First Light: Rohan Rakhit In Conversation w/ Colleen "Cosmo" Murphy

Rohan Rakhit, a London-based DJ, started a series of in-depth, extended conversations, delving into every corner of the world of music. In this first edition, Rohan interviews Colleen "Cosmo" Murphy.

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CREDITS

Broadcast from Shortlist Sound Radio on Rye Lane, Peckham.

Production and Video by @donut.dj

Thank you to Worldwide FM, Rohan Rakhit & Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy

Rohan Rakhit on Mixcloud

This interview was initially published on Worldwide FM

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Listen to the episode in its entirety:

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COLLEEN'S INTERVIEW WITH ROHAN RAKHIT

[Rohan]

Yes, World Wide Family, you're locked into first light right now with myself, Rohan Rakhit, and I'm so excited to welcome the incredible Colleen Cosmo Murphy.

[Colleen]

Oh my gosh, that's such an intro. Thank you.

[Rohan]

Was it such an intro?

[Colleen]

Incredible. my Gosh!

[Rohan]

I mean, you're someone I've really, really, really looked up to in the industry and followed for a while. We were talking off mic about Love Dancing and what that did in my early 20s, regularly approaching that stage and being inspired by the music that you'd curate and you'd play as well when I've seen you DJ there. So yeah, it's wicked to connect properly.

[Colleen]

Oh, thank you so much for inviting me.

[Rohan]

Yeah. It's an absolute pleasure. And you're obviously for people, people don't know who you are, but the people that don't know who you are, obviously, DJ, radio host, presenter, founder of classic album Sundays, a former World Wide FM resident as well, we should add.

And yeah, I guess the incredible as well to mention that you're a mentee of David Mancuso and like a pivotal part of the loft parties as well. Right.

[Colleen]

Yeah.

[Rohan]

I'm really intrigued to touch on all of that and get into that sort of work. How's it been for you since worldwide? Because you stopped broadcasting when the station went on a little hiatus.

[Colleen]

Yes. Yeah. Well, I decided to continue because Balearic Breakfast was really or is still it's a community radio show.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And like I live streamed the show as I was doing it, it was happening in real time. It started during the pandemic when people like wanted to see other people as well. So we stream with video and had green screen and really made it into a thing.

And people would tune in from all different corners of the world on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, you know, British summertime or GMT. And because they got, you know, people have their own social habits and they get used to things. And when Worldwide took a pause, I thought, let's keep the show going.

I've been streaming live on Mixcloud anyways, so I just kept it going because I wanted it to be the same time, same day, you know, every week. And it just took off, and it's still going strong. And, you know, I'm doing compilations out of it as well and parties.

And it's just it's been great because I love Worldwide FM, as you know. But what's nice as well is that just to have the freedom to be able to even book like community members who aren't necessarily DJs, get them to do a mix. And I can play the kind of odd, weird, obscure 80s pop tune without feeling like, oh, does this really fit to the station's format? You know, because the music's all over the place, which I really like. I mean, there's no boundaries.

[Rohan]

Yeah. Having your own platform as well and like you're not answering to anyone is that's that that's the pinnacle. Right.

[Colleen]

And yeah, I mean, it's very David Mancuso as well. Kind of David's voice was in my head when I decided to do that. I thought, let's just just keep going. Do it yourself, you know, and see how it goes. And now now I wouldn't change it for the world.

[Rohan]

Good for you. Yeah. Well, why does I used to listen to your worldwide shows all the time?

[Colleen]

Oh, thank you.

[Rohan]

Obviously holds a really special place in like, the culture and the history of radio and especially the past like 10, 15 years. Right. So it's cool to see, yeah, new presenters coming through on the station. Also, what you're doing, bringing newbies through on your platform, is I feel like, yeah, you're someone I really look up to in a real kindred spirit in that way. You know, it's just a shame that our shows clash every Tuesday morning.

I'm like, yeah, it's such a shame, isn't it? But yeah, that's why. So, yeah, for context, for my listener base. And I know what you mean about consistency being king. Like people, the number of people that I walk around London now and people are like, oh, Tuesday morning, I put your show on my call. Sorted. It's in the office. It's in the gym, whatever. But yeah, what was I saying? I've lost my train of thought now.

[Colleen]

Are you talking about Tuesdays, the consistency?

[Rohan]

Tuesdays, consistency. Who knows? Anyway, let's move on to something a bit better. This is how it is. It's just rambly. Oh, my God. I know what I was going to say. I was going to say that. No, I don't.

We'll edit this all out. I wanted to get you on. And we're airing this the week before We Out Here festival, a festival that is so, so important in the culture, especially inspiring young people, but also providing that space for that intergenerational conversation that sharing that shared love of music, but literally from infancy to heads, which is really beautiful.

And a big part of We Out Here for the friendship that Dom and I have cultivated over the years and a lot of my friends and colleagues and peers, whatever you want to call them in the music industry, have been formed in the love dancing tent.

[Colleen]

Oh, my gosh, it's really just such an honor to hear that.

[Rohan]

Nice. It's wicked. And I wanted to hear more about the origin story of that, you know?

Yeah.

[Colleen]

Well, basically, Giles asked us to host a tent for the very first We Out Here festival. Yeah. And we brought in our own sound system, the sound system that we use at our London loft parties, actually the same sound system.

And we invited people that do other types of sound systems from around the country to come and play as well. So there was Bonsai Hi-Fi in Liverpool, Rotation from Staffordshire, Cosmic Slot from Leeds, you may remember them and a few others as well. My friend Darren from Love Machine.

So it was really, really nice. And that was the first year. Having said that, there were a few DJs that didn't really know how to play on three-way horn loaded speakers that were developed in 1946 and or on class A amplifiers. We had one amplifier that burst into flames.

[Rohan]

Really? This was the first year?

[Colleen]

This was the first year. And then we had another one of our drivers was, you know, blown in one of our Klipschorns. I think that happened a couple of times. Luckily, we had replacements, you know, we always had backup so we could just fix it. I should say Ian Mackey, our sound engineer, fixed it, not me. And thankfully.

And we decided the following year to kind of make more amends and also to kind of up the scale in the terms of how the front end worked to make it easier for DJs to play that may not have the audiophile experience using turntables. So we got like really great kind of DACS digital to analog converters for the we use really high end ones, DCS ones for the CDJs. We have great turntables.

We have an array of different types of cartridges from Audio Technica from the really high-end ones that I use, which are like the SL760s. But also the loudspeaker, the whole loudspeaker kind of brand change. We started using Danley as opposed to our old Klipschorns, which I think works better for this environment because now that tent has really grown. I mean, we used a bigger space last year.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And that's as big as we're going. Otherwise, it won't feel like a party. You know, we have that. We still have the sides on the tent. We have the wooden dance floor. And it does feel like a party. You know, you have to get in there.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

As opposed to open sides, people drifting in and out. But I think with the Danley system, it's still it's still a horn system. I mean, it's just multiple drivers on a single horn. So it's like the Tom Danley was a big fan of Paul Klipsch. So where those loudspeakers, the Klipschorns came from. So it has just more modern technology. And it works, I think, for more modern DJs as well. So we're still retaining the audiophile ethos, but kind of fusing it with the club PA.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

You know, and it's been great because we're inviting all different types of talent now as well. You know, Scruff has his day on Fridays. My husband Trojan Sound System has his day on Thursdays. I have Saturdays for Cosmodelica. And then it's Dingwalls on Sundays. All different types of people.

[Rohan]

Yeah. And we'll get into the curation, the nitty gritty later on, I think. But what really strikes me and I won't pretend to be an audiophile, really. I obviously am such a deep appreciator of great sound in a dance and have seen firsthand from being behind the decks how you can change people's lives or literally you elevate a crowd to a different frequency. What I love is this inspiration and through line in your career as well. Right.

And that influence of the lot and that influence of David Mancuso into that audiophile appreciation, and how that stood the test of time with you. And for the listeners, my listeners who aren't that way inclined, because a lot of people listen to the show from across the world that aren't necessarily tapped in. I have a lot of listeners in India, for example, that aren't necessarily tapped into that stuff.

Do you want to talk to me about the history of or a brief history of the loft and David Mancuso? Of course. Yeah, I think it's really great.

[Colleen]

Yeah, I think it'd be really good. Yeah. So my friend David Mancuso started these parties in his home, actually in 1968, the year I was born, but formerly in 1970 on Valentine's Day. And he started his party. He was invitation only. It was in his loft in downtown New York.

And he had an audiophile sound system. And he would throw dance parties that were they were based on the Harlem rent parties where, you know, black Americans had moved, migrated from the South, went to Harlem. They weren't allowed in the white clubs, so they made their own and people's houses and people would pay money to come in. And that was contribute towards that person's rent. So it was based on the rent parties. So people made contributions, invitation only. And these parties grew and grew and grew. And they influenced so much of club culture in New York, which was really just starting at the time. There was one DJ, Francis Grasa, who had started mixing in like 1969.

[Rohan]

Wow.

[Colleen]

But really, there weren't many places where you went, where you just went to dance unless it was some kind of society place. These were different. This is like, let your hair down. It's part of the whole drug generation, the LSD kind of psychedelic thing that's going on as well. And Dave was very involved in that and the whole Timothy Leary thing. And in fact, based his musical sets on the Tibetan Book of the Dead with the bardos, the different bardos, the different stages, which also related to an LSD trip.

[Rohan]

Wow.

[Colleen]

So kind of like the take off, you know, the the build up into the middle part, the big kind of peak time, the circus, and then kind of to a kind of reentry period at the end.

[Rohan]

Fascinating.

[Colleen]

Yeah. So but he was able to kind of really get people into the nuance and immerse them into the music because of his sound system. And he had started getting into audiophile sound in the mid 60s and he had already put together a system and he just kept building and building upon that system as time went on, even to his passing. I mean, my last voicemails from David were weeks before he died.

And he's talking about the koetsus, you know, the moving coil cartridges that are handmade in Japan. And he was very worried that we wouldn't be able to get them repaired. And he was asking me to check in on people in Japan.

So it was something he was always constantly thinking about and working. But the parties also didn't just come out of his love of sound and music. It came out of his... of social progress, because this is a time when he had the civil rights movement, gay liberation, women's liberation all happening. And it was a really revolutionary period in America. First, it's, you know, for it's at least in a social sense. Definitely, you know, anti-war demonstrations and all these things are happening.

He really wanted a place where people could come together from all different walks of life. And for some of my friends like this one black American guy I've known forever, named David Feldman, he was at David's original parties, a black man who worked, I believe it was for the New York Post. And he worked with all these white co-workers. None of them were his friends. He didn't have friends who were white until he went to the loft. And then he actually made real friendships with, you know, people were just mingling together. It didn't matter if you were gay or hetero or bi or black, white, brown or a woman or a man, whatever. It didn't matter.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And that, I think, is one of the strongest lasting legacies. This is something we're still talking about today. And he was so ahead of his time. So he did a lot. And that his party, the loft, inspired a lot of other parties, many of which are well-known, I should say, clubs like Paradise Garage or the Warehouse, when Frankie Knuckles was playing in Chicago. Frankie and Larry Levan went to the loft. They were loft babies. David Morales went to the loft. I mean, all these kind of peoples, a lot of them started their own thing, even Studio 54, believe it or not, even though it's the antithesis of what David was doing. Yeah. The woman, Carmen D'Alessio, who is the original promoter for Studio 54 was a loft head. And she loved how David's parties were very mixed.

And she wanted Studio 54 to be mixed. But what happened, obviously, is they became exclusive where people were choosing people. And it was much, much more commercial and flashy.

[Rohan]

What was the ethos of the loft in terms of heads and getting people in?

[Colleen]

Well, I mean, it was all friends of friends. So you had to know somebody who would let you in. And then whoever, say you brought somebody with you, you are responsible for them.

And then maybe if they went a few times, they could sign up and become a member. And there was no membership fee. That was another thing he didn't like, something he didn't like about the Paradise Garage and other places.

That they had membership fees.

[Rohan]

How much would they be? I don't know.

[Colleen]

I mean, I didn't go to the garage, so I don't know. But maybe I don't have no idea how much they were. But David didn't want that.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

He wanted to be as egalitarian as possible, as he possibly could.

[Rohan]

You know, that words was bringing out, particularly when you were talking about the influence of the 60s in America, actually, it feels I think it takes a special person to like take a step back, look at the times and be like, I know what we need. And it sounds like it was a real. Yeah, and obviously a really important thing for the culture, but also for a whole generation of people.

[Colleen]

Exactly. I mean, I didn't start going until he went on a hiatus. He had moved several places in 1992. He was in the East Village and his parties weren't doing so well then. So I was helping him out. He came up on my radio show, and he and I became friends when I started helping him more with the parties. And then I suggested an idea for some compilations because his story wasn't really known.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

You know, I mean, we didn't really there wasn't much online. I mean, the Internet had just really started. And just in a couple of books, he had been in not more passing. He had been in columns by Vince Aletti. But again, those columns were long out of print. They weren't collected into a book.

So there was more like kind of mysterious whispers about who David Mancuso was. And I really wanted people, the world to know about what he did. And so I suggested the idea of some compilations. And he wanted to do them with me. We did them with NuPhonic in 1999 and 2000.

[Rohan]

Of course.

[Colleen]

And that's kind of how his story first got, you know, disseminated to the world. And then his party started in New York, started selling out again. And, you know, he was on his way again, which was great. But I met him at a time where it wasn't that popular. But I just loved what he was doing. And I was just really blown away.

And I was I love being able to go there alone as a woman and not being kind of, you know, having to look over my shoulder all the time. Yeah, it's great. I felt completely free.

[Rohan]

And he became a mentor to you.

[Colleen]

Yeah, he did. I mean, I had studied sound. I went to New York University in the 80s. I had been on the radio for gosh, since 1982. I'd already lived in Japan before I met him. But I had studied sound and I did more the recording side. I was actually producing syndicated radio shows when I met David. And I was doing it all on tape. So I was you know, everything was spliced on quarter inch and half inch reel to reel tape.

And so I was doing a lot of that kind of, you know, I know how to engineer, edit the old analog way and all that. But I didn't really know about playback audio, the playback audio file side. I, you know, grew. I had a terrible little sound system at home, you know, that what I could afford. So when he asked me to start playing records with him, I was so worried about the cartridges. There were two thousand dollars each and he only had two. And if I did something wrong, he would only have one. And he didn't have the money at the time to fix them.

[Rohan]

That's a big responsibility.

[Colleen]

It was a big responsibility. I was like less than 25 years old, you know. And but he taught me piece by piece. And when we started our parties here in London in 2003, he's a lucky. No, it's called the London Loft. I no longer associate with some of the lucky cloud members. Many of us left and David always wanted he knew it was the loft in London. Interesting. And there were some people who will just leave it there.

Yeah, that's fine. Different visions and yeah, boys club scenarios. Yeah, I'll leave it at that.

[Rohan]

Say no more. Yeah, exactly. And the music industry realness.

[Colleen]

Yes, 100 percent. So you so yeah. So we started the loft in London in 2003 with a group of people and many of whom are still with us today. And it was great. It was wonderful to start that here in London. And then we bought our own sound system. And that, I think, was probably. The first starting point for audiophile parties in the UK, possibly Europe.

[Rohan]

Wow.

[Colleen]

Possibly. I can't say that exactly. Someone could say, oh, someone else did this then. But I don't know.

[Rohan]

It's worldwide FM. Someone will.

[Colleen]

Exactly. Somebody will. But I just thought, you know, it's also a classic album. Sundays also sort of came out of that as well. My my listening sessions that I started 15 years ago this year.

[Rohan]

Wow. Yeah. The anniversary coming.

[Colleen]

Yeah, exactly.

[Rohan]

And yeah, I mean, that's a whole different conversation, isn't it? And the importance of those. And I'm listening to those back in the day.

But yeah, a really useful context about the work and linking it to audiophile culture and sound particularly. And yeah, what I love is this, like, through line again to sound system culture. And we were talking off mic earlier about how many genres and scenes you've been an affiliate of.

From being in the States and the house scene to being in the UK and flying the flag for like Broken Beat or House Here as well. But yeah, I think that through line of sound system culture to me and with the audiophile culture and letting songs play and like your style of DJing as well is like really, really inspiring and really unique as well. Oh, thank you.

[Colleen]

Thank you. I go through phases to like sometimes I'll be in a more of a disco phase right now. Feeling like house music is really fresh to me again.

And I was in a bit of a broken beat phase, but I think I play best when I'm doing all of it together, you know, because also rock is my background as well. So, you know, when we out here, I played a 20 minute version of Rare Earth, Get Ready. Oh, and it went crazy. It was so funny. It was my last song of the night before Ashley Beadle and Rob Mello took over.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And I just started playing it. And then the the generator went out and so it was just silence, no lights, nothing. And it was five minutes to get everything on again. And then when it came back on, I started again. And then the crowd went wild. And so many people thought, did you plan that moment? Did you plan for the generator to actually just turn off? It wasn't planned, but it was like such a moment, a real euphoria. And I'll never forget that.

But yeah, I think, you know, when I can mix it up, that's my happy place.

[Rohan]

Definitely. I love when you reach that moment in the DJ set where. Yeah, we all know it, when you reach a point where anything you drop, you're like, I've got them, I've got them, they're with me. And you've done that. But with the generator going off there, they're with you still.

[Colleen]

Exactly, they were still with me, they didn't leave, you know, they didn't leave. I thought, oh, they're all going to leave the tent now. And they didn't. I was like, wow, I was really thankful.

[Rohan]

I've got them.

[Colleen]

Yeah.

[Rohan]

We out here, we out here in the Love Dancing Tent. We were talking off mic earlier. But for all the listeners, obviously, we've got the Love Dancing Tent, which backs on to Lemon Loundridge.

And right sandwich in the middle is Goodness Gracious Feast. Shout out Madhu Aunty's Goodness Gracious Feast. And all of us just hanging out back there, popping, popping in between each stage with a samosa and chai in one hand. I like that is my the pinnacle of happiness in my summer.

[Colleen]

It's so great. I love how we back up to Lemon Lounge because I love what George is doing, too. I feel like it's our sibling tent.

[Rohan]

Yes. You know, because there's so much sound.

[Colleen]

Yeah. The younger sibling tent.

[Rohan]

Yeah, I love it. It's really, really cool. I want to I want to touch upon this mentorship thing as well. And I mentioned briefly to you before about how how difficult it is to break into the industry right now as a new voice, as an emerging voice or DJ. And I've been so, so fortunate throughout my career to have some really amazing mentors helping me, namely Errol from Touching Base, Robert Louis from True Thoughts as well. And like, yeah, super inspiring.

Yeah, of course. But yeah, how I want to understand this relationship of mentorship that you had. But more importantly, I think there's always there's always a thing I feel, especially that there's a lot of bitterness in this music industry, right? And people can really backstab me. Yeah, really look at and I know people looking at me being like, why you? Why?

Why? Why this? Why radio? Why do you still have it today? Yeah.

[Colleen]

But yeah, believe me, I still I still get it. You know, even people bullying me up to two weeks ago saying nasty stuff about me. On social media, really? Yeah, it still happens. Again, boys club stuff. Yeah, it's been really difficult.

[Rohan]

I think as any sort of minority in the game, I think it really is. Oh, you're there because you're a minority.

[Colleen]

Exactly.

[Rohan]

As opposed to like.

[Colleen]

But, you know, the funny thing is, I wasn't there 35 years ago because I was a minority back then. I mean, if you got one woman on a bill or on a roster.

[Rohan]

Right.

[Colleen]

That's it. There wouldn't be any others. And I remember even like, you know, trying to get a manager and I or an agent, I think at one point I had just had a daughter and, you know, things went kind of quiet because out of sight, out of mind.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And and it wasn't like today where people who have had children have been encouraged. Like I see Jam Supernova, which is amazing. Ash Loren, which is amazing. My friend, Barbie British. It's great. I'm so happy that they have this.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

But for women like Marcia Carr or myself, you know, you had a child and it was like the tumbleweeds, you know, it's like, that's that, you know, there were still people that looked out for me. But like my mentors, Francois Kaye was one of them and David and. I think mentorship isn't it's not really about what to play.

We talk about music, but it's how to handle things and also giving people breaks. And I also mentor people as well. Quite a few Tina Edwards, Barbie British, Pritpal Ajamal.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

So a bunch of people and I just give advice and try to hook people up with things, whether it's, you know, trying to hook someone up with a label or whatever. I love being of service in that sense because I've had people help me and that's just the way it goes.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

Now why people are chosen. I mean, I asked David this one of the last times he came over to the States, to the UK. I asked, why did you ask me to play records when I was only 24 years old?

You know, I didn't know how to use a Koetsus. I didn't know about the sound system at that point in time. And, you know, I'd only trust me with that, but also with your crowd, you know, who are very discerning, very discerning crowd. I mean, that is a really discerning crowd.

[Rohan]

That audiophile crowd?

[Colleen]

Well, it's not the audiophile crowd, it's the loft crowd.

[Rohan]

Got you.

[Colleen]

Because they've been going on for so long, they knew their music.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And, you know, it wasn't you couldn't play one of these cheap house tracks that sampled every song, you know, the big disco hits. Just play the original.

[Rohan]

You know what I mean?

[Colleen]

And he said to me about me, he said, it starts with a vibe long before one hits the turntable. So it's established by a trust and a like minded spirit. And you can feel that with people when you're on the same wavelength, whether it's musical, personality wise, morality wise or whatever.

And, yeah, there's just a you know, you feel something when you meet someone, there's something there. And, you know, that's that's what I felt with David and what he felt with me when we got to know each other, you know, shortly after I started going there. So I'm really lucky.

I'm really lucky. But, you know, it's also brought a lot of resentment towards me as well, which is by a certain groups of people who maybe didn't have that David didn't, you know, choose to kind of yeah, to to to play records or to, you know, to manage his legacy or whatever. So that's that's been a lot of heartbreak, too, as well. So sometimes I think you look at people's lives, you think, oh, they have everything. They look like everything's going great. But, you know, you never really know what's going behind the scenes.

And that's the truth for everybody.

[Rohan]

Definitely. Thank you for being so honest as well. Yeah, I think a lot of I know a lot of my audience are emerging artists. And the beauty of having this weekly radio show for me and the conversations that I facilitate is like I don't really know what I know what I'm doing. I know where I'm going. I don't know how.

So these conversations are so useful for all of us to learn together, you know, especially you like being like, do you know what? Let's talk about bitterness in the industry. Let's talk about imposter syndrome in the industry.

[Colleen]

Imposter syndrome is massive. I mean, yeah, I think I held my own self back for quite a while, even though you look at my career and it looks like I did well. I think sometimes maybe I didn't have enough. Like I had to be asked into the studio to become a producer. I was asked in 1997 by Tommy Musto, who has had a label called Suburban. He produced a lot of great soulful house tunes that I played all the time. He came into dance tracks where I was working. I played all their records on my radio show. And when he asked me to produce a song, I actually had been writing songs.

I just hadn't done anything with the lyrics, with verses and choruses and chords and all that. And so finally I had the opportunity. And really, I always kind of waited to be asked. And in fact, I'm still sort of like that. And I'm amazed when anybody, any gender comes up and they put themselves out there. I'm like, gosh, that's really cool of you. I I always waited to be asked, which is fun. I was asked to join World Wide FM. I was asked to host a tent. I was asked to do all these things. I was asked to play at Body and Souls, asked to play, you know, at The Loft. I never just put myself out there.

Very rarely have I asked for things. There have been a few occasions where I felt comfortable enough where I thought I just got to do it. I was asked to do the radio shows. It was like everything I was asked to do. And I think like if I had. If I had been a guy. Would I have handled all that differently? I probably would have, whether or not I would have been more or less successful, I can't tell you. I don't have a you know, I have no idea, no means of knowing that. Yeah, but I definitely did have imposter syndrome and on many different angles, you know, like I never thought I'd be a touring DJ, I never thought I'd be producing. I never, you know.

[Rohan]

Yeah, it's odd. You know, I feel like you're yeah, really talking to me right now as well. I am exactly the same as you. And yeah, like I'm now at the point where labels are asking me to remix things and I'm like, I don't know how to do that. But like one day I'll learn. And like it's cool. You sort of see the cogs turning or like this is the opportunity. This is the road map. OK, maybe I should do this one.

[Colleen]

Just do it.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And, you know, it's the thing is everyone is a beginner at some point. And in fact, I think the best producers, DJs or artists are always beginners, is kind of like learning a martial art. You should always be a beginner. Right.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And have that attitude. Like I'm always open to learning new things. You know, I look back, I listen to some of my old productions. I can hear all the mistakes and everything I would change. But I'm so proud of them. I think they still have their own merit and I don't play them. I rarely listen to them, but I'm so proud of them.

[Rohan]

Yeah.

[Colleen]

And, you know, I'm happier now with my productions now. But still, even then, like I finished production, I played a few times and I'm on to the next thing. You know, it's like almost not looking back too much. You can't.

[Rohan]

I feel that way about my radio shows. Oh, yeah, literally charting. God knows how many years I've been doing this sort of stuff. But listen back the other day when I was based in Nottingham. I was telling you I used to radio for a community station called City Beat Radio. And the room was probably probably the size of this sofa, actually.

It was honestly a shoebox. There were so many amazing things came out of that. But I listened back the other day and I was like, wow, you did not know what you were doing, bro.

[Colleen]

Oh, my. I started when I was 14.

[Rohan]

Wow.

[Colleen]

And I had I have one tape from my high school radio show. I literally have a Boston accent. And I'm like, WHHB, W, W, W. And I hardly spoke at all. And then when I moved to New York, I started it was like every kind of phase I went through had a different style. And then when I was doing live house shows in New York, it was like, this is Cosmo and ninety one, you know, eighty nine point one FM.

And I was like, you know, just it was like the more of a New York accent. And yeah, it was really it's I look back now and sometimes some people have been posting up my old mixes, radio shows on SoundCloud, which has been a trip. Wow. This guy, MJ Tracks, has been posting them up recordings. Actually, I've been loving it. Actually, there's enough distance now. I almost look at that person as my daughter, like not even as myself. I can't even remember. It's me, you know.

[Rohan]

Wow.

[Colleen]

And yeah, it's really I'm very proud of the work I've done, even if I don't think it's the radio shows I do think are great. I would say my early productions, I did the best I could, you know, and I'd change things, but it's you have to start somewhere. And it's always a growing experience. I could listen to a radio show of mine two weeks ago and think I should have done this differently.

[Rohan]

Yeah, I feel that all the time.

[Colleen]

Yeah. And that's just the way it should be. You should always be evolving and, you know, pushing yourself forward, you know, and not getting too comfortable resting upon your laurels for real.

[Rohan]

And another reason why I really wanted to talk to you. I think we're well, I know I don't know how much you know about my career. And if you know nothing, I love that even more, to be quite honest. But I do a lot of work in programming and curating and both as a freelancer. But the raves going back five, six years now to festival stages, to poetry nights, the Royal Albert Hall, all sorts of things. Which is we'll talk off mic.

It's something I'm really, really passionate about and like putting people on and supporting artists as young as me, younger than me, older than me. You don't have haven't been celebrated. We're talking about Marsha Kyle, one of my favorite DJs.

[Colleen]

She's fabulous.

[Rohan]

Unbelievable.

[Colleen]

She's unreal.

[Rohan]

I shared a line up with her at Love Supreme Festival last year and just warmed up for her. And I was like completely blown away. I just sat behind her with a beer, just in complete awe and just learned so much.

[Colleen]

She can do it all as well. She played for Love at Love Dancing for us. She was on my radio show a few weeks ago.

[Rohan]

Brilliant.

[Colleen]

And she can just do the whole thing. She can mix it up.

[Rohan]

Yeah, completely. I wanted to talk to you about curating for Love Dancing and how that works, because you mentioned earlier in the show, but how you split the sort of days so everyone takes their own day. So what day are you doing this year?

[Colleen]

I do Saturday. So it's a Cosmodelica takeover. And Cosmodelica is also the name of an old radio show I used to host on Ministry of Sound Radio, but it's also the name of my remixes and kind of like my remixes, which are all over the place from down tempo to psychedelic, to indie, to house, to broken beats, to soul, all that stuff, disco.

I want the lineup to reflect that as well. So on the kind of more spacey side, we are opening up the show, the whole day with Pritpal Ajmal's way of the verses with Indian classical. So I think in the morning at 11 a.m., I think, what do people want? And I love to lay on the floor with some incense, listening to that, easing into the day. Then Sky Rager is from Psych Magic as well. Danny Sky Rager, he's doing more of a psychedelic, you know, not necessarily dance floor oriented.

It might be some of it, but kind of building up from there. Then the balleric side is represented by Balleric London, who are a young group of people, which is great.

[Rohan]

Out to them.

[Colleen]

Yeah, out to them. Really great people. Then there's a great, I always try to feature a lot of women, obviously, because it's something that's really important to me. Usually about half my lineup is is women.

[Rohan]

Right.

[Colleen]

And Eavesdrop Collective are back. They did a great job last year. So they're back. Yeah. Then the next thing I'm trying to do, which has worked the last couple of years, is to get up and coming DJs from New York City because of my link with New York. So two years ago I had Love Injection. Last year I had Muscle Cars.

[Rohan]

Memorable.

[Colleen]

Yeah, that was great. And this this time I have Lovey, which is great.

[Rohan]

Can't wait.

[Colleen]

Then me. And then I always have a kind of more of like a heritage act, I'd like to say. So I had Greg Wilson last year. I've had Ashley Beedle before. And this year I have my mentor, Francois Kay. Crazy. So it's like a nice. And we're also, Francois is also doing a live stems set, which is really interesting. He gets the stems or he creates the stems for different tracks and he live produces a whole set by using stems for an hour.

Wow. So that's happening, too. So there's a lot to do. But I try to reflect what Cosmodelica means and what it's like, all those different genres of music and getting up and coming talent to more established talent and really trying to keep it nice and diverse as well. So that's really what my headset is like for the Saturdays.

[Rohan]

I'm so excited. But obviously the world does hate us both. You know, I would think we're clashing. I know exactly.

[Colleen]

We've got the Tuesday radio class. We've got the reality class.

[Rohan]

I'll come. I'll come after for Francois.

[Colleen]

Yeah, exactly. Sounds good.

[Rohan]

I'll see you with a samosa backstage. That would be amazing.

[Colleen]

And some chai.

[Rohan]

Yeah, I'll bring you some. I'll bring you some chai. But how does it work with the other people curating the days? Is it are you having conversation throughout?

[Colleen]

It's just like, well, my husband does Thursday, so we're talking.

[Rohan]

You are talking. That's good.

[Colleen]

And we have the bright. He has got the brighter days crew in as well.

[Rohan]

OK, cool.

[Colleen]

He has Daddy G from Massive Attack because they've been friends for a long time. You know, Trojan style system has supported Massive Attack as well. They have the Fat Freddy's drop. Joey playing. He is playing trumpets, trombone, trumpet. I can't whatever. But yeah, there's a bunch there's a bunch of other people playing his day, too. I'm trying over everybody. But yes, we're in conversation.

And yeah, usually Scruff and I, we're all kind of looped in sort of talking. And I'm asked, you know, there's certain people that we want to get in a tent that may not be available. We're always talking. His wife is part of eavesdrop as well. OK, although she's not playing on my day, she might be playing on his day. We're kind of like a family. I mean, I've known Andy since I moved over. Yeah, yeah. I think I stayed with them. I did a benefit of breast cancer awareness for his wife at one point. I mean, before before kids, I'd be like over 20 years ago. Well, yeah, so it is like a family affair. And then Ian Mackey, who is our sound engineer for the London Loft, is also the engineer. He's the prime guy for the sound system.

[Rohan]

That's beautiful.

[Colleen]

Touching bass are doing a takeover on Friday for Scruff.

[Rohan]

Nice.

[Colleen]

Absolutely. They were trying to get Lovey and like, no, I already got her. I already got her in December. Get your own New Yorkers.

[Rohan]

They did.

[Colleen]

It was just great. So the whole it's always, you know, I generally spend most of my time there. And then I start to feel guilty because everywhere is great stuff, isn't it? And, you know, I just on Sunday I tend to move around a bit more, you know, and there's so many things that are clashing that I want to see. I want to see Theo Parrish on Thursday. My husband is playing and it's like all these different clashes.

But I am excited to to see Michael Kumanuka on Sunday. I've seen him perform a couple of times before. And I'm very excited.

[Rohan]

Yeah, I'm Dom and I are performing on Sunday as well.

[Colleen]

Really?

[Rohan]

We're DJing together at Brawnswood.

[Colleen]

OK, what time?

[Rohan]

I can't remember right now.

[Colleen]

OK, I'll have to come by.

[Rohan]

Yeah, at two. OK, great.

[Colleen]

That's my day off. You'll see me floating around with a very happy smile on my face. Hopefully, as long as I did well the night before. It's always like, you know, nerve wracking.

[Rohan]

I'm sure it will go incredibly well.

[Colleen]

I hope so.

[Rohan]

Yeah. Looking back on on Love Dancing and we out here over the years, obviously there's such good problems to have of like the clashes. And what are your some of the like what are your seminal standout moments that like rain and stick in your brain about the tent and over the years?

[Colleen]

Yeah, we've had so many. I mean, Dingwalls is great on a Sunday. And we had these dancers last year that just blew my mind. Proper jazz dancers. We have wooden platforms next to the DJ booth. And just watching and hearing Louie Vega, who I've known for a long time as a friend. And I was on my radio show in the 90s, but I always played all his productions and. Hearing him play more of his roots of Latin jazz. I mean, Hector Laveau was his uncle, you know, I mean, he has a real tie with Latin jazz, hearing him to the Latin jazz that was really interesting.

This year we have Spina at Dingwalls. So he'll be doing something like something I haven't usually heard him do. I have to say Greg Wilson's set last year really blew me away. He was so sweet. Like, you know, this is the kind of the set that you're kind of dreading and looking forward to and thinking about all year. And he really did a stellar job having like young people like muscle cars. You know, that was such a moment. And I remember coming on the mic with barely any voice saying, this is the new sound of New York.

[Rohan]

I remember. I remember that moment.

[Colleen]

Oh, yeah. Oh, I was just like, oh, my gosh, I really just love that. Eavesdrop had such an energy as well. Just they just it was off the hook. Have seen Trojan Sound System. I've loved Scruff and Charlie Dark's back to back sets as well. They've been really such a highlight. Yeah, there's always love. It's Sunday night, last set and always there for Patrick. Patrick Forge has been one of my favorite DJs. And, you know, understand. Yeah.

I mean, I remember getting a modal jazz comp of his right when I moved over and it was in my car and it got broken into in Sheffield in the parking lot after a gig, all my CDs got taken. That was one of them. But I just love his musical sensibility. I listen to his shows as well. And he does all different types of sounds. But I mean, I love when he plays jazz.

[Rohan]

Yeah, the dance floor jazz.

[Colleen]

Oh, it's so good. It wasn't really a movement in the US. It was a movement here.

[Rohan]

Interesting.

[Colleen]

So even though there might be a lot of American artists that are being played, not necessarily all, but a lot. It wasn't a movement in the US. And so that's why I really love it and appreciate it, because it's kind of new or newish for me, I should say. And who was over? There was some American DJs over at Muscle Cars, in fact, when they were over last year and they were watching on Sunday, the dancers. I said, see, this scene is a very UK scene, you know.

And Louis, Louis knows more about it because he's been coming here a lot longer. But yeah, they were just like, wow, jaws down. Like, wow, I can't believe this. It's a whole different thing that we don't really have.

[Rohan]

Yeah, we've we're we're so lucky that we were just tapped into all these little pockets and scenes are just like bubbling up and something I love to rep in my DJ sets as well. That dance floor jazz into Brock.

[Colleen]

Yeah, and that's definitely a UK influence. A hundred percent. I mean, there's some artists I played, you know, like Lonnie Liston Smith or whatever.

But yeah, that whole going deep and finding all these kind of obscure tunes, it's definitely a UK thing and it's very addictive. I love it. And also I, you know, I noticed some of my sets sometimes I went through like more of a jazzy phase and didn't really want to play anything for to the floor. And. But I think I'm best when I do mix it up. Yeah, it's probably what I should try to do more of, you know.

[Rohan]

Yeah, definitely. Colleen, yeah. Thank you so much for joining me.

[Colleen]

Thank you. Such a good time chatting to you. Yeah, thank you. That's been great chatting to you as well.

[Rohan]

We'll see what we out here.

[Colleen]

See what we out here. Yeah. So excited. And I can't wait to listen to your show after the fact because I'll be DJing at the same time. Yeah, I know.

[Rohan]

Oh, classic. I'll try. I'm going to try record my set. Are we out here?

[Colleen]

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Thank you.

[Rohan]

Really appreciate it.

[Colleen]

Thank you.