then I have a release, an original track, with a female vocalist coming out on Spinnin'. It's called "Waves." I don't know when it's coming out though, but probably in a month or two.

And what vibe is "Waves"?

It's very vocal and [features] a lot of piano chords. When you hear the piano chords, it just instantly makes you smile. That kind of vibe.

Brandon Lucas Talks Staying Hopeful, Working With Dr. Cornel West & Empowering Dance Producers Of Color

Grammys Newsletter

Subscribe Now

GRAMMYs Newsletter

Be the first to find out about winners, nominees, and more from Music's Biggest Night.
Brandon Lucas

Brandon Lucas

Photo: Tony Bee

News
Brandon Lucas On Hope, Dr. Cornel West & New Label brandon-lucas-talks-staying-hopeful-working-dr-cornel-west-empowering-dance-producers

Brandon Lucas Talks Staying Hopeful, Working With Dr. Cornel West & Empowering Dance Producers Of Color

Facebook Twitter Email
GRAMMY.com recently chatted with the Inglewood-born singer/producer, who shared nuggets of wisdom from working with Dr. Cornel West, his vision for his new label, the music that moves him and more
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Oct 9, 2020 - 4:50 pm

One might not expect activist/author/scholar Dr. Cornel West to put out house music bangers, but thanks to singer/producer Brandon Lucas, this is one gift the craziness of 2020 has brought us. For the debut release on Lucas' Purple Label Sound imprint, "Got That Hope" features a much-needed inspirational sermon from West set to a pulsing, energetic house bass line and echoed by Lucas' enchanting vocals.

It's the debut dance track from the Inglewood-born artist, who got his start singing in his local gospel choir and later in an R&B group. He first worked with West around 2008, helping him bring his powerful words online and into the digital space. They will be releasing more music together next year, as part of their shared vision to honor dance music's Black roots. This is also the mission of Purple Label Sound, to uplift fellow up-and-coming house music producers of color and bring in more a diverse audience with it.

"You can't talk about the great funk tradition without talking about house, techno music, all different kind of bodies—straight, queer, trans, all connected through the depths of their humanity and allowing what is inside of their souls to overflow. That is what the rave is all about. That is what the groove is all about," West said in a press release for the song.

Brandon Lucas · Got That Hope - Extended (feat. Cornel West)

Read: How Contemporary Musicians Are Embracing The Spoken Word Album

GRAMMY.com chatted with Lucas right before he delivered a killer debut [virtual] festival set for Rave The Vote, a star-studded voter engagement concert series aimed at mobilizing the dance music community. He shared nuggets of wisdom from West, his vision for the label, the music that moves him and more.

So, you recently released your debut single, "Got That Hope," with none other than Dr. Cornel West. Amazing! What is the message and feeling that you hope listeners get when they hear it?

Music, I think, is a medium that crosses cultures and languages and color lines and political stances, and it brings people together. This song is a message of hope. And during this unprecedented time of literal craziness, it's something to get people moving and grooving and all that beautiful stuff, because you have to find the joy in your struggle to even get through it. So that's what this song is about, but also giving people that stimulus like "Hey, there can be some hope," and getting them to move into that mode.

Whatever you went through during this pandemic, whether it's been good or bad, whether you're affected by the political climate and the racial strife, I think that everyone is exhausted right now. Dr. West always says, "I'm not an optimist, but I'm a prisoner of hope." It's basically saying "Hey, I don't see anything that's going great right now, but I'm going to stay hopeful because that's the only thing that's going to sustain us."

I love that. It's real.

Right? I'm telling you, it's real. And by the way, not to talk too much and not get to your questions, but I created this music at the top of the pandemic, around March. And I was talking to Dr. West yesterday, he reminded me, he was like, "Brother, you remember when you told me you were with your friends in the desert?" And this is when it was hot on the streets, on Fairfax and Beverly where I live, it was going down. And my friends who were semi-public figures, they were like, "Brandon, there's protests." And I couldn't even go home because there was a curfew, but I just felt convicted being in the middle of the desert with my White friends just chilling, while they were not thinking about it.

Fast forward to a couple days after, I wrote him a letter about it, I told him what was going on, everyone was so amazing, this awakening I think has been so powerful for many people across political lines and racial lines. I think that this song of hope brings everyone together in that mindset, because we are so divisive, we need something that pushes us together.

Can you tell me more about Dr. Cornel West's lines in it?

He says, "Still got that hope in you, but you don't talk about the hope, you enact the hope. And it's in your music, that is the blues, a narrative of a catastrophe lyrically expressed but doesn't allow the catastrophe to have the last word."

Okay, so I started working with Dr. West back in 2008, 2007, something like that. And this is when he first came out with his book Hope on a Tightrope. Hope has been a part of his messaging for a long time. Right now, in the news he talks about how he feels that Biden is a neo-liberal disaster, and Trump is a neo-fascist catastrophe. This is Dr. West. He does not hold back how he feels, and he's going to tell it like it is no matter who it is, you know?

But to that point, we can't let catastrophe have the last word. You're going to go through things. Bringing it back to house music, house comes from that black music tradition where these people from cast-out communities would come to warehouses to party all night and to let that funk out, right? These are your Black, brown, and a lot of queer communities coming together, and the roots of the Black tradition is letting that suffering speak through your music. And we've seen that throughout history. With my music and with this label that we're launching, Purple Label Sound, we hope to bring that back in a meaningful way for house music, in a way that makes sense and that's been in the Black tradition for years.

I would say the Black tradition is the American tradition. It's very American. So it's not really a racial thing, it's really about bringing us back to the roots of who we are with this music, and adding that extra culture to it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGAuUUXpGMe

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brandon Lucas 🟣 (@brandonalucas)

I want to talk more about dance music's roots. As you said, it was created by Black, brown, and queer people—and that's not necessarily reflected in the overall space currently. How do you believe that the dance community as a whole can better celebrate, honor and return to its roots?

In the same way I think a lot of industries should. But, to that point, I feel that the dance community is one of the most inclusive communities that I know. I've been doing music and been in the entertainment world for years. I'm from L.A., from Inglewood, so I've been in it. I grew up in the gospel church, and in the R&B world. I was signed to an R&B group back in the day, I did that whole boy band thing.

But when I found house music, around 2010 or so, I found these communities to be so inclusive and so welcoming, the people all the time that you meet in it. It's a beautiful thing. So, to that point, I think that the dance community is in a unique position to do it, but it takes stepping outside of your comfort zone. It takes doing that work to go outside of just who your friends are. A lot of times, your friends don't look like you just because of where you live and who you're about, you know?

And there are a lot of amazing Black Americans or Europeans from the African diaspora who have been killing it for years in the dance industry, like Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler, and the other giants. They get the recognition. Because they've been in it, those of us who are also in it now are a little bit more digestible to people. I think, just like a lot of communities, that unconscious bias runs through, that people don't think about. People who are good people, who are not racist, just go for who makes you feel comfortable, who are your friends. And that's it.

So, with this label, we're going to be a little bit more intentional about—and it's not exclusively Black and brown artists, by the way, but it's what we're focusing on—marketing our artists in a way that I know that these artists of color should be marketed. It can't be cookie cutter. We're going to do it in the traditions of the Bad Boys, the No Limits and the Cash Moneys—the way dance music is marketed today is not the only way.

I honestly feel that most Black people today, when they think of EDM or deep house or house music, they just think "oh, that's techno." A lot of them don't have any clue that it came from us. That's because what gets put on a pedestal, what gets pushed out there to the mainstream, is not what sparks their ears. And by the way, urban music, Black music, the biggest market [today] for that music is White people. So it's not like if we push more of an urban voice in the dance community that it's not for everybody—it's going to be for everybody. It's just making it more accessible to ears who are more used to a more urban thing. That's it.

Read: Aluna On New Album 'Renaissance' & Making Dance Music Inclusive Again

This has me thinking of a really great conversation I had with Aluna recently—I love her and I'm super inspired by what she's doing now as a solo artist.

She's awesome.

She talked about how she, as a Black woman, felt like an outsider in the dance world even though she was part of a duo putting out big dance hits. Once she learned who first created dance music, she realized it's the way things are being marketed and who's being pushed to the top, and she wanted to change it. And she talked about seeing one or two Black girls dancing in the front at their shows, so she was asked "Where are the other Black girls and what can I do to make this feel more inclusive?"

Well, to that point, I know a lot of girls who love techno, and a big handful of them are Black. But it's not a lot of our faces in those scenes, and I've been in the dance community, going to a lot of shows in the underground and music festivals, so I've been around the scene for a long time.

She's right. I've been in worlds where, when you're Black, you're the only face there. But I think it's really a mindset thing. And, from the start, I understood that there was some connection that I felt. When I first heard house and techno songs, like from Kaskade and Above & Beyond, and Avicii, all of those back in early 2010, Eric Prydz—I felt a connection to it. I was like "Whoa, that chord is kind of like a church chord. Oh wait, I know this song, we used to sing that at church." Or "Oh, this is like an R&B track."

At first, I was excited because I loved the music and the musicality. And even with artists like Skrillex, [where some] people were like, "Oh, this noise," I understood what he was doing musically. I understood the chords. It was crazy sounds but I understood it as an artist and as someone who's been in gospel and R&B forever. For a lot of my friends in that space it was new to their ears, but knew when it was a remake of an old classic song that my mom used to play. I knew Black people would love this music if they were exposed to it the right way.

And I think you're right, what gets elevated a lot of times, is non-urban music. When people think dance music, techno music, house music, you don't think urban music. But it's not either/or. There can be urban music that is deep house, that's tech house. But to be honest, I think that a lot of the Black artists that get pushed to the forefront are people who've been doing it forever. The legends, who should be respected, and who we should be pushed forward and lauded. But what about the new cats? Everyone that people talk about, they're in their fifties. We love them, and they're amazing, but who's got next?

And I am talking to Black and brown artists in the space, who are excited about what we're doing [at Purple Label Sound]. The A&Rs, they just don't get it, they just don't get me. They think it's too urban. What's "too urban?" House music is urban, technically, it started off that way. Since then, there's been amazing contributions worldwide, including from the European scene, in Italy, in Sweden. At the root of it, I think if you elevate the right music in the right way, I think it can cross everybody. You know what happened was, and I always say this, I think Beychella made a big impact on house music.

I had a lot of my Black friends who went to Coachella for the first time [in 2018]. They'd been hearing about Coachella, for a while, but when Beyoncé was headlining, it was like, "We're going to Coachella." When they finally went, I had so many friends like, "I'm going back. Oh my gosh, EDM. Wow, this is amazing. Now I get it." Now they feel the music and the culture, and they're starting to understand it, because of Beyoncé.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDFNpPnJpcs

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brandon Lucas 🟣 (@brandonalucas)

Related: Beyonce Created A Space To Celebrate Black Culture At Coachella & More Things 'Homecoming' Taught Us

I want to talk a bit more about Purple Label Sound, because "Got That Hope" is also the debut release from it. What's your hope and vision for the label?

Purple Label Sound came about before even my foray as an electronic artist. I created a few songs, I started creating them during the pandemic. I had time for myself with the self-isolation. And really, it was like, "Wow, what am I about? What do I want to do?" And then the racial strife started to happen, and I created a song with Dr. West. But even then, I didn't understand what I wanted to do as an artist. Of course I was going to release some music, but my focus has always been to elevate other people's point of views, and to take other people to the next level.

I've been working with talent on the music end, on the influencer end and on the actor end for years. My day-to-day, what I do best, is to take people's voices and take them to the next level, and then to great careers. That's what I want to do with this label, is to elevate careers and use my resources and my expertise as an artist, and as an entertainment executive, to help these voices be elevated and marketed the right way to support their ventures. And then I realized I should be putting myself out there too. And the music just kind of ballooned into something where, I was like "I guess I should be doing this as well."

It got to the heart of it. I kept having a lot of people come to me and talk about loneliness. I'm one of those strong friends, where friends talk to me a lot. And it was a reoccurring theme of loneliness and "what am I about?" The music that we're initially putting out is what we call deep gospel. We want to inspire people. That's how came about.

My next release, "Is My Living in Vain," is coming up soon and we're dedicating it to a comrade, a brother of mine, a friend who took his life during this pandemic. He came up with us in the industry, he was an A&R executive. I think you guys have a charity in his memorandum actually, the Quinn Coleman Fund.

I really want to make sure that during this time of pandemic, house music still has a place. It's about joy, about dancing, and about partying, but you have to do that to get through the darkness, right? And so, that's why we're talking about hope, we're going to be talking about loneliness, talking about being introspective, and having music that can move us and get through this.

Yes, Purple Label Sound is about elevating these underrepresented voices, but really it was a call to action for myself—and to the world at large—to take everything that I've done in my life and bring that together to create this label to make an impact on the music industry.

What's one of the biggest things you've learned from working with Dr. Cornel West over the years? I'm sure that's hard.

Yeah, there's so many nuggets. At one point I was inundated with his message so much, it's like I have his talking points in me. He stays on message. He's been saying "last year is the same thing as this year, same thing as two years ago." But I think the biggest thing [I learned] is leadership through service, and using your success and everything you have to generously elevate other people around you. That's the only way you become great. Greatness comes from using, as he says, "the magnanimity of your success." I think that's the biggest one, but there's another big one that's helped me throughout my career, my life, my friendships, and just getting through everything. It's, again, leading through love and service. Being a leader, and leading with your heart, with love and with service.

And one more, I really love how he has a good balance of telling it like it is and being a freedom fighter. He's also amazing at having really thoughtful and curious intellectual discussions with people who he may not agree with. To be honest, the only times you ever see him being in a heated debate is when the other person is disrespecting him. He always says something like, "I'm a gangster, but I'm coming by the blood of Jesus." I really respect how he's always been able to balance having engaging conversations with people across the political spectrum that don't agree with him. There's a mutual respect, and you can intellectualize and hold to your convictions and disagree with someone and hold them accountable and still love and respect them.

That's the hard work.

Yeah. Usually when you hold people accountable, you do it out of love. If you don't care, you won't say nothing.

Watch: Positive Vibes Only: Kierra Sheard And Karen Clark-Sheard Deliver Striking Performance Of "Something Has To Break"

That's real. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

So early on, it was a lot of, obviously, gospel. I grew up with Kirk Franklin and the Clark Sisters. The song I have coming out, "Is My Living in Vain," is a deep house cover of the Clark Sisters, who just had a Lifetime biopic come out about then, amazing. J. Moss, Fred Hammond and all those guys, and Yolanda Adams. But also, of course, Michael Jackson and Prince. My three titans going into high school were Missy [Elliott], Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. And I would say also the neo-soul vibe of Erykah, D'Angelo, Musiq Soulchild. Those are the people who I've studied.

Donny Hathaway, Kim Burrell. You know, R&B, soul and gospel. And of course, I'm a West Coast dude, I'm from Inglewood, so, I love, love Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and DJ Quik and Suga Free. I'm a West Coast hip-hop guy, for sure. I love Biggie, love all of the people on the East Coast, Wu-Tang and all them. All those are great, but I am West Coast, I love it.

Read: Gene Farris Talks "Space Girl," Rave Safety & The Return Of The "Bedroom DJ"

And what was sort of the point when you first got into house music, or first were curious about it and sort of dove into that scene?

Well, I've always been into four to the floor songs. Anytime when Justin Timberlake came out with his stuff with Timbaland, like "SexyBack." When Britney [Spears] came out with "I'm A Slave 4 U," and Madonna came out with her songs. I was always into drive-y songs, the disco songs.

But I really understood what it was when I started to hear it in college, when Afrojack had a song playing at the time. I was in the music industry program at USC, and a lot of my friends were into house music. I was exposed to really good stuff, really quick and dove deep into it. So that's how I got into it, by my friends around me in college. I started going to raves, and I really started really listening to the music. My roommate would just give me playlists, and I dove right into it immediately in like 2010, as soon as I got a whiff of it. My first rave was HARD Haunted Mansion or some shit. [Laughs.]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF_IGLrpsEX

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brandon Lucas 🟣 (@brandonalucas)

What's your biggest hope for 2021?

I hope that our nation can heal. And I hope that we can party again, man. [Laughs.] I want to travel! I want to go back to Mykonos. I want to go to Tulum, and Croatia, and Ibiza. Shit, I want to go to Miami and New York! I want to travel the world again, and I hope that we can heal as a nation, and as a world. That's my biggest hope, that we can heal, and that people have done the work that this pandemic, and this unique time in history has given us the opportunity to do.

It's really unique, and I'm so blessed to have—I saw that early on in my team. Me and my best friend, Marquees Ezekiel, we were at his house, working from home. He had just built an at-home gym, because we couldn't work out anywhere and had to work out. And the idea of this label just came about. It was like, "Let's go." It's so amazing how God moves, and how that inkling of idea, three, four months ago became this. But it's not overnight. I've been doing this music thing for years. I've been in the industry for years, and it's beautiful, it's crazy how the universe guides us, places everything in the right mode, to set it up the right way to be here and to talk to you.

Soul Clap Wants You To Rave The Vote This 2020 Election

Aluna

Aluna

Photo: Jérémy Paul Bali

News
Aluna On 'Renaissance' & Inclusivity In Dance aluna-new-album-renaissance-making-dance-music-inclusive-again

Aluna On New Album 'Renaissance' & Making Dance Music Inclusive Again

Facebook Twitter Email
"If it's good enough to be appropriated, then it's good enough to be listened to in its original form and by the original creators," Aluna recently told GRAMMY.com in a powerful interview
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Sep 1, 2020 - 11:04 am

British singer/songwriter/DJ/producer Aluna broke onto the global dance scene in 2013 as half of AlunaGeorge. Together, the U.K. dance duo headlined festivals and delivered infectious dancefloor burners like "I'm In Control," "I Remember" and a stellar cover of Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" and notable features with Disclosure (2014's "White Noise"), Flume (2016's "Innocence") and other big names in dance.

Now, Aluna is in control as a solo artist and reclaiming her space as a Black woman in dance music. The now-massive genre has straight White men at its center, even though it was created by Black, brown and queer people in response to the racist disco backlash of 1979. With her debut solo album, Renaissance, released Aug. 28, she explores the roots of dance music, brings in messages of equality and empowerment and takes listeners through a journey of emotions and rhythms from dusk 'til dawn.

The "Warrior" artist has truly found her voice—not just within owning the creative control of her music, but in her online presence with weekly Aluna's Room DJ livestreams and curated playlists. In both spaces, she explores what dance music really means, highlighting producers of color and bringing in reggaetón, dancehall, Afro-fusion and more infectious rhythms of the world, questioning the media and industry's focus on White electronic DJ/producers.

In an open letter to the dance music community posted to her Instagram in June, Aluna directly calls out racism in dance and asks for more inclusive genre categorization. "When I started looking at all the challenges I face being a Black woman making dance I realized I wanted to do more than just create a space for myself—I want all black people to know that the genre of Dance is their heritage and they should feel included and encouraged to create under that banner by expanding the genre to be culturally and racially inclusive," she wrote with the post.

Ahead of Renaissance's release, we chatted with Aluna to learn more about her vision and creative process for the epic new project, as well as her mission to create a more inclusive dance music space.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CD4scUuJK2q

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aluna (@aluna)

Princess Nokia Is Making Space For People Who "Don't Have A Voice Yet" In Music

Your latest track "Get Paid" comes with a very important message. Can you speak to that, as well as what it was like collaborating with Princess Nokia and Jada Kingdom on it?

I can't say that in the writing studio I had an agenda, I generally don't, but what I need to say, happens. So, I needed to sing about what it's like being a Black woman and a woman of color trying to get paid in the world. Often, my go-to is a way to create an aspirational, celebratory moment and "Get Paid" is a celebration of us getting paid. Sometimes we do get paid, but we just want more of it, we want it consistently, we want it fairly and we want it to match our worth and our contributions.

Princess Nokia is outspoken in so many different ways. She's basically the epitome of woman power, but she also stands for LGBTQIA+ rights. And she's an activist in such an eloquent way that I really wanted her input in this song to complete the picture. And we did an interpolation of a classic Jamaican dancehall song ["Heads High" by Mr. Vegas from 1998]. I've been listening to "Banana" by Jada Kingdom and I had that in my DJ set, and I was like, "Oh, she is going to finish this puzzle. She's the last piece of the puzzle to make the full, beautiful picture." When she sent in her verse, I was so emotional because it's powerful, but it's so beautiful and sexy as well. And that's so important to me in music—your flow's got to be down, along with the beauty, the melody and the words.

Like "Get Paid," "Body Pump" is such a bop, I've had it on repeat. Could you take us through the creative process of "Body Pump"—did it start with the beat, the lyrics, a concept? And how did it evolve?

Well, me and Josh [Lloyd-Watson of Jungle, who co-produced the track with her] are two really strong heads in the studio, so we spent a good few hours bumping heads, it was pretty funny. We had our egos all up in the space, we had our own ideas. It was really towards the end of the evening when we started to get going. And we started from scratch. We'd listened to a lot of music, and we were like, "No, we can't work with anything that's already started." We started to build this song, and I was like, "We're getting somewhere." We were really collaborating on every sound, every instrument, every bit of vocal, he had me shouting stuff into the mic, he was like, "Louder! Louder!" I was like, "Oh my God, this is so scary!" [Laughs.]

Then the computer crashed and we fully lost the whole song. At the time, I was six or seven months pregnant, and I was not having any time wasted. So, I was like, "I'm going to get you a bottle of wine, and I'm going to use my memory to take you through, step by step, rebuilding the entire song from scratch." And he was like, "Oh my God, I'm so happy that you are down. So many artists would have just given up and gone home." I was like, "Hell no, I'll live here, mother***er. I'm not going anywhere until this song is back."

I knew there was something about it. And some magic might get added from us redoing it. That part at the end where it goes off, the really fast clapping and stuff, came out as a mistake and we were like, "Oh wait, what happened? Let's keep it." It was a really, really fun experience.

Watch: Up Close & Personal: Duckwrth Talks Celebration Of 'SuperGood,' Respecting Black Artistry, "Insecure" & More

Was it one of the first songs you worked on for the album or where did that process begin? Where was the starting point for you with the larger album?

That was in July [2019] and I'd started working in February. I don't know what the first song is that I wrote. One of the earliest ones was "Off Guard" and "Whistle" from the album. And you can hear how open I was at that stage. When I started writing, because I'm a very versatile artist, I was like, "I can make anything. Yay. Let's go." And I did make anything, I made everything. For this record, there was 50 songs. And then I was like, "No, I'm going to make a dance record. That's what I'm going to do." I started to move in a particular direction.

"Off Guard" and "Whistle" are from the pre-directional part of the album, but I wanted to include them, because for me, an album is really a journey with a main story to it. [On Renaissance,] the main story is a dance story. For me, when you go to the club, you have this really specific period of time that you dance for. But you also have the side room where you are with a friend or a sexy partner or something, when you add that moment to your experience, you get that full spectrum. It's like the house party and you had your dance for a moment, and then we found the room upstairs where everyone was smoking and drinking and chilling and you were like, "This is amazing too." So, those songs were on the album as well. And then, it's book-ended with, I don't know, a psychedelic. I mean, it's definitely 6:00 a.m., anywhere in the world, at the end of the record. And the beginning is maybe 9:00 a.m., but it's the start of the day, the other end.

I do remember the first song I wrote. I wrote "I've Been Starting To Love All The Things I Hate" [the album's first track] way before I started to write this album. It was just a piano piece on a voice message. Then, I expanded it into a full song.

If you had about 50 songs to choose from, was it hard to cut them? What was the process of getting it down to an album, to 14 tracks?

Picking the songs took almost as long as writing them. Oh, it's agonizing. I have these full on spreadsheets and diagrams. I printed out the names of all the songs and cut them out and put them on cards so that I could mix and match. It was lots of that. Because it's a sauce, it's a big sauce and it has to have all the right ingredients in there and you can't have any missing ingredients.

Do you think you would do a B-sides or maybe sprinkle out some of the other songs after the album in some of the format?

There were some choice songs that didn't get on record. Sometimes, they were songs that would stand alone better—this is a single, a song that doesn't play well with others. There were also a few songs that were in that vein of something already on the album. So, let's not have two of them.

The album is coming out in just under a month. You've put out a bunch of music in the past, but this is your debut solo project. How are you feeling about offering that up to the world?

I'm curious to see what environment it's going to come out in. We just don't know from month to month what world we're living in. I mean, I had never planned to tour the album immediately upon releasing it. I wanted to let people sit with the music for a little while before I went on the road. But with that not on the horizon, I'm glad that I created the album in a way that I did, because it's not rave from start to finish—it will take you to that raving point and bring you back down again. So, it's really good for being in the house or being in the car and in all the environments that we're living in at the moment, which is cool.

I also feel, because everyone's indoors a lot of the time, they'll be able to listen in a less distracted environment, which for me is always a bonus, because people might listen to the lyrics, which would be fun. I don't expect people to listen to lyrics, but if they do then they'll enjoy them.

Record Store Recs: Chicago House Hero Marshall Jefferson On Representation In Dance Music

When you were working on this project and decided you wanted to make a dance album, what caused that shift?

Well, there had been lots of messages coming my way that weren't getting through the sleek barrier of fear and trepidation that I had. As a featured artist in dance, I'd kind of been a guest in that genre. I saw it as a very White genre and as a Black person, I didn't feel invited. I didn't feel like I could take that genre and do what I wanted with it as an uninvited person.

But I had been in situations where I'd seen one or two Black girls in the crowd when I was guesting on a White peer's festival show that I was jumping on to. So, I would see them. And at my shows, I would see a few Black girls waiting right to the end where I play all my dance records for AlunaGeorge. And I was like, "Okay, well, there's that." The final piece was discovering the history of dance and realizing that my feeling of being uninvited didn't make any sense. It was completely ridiculous. I still felt uncomfortable and like I was going to be doing something that nobody really wanted, but that's never really stopping me from doing anything. So, I went ahead and did it, I just needed a little bit of ammunition.

It's the proof that the feelings that you're feeling—that it wasn't just you. 

The feelings that I was feeling were based on a reality that was a lie, which, quite honestly, made me angry. It made me angry that I had to feel uncomfortable doing something that was part of my heritage and that it had held me back even for a second. And then I was like, "Quick, hurry up." Which then took me a year and a half.



View this post on Instagram


When I started looking at all the challenges I face being a black woman making dance I realized I wanted to do more than just create a space for myself - I want all black people to know that the genre of Dance is their heritage and they should feel included and encouraged to create under that banner by expanding the genre to be culturally and racially inclusive Read and share this post if you wanna see the same future for our community

A post shared by Aluna (@alunaaa) on Jun 25, 2020 at 9:00am PDT

On that note, in June, you posted your powerful open letter to the dance music community. Can you speak to what the response from within the music community so far has felt like for you?

The response has been one of curiosity. I've had quite a few different executives and people in the inner circle of DSPs [digital service providers], curious about what to do. So, that's been good. It's nice to have curiosity. I think action is going to be—I'm a big believer in embracing the chaos. I think that we need to—and we probably will—go through a period of chaos when it comes to the genre.

What I'm calling for is to shake the genre up. I'm not expecting the dust to settle for a little while. So, there's lots of different conversations about what is dance, what genres of dance have been left out of the genre, which ones should now be included, which ones are more mainstream, which ones are underground. Is electronic the main sound of dance anymore, regardless of how it's being categorized in reality? Is electronic actually a sub-genre as opposed to the main body of dance music?

All these questions are really, really fun to be asking because if I was going to invent a world, a world that is exciting and fresh and ever-changing, I don't think I would put White, straight men at the center of that world. I don't even think a White straight man would create that world. Those are the people that maybe run things, but we're talking about parties, we're talking about dancing, we're talking about culture, we're talking about unity, we're talking about festivals. When in history has a White straight man been the catalyst for that type of cross-cultural, open sexuality, joyful getting together? It just needs to be reflective of the activity of partying, dancing, unity, expression and things like that.

"This music should be put in the position where they're able to get access to the mainstream ear, because it is mainstream music… If it's good enough to be appropriated, then it's good enough to be listened to in its original form and by the original creators."

Can you give us an outline of what you called for in the letter?

I would like every platform and organization that categorizes music to reanalyze what they consider to be dance music. When they're considering that, they need to look at globally and culturally, what do people dance to? The answer is dancehall, afrobeat, reggaetón, house music and the sub genres of those as well. I think that'll go a long way in bringing people who make dance music around the world together, because at the moment it's really segregated. Really what it comes down to is the listener is being made to jump and go down the back alleys of these platforms. I consider this music to be mainstream dance music, they're not sub-sub-genres. They are sub-genres of dance, but they're not sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-genres, which is where they're currently categorized.

This music should be put in the position where they're able to get access to the mainstream ear, because it is mainstream music. The evidence is in the pop songs that use those types of music as their complete fundamental foundation. The evidence is also in White producers using those beats to freshen the sound of dance music at the moment. If it's good enough to be appropriated, then it's good enough to be listened to in its original form and by the original creators.

If the dance community was happy to just live in a completely monocultured ecosystem of listening only to the Eurocentric ideal and accepted sound of dance music, then just copy it and copy it and copy it until dance music is no longer a relevant genre to anyone, then fine, but that's not what anyone wants.

What has it felt like for you so far to step out as a solo artist, and to be making your music for you and producing as well?

It's created many new dreams for me. Now, I have this dream that is feeling more and more tangible—basically, a festival/rave with Black gal ravers all over the place, not just one Black gal raver in a sea of White people, looking really out of place. I just think that would be so much fun.



View this post on Instagram


It’s been so exciting talking about this coalition over the weekend and am happy to finally share it with you guys, this is just the beginning! Big changes in the industry are in our sights so stick with us while we get to work. Swipe to the end for the full info. BLACK MUSIC MATTERS. BLACK LIVES MATTER. Real change begins now with @bma_coalition

A post shared by Aluna (@alunaaa) on Jun 22, 2020 at 12:12pm PDT

Do you have a message for young Black women and girls who are wanting to share their voice and their vision in music, but not really sure where to start or how to do that in a way that feels safe to them?

It's difficult. I try to speak through my actions. I have made dance records as a Black woman, and some of the music has been received well because it fits into the traditional dance music sound. And we shall see how this record is received, but I don't care.

What do I say to young Black girls? They're needed and wanted, and their creative perspective, their creative juices and flavors are needed and wanted.

Related: Jayda G Talks New EP, Promoting Diversity In Dance Music & Sharing Joy

I really love your Dance Renaissance playlist on Spotify. Can you talk a bit about some of the artists you've featured on it?

I've got UNiiQU3, I've got Jayda G. I've got some original creators of dance music like Mr. Fingers and Larry Heard on there, because I wanted to mix a history with the current stuff. And Black Coffee, Azari, Rema, AJ Tracey and Cookiee Kawaii. Also, Skales—"Shake Body" is one of my favorite songs. This playlist was really what I was just performing in my DJ set that week. It was an exploration, I wanted to see what a Larry Heard track sounded like alongside a UNiiQU3 or TT The Artist or Jayda G. And I was exploring Black dance artists in general.

I have a huge collection. The next thing I want to do is make a global dance playlist that really captures the hottest new tracks from around the world. Because paying homage to history is really important, but one of the things that can happen is if you only do that, you miss out on the current moment and you can't make up for that later, because those people need support right now. We need to know how hot this new sh*t is.

And honestly, COVID has been a huge opportunity for me, for my crate-digging endeavors and more. It's really, really been amazing to think about changing the landscape of the way we consume dance music, so that all of these songs I've been enjoying as a DJ will get more recognition and more respect. And be celebrated in a way that will elevate them through to pop, which I think is really important for any artists working within a genre to be cared for in that way and have that motivation.

Read More: Black Pride Anthems From Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, 2Pac, James Brown & More See Big Streaming Spikes

You're so right. At the end of the day, streaming playlists have so much power. The number of streams that come from some of those top Spotify playlists is wild. It really shows how much potential there is for shifting things and for, like you're doing, changing the conversation.

Right. That job has to be done very, very carefully if you're doing what I'm doing, because this Dance Renaissance playlist is my first attempt on working on something at the moment, which is much, much more curated as a DJ. And I think that's really important when I'm showing how jersey club, dancehall, house, techno and afrobeat can live together on the dancefloor.

The reason that I know that is because I'm a Black woman, but I'm also multicultural. So, I have all of these global influences in my blood. I work in harmony with myself, so I know there's a possibility for all those things to work in harmony. I apply that when I'm selecting my songs. I'm not someone who is just trying to elevate one genre of dance. I'm an ambassador of unity, really based on the simple idea that I'm trying to create the best quality.

For me, if I go to a club and there's only one type of music playing, I can't do it. I can do about half an hour, but I can't do monocultured anything. I'm just not that person. Myself and the future of our world is getting more and more multicultural. We can all be fighting against each other, but behind the fight, everyone's having sex and making babies, by the way. And they will multicultural. It's inevitable. I'm creating the music for those kids to feel comfortable listening to.

Dua Saleh & Psymun Talk Minneapolis Community Building, 'ROSETTA' & Music For Social Change

Soul Clap DJ set during Rave The Vote

Soul Clap DJ set during Rave The Vote

News
Soul Clap Wants You To Rave The Vote soul-clap-wants-you-rave-vote-2020-election

Soul Clap Wants You To Rave The Vote This 2020 Election

Facebook Twitter Email
The second episode of Rave The Vote, which kicks off today, Fri., Aug. 14 at 12:00 p.m. PST/ 3:00 p.m. EST, serves up half a day of house music and voter education. The final two events will go down on Sept. 11 and Oct. 2
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Aug 14, 2020 - 9:08 am

With the 2020 Presidential Election less than three months away during an unprecedented pandemic, voter education and access is an urgent issue. Enter Rave The Vote, an online voter registration and education initiative ignited by four 12-hour virtual raves filled with educational segments and music from DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Pierre, Aluna, Marques Wyatt, TOKiMONSTA, SOFI TUKKER, Carl Craig, Seth Troxler, Desert Hearts, Louie Vega and many more names in the underground dance scene. Viewers are encouraged to register to vote, check their registration status and/or request an absentee ballot, all of which can be done on their website.

"Rave The Vote was created in an effort to mobilize the dance music community to register to vote and get to the polls. We know the wider community is both passionate and engaged, and encompasses a key demographic of voters that should not be overlooked. It's clear that we are all searching for ways to contribute to see significant change, to move towards the America we want to live in—and we can't do that if we're not exercising our right to vote. Ultimately, we aim to motivate viewers to use their collective voice to bring about change, and to educate them on the various ways to take action," Carré Orenstein, the executive producer explained over email.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDw2iuZgYqY

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rave The Vote (@ravethevote)

Read: Entertainment One Senior VP Gina Miller On Advocating For Progress, Diversity, Equality & Inclusion

"We are in the most important election of our time and people are finally starting to pay attention! Electronic dance music and the culture that surrounds it was founded in a space where people came together to celebrate music and each other, it was and has always been a safe haven for many, myself included. It originated with Black roots and eventually became a space where people felt free to express themselves no matter who they were.  Our goal here is to re-catalyze a space and community that has such powerful and strong roots of unity, love and freedom. To get them engaged, and to the polls!  We have been blessed to welcome a diverse and beautiful collection of artists to represent Rave The Vote and the American dance music community. I have worked in this industry for the past 10 years and our lineup is far and away one of the most diverse I have ever seen in this culture on this level. It represents our country in its true heart and soul," Tadia Taylor, director of artist relations, added.

Supported by Orenstein, Taylor and a mighty team of fellow industry professionals, the ringleaders of the epic dance party for good are Eli Goldstein and Charlie Levine, a.k.a. Soul Clap, a funky-house vinyl-spinning DJ/producer duo formed in Boston in 2001. With their energetic DJ sets at clubs and festivals around the world, eclectic and talent-filled Soul Clap Records and overall joyful demeanor, the pair has been widely disseminating joy and great tunes and sharing the love with fellow funky artists for quite some time. Now, with Rave The Vote, they're helping ensure the dance community is civically engaged and present at the upcoming election.

We recently caught up with the beloved duo ahead of the second episode of Rave The Vote, which kicks off today, Fri., Aug. 14 at 12:00 p.m. PST/ 3:00 p.m. EST, serving up half a day of house music and voter education. The final two events will go down on Sept. 11 and Oct. 2. You can tune in on the LostResort Twitch and YouTube channels, and RSVP at Rave The Vote's website to stay looped in to all things related to getting out your vote. Make sure to read on to hear from Goldstein and Levine about the original vision for Rave The Vote (hint: It was IRL), why political engagement is so vital to democracy, being an ally and more.

Let's start with the spark that led to the creation of Rave the Vote. What was that and where did it lead?

Goldstein: Well, I mean, I think we both voted in every election since we were 18, so we've always been active in that kind of politics. But I think, as we've gotten a little older and further along in the music thing, we just had more of a desire to use our platform for positive change. We do a lot of work with an organization called DJs for Climate Action, which is all about educating DJs and getting us to use our platforms for education and positive change around climate.

This year obviously feels like a really, really important election and has for a while, for the last three years. Until someone's in the White House that acknowledges things like climate change, social justice, equality and these kinds of things, we can't really make much progress, or we can't make enough progress with all the other activism.

We had an idea to do a voter registration drive. It was originally going to be a real live tour around the Midwest, hitting swing states, going to colleges and clubs in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, those kinds of places. We had been planning it since last year, but obviously we had to pivot quickly when everything got canceled and we realized that IRL events would not be happening.

Luckily our manager, Jonathan McDonald, got really excited and put together, with people from Infamous PR and others who put in so much effort to take this into a huge online livestream concept. It's been really exciting. And I think we are reaching a lot more people than we would have just with the IRL.

Levine: This is definitely one of Eli's ideas. He's very politically minded and tuned in to what's going on, whether it's climate action or social justice or race relations. Eli comes from a Cambridge political family. If it wasn't for Eli having this idea at the origin, I don't think we'd be where we are. That being said, we've been really fortunate to have the [dance music] community rally behind it, whether that's the DJs like The Blessed Madonna, Seth Troxler or Justin Martin, who are signed up way back when to do the real-life college tour with us and donate their time. And our manager Jonathan has been helping make it happen. And 2+2, our management and touring team that really got behind and it felt like it really had legs. And once Infamous got involved, forget about it, then it really branched out. We are now a whole community of dance and music professionals, artists and administrators that are blowing this thing up.

And to piggyback on what Eli said, we may have been able to reach X amount on college campuses, but the way that it grows exponentially through the web and social media, it's just so powerful. I think we're probably going to do a lot more good this way, as unfortunate as it is to not be able to be all buddied up in a tour van, somewhere out at some gas station in the Midwest, which would've been fun. We've only got to do some touring via bus, and that's all has been a laugh.

https://twitter.com/ravethevote/status/1287804429224128513

Episode 1 was filled with incredible DJ sets, live performances, fun educational segments and crucial PSAs.

Visit https://t.co/GltHfPdTsR to register to vote and RSVP for episode 2.@CornelWest @AshLauryn313 @deoncole @LouieVeganyc @DannyDaze @sethtroxler @soulclap @ananesworld pic.twitter.com/nwB6OxMeTS

— Rave The Vote (@ravethevote) July 27, 2020

Watch: Up Close & Personal: Duckwrth Talks Celebration Of 'SuperGood,' Respecting Black Artistry, "Insecure" & More

There's some really huge names involved, especially some of the OGs, like DJ Pierre, Kevin Saunderson/Inner City, Louie Vega. What has the outreach looked like? And what has the reaction of the dance community felt like so far?

Levine: I want to throw in that we got the nod from Dr. Cornel West that started our whole four-part Rave The Vote online series. So big shout out to Dr. West, who's a big supporter of the house and techno community, which was a total, delightful surprise. He's super dope. As for a lot of these names—including Louie and Kevin Saunderson—Eli and I have been fortunate enough  over the years to build personal relationships with a fair amount of them. It's wonderful to call upon them.

Goldstein: I also would say this is kind of a testament to how connected the American, more-underground dance music scene is. It's a pretty diverse range of artists that we have built relationships with other years and were excited about getting involved with activism stuff. That list was a great starting point.

And everybody has really jumped at the opportunity. Some of these were personal connections, but a lot of the work was also done by the team. And it's cool. Each episode has a theme running through it. One of them is curated by Blessed Madonna. The first one was all our favorites. This one coming up next week is more of the kind of younger tech house scene. And then the last week is more of the beat, hip-hop oriented one. It's a testament to how diverse the underground is, but also how together and connected it is.

Rave On: Gene Farris Talks "Space Girl," Rave Safety & The Return Of The "Bedroom DJ"

The Rave the Vote livestreams are around 12 hours each, so what's going down during it and what viewers can expect? Also, what are you hoping happens after someone tunes in and engages with the livestream?

Goldstein: Well, obviously the most important piece of this is either registering, checking your status or requesting a mail in ballot, if that's available in your state. So the goal is to get people to go to RavetheVote.org, which they can do in advance of the streams too, it is 24/7. You can go to the website and do all this and also RSVP to the stream. By putting your information in, we'll be able to help provide support and guidance leading up to Election Day [Nov. 3] to help you come up with a plan to vote. Also, any outreach you can do to your friends and family to have them registering and voting is important. That's joining the movement, I would say.

That's the goal with the streams really, is to get as many people as possible involved via the site. It's funny, we had half a million unique viewers tune in to the first livestream and about 600 registrations. 600 registrations is great, but it's such a small percentage of the viewers. It's crazy. But that shows how important it is to have as big of a reach as possible and to get a lot of viewers with these livestreams. It's great to give people a call to action when they're enjoying music. Because there were a number of people who checked their registration or requested mail in ballots on top of the 600 who registered to vote. It's a great way to interact with people.

For the streams themselves, it's a really great, diverse range of DJs who are all super excited to be involved. Everyone's putting their best foot forward musically and also production-wise. At this point, all the DJs involved are pretty experienced with streaming. They know how to make a good looking and good sounding stream. More importantly, we have these really fun educational segments and PSAs from other artists, DJs and politicians in between the sets. So that's a fun way that allows for more of an interactive connection than just watching DJ livestreams. This is actually a way to be learning and also be involved with the initiative.

Levine: Yeah, the [Rave The Vote] producers did a really great job, they definitely deserve a bunch of hats off. They have been putting in real late hours to make it all come together. We can't wait to see what they come up with for these [three] next ones. Similarly, if you speak to other musicians or people through the GRAMMYs that feel passionate about this topic, we're always accepting more PSAs. This whole thing does not end with dance music DJs. This should be for the masses.

Listen: Jayda G Talks New EP, Promoting Diversity In Dance Music & Sharing Joy

Definitely, let's put it out there! So, as frustrating as it is, there are still people out there that feel either indifferent about voting, or just over it because they voted in 2016 and that guy still got into office.

Goldstein: That guy. [Laughs.]

What do you say to people who still say "It doesn't really change anything" or "Why does it matter?"

Goldstein: So there's multiple layers to this. A big part of this initiative is this educational piece of it. I do feel like we've been fed propaganda for most of our adult lives that our votes don't matter either, one, because the state we live in either always goes Republican or always goes Democrat. Two, because both the parties are the same. I feel like those are the big two.

And I guess three would be that the whole system is broken. That the two-party system doesn't work and we're not really represented anyway. In response to that, I say, one, that is not taking into account how important local elections are, both in our towns and also on a state level. I live in New York state, and I've seen how, the moment that we got a super majority after the 2018 election, the amount of bills that were passed for things that I care about was wild. From climate change stuff to worker protections, to healthcare, to all these things that at the state level can have a huge impact on your life and the world around you.

And then the local level of your community, this is where you actually can have the biggest impact because you actually can get to know your local representatives. These are all people who live in your neighborhood or near you, and you can connect with either them or their aides closely. These are people who are making the changes in your town or your county that impact you directly. For nightlife specifically, that's noise ordinances and liquor laws and all these kinds of things that affect where clubs can be, how late they can be open and more. So young people getting involved in that really can have a huge impact, because then we can advocate for what we care about, nightlife and culture and all that stuff.

Then you have district attorneys and attorney generals of the states who have a huge impact on what's going on around police brutality and social and racial justice. So these are really important positions as well that you're voting for in a local election. This is all one big part of it. Just to say that our federal system is broken, it's overlooking how much of an impact we can have on these other levels.

Let's look at our federal system and jog everybody's memory. There are three branches of our federal government. I feel we learned this in school, but either we don't pay attention or it just goes right over our heads, but they are so important. The impact of the three branches of government means that the president doesn't make all the final decisions, right? You have Congress, which passes all the bills and actually makes a lot of the legislation that's impacting us and that we care about. But the most important piece of all this is the Supreme Court and the federal courts. When somebody either retires or dies on the Supreme Court or who's a judge in a federal court, the president at the time, appoints a Supreme Court justice or federal judge, who serves for the rest of their life or for as long as they want to.

This has a huge impact on generations. So now, if the president is appointing somebody that aligns with their values and ideals, that person is going to be representing that for the rest of their time in the courts. This administration has gone out of their way, they have a whole strategy to really make as big of an impact as possible on the federal courts. They've appointed over 800 federal court justices, which is almost twice as many as [Barack] Obama appointed in his eight years. Basically, they asked and pressured older conservative judges to step down so they could appoint younger judges to take their places so they can hold the roles for longer.

They have such a huge impact on the little decisions that are made every day or a few times a year, that then lead to things like abortion being legalized or made illegal, or segregation and desegregation, civil rights, prosecuting police, voter rights, all these things that we care about, the Supreme Court makes decisions that impact it.

That's crazy. That just blew my mind.

Levine: It's a lot.

Goldstein: It's a long answer. But the basic part of it is, look, we've been fed propaganda that our vote doesn't matter. Yes, the system is not perfect and yes, politicians are not perfect, but this is what we have. And if we don't participate, we can't make any changes.

Levine: I mean, with the pieces of the puzzle that are intangible for citizens, like the electoral college, gerrymandering, voter suppression, all this stuff, there's things you can do and there's things you can't do. But if you are not even registered to vote, if you're not even attempting, if you are not participating, then it's guaranteed there is nothing you can do.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCtkBvWg8K_

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rave The Vote (@ravethevote)

To your many mic drop points, Eli, how do you educate yourself on state and local candidates and measures? Sometimes the language on ballots can be sort of misleading and can also just jargon-y. What are some ways that you educate yourself on the issues, or places that you point people to that are don't even know where to start?

Goldstein: Well, I mean, this is complicated. Most of the places that you get information are partisan. There's no easy way to get all the information. It's not just right there. Maybe it should be, I don't know how they could necessarily do that. Some cities and states send out mail that has information about all the initiatives and candidates in your city. Not all cities do that. When they do, it's a great way to encourage participation and understanding from everybody.

But here's the thing, if you really care about this stuff—this goes back to the last question. I heard this in a Noam Chomsky livestream recently, politics is actively participating in things that you care about every day. That's what politics really is. It's not easy. It's not sitting back. To really get involved and really make a difference with this stuff, you have to put a little effort in. Maybe it's not every day for you, maybe you don't have that time. Maybe you're doing other work that's important. Maybe you're just trying to survive. And that's totally understandable. But putting in that 30 minutes before the election to find this information and be educated can go a long way. There are places you can look. One is your local newspaper.

Almost every city or county has a local newspaper that shares this information on their website. And then another way is our mostly two-party system. There are a number of smaller parties in states that are under the other parties. So here in New York, there's the Working Families Party, which supports workers' rights and a number of other issues that I care about. They endorse candidates or send candidates that are supported by that party, and then have a voice in their policy. This is something that's often overlooked, these smaller organizations run by citizens like you and me who have an influence and impact by endorsing candidates.

So maybe you believe in unions and you see what the local union is endorsing. Maybe you believe in climate justice, you're an environmentalist, and you look for whatever the Green Party is endorsing. These are all a number of ways you can look for value-based guidance on this stuff. It is amazing how hard it is to find nonpartisan information on the internet. But if you go in with the idea that it's going to be partisan and you just look for the party that you agree with, that can do the work for you.

Read: Record Store Recs: Salt Cathedral Talk Favorite Brooklyn Indie Shops & How To Support Artists Of Color

That's such a good point. Also, certain nonprofits will share what candidates that align with their values, like the Human Rights Campaign will endorse candidates that support LGBTQ+ issues. You can always cross reference these lists too. I guess now most of us are hopefully voting by mail, so you have more time to sit with the ballot.

Goldstein: Right? But the other thing is you can be at the polls and take out your phone and do the research right there. It's not like you're not allowed to go on your phone and use the internet, you're taking a test. You can sit in there for 30 minutes if you want. I mean, obviously I wouldn't encourage that because there's other people who want to vote and often lines can get long. But if you need to take the time, take the time and make that educated vote. It's better to do that.

Levine: I've got a question. If you order the mail-in ballot, are you then obligated to vote that way, or can you still go to the polls?

Goldstein: You can still go to the polls. Actually, that's a good question. I may be wrong.

I think it depends on the state or county. In Los Angeles county, it is default vote by mail, so everyone registered gets a vote by mail ballot, which you can also drop off at a polling location or bring it in and basically forfeit your vote by mail. Of course it's super important, especially now, the ballots show up to your current address. [If you lose or forget your absentee ballot, some counties let you vote with a provisional one. Check your local county's website for more info.]

Goldstein: This is why it's so important to check your status beforehand and look at the policies of your state, what do you have to bring to prove you're eligible to vote and all these things. This is why we advocate for making it as easy as possible to vote, so people are not intimidated and they can exercise their right without feeling like they have to jump through hoops. I know our so-called President likes to say that voting by mail is rigged, but there are statistics proving it's not fraudulent.

Levine: [Laughs.] Everything's rigged with this guy.

Goldstein: States like Utah have universal mail-in voting, and Utah's a Republican state. It's not like mail-in voting makes Democrats win where Republicans were winning before. It's still pretty even, none of what he's saying about it is factual. It's important to keep putting that out there that mail-in ballots actually are as secure, if not more secure, than voting in person. We've seen that voting in person has potential to be hacked.

Levine: Absolutely. Or it can just malfunction.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuMnuggdnV/

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rave The Vote (@ravethevote)

To your point, the President has been doing a lot to try to suppress voting, by attempting to defund the USPS, which delivers and collects the ballots, making those erroneous claims about voting by mail, and now trying to postpone the election. What can we do to make sure this election is fair? 

Goldstein: I mean, it's so hard to be nonpartisan with this stuff. My first answer, which is totally partisan, is win by a f***ing landslide. If everybody goes out and votes, it doesn't matter how corrupt, how broken the system is and how much they try to suppress voters and hack the vote in swing states, if the win is so overwhelming it doesn't matter. There's nothing they can do. It would just be too obvious for them to hack it. So, that's one answer.

The other answers are you can volunteer or you can sign up to work at the polls. You can literally get paid to be a pollster. There's actually a shortage of people this year because it's always older folks and a lot of them are high risk for COVID-19. So young people going and working in the polls and seeing exactly what's happening is going to be our most valuable tool.

There's a great website called Vote Save America, they have an initiative called Every Last Vote. There, you can get resources, including a great FAQ about voting by mail. There's also a sign up for being a poll worker and a sign up to volunteer to go to the polls and make sure everything is working the way it's supposed to. I will say that it's also really important volunteering because the Republican party has established a program called Protect the Vote, which means they're going to be sending monitors to polling places and challenging voters deemed "suspicious." So it's really important that we're out there making sure that people are allowed to vote. Every Last Vote is a great resource for doing that.

And, with any of this, the only way you can feel like it's actually going the fair way is by participating as much as you can, educating yourself, voting, volunteering, working in the polls, getting involved with organizations that do work that you believe in. This is how we stand up and take away this feeling of not having power. We take back the power for ourselves.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA-31aoDy-J

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Soul Clap (@soulclapofficial)

Related: Amid Black Lives Matter Conversations, Black Latinx Artists Urge Non-Black Latinx To Do Better

You've been using your platforms to point people to different actions they can take on important social justice issues, including standing in solidarity with the Black community and against police brutality. What do you believe it means to be a true ally, and how do you continue to educate yourselves and stay informed?

Goldstein: I think we've learned so much over these last few months. I always thought of myself as an ally, but I think learning what that really means has been a really important process over this time and, like anything, it's always a process. And so, a big part of that is obviously educating yourself. One great way of doing that is by following accounts for organizations like Black Lives Matter or Color of Change on Instagram, or some of the smaller local organizations, like local chapters of Black Lives Matter, and following activists that you believe in. That's a great start, they're posting information.

And then just listening. If you ever get in conversation about this stuff, ask questions and just listen. That does not mean just hitting up your Black friends and being "Hey, what do I do about this?" There's plenty of resources online to figure that shit out yourself. That also doesn't mean you shouldn't check in with your Black friends and have conversations and say hello. Let them know you're here to support them, and if they need anything to reach out.

And then also donating to organizations. I've been talking about voter suppression and voting rights—there's a couple of great organizations you can support. One is called Voting While Black, which is advocating for voting rights for Black and brown folks. And then there's also Fair Fight, started by Stacey Abrams, which is doing work to make sure everybody has a right to vote.

it's also saying Black Lives Matter, living Black Lives Matter and making sure that's part of what you're thinking about every day. And part of that too is looking at your privilege, looking at how your Whiteness got you what you have and being real about that with yourself. That's another important thing, figuring out how you're going to try to use that, what you've accomplished, to help lift up other people who don't have that privilege.

Levine: I would just add to that, I know it's difficult, but when friends or family members say things or act in a way that could be perceived as a micro-aggression or as flat-out racist, to hold them accountable and point out that this is inappropriate. If you allow some of this behavior, it's dangerous. It can be difficult, especially when it's friends and family, but making sure they are educated as well is important. it's also important to check in with your Black friends. I think communication and conversation is at the heart of what will make a big change.

Goldstein: This is what we've been trying to do with the "Schmoozing" show, to have these hard conversations. I agree it's so important to see where people's heads are at, see what they believe in, where they're coming from and how they want you to make an impact and be an ally.

Levine: The long conversation format is really is wonderful. It allows you to ask the difficult questions and it's okay to get it wrong. It's okay to learn something from a conversation. Maybe people are scared of that, but that's a big part of the growth, I think.

DJ JP Lost Pop Smoke, Entered A Pandemic & Is Surviving Both Through Reinvention

Top
Logo
  • Recording Academy
    • About
    • Governance
    • Press Room
    • Jobs
    • Events
  • GRAMMYs
    • Awards
    • News
    • Videos
    • Events
    • Store
    • FAQ
  • Latin GRAMMYs
    • Awards
    • News
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Cultural Foundation
    • Members
    • Press
  • GRAMMY Museum
    • COLLECTION:live
    • Explore
    • Exhibits
    • Education
    • Support
    • Programs
    • Donate
  • MusiCares
    • About
    • Get Help
    • Give
    • News
    • Videos
    • Events
  • Advocacy
    • About
    • News
    • Learn
    • Act
  • Membership
    • Chapters
    • Producers & Engineers Wing
    • GRAMMY U
    • Join
Logo

© 2021 - Recording Academy. All rights reserved.

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Copyright Notice
  • Contact Us

Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.