#011 Baltra on Lo-Fi House, making an album, and working on Wall St during the GFC

May 13, 2025

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What does the short-lived Lo-FI House trend of the late 2010s have in common with the subprime mortgage crisis of the previous decade?

On this episode with one of the biggest names to emerge from the aforementioned scene we find out.

Lo-Fi was very much a 21st Century style of breakout, via Facebook groups and tunes posted to YouTube months before getting signed. But the wiser participants in the scene, including DJ Seinfeld and Ross From Friends, got out early and almost without exception carved out successful careers for themselves.

Baltra, a Philly native who got into music after a move to NYC, epitomised that trend. His 2019 album Ted - a tribute to to his late father - was a step outside of the parameters of the scene that had got him noticed, and since then he's established himself as a fixture on the global DJ circuit and one of house music's most interesting producers.

We discuss all of that, plus his previous, slightly inauspicious career on Wall Street and his experience working in the sector during the biggest crisis in the industry since the 1929 crash.

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