"I always want to challenge myself as a musician." The DJ, producer and T4T LUV NRG cofounder talks about her new live set and overcoming hearing loss live from MUTEK.

Eris Drew is something of a mentor to many, including people she's never met. Her words on psychedelics, the ritual of dancing and other topics have become near-gospel for many fans, and it's always a treat to hear her speak on practically any topic. While many of her discussions veer towards the esoteric or spiritual, when it came time for our live RA Exchange at MUTEK, she wanted to get down to brass tacks about making and playing music.

Ahead of the first North American performance of her stunning live show, Drew sat down with RA's music editor, Andrew Ryce. She spoke at length about her live show and DJing—including her old-school style of mixing she calls "riding the pitch"—and the trials and tribulations of proofing stages and booths for turntable use, hearing protection and more. She spoke with all the authority and feeling she usually does, with a deep, technical knowledge that makes this talk almost as much a tutorial as it was a conversation. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.682 Eris Drew

The weekly RA Exchange is a series of conversations with artists, labels and promoters shaping the electronic music landscape.

Music

Moby got his big break in the '90s when he released the hit "Go" followed by the hugely successful studio album Play, which has been included in countless movie and TV soundtracks. But beyond the limelight, the US artist has also gone through immense struggle. Raised in a working-class family in a wealthy part of Connecticut, he often felt displaced as a child, eventually moving to a disused factory space to make music before finally relocating to New York and trying his hand at being a DJ. 

In this interview, Moby reflects on the early days of his time in New York. Rejected from all the record labels he sent his demos to, he felt like an outsider, choosing to frequent clubs like The Loft and Paradise Garage before finally becoming a resident DJ at the now-defunct club Mars. He also talks about living with panic disorder, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, and how he's turned his life towards activism and animal rights. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.711 Moby

"There are more safe spaces for women to be themselves." The UK star discusses the diversity of the jungle scene and her new album, Silence Is Loud.

UK DJ and producer Nia Archives is among a coterie of new artists who are infusing drum & bass and jungle with heartfelt lyrics, lush chords and crowds that are more diverse and inclusive than ever before.

Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, she grew up around a rich sound system culture, developing an early interest in documentary video and choral music from her church. She left home young, setting out to London on her own to pursue a dream of making it in music and self-releasing a string of debut EPs.

In the last two years, the 24-year-old has garnered a huge following. Her fans have fallen in love with her heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics taken straight from the pages of her diary—she calls herself an "emotional junglist"—as well as her fun, inclusive approach to a historically male-dominated scene. In this interview with Chloe Lula, she talks about her party series and her debut album, Silence Is Loud, produced alongside renowned songwriter and producer Ethan P. Flynn. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.710 Nia Archives

"We always put minorities to the front." The Mala Junta cofounder and affiliate talk about prioritising femme queer ravers, the value of local party crews and not taking themselves too seriously.

Friends and colleagues Hyperaktivist and Yazzus share one important value: putting marginalised folks to the front. The Venezuelan and Ghana-via-London artists, respectively, met in Berlin not long after Yazzus went to the Berlin-based Mala Junta party, a collective co-founded by Hyperaktivist, DJ Tool and door selector Nyaam Hassany. Yazzus was asked to be a party resident and has collaborated with the crew extensively, playing their shows and helping curate lineups ever since. 

In this RA Exchange with Berlin DJ and journalist Juba, the two talk about their shared passion for better representation on party lineups and what authentic diversity means in a climate that often privileges checking boxes and meeting quotas. They also talk about their solo endeavours, their trajectories into dance music and their shared passion for nurturing the growth of homegrown parties and scenes. Amid Berlin's rising prices (and competition), they reflect that the ideals of collaboration and connection remain stronger than ever before. Listen to the conversation in full.

EX.709 Hyperaktivist and Yazzus

"I discovered how to build sound systems at our dairy farm." The DJ talks about growing up in rural Australia, starting her own label and more in this Playing Favourites live from Pitch Music & Arts.

On this week's Exchange, we reintroduce our flagship live format, Playing Favourites, where artists discuss the songs that shaped their taste in music. Today's episode features CC:DISCO! at Pitch Festival in Australia. As the artist's name suggests, her style fuses disco with French touch, synth-driven electro and funk; she's collaborated with artists like Jennifer Loveless and released her first EP with Erol Alkan on his label Phantasy Sound, and last year she launched her own imprint, Miami Daddy.

In this interview, CC:DISCO! plays songs that were formative in her career development and reflects on growing up outside of big cities. Born and raised on a dairy farm in rural Victoria, FM radio became her cultural lifeline and her first introduction to dance music. The artist also talks about working with indigenous promoters from beyond Sydney (Eora) and Melbourne (Naarm), the music that defines Australia today and the protest songs that have helped serve as the backdrop for the First Nations fight for representation and sociopolitical change. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.708 CC:DISCO!

"It's a pure form of love." The hardcore artist talks about collecting ephemera from rave zines, working in high fashion and his undying love for the gabber community.

Alberto Guerrini, better known as Gabber Eleganza, has made a name for himself as a hardcore and gabber DJ, as well as a fervid documenter of the culture that surrounds it. Growing up in Italy, he started going to raves at a club called Number One Hardcore before eventually traveling to the Netherlands with his parents' blessing and starting to DJ himself. 

Guerrini's love of hardcore spilled over into a Tumblr blog he started in 2011, a project that aggregated the rave zines, photos and stories he collected from his time spent in the gabber community. The goal of the project, he says in this interview, was to build up anthropological dialogues on the "sonic landscape and aesthetic of the hardcore continuum." The online compendium contains amazing pieces of hardcore ephemera: clippings of Soviet era rave zines, letters ex-ravers sent to the hardcore community from jail and Guerrini's own appendices providing context around the global subculture.

Much of this archival work made its way into a book that Guerrini published with artists Ewen Spencer Mark Leckey called Hardcore Soul, a photography collection that traces the similarities and relationships between hardcore and the UK's Northern Soul movement. He discusses this and more—including his own label, Never Sleep, and his work with the fashion industry and art worlds—in this conversation with Chloe Lula. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.682 Eris Drew

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