D-Grade is an enthusiast for dancing in the great outdoors. They’ve co-run parties in both Sydney/Gadigal Land and Montreal/Tio'tia:ke, played the likes of Soft Centre, Dark Mofo & Technofeminism to name a few and are parent to the cutest, most perfect creature in the entire world, Pepper.
First up can you tell us a little bit about the energy behind this mix? Would you prescribe any activities to do while listening…(like getting…married)?
Oh deefinniiiitely getting married ! So this mix is a shorter version of a set I played at T&E’s magical wedding-doof on Wiradjuri Country early April. I played late the first night post-ceremony – T described the dancefloor as “30 seasoned stragglers bobbing like mad apes in the thick cold fog”.
Prob my fav context to experience music is in the bush, small crowd, big energy. I think there’s something special about dancing when it’s super dusty, or raining, or muddy, or just really bloody cold. Like, we can curate lighting colours and effects til the cows come home, but you can never predict what the sky or clouds will be doing, or how the light hits the trees at sunrise.
I don’t get to DJ in the bush much, so wanted to play songs that spoke to this experience and hopefully complimented the natural environment we were dancing in. I also just really wanted to please the bride and groom, obviously !
Who are some artists and labels you’re into currently and why?
This is something I’m a bit insecure about actually, cause I’m embarrassingly bad at following and remembering labels and all that heady stuff. I rarely recognise any songs that are played out, so can never participate in the back-of-dancefloor DJ-chin-stroke ;P
Tho I’m gonna shout out some maties doing sick shit that I’m currently into and have been for a sec. DJ Pacifier, Swaya, and Kazuki Koga – I can bet I have a track by one of them in almost every mix or set. Some new friends, Kaisei and Autogenesis, whose tracks are in this mix ! Plus DBR, Gi, Tangerine, Night Dives. Labels Causal Chain, Steeplejack, Pure Space, Body Promise, Powertrip. Oh, and anything/everything Kavil !!!
Can you tell us a little bit about boof, who’s involved and how it came to be? And how many parties you’ve been involved in before this?! (And which one has been your fave heh)
boof was an outdoor party my mate Liam and I ran earlier this year in February. We spontaneously put it together in less than a week, riding the exciting ‘wooo dancing’s back’ wave. It was sick cause we booked great artists who at the time hadn’t played out heaps, and the location was pretty far to get to from the usual spots, but people came through and the vibes were so immaculate.
Prior to boof I put on tactic, a series of live+DJ events and parties in 2019, with Julia. And I first started throwing raves with D in Montreal (Tiohti:áke) in 2018, called Vault and Datatrash. Bestie Heather made the funnest and most cryptic rave websites for those ones.
Definitely boof has been my fav yet. It wasn’t necessarily the ‘best’ party out of them all, but the one I had most fun at. I was an anxious perfectionist in the earlier days and could never enjoy or feel proud of the parties I ran. Yay to lockdown growth I guess !
Image credit Caspian Baska
How was your time living in Montreal? Is that where you first started playing out officially?
I lived in Montreal for a year and a half, 2017-2018, and started DJing there, yeah. I met three friends – Al, Kim, Zoe <3 – who were also getting into it. Late 2017 we started a monthly Monday night called ‘Hungry 4’ at a dive bar called Blizzarts, which became quite an impactful community space for new DJs.
Blizzarts was sick cause it had a club-level sound-system and DJ set-up, but since it was a Monday it was low-stakes and we could play whatever we liked really loud. We would just loosely b2b for 5 hours. I’ve really been missing that style of more intuitive, improvised, and collaborative DJing recently.
You’ve been playing a shit tonne of gigs, which were your faves and who are some parties we should be keeping an eye on in the Sydney scene?
Haha have I? I haven’t DJ’d for 2 months, but in March probs Nexus (although chaotic – love you Ryan) and Second Skin were favs ! Clocking off and dancing to Neurodancer’s sunrise set at Nexus was just pure phwoaaar.
Prior to the lock-downs, I think I was trying to play more ‘experimental’ sets, with lulls and more restraint, regardless of set-time. Since re-opening, I’ve noticed the zoomers just wanna freaking go in ! – myself included – so working with that energy has been really fun.
As for parties Hypnotherapy (by G-Spot x Dysphoria Records x Headnoiz) and Subsprawl by General Merchant a couple weekends ago were so eets. Shout out to Sina & dnb for sponsoring the weekend, from 9am at The Bridge to 1am under a bridge – also shout out to Box’s talent show xD
Lastly, where can we catch you spinning in the not too distant future (on Gadigal land or overseas heh)
I’m headed back to Montreal for the summer, June and July ! Nothing I can announce yet, but errr potentially Big Things Coming ? I’m also just keen to freaking dance in the North America summer !
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