"Fandom is the new religion of our capitalist society." The genderqueer pop star discusses economic philosophy, queer aesthetics and the internet ahead of their new album. Avant-pop star Dorian Electra wasn't your average American student. As an 18-year-old, they were interested in exploring philosophy and political radicalisation through music, making their debut in 2010 with the song "I'm In Love With Friedrich Hayek"—a ballad to the economist who influenced Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher’s free-market ideology. Electra was simultaneously working as a stripper, channeling their exploration of gender into an early career series of pop videos that told the history of feminism, drag and vibrators. More than a decade later, the artist has brought these seemingly contradictory facets of their interests into a bizarre and beautiful symbiosis. On this week's RA Exchange, Electra speaks with moderator Gunseli Yalcinkaya about the underpinnings of Fanfare, their third album, which lands on October 6th. One of the album's central conceits is the meaning of fandom and online culture in 2023. "I've been experiencing hyper-online everything," they said. "The past few years have solidified the idea in my head that as we've grown increasingly secular, people still want something to give their life greater meaning, and they've found that in connecting with others online in a way that's largely replaced religion." They also discuss their proclivity for ultra-synthetic, cartoonishly masculine pop; their take on the internet zeitgeist; ADHD; musical performance as an expression of the extremities of human experience and more. Listen to the episode in full. This edition of the RA Exchange was recorded in collaboration with The Qube, London's first members' studio for music and content creators. If you're a music producer, songwriter, artist, photographer or podcaster and would like to apply for a membership, head over to theqube.com.

"Devotion is the main aim—to try to encourage commitment in people." The fabric resident and Houghton festival founder discusses his love of the crowd, DJing and more. Craig Richards, arguably one of UK dance music's most respected DJs, is normally averse to the spotlight. But the multi-hyphenate artist and fabric resident has played the London institution every Saturday for nearly two decades, DJing alongside fellow household names like Ricardo Villalobos and Nicolas Lutz. Over the years, Richards has profoundly shaped the canon that's defined the space and its programming week in and week out. He’s keenly attuned to other DJs and the flow of a night, and he's not indebted to one particular style or genre. In a Resident Advisor feature from 2019, Ray Philp described his sound as "intergalactic space metal" that goes far beyond techno, house or electro, instead interplaying classics with deep, headsy tunes that he tirelessly seeks out every week. In this interview with RA's European deputy editor Carlos Hawthorn, Richards talks about what makes a good record, and the DJ's role as a bridge between the past and present. He also discusses his endeavours beyond the booth—most notably the idyllic festival he started in 2017, Houghton, which is set in the English countryside—and his passion for painting and cross-disciplinary creativity. Listen to the episode in full.

"I approached and signed all of the first Warp acts." The Sheffield record producer and label cofounder discusses starting the UK label and the early days of bleep techno. Before Warp became the landmark label it is today, it was a Sheffield record store. Robert Gordon was an employee there in the early '80s, working alongside colleagues Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell, with whom he'd start the label in 1989. Listeners familiar with the contemporary UK techno landscape may associate Warp with luminaries like Aphex Twin and other names associated with IDM and bleep techno. It also released a lot of artists who were recording in a Sheffield studio called FON, which is where Robert Gordon found his footing even before starting Warp. In this Exchange—conducted by DJ, producer, CDR founder and Resident Advisor board member Tony Nwachukwu—Gordon talks about FON and laying the groundwork for the Sheffield scene. In 1985, he recalls, it was the first local commercial 24-track studio and attracted luminaries like David Bowie, Yazz and groups tied to post-punk band Cabaret Voltaire. More recently, it's produced work by 808 State, Nightmares On Wax and Sweet Exorcist. Gordon also reflects on FON's early days. It was foundational to the sound of the '00s and formed a tight-knit community around itself that eventually became intrinsic to a bigger musical movement. Although Gordon left Warp in 1991, his A&Ring for the label—along with his own productions and engineering assistance—defined its sound. Listen to their conversation in full.

"It's through collaboration that I've grown most with my sound." In this collaboration with Rhythm Section, the multi-instrumentalist talks about how he found his style and started his career. Jordan Rakei is a self-made musician. A multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer whose work dips into soul, hip-hop and electronic music, he moved to London from New Zealand, giving himself a four-month "buffer budget" to get his career off the ground. Now, he's released on Ninja Tune and Rhythm Section International, and has collaborated with a number of Grammy- and Oscar-award-nominated artists. But his journey wasn't easy, as he explains in this masterclass moderated by Roy Mills and Rhythm Section's Bradley Zero. Rakei talks about how to build a career as an independent artist, why he transitioned from working alone to working with a big agency, signing deals with labels, and living close to the edge in an expensive city. It's the first in a three-part series called Future Proof hosted by Rhythm Section International, all of which explore facets of creating and sustaining a career as a musician. This episode was recorded live in May, and you can watch video shorts from the talk on YouTube. Listen to their conversation in full. Watch the Masterclass video playlist via the link below: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIpCC9Ep-UEmgJkFN9QmisE_xxW-mgCOV Rhythm Section’s Future Proof project is supported by Arts Council England and PRS Foundation

"DJing and lecturing aren't different practices for me. I just fuse them together." The scholar and performer reflects on bringing critical ideas to club spaces and writing about raves. madison moore is a true multi-hyphenate: an artist, scholar, DJ and assistant professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. Despite having a hand in so many seemingly disparate endeavors, however, moore sees their work across academia and music as being intrinsically interconnected, and their mission is to find ways to bring theory and practice into one space. In this conversation with journalist and former RBMA editor-in-chief Aaron Gonsher, moore reflects on how he was first inspired by figures like Paul D. Miller (AKA DJ Spooky), who brought DJ technologies, parties and theory together. "Knowledge doesn't have to be gate kept behind a JSTOR portal," he says. "It doesn't have to be an institutional access thing. You can bring the knowledge, bring the ideas, bring the fun out." In a series of performance lectures focused on queer nightlife, moore teaches about the historical context around dance music and the significance of the club for queer Black folks, explaining that he sees performance as a critical tool to spread ideas. He explored this fusion of academia and dance music at his recent nightlife residency at The Kitchen in New York—where he curated a series of public programs with DJs, artists, scholars and queer nightlife performers—and in his book Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric. To hear his reflections on these projects and more, listen to the episode in full. Photo by Rome God

"What is our shared purpose and motivation for being here?" Our guest editor for June discusses community-building, innovation in music technology and more in this week's Exchange. Cherie Hu thinks about music differently. Trained in classical piano at The Juilliard School in New York, she went on to study math at Harvard while simultaneously launching a freelance journalism career. It was towards the end of her time in university that her parallel interests in music, writing and statistics coalesced in one long-term mission: to bridge the innovations happening in music creation and technology. First a newsletter and now an international membership-based platform, Water & Music was her answer to this unique topical intersection. "Water & Music's goal is to connect like-minded readers and develop a bottom-up culture of curiosity and critique around where music and tech are headed," she wrote earlier this month on RA. "Through media, my own personal goal is not only to document and analyse music-tech innovation as it happens, but also to foster a culture of proactive experimentation. I want to help artists and their teams use the tools at their disposal to expand the boundaries of possibility in both music and culture at large, and kickstart a longer-term dialogue around how music creators and professionals can incorporate tech into their careers in an ethical manner." Over the last few weeks, Hu has curated thoughtful and practical articles for RA that touch on the ethics and implications of AI, the metaverse and fandom, as well as more far-reaching topics that she explores in depth on the Water & Music website and Discord. In them, she urges everyone in creative ecosystems to think more critically about why trends happen, how we can cultivate sustainable artistic communities and the ways in which we can create more agency and collective ownership over how music is released and consumed. Listen to the episode in full.

Jayda G, the DJ and producer, discusses her new album inspired by her late father's video tapes. She opens up about integrating her own voice into her songs and her upcoming projects, including a documentary about her work in environmentalism. The episode touches on themes of grief, communication, facing fears, and the connection between environmental issues and social justice.

"Punk is more an attitude than a style of music. And I think that techno is way more punk than punk." The Spanish DJ discusses the ethos of the underground, vinyl DJing and more on this week's Exchange from AVA Festival. Héctor Oaks relocated from his hometown of Madrid to study at "Berlin University"—the clubs, record stores and underground parties that would shape his career as an artist. After once famously saying he could "live in peace" if he could play Berghain just once, the techno DJ has since graced the institution's dance floor multiple times and earned residencies at Herrensauna and Bassiani. Now one of a handful of in-demand, vinyl-only DJs, he's also a prolific artist and the head of two labels, KAOS and OAKS. What makes Oaks especially interesting as an interview subject, though, isn't his newfound popularity, but the underlying ethos that drives his music career. A self-described "techno punk," he reflects on what happens to the punk ethos around the underground once the underground becomes mainstream. "When you see that you've worked for the underground and then the underground becomes pop, do you want to fight against it, or do you want to be part of it?" he asks. "We're not only carrying the music, but we're carrying the values." In this interview, Oaks also talks about the art of playing vinyl, his new hip-hop project, working for the now-defunct Record Loft and his forthcoming album and live show. Listen to the episode in full.

"If you feel like you're not progressing, the likelihood is that everyone else you're looking at is going through exactly the same thing." Conducta and Charisse C talk about isolation and mental health in this collaboration with Black Minds Matter UK. Resident Advisor is delighted to welcome back our quarterly collaboration with Black Minds Matter UK, a charity connecting Black individuals and families with free mental health services. In line with their mission to make topics around mental health more visible and accessible to the Black community, this recurring series dives deep into some of the issues that plague BIPOC artists specifically, not to mention people working within the creative industries more generally. In this episode, Vanessa Maria hosts engaging conversations with two London-based artists: Charisse C, a DJ and resident on NTS Radio who derives much of her musical inspiration from her Zimbabwean and South African heritage, and Conducta, a UKG tastemaker and the founder and A&R of Kiwi Rekords. The duo share their thoughts on themes around loneliness—the alienation of social media, the risk of burnout on the road and the self-doubt that accompanies any kind of achievement. But they also share inspiring ways to encourage transparency and a real dialogue around hard work and happiness in the dance music scene that isn't mitigated by social media and outward appearances of success. "Everything that people think has happened overnight in the last two or so years, that's all been a process and a journey of hard work," says Conducta. "I think one thing that will benefit young people coming up in the music industry is understanding that if you feel like you're hitting a stalemate, the likelihood is that everyone else you're looking at is going through exactly the same thing, feeling exactly the same thing." Listen to the episode in full.

"The dance floor is a portal and a transmission tool in addition to being a technology of togetherness." The British author’s new book, Dance Your Way Home, offers a sociocultural history of the dance floor. Emma Warren has been documenting grassroots music culture since co-founding Jockey Slut magazine in the mid '90s. From those early years to subsequent stints at THE FACE and Brixton’s youth-run Live Magazine, her journey of personal growth has become intertwined with nightlife. In this episode, the UK author speaks with Aaron Gonsher, former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Red Bull Music Academy, about her new book, Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through The Dance Floor. Writing about how music thrives through in-person connections and physical spaces, she provides a social history of the dance floor while highlighting the power of communion. Their conversation is a fascinating and far-ranging one; they speak about writing from the heart and Warren's deep connections with nightlife communities. She also talks about how the dance floor acted as a palliative in times of personal strife. "As I was writing [the book] and working it out through the writing, I realised that the less my dad could move or had control over his body, the more I needed to dance and have control over mine," she says of her father's disability. "So, I feel this absolute connection to the strength which you bring on the dance floor: that core control, that tightening of your body, that loosening of your limbs when you're moving and just how important that was to me—and what a life saver, really." Warren is also the author of three other books, including Make Some Space: Tuning Into Total Refreshment Centre, Document Your Culture: A Manual and Steam Down: Or How Things Begin. Listen to the conversation to hear her thoughts on why we dance together and what dancing tells us about ourselves.