The 2024 Not A Diving Podcast Pledge Drive is now live!

Sign up to the Musicality Tier on Patreon by Monday 23 Dec and receive a Not A Diving Club t-shirt!

Thank you for your support, it makes this podcast possible.

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The last year of the show has been more squarely focused on musicians than the first two. We've talked about general issues in the industry, but the expertise has mostly been from the artist side. This week we widen the net.

Darren Hemmings is the Managing Director of Motive Unknown, a music-focused strategic marketing agency based in the UK. He's a previous Head Of Digital Marketing at PIAS and various other jobs at majors and independents across the industry. He's also the author of the Network Notes letter on Substack, in which he discusses trends and big stories in the industry.

We discuss the state of the industry today, the health of the streaming platforms and their changing approach to payment models and staffing, and the independent sector with its challenges and potential for a future breakout against the ongoing encroachment of the majors.

We also discuss a&r strategy, why dance music doesn't stream well, and the comparison between music companies and the decline of Nike.

This is a detailed excursion into the music business today... get involved!

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 2024 Not A Diving Podcast Pledge Drive is now live!

Sign up to the Musicality Tier on Patreon by Monday 23 Dec and receive a Not A Diving Club t-shirt!

Thank you for your support, it makes this podcast possible.

---

What happens when your DJ set bears very little resemblance to your much-loved output as a producer? And what happens when your production output doesn't seem to entirely tally with your rapturously-received turns as a DJ?

This week's guest has both of those problems, which should probably be categorised as first-world in nature. Equally loved for his high impact DJ sets and hauntingly beautiful studio output, DjRUM has over a long period established discrete reputations in both fields while successfully avoiding the beartraps offered by success in either one.

In this conversation we mostly focus on the DJ side, digging into the philosophy of big tempo jumps, turntablism, musical influences, and technology. But of course production can't escape entirely, and we cover Ai, new developments, and whether having loads of terrible music in the world can really be a positive thing.

Strap in, this is a good one! 

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 2024 Not A Diving Podcast Pledge Drive is now live!

Sign up to the Musicality Tier on Patreon by Monday 23 Dec and receive a Not A Diving Club t-shirt!

Thank you for your support, it makes this podcast possible.

---

We've had a few legends of dance music on the show, but this week we welcome our first member of the Belleville Three.

Along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson crested the first wave of Detroit Techno and birthed a global movement that persists to this day. Under his own name as well as a plethora of alias and groups including Inner City and E Dancer, Kevin made some of the most important tracks of any era of dance music.

So of course this is an exciting episode. We talk about the forthcoming E Dancer record, working with his son who is now a member of that group as well as Inner City, as well as getting deep into the early era as well as his breakout success with Inner City.

This is a great episode, you're going to love it.

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back with a guest! After last week's solo pod we welcome an extremely important figure in dance music broadcasting, BBC Radio 1's Sarah Story.

Last week we talked about alternative media - of course BBC Radio is as legacy as it gets, but particularly in dance music there really isn't anything to rival Radio 1. It's notionally British public radio but the global influence is huge and the degree to which new presenters gain an instant profile hasn't really diminished.

A relatively new addition to the roster, Sarah Story and her Future Dance show is now firmly established as one of the most important cornerstones of dance music radio. So of course she's a great person to have on the show.

We dig into her journey to Radio 1, via Capital FM, seasons as a worker in Ibiza, and running the breakfast show on regional radio.

And we also get into the workings of Radio 1 shows, how playlisting works, the role of pluggers, the wider perception of the station and the BBC... and a lot more.

This is a good one!

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I am back from holiday, and of course during my break events occurred.

Back in 2016, Trump's win was a nasty shock. But ultimately as it panned out, the worst of it was confined to a generally queasy sense of chaos, the Trump family's probably-illegal self-enrichment, and the trashing of the public finances in the pursuit of all time highs on the S&P500. That was until the attempted insurrection of January 6 2021, an event which should've disqualified the incumbent from ever being involved in politics again.

This time around it feels totally different - much more so given the hand waving of that event and the apparently serious and organised nature of the incoming administration. Things could get bad. But why did they win?

You've probably had a bellyfull of election coverage already, but the relationship the forces at play here have with some of the broad themes discussed on the show recently mean we have to get into it. Themes like counterculture, the declining importance of music and musicians, the debasement of culture more generally. And the failure of the other side of politics to construct a coherent alternative to the coming chaos.

We'll have a guest on next week but this one is just me... so buckle up!

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SP:MC is an MC (ofc), DJ, and producer from the UK, mostly inhabiting the DnB space but who also regularly ventures into other areas of bass music and beyond.

We discuss the DnB scene in the US (where he was on tour when we recorded this conversation) as well as in the UK, his formative years MCing with DJ Friction, his journey as a producer, and also a few of the topical scene issues we've been discussing in recent weeks too.

I'm still on holiday but will be back next week!

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have discussed this thread on a few recent episodes of the podcast, so it seemed appropriate to have the man himself back on the show to discuss it.

Man Power has been making waves in the UK scene since our last conversation on episode 52, with his parties at the Are You Affiliated venue and willingness to speak his mind on various topics affecting the grassroots club scene.

Obviously this makes him a great candidate for an NDP episode and we here we have it.

I'm currently on holiday but will be back in a couple of weeks, in case anything in this episode isn't entirely up to the minute!

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our first ever Not A Diving Club event at fabric in London last week was a success. We played a ton of unreleased bangers and had a panel discussion on topical issues with Machine Woman, T.Williams, and Braille.

On this week's episode we bring you a recording of the discussion, plus some of my thoughts on a topic close to my heard... relating to this little nugget which developed over the past week. 

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*****ANNOUNCEMENT*****

Join us for the first ever Not A Diving Club at fabric in London on Thursday 24 Oct, an evening of chat and unreleased bangers from 8pm til late.

DJs on the night will be

Minder b2b Machine Woman

Oneman b2b Lu.Re

T.Williams b2b Tasha

Scuba b2b Braille

This will be a FREE ENTRY EVENT but you must be on the advance signup list to get in -> sign up here.

---

On the show this week we preview the Not A Diving Club event at fabric in London, our first ever live event, getting into the thinking behind the format, the lineup, and other stuff too.

And we also welcome artist manager and former DGTL label manager Tim Hoeben to the show. We sat down last week at ADE to discuss various things from the festival circuit eating small clubs all the way through to the ridiculous rider demands of CERTAIN artists.

Tim's a great guy and this was a fun and informative conversation!

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*****ANNOUNCEMENT*****

Join us for the first ever Not A Diving Club at fabric in London on Thursday 24 Oct, an evening of chat and unreleased bangers from 8pm til late.

DJs on the night will be

Minder b2b Machine Woman

Oneman b2b Lu.Re

T.Williams b2b Tasha

Scuba b2b Braille

This will be a FREE ENTRY EVENT but you must be on the advance signup list to get in -> sign up here.

---

The second in our series of Studio Stories episodes, we are joined by UK producer Decka in a conversation about his recently released LP entitled "Exit" on Tar Hallow Records.

We get into some of the technical details behind making the LP, the creative ideas and inspirations behind it, and also the philosophy behind making long form records in the genre of Techno.

Grab the release here.

If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else.

You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support.

Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels.

Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist

Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.