This is my longest-standing interest of the three, and probably the deepest.
It started early, with my mum playing a saxophone CD to stop me crying as a baby, my dad and I sat in eight hours of New Year’s Eve traffic (also making me cry) with Sade’s Diamond Life on repeat. I learned guitar as a kid and spent my teens deep in the wave of indie bands the 2000s gave us, before university introduced me to dance music properly. Underground clubs in Edinburgh, house parties in Leeds with sound setups I couldn’t quite believe. I started building playlists, then got a turntable and speakers for my birthday and began collecting records. Eventually I got tired of the silence between records at the after party, bought a second turntable, and taught myself to mix. It’s grown from there.
Music is usually thought of as art – the way sound and voice combine for emotional effect. But it’s also physics: vibration, frequency, the mechanics of why a chord or a bassline moves you at all. I find that combination genuinely bewildering, in the best way – an old Chet Baker record, Otis Redding, a bit of Aquarian Dream… Disco, New Wave, house, punk, classical – a well-written piece of music, from any genre, can make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Over the years I’ve hosted a series of radio shows aptly named Stewpot’s House – where I have been able to tell stories about records and gigs and what has made it all so special to me. If you find yourself with free time please do give them a listen.
And since I picked up my turntables on Gumtree, I’ve been fortunate enough to play gigs all over london, starting out in a little warehouse loft in Harringay, I’ve been part of the growth of an event series called Don’t F*ck With Disco. Who have focused on creating a safe community space for disco lovers, driving their growth through limited ticket sales, a private whatsapp group and a wide spread feeling of FOMO! It’s been an incredible ride.
Through them and the other label I play with, Disco Disco, I have played at clubs such as KOKO, Fabric, Ministry of Sound, Village Underground and The Cause, While my curated collection of records allows me to scrub myself up and play at listening bars such as Brilliant Corners, Godet, Bambi and the Spy Bar at Raffles (IYKYK). It also landed me a spot on BBC Radio London!
My taste has never been refined to one genre, DJing is about understanding the crowd and taking them on a journey. Different sounds, energies, rhythms, tempos, and the best DJs understand this.
What is really nice is that I feel like, while we hear so much about the death of London nightlife – there is actually so much incredible stuff happening. World class music across the city nearly every night of the week, with punters keen to use these experiences as safe spaces to escape from the world around them.
Elliott
