BLEACHED CLUB INTERVIEW SO, TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF, WHO IS AION?
I’m a DJ, producer, visual artist and fashion designer based in the UK. Who I am as an alias is something that exists to me as many things at once. That sounds like a lot, but I see who I am as an artist and as something I tap in to and it becomes like a flow state of creative energy. Sometimes I don’t know where it comes from but it feels like something given to me. Almost like it's from somewhere unknown and isn’t anything that exists in language yet, like borderline a supernatural a phenomena. Sometimes when I perform it almost feels like I’m letting it take over and I go into this other headspace. When I’m playing live I feel like I become a different version of myself, or maybe I’m just finding more of myself. To be honest It changes depending on things like my mood at the time and the energy of where I am before I play. It’s all very emotionally driven. Some of my projects and DJ sets feels like exploding out of open wounds.
WE PREVIOUSLY KNEW YOU AS BXN, WHAT BROUGHT ON THE NEW NAME?
I feel like I’ve refined a lot of myself as an artist since first starting out, when I came up with my original name of BXN. That name was chosen very quickly. I had to come up with something quick for the first Mutants Mixtape. I’ve moved into this new headspace and identity as an artist, but it just feels right to have this kind of rebirth. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now and want to go by a name that felt right with some more thought behind it. There was a lot of thought processes that went into it but I was thinking deeply about something that feels more like it was never born and will never die, also something that feels kind of transcendent, and not too human. That way it will relate to what I just said about the creative energy feeling kind of superhuman and sometimes supernatural. I was also thinking fictionally about names of weapons and relics. Aion Is also an early greek word which represents the sense of eternity in the cosmos, so it tied in perfectly with everything. I love Greek mythology and it really inspires me. I pretty much grew up in Cyprus, which was a very poignant time for me in becoming who I am today. So it was also important for me to have something Greek too.
AS A DESIGNER AS WELL, HOW DOES THAT CREATIVE EXPERIENCE TRANSLATE TO DJ’ING FOR YOU?
With what I just touched on about myself as an artist I feel like the creative world inside me isn’t limited to one medium, that doesn’t feel possible for me and it never has. It’s also more about building worlds on a more conscious level. It doesn’t help me to achieve as much or realise as much as an artist by trying to be rigid in sticking to one creative outlet... It just doesn’t work for me. Whenever I’m exploring a new visual or sound aesthetic I end up creating an entire vision where I can’t have one without the other. That makes me feel limited. My best work tends to come from sitting alone in a room alone and honing in on what’s going on internally and there usually comes an output which sometimes feels like it’s manifested out of somewhere. If I get an idea for a music, it doesn’t take long for the body visuals, aesthetics, artwork, etc. to follow, and vice versa. That said It usually feels like a form of self reflection because everything is so emotionally driven. None of that is mutually exclusive to me.
Throughout my life I’ve been able to express myself through creativity and I often consider the way in which music, fashion, visuals, etc. tie in together and can communicate things that can’t be verbalised. It’s very powerful when it all comes together. I also enjoy looking at things metaphorically and projecting worlds that represent whatever I’m thinking about at the time. Dark, bloody, aggressive and hyper real themes have come up a lot both visually and sonically. Maybe because I work best off of extreme areas of emotion where nothing is ever off limits. When I’m sharing my work with people I try and imagine it as opening up my mind and letting people in. I strongly believe in learning about each other and connecting to each other through music and art, fashion is art, so I try to be as raw as possible with everything I do. It’s so powerful and I think about it all the time. It’s such a way to connect to each other in a more transcendent way, it’s kind of spiritual if you want to think about it enough. You can communicate so much more through creative mediums in a couple of minutes than you ever could within hours of speaking or writing. I do also believe in art for the sake of art, but I strongly believe that work built around our own experiences and emotions enable us to connect on a much deeper level. I’m all about connectivity.
WHAT WAS YOUR JOURNEY INTO ELECTRONIC MUSIC? WHAT’S BROUGHT YOU TO WHERE YOU ARE TODAY IN TERMS OF AN ARTIST?
I come from a musical family and grew up listening to different types of music, especially from music my mum has played. She’s always had an incredible taste in music and I think that had a profound impact on the way I perceive music and genre, but I remember being around seven or eight years old and she used to have Nelly Furtado’s album “Loose” on repeat in the car when we lived in Germany. I was a big fan of it then and It’s still one of my favourite albums today. “Afraid" and “Showtime” are two of my all time favourite tracks. R&B was a huge part of my upbringing and inspires some of the music I make. I seem to always return to “More Than a Woman” by Aaliyah and literally anything by Gwen Stefani. Me, my brother and my sister were just talking the other day about how much we loved “Thirsty” by Cassie.
I get my party streak from my mum though. Actually, I think nearly all of my creativity comes from her. One of my mums favourite tracks is “Sandstorm” by Darude and I also have good memories of hearing her play that track too. There was also various Clubland CD’s that we used to play. That definitely inspired the trance-type music that I sometimes draw on in some of my sets, like my mix for Bleached Club. I also remember hearing “Addicted to Bass” by Puretone which is an absolute shredder. Then I saw the music video on MTV of two badass girls in a car chase... I was hooked. The same can be said for “My Favourite Game (Stone Version)“ by The Cardigans. There’s also “Freestyler” by Boomfunk MC’s which I thought was the coolest thing ever. It reminds me of some of the music I hear coming back around today. More recently my mum was obsessed with Black Skinhead by Kanye and I have fun memories of acting like crazy people to that song playing in the kitchen with her, my brother and my sister. My brother and sister have also informed so much of what I listen to now I think about it. My sister was the one who showed me Paramore and I’ve been a huge fan for many years.
In terms of electronic music I was always yearning for music that felt the most innovative and interesting to me. I have been through so many phases of absorbing different genres all the way from R&B, EDM, pop, and was even a huge fan of screamo at one point in my life. Years ago me and my brother found this band called Birds Escape who we were really hooked on. We were also obsessed with Lolawolf and their songs “AYO" and “Every Fuckin’ Day”. I still love the analog and minimal nature of it. It was around then when I began listening to some more interesting stuff including a lot of Bjork which completely opened my mind. The most standout album from that time in my teens was NERO’s album Welcome Reality. I don’t have words to describe how that album changed the way I perceive music and its capability to create worlds sonically. “Into the past” by NERO was the opening track to my first ever DJ mix that I shared online. It’s just such a beautiful and coherent album. I guess it’s because I have always been infatuated with music that has sustenance and meaning behind it and I reject anything that feels generic. I believe so strongly in the power of authenticity and originality and I to feel like I’m being taken somewhere when I listen to music. That album felt like that so strongly, like it was from another world. NERO feels fundamental to me and my inspiration. I do definitely have a softer side though... It isn’t all fast and archaic and really experiential electronic. When I’m home I love listening to Florence and the Machine, Daughter and Sade. Especially By your Side and In Another Time by Sade. “Crush” and “Lilies" by Ethel Cain are on very heavy rotation right now.
I went through a difficult relationship a few years ago now, and one day when it got really bad I remember laying on the sofa one night listening to music and I stumbled across an old demo by SOPHIE on Soundcloud, I think she went by a different name back then but it was an early version of her song “Bipp”. It was so comforting and the sound aesthetic speaks for itself; I had never heard something remotely like it ever before. Her production will always be something we all try and wrap our heads around. She soon released PRODUCT and it completely changed everything for me. It felt like what I had been looking for. I sent a link to my brother with a huge paragraph explaining how I’d been searching for innovative and bass heavy music like this for a while and this finally scratched that itch. When I heard Ponyboy it felt like a penny drop. I was craving something that was so heavy, textural, and almost grungy, but purely digital and extreme all at once. I’ve been a huge fan ever since and her passing devastated me. It really breaks my heart to think about. I try to include a track by her in every set now. SOPHIE was like a Segway for me in to PC music and the artists involved like A.G. Cook where I feel deeper in love with that kind of genre.
The only other artist who has inspired me on that level is Arca. I also found Arca’s music on Soundcloud many years ago when I first heard Balamb Garden. I then started to explore more of her earlier works and it felt so emotional, seductive, and experimental. At this point it really started to feel like everything I had been searching for in music was finally coming to me. Arca has this way of merging so many genres into a body of work and it’s hard to place exactly what it is and I love that it’s so unique in that respect. I was seeing the visuals she was putting out and realised she was very similar to me in terms of image and fashion. I felt so validated and deeply connected to what I was seeing. I hadn’t been out of the closet long at the time, so to see another artist that looked like me and expressed themselves like me felt so comforting and validating. When I broke up with the previously mentioned ex, I was also going through some difficult times with my dad. A lot was happening around me and I just felt so lost, and to be honest very out of control. But I remember just listening to Arca’s self titled debut album on repeat once it released around the same time, and it gave me an immense comfort. I felt like I could expel what I was feeling by listening. I love that album so much, but it was that poignant in that time of my life that I can’t hear it without feeling emotional. It was the same with “Take Me Apart” by Kelela. It reminds me how powerful music is. I also started going out pretty much every weekend with one of my best friends Tom. We used to go to this gay club in our hometown and just stay out dancing all night, all of the music and just letting it out in the club was so healing.
A few years later, after dabbling in music production myself, I was in Arca’s Discord server where I saw the Mutants Mixtape being discussed, so I threw a track together and got invovled and was blessed to be included on the first instalment. It was through the Mutants Mixtape that I met so many incredible artists and other queer LGBTQ+ musicians like Andras_2020, COOK, Elle Akosua, and Crushed Velour. I have so much love and admiration for all of them! Go check them out. The talent in across the mixtapes is just so insane and made me so proud to be a part of such a gifted community. I had the pleasure of getting to speak with Arca one on one where she gave me some advice including to always trust my own instincts, which is something I have kept with me. I have so much love for the Mutants Mixtape and what it did not just for the artists, but what it did as a charity above all else. It was such a beautiful thing. Sitting up at night talking with them all, Arca included, gave me so much inspiration and opportunity to hear some pioneering and forward thinking electronic music. Mutants Mixtape also encouraged me to start releasing my DJ mixes which is what lead me up to where I am today.
YOU SPOKE ABOUT DABBLING IN MUSIC PRODUCTION, DID YOU HAVE ANY FORMAL EDUCATION IN MUSIC BEFORE THEN?
I have a diploma in music production which I gained in school and left there for a few years, but other than that I’m completely self-taught. I think some hopeful naivety has helped me to be more experimental in my approach to production. The absence of knowledge naturally forced me to loose my inhibitions with making music, but I’m lucky to have some close friends in the industry
that have helped me too. I like finding my own way and discovering new things. When it comes down to creative work I don’t value formal education or training too highly anyway. Of course it is important to teach you fundamental skills, although even that can be achieved online these days, but it will only take you so far if the soul isn’t there. It’s like In fashion I have always believed in the idea that you can buy fashion but you can’t buy style, and it’s a similar principle is similar here In regard to creativity. The creative soul is far more potent than any qualification. For me it’s about what I’m fighting for and expressing. I don’t believe pieces of paper or personifications on social media can legitimise anyone as an artist. It’s about what you’re standing for and your ability to tear it open for everyone to see, and make work that is meaningful to you.
WHAT ROLE DOES MUSIC PLAY IN YOUR DAILY LIFE?
Music is so vital to me. I couldn’t imagine not having it in my life and using it as a means of expression. Luckily my boyfriend also loves music so we are constantly listening to music of all types at all hours of the day, otherwise I think the constant playing music could be quite frustrating. I really couldn’t imagine life without it. It’s like when you have to catch public transport and forget headphones... Imagine if your whole life was like that? DJ’ing as a medium helps me to fuse a range of creative outlets together. I’ve always been creative and found ways to express myself in many ways; art, music, fashion, even dance. DJ’ing and music has helped me find a way to put all of that energy in to one place along with the visuals and fashion.
WHO/WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN INSPIRATIONS TODAY? PERHAPS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE THREADS RADIO MIX YOU DID FOR BLEACHED CLUB IN NOVEMBER?
I’ve already spoke about my biggest music influences, but I’ve also always been really inspired by movies. I love movies with badass female leads with incredible soundtracks. Kill Bill vol.1 and 2 are my all time favourite movies but I’ve also always been obsessed with Sucker Punch, Charlie’s Angels, Cat Woman, etc. as well as video games like Darksiders 3. I used to be in awe of the movie 300 Rise of an Empire. I really loved the bloodiness, the music, the grittiness... The whole thing. And Eva Green's performance as Artemisia eats. I’ve already mentioned I’ve always loved greek mythology, so I think that movie ticked all the boxes for me. I think it all has to do with growing up gay and rejecting masculine spaces that I didn’t always feel I could relate to, or felt welcomed in, so I connected more to strength in femininity which I could relate to more. In a mans world I think a badass woman is even more powerful than a badass man. I’ve always been so obsessed with all that. I don’t know if it’s a universal gay experience, but even when I was younger I would choose the women fighters on video games like Mortal Kombat and stuff. I’m attracted to fierceness. That can come from masculinity too though. It’s funny, I remember being like 13 and asking my mum if I could buy this really cool boa whip I found online. She absolutely said no, which makes sense to me now I’m older and understand that whips are a literal weapon, and they have a lot of sexual association attached to them. But at the time I just thought they were so cool and the sound was like the concept of fierce but in audio format. I always remember feeling infatuated by the sound of women’s high heels too. There was just something about it. I even have a song I’m working on which is purely sound design and just endless re-sampling the sound of women’s heels. They embody so much for me.
I even wore heels myself for the fun of it to some gigs. It’s kind of funny when you’re in the music business and surrounded by mostly straight men. I’ve fully turned up to load in's and sound checks in heels, around straight-male venue staff and big security guards. Giving weaponised femininity. It’s taken me years to feel more comfortable in my own skin. I grew up in a military family, my step dad was an officer in the army, so we moved around the world constantly. We were always around soldiers and “tough men”, whatever that means, and I think it absolutely had a subliminal influence on what my idea of a valid and upstanding man is to society and what it wants from men. Being gay felt like the opposite of that and I used to think I could never break free. I used to go to bed and pray to wake up straight so that I could have an easier life. I’m not even religious so I guess it shows how desperate I felt about it. So now that I’ve made it on to the complete opposite side of that, I’ve had this kind of realisation about how most straight cis white men see the world and perceive women and gay men through the eyes of their privilege. To the point where I now feel sorry for them... It must also be hard for them having to uphold all the values set by society. Values that we’re all a victim to, because these straight cis men themselves have so much masculinity to prove and uphold that it makes them insecure and therefore discriminatory. They can’t comprehend their own identity past what they are as a “man”. It’s a cycle where no one wins, a bit like a broken system. But as an “out” queer man I feel liberated from all of that. Now I like to have fun with it and embrace it in a way that feels empowering. Also kind of like a middle finger. There’s definitely a sarcastic element to it rather than just being about expression.
I’m also obsessed with the soundtrack for Hanna by the Chemical Brothers, and Tron which Daft Punk had heavy influence over. All of these things boil down to what I do from a sound perspective. I like things to feel visceral and draw on the emotions you go through growing up as a queer kid. The confusion, the fury, and love... There’s so much intensity. It’s all very much about creative freedom, liberation, healing, innovation and expression that grows from that. They’re all things I feel when I’m behind the decks. It’s embodying emotional states and using music as a weapon for manifesting them. That’s why some mixes change energies here and there and they aren’t always limited to positivity. I have made mixes before that reflect darker emotions where I’ve been inspired by feelings of fear, pain, fury, violence, sorrow, it goes on. The reflection in the music is the most important thing.
All of that is mostly why I don't necessarily pay much attention to genre or BPM. I’m just very deliberate about where the journey goes next and react instinctively which every set unique. I’ve literally turned up to bookings before with just a USB and no plan. I have some post-gig rituals where I just check in with myself and then load in and whatever comes out comes out. Sometimes I’m going with the flow like that and other times there’s more intent, but every single track is carefully selected before it goes into my Rekorbdox collection so I know exactly what’s there. Of course I do also consider the applicability of the music I’m playing and who/what it’s for. For example a club will get a club set from me but I love to throw in something provocative and provoking in there just to keep people on their toes. With the Bleached mix, the label feels edgy and glitchy to me so I wanted a mix that felt like that, but was kind of hyper and fun at the same time with genres that encompass all that. Like breakbeat and experimental.
YOUR DJ STYLE IS CLEARLY QUITE INNOVATIVE AND DIFFERENT - HOW DO YOU SEE THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC SCENE EVOLVING AT THE MOMENT? ARE THOSE DEVELOPMENTS PLAYING A ROLE IN HOW YOU DJ AND WORK AS AN ARTIST?
That’s really important to me so thank you. In regard to the music scene evolving, I’m glad you asked because I have been noticing some important things lately. I have definitely seen a kind of shift in what people are ready and wanting to hear. Especially in the UK, Germany and Barcelona especially. I think people are searching for the next best thing in all forms of media right now, and edginess is trending so with that comes an opportunity for experimental nuances to push through in music. DJ’s are being more experimental with mixing, and the audience is seeming to let it in and actually enjoy it. I think before, even a couple of years ago, real electronic music, like truly experimental and more sound-design tracks with an edge, were met with a sort of confusion and kind of like people weren’t interested in hearing it. Maybe it has been too much for some people all at once, but now that we are seeing more experimental artists forefront the mainstream media, people seem to be embracing it more and more. I’m very excited to see it happening.
As a DJ it definitely helps me to feel like I can be that little bit more experimental when playing to a crowd. I already like to push the expectations a little when I’m playing a set, so to see a more experimental sound starting to come into the mainstream allows me to open up even more and people connect to it. Usually I reserve the more experimental music for online mixes which I think
are consumed differently, but it’s not the same as doing it in person to a load of people at once. There’s something very human about a group of people coming together and sharing one space and sharing a connection through music. It’s definitely spiritual. I also think about the physicality that can happen with music and the way it embodies identity. It’s indescribable, and I often find it hard to verbalise, but when I make music and when I mix, I like to imagine I’m kind of going to like a different realm and building worlds with sounds. Like I’m inviting in everyone who’s listening and bringing them with me. It can be somewhere fun and exciting, or somewhere dark and threatening, or maybe like a textural world. I’m definitely thinking more and more about everything on a frequency level. Also about the environments around us. I’m endlessly inspired by materials, particularly synthetic ones. I recently felt a connection to liquid chrome and galvanised metals. Now it’s more carbon fibre... I don’t know. All of this definitely makes up the DNA of what I do and works as metaphor for various things.
SO YOU ARE ALSO THE CO-CURATOR OF BEACON - CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT WHAT BEACON IS AND WHAT YOUR PLANS ARE WITH IT?
Beacon is an audiovisual music, fashion and arts label for underrepresented talent. It’s a creative nucleus there for people who deserve a spotlight and a platform to showcase their creativity and talent. Beacon was created as a means to amalgamate various creative mediums and rethink how music events can be presented, by fusing fashion, music and art together. I’ve spoken about how I don’t see them as being mutually exclusive, so I guess Beacon is the result of that. It’s the answer to what I felt was missing in the industry, including socially. The label is about pure talent, nurturing potential and providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ POC people.
Fundamentally the goal is for it to be a space where people can truly come together, support each other, and love each other through it. If you come to a Beacon event you’re going to feel part of the club and part of the family. Right now our events are most closely aligned with DJ events, because that is what they are, but we are thinking about more ways to evolve that as we did with our most recent show GALVANIZED. We also work kind of like an agency where we will anonymously support artists who need it so that they can achieve their creative endeavours. Even if it’s to do with fundraising, finding a venue, networking... All the behind the scenes stuff that can make it harder for creatives. This is something we are working on more and more. I am a part of the label and its beginnings, however it really is its own entity and multiple people involved.
For years I’ve thought about the music industry and where it’s heading, what’s important to me, and what I want to see from it. I mostly want representation, new ideas, and I find myself constantly yearning for music that provokes something in me and challenges the norm the most. In music, and creative industries altogether, I think it’s very important to explore new ideas and constantly reinvent. Beacon is like the realm where all of that can be explored. There’s a lot of generic out there and that’s ok but most of it’s been done to death. We’re in an age where technology and education allows us to achieve so much in terms of what we’re seeing and hearing, but at the same time everything feels complacent and recycled. I think newness and originality breeds excitement and authentic ideas. Authenticity is so vital, so these are all things that the label prioritises. I think that’s why I really admire labels like Bleached Club, the ones that feel real with real people behind them. These labels are important examples of what I want to see happening in the industry.
I think all of that is what inspired Beacon as well as thinking about the physical embodiments of the music I was making and listening to in terms of fashion, and the togetherness of creatives around me. It’s like a whole culture. When I first started sharing music it was a part of the Mutants Mixtape which started up in Arca’s discord. I met so many highly talented artists at the time, including Andras_2020, COOK, Elle Akosua, and lots more. A few became close friends, and they really inspired me to develop as an artist and lean in to myself after seeing them do some amazing work. It made me realise how powerful the creatives around me were, yet they were still “up and coming”, and not getting booked as much as I know they should be. A big part of that is because I think they’re queer, more experimental artists, and there aren’t enough labels out there dedicated to booking that kind of talent. So Beacon’s events are ones that book artists like this who are true talents, and people can attend our DJ events knowing that they’re going to hear some of the best music and talent out there right now.
Togetherness and people loving each other is all that matters in my opinion. Especially in the queer community, where unfortunately I think some labels claim to be about inclusivity but ironically feel the most excluding and borderline pretentious. I feel a bit concerned with what is happening there right now. At the moment feels fashionable to claim to be a “queer” music label advocating for inclusivity because it’s the morally correct and celebrated thing to do, but it often feels less authentic than it does about a reach for clout. That’s just me being real. Whereas Beacon is about genuine unity, freedom and liberation. It's a space dedicated to genuine togetherness and unity for creative and queer people, which I wasn’t seeing much of in the industry. I was, and still am, seeing music labels and queer DJ events doing the exact same thing. It reminds me of consumerism and marketing where people in charge who ultimately want to make money, are using trigger words and lots of labels as a mask, and a ploy to attract a crowd.
If I’m being real, all the way, I feel this sense of concernment and disappointment towards how the DJ industry is operating right now in general. It definitely doesn’t feel authentic for the most part, especially regarding where and how talent is booked. I’ve seen people come through as DJ’s by changing their personal instagram accounts with a previously amassed following to a DJ account. So there’s this preconceived social following, which most bookers love to see, so they then go on to get booked within weeks of starting out, despite not having the experience or, from what I’ve seen, ability. A bigger social media following is more attractive to some labels than talent. It staggers me how it happens so frequently but it’s happened around me a few times now. I don’t blame some people I’ve seen for doing it, because they obviously see the same thing as me, and it absolutely speaks volumes about what’s going on right now and I hope that a bigger discussion begins to surface around it. It kind of fascinates me though and ties in to the whole superficial-ness of social media. There’s also the old saying of “it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know”.
I saw a post on Instagram (ironically) a while ago that said “the DJ industry is a playground”, and it’s something I could attest to. It’s like the whole thing has lost its soul. Even with the way people are acting towards each other now I’ve heard some horrible stories and had some bad ones myself. I’ve had friends come through in the industry who have turned on me in an instant. I’ve had people steal music from me, not pay me for work, not credit me for work, and generally act in ways that aren’t signs of a genuine individual. I even had a big artist in LA playing one of my remixes on Titkok mixed with a Lady Gaga song. They claimed the track was theirs and got so much praise online and I was so frustrated by it, it’s the worst feeling, especially as an upcoming artist. I was tired of seeing this kind of thing happening to myself and friends, so I wanted to build a space that rejected that and actually means what it says. I personally believe it’s all about people feeling a sense of competition with each other for whatever reason. I think that competitiveness amongst creatives destroys connection which is the very thing that I think should hold us together. It’s a real shame when it happens, but I’ve learned how to steer clear of those types of people and labels. The more authentic artist’s are clear now.
I just want creative people to come together, support each other, love on each other. I’ve had some interesting conversations about this recently with other artists like Mr.Kitty, KLEO, and MOLLY’s TURN. The whole concept of “It isn’t what you know but who you know” is very prevalent. But If you want a truer and more authentic representation of talent, then bookings should be made on that criteria alone, as opposed to a superficial one. These are values that underpin the label and work as requirement when booking artists. Being a local superstar doesn’t dictate your ability to be booked with us or not. We see the talent for what it is and who people are as artists, then supporting them. Their potential. That’s what’s important and how I believe the music industry should be running, otherwise it’s all a sinking ship and somewhat of an influencer pandemic.
I reference the movie The Neon Demon quite a lot and it reminds me of that. It’s an incredible film by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring my all-time girl crush Abbey Lee Kershaw. The soundtrack by Cliff Martinez is my favourite film score. I used to listen to that while I designed clothes. I think everything mentioned here, in my experience, is represented very well in the film. A lot of people now seem to feel the need for competition and it’s poisoning the creative industry. I think social media Is driving that more and more because it breeds ego. It’s the ultimate ego supplementation for some. It's for that reason I have tried to steer clear of social media as much as possible. I feel like I’m in a complicated relationship with Instagram at the moment. When I started out sharing my work on Instagram I vowed to never show myself because I wanted to keep it purely about the work. I didn’t want to get wrapped up in keeping up appearances or anything. I’m not saying that that’s all of what everyone does on social media, but it’s definitely how I felt at the time and I still believe that’s the kind of way a lot of people operate online. I kept using this phrase “the lack of being real is the source of my appeal” and use imagery or projections of an artificial person. Like a caricature of myself. I was even writing it in artworks and even putting it in music. I think indirectly I was talking about the idea of projecting something instead of the physical me, and turning all of that into a concept. That has a lot to do with why I have’t shown myself on social media until recently. It was like a metaphor for sharing who I am, physically, as opposed to keeping up this choreographed control over how people see me. Of how I thought others saw me.
In terms of fashion and music, Beacon was a way to make sure music wasn’t just the background to the fashion. In the fashion world you have these big meetings and discussions formalising the event space for the runway and the show, and music to underpin the whole thing, but then after that its all over and everyone goes home and no one cares about or remembers the music. It isn’t catalogued or appreciated anywhere, but to me the music a very big part of the whole project. So Beacon will all be about that too, and how music is presented alongside fashion. Beacon garments are also a way to physically achieve the sense of unity we talk about in a different way to literally sharing a physical space at an event.
WHAT’S UP NEXT FOR AION, WHAT’S IN THE PLANS FOR 2024?
More visual work. There’s some really interesting things being discussed with Beacon right now for future instalments for the label, but all of that gets kept under wraps. I’m currently working a series of mixes to be released, the first might make it out before this interview comes out. They will be a much broader range of sound and feel, with each one being unique. I’m thinking more deeply about things already discussed but mostly about what DJ’ing means to me in terms of curating sound scapes. I want these mixes to represent and explore that. Each one will be a different energy and experience, with a different kind of feel to each of them. I see the plans for them as being one big sound project. So far I’ve felt like I’m only putting out mixes that are tailored towards clubbing and booking samples, and then neglecting the music I play behind closed doors either in a studio alone or in my bedroom. I don’t want to keep doing that, I want to start sharing everything. Only one of them will be made with the intent of being what you would get from me in a club. The others will be very different. For example one will be purely built around sound design, and listened to in a way that would be kind of like visiting an art exhibition. So it’s all about the music and the most interesting stuff that’s inspired me on the deepest levels. I also plan on making one that is much slower and explores the softer side of me and what I listen to. There’s also some artwork coming out as part of that project, which was collaborated on with some really amazing talent and some good friends of mine, so I’m really excited to share them.
I also have plans to release more music, officially this time. I have so many ideas for that but I want to keep it a surprise. I have way too much music that I’m just carrying and loading on the
USB for club sets. I have so many unfinished projects that I want to return to, especially ones where I will be collaborating with other artists.
I’m focusing a lot more on sound design now, and I’m very much inspired by environments around me lately. I often think about the frequencies that exist in life from an atomic level right through to audio. It’s everywhere. I think a lot about the physicality of music like when bass feels like a punch or a sound hits just right and it feels physical. A specific sound can hook me sometimes and I will go away and recreate something based entirely off of it. Recently I’ve been really obsessed with the sound that the train tracks make on the London underground when there is a train approaching... Sometimes the tracks make this wet kind of whipping sound which echoes down the tracks and it melts me every time. I’m sampling things like that and making sounds that feel more impressionistic. I pay close attention to all the individual sounds and nuances. I’m very specific about the exact moment sounds hit, so the music can feel somewhat destabilised and everything has this beautiful relationship where it’s almost like it shouldn’t fit but it just does. Like corrupting every single sound, but with a lot of love. So the music is getting really interesting right now and I’m planning on sharing the most interesting stuff as soon as the time feels right.