Paths of Rhythm (Formerly Once A DJ)

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm joined by someone who's really in a category of one: multiple DMC champion, Invisibl Skratch Piklz founder and absolute turntable legend, DJ Qbert. Qbert grew up in San Francisco. His parents came over from the Philippines, and his dad loved disco and only wanted music he could dance to, so he handed his son all the records he didn't like. That's how a young Qbert ended up with Ravi Shankar and classical Indian tabla music. Then Rapper's Delight came on the radio, the Bay Area electro scene took hold, and when he heard Herbie Hancock's Rockit he had no idea the sound was coming off a record. In 1985 a friend showed him how to scratch, he put his whole palm on the record, and that was that.

From there we follow the whole journey. We talk about losing battles with his high school crew and treating every loss as a lesson, an empty school cafeteria whose echo made him feel like he was getting good, and meeting Mix Master Mike at that same gig. We also get into the car accident that stopped the body tricks and made him focus on becoming a real musician, and winning world team titles with Mike and Apollo. Qbert talks about mushrooms, Bruce Lee and being one with the music, odd time signatures and Dave Brubeck, Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik, making Wave Twisters, his huge vintage sampler collection, and why studying Rakim and Kool G Rap's flows is a gold mine for scratch patterns. It was a 4:30am start for him, and he still brought so much energy and generosity to the conversation. It's one I'll be coming back to for a long time.

What we get into:

• Growing up in San Francisco with Filipino parents and a dad who loved disco
• Ravi Shankar, tabla music and inheriting the records his dad didn't like
• Rapper's Delight, four on the floor and the Bay Area electro scene
• Hearing Herbie Hancock's Rockit and not realising it was a record
• 1985, and putting his whole palm on the record for the first time
• Competing with his high school crew: win or learn
• Scratching on his dad's record-stacking turntable
• The echo in the school cafeteria and meeting Mix Master Mike
• Philosophy, mushrooms, Bruce Lee and being one with the music
• Ego, battles and scratching for the music instead of the other DJ
• Studying the New York DJs before the New Music Seminar
• Doing everything on 45 at the DMC, and Christian Marclay
• Forming the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and winning the DMC team titles
• The car accident that made him focus on what comes out of the speaker
• Odd time signatures, Dave Brubeck and scratching over Take Five
• Yogafrog, Skratchcon, Turntable TV and The Shiggar Fraggar Show
• The new Piklz album with Shortkut and D-Styles
• Disk, Buckethead and Brain from Primus
• Scratching versus beat juggling, and Jimi Hendrix-style soloing
• Going global and the scratch DJs he thinks deserve more attention
• Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik and Rap Pages
• Break records and getting straight to the good part
• His collection of vintage drum machines and samplers
• Daily routine, forever beats and making Wave Twisters
• Product design, the QFO and the portable scratch scene
• Advice from Mix Master Mike: make up your own style
• Rakim, Kool G Rap and rap flows as scratch patterns
• Sleep, spring water and happy scratching

This week I'm joined by Martin 2 Smoove — Ministry of Sound Milkshake resident, tour DJ for Eve and for Romesh Ranganathan, and a man who held down a Pacha residency alongside Trevor Nelson. Martin was born in Kerala, raised in Basildon, and spent his teens watching Trevor on MTV Base thinking that's the job I want. A night out at 17 watching the Dream Team turn a room inside out sealed it. What follows is one of the most honest accounts of the slow route I've had on the show: an economics degree taken to keep his parents happy, summers as a runner at Wise Buddah fetching drinks for 50 Cent, years of breaking into halls of residence with armfuls of flyers, and a long stretch between 2010 and 2012 where nothing moved at all while everyone he graduated with got on with their careers.

Then a call from a contact at Atlantic about an American artist needing a tour DJ turned out to be Eve, and thirteen years later he's still there. We get into the craft of it too — the Leicester Square residency where the owner would ask him to clear the dance floor on purpose, six years playing 80s and 90s pop at Jazz Cafe that taught him more about music than anything else he's done, why Shazam charts are a month ahead of the actual charts, and why being easy to travel with matters as much as what you can do on the turntables. Martin's the kind of guest who makes you want to take the unglamorous gig. Really enjoyed this one.

What we get into:

• Growing up in Basildon with no music in the house, and finding Michael Jackson, MTV Base and Trevor Nelson
• Seeing the Dream Team at 17 and deciding on the spot that making a room happy was the job
• Studying economics at Keele to shut his parents up, and hating every minute of the academic side
• Why he'll still take the right gig for free, and how the long-term view has paid off repeatedly
• Being a runner at Wise Buddah, getting studio drops from Mariah Carey and Xzibit, and learning artist etiquette the hard way
• Warming up for Trevor Nelson at universities, and twenty years of Milkshake at Ministry of Sound
• The 2010–2012 stretch where nothing happened, and the digging-for-diamonds meme he wishes he'd seen then
• Two summers at Pacha, and bringing R&B and hip hop to an island that wasn't playing it
• Leicester Square and Jazz Cafe: learning to clear a dance floor on purpose, and what Karma Chameleon does to a room
• The U2 end-of-tour party where nobody danced for four hours until one request changed everything
• Getting the Eve call, messing up the second gig, and the look of death on stage
• Gumball 3000, working Mondays unpaid to learn the clothing business, and a BAPE collaboration on the way
• VJing Romesh Ranganathan's arena tour, and how to add value rather than just play a set
• Why Shazam charts beat the official charts by a month
• Running a DJ agency with Andy Purnell and Luke, and why being easy to travel with is a professional skill

Dean Bryce grew up in a council house in Catford where his dad played records so loud the single-pane glass would vibrate. His dad ran a sound system called Observer and was close to Saxon, the South London sound whose cassettes travelled so far that Wyclef Jean learned English from one in Haiti — thinking they were American. Dean spent his weekends bored in Saxon's Brockley studio while records were being made around him, and it was that DIY world — pirate radio, your own label, boards pulled off boarded-up houses to build speakers — that shaped everything he's done since. He found his own music in jungle at 13, at Jungle Magic in Peckham, then garage, then a job on Deptford market bought purely to fund records. A conversation over the HMV counter with a stranger buying an MJ Cole single turned into a job in artist management the same week he met him, and from there it's been Talking Loud, BMG, sync at the height of the Cadbury's Gorilla ad, Ninja Tune, and Boiler Room. He signed Speech Debelle and won Ninja Tune their first Mercury Prize, DM'd Peggy Gou on SoundCloud and met her for a coffee in a Pret in Old Street, and set out to make Ninja Tune a label he'd actually buy records from. He now runs Don't Sleep — a label, a management company, a club night and a CIC teaching young people the parts of the industry nobody shows them — and he's back DJing with intention, because he thinks too many people playing right now aren't really DJs at all.

In this episode we get into:

• Growing up in a Jamaican household in Catford, and a dad with thousands of records
• Red Records in Brixton, and why he ended up living there
• His dad's sound system Observer, and being raised around Saxon
• How Saxon's cassettes reached New York, Jamaica and Haiti — and taught Wyclef Jean English
• What actually wins a sound clash: dub plates, or sheer power
• Building speakers from the boards off boarded-up houses, and where his independent streak comes from
• Jungle Magic at Laserdrome, Peckham, aged 13 — and jungle as the first music that was his, not his dad's
• Tape packs, happy hardcore, and jungle splitting off from breakbeat hardcore
• Buying garage from 96, and where house stops and garage starts
• Why the girls were all in the garage room
• Learning to mix on unbranded belt-drive decks with no pitch control
• Pirate radio as the real goal — Upfront FM, and why it was "the internet"
• Working Deptford market to buy records, and never making it to the shop before closing
• Meeting MJ Cole's manager over the HMV counter, and a marketing meeting on day one
• Tuse, Roots Manuva, and hearing Witness the Fitness on cassette in his flat
• Sorting MJ Cole's Kiss promos into three piles — and pulling out an early Streets white label
• BMG in the Hey Ya era, and the OutKast party that hired out the whole London Eye
• Sync, the Cadbury's Gorilla, most favoured nations, and why a low fee isn't always a bad deal
• Signing Speech Debelle and winning Ninja Tune their first Mercury Prize
• Making Ninja Tune "the label that I would buy records from" — FaltyDL, Peggy Gou, Actress
• The SoundCloud DM to Peggy Gou, and a coffee in a Pret in Old Street
• Why A&R is all soft skills, and leaving no fingerprints on a record
• Boiler Room from iChat messages to a 50-person company, and the lockdown moment they missed
• Don't Sleep, the Doja Cat email, and building a home for artists who get slept on
• Infinite Coles, Sweetface Killa, and handling a record people read as a diss
• Artist development against the TikTok microwave
• Coming back to DJing with intention

This week I'm joined by DJ Melo D — a beat junkie, a world champion, and one of the most technically gifted scratch DJs to come out of Southern California. Melo D was born and raised in Cerritos in the early 1980s, right as hip hop and electro were landing on the West Coast, and he grew up hooked on KDAY airchecks, pause-button mixtapes and a friend's older brother's turntables. He got his first Technics 1200 for Christmas 1987, taught himself to scratch by ear on his dad's home stereo, and cut his teeth doing high school dances and quinceañeras as a mobile DJ before linking up with DJ Curse, Rhett Matic and J Rock — the crew that would become the Beat Junkies.

While studying sociology at UC Irvine, Melo D was quietly stacking up battle titles: a Vestax USA and World Championship, a DMC USA final with Babu, and an ITF World Championship with the Beat Junkies crew. That same run of form landed him a job as Quincy Jones' on-air DJ for the late-night talk show Vibe — a gig he says he only got because he had the nerve to force a James Brown routine on Quincy after his first set of battle routines fell flat. Alongside years on LA radio with Julio G at 92.3 The Beat, Melo D went on to co-found the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound with his crew, where he still teaches today.

We get properly nerdy in this one — the maths behind scratch technique, why J Dilla's swing breaks DJs, how the crab scratch was actually born in a Tokyo hotel room, and what it's like being handed a job by Quincy Jones on the spot.

In this episode we cover:

• Growing up in Cerritos during the first wave of West Coast hip hop and electro
• The KDAY Mixmasters and the birth of the West Coast mix show
• Getting his first Technics 1200 for Christmas 1987 and teaching himself to scratch
• Mobile DJing quinceañeras, high school dances and SoCal house parties
• Linking up with DJ Curse, Rhett Matic and J Rock and forming the Beat Junkies
• Balancing a sociology degree with Vestax, DMC and ITF world titles
• The golden era of turntableism and why vinyl forced so much creativity
• The origin story of the crab scratch, told first-hand
• Becoming Quincy Jones' DJ for the Vibe talk show
• Building the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound and what's hardest to teach beginners
• The vinyl renaissance and the case for BPM-labelling your records

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week's guest is a Yorkshireman I'd heard whispered about by more than one person in the scene before I ever got him on the mic — David Piccioni. Born to an Italian father and South African mother and raised in Huddersfield, David got his real education in a punk scene that had him sneaking into soundchecks before he'd even worked out he wanted to DJ. A few years later, economics and politics at Liverpool University led him straight into throwing his own parties and playing American import records at Liverpool's Wednesday night club nights — and by 1986 he'd saved up for a one-way flight to New York with £300 in a bag and no contacts waiting for him.

What followed is the kind of story you can only get firsthand: getting schooled at Paradise Garage under Larry Levan, soaking up David Mancuso's Loft, and becoming one of the biggest DJs in the city within two years. When he came home to London, David co-owned Black Market Records with Nicky Blackmarket — the shop that helped break UK jungle and drum & bass upstairs while he ran the house side — before founding Azuli Records, a label that got away with pretending to be American for years, broke Afro Medusa's "Pasilda" and Spiller's "Groove Jet," and put out the Late Night Tales and Choice compilation series. When digital killed the vinyl business, David didn't look back — he moved to Ibiza and built a restaurant instead. This one's full of stories you won't find written down anywhere else.

Topics covered:

• Growing up in Huddersfield and sneaking into gigs during its punk scene
• Missing the Sex Pistols at Ivanhoe's on Christmas Day
• The move to Liverpool University and falling into DJing by accident
• Saving up for a one-way flight to New York in 1986
• Getting schooled at Paradise Garage by Larry Levan, and David Mancuso's Loft
• Coming home to co-own Black Market Records with Nicky Blackmarket
• Building Azuli Records — and the fake American label trick that fooled the industry for years
• Breaking Afro Medusa's "Pasilda" and turning down Spiller's "Groove Jet"
• Curating the Late Night Tales and Choice compilation series
• Why Azuli couldn't survive the shift from vinyl to digital
• Trading the dancefloor for a restaurant on a clifftop in Ibiza

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm sitting down with a guy whose name might not be as famous as the records he made, but whose fingerprints are all over some of the most important hip hop of the last 35 years: Scotty Hard.

Scotty grew up in Vancouver on a diet of classical guitar, jazz camp and free jazz shows, then fell hard for punk, no wave and the Ornette Coleman school of harmolodic funk before Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions convinced him New York was the only place left to go. He landed at Calliope Studios — the 24-hour home base for the Native Tongues, De La Soul, Stetsasonic and Queen Latifah — with almost no formal engineering training, learning by the skin of his teeth on sessions that ranged from editing Tone Loc's mink-coat 900-number ad to filling in on De La Soul Is Dead when the regular engineer didn't show. That one shift turned into a decades-long run with Prince Paul, which led him into the orbit of Gravediggaz, RZA and the Wu-Tang Forever sessions, New Kingdom, the Stereo MCs and PM Dawn.

We talk about how he found his footing as the guy trusted to give creative input rather than just push faders, the eleven-minute Lisa Stansfield remix that became bigger than anyone in the room expected, and mixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever in neighbouring rooms at the same time — including the day RZA walked in and asked him what exactly he was doing in there. We also spend a good chunk of the conversation on his long, deeply loyal relationship with Ka, one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in hip hop, and on the accident that left Scotty with a spinal cord injury and how he's kept making some of the best music of his career since. We close out talking about his new record with Steven Bernstein, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio, which takes the hip hop chop-and-flip approach and applies it to acoustic jazz.

This is a long one and every minute of it is worth your time. Topics covered:

• Growing up in Vancouver: classical guitar, jazz camp, and opening for Ornette Coleman
• The no wave and punk funk scenes that pulled him toward New York
• Landing at Calliope Studios and learning to engineer with zero formal training
• His first-ever session: editing 2-inch tape for a Tone Loc ad
• Getting the call to fill in on De La Soul Is Dead and starting his run with Prince Paul
• Making beats on the SP12 and S900 synced to 24-track tape
• Knowing when to offer a creative opinion and when to just be the engineer
• The Lisa Stansfield "Been Around the World" remix that blew up bigger than anyone predicted
• New Kingdom and being "too ahead of its time"
• How Gravediggaz came together and meeting RZA
• Mixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever at the same time in LA
• What actually made Gravediggaz sound so dark and eerie
• The challenge of mixing records you didn't record yourself
• His parallel life in jazz: Teo Macero, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Sex Mob
• Working with Ka on Days with Dr. Yen Lo and why Ka refused to compromise his art
• Remembering Ka and the Legacy Open Studio celebration of his life
• His car accident, his spinal cord injury, and adapting his life and work around it
• Surprising mic choices that worked for rappers who didn't have "perfect" voices
• His one piece of outboard gear he'd tell any beatmaker to buy
• His new album, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio with Steven Bernstein

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm joined by KnowleDJ — and this is a slightly different one for the show. He's the first Canadian I've had on since about episode two, and he's built a career that doesn't really look like anyone else's. He grew up in Kelowna, a small city in British Columbia, started out as a hip hop promoter to pay his tuition, and got talked into DJing by a club owner who wanted him to do college nights. He was a "hip hopper for life" who couldn't stand the idea of playing anything else — until the money, and then the music, changed his mind. From there it's cruise ships playing to wildly diverse crowds, an economics degree feeding into how he thinks about the whole game, and eventually opening for the Backstreet Boys, Ice Cube and Ariana Grande, and running the after-parties for No Doubt's Sphere residency.

What I really wanted to get into was the thinking underneath all of that. We talk about cultural deference and why you have to prove you've done the digging before a crowd trusts you. We get into ADHD, diet and the idea of conscientiousness as a cheat code. He walks me through the worst gig of his life — a Vegas set he says was sabotaged, which blacklisted him for years — and the fate-tipping opportunities that came after. There's a genuinely moving stretch about Fat Man Scoop, who mentored him and passed away the very night Knowledge told him he'd played "Be Faithful." And we finish on the economics of it all: why he built himself a "category of one," what blue ocean strategy and ikigai have to do with DJing, and why, with his book The DJ Diaries on the way, he still believes music is the answer.

In this episode we get into:

• Growing up in Kelowna and going from hip hop promoter to open-format DJ
• Reading diverse crowds on the cruise ships, and learning that people hear music differently
• Showing cultural deference — proving you've dug deep before a crowd trusts you
• Rebuilding the No Doubt set from scratch, and the real story behind "Don't Speak"
• ADHD, diet, and conscientiousness as a cheat code (the OCEAN model)
• The brain science of doing hard things, and telling yourself a realistic story
• Learning the mic, the art of the warm-up, and getting over stage fright
• The worst gig of his life and being blacklisted in Vegas
• Opening for Ariana Grande, Backstreet Boys and Ice Cube — and reading GA crowds
• Fat Man Scoop's quiet, huge influence on hip hop — and a tragic full-circle moment
• The economics of DJing: supply and demand, a "category of one," blue ocean strategy and ikigai
• The DJ Diaries, what's next, and the idea of the "otrovert"

I thought I'd re-publish this one for any of the heads who missed it first time round.

He doesn't really need an introduction round here — one half of the production team behind Jurassic 5, and honestly one of the best DJs I've ever seen live. I got Nu-Mark on to talk about his new book Amunu, which is part Persian cookbook, part memoir, part travel guide, and really a celebration of togetherness — family, food and music all woven together. What I love is how much ground we covered getting there.

He told me about the mum who raised him with total freedom (and who, 24 years ago, told him to start making Middle Eastern beats — advice he's only just taken), about growing up half-Iranian in the States during the hostage crisis, and about buying 20,000 records for $500 as a teenager, a haul that ended up powering 85–90% of those early J5 productions. We got deep into the group: how it became Jurassic 5 when there were six of them, why he refused the single deal that everyone else signed, the fact that the UK recognised them before the US would, and the whole first EP being made on an eight-track. He's wonderfully honest about confidence too — something he says he's still working on — and about losing his father, and how it was putting his dad's old records on that finally let him cry. We finish on Lesson 6, two record collections meant to meet, and the kebabs-on-site book launch in LA. A proper one, this.

In this episode:

• His mum, Nowruz, and the Middle Eastern beats advice he ignored for 24 years
• Growing up half-Iranian during the Iran hostage crisis
• The alphabetised 35,000-record collection (and the $500 haul of 20,000 records that built J5)
• Making peace with a tough upbringing, and music as therapy
• Losing his father, and the records that brought it out
• Drumming, Brazilian rhythm, and house parties that ended on slow jams
• Bum Rush Productions, $2 on the door and the 40 ounce posse
• Why it's Jurassic 5 when there were six of them
• Turning down the Blunt single deal — and signing Kanye at Correct Records
• The chemistry with Cut Chemist, and the art-first philosophy
• Breaking in the UK before the US, and touring like a rock band
• Retaining the publishing, the long life of "What's Golden", and a surprise Pandora hit
• The whole first EP made on an eight-track
• The Interscope era alongside Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent, and the Scott Storch sessions
• Going solo with the toy set, and building his own ecosystem
• How Amunu came together — and the LA launch

Cut Chemist has been on my list since the day I started this podcast, so getting him on for Episode 85 was a real full-circle moment. He's someone whose records genuinely shaped how I dig and how I think about putting samples together, and across this conversation he traces the whole arc — from kicking along to a Bobby Darin concert in the womb, to a McDonald's straw on a snare drum, to Star Wars soundtracks, to the moment hip hop landed for him in 1983.

We get deep into the Hollywood scene that raised him, the Rhino Records parking-lot quarter bins where he and his friends amassed beats nobody had touched, and the Jungle Brothers album that made him realise he could make "a record made out of records."

From Unity Committee into Jurassic 5, sharing the production chair with Nu-Mark, the all-45s leap into Brain Freeze with DJ Shadow, the solo tightrope of The Audience's Listening, and right up to his candlelit listening parties now — this one's a masterclass in following the unfamiliar. It's long, it's nerdy in all the right places, and I couldn't have asked for more from a guest who's influenced me this much.

In this episode we cover:

• His earliest musical memories — parents, live drums, Carpenters and a deep sci-fi soundtrack obsession
• Discovering hip hop in 1983 via KDAY, breakdancing, graffiti and the elements one at a time
• Public Enemy, Bomb Squad and why Main Source is his production template
• The Jungle Brothers album that turned him into a sampler
• Learning gear the hard way — reel-to-reel, Roland S10, MPC, the Pro Tools learning curve
• Forming Jurassic 5 out of Unity Committee, and the east-coast heart in a west-coast city
• Pre-internet sample sleuthing and the legendary Rhino Records quarter bins
• First DJ gigs at 15, learning to cut, and the up-and-down fader style that became his own
• Qbert and the 1996 X-Men vs Scratch Pickles battle
• A digging philosophy: is the juice worth the squeeze?
• Sharing production with Nu-Mark, building Lesson 6, and breaking in Europe with Mr Format
• The Rare Equations mix, the Number Song remix and the all-45s origins of Brain Freeze
• Ozomatli, Brazilian and African digging, and constructing a set like a composition
• The Audience's Listening at 20, The Garden in Brazil, and the Italy trip that changed everything
• The Good Life Cafe education and record shopping with Biz Markie
• Stable Sound, the Bandcamp subscription, and his candlelit psychedelic sound baths
• On Keb Darge, on Edan, and the Expert of None shows coming next

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm joined by Eddie Otchere — a name that might be new to some, but his work absolutely won't be. Eddie is the photographer behind some of the most iconic images of 90s hip hop, jungle and drum & bass, garage and grime. He was Metalheadz's official photographer, shot Wu-Tang Clan, Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, So Solid Crew, Estelle, Chronixx, and pretty much every rapper you cared about coming up. His work is currently exhibited at the V&A East, and he's spent the last 30 years documenting London's black music and dance culture.

Eddie grew up in Brixton, Stockwell and Vauxhall, falling into record collecting at Groove Records in Soho when he was so small he couldn't see over the counter. He picked up his first camera in the late 80s — a Praktika left behind by a friend's granddad — and went on to build one of the most important visual archives of UK club culture. This is a long, deep, wide-ranging conversation, and one I came away from genuinely feeling like I'd learned something. I hope you do too.

Topics covered:

• Growing up in South London and the village mentality of the area
• Early days at Groove Records, Red Records, Dub Vendor and the record shops of Soho
• Getting online in the mid-90s via Direct Connection in Stockwell — and how hip hop became the global language
• Picking up a Praktika camera and falling into photography alongside record collecting
• Why being analog matters in a "post-fact" world of remastered records and retconned history
• The Canon EOS 10 and learning to shoot in pitch-black clubs
• Shooting jungle raves, Metalheadz, and protecting young people from tabloid demonisation
• How Red Bull, smoking bans and changing crowd behaviour shifted the look and feel of clubs
• The art of the loop — Alchemist, Dilla, No I.D. and chasing perfect samples
• Working with Wu-Tang as teenagers and learning to build a body of work
• Photographing Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, Estelle and Chronixx
• Around the early days of grime and why he gravitated toward So Solid in South London
• Drum & bass being run by women, and the importance of Chemistry and Storm
• The General Levy "cancellation", gatekeeping, and protecting a culture
• The V&A East exhibition and the tension between DIY scenes and academic curation
• Lee Scratch Perry, dub museums, and what music history should look like
• Meta glasses, AI as a personal agent, and digital asset management for photographers
• His advice for new photographers: intention is everything

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week I'm joined by Carl Loben, Editor-in-Chief of DJ Mag and a man who's spent more than three decades chronicling dance music — from blagging his way into gigs as a freelance writer for Melody Maker in the early 90s, to running DJ Mag for the last decade. I wanted to sit down with Carl because he's seen the whole arc from a vantage point most people haven't: Two Tone gigs at Hammersmith Odeon (where everyone had to leave their DMs at the door), an acid house epiphany at Glastonbury, the drum & bass evangelism that defined his 90s, and a publishing career that's covered the rise of the superstar DJ, the bottle-service era and the digital revolution from the front row.

We get into Carl's own DJing journey — the false start, the freestyle rooms in Hackney, the international gigs that came with the editor's chair — and the labels he's built along the way: Westway with Barry Ashworth from the Dub Pistols, and Jack Said What with Irvine Welsh and Steve Mac (the underground house Steve Mac, not the pop one — there's a great story in there). He's also really frank about the shifting cultural landscape: the whitewashing he and Ben Murphy set out to address with their book Renegade Snares, the wellbeing reckoning that's reshaping what DJ life looks like, and the sea-of-phones problem that's quietly killing the dancefloor.

In this episode we cover:

• Growing up between Beatles, Buddy Holly and Two Tone, and his first gig at 13 (Madness, Hammersmith Odeon)
• His acid house epiphany at Glastonbury and the unsung heroes the history books missed
• The Hackney freestyle rooms, becoming a drum & bass DJ, and almost painting himself into a corner
• Blagging his first reviews for Melody Maker and what life was like as a 90s freelance music journo
• Why Melody Maker went down the toilet and how he ended up at DJ Mag full time
• International gigs in Brazil, Ecuador, Poland and China — and learning why touring DJs burn out
• The cult of the superstar DJ and the hangover from rock and roll
• Westway Records, Jack Said What, and the realities of running a label after the vinyl crash
• Renegade Snares, the whitewashing of drum & bass, and the genre's reckoning with diversity
• Why digital was a blessing and a curse, and what happens when 20,000 tracks a day hit Spotify
• The wellness shift, the sea of phones, and his advice for new DJs trying to break through

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This week we're heading to the West Coast to sit down with Debo (Ivan) — the man behind Funk Freaks, one of the most authentic funk communities operating anywhere in the world right now.

Born and raised on the west side of Costa Mesa in Orange County, California, Debo's story is one of music as lifeline. From breaking a needle on a Sesame Street turntable at five years old, to getting his hands on a beat-up pair of mismatched Technics at age 12 — after his older brother borrowed them from a friend who was heading to prison — to teaching himself to mix at 4am before school every day for six months straight. The obsession was always there.

We talk about what makes Orange County's relationship with 80s boogie and funk so deep-rooted and distinct from LA, the lowrider culture that kept this music alive for generations, and how Funk Freaks went from backyard boogies and house parties to a nine-year residency at the legendary OG Mics in Santa Ana — and eventually to chapters across Europe, South America and beyond.

Debo also opens up about the blood, sweat and tears it took to break the stigma of "cholo music" in bars and clubs, his year living in Barcelona, touring European funk bars with nothing but a tourist visa and a crate of records, and how all of that led to opening the record shop and launching the Funk Freaks label.

A genuinely inspiring conversation about community, culture, creativity and the power of music to change the direction of a life.

In this episode:

Growing up on the west side of Costa Mesa and how the environment shaped him

Learning to DJ on a borrowed mismatched pair of Technics and a busted crossfader

The Stanton DJ-in-a-Box moment and the mother who matched his first paycheck

The Beat Junkies influence and applying hip hop technique to funk records

Backyard boogies, house parties and the stigma of "cholo music" in venues

OG Mics — the Santa Ana residency that became the capital of funk in Southern California

Living in Barcelona, buying Euro funk pressings for cents and building the international network

How the Funk Freaks chapters work (think: graffiti crew ethics applied to record collecting)

Digging road trips from New Orleans to New York to Baltimore and why California is slim pickings now

The Funk Freaks record label — limited pressings, DJ tools, and the story behind the Colors movie recreation

Why there's no such thing as overpaying for a record that means something to you

What the DJ's job actually is — and why Europe gets it right

Links:

Funk Freaks Instagram: @funkfreaks

Remote Control (production): http://www.remote-ctrl.co.uk

The Bronx legend responsible for Dusty Fingers and Schoolyard Breaks, a true scholar, a man with some great stories, Danny Dann Beat Mann, rest in peace.

He was a north start for me from day 1 so it was great to get him on the show.

RIP a true king of digging.

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

Dan't IG: https://www.instagram.com/danlish1/

The first ever live Once A DJ — recorded at Canopy Menswear, Derby

Dan Lish is an illustrator and lifelong hip hop head whose work sits right at the intersection of culture, art and memory. In this special live episode — the first Once A DJ has taken out of the studio and in front of an audience — recorded earlier this year at Canopy Menswear in Derby, he tells the story of how B-boying and hip hop found him at exactly the right moment — and never really let go.

He opens up about a difficult childhood, moving between families and a stint in boarding school, and how the battle culture of B-boying gave him a platform to express things he couldn't yet put into words. From erecting coat hangers around his bedroom window to pull in the Capital Rap Show on pirate radio, to catching second-hand American records in tiny Suffolk shops thanks to nearby US Air Force bases — Dan's path into the culture was shaped by scarcity, which made it all the more precious.

He eventually made it to New York, where he spent around seven years immersed in the grassroots scene: practicing in the Bronx, attending block parties in Queens, linking with Spike from Zulu Nation, hanging with original writers like Stay High 149, and entering battles despite — by his own admission — being stiff as a plank when the nerves hit.

Back in England, his illustration career took off through a series of portraits of hip hop icons drawn during his train commute — work that went around the world, got bootlegged onto mixtapes, and caught the attention of Rakim, Pete Rock, Paradise Gray from X Clan, the RZA and De La Soul among others.

He rounds out the episode talking about his upcoming illustrated book Wonder Love, a love letter to Stevie Wonder's classic 70s albums, published by W.W. Norton.

Show notes:

• Dan Lish's work: danlish.com (verify current link)
• Velocity Press: velocitypress.uk
• Canopy Menswear Derby: canopyonline.co.uk
• Book mentioned: Brakesploitation series
• Upcoming: Wonder Love — illustrated Stevie Wonder book, W.W. Norton

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

DJ Super Dmitry | Dee-Lite, Nauti Siren & The Sound of a Life Lived in Music

This week on Once A DJ, Adam is joined by DJ Super Dmitry — one third of Dee-Lite, the group behind one of the most joyful and enduring records in dance music history. But Dmitry's story goes far beyond 'Groove Is in the Heart', and this conversation goes all the way back to the beginning.

Dmitry grew up in Soviet Ukraine as a third-generation musician. His grandmother — unable to afford a piano during the disruptions of the Russian Revolution, Civil War and World War Two — cut piano keys from paper so she could practise by hand. That love of music carried through the family, and Dmitry began lessons at five, was attending a conservatory music school by seven, and was already writing his own compositions in the style of Gershwin and Scott Joplin by eight.

Western music was tightly controlled. Records could only be obtained on the black market — for around $50 each — and were copied onto reel-to-reel before being traded on. A track from Jesus Christ Superstar introduced him to something funky he couldn't yet name, and the search for that sound would shape the rest of his life.

At 14, Dmitry and his family left the Soviet Union — the first in their town to do so, and treated as traitors for it. After periods in Austria and Italy, where he discovered punk (the Pistols, the Damned, X-Ray Spex, Iggy Pop), the family arrived in New York in 1978. On Halloween. In a Black neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Having never seen Black people before.

From a 50-cent bin in a record shop, he picked up 'The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein' by Parliament because the cover looked insane. That was the moment. 'There it is,' he thought. 'That's the sound I've been looking for.' He's been a funkateer ever since.

New York in the late 70s and early 80s was extraordinary — punk, disco, hip hop, and house all converging in the same sweaty rooms. Dmitry became an elevator operator at Danceteria, practising guitar in the lift between floors while Sisters of Mercy and the Sugar Hill Gang did soundchecks below. He ran into the pre-fame Beastie Boys regularly, worked at the Pyramid Club (run by drag queens, and a real education in showmanship), and played for Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash at block parties in Harlem and the Bronx.

Dee-Lite formed as a direct attempt to bridge the gap between house and funk. They built a following through monthly shows drawing up to 1,500 people, which caught the attention of a Billboard writer and eventually sparked a label bidding war. They signed to Elektra — choosing them because their A&R, Nancy Jeffries, had signed Iggy Pop and Bjork, and that felt like the right kind of open-mindedness.

Elektra didn't believe 'Groove Is in the Heart' had any traction. They let Dee-Lite do the video anyway, and Dmitry remembers the precise moment he knew it had crossed over: standing in a grocery store queue when it came on the radio and the cashier started dancing at her till. 'That's my jam,' she said. 'That's my jam.'

Q-Tip turned up to the studio, listened for 15 minutes, jotted notes, and nailed it in two takes. Bootsy Collins casually mentioned he had 'some friends' who might be able to play horns — those friends were Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, who arrived as near-strangers to each other after five years apart and immediately played like they'd never stopped.

Their first proper gig with a full live band was in front of 300,000 people at Rock in Rio. The second album was recorded expensively in a big studio; Dmitry considers it their weakest. The third, Dewdrops in the Garden, went back to basics and home recording, and he's proud of how well it still sounds.

The band broke up when Dmitry and Kier's relationship ended, and he eventually made his way to Berlin — partly drawn by its thriving club culture, partly pushed out of New York by Giuliani's crackdown on clubs. He played Tresor, won a Best Techno DJ award at Ibiza despite not really being a techno DJ, worked with Julie Cruz, remixed Chaka Khan and Ziggy Marley, and kept making music.

Then during the pandemic, a friend sent him a vocalist called Jessie Evans. He sent her some dub tracks that had been sitting on his computer for years. She recorded them one by one, sending back a finished song every couple of days from Brazil — while caring for two young children. Before they had ever met on video, they had an album's worth of material. That project became Nauti Siren. She moved to Germany, they got married, and they now have around five albums' worth of music ready to release. The first, 'Rising', is out now.

This is a remarkable conversation with someone who has lived inside the history of popular music for fifty years — and who still has plenty more to say.

Find DJ Super Dmitry:

Instagram: @superdjdmitry

Nauti Siren 'Rising' — out on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms

Once A DJ

The podcast that looks at what brings us together and what sets us apart. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

6-time snooker champ and lifelong record collector Steve Davis took the mainstream by surprise when he started DJing...

his career blossomed quickly, but he'd been paying his dues with digging and collecting for decades previous...

In this interview we get into the day job and also the new hustle, and how they complement each other, and also how they're very different.In this fascinating episode, we sit down with one of Britain's most famous sporting icons - six-time world snooker champion Steve Davis - to explore his journey into electronic music, DJing, and his band The Utopia Strong.

Steve shares incredible stories about the golden age of snooker in the 1980s, including the legendary 1985 World Championship final against Dennis Taylor that 18.5 million people watched until the early hours of the morning. But more importantly, we dive deep into his lifelong love of music, from discovering prog rock and psychedelic music as a teenager, to becoming a respected DJ on the alternative electronic music scene, to creating experimental instrumental music with The Utopia Strong.

This conversation explores the parallels between elite sport and creative pursuits, the importance of obsession and dedication, dealing with success and failure, the power of humor and perspective, and why at 68, Steve feels like Peter Pan with no intention of retiring.

Whether you're interested in snooker history, electronic music, or the mindset of elite performers, this episode offers unique insights from someone who's mastered multiple crafts.GuestSteve Davis OBE - Six-time world snooker champion (1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989), BBC snooker commentator, DJ, and member of electronic music trio The Utopia Strong.

Known as the "Romford Terminator" during his dominance of snooker in the 1980s, Steve has become equally respected in the alternative electronic music scene.

Key Topics Covered

• The golden age of snooker in 1980s BritainThe 1985 World Championship final - 18.5 million viewers
• Finding your obsession early in life (snooker at age 14)
• Parallel journey with music from teenage years
• Discovering prog rock, psychedelic music, and krautrock
• The transition from sport to musicDealing with success, failure, and being replaced (Stephen Hendry era)
• The importance of humor and not taking yourself too seriously
• DJing philosophy and track selection
• The Utopia Strong - experimental electronic musicModular synthesis and improvisation
• Working for the BBC on snooker coverage
• Life at 68 - feeling like Peter Pan

Upcoming gig: DJing in a sauna

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

https://www.instagram.com/supremelarock

https://linktr.ee/supremelarock

In this episode of Once A DJ, Adam Gow sits down with the "newly crowned king of the Drum Break", Supreme La Rock. What begins as a nostalgic look at a four-year-old mesmerised by a Christmas turntable evolves into a masterclass on the evolution of hip hop and the relentless pursuit of the perfect record. Supreme recounts his pivotal teenage summers in New York, where witnessing block parties and B-boys first-hand sparked a mission to bring that burgeoning culture back to a then-untouched Seattle.

The conversation captures the emotional weight of a life built on "real hip hop," moving from DIY mixers fashioned with toothpicks to international tours and deep-seated friendships with legends like Biz Markie. Supreme reflects on the transition from an "outcast" teen to a world-renowned digger, detailing the shift from 99-cent gambles to chasing rare acetates. It is a reflective journey through the philosophy of selection, the importance of community, and the simple, enduring power of soul music that makes you want to move.

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

This one picks up where we left off - right at the moment when a mobile DJ dressed as Dr. Stiff meets a pop star called Andy Pickles and accidentally builds one of the biggest hard house labels in the country. Amadeus takes us through the Tidy Trax origin story properly this time: the Hit the Decks albums, the handshake deal that launched everything, and why sometimes the best business moves happen when you're just trying to help a mate out.There's a proper detour into wedding DJing (Amadeus has got opinions), stories about turning up to gigs dressed as a doctor with his wife as a nurse, and the moment he realized he'd gone from making tracks in his bedroom to running a business with 40-odd staff. The conversation wanders through sampling culture, remixing everything, and why nothing's truly original - from disco to hip hop to hard house to the ATV logo. It's not a linear career journey; it's more like watching someone accidentally stumble into their life's work and then double down on it.By the end, we're talking AI, Paul McCartney getting paid for robot Rihanna tracks, and why you can't build a wall to stop a train.

Paths of Rhythm is brought to you with support from vinylunderground.co.uk - take 10% off your next order with the code POR10 and free UK shipping on orders over £100

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.

Other ways to support the show

• Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
• Any feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/

Amo/Tidy Trax links:

• https://www.instagram.com/tidytrax/ (label)
• https://www.instagram.com/tidyamo/ (Amo)
• https://www.youtube.com/@tidytrax

In part one of this two-part conversation, we sit down with Amadeus Mozart (Lee Marlow), one half of The Tidy Boys and the architect of the Tidy Empire that defined UK hard house.

Born in Kettering in 1965 into a working-class family, Amadeus traces his musical journey from his audiophile father's obsession with the Moog synthesizer to becoming a disco devotee in the punk rock era. We explore his formative years being bullied at school for loving Village People while his classmates embraced The Clash, his discovery of London's underground gay club scene in the 1980s, and navigating the AIDS crisis while waving the flag for gay rights.

This episode covers the crucial early years: his friendship with Darren Kennedy, the influence of classical music through his gay housemate Norman, and the loss of his father in 1996 just before his breakthrough success. It's a story of passion, persistence, and staying true to your musical vision against the odds.

Key Topics:

• Growing up with Spotlight on the Moog (1968) - the pre-Kraftwerk electronic revolution
• Being into disco during the punk rock movement (1977-79)
• The UK's reaction to the "Disco Sucks" movement
• Discovering London's gay club scene in the 1980s
• Living through the AIDS crisis and fighting for gay rights
• The influence of classical music on electronic music
• Working-class roots and the journey to music industry success

Guest: Amadeus Mozart (The Tidy Boys, Handbaggers) Recorded at: Tileyard North, Wakefield

Part two coming soon, covering the Hit the Decks era, the birth of Tidy, and 30+ years of UK dance music history.