RA Exchange
- Episodios
- 542
- Se publica
- cada semana
- Último episodio
- 11 Nov 2026
Sobre el podcast
The weekly RA Exchange is a series of conversations with artists, labels and promoters shaping the electronic music landscape.
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Episodios 542
EX.818 Marcel Dettmann
The Berghain resident on punk's ethos, choosing the difficult path and his new album, My Own Shadow.Marcel Dettmann has become synonymous with Berghain and its primary cultural export: Berlin techno. He began …
Notas del episodio
The Berghain resident on punk's ethos, choosing the difficult path and his new album, My Own Shadow.
Marcel Dettmann has become synonymous with Berghain and its primary cultural export: Berlin techno. He began DJing at Ostgut, Berghain's predecessor, in 1999. When Berghain opened its doors in 2004, he was one of its first residents, on a roster that grew to include luminaries like his longtime collaborator Ben Klock.
In this RA Exchange, Dettmann talks about the long road from bedroom DJ to one of techno's leading figures: first falling in love with '80s new wave records, running a record store out of his mother's house, sharing vinyl with neighbourhood friends like future Berghain resident Marcel Fengler, and eventually landing behind the counter at Hard Wax, which he calls his "school".
Dettmann has been a fixture on the techno circuit for more than 25 years, yet there are still sides of his artistry that fans may not know. My Own Shadow, an expanding project of EPs and visual work that now includes a full-length album, shows his creative world from another angle. He breaks down the album's cinematic imagery, reflects on the years it took to get where he is, and explains why the path that takes the most work is the one that pays off.
My Own Shadow is out November 13th on !K7.
Listen to the full episode.
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EX.817 Chase & Status
Two decades in, the UK drum & bass duo are still filling stadiums. They talk staying hungry, resisting the algorithm and their eighth album, Generic Everything.In 2003, Saul Milton and Will Kennard of Chase & …
Notas del episodio
Two decades in, the UK drum & bass duo are still filling stadiums. They talk staying hungry, resisting the algorithm and their eighth album, Generic Everything.
In 2003, Saul Milton and Will Kennard of Chase & Status were sending drum & bass demos to their heroes over AOL Instant Messenger. Two decades on, they're among the biggest acts in UK dance music. In 2016, they became the first UK electronic act to headline London's O2 Arena. Their productions have racked up more than two billion streams, and they've sold 2.6 million albums, more than four times as many as drum & bass's next-biggest act. In 2023, they had four records in the UK Top 40 at once, a run that helped win them the Brit Award for Producer of the Year.
So what does a second act look like 20 years in? In this RA Exchange with music journalist Nathan Evans, Milton and Kennard dig into how they keep pushing forward. They discuss Generic Everything, a record about refusing to sound like everyone else in an age of algorithms and AI, and why they worry about what technology is doing to creative work. They also talk about how they choose collaborators, from Skrillex to Little Simz and D Double E, and how they've folded styles like baile funk into drum & bass. Listen to the full episode.
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EX.816 Boys Noize
The German producer on touring with Nine Inch Nails, pushing past criticism and his new full-length album, 7LLVSION. Alex Ridha is notoriously private. Ridha, AKA Boys Noize, has been making headlines over the …
Notas del episodio
The German producer on touring with Nine Inch Nails, pushing past criticism and his new full-length album, 7LLVSION.
Alex Ridha is notoriously private. Ridha, AKA Boys Noize, has been making headlines over the last couple of years: you may have seen him on tour alongside Trent Reznor’s industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, or in the credits of the soundtracks for Challengers and Tron: Ares. It follows an illustrious run of collaborations with Lady Gaga and Skrillex, discreetly making him one of the most influential producers moving between the underground and pop.
But long before all of this, Ridha was just a 16-year-old making music in Hamburg. He went on to start his own label, Boysnoize Records, and broke through in 2007 with his debut album, Oi Oi Oi. His sound, an abrasive mix of EBM, industrial, French touch and electroclash, won over a young generation of ravers around the world and inspired particular devotion in the US.
In this RA Exchange, Ridha discusses what it's like to have Trent Reznor's ear; how it felt to have his music panned in Germany but celebrated abroad; and his hesitation about putting out a solo album in what he sees as an oversaturated music landscape. Ridha is now scoring his first film on his own, a horror movie called Replacer, and on November 6th he releases 7LLVSION, his first solo album in five years. Listen to the full episode.
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EX.815 Saul Williams & James Massiah
Kicking off a run of artist-on-artist Exchanges for RA25, the musical multi-hyphenates discuss poetry, religion and their experiences as protectors of oratorical tradition.There's a deep creative current …
Notas del episodio
Kicking off a run of artist-on-artist Exchanges for RA25, the musical multi-hyphenates discuss poetry, religion and their experiences as protectors of oratorical tradition.
There's a deep creative current running between music and poetry, and Saul Williams and James Massiah know those waters well. This week’s RA Exchange is the first in a series of intergenerational artist-on-artist conversations we’ll be running to mark our 25th anniversary. In it, Williams—the Grammy-nominated poet, musician, writer and actor—and Massiah—a South London poet and musician—talk about lyricism and what first drew them to the written word. Both grew up in the church: Williams as the son of a Baptist preacher, Massiah in the Seventh-day Adventist church, raised on the King James Bible. They discuss how those upbringings shaped their sense of oratory and morality, and the tension between rejecting institutional religion and still holding on to its aesthetic traditions.
They also get into what happens when a poem meets music, and what a dance floor can be beyond entertainment. Williams argues it has always been a training ground: a space for resistance, ceremony and mobilisation, where ideas can spark minds and movements. Massiah, meanwhile, explains how simply wanting to keep partying ended up radicalising him. As he puts it: "Where are we going to party if the bad guys have got all the good party locations?"
The conversation was recorded in Amsterdam, where Williams performed with Underground Resistance. His new album, Leap Life, is out now on Big Dada. Listen to the full episode.
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EX.814 Syd
The frontwoman of Grammy-nominated The Internet talks ambition, contentment and her third solo album, Beard.Syd, born Sydney Bennett, is nearly 20 years into a career that started when she was a teenager. She …
Notas del episodio
The frontwoman of Grammy-nominated The Internet talks ambition, contentment and her third solo album, Beard.
Syd, born Sydney Bennett, is nearly 20 years into a career that started when she was a teenager. She cut her teeth as the in-house engineer and DJ for hip-hop collective Odd Future before forming The Internet, the Grammy-nominated soul group that helped shape a strand of Los Angeles R&B in the 2010s. Two solo albums followed—Fin in 2017 and Broken Hearts Club in 2022—but she describes her third, Beard, as the first that feels fully her own. She made it in the same period she married her partner and, by her own account, arrived at a version of self-acceptance she'd been circling for a decade.
In this Exchange, Syd sits down with RA's Content Production Lead Antonia Odunlami to talk about the album's title, a reference to the facial hair she stopped removing after years of treating it as something to hide. They also discuss letting go of who she was "supposed" to be, why she's stopped chasing the "sleep when you're dead" ambition she was raised on, and her plans to get back behind the CDJs after years away. Listen to the full episode.
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EX.813 Marlon Hoffstadt
The trance DJ on clickbait journalism, commercial success and making a name in the viral age.Marlon Hoffstadt started DJing at 17. By 18, he got his first taste of moderate success, and at 20, it had all …
Notas del episodio
The trance DJ on clickbait journalism, commercial success and making a name in the viral age.
Marlon Hoffstadt started DJing at 17. By 18, he got his first taste of moderate success, and at 20, it had all disappeared. What followed was several years in the trenches: demos ignored, labels uninterested and a career that seemed to be ending before it even took off. Hoffstadt went back to study journalism and PR, became a dad and continued to make music no one wanted to release. Then, somewhere at the intersection of the post-pandemic landscape and the rise of the TikTok influencer, he re-emerged as DJ Daddy Trance, a hands-in-the-air commercial DJ headlining festivals around the world.
This uncanny shift has made him the subject of sharp criticism from some figures in the underground scene where it all started for Hoffstadt. In this RA Exchange, the Berlin native directly addresses his detractors. He also talks about how he's channeled Berlin's underground sensibility into the world of expensive tickets and stadium-scale production; what changed between his throwing no-phone parties in 2019 and dominating a scene that profits from video reels; and his reaction to some of Resident Advisor's recent posts and articles—and what he, as a former PR professional, would have done differently. His new album, Das ist Daddy, is out now on Capitol Records.
Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.812 Interpol
Frontman Paul Banks on the legacy band's creative evolution, why he prefers hip-hop to rock and their new album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton.Interpol might not be electronic in the traditional sense, but they've …
Notas del episodio
Frontman Paul Banks on the legacy band's creative evolution, why he prefers hip-hop to rock and their new album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton.
Interpol might not be electronic in the traditional sense, but they've long been the techno fan's indie band of choice. Cofounded by lead singer Paul Banks and guitarist Daniel Kessler in 1997—Banks is the lyricist, Kessler the composer—they emerged in Manhattan's burgeoning guitar music scene. Their 2002 debut, Turn On the Bright Lights, is widely considered one of the defining albums of the decade, and landed them in the middle of the early-'00s New York rock revival alongside The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and LCD Soundsystem. They went on to shape the moody, post-punk revival canon that defined the following decade.
Interpol are now back with an album that's been called their best in years: This Mirror Weighs a Ton. In this Exchange, Banks unpacks the LP's conception and composition with producer Andrew Wyatt—best known for his work with artists like Bruno Mars, Charli xcx and Dua Lipa—and its darker lyrical meditations on drone footage, mediated violence and the surveillance state.
Banks also reveals the version of himself that isn't typically in the press cycle. Outside of Interpol, the singer is an avid beatmaker who hasn't listened to rock music in over twenty years. He DJs hip-hop under the name Fancypants, released a sample-based mixtape featuring US rapper Talib Kweli and has collaborated with everyone from Wu-Tang's RZA to Kool Keith, Ghostface Killah and Method Man. In this conversation, he explains why he thinks hip-hop is the only genre still meaningfully inventing language—and what that means for the band he's been fronting for nearly 30 years. This Mirror Weighs a Ton is out now on Partisan Records.
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EX.811 Jorja Smith
Jorja Smith's career took off in 2016, when "Blue Lights" introduced her voice to a global audience. In the 10 years since that single went stratospheric, the Walsall-born artist has released three albums …
Notas del episodio
Jorja Smith's career took off in 2016, when "Blue Lights" introduced her voice to a global audience. In the 10 years since that single went stratospheric, the Walsall-born artist has released three albums, collaborated with Drake, Burna Boy, Wizkid and Ezra Collective, and built an international career without ever signing to a major label.
Her third album, What Are The Odds, marks a new chapter, as she turns towards the dance floor. Made entirely with producer P2J, the record draws from a broad palette of sounds, including UK garage, funky and Afro house. Smith has described it as music to make people move, and she'll take the tracks to London's O2 Arena next summer for the first headline show at the venue of her career.
In this Exchange, Smith talks to RA's Antonia Odunlami about growing up in the public eye, moving back to Walsall after London became too much and protecting the parts of herself she wants to keep private. She also discusses remaining independent, learning to set goals and how she curated her recent All Points East set.
Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.810 SHERELLE
The British jungle star reflects on grief, artistic integrity, bass communities and why slowing down has become central to the next phase of her career.In 2019, SHERELLE's life changed when a viral Boiler Room …
Notas del episodio
The British jungle star reflects on grief, artistic integrity, bass communities and why slowing down has become central to the next phase of her career.
In 2019, SHERELLE's life changed when a viral Boiler Room set introduced her high-speed blend of jungle, footwork and hardcore to a global audience. This much we know. So what comes after the storm?
In the 2020s, the Londoner has become one of the most recognisable figures in UK dance music: major festival stages, a BBC Radio 6 Music show and even a MOBO award. Yet after putting herself through over 100 shows a year, and turning 30, she began to question the pace of life as a touring DJ. The deaths of two close family members over the past 12 months brought those questions into focus, reshaping how she thinks about DJing, friendship, club culture and what she wants to leave behind.
In this Exchange, SHERELLE speaks with RA Editor Gabe Szatan about learning to take pride in her achievements, resisting the pressure to turn music into social media content and giving UK bass artists their flowers while they're still here.
She also discusses Hooversound—the label she runs with NAINA—racial and class hierarchies that shape dance music, and Rest & Restoration, her new party built around longer sets, affordable tickets and a simple philosophy to slow down, and make time for the people you love.
Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.809 Mykki Blanco
The US musician, poet and performance artist reflects on "queer rap,” the industry that boxed him into it and the reinvention he's built on the other side.A consummate multi-hyphenate, Mykki Blanco (formerly …
Notas del episodio
The US musician, poet and performance artist reflects on "queer rap,” the industry that boxed him into it and the reinvention he's built on the other side.
A consummate multi-hyphenate, Mykki Blanco (formerly she/her, now he/him) came up in a specific New York moment: the early '10s crossover between queer nightlife, noise and a rap underground that was just beginning to loosen its grip on who was allowed inside. Alongside artists like Le1f, Zebra Katz and Cakes da Killa, Blanco was lumped into a "queer rap" wave that acquired a cult following around the world, propped up MySpace and Tumblr.
The co-signs came fast and from unlikely places. Blanco opened shows for Björk, Diplo and Major Lazer, collaborated with Madonna and spent seven months working closely with Kanye West. But he stayed outside the mainstream—partly by design, and partly because the industry of that era wasn't willing to let a Black queer rapper be anything other than a Black queer rapper.
In this Exchange, Blanco reflects on the music industry's prejudices and limitations, and on how he's risen above them. After a few years off the touring circuit, he's back with a new album and a new sound. Café Paradiso, out in early September, is shaped less by the aggression that fuelled his early work, and more by solitude and mid-career reflection. He talks about his reinvention and more: the freedom that's come from leaving rap, the blueprint he laid for a whole generation of queer artists coming up behind him and what working with West actually looked like from the inside. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.808 Tiësto
Decades after walking away from trance, the superstar DJ unpicks the machinery behind his own brand, and what a career spent at the top actually costs.Tiësto has been one of the biggest DJs in the world for the …
Notas del episodio
Decades after walking away from trance, the superstar DJ unpicks the machinery behind his own brand, and what a career spent at the top actually costs.
Tiësto has been one of the biggest DJs in the world for the better part of 30 years. Since the '90s, the Dutch artist has been part of an elite inner circle who dominate major festival bills, residencies in Ibiza and Las Vegas, and command some of the most astronomical fees in the industry. Even if he isn't part of your regular listening diet, you've almost certainly heard his music on the radio or pouring out of bars and clubs around the world.
It's easy to forget, though, that he made his name in trance—a genre he publicly walked away from more than a decade ago, saying he'd done what he wanted with it and wouldn't be going back. As of this summer, he's finally changed his mind, announcing his return with a set at Silverworks Island in London.
In this Exchange, he talks about being inspired by the new wave of trance DJs and the artists putting a modern twist on the genre. He also reflects on the years before Tiësto was Tiësto: cleaning club bathrooms, selling records to Jeff Mills as a young store clerk, producing gabber under a secret alias and being inspired to take up DJing after seeing Sven Väth play live. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.807 Overmono
The British sibling duo talk creative process, stepping away from successful solo projects and their new album, Pure Devotion, on XL Recordings.Tom and Ed Russell are brothers who spent the first decade of …
Notas del episodio
The British sibling duo talk creative process, stepping away from successful solo projects and their new album, Pure Devotion, on XL Recordings.
Tom and Ed Russell are brothers who spent the first decade of their careers working separately, building solo careers with real underground momentum. As Truss, Tom made techno on labels like Perc Trax and R&S. As Tessela, Ed put out jungle and breaks on Poly Kicks and his own label, All Caps. Both walked away from them after a week in a Welsh cottage in 2015, when they wrote the material that would form the foundations of Overmono—today, one of the most popular projects in dance music today.
What binds them now is a set of self-imposed rules, designed to produce interesting accidents out of the studio. On their new record, Pure Devotion, that meant engineering genuinely out-of-the-box experiments: baking a crash cymbal in the oven overnight to see how would change with heat; running tape past magnets to erase half of what they were recording as they recorded it; and writing 84 versions of one album track, "Nights in Shining Prada," before settling on one that would make the cut. The brothers write obsessively in studios, hotels, airplanes and tour buses, a shared instinct honed to the point that they rarely disagree during the production process.
In this Exchange, RA Editor Gabe Szatan sat down with Tom and Ed to reflect on some of their more surprising musical inspirations, letting go of other people's opinions and summoning the courage to walk away from two solo careers that were arguably at their peak. Pure Devotion is out August 7th on XL Recordings. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.806 Eartheater
The genre-fluid multihyphenate on motherhood, songwriting with FKA Twigs and her new album, Heavenly Body: If I'm the Bottle You're the Message.American singer-songwriter Alexandra Drewchin (AKA Eartheater) is …
Notas del episodio
The genre-fluid multihyphenate on motherhood, songwriting with FKA Twigs and her new album, Heavenly Body: If I'm the Bottle You're the Message.
American singer-songwriter Alexandra Drewchin (AKA Eartheater) is hard to pin down by design. In her music, acoustic instruments like harp and guitar collide with heavy digital manipulation, processed beats and classical technique. Her three-octave vocal range has carried her from operatic folk singing to literally shattering wine glasses on stage. Most recently, she co-wrote and sang on the title track of FKA Twigs' Grammy-winning Eusexua, and has since joined Twigs on tour in support of the album.
In this week's RA Exchange, Drewchin talks about her songwriting practice and her new LP, Heavenly Body: If I'm the Bottle You're the Message. The album arrives at a pivotal moment for the artist: she's recently become a mother and bought back the Pennsylvania farm her family lost when she was fifteen—a place she vowed, even then, that she would one day reclaim.
She reflects on that homecoming, and on how pregnancy, birth and motherhood shaped the record. She also discusses what she learned about songwriting from collaborating with Twigs, and her early mentorship under the late R&B legend Roberta Flack. Heavenly Body: If I'm the Bottle You're the Message is out now on Eartheater's label, Chemical X. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.805 Martyn
The Dutch producer on flow state, communal music-making and his new album, Music for Existing.Martijn Deijkers, AKA Martyn, has spent close to three decades resisting labels. He grew up in a small Dutch village …
Notas del episodio
The Dutch producer on flow state, communal music-making and his new album, Music for Existing.
Martijn Deijkers, AKA Martyn, has spent close to three decades resisting labels. He grew up in a small Dutch village as a vinyl obsessive, buying his first 7-inch from a store that doubled as a sweet shop, before travelling to London in the mid-'90s to chase jungle and drum & bass. He later became one of the first artists from outside the UK to shape the capital's dubstep scene, fusing it with the Detroit techno and hip-hop of his youth. Since then, he has held a residency at Panorama Bar, started a successful label, 3024, and hosted a long-running monthly jazz show on NTS, Darkest Light.
In this Exchange with RA's Performance Content Lead, Tom Gledhill, Deijkers talks about dubplate culture in '90s London, the mentoring programme that's shaped his approach to creativity and his new album, Music for Existing, a collection of jazz-inflected electronics that explores the powerful, communal act of making music together. The LP is out now on 3024. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.804 Kurupt FM
The UK pirate radio crew and cult TV stars discuss their rebirth and forthcoming EP, Grindah's Decided We're Doing Music Again.Many UK natives will be familiar with the show People Just Do Nothing, a mid-2010s …
Notas del episodio
The UK pirate radio crew and cult TV stars discuss their rebirth and forthcoming EP, Grindah's Decided We're Doing Music Again.
Many UK natives will be familiar with the show People Just Do Nothing, a mid-2010s comedy about pirate radio crew Kurupt FM, who ride the UK garage wave, broadcasting from the outer boroughs of London.
Kurupt FM's core members—MC Grindah, DJ Beats, DJ Steves and DJ Decoy—went quiet for more than a decade after the last episode aired in 2014. After a stretch of solo ventures—books, stand-up, Grindah's domestic upheaval following his split with long-time partner Miche, as depicted in People Just Do Nothing—the crew has reconvened for a new EP, Grindah's Decided We're Doing Music Again.
In this RA Exchange, Grindah, Beats and Steves meet for a rare interview to talk about their rebirth and what's happened in the years that have elapsed since the world last heard from them. They also reflect on Grindah's early run-in with Skepta, their case for the ongoing power of pirate radio in the age of AI and the current UKG revival. They engage in a familiar argument about who owns the lineage of the genre, and for Kurupt FM, the answer isn't complicated: if you weren't there the first time around, you just don't get it. Their new EP will be out on August 21st. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.803 Two Shell
The masked duo go on the record to address criticisms, identity and their forthcoming album, Infinite Now.Anonymous DJ-and-producer duo Two Shell are both loved and reviled. They've spent the last few years …
Notas del episodio
The masked duo go on the record to address criticisms, identity and their forthcoming album, Infinite Now.
Anonymous DJ-and-producer duo Two Shell are both loved and reviled. They've spent the last few years making the question of their identity inseparable from their music, earning an enormous fanbase with their original, up-tempo productions, and then alienating much of it through relentless pranks. Some of their most illustrious capers have included selling albums embedded in rocks, sending decoys to give fake interviews and booking stand-ins to perform in their place at major gigs and festivals.
But after their headline set on Glastonbury's IICON stage last summer—a proper, career-spanning 90 minutes that they actually turned up for—fans flooded their inbox with the same comment: "we know it wasn't you up there! classic!!" Their response was an Instagram post that broke the script. "Anonymity sometimes feels like a mistake," they wrote. And now, on the eve of a new album called Infinite Now, they've agreed to sit down for their first-ever video interview.
In this RA Exchange, Two Shell directly address the criticisms that have been levelled against them over the years; discuss what they owe their fans; and unpack their creative process, embrace of AI and more. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.802 Bladee
The Drain Gang cofounder talks about mysticism, Gen Z and his new album, Sulfur Surfer.Bladee's work as a founding member of the Swedish collective Drain Gang has shaped a new generation of underground music …
Notas del episodio
The Drain Gang cofounder talks about mysticism, Gen Z and his new album, Sulfur Surfer.
Bladee's work as a founding member of the Swedish collective Drain Gang has shaped a new generation of underground music. The group's sound, which is rooted in cloud rap and Auto-Tune experimentation, and pulls from trance, noise, metal, goth and grunge, has earned them an enormous following of fans—AKA "drainers"—overwhelmingly under 30.
Bladee has long been one of Drain Gang's most prominent voices, building a prolific solo career alongside the collective's output. His work engages with mysticism through vulnerable, diaristic lyrics about his state of mind. On his new album, Sulfur Surfer, he presents an autobiographical figure caught between "letting go and holding on"—a continuation of his longstanding interest in spirituality and the occult. He draws on the story of St. George, the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint and the occultism of British group Current 93, whose frontman David Tibet makes a guest appearance.
In this RA Exchange, Bladee talks about making honest music, the role Drain Gang has played in pushing him to find his voice, his ambivalence about fame and his collaboration with Skrillex. Sulfur Surfer is out now on Trash Island. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.801 Peaches
The queer icon and punk provocateur talks bodily autonomy, embracing ageing and her new album, No Lube So Rude.Merrill Nisker—known to most of the world as Peaches—has spent 25 years making music that refuses …
Notas del episodio
The queer icon and punk provocateur talks bodily autonomy, embracing ageing and her new album, No Lube So Rude.
Merrill Nisker—known to most of the world as Peaches—has spent 25 years making music that refuses to behave. Since her 2000 breakthrough, The Teaches of Peaches, she's built a body of work at the intersection of performance art, punk provocation and dance music, becoming an international queer icon and a touchstone for anyone told their body or identity doesn't fit.
Peaches' new album, No Lube So Rude, is out now on the Washington-based label Kill Rock Stars, also home to the likes of Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney. The title is a meditation on the friction and hostility that define this moment, and a frank reckoning with menopause, bodily autonomy and the systemic erasure of women who refuse to disappear quietly into middle age.
In this RA Exchange, Peaches, now 59, talks about making the record after a decade of silence and what it means to keep making confrontational art. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.800 Anton Corbijn
The Dutch photographer and art director on his longtime collaboration with Depeche Mode, moving into feature films and 50 years of documenting music culture.In 1979, the 24-year-old Dutch photographer Anton …
Notas del episodio
The Dutch photographer and art director on his longtime collaboration with Depeche Mode, moving into feature films and 50 years of documenting music culture.
In 1979, the 24-year-old Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn talked his way into a Joy Division shoot in a London Underground tunnel by citing a magazine assignment he didn't have. The band posed with their backs to the camera, and subsequently, no magazine accepted the photo. Within a year, Ian Curtis was dead, and the picture became one of the defining images of post-punk.
Corbijn has since become one of the world's best known music photographers, capturing artists like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Bowie, Captain Beefheart and nearly every major name to enter the pop realm. In this RA Exchange, he reflected on a life spent documenting music culture and his new retrospective at Fotografiska, Corbijn, Anton, which spans five decades of his work.
He also spoke in depth about his longtime relationship with Depeche Mode. As the band's creative director, he has worked on all of their music videos, stage design, album covers and more for over 40 years. Corbijn's retrospective will be on display until September 20th, 2026, and his new feature length film, Switzerland, will land in theatres this year. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.799 Takuya Nakamura
The jungle DJ and trumpeter talks about late-career popularity, jazz in Japan and what it means to build a life in music.You probably know Takuya Nakamura first and foremost as a viral sensation. The …
Notas del episodio
The jungle DJ and trumpeter talks about late-career popularity, jazz in Japan and what it means to build a life in music.
You probably know Takuya Nakamura first and foremost as a viral sensation. The Tokyo-born, New York-based trumpeter has achieved minor internet fame in recent years for playing live trumpet over jungle records on The Lot Radio. But Nakamura was composing and performing for more than 30 years before becoming one of the most talked-about acts of the contemporary Jungle revival.
In this RA Exchange, Nakamura dives into his musical journey: growing up in Tokyo, the Japanese jazz scene, and studying at the New England Conservatory of Music under the great composer and theorist George Russell. He also reflects on how jungle has evolved, why he loves performing in the UK, and how a new generation is breathing life into jazz. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.798 Suzanne Ciani
The pioneering artist talks philosophy, Berghain and touring on the eve of her 80th birthday.Suzanne Ciani is a synth music legend. After establishing herself as one of the first virtuosos of Don Buchla's …
Notas del episodio
The pioneering artist talks philosophy, Berghain and touring on the eve of her 80th birthday.
Suzanne Ciani is a synth music legend. After establishing herself as one of the first virtuosos of Don Buchla's modular system in the 1960s, she went on to earn five Grammy nominations, score a Hollywood film and found her own sound design company—creating iconic commercial soundtracks for Coca-Cola, AT&T and Atari.
In this RA Exchange recorded live at IMS Ibiza, Ciani traces her remarkable path to success. She breaks down the working philosophy that got her there: from walking away from opportunities that didn't align with her vision, to carving out her own lane in a male-dominated industry that refused to make room for her.
Now, just weeks away from turning 80, she discusses life on the road, collaborating with a new generation of electronic musicians and her first impressions of Berghain. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.797 Ed O'Brien
The Radiohead guitarist talks about finding spirituality, life inside one of the most mythologised (and occasionally polarising) bands of the last 40 years, and his second solo album, Blue Morpho.Ed O'Brien has …
Notas del episodio
The Radiohead guitarist talks about finding spirituality, life inside one of the most mythologised (and occasionally polarising) bands of the last 40 years, and his second solo album, Blue Morpho.
Ed O'Brien has been a guitarist in Radiohead since the band formed at Abingdon School in the mid '80s, playing a supporting role across a catalogue largely written by Thom Yorke. He comes from a guitar tradition that runs through Johnny Marr, John McGeoch and Will Sergeant—players who serve the music rather than themselves.
His second solo record, Blue Morpho, is his most fully realised statement away from the band. The themes running through it are spiritual, in the broadest sense. With anything related to group dynamics or current affairs averted by request, in this RA Exchange, O'Brien speaks with RA’s Editor Gabe Szatan about a long period of depression during lockdown, the meditation practice that pulled him through it and his deepening interest in devotional music and sound as a physical force, which has fed his subsequent songwriting. He also discusses the wider arc of a life in music: his years at Parlophone, the early Radiohead webcasts, the move from OK Computer to Kid A and what it felt like to climb back on stage with the band last year. Blue Morpho is out May 22 on Transgressive Records. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.796 Benji B
The longtime BBC Radio 1 DJ talks about his rigorous music-discovery routine, soundtracking the world's most elite runways and the legacy of his party series, Deviation.Since first stepping onto the airwaves …
Notas del episodio
The longtime BBC Radio 1 DJ talks about his rigorous music-discovery routine, soundtracking the world's most elite runways and the legacy of his party series, Deviation.
Since first stepping onto the airwaves more than 20 years ago, Benji B has spent his career bridging London club culture with the worlds of art and fashion. He's hosted his weekly BBC Radio 1 show for over two decades, founded the legendary Deviation party series, and served as musical director for Celine, Louis Vuitton and now Burberry.
Beyond the booth, the London DJ has also left fingerprints on some of the 21st century’s most defining records—from Kanye West's Yeezus and The Life of Pablo to projects by J Dilla, Pusha T, Sampha, FKA twigs, Tyler, the Creator, Arca and Flying Lotus. Across genres and scenes, he's become known as a consultant, collaborator and trusted ear at the highest level of culture.
In this Exchange, Benji B talks about the discipline it takes to sustain a life like this—including his rigorous, long-running "two-days-a-week" music search—and reflects on his creative partnership with the late Virgil Abloh. He also shares how he's brought underground innovators like Jeff Mills and Cybotron onto some of the world's most rarefied runways. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.795 Avalon Emerson
The musical polymath talks creative left turns, the collapse of music media and her new album as Avalon & the Charm, Written into Changes.A decade after her first feature appearance in Resident Advisor, Avalon …
Notas del episodio
The musical polymath talks creative left turns, the collapse of music media and her new album as Avalon & the Charm, Written into Changes.
A decade after her first feature appearance in Resident Advisor, Avalon Emerson returns for a long-form chat about the arc of her career and her surprising left turn towards indie pop. After leaving a successful career in coding in the early 2010s, the American DJ and producer became, seemingly overnight, a headline act touring the world's best clubs. By 2016, she was one of the most vital voices in underground dance music: a regular at Panorama Bar, a master of art of the eight-hour set and an artist releasing tracks that defined an era of emotive techno.
Recently, Emerson has surprised fans and critics by making yet another unexpected pivot as Avalon & the Charm. After debuting the dream pop band in 2023, she's back with the second album, Written into Changes, leaning even further into songwriting, live instrumentation and collaborations across the music spectrum.
In this candid conversation, she unpacks the new release—the vulnerability of lyrics exploring regret, setbacks and love lost—alongside the financial realities of performing as a live act. She also reflects on the leap of faith it takes to change course in public, her move from Berlin to a more balanced life in upstate New York and the "meat grinder" of the modern music industry, including the state of music journalism today. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.794 Calibre
The Irish veteran talks about his prolific output, making music beyond the drum & bass canon and his forthcoming album, Tricklemore Sea.Dominick Martin—AKA Calibre—has spent the last three decades carving out …
Notas del episodio
The Irish veteran talks about his prolific output, making music beyond the drum & bass canon and his forthcoming album, Tricklemore Sea.
Dominick Martin—AKA Calibre—has spent the last three decades carving out one of the most singular paths in electronic music. Known to many as a cornerstone of drum & bass, the Northern Irish artist's work has always defied easy categorisation. His vast output spans house, techno, ambient and even folk. What unifies it all is a sense of what he calls "inner space," which has cemented him as one of the underground's most respected figures.
In this week's Exchange, Martin speaks about his creative philosophy, his "three-tunes-a-day" workflow and a recent turn towards abstract downtempo with RA's international content writer, Tom Gledhill. The new album, Tricklemore Sea, arrives on his Signature Records imprint on May 1st, marking a move away from the rigid protocols of the DJ booth toward a space that is deeply melancholic, personal and profoundly poetic. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.793 Chris Stussy
The Dutch phenomenon unpacks the myth of overnight success and the story behind his debut album, Lost, Found & Forgotten.They say it takes ten years to become an overnight success, and in the case of this …
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The Dutch phenomenon unpacks the myth of overnight success and the story behind his debut album, Lost, Found & Forgotten.
They say it takes ten years to become an overnight success, and in the case of this week's guest, that math almost checks out. Born in Leiden, Chris Stussy has been sharpening his tools for over a decade, and in the years since the pandemic, the world has caught onto his sleek, relentlessly groovy strain of house music.
It's been a stratospheric rise for Stussy, culminating in sold-out shows of iconic venues like London's Alexandra Palace, where tickets were gone in a matter of minutes. But if you look past the viral TikTok clips and the fandom that follows him from Ibiza to Coachella, you'll find a dedicated student of the craft—someone who spent his formative years absorbing the grit of the Utrecht underground as well as the foundations of Chicago and New York house.
RA editor Gabriel Szatan caught up with Stussy during a rare moment of reflection. His long-awaited debut album, Lost, Found & Forgotten, which officially lands April 3 on his own Up The Stuss imprint, and it stands as his most expansive and personal statement to date. The project is divided into three interconnected chapters: 'Lost' breathes new life into sketches he started earlier in his production career; 'Found' captures contemporary inspirations; and 'Forgotten' nods to the heads and diggers, focusing on deeper cuts that reward patient listening.
Stussy also traces the arc of his early releases to his current status as a torchbearer for a new generation of clubbers, and considers how club culture has changed along the way. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.792 Tiga
Electroclash icon Tiga talks about the manosphere, the currency of cool and his first album in 10 years, HOTLIFE.Canadian producer Tiga—born Tiga Sontag—has navigated the peaks and valleys of electronic music …
Notas del episodio
Electroclash icon Tiga talks about the manosphere, the currency of cool and his first album in 10 years, HOTLIFE.
Canadian producer Tiga—born Tiga Sontag—has navigated the peaks and valleys of electronic music for over three decades. A key architect of the electroclash explosion in the early 2000s, Sontag reigned supreme over the indie sleaze era of the dance floor during the 2010s.
But eventually, that momentum stalled. Sontag, one of the scene's most charismatic figures, found himself contemplating retirement while battling a health crisis that threatened to derail his career entirely. In this rare interview, Sontag talks to RA editor Gabriel Szatan about those lost years.
Rather than retracing his anthemic hits ("You Gonna Want Me," "Sunglasses At Night"), the pair discuss why, after stepping back from the public eye for over a decade, Tiga is entering a new chapter he describes as "all answers, no questions." His upcoming LP, HOTLIFE, unpacks personal demons alongside his takes on everything from Elon Musk and the manosphere to the "pornographic" repetition of the music industry's relentless churn. It's out April 17th via Turbo Recordings and Secret City Records, and features contributions from Boys Noize, Maara and Priori and more. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.791 Loraine James
The London artist talks about self-doubt, overcoming creative blocks and her forthcoming album on Hyperdub.Today's guest has spent the last decade proving that electronic music is an insufficient label for what …
Notas del episodio
The London artist talks about self-doubt, overcoming creative blocks and her forthcoming album on Hyperdub.
Today's guest has spent the last decade proving that electronic music is an insufficient label for what she does. Since her landmark Hyperdub debut, For You and I, in 2019, Loraine James has moved through the world of IDM, glitch and ambient with a rare kind of emotional transparency. Whether producing club music under her own name or making ambient soundscapes under her experimental alias, Whatever The Weather, her work often feels like a diary—not just of her life, but of her creative evolution.
But as any artist will tell you, the path from one album to the next is rarely a straight line. Following the success and personal pride of 2023's Gentle Confrontation, James found herself at a crossroads. In this Exchange, she sits down with RA's multimedia editor, Bella Aquilina, to discuss the difficult second act of her career—a process marked by self-doubt, creative blocks and the surprising freedom found in the word "pop."
James talks about the "11-degree" sound; why the grey, undecided London weather shapes her sonic palette; how she navigated imposter syndrome after a popular record; her "failed" stint as a DJ; her love for Venue MOT and Corsica Studios; and why she's finally ready to leave the bedroom and return to the dance floor. Her forthcoming album on Hyperdub, Detached From The Rest of You, is out on May 8th. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.790 Freddy K
The vinyl purist discusses his late-career ascent, the discipline of the marathon set and the shifting class dynamics threatening the underground.In an era where the word "techno" is often used as a broad …
Notas del episodio
The vinyl purist discusses his late-career ascent, the discipline of the marathon set and the shifting class dynamics threatening the underground.
In an era where the word "techno" is often used as a broad marketing catch-all, Alessio Armeni, AKA Freddy K, stands as one of the sound's most uncompromising activists.
The Berlin-based DJ and Key Vinyl label head has spent over three decades operating in every corner of the industry. From his early days on Rome's Virus Radio in the '90s to his legendary 16-hour vinyl marathons at Berlin's now-defunct party Homopatik, he has seen the culture from the perspective of a record store clerk, a distributor, a label boss and now a global headliner.
But as his own star has risen, Armeni has become increasingly vocal about the cracks forming in the foundation of the scene he loves. In this RA Exchange, he discusses the renewed normalisation of all-male lineups, the rising upper-class barrier to entry in DJ culture and the complex economics of vinyl—a medium he champions as the industry's lifeblood, even as it becomes a luxury good.
Armeni also reflects on his own trajectory; at 40, believing his dream of being a successful DJ had passed, he moved to Berlin to dedicate himself to a life behind the scenes. A change in tide swept him into the global spotlight, and more than ten years later, he contemplates the power of perseverance. Listen to the episode in full.
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EX.789 Interplanetary Criminal
The contemporary face of garage talks about obsession, overnight success and his turn towards a more mature image and sound. Over the last few years, Zac Bruce—better known as Interplanetary Criminal—has become …
Notas del episodio
The contemporary face of garage talks about obsession, overnight success and his turn towards a more mature image and sound.
Over the last few years, Zac Bruce—better known as Interplanetary Criminal—has become the definitive face of a global garage resurgence. He seemingly appeared overnight with his 2022 chart-topping anthem, Baddest Of Them All, made with singer Eliza Rose. But his story extends far beyond this career-defining moment. His journey is one of deep-rooted obsession: from the quiet stillness of producing lo-fi and jungle in his bedroom in Leeds, to co-founding the ATW (All Thru the Night) imprint, a label that has become a lighthouse for a new generation of garage heads.
This last year was a whirlwind for Bruce. He headlined a show at Brixton Academy and played at major festival stages around the world. But as you’ll hear in this conversation with RA editor Gabe Szatan, Bruce isn’t interested in the shallow shine of accolades. He’s a selector in the truest sense—someone who spends as much time digging for obscure white labels as he does A&Ring the next wave of talent.
He and Szatan also touch on the epidemic of “edit culture;” the cost of maintaining artistic integrity; his transition from the "silliness" of his early viral moments to a more mature sound; and the community of peers that make his ATW universe feel less like a brand and more like a family. This one has been a long time coming. Listen to the episode in full.
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