Introduce yourself? Pronouns? Where do you currently reside?
I’m Gareth. Pronouns he/him/his. I live in New York.
Describe in detail your favorite place to sit & listen to music.
The bleachers at the back of the dance floor at Nowadays.
When you are in the crowd… where do you like to stand and why?
I’m quite tall and don’t like feeling as though I’m in the way so I prefer to stand at the back or off to the side.
Track to explain to your past ancestors of where we are in life…
Last track you would want to hear before paying rent?
Favorite DJ mixing trick?
Setting loops in rekordbox so that the groove can go forever.
What color would you pick to represent the way you DJ?
Infrared.
How do you avoid burnout?
I ask for help.
Best gig of your life so far?
Bossa on a Wednesday night in October last year. It was my first time back there since it reopened after the flooding. I shared the bill with three people I love and admire and got to do it up in a space that has been very important to me down the years. Vibes were premium that night!
If you had to get a music related tattoo… what would it be and why?
The “36” from the art for the Wu Tang Clan’s 36 Chambers. It’s my favorite album.
Most refreshing beverage while DJing?
A cold Guinness.
Let’s play a pipipi game… I give you a situation & you give me a track…
Cold & lost in Las Vegas
Sustain Release 2055
We’ll still be gone off the goop and this will still be an anthem.
Butterfly Sanctuary in Hawaii on Mushrooms
What is your favorite party/collective where you reside and why?
There are lots of great parties happening in New York right now but Nonstop is my favorite. I program it as part of my work at Nowadays so how it all comes together is very personal to me and seeing it unfold each month, particularly on Sunday morning / afternoon, brings me a sense of satisfaction that I’ll never get at other parties. A very close second and third are Sustain-Release and The Loft. Both of these parties and the people behind them have had an enormous impact on how I view New York, music and life in general.
Track that makes you think of your youth?
The first comment on the YouTube page says it all – “This reminds me of what life was like when I wasn’t sure what to do with mine.”
Longest you’ve stayed up and why?
Probably 30-ish hours during Halloween 2019. I spent all day setting up for Nonstop, then pulled a fifteen hour management shift through the night and into the morning and then the atmosphere was too intoxicating to leave so I stayed for 6 or 7 hours after I was done working until delirium set in and I had to go home.
What is your most recent favorite DJ mix and why?
It’s from last year but Myles Mac and DJ Possum’s Melbourne Deepcast has become deeply meaningful for me. As always with these two, I find the music they choose oozing with this sultry sense of swagger and style and this mix is no exception. I first listened to it in Jamaica on a couple grams of mushrooms and a bag of very mellow Westmorland bush weed in the company of the person I love the most. When I run it back I feel the sun and I see the Caribbean Sea sparkling and it makes me feel very alive.
Any advice to upcoming DJs/producers?
Be kind, be confident.
Favorite BPM and why?
For mixing it’s probably 135 because there’s a lot of different stuff I like that fits together around those numbers but for listening it’d be anything sub-110. I think the most interesting stuff happens down there.
What would you like to see in the future for the dance community?
There are a few things…
I’d like to see more recognition of DIY dance music / club culture as legitimate culture across all levels of government in the US and support systems put in place to uplift it that are equivalent to those enjoyed by more traditional sectors of the arts. It’s starting to happen but there’s still a long way to go.
I’d like to see the development of more minority owned and operated spaces. (If there happens to be any POC/femmes reading this that want to know how to make nightlife spaces work, I’m very down to share what I’ve learned over the years about how things function.)
I’d like to see less emphasis placed on what gets posted to social media networks and more on making sick art and actual culture happen in the real world.
And I’d like to see less chatting and more dancing inside the speakers.
