We head to Perth, Western Australia to catch up with Paul Harding aka El Hornet, one-third of drum 'n' bass group Pendulum, who met in the metal and punk scene and have since reached huge heights with their hard-driving neurofunk bangers. Paul is a hilarious storyteller and we talk about CB radio, surfing with sharks, trading beer for mixtapes, losing a dead person at a Pendulum show, happy hardcore, his Hornet’s Nest label, being broke in DJ Fresh's London flat making Pendulum's first album and keeping drum 'n' bass punk af.

Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin have spent the last 20 years helping shape NYC nightlife, but these days, they're best known as the owners of Nowadays in Ridgewood, Queens – which is, in many people's estimation, the best club in New York right now. Justin and Eamon are also DJs and are the hosts and residents of long-running parties Mister Saturday Night (also a record label), Mister Sunday, and an ambient chill-out affair called Planetarium. In part one of this two-parter, we talk to the duo about Mister Saturday Night's 15-year anniversary, the dos and don'ts of fog, wild times at Motherfucker, DIY spaces and dance rock, deep house, DJing, the twists and turns of nightlife in post-9/11 NYC and the parties, locations and music that have shaped all their endeavors. 

Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin have spent the last 20 years helping shape NYC nightlife, but these days, they're best known as the owners of Nowadays in Ridgewood, Queens – which is, in many people's estimation, the best club in New York right now. Justin and Eamon are also DJs and are the hosts and residents of long-running parties Mister Saturday Night (also a record label), Mister Sunday, and an ambient chill-out affair called Planetarium. In part one of this two-parter, we talk to the duo about Mister Saturday Night's 15-year anniversary, the dos and don'ts of fog, wild times at Motherfucker, DIY spaces and dance rock, deep house, DJing, the twists and turns of nightlife in post-9/11 NYC and the parties, locations and music that have shaped all their endeavors. 

Over the last 20+ years, Shawn Reynaldo has been a DJ, record label owner, radio station manager, journalist and the editor-in-chief of XLR8R magazine. He's a one-time staple of the San Francisco indie rock scene, a former promoter of tropical bass and UK funky parties, and also one of the pre-eminent critics writing about house and techno for Pitchfork, Spin, NPR and beyond. Velocity Press just released Shawn's first book, First Floor Volume 1, which collects the spiciest thinkpieces and hot takes on electronic music and culture that he's penned over the last couple years in his popular First Floor weekly newsletter. To celebrate the kick-off of his North American book tour, we talk about how DJ culture has changed over the last two decades, his view on music writing, his spicy takes on the best and worst sonic trends, the current club scene in Barcelona (where he's based), sober raving, and the time he saw Claire Danes eat shit at Berghain.

When 1980s electro and freestyle music from Miami, New York, and Los Angeles touched down in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, it ignited a wildfire in the minds of DJs, soundsystem operators, and dancers. In this episode of Rave to the Grave podcast, we go back to the roots of baile funk with Priscilla “House of Pris” Cavalcante. Priscilla grew up in Fortaleza in Northeast Brazil, where as a pre-teen she became hooked on first-wave baile funk. Priscilla now lives in Miami, Florida, where she throws a party called Proibidae and is in the process of collecting and reissuing the lost anthems of 1990s and early 2000s baile funk. We talk about tamborzao, furaçao, pancadao, and hear some of the samples and records that formed the sound.

Seana Gavin is a London-based visual artist who spent 10 years immersed in the free party culture in the UK and beyond, traveling to week-long parties in the Czech countryside, the mountains above Marseille, or Berlin squats with soundsystems like Spiral Tribe, Bedlam, Desert Storm, and Hekate. Her photos and diary entries of the adventures of these roving cyberpunks are collected in books like Spiral Baby and Spiralling, and we sat down to talk about border crossing, squat raves, politics, drugs, freedom, and just how dirty things can get.