OFF SIGHT

W/ KEEP HUSH

Manchester's resident hot girl FKA Hardcore is known for many things, not least her incoherent social media presence and love for all things turbo. Whipping from IDM chuggers to 180 BPM jungletek without so much as a beatmatch in between, she's destined for the stars.

How / why did you get into DJing?

I got a pair of barely functional decks off of eBay when I was around sixteen and I listened almost exclusively to Bicep mixes. I didn't really know how to use them and didn't bother to learn since it was harder than I'd imagined. About a year later I found myself at a house party where the DJ had gone AWOL and my brother offered me up to DJ since I apparently knew how to. I proceeded to trainwreck so hard the DJ ran halfway across the house to take back control of the decks since clearly nobody else could be trusted to. The embarrassment from that ended up being all the motivation I needed to actually learn.

What is your biggest source of (musical) inspiration / influence?

Honestly, I just really fucking love tunes. Any DJ whose biggest inspiration isn't tunes is probably in the wrong job. In that sense my biggest influence would probably be the places that expose me to music I wouldn't have discovered myself, particularly The White Hotel. I saw Ojerime there a few months back having no idea who she was and she absolutely blew me away and I've not been able to stop listening to her since. White Hotel regular Conor Thomas also played a three hour makina set there in the depths of winter, which I can't say was particularly inspirational or influential, but was just a stupidly fun set, which I think is equally important and often overlooked. If you're not having fun then what's the bloody point?

Do you look up to any DJs? If yes, who and why?

I do, but I think none of them need to hear it. Next question!

What are the next steps in your DJing career now that you've done a KH livestream?

I wanna work more of my own music into my sets, which requires making more of my own music. So that, I suppose. I've been thinking a lot lately about making 'weightless bassline', which would just be a bassline tune with no drums and lots of reverb. I think it'd be proper stupid and weird, but in a great way. I've consulted a load of producers I know and sadly none of them have cracked the secret of a proper Sheffield bassline wobbler, so I fear it may be a long time coming.

You've recently co-founded queer club night Tough Act. Tell us more about this?

Tough Act (https://toughact.fun) is a trans-run club night at The White Hotel in Salford. We basically just wanted to have a queer club night in Manchester with lots of hard and fast music, and that didn't really exist so we had to do it ourselves. As it turns out, that's something quite a lot of people in the city wanted, so we've decided to carry on organising events until people stop going to them.

How do you approach genre in your sets? Does this approach change depending on the venue / club night?
The music I listen to day-to-day doesn't really have any structure; lately I've been listening to a lot of musique concrete, drill, gabber, reggaeton, and R&B. This doesn't really lend itself well to playing coherent sets so [...] I don't really prepare at all for my sets. Instead I pick one or two tracks I wanna start with and just see where it goes from there! Sometimes the crowd is really responsive and I end up on one

groove the whole set and loving it, and other times it means I just fumble around mixing bassline into Abba and wondering why everyone's left the room. It's certainly a bit of a risk, but when it pays off there's no better feeling!

London based DJ and sound artist. Music lover for most of her life, started teaching herself how to mix in late 2020. Still developing her style, enjoys creating unique and unpredictable sets, playing dance music from across the world, she’s always on the hunt for new sounds. You could hear - Afrobeats, jersey-club, acid house, techno, gqom, kuduro, afro, bass, funky. She loves exploring the connection between and bridging the gaps between the mainstream and the underground, the old and the new; and ultimately having a good time.

1. How/ why did you get into DJing?

I [...] have been interested in club culture for years. DJing was a secret dream of mine - I would look at DJs, thinking “I would love to do that!”. I had a natural urge to do it, but didn’t start learning until the 2020 winter lockdown when I was unemployed, mental health was bad and I had a lot of time. I bought a cheap controller online - used YouTube tutorials, Reddit, discord. I also attended a course with Saffron music.

2. What is your biggest source of musical inspiration?
Music is an inspiration - anything that moves me (emotionally, physically). Music I heard growing up [...] the music my friends and family play, clubs at uni, in bars, at the salon, on the radio [...], in other countries, I shazam music that I hear coming out of people’s cars. I’m inspired by black and Afro-Caribbean cultures around the world.

3. Do you look up to any DJs? If yes, who and why?

Jeff Mills and Moodymann - our tastes are different, but I learned a lot from their approach. They take the approach that it’s the DJs job to test and create hits. Studying them helped me break out of my cycle of relying on crowd pleasing. [...] Orpheu the Wizard - our selections are different, but I love how unpredictable every set is. [...] Kampire - she’s from Uganda and affiliated with the Nyege Nyege crew. She introduced me to music in the African diaspora, championing east African underground music [...]

4. What are the next steps in your DJing career- now that you’ve done a KH Livestream?

Keep practising [...] making my transitions seamless and creative, playing different environments, connecting with DJs, new experiences, challenging myself. I’m eternally grateful to Keep Hush for opening their platform to me [...]. I’m getting used to the transition from bedroom DJ to playing out, pushing through performance anxiety and learning about how to play to a crowd. [...] I consider myself a beginner [...] a lot of “firsts” to come! [...]

5. You play a lot of obscure edits- how do you approach your musical digging?

[...] I go down rabbit holes [...] DM people for track ids, look through other people’s playlists. If I find something I like, I look for similar tracks [...] I also look at who’s liked that track - [...]what else have they bought? I have to balance digging with practising though! I’ve pulled all nighters looking for music! [...]

6. Does playing edits build energy in your DJ sets? Do these artists get enough credit?

An edit gives the chance to experience a familiar song in a new way. [...] I find edits open people to new styles of music. Not everyone likes electronic music, but an edit of a pop song can act as a bridge. The

soundcloud artists that make them deserve their credit because a lot of edits sound better than official remixes! It makes sense for DJs to post tracklists and and share where they find their edits, so the artists can get more recognition and support. [...] I need to post my tracklist asap! We all thrive when we credit and support each other.

Having worked across music management, A&R and radio for nearly 6 years, East London based DJ Elle Clark has recently just launched new label Curving Track alongside a monthly radio show with upcoming releases from Closet Yi, Gallegos, Elpac, Pluralist, DJ LHC and others. Pushing a sound spanning between dance, percussive, bass, electronic, breaks combined with traditional styles of music - Elle’s musical inspiration started with her dad’s expansive record collection, illegal raves as a teenager and her first experiences in a club.

1. How/ why did you get into DJing?
I was always really into music, my dad has always had a tonne of records in the house so collecting and playing records was something I was always used to, mostly soul & funk though. When I was growing up I was a big dubstep fan, I loved DMZ - I remember the first time I heard Artwork - Red my mind was blown. I used to really enjoy showing people different music, and I remember seeing Secretsundaze at Junk in Southampton at a festival afterparty and thinking they were the most incredible DJs [...] I think that really first ever inspired me that playing across many genres was something you could do as a DJ.

2. What is your biggest source of musical inspiration?
I was first drawn to electronic & dance music when I used to go to illegal parties, it was mostly dubstep and drum & bass but it was a very surreal experience when you’ve not actually experienced a real club before. I loved it though, and that definitely got me into searching and listening to music more in depth than before. I used to scour YouTube channels for music (one called Alias), it was the era of Hyph Mngo, Blawan - Getting Me Down, Tessela’s Hackney Parrot, James Blake, Midland, Scuba, Pearson Sound etc. I was hugely influenced by that ‘post-dubstep’ sound, as well as artists alongside that time like SBTRKT, Disclosure, Burial, George Fitzgerald.

3. Do you look up to any DJs? If yes, who and why?

[...] Josey Rebelle, because I always love what she plays. I love Overmono because I’m such a big fan of their productions, the Tessela & Truss days too. I love Powder, she always curates such an interesting set. Midland too, he always creates such a good vibe[...]! & Joy Orbison is just the GOAT to me. [...]at the moment I’ve really enjoyed listening to mixes and sets from Eich, Livwutang, Giulia Tess, Emerald, Ehua, Closet Yi, Ploy, Two Shell & Club Fitness.

4. What are the next steps in your DJing career- now that you’ve done a KH Livestream?

I hope to DJ more! I’d love to play in some other cities too, but I’ve got a few things coming up in London which I’m excited about. I’m still doing a residency on Balamii Radio every month, and I’m hoping to start putting out some productions soon.

5. How did you get into running two labels?

[...] A&R was always something I’d enjoyed doing, so during lockdown we started putting some plans together for Curving Track, which is the more dance, left 12” label, and SNDWNR, which is going to be artist led, full length LPs. Curving Track has just had its first single out from Closet Yi, who I think is such an incredible producer, and SNDWNR will be launching soon. I played some tracks from both labels in my KH set. I have always loved finding new music so it’s been really fun to dig into curating releases.