- One of the most important club DJs in recent memory blesses RA with our 900th Podcast.
- Ashland Mines, AKA Total Freedom, AKA Big Gay Idiot DJ, AKA Bobby Beethoven, is one of the best and most influential DJs of the 21st century. Starting out at pioneering parties like Mustache Mondays and Wildness (which he cofounded with Wu Tsang)—and a regular at GHE20G0TH1K—Mines helped to define the style that would become known, however cringe-inducingly, as experimental club or deconstructed club, directly inspiring fellow visionaries like Arca.
Like some of the best DJs before him, Mines uses the CDJs as an instrument, but that doesn't mean just fancy tricks and looping. Instead, he artfully throws together clashing sounds—effects, samples, monologues, pop and R&B acapellas, and beats that run the gamut from dancehall to kuduro to breaks and techno. He's not afraid of the grotesquerie of human life and movement (just check out the monologue at the beginning of this mix), and he likes to push buttons. Once he put on a party where dancing wasn't allowed. Some of his sets are intentionally anxiety-inducing, evoking horror movies and modern classical composers like Penderecki, while others are bouncy and ebullient, weaving between genres and tempos like an old-school platformer. The best are both.
On Mines's RA Podcast—a milestone 900th in the series—he shows off this inimitable style, sharpened and reinforced over 15 years of playing some of the world's best parties, fashion shows, you name it. He's the kind of DJ who creates his own music as he goes along. He makes you hear old tracks—especially pop music and R&B—in a whole new way. Titled "Cursed Piercing," this is a near-hour of controlled chaos that'll confound you at one moment and deeply move you the next.
How and where was the mix recorded? And can you tell us the idea behind it? (Why "Cursed Piercing?")
I was trying to make a mix that sounded the way it would feel to receive a desperate and horny love letter from someone you're not in love with but respect somewhat but also are a little afraid of. I was consciously excluding anything that sounded too nice or pretty and anywhere. I did use something rich and pleasing like that, but I obscured it with hectic obnoxious rhythms. Cursed Piercing relates to this but I'll save you from the TMI—long story short I was confused last year and got my ear pierced and it never healed. It's still not healed 17 months later. Cursed.
What's one club or party that had a major impact on you as an artist?
Silver Platter in LA. I used to throw a weekly party there with friends. The space was incredible and the family that ran it were so beautiful. still feels like the coolest thing that ever happened to me. In the last five years I'd say the New York party Melting Point helped me wake up when I was feeling dead and useless. I think it did that for a lot of people. Always love going to their nights.
What drove your recent DJ name changes?
I used the name Total Freedom for nearly 20 years. Change is cute. Big Gay Idiot DJ was fun but I wasn't really living up to the name so I switched it to Bobby Beethoven which is way funnier.
You had a profound effect on DJing club music over the last decade, and also on how people view using CDJs and DJing technology. How has your own approach evolved?
I'd say my approach has devolved over the years if anything. Always just kinda feels like I'm jumping out of a moving train and falling down a mountainside. But the development was a communal exchange and continues to be. From back in the day at the silver platter we were trying to push the boundaries of what a club night could sound like and what you could do with the club tech. then on to GHE20G0TH1K in NYC, where Venus and Shayne were developing their own approach. it all kinda just added to a lexicon of gestures. Direct misuse of CDJ functions, abuse or even just accidents that we were using formalized into a language.
What's one social or political cause you want the world to pay more attention to?
What if hell is real and what if that hell is you live an eternity trapped in all the single-use plastics you've used in your lifetime🙁
What are you looking forward to in the near future?
Fashion week. I love fashion.
TracklistMs New Mexico - Wench
? - OA Biddle w/ COVID-19
? - Eartheater
? - DJ ANGSTAR
Mud - SLIKBACK X Brodinski
Incendio - Arca
Steam - Martyn Bootyspoon
Vai Dar Problema - DJ Darkness
Murdering Power - Chaotic Hostility
Vira Mortal - DJ Patrick R
Intro Personal - Alexis Zavala
Big Ben - Tia Maria
Pain (LSDXOXO remix) - Pinkpantheress
Txentnes - EddyBeatz
Baile do ZUT ZUT - ICQ Baby
KOH (ft. Ecco2k + Whitearmor) - Felix Lee
BAIRRO 13 - EddyBeatz
? - Natasha Beddingfield
Ultra - Evian Christ
Abans Abans - Marina Herlop
DJ Mibi Voce Deixa - DJ Mibi
Pretty Boy (Hudson Mohawke remix) - Wuh Oh
Chokkor ( Kiilbourne remix) - Enayet
Contact - Kelela
Golden Sun - OGUZ + Nyctonian
Bitter? - First Circle
Clan (Slikback remix) - Nazar
Wijd - Massacooramaan
Attends - Brazy
Trendsetters - Onleash
Toda Sua - Savanah + DJ Isaac 22
Ein - Demos Room x LYAM
Dramaturge - Drume
333 - Tinashe
Icons of Glory (MANIQUE) - Joe Rinaldo Heffernan
I Never Wanna See You Again (ft Fitnesss) - Munki
Nobody Else - Summer Walker
Confessions ft. Shitney Queers - Leech
Rotten Tropics - Wolf Eyes
Confessions (ft. Shitney Queers) - Leech
Palhacos Look - ICQ baby
Bouyon Master - Shazdown MMW
Certified - D3AD6OY
Anyone Who Had A Heart - Dionna Warwick
Dadada…..Struggle - Tweet
Test - Ms Carrie Stacks