Issuu

ISSUE 64 / SEPTEMBER 2026 SUPPORTING THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY

MAGAZINE / 64

HEADLINERHUB.COM UK £3.95 / USA $6.95 / CANADA $7.95

INSIDE THE MAKING OF STRAY DOGS

NOTHING BUT THIEVES AYANNA WITTER-JOHNSON FINDING NEW ROOTS

FRANCIS MERCIER

ALL ROADS LEAD TO HOME ON LAKAY

SIMON FIELD

BRINGING THE DANGER

XDJ-AN

2-CHANNEL ALL-IN-ONE DJ SYSTEM

Access to streaming services

Works with mobile apps

Built-in SonicLink transmitter

Mix tracks from Apple Music, Beatport, Tidal

Play with rekordbox for iOS or djay for iOS, and

Pair your SonicLink headphones for

and more with music from other sources

use DJM-REC for live streaming / recording

ultra-low-latency wireless monitoring

Cloud-based playlist editing

Club-standard layout & media compatibility

High-quality sound & flexible connectivity

Directly manage your cloud-based music via a

Connect a laptop to use DJ software, or play

XLR and RCA outputs, plus Bluetooth

compatible rekordbox subscription

music from USB drives

input/output

A L P H AT H E TA . C O M

ISSUE 64

Welcome to Headliner Magazine

NO.64/ UK

Paul Watson CEO

Alice Gustafson Editor-in-Chief

Rae Gray Head of Design

Keith Watson Chairman

Zara Dosanjh Contrubuting Editor

Marc Henshall Head of Digital

Rian Zoll-Kahn COO

Rick Dickerson Reviews Editor

Grace Mcguigan Artist Relations Manager

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

WELCOME

Didn’t get a Glasto ticket? Commiserations to everyone who hoped the odds would be in their favour this year – and double commiserations to those who also missed out on Oasis tickets. I still have my weekend ticket from the one time I managed to make it to Glastonbury in 2005 – thanks to a relative with a very fast internet connection. As a teenager, shelling out a whole £125 for the weekend felt reckless and was paid for by months of extra shifts and careful budgeting (although, unfortunately, that did not extend to planning for the unpredictability of a UK summer: wellies were very much needed, as it turned out). But I knew I had to find a way to go. It’s Glastonbury. Fast-forward more than two decades and that £125 suddenly doesn’t seem so reckless. Glastonbury 2027 tickets sold out in just 42 minutes, despite reaching a record £408 (including a £5 booking fee per ticket) – and nobody even knows the line-up yet. At a time when most of us are feeling the pinch, that’s a serious amount

of money to find. But, just like me back in 2005, life finds a way. And perhaps that says something about music itself. Yes, the industry is changing, costs are rising, and the path from making music to actually being paid for it can be anything but straightforward. But the appetite for music remains remarkably, well, hungry. That spirit runs through this issue of Headliner. On our cover, Nothing But Thieves guitarist and producer Dominic Craik takes us inside the making of the UK rock band’s fifth studio album Stray Dogs, from returning to Angelic Studios to stripping things back and embracing a rawer, more organic sound. Elsewhere, Ayanna Witter-Johnson explores heritage, identity and Black creativity on New Roots, while DJ Francis Mercier channels his Haitian roots and global travels into his debut album Lakay. Norwegian DJ and producer Simon Field is equally intent on doing things his own way, challenging the formulas of modern dance music with new track, Danger.

We also take a closer look at one of the less visible challenges facing the music industry, as Audoo CEO Ryan Edwards explains why so many artists are still missing out on royalties – and how technology could help make sure every play counts. From the artists creating on their own terms to the technology and people working behind the scenes, this issue is ultimately about what keeps music moving forward. The costs might keep going up, the industry might keep changing, but if there’s one thing we can be sure of, it’s that people will keep finding a way to make and experience music. Enjoy the issue, and see you in the Glasto resale queue. Alice Gustafson Editor-in-Chief

HEADLINERHUB.COM

ISSUE 64

Welcome to Headliner Magazine

CONTENTS 08

EMERGING HEADLINER Nashville rising star Aubory Bugg on debut album, i think i had something once

COVER STORY

Nothing But Thieves: Inside the Making of Stray Dogs

By Alice Gustafson

ARTIST Ayanna Witter-Johnson digs into her heritage on New Roots

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Francis Mercier: From Haitian roots to the global dancefloor

By Zara Dosanjh

DJ Simon Field on Danger and breaking dance music’s formulas

CONTENTS

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Audoo on the missing music royalties costing artists millions By Alice Gustafson

42 48

FIRST SET GDY GDY Gurps on West London’s jungle scene

NEXT UP Harry Oliver on building community and pushing boundaries

ERIC MOORE II ON BUILDING THE ULTIMATE DRUM ROOM

BOOTSHAUS TURNS 22 WITH NEW L-ACOUSTICS 360-DEGREE SYSTEM

LEGENDARY SESSION GUITARIST PAUL JACKSON JR. ON RECORDING HIS GUITAR INSTRUCTIONAL SERIES

AZAM TV BRINGS IT HOME WITH LAWO IP ECOSYSTEM

RIEDEL AND ARRI STRENGTHEN CINEMATIC GONSHIRO COLLABORATION

CODA AUDIO HOPS SYSTEM INSTALLED AT MANCHESTER’S NIGHT & DAY

DAVID BOWIE’S CELESTIONLOADED ZIGGY STARDUST PA RESTORED

GET IN TOUCH

grace@headlinerhub.com headlinerhub.com

The content of this publication belongs to HEADLINER GROUP and to the authors & collaborators. Do not reproduce.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

AUBORY BUGG

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

i think i had something once

EMERGING HEADLINER

ORDS by W

D ra osan Za

I THINK I HAD SOMETHING ONCE

AUBORY BUGG Aubory Bugg is the comfort and creativity of Nashville personified. Her debut album, i think i had something once, offers a compelling look inside the mind and heart of an artist taking root. She talks to Headliner about her big move to Nashville, her indie folk heroes, and all the struggles and breakthroughs in the writer’s room.

Bugg didn’t start out wanting to make folk music. “I thought I was going to be an R&B singer,” she admits over Zoom, a steady warmth in her voice. “But when I started writing songs, nothing off the rip sounded like an R&B song. It all sounded like indie folk, and boy, did I try to fight it for so long. It’s a testament to how singular the folk genre is,” Bugg says. Her music runs with a streak of creativity that’s unmistakably hers yet undeniably folk, with soft melodies and sharp storytelling hanging off every lyric. “If I’m writing folk music, I might as well try to make good folk music,” she says modestly. Bugg is calling from Nashville,

reportedly jet-lagged and sleepdeprived, but you would never guess due to her bright, boundless energy. It’s no wonder she’s as jubilant as she is: Nashville provides a fountain of creative solace for her, and it’s a place she’s come to call home. “It’s been my goal to move to Nashville since I was 11,” she tells Headliner. “It’s such an incredible place for musicians; I was always going to end up here.” Bugg has travelled all over, from L.A. to London, but Nashville is a town like no other. “Everybody has that sense of southern hospitality, and they’re willing to break their backs for a good song,” she says. Nashville’s beacon of goodwill shines HEADLINERHUB.COM

AUBORY BUGG

i think i had something once

“EVERYBODY HAS THAT SENSE OF SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY, AND THEY’RE WILLING TO BREAK THEIR BACKS FOR A GOOD SONG.”

Nashville’s beacon of goodwill shines through Bugg; it can be read all over her face. “The queer community in the southern states has to be more tight-knit than huge liberal hubs like L.A.,” she reflects. “It’s one big web: if you know one queer person in Nashville, you know every single queer person in Nashville!” Bugg is exceedingly grateful for her local queer scene, and is constantly learning from those around her, including indie rock artist and close friend Caroline Carter. “When I first moved here, I was going through a really tumultuous breakup,” she says. “Caroline rallied the troops and introduced me to a lot of the friends that I have now: a bunch of artists, creatives, and people on the label and touring musician side. They took me under their wing for a minute,” she muses. A taste of TikTok fame put the move to Nashville in progress. In January 2024, Bugg’s cover of Tummy Hurts by Renée Rapp racked up over 110,000 new followers, and importantly, the opportunity to bring her original songwriting to an audience eager to hear more. “It’s been surreal, like I’m going to wake up from a dream any second,” Bugg reflects. “The goal was to gain a platform and become more consistent with posting, and when that actually worked, I was shell-shocked. I spent a long time HEADLINER MAGAZINE

wondering if people would want to listen to my original music – and it turns out a lot of them do!” A host of artists inspire Bugg’s music, including Lizzie McAlpine, Brandi Carlile and Phoebe Bridgers. “As of late I’ve been getting into Christian Lee Hutson,” Bugg adds. “I’ve started writing record two, and he’s all I’ve been listening to. It’s got to the point where I’ll send a demo to one of my friends who also listens to him, and they’ll say, ‘Hey, stop listening to Christian Lee Hutson for a couple of days. Put him down,’” she laughs. i think i had something once is a labour of love, with some creative and emotional bumps along the way. “I want to be a project-minded person,” Bugg says, “I want to think more cohesively. But the songs never pour out of me like that.” Getting in touch with Dualtone Records changed the course of action for the better. “We went through the process of producing – taking some songs away and putting some in. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before,” she reflects. “I was lucky to write songs with Matt Martin and Jon Class,” Bugg says. Martin produced both nosedive and i think i had something once, while Class produced the rest of the record. “I’ve been so unbelievably fortunate to have such troopers when it comes to getting in the weeds of a song,” she

enthuses. “It’s also the most fun I’ve ever had during the writing process. They’re now two of my closest friends, and I love them very dearly.” The writing process of sometimes (i love you), written with Mona Khoshoi and Hayley Gene Penner in L.A., was a long one, and by no means easy. “A lot of the record is about the breakup I went through last year. I was really far removed when I tried to write that on my own. I had a bit of a verse, a bit of a chorus, but nothing was sticking or making sense.” The grace and creative brilliance of Khoshoi and Penner brought sometimes (i love you) to light. “It was six hours of us banging our heads against a wall trying to say it right,” Bugg says. “We had three or four verses that didn’t make the cut, an idea for a bridge that just never became. I was really lucky to be in a room with people who wanted to get the heart of the song right, as opposed to just saying, ‘Yeah, this is good enough,’” she adds. “I feel like everybody that worked on the record really cared about these songs and telling the story right. But sometimes (i love you) was a tough nut to crack for sure.” Bugg is constantly changing her mind about her favourite song on the album, but there’s one that tends to stick: farewell to dreaming. “I wrote it completely on my own, in January

EMERGING HEADLINER

HEADLINERHUB.COM

AUBORY BUGG

i think i had something once

of this year, and it’s a very soft piano ballad,” she says. “It’s one of the most honest and tender songs on the record. It’s quippy, bordering on sarcasm, self-deprecating at times. farewell to dreaming is as honest a song I could have possibly written.”

sword: I’m doing exactly what I need to, and then every once in a while I’ll get a flash of ‘Everybody’s going to hear about my worst breakup ever.’ It’s like signing up for an undie run and then actually doing the undie run,” she laughs.

Bugg’s music video for i think i had something once is unabashedly sentimental, with feathery vocals layered on top of nostalgic old home videos. “I made it by myself, shockingly,” Bugg laughs. “I had a vision four days before the song came out, and I thought, ‘We don’t have time to hire. I’m going to have to figure out Canva!’ It was two straight days of me banging my head against a wall, but I’m so proud of how it turned out,” she continues. “There’s an aspect of music that some musicians don’t really focus on: the visual connection aspect. I love working with videographers, but there’s something special about going through my childhood memories [for the music video]. It was quite a tumultuous process, but it was worth it in the end. And now I know how to work Canva!”

Telling all in a song is one thing, but performing onstage is another. “I’m good at deflecting vulnerability with humour onstage,” Bugg quips. “If I make a joke about the song before I sing it, I’ve removed myself from the feeling. I’m proving to other people that I don’t have it anymore.”

Bugg isn’t afraid to pour her heart out for a good folk ballad. “It doesn’t hit me how vulnerable a song is until afterwards,” she admits. “In a song, it makes no sense to lie. My goal is to make the most honest and vulnerable music I can, so it’s a double-edged HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Bugg’s first-ever headline show in London, at the Folklore in Hoxton, was one of the most memorable performances of her career so far. “Everybody from my team that lives in London came out, and it was beautiful”, she says. “I didn’t bring merch over from the States because it was about four billion dollars, but I was fortunate enough that my manager said, ‘Hey, if you want, we’ll facilitate for you to meet everybody that came here tonight.’ So I stood out in the lobby, and there was a line of people who came to talk to me. “It was a surreal experience to talk to people who are so vocal online about my music in the UK. I didn’t think I’d ever come down from the high. Artists will talk about playing sold-out rooms

with people singing the words back, and don’t get me wrong, that is the most insane feeling in the world. But I think the most memorable part is meeting the people who actually sit and listen and care about your music afterwards. And everybody was so kind; it was like a banner night.” Bugg has been harbouring songs of trials and tribulations in heartbreak for so long it’s a relief for the album to finally be out. “I’m excited to see how people react to it,” she says. “It’s the first record I’ve made with other people, and I’m proud of all the work everybody’s put in. I’m excited for everybody to get their flowers.” If Bugg could tell her younger self anything, it’d be this: “All of the crazy confidence and dreams and ideas that you could be something big, just hold on and keep following them, even when the odds are stacked against you. Do what you have to do to make it happen.” AUBORYBUGG.COM

DRUM RE-SYNTHESIZER

A revolutionary way to design your own drums – Backbone is your new, innovative drum designer for single kicks, snares, hi-hats, percussion, rises, hits and more. Layer up to eight samples and shape them with classic subtractive synthesis, decompose samples into tonal and noise elements and re-synthesize samples to manipulate them in unheard ways.

NOTHING BUT THEIVES

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Inside the Making of Stray Dogs

Credit: Steve Gullick

COVER STORY

ORDS BY W

ON FS

GUST ICE A AL

INSIDE THE MAKING OF STRAY DOGS Can Nothing But Thieves’ fifth studio album, Stray Dogs deliver nothing but bangers? The band’s guitarist and album producer, Dominic Craik says they’re ready to bring the noise.

Nothing But Thieves’ fifth studio album, Stray Dogs, is out now. If Craik had his way, he’d still be tweaking it, and it’s keeping him up at night. “Please don’t even go there,” he groans, speaking to Headliner a month before album release day from his home in East London – having not strayed too far from the band’s home city of Southend-onSea – which he points out is “close in geographical terms, but culturally quite distant”.

Nothing But Thieves fans needn’t be concerned, though, as the adjustments he’s ruminating on are only ones that a producer would notice. Factor in that this is Craik’s first outing as a sole producer on a NBT record, and his concerns are justified. He knows die-hard fans of the band (Nothing But Fans?) have been waiting patiently for their next full-length project since 2023’s Dead Club City, and he wants to give them something worth the wait.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

NOTHING BUT THEIVES

Inside the Making of Stray Dogs

The pressure Craik is putting on himself is entirely self-imposed. After all, the band trusted him to take on the full production, but that can mean obsessing over even the tiniest details in a track. “It’s the classic thing of looking for the tiniest clicks and pops,” he shares, providing an example. “In a backing vocal of a stack of one of 30 of Conor’s vocals, there’ll be a tiny click because myself or somebody else forgot to do a fade. Although I was pretty relentless at checking for them. So, please, if anyone listens to it and you hear one, just do me the honour and look the other way and pretend it didn’t happen,” he laughs. “Basically, we wanted to make an album that we feel proud of, confident in, and then hope that the label doesn’t drop us. That was a bit too bleak, wasn’t it?” he quips self-deprecatingly. “There’ll be plenty more than that, don’t worry.”

“Dead Club City was very much inspired within the computer,” Craik reflects, who was going through a French disco phase at the time, submerging himself in electronic music duo Justice and old Daft Punk records. “As well as some more niche, random songs that would come on off the back of listening to Justice for two hours straight – which I wouldn’t recommend anyone does,” he advises. “That can get slightly fatiguing.”

When they started writing the record, the band’s songwriters, Mason, Craik and Langridge-Brown sat down to figure out what they wanted to say. The mission statement, whether big or small, quickly became clear: it had to feel raw and organic. “Which I like as well because that says everything and nothing,” Craik laughs. “That could be a lot of stuff, but the one thing it isn’t is being sat behind my computer screen, dialling in a kick drum decay time for two hours straight, losing my mind. That’s not what that is. We were initially thinking: how does our band sound in a room? How do we stand on stage? How do we capture that?” A lot has changed since the band nervously stepped into their first ever residential studio to record their debut. They have built a fiercely loyal global fanbase, racking up billions of streams, 1.2 million album sales, they’ve sold-out two nights at Wembley Arena, while collecting gold and platinum records along the way. By 2025, they were a decade on from their self-titled debut, with four top-10 albums behind them, including their first UK Number One with Dead Club City. With their previous album securing the band their first UK Number One, there was always a risk in moving away from a sound that had proved so successful.

Credit: Harris Tomlinson-Spence

More than a decade after recording their self-titled debut in a barn in Banbury, Nothing But Thieves found themselves back at Angelic Studios for their fifth record, the setting that helped shape their earliest sound, although this wasn’t an exercise in mimicking their first album. As vocalist Conor Mason, guitarists Joe Langridge-Brown and Craik,

bassist Philip Blake and drummer James Price set about making Stray Dogs, the return to their roots was an opportunity to reconnect with the DIY spirit and authenticity of their beginnings while continuing to push their musical and visual world into new territory. If the 20-somethings who first walked through those doors were driven by experimentation, self-discovery, and a pinch of awe, this time around NBT arrived knowing who they are, backed by years of experience as a global headline act. This means they weren’t afraid to make bold choices: Stray Dogs is the complete opposite of Dead Club City – raw, organic and chaotic rather than futuristic and tightly controlled.

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

COVER STORY

“YOU OFTEN GET ASKED, OFF THE BACK OF THE SUCCESS OF OUR LAST ALBUM, ‘IS THAT A DAUNTING THING?’ BUT ALL OF THAT STUFF IS THE LAST THING ON OUR MINDS.”

“You often get asked, off the back of the success of our last album, ‘Is that a daunting thing?’” Craik acknowledges. “You’re going to have to do it again, but all of that stuff is the last thing on our minds. We’re honestly just trying to find something that makes us feel excited, and if we can hit that feeling, we just hope that the other stuff follows. If you work backwards and try to reverse engineer, ‘What does the number one record sound like in a year and a half from now?’ you’d send yourself absolutely loopy, and I don’t think you’d get it right either.” When recording their first record, the band were just happy to be making an album, and did it with the expectation that it would be the first and last they would ever make. The canine-themed title of the new record aside, there is still something of a whiff of the underdog about Nothing But Thieves, despite all their success, with the new album tapping into the collective shared experiences that unite outsiders. Craik considers whether, with over a million

worldwide album sales, 2 billion worldwide streams and 250 million video views later, the band still feel like they’re outsiders in an industry that has clearly embraced them. Headliner points out that their recent single, Baby Kool (Evelyn), is currently nestled firmly within Radio 1’s A list. “When we get the message, ‘You’ve been added to the Radio 1 A List, or Radio X’, or whatever it might be, we are still buzzing about that,” he grins. “It’s still an excuse to go and get a pint with the boys and celebrate, because radio is not going anywhere, and if you look back historically at the support that we’ve got from these stations, it has been instrumental to the band’s growth. “It’s quite funny when I look back retrospectively at the band’s career because I feel like we’re in our own lane and maybe always have been, and it’s become clearer over time. It’s hard to know who our peers are or were,” he considers.

Unlike previous records, which evolved sporadically in dressing rooms and hotels between touring commitments, Stray Dogs was written and recorded in a single, uninterrupted block after “touring DCC to death”, with the band carving out five months to live and breathe the new material together. Being in the band also meant Craik knew exactly what each member needed from the production, and nailing the demo stage was especially important for Stray Dogs. “The demos become very informative as to where the final recording is going to go,” Craik nods. “I would say we take it to the nth degree on that. Getting that demo process right is something we’ve always found valuable because then we’re not getting into a studio and looking at each other like that Spider-Man meme where we’re pointing at each other, panicking, like, ‘What are we going to do with this song?’” he laughs. “Whereas we’re going in with something that’s pointing firmly in the right direction. The general consensus was we were feeling confident with HEADLINERHUB.COM

NOTHING BUT THEIVES

Inside the Making of Stray Dogs

Credit: Harris Tomlinson-Spence

me steering the ship on this record because we were happy with the demos. So we were filling in the blanks and still leaving the room to actually enjoy the recording process rather than feel like painting by numbers.” The first taste of Stray Dogs arrived with lead single Evolution, sounding like an anthemic sibling to 2023’s Overcome, and serving as a visceral statement of intent for the entire record. The song tips its hat to NBT’s old haunt, Southend venue Chinnerys, and harnesses the power and rawness of the band’s live energy, hurtling into a huge-sounding chorus – something Craik says he wouldn’t have tried on previous albums. “Talking from a very literal perspective, there’s almost a one-and-a-half dB jump from the verse into the chorus, and I would have probably shut that down as quite extreme in the earlier days and thought it was a touch too far. But every time we changed it back, the reaction HEADLINER MAGAZINE

was not quite what it was when it was a bit more of an obnoxious volume jump. We were trying to do something that was both capturing the sound of our band and what we do, which weirdly we’ve never tried to do, because we’re always trying to do something a bit different, a bit left field,” he admits. “We were like, ‘Hold on. What if we actually try to capture the essence of us?’ That’s how Evolution was born. Mason’s vocal is muted for one of the choruses, a happy accident that came from recording his full-volume demo vocal while standing well away from a Shure SM7B mic. “Conor’s nowhere near a mic,” Craik clarifies. “It’s quite indirect, and even if it feels like it’s a bit blown out or a bit vague, it’s then going to come back into focus when the chorus kicks in, and it’s going to feel hugely contrasted. So that was already in the demo, but then trying to execute that in the recording studio was quite fun. It was just about making sure that we had the right amount of room decay, so it didn’t feel too cavernous. At Angelic Studios,

Credit: Harris Tomlinson-Spence

COVER STORY 19

HEADLINERHUB.COM

NOTHING BUT THEIVES

Inside the Making of Stray Dogs

Credit: Steve Gullick

the live room is quite big, so we were using the baffles, and they’ve got this big, almost like a parachute, which helps dampen the top reflections in the ceiling, so you can just pull that down,” he explains. “I got Conor to do his thing, and he did about two or three takes, knowing him, and it was done and dusted. I had a couple of ribbon mics in the room up on the balconies, and we even turned Conor facing the other way, so it didn’t feel like he was too on the microphones.” Mason’s vocals are a core part of the band’s iconic wall of sound. To say he’s an impressive singer is an understatement. He can really wail – at one moment nurturing a delicate falsetto, the next, belting with astonishing power and control with his signature flourish of intricate, earwormy runs. Craik reveals what it’s like to record such an accomplished vocalist. “I honestly think he might be one of the best singers in rock music of this decade,” he declares. “He’s a generational talent, and I don’t ever say that around him because it would make his head explode. I’m joking,” he clarifies, pointing out that Mason is “surprisingly modest for a man that’s HEADLINER MAGAZINE

so talented. One of the things which might be deemed a blessing and a curse is that I know Conor can get frustrated, as he can almost do too much. He has 100 different ways to deliver a line, whether it’s slight tonal characters, at the front of his mouth, further down the throat, his stomach voice, falsetto, or a combination of going in and out of it. Is it a bit more Elvis, or is it a bit more Sam Cooke? He can morph his way into it. Then when I go, ‘Can we just punch him for that line from the other day?’ Conor’s got to step back into the character that he was performing as in that take. The best version of Conor is when he’s not thinking too much about it and he’s going purely off his own instinct. It’s a testament to him and his ability because that shows you that sometimes, steering someone isn’t always the best way to get results. It’s letting the music guide them instinctively.” Capturing the essence of the demo comes into play during these moments. “We would sometimes go back to the very first vocal that Conor sang on a song,” Craik recalls. “There might be some click bleed or the wrong lyric. There might be a lot of lip smack, and you can hear the drums

coming through the other set of cans in the room, or whatever it might be, but there’s a tonal character, a delivery and an earnestness to the lyric that you cannot capture because there truly is a difference between being in the studio and creating for the very first time versus recreating, and they use a completely different side of your brain. I’m no psychologist,” he says, holding his hands up, “but I’ve seen it enough to know that that’s a real thing, and it can be the death of a recording if you’re not careful. If you’re trying to recreate something that you might already have, or you’re just not going to better it, sometimes it’s good to go, ‘Hold on, don’t we have it? Is this not it?’ And often you do.” Auto-Tune, naturally, is never a weapon that Craik has had to wield. “I’m quite lucky in that respect,” he grins. “I don’t think it would really work on Conor because he vibratos so much. He’s probably spanning about 10 different semitones anyway. I forget how spoiled I am; he is incredible. He jokes that sometimes I know his voice better than he does, and I quite like that we have that kind of hive mind where we’re both sharing his voice.” Hot on the heels of Evolution was title track and second single, Stray Dogs, which saw a compelling return to the heavier rock sound that less popadjacent fans have been craving. The track rewards them with a fiveminute cacophony – all slow build intro, charging Muse-esque guitar riffs, thrashing drums and distorted vocals. “This song was born out of Joe having the lyric, ‘Dreaming like a pack of stray dogs,’” Craik recalls. “I remember saying to Joe, ‘What does this mean? What does this evoke?’ We had a back and forth, and as we were having this conversation, Joe got this guitar pedal out of his bag called The Mocker, which is a distortion pedal based on the 1960s Vox UL730 amplifier. It was basically the Beatles’ Revolver and Sgt. Pepper sound,” he explains.

COVER STORY

“I plugged that in, and it had this really cool control on it, so you can start to make it sound very choked out, and it made me want to play old-school Prodigy kind of riffs. I started messing around with it, and the song was born that way. Then we had to work out how to branch the song out from there, so we actually worked backwards.” The band agreed that they wanted a very tense, long-drawn-out intro for Stray Dogs. “One that felt a bit like Nine Inch Nails meets Thom Yorke vocals, and builds that tension, especially live, so that when it drops, it feels like the Earth’s about to end,” Craik grins. “So it was all about leading up until that point to make it most effective, and that’s probably the most programming that’s happening on the whole record. “In that very first half of Stray Dogs, where it’s very ambient, there’s a lot of synths being run into amplifiers.” Craik also ran an old Moog Minimoog Model D through a vintage Ampeg SVT in the live room, driving the amp to create a sense of space around the synths that could sit alongside the drums and other instruments being recorded in the same room. He took a few different routes to get the right texture on Mason’s fuzzy lead vocal, eventually landing on a hybrid setup that combined digital processing with the sound of real amps in the room. “I kind of went around the houses trying different ways to do that,” he reveals. “I tried everything from real amps to guitar pedals, and actually found that those things are quite difficult to control unless you have a very manicured input signal. What I mean by that is, any of the hard consonants or S’s or anything that’s hyped up in the top end is going to really be accentuated in amps and pedals.”

Nothing But Thieves leaned into their trusted fanbase in the leadup to Stray Dogs with guerrilla posters, a four-day cryptic YouTube channel build-up to a globally livestreamed performance, and a secret gig billed as ‘Stray Dogs’ at Think Tank in Newcastle. The week the album is released, they play three livestreamed gigs across three countries in a single day, but it’s fitting for a band who cut their teeth in small venues and independent record shops, and puts them directly in front of fans that have been there from the very beginning. Stray Dogs looks back in that it acknowledges what has come before, but it’s not trying to recreate the past. After years of pushing their sound in new directions, the real challenge was figuring out what the most honest version of Nothing But Thieves sounds like now. For Craik, that came down to trusting their instincts and the fans who have followed them through every turn, whether the band veers into pop or brings the heavier sounds. “One of the things that we’re so lucky to have is there’s no expectation to deliver a certain sound for a record,” Craik says. “We’ve always pivoted in every album we’ve done and gone in another direction. If I look at my favourite bands that I love, would I have told Radiohead to go and make Kid A, or would I have told Queens of the Stone Age to go and make Songs for the Deaf?

truest sound to our band,” he says. “That came with multiple different challenges, but ultimately making it feel like it was honest and not compromised, and trying to walk the tightrope of not over-editing or overfinessing something just because you can. That’s not who we are as individuals on the stage; there are mistakes, there are things that aren’t quite right. Trying to embrace those imperfections was a key part of it.” One track in particular stands out for Craik, who singles out the album’s closing song, A Different Kind of Happiness, as a personal favourite. “It’s one of my favourite songs that we’ve ever written. It was such a joy to record because it was so heavily dynamic. It goes from the most dainty and pretty guitars to the ugliest guitars you can hear, all within a very quick scene change, and then back down. It’s this push and pull of contrast, and that’s always a fun thing to be playing with as a producer. There’s a bit of that throughout the album in general, but broadly speaking, this is us trying to sound like us on the stage in the purest way possible.”

“I wouldn’t have, because I don’t know better than the band. We’ve been blessed with fans that trust in the process of what we do, and they love the band for what we stand for. If we keep it new and exciting for ourselves, hopefully it’s new and exciting for everyone else as well.” Craik says the focus was less on chasing a particular sound and more on making the record feel as honest and unfiltered as possible – mistakes and all. “We spent a lot of time trying to make sure that it was the

HEADLINERHUB.COM

NOTHING BUT THEIVES

Inside the Making of Stray Dogs Credit: Harris Tomlinson-Spence

NOTHING BUT STUDIO GEAR To harness the energy of Mason’s vocals, Craik used a high-end Universal Audio Bock 251 largediaphragm tube condenser mic. “It’s the first microphone that I’ve thrown on and felt as though you don’t have to cover it in 10 plugins to get it to sing,” he says. “I always use a Universal Audio 1176 Classic FET Compressor for Conor too, but not when we’re tracking; everything we track is basically bone dry. I’ve been burnt before by either recording too loud or too soft and spoiling it because Con is so dynamic.” When it comes to plugins, Craik’s goto is the FabFilter Pro-Q 4 equalizer plugin. “That’s for any simple carving,” he notes. “If I need air on BVs, it’s always the Type A by AudioThing. I know there are a couple of other companies that make that plugin, but you need to be very sparing with it. Otherwise, you can destroy your mix. For distortions, I would often go through my Thermionic Culture Culture Vulture or through any of the other distortion pedals that I have. One bit of magic for vocals, which is kind of a secret source, is by Joey Sturgis Tones called Gain Reduction, and you’ve got to use this so carefully. You can get away with using 10% of it, but if you want a vocal to fly out HEADLINER MAGAZINE

of the mix, that plugin is so good. It smooths all of the harsh top end and consonants and is very musical and exciting. It will fight over everything that you throw at it. Pulsar Audio also makes some great plugins; they have one called Primavera for spring reverb, which is maybe better than my actual spring reverb. I can’t believe I’ve just said that,” he laughs. “A Binson Echorec, which is based on an old Binson tape echo – that’s brilliant too.” Craik had an SSL G-Series 72-channel console at his disposal at Angelic Studios, which used to be housed at London’s famous Townhouse Studios (founded by Virgin Records). “We must have been using about 50 of those,” Craik says of the channels. “It’s funny because sometimes those desks, especially in this day and age, feel a bit like overkill. If you’ve got a certain session in the studio and they’re just using playback and one vocal, you’re using about three channels. So we came in and we’re like, ‘Right, this is an opportunity to actually use this desk how it’s intended.’” The drums were grouped onto a single channel, while the guitars were spread across multiple DI and amp channels, alongside the room mics. From there, the band could sum everything down through the console into Pro Tools, with sends and returns

running through the studio’s outboard gear, including spring reverbs, UAD Classic Plate Reverberators and Eventide H3000 Ultra-Harmonizers. “It looked like someone had just got a Sharpie and gone to town on it, but we really did use a good chunk of the desk. That’s what it’s there for, right? So when in Rome! We thought, ‘Why not? Let’s go for it.’” Craik monitored using Barefoot Sound MicroMain27 Gen2 speakers as his main monitors, and for drums, utilised mics from Beyerdynamic (Opus 65; kick drum), Sennheiser (MD 441-U; kick distortion mic), LOMO (LOMO 19A4; overheads), AEA (R44) and DrAlienSmith to capture Price’s Tama Crestar sessions. The drums were processed through a combination of compressors and limiters to shape the sound and add character. The setup included Empirical Labs EL8 Distressors, Chandler Limited TG1 Abbey Road Limiters and PYE compressors. Read the album’s full studio tech breakdown at headlinerhub.com. NBTHIEVES.COM

AYANNA WITTER-JOHNSON

Finding New Roots

Credit: Hypemari

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

bY ALIC E ds

FINDING NEW ROOTS

STAFSON GU

Wo r

ARTIST

AYANNA WITTER-JOHNSON With a cello in one hand and a wealth of stories in the other, Ayanna Witter-Johnson has carved out a sound entirely her own. On New Roots, she digs deep into heritage, identity and her new chapter.

Witter-Johnson’s new single just ranked No. 1 on the Apple Music jazz playlist, and she’s giddy with gratitude and disbelief in equal measure. “It’s always a surprise,” beams the UK artist, speaking to Headliner from her

home in what she calls “the depths” of southeast London. “I’m not one of those chart-listing kind of artists. It’s been getting a lot of love, and I’m just delighted. It’s really lovely.”

And it’s not just her name that’s multi-hyphenated; Witter-Johnson is a singer-songwriter-cellist-composerarranger-pianist-producer, and one that’s very much on the rise, with music woven into her life from an early HEADLINERHUB.COM

AYANNA WITTER-JOHNSON

Finding New Roots

Credit: Jordan Woods

age. Born and raised in North London to Jamaican parents, she grew up surrounded by the sounds of reggae, gospel and classical music. Something of an old soul, her musical palette was sophisticated as a child. “Terence Trent D’Arby had a huge impact on me when I was about three, and an a cappella American group called Sweet Honey in the Rock,” she recalls, her voice full of fondness. “My mum took me to their concert, and apparently I sang along to everything, which was obviously incredibly annoying to everyone sitting around us, but also quite sweet,” she laughs. “Following that experience, she was like, ‘Oh, you’ve actually got a good ear; maybe we should start you on piano lessons.’ So I started playing piano when I was three and a half.” It’s a common trope to compare one artist’s sound to another, but if pushed, imagine Solange got hold of a cello, then wandered into the dreamy, honeyed world of Lianne La Havas and Ego Ella May, you might get somewhere close to WitterJohnson’s sound. Then there are the unmistakable jazz influences woven through her work, with Esperanza Spalding and Meshell Ndegeocello among the artists she counts as idols. That eclecticism has carried through into a career that’s already seen her earn a MOBO Award nomination and tour alongside musical legends including Andrea Bocelli, Peter Gabriel, Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar. Across four EPs and her debut album, Road Runner, Witter-Johnson has built momentum with her alluring fusion of soul, classical, jazz and reggae, earning the backing of tastemakers including Gilles Peterson and Jools Holland (you may have seen her perform on the latter’s show), while she’s also been making history: WitterJohnson is the only non-American to win Amateur Night Live at Harlem’s HEADLINER MAGAZINE

legendary Apollo Theater – using the prize money to fund her first EP. She’s been busy on the composing side too, recently co-writing her first-ever TV show score alongside Vince Pope. Witter-Johnson’s highly anticipated second album, New Roots, is her first solo album in three years, and is a pensive reflection exploring identity, belonging and rebirth, tracing her Jamaican heritage through lush orchestrations and raw, personal storytelling. “I am so excited,” she

enthuses. “With the first single, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m putting music back out. Does anyone care?’ It feels like the right time to let everybody have the full body of work. It’s a really personal album – self-produced – and quite an organic process of getting my feelings out on paper. Well, out on record,” she corrects herself. New Roots was written across retreats, hotel rooms, lockdown isolation, and quiet pockets of life on the road, and reflections on British-Caribbean

Credit: Jordan Woods

ARTIST

identity are woven throughout its tracklist. When it comes to which instrument she reaches for first, she reveals it’s not the one she’s most associated with. “Most of the time it’s voice and piano, and then it moves over to the cello,” she shares. “Usually I improvise at the piano, and then I will arrange it for the cello because it feels a little bit more specific or pointed there.” The idea that would go on to become the album’s lead single, You Can Have Everything, began as a cello groove written on a retreat in Hertfordshire,

and a theme emerged later in Paris in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. The song encapsulates the growing sense of restriction, loss of freedom, and uncertainty of the time period. “Only in the past year and a half did I add a lyric to it, thinking about the mantra that was getting me through. It was one of those things I kept turning to in lockdown because I felt good about it. It’s that feeling that even if it’s only in your imagination, you need a space where you feel like everything and anything is possible.” Apple Music jazz playlist favourite

Blue, meanwhile, explores patterns of pain and victimhood, and came to Witter-Johnson while on tour with Peter Gabriel. “I was doing a lot of touring, spending a lot of time in hotel rooms, travelling with different people, different personalities,” she recalls. “It’s a little bit like going back to school and being lumped together, especially if it’s not your own tour and you haven’t handpicked all the musicians; you’re in this group of people where you get on with some more than others. I was really struggling in one of these dynamics, and I tend to alchemise things that are going on with me, even if I don’t know at the time that’s what HEADLINERHUB.COM

AYANNA WITTER-JOHNSON

Finding New Roots

I’m doing. If I look back, I think, ‘Ah, yes, I am processing, learning to accept what’s happening here’, and so the song was born out of that.”

in a little pond area, and I thought, ‘This is a scene that could be painted’ because we have rebirth, death and life happening.

It was while touring with Andrea Bocelli that Witter-Johnson first found the groove that would become Pioneers. This would turn out to be the artist’s boldest song yet, and sees her ruminating on the inheritance of Windrush-era wisdom, grief and remembrance, and cycles of rupture and repair.

“It got me thinking about Black lives and the bodies that were thrown overboard into the sea,” she furthers. “I was thinking about lives being lost to the water, the transatlantic slave trade and slaves being thrown overboard. My mind was definitely travelling into the depths at that point,” she acknowledges. “I was thinking about the value of Black life, and the value of Black creativity, and how a lot of musical output has been assimilated into culture – even food. I was like, ‘I just need to speak on this for a moment, because it’s converging into one for me’. That was the perfect place for Pioneers.”

The lyrics are her most direct yet: “Everything we make becomes a trend you keep on stealing / Total all the lies and we would never finish counting / How do we grow strong when you rewrite what we are building.” Witter-Johnson was nervous to release it. “It’s so bold, so intense,” she nods. “It’s about my heritage, my grandparents’ generation from the Windrush generation, and it’s speaking about all the sacrifices they’ve made and honouring Black culture. I was definitely slightly biting my nails, but at the same time, it’s the song that’s connected most, which is a really big lesson for me in that I can be honest, because it’s just my perspective on a situation. It’s not saying that anyone needs to have the same perspective or agree. That’s quite liberating.” With her grandparents’ experiences woven deeply into her own story and identity, the idea for the song took shape after Witter-Johnson witnessed a tragic drowning in Jamaica. “I wish I had been able to capture this in painting form, but I am absolutely not a painter,” she begins. “A fisherman came back with the man’s body and brought him back to shore. It was incredibly sad, and there was this morning party gathering at one part of the beach, close to where we were. And then I looked left. I saw some people being baptised further along the beach. Then I turned to my right, and I saw children splashing HEADLINER MAGAZINE

New Roots became the emotional and philosophical centre of the album. Given the intentional nature of her work and considered, weighty topics, Witter-Johnson reveals that this was actually not part of some well-thought-out master plan. “It was very lastminute.com,” she admits with a grin. “It was incredible. I had some massive changes in my team. I parted ways with my manager. I took a couple of tracks off the album. I put something back in. I then literally wrote this song around that time and realised it had to be like that. I’m in a whole new chapter, and it was perfect. It was so anchoring for the project as a whole, so I’m really happy that it slipped in there at the last minute.” For Witter-Johnson, New Roots is more than a collection of songs; it’s a body of work she wants to hold, hear and experience in its physical form, with the album set to arrive on vinyl, CD and digital. “When I’m performing, and it’s the end of the show, I love that moment where I get to talk to the audience and share with them,” she enthuses. “Signing their vinyl and CDs is a really lovely part of the connection, and for them to have something in

their hands with the lyrics on reminds me of the things I loved growing up, like reading the liner notes and seeing who did what. It gives you a chance to meditate on it post-concert in a different way, and I think that’s important.” Witter-Johnson has built a career that moves between soul, jazz, classical composition and live performance. She considers whether the music industry is becoming more open to artists like herself, who refuse to fit neatly into one genre. “Yeah, I think so,” she answers. “I feel like there’s a general movement towards the DIY artist, and the kind of artists making their own way and carving their own paths, and people are jumping on that bandwagon.” With New Roots out now, WitterJohnson is embracing the uncertainty of what comes next, content to let the music find its own way. “I’m also in a space that feels quite healthy mentally, where I’m not overly attached to the outcome,” she insists. “In previous releases I might have been like, ‘I want people to really enjoy it.” Of course I want people to enjoy it,” she adds quickly, “but I’m more interested in the process of authenticity and vulnerability and being who I am, which is an artist and a performer, and letting people take what they want from it, or not,” she smiles. AYANNAMUSIC.COM

A NEW HIGH IN THE LOW END Designed and built in the UK, Ten Squared (Ten2) is a range of premium, low frequency loudspeakers. Engineered without compromise, they deliver consistently superior levels of performance in the most demanding professional sound reinforcement applications. All the time. Every time. 18, 21 and 24-inch models available.

Discover Ten Key Features that add up to a new standard in LF driver performance

celestion.com

FRANCIS MERCIER

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

From Haitian roots to the global dancefloor

ORDS BY W

RA DOSAN A Z

FROM HAITIAN ROOTS TO THE GLOBAL DANCEFLOOR

FRANCIS MERCIER Platinum-selling DJ Francis Mercier has documented his personal philosophy in music. His debut album Lakay, released under his label Solèy, puts musical multiculturalism at the forefront, incorporating diverse influences from South African percussion to Indian Punjabi vocals. While Mercier is proud of his success, with impressive lineups at Coachella, Tomorrowland, Giza Pyramids and L’Olympia to his name, he remains vocal about the challenges of making it as a DJ. He talks to Headliner about how his Haitian roots and travels shape the album, the importance of giving back to the community, and how home is more than a singular place.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

FRANCIS MERCIER

From Haitian roots to the global dancefloor

When Mercier hops on the call with Headliner, he’s taking a muchneeded break. “Today is my first day off in 25 days,” he exhales. “I’ve been touring daily for the past three weeks. The tour has been amazing, and now I have a day to reset, to repack my bags and head on the road again.” To say the DJ has been busy is an understatement. Between jetting off for sets from Europe to the Middle East, including his recent Burning Man showcase, Mercier has been holding down the fort at Hï Ibiza with his Solèy Mondays residency. “At first, I had some hesitation; Monday isn’t the day that people party the most,” he begins. “But there’s a charm to Mondays. It’s a day where true music lovers want to experience something different. You can see the Ibiza spirit in the locals as well as the international crowd,” he adds. “We’ve premiered lots of new music, and every week is only getting better.” Mercier grew up in the colourful city of Port-au-Prince, home to a rich blend of global culture and music. “In Haiti, we have influences from

around the world: we’re right next to the U.S., we speak French, and we have African influences. I loved going to the Haitian carnival every February when I was a teenager,” he recalls. Leaving Haiti to pursue a degree in mathematics at Brown University could not sever a lifetime of deepseated inspiration. “When I came to the U.S., I was able to see DJs and electronic artists perform, ones I used to watch on YouTube back in the day,” he says. Watching Tiësto and Paul van Dyk perform live in 2006 pushed Mercier to try to emulate a sense of community through music. Naturally, he tried DJing on for size. Stepping into the industry wasn’t easy, especially in New York. Mercier relays the hardships any artist trying to make it would recognise: having a hit record, gaining recognition from industry leaders, and simply having your demos heard. “There were a lot of ups and downs, but I’m a very determined person,” Mercier reflects. “I had to see this DJ career through. After 12 years of giving it everything,

we had our first breakthrough.” Mercier credits this breakthrough to being in the right place at the right time in the Afro house scene. “I started with house, then I followed the trends,” he says. “I tried out techno house, but I tried Afro house at the right time. It’s been quite a journey. There isn’t a sure path,” he adds. “It’s a real risk you’re taking – to dedicate years to something where there’s a very slim chance of success.” Mercier embraces all the challenges New York has thrown at him over the years and meets them with a fondness. “New York is an electric city,” he says. “It’s a city that gives you energy like no other. What I love about New York is what I also hate: whenever you’re there, you want to push yourself. You want to work, you want to compete, you want to be the best version of yourself, whatever field you’re in, because it’s a city where everybody is giving their best.” New York’s multicultural hub soon became a home away from home for Mercier. “It’s similar to Haiti,” he says. “You have a French community, Caribbean community, Haitian community, African, European, you name it. And as they say, if you’re able to make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.” This love for culture and community binds the fibres of Lakay, Mercier’s most personal body of work to date. Lakay means “home” in Haitian Creole, and combines his life in New York with all the cultural experiences that have stayed with him long after travelling, shaping his outlook as both an artist and performer. Lakay weaves distinct, global sounds while embodying two opposing elements: home and the space beyond it. “Home is a location that makes you feel something,” Mercier says. “I’m happy I’m able to create a piece of home in all different corners of the world, and I never feel like I’m distant or I miss home.”

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Mercier also feels Lakay came at the right time, reflecting on the current Afro house scene, which he sees as becoming increasingly commercial. “I felt it was my responsibility to step up and be able to deliver music that

represents and embodies global culture,” he says. Accompanying his artistry, Mercier’s philanthropy is another vehicle which carries his zeal for community and culture. He runs Solèy FC, an altruistic

football and social club which brings local artists, DJs and the surrounding community together through sport and music. “It’s how I connect with people: through soccer activations, philanthropy, DJ performances, and my music,” he says. “We do pop-up soccer games in different HEADLINERHUB.COM

FRANCIS MERCIER

From Haitian roots to the global dancefloor

places I’m touring, and those are the experiences I remember the most.” Past Solèy FC events have raised tens of thousands for charitable causes, including the Lebanese Red Cross. “I’m a very generous person, and I’m a strong believer that you gain by helping others,” he says modestly. “Over my years in the music industry, my biggest records stemmed from collaborations initially meant to help a smaller artist. If I can incorporate a soccer activation to raise awareness for a charitable organisation, it is my utmost pleasure,” he continues. “I’ve always been passionate about football since I was a very young kid, and it’s what brings me the most happiness. If I can gather a group of friends or fans around a soccer ball on a pitch, I’m a happy camper.” Mercier also owns Deep Root Records, one of the few black-owned labels in dance music – something he treats as an honour. “It’s been 12 years now,” he begins, “and I’m very proud to say that we’ve helped so many artists in the industry over the years, from the likes of Nitefreak to MoBlack. We’ve had an instrumental position in their careers, from sample clearance to artist development and visa procurement. By helping others, I’ve been able to help myself.” Reflecting on the creation of Lakay, Mercier is particularly proud of the track Unjust, a collaboration with fellow Haitian Afro house DJ and producer Madmix. “It’s the track I listen to the most,” he says. “I love the message, spirituality, depth, and how it makes me feel. Madmix had this vocal laying around, and I loved it. I wrote some chords, we worked on it, and it turned out to be the third track on the album!” The South African influence on the album is weighty and, in Mercier’s eyes, the most relevant. “When you talk about Afro house, you have to give credit to the pioneers,” he says. HEADLINER MAGAZINE

“One of the biggest tracks, Sadete, has a strong South African influence in terms of the beat. The vocals are Punjabi, and with collaboration from Turkish artists, it’s a melting pot.” Lakay was produced in different corners of the world, with multiple seismic influences trickling into the sound. As a frequent flyer, when it comes to making his beats, everything is done in the box. “We keep everything digital,” he says. “It’s the only way I can survive as a producer because I don’t have the luxury to be in the studio. A lot of the time, the tracks are produced on a long flight, in the corner of an airport, or in a hotel room.” Playing live shows as a DJ requires a certain level of adaptability. “As a DJ, you learn to play with what you have,” he nods. “I have my preferred technical rider, but as a DJ, if I show up somewhere and they have a faulty mixer, an older version of a CDJ or a newer version that I don’t typically use, I don’t have a choice. You have to make it work.” Mercier is always looking forward to the next big show. “There’s going to be a show in Amsterdam at AFAS,

which is a 6,000-seat concert hall – a big challenge for me! And we’re doing New Year’s Eve in Bali, which is going to be announced very soon.” The livewire DJ also hints at a fivecity tour in December, spanning New Delhi to Goa. “I’ve been to India six or seven times,” he says. “I love the energy, the people, the culture – but not the food. The food is too spicy,” he laughs. “But the people are great, and Indian energy, that’s what I believe in.” On his days off, Mercier plans on playing as much football as possible, and maybe even writing some new music. “I take my time to work on new compositions, and put all the ideas that inspire me on the road.” FRANCISMERCIER.COM

PROBLEM(S) SOLVED. Does your micro transmitter have these features?

• IP57-rated watertight, all-metal enclosure • Removeable LiOn rechargeable pack • Drop-in charging with optional dock • High-Density RF mode for 24+ ch. in 6 MHz • Fixed audio latency of 1.4 ms • Lav mic presets for optimum audio quality • Full menu & control on the unit • Selectable RF Power up to 50mW The DSSM micro digital body pack has ALL these features and more, in one tiny package.

In Canada, call 877-753-2876 In Europe, call +33 (0) 78558-3735 www.lectrosonics.com or 1-800-821-1121

SIMON FIELD

Bringing the Danger

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

DS by OR A W

N SO

GUSTA CE F LI

BRINGING THE DANGER

SIMON FIELD There was a time when dance music seemed locked in an arms race of bigger drops, louder builds and instant gratification. Norwegian producer and DJ Simon Field has never been particularly interested in following that script, and his latest single, Danger, couldn’t make that more obvious. Built around a sleazy spoken-word vocal, an infectious groove and a deliberately jarring tempo switch, it’s a record designed to disrupt expectations rather than satisfy formulas.

Across a career spanning more than 400 million Spotify streams and releases on labels including Armada, Subliminal, Sony Music, Universal Music and Ultra, the DJ has carved out his own lane, making club records that prioritise groove, personality and emotional connection over trends.

In this interview, Field discusses the making of Danger, why today’s dance music has become too formulaic, the importance of groove over gimmicks, balancing creativity with functionality, how success has evolved throughout his career, and why the artists who endure are the ones who stay true to themselves. HEADLINERHUB.COM

SIMON FIELD

Bringing the Danger

“I LOVE DANCE MUSIC, BUT SOMETIMES I FEEL WE’VE BECOME A LITTLE TOO OBSESSED WITH FORMULAS.”

Norway has produced several globally successful electronic artists. How has your background and the Scandinavian scene influenced your musical identity? Growing up in Scandinavia exposed me to a very strong tradition of melody and songwriting. Even when I’m making club records, I think those influences are still there. Norway also has a relatively small but incredibly supportive music community. You learn to be resourceful, independent and collaborative at the same time. Dance music trends move incredibly fast now, especially in the streaming and social media era. How do you stay creatively grounded without feeling pressure to chase algorithms or short-lived trends? Trends move much faster than artistic identity. If you spend all your time chasing what’s popular, you’re already too late. The artists I admire most have a strong sense of self and allow trends to pass through their world rather than completely defining it. I pay attention to what’s happening, but I try to filter everything through my own taste. Danger feels deliberately unpredictable, especially with the tempo switch and the tensionbuilding arrangement. What was the original creative spark behind the track, and how did it evolve during production? I wanted something slightly uncomfortable – in a good way. I became fascinated by the idea of HEADLINER MAGAZINE

disrupting expectations. The tempo switch was inspired by moments in DJ sets when the energy shifts unexpectedly. Once I introduced that element, the whole track started taking on a personality of its own. The vocal, the groove, and the arrangement all revolved around the idea of keeping people slightly offbalance while still making them want to move. The spoken-word vocal gives Danger a lot of personality at a time when much of electronic music can feel formulaic. Was challenging that sense of sameness something you consciously wanted to do with this release? Absolutely. I love dance music, but sometimes I feel we’ve become a little too obsessed with formulas. The spoken-word became a form of storytelling without leaning on a traditional structure. I wasn’t trying to be different for the sake of it, but I was looking for something with a bit more attitude and unpredictability. Some records reveal themselves immediately, while others take a few listens. I enjoy making the latter. When you’re producing, how do you approach keeping tracks DJfriendly while still making them feel emotionally or creatively distinctive? The dance floor always comes first. If the groove doesn’t work, nothing else matters. Once I have that foundation, I start looking for the element to challenge that. It’s often vocal, a strange arrangement choice, a synth texture or a moment that

creates surprise. DJs need records that work in a mix, but listeners also remember records that have personality. The challenge is finding the balance between functionality and individuality. You’ve maintained a long-term career in an industry where many artists struggle to sustain momentum. What realities about longevity in electronic music do younger producers often underestimate? Don’t underestimate patience. Everyone sees the highlights but not the years of consistent work behind them. It’s about continuing to create, improve and adapt over decades. Another thing people underestimate is volume. The more music you make, the more likely you are to discover who you really are as an artist. Quantity often leads to quality in unexpected ways. Has the meaning of success changed for you over the years? Success means something very different today than it did when I started. Early on, success was validation. Then it became growth. Now it’s more about freedom. Streaming numbers are still meaningful because they represent people connecting with your work, but they don’t define how I feel about a record. Some of my favourite tracks have never been my biggest records. If a track genuinely excites me and works on a dancefloor, I consider that a success.

39 Credit: Simen Isabell

HEADLINERHUB.COM

SIMON FIELD

Bringing the Danger

Your productions often sit slightly outside the expected. Have there been moments where taking creative risks felt commercially risky, and how do you navigate that balance? Some of my favourite records were the ones that initially made people question what I was doing. The funny thing is that those risks often become the tracks people remember years later. I try not to think too much about commercial outcomes during the creative process. My job in the studio is to make something I personally love. The market can decide what happens afterwards. Are there any particular synths, plugins, drum machines, or studio tools that have become central to your sound over the years? I still love hardware. My Moog Sub 37 remains one of my favourite instruments for bass and leads. The Prophet 6 brings warmth and character that’s difficult to replicate. On the drum side, the TR-909 continues to be a huge influence, even when I’m using software versions. Beyond specific tools, I’ve become more interested in workflow. The faster I can get ideas out of my head, the more creative I tend to be. HEADLINER MAGAZINE

As a DJ, what pieces of equipment could you genuinely not do a show without today? The essentials are surprisingly simple: reliable Pioneer [AlphaTheta] players, a solid mixer and good monitoring. Beyond that, it’s really about preparation and music selection. The connection between the DJ and the crowd is what people remember. You’ve played everywhere from Ministry of Sound and Egg to Café Mambo and Ibiza clubs. How has your approach to DJing evolved since your early years behind the decks? When I was younger, I focused a lot on technical performance and proving myself. Today I’m much more interested in reading the room and creating a journey. A great DJ set isn’t about showing how much music you know. It’s about understanding where the crowd is emotionally and guiding them somewhere memorable. Obviously, I often think - what route can I take with the floor to get them to one specific record I want to play?

With audiences consuming music faster than ever, do you think albums and deeper artist storytelling still matter in electronic music? I do, but singles are incredibly important; albums allow artists to show a broader creative vision. Not every listener will experience an album from start to finish, but the ones who do often become your most loyal supporters. Storytelling creates connection, and connection is what turns listeners into long-term fans. SIMONFIELD.NO

MYTH OR TRUTH? The best sounding live console was originally designed for broadcast.

The mc Series 2

Hearing is believing – sign up and find out for yourself.

LAWO.COM

AUDOO ON THE MUSIC ROYALTY BLACK HOLE

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Why artists are missing payments

THE BIG INTERVIEW

ords by W

ON Fs

GUST ICE A AL

WHY ARTISTS ARE MISSING PAYMENTS

AUDOO ON THE MUSIC ROYALTY BLACK HOLE For all the artists and songwriters out there: have you ever walked into a shop or café, heard your own music playing over the speakers, and then realised you had no idea whether you were actually being paid for it? For Ryan Edwards, CEO and Founder of Audoo, that exact moment was the beginning of a much bigger realisation about how broken the royalty system really is.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

AUDOO ON THE MUSIC ROYALTY BLACK HOLE

That experience, after previously achieving a UK Top 10 hit as a musician, exposed a deeper issue: an industry still relying on estimates, manual reporting, and “proxy” data to decide how artists are paid for public performance. Today, with mounting evidence of a transparency crisis, from unclaimed royalties to major licensing discrepancies affecting grassroots venues, that problem has only intensified. It’s an issue that doesn’t just affect chart-topping artists, but the very foundation of live and public music culture, where what’s actually being played often bears little resemblance to how royalties are distributed. Out of that gap between reality and reporting came Audoo, a technology-driven attempt to rebuild trust in the system. At its core is the Audio Meter, designed to capture real-time music usage in venues and feed that data directly into royalty distribution, replacing guesswork with verified plays.

Why artists are missing payments

In this conversation, Edwards explains how that personal wake-up call evolved into a mission to fix one of music’s most entrenched problems, why some organisations are willing to turn a blind eye, and why Audoo’s real-time data may finally be the key to making sure every play counts. You experienced this issue firsthand as an artist. How did that moment shape your decision to build Audoo? During my time as the drummer for an indie band called The Lines, I had some incredible experiences, like touring the UK, playing across different cities, and even landing a UK Top 10 chart hit. It gave me a look inside how the music industry works for artists, but after leaving the band in 2008, I moved away from music. It was only years later, hearing my own song playing in a department store, that I realised I had no real way of knowing whether I was being paid for it, and that moment ultimately became the catalyst for creating Audoo.

“THERE HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN ENOUGH URGENCY FROM SOME PROS TO MODERNISE THE SYSTEM, AND WE’VE FACED SIGNIFICANT RESISTANCE FROM SOME WHO WOULD, QUITE SIMPLY, RATHER TURN A BLIND EYE TO WHAT’S GOING ON.”

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

What is Audoo, and how does it work? In short, Audoo is all about creating a transparent solution for distributing royalties for artists and songwriters. Our mission is to revolutionise an outdated royalty system that relies on manual tracking, proxy sets and methods that result in inaccurate data and lost income for artists. At the heart of Audoo is our Audio Meter, a plugin device that captures what’s actually being played in real time across public venues like bars, gyms and retail spaces. This piece of tech allows us to provide performing rights organisations and venues with accurate data, so artists and songwriters can get the royalties and recognition they deserve. You’ve spoken about a transparency crisis in music royalties. How serious is the issue today? For decades, despite how crucial they are to artists, royalties have been one of the more opaque parts of the music industry, and, especially in public performance/live, there is a real knowledge gap about how royalties for artists and songwriters are distributed. Artists might be unaware of when and where their music is being played and therefore can’t know if they’re being paid accurately for it. When you start to dig into it, you realise just how flawed the system is and how poor reporting has a real-world impact on the livelihoods of creators in the music industry. With a broken system that already isn’t doing enough for artists, the transparency crisis is only growing with the rise of AI. From AI-generated songs and suspected AI artists like Sienna Rose seeing real success, to platforms like Suno rapidly scaling and making it easier than ever to create and monetise music, questions around fraudulent streaming and royalty distribution are becoming more urgent. Without stronger tracking methods in place, it becomes harder to separate what’s real and who should be paid for it.

THE BIG INTERVIEW

is facing a big reckoning on how it can become more transparent and fair for both venues and artists. Why has the royalty system struggled to keep pace with how music is actually consumed in public spaces?

Recent figures from Music Venue Trust point to a significant discrepancy in unclaimed royalties and licensing. What’s driving these gaps in the system? The discrepancies are largely driven by outdated and flawed royalty distribution methodologies. For the most part, public performance royalties are still distributed using radio and streaming proxy data, which simply is not an accurate reflection of what is actually being played across public venues. Our real-world data, captured via Audoo’s Audio Meters across venues globally, consistently shows little overlap between music played in public spaces and traditional streaming or radio charts. This is especially true within grassroots venues – the venues represented by the Music Venue Trust – where programming often centres around emerging artists, independent music, live performances, and unreleased tracks.

These venues – the beating heart of the music industry – are required to pay music licence fees, and rightly so, where licensed repertoire is being used. However, the challenge lies in how those royalties are ultimately distributed. Too often, revenues generated from grassroots spaces flow back to chart-dominating artists because distribution models rely on proxy data, rather than the music actually being played in those venues. In many cases, the artists being played in grassroots venues are not even members or registered with collection societies such as PRS for Music or PPL, meaning they may never receive payment despite their music driving value within those spaces. Even in more commercial spaces, we’re now starting to see a rise in companies pushing back, with brands like Better opting for royaltyfree music in their gyms due to the cost of music licensing. I think it’s fair to say the system, as it currently stands,

Music in public spaces has changed dramatically, but the infrastructure behind royalty distribution hasn’t. Venues are now pulling music from streaming services, playlists, DJs, and multiple digital sources, but the reporting side hasn’t evolved at the same pace. We can see a clear disconnect between real-world music plays and royalty distributions, and that’s where Audoo is trying to provide the solution by bringing real data from public venues into the process. It’s also worth saying that there hasn’t always been enough urgency from some PROs to modernise the system, and we’ve faced significant resistance from some who would, quite simply, rather turn a blind eye to what’s going on and just not put in the work to evolve. But this has only made us much more resolute in our fight for fairer royalties. How do estimation-based models and manual reporting impact both artists and venues in real terms? You might assume there’s a solid system in place, but the closer you look, you realise how much of it is built on shaky foundations, relying on estimates and inaccurate data, resulting in missing or unallocated royalties. When artists, especially emerging performers, aren’t being properly compensated for their work, it has a real impact. In a lot of cases, it’s the difference between an artist being able to make a living or not. We’re also seeing how frustrating it’s becoming for venues. With high licensing bills already impacting struggling grassroots music venues, they too are demanding more transparency on how songs are tracked, and how royalties are calculated – as they should be.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

AUDOO ON THE MUSIC ROYALTY BLACK HOLE

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Why artists are missing payments

THE BIG INTERVIEW

How does the Audio Meter technology track music usage in venues like gyms, bars and cafés? We have intentionally designed our technology with venues in mind, so that it’s discrete and scalable – our Audio Meters can be plugged into any commercial space and identify whatever songs are being played in real time. That information can then be fed back into the royalty system, helping PROs [Performing Rights Organisations] build a clearer, more reliable view of what’s being played and improve how public performance royalties are distributed. In a world where AI music is flooding every platform, tracking what’s real has never been more important. Our Audio Meters can also detect AI-generated tracks, so we can help to safeguard royalties for human creators. What makes real-time data such a game-changer compared to traditional reporting methods? Of course, real-time data is a stronger basis for reporting public performance because it accurately reflects what people are listening to day to day, in

both live venues and public spaces. Comparatively, traditional reporting methods are a bit ‘finger in the air’. The Audoo dashboard collates real-world public performance data, so that PROs and CMOs have access to insights on how music is being consumed across different environments, and can base distributions on reality, not guesswork. But the impact of the data goes beyond just having more accurate reporting. Venues can see how music is performing in their space – picking up on trends, spikes in plays, and which genres or artists resonate best. Are you currently working alongside organisations like PRS for Music on initiatives to improve data accuracy and licensing standards? We are working with several PROs globally – APRA AMCOS, IMRO and Sabam, to name a few. These influential organisations help reshape royalty systems for the better, so artists and songwriters everywhere are paid fairly and are properly recognised for their work. Unfortunately, other organisations are less willing to make

the appropriate changes and deliver the best service to their members, for fear of upsetting the status quo and admitting to prior errors in distribution. Have there been any standout results or milestones that demonstrate the impact of your approach? Securing investment from industry legends like Sir Elton John and Björn Ulvaeus was a huge moment for us. We already knew we had something special, but it really confirmed our belief that the system needs to work better for artists and songwriters, and that the music industry saw the value in our technology. What is Audoo’s long-term goal when it comes to fixing the royalty system? Every single play counts. We want to keep working with PROs, CMOs and industry leaders around the world to build a system where artists receive the fair earnings they deserve, replacing outdated estimation with the accuracy that modern technology makes possible. AUDOO.COM

HEADLINERHUB.COM

GDY GDY GURPS

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Jungle Is Massive

RA DOSA N ZA

ORDS BY W

FIRST SET: POWERED BY ALPHATHETA

JUNGLEIS MASSIVE

GDY GDY GURPS West London DJ GDY GDY Gurps possesses a sound spearheaded by the global diaspora. A sense of togetherness abounds on her dancefloor and wraps around the grooves of her sets, featuring global influences from jungle and footwork to Bhangra and jazz.

Since 2023, DJing has been a vessel for GDY to project everything she loves beyond the music – the culture, the nostalgia and the people at the heart of the vibrant West London jungle scene. Inner City Sounds on G-Shock Radio, GDY’s resident show, showcases the best of the music she grew up with and remains surrounded by. The not-so-secret metalhead is also a big advocate for using her platform for good, from turning her curated night Inner City Life into a

fundraiser for humanitarian causes to voicing her passion for women of colour entering the DJ sphere. GDY is well-versed in everything AlphaTheta has in store for upcoming DJs, from their community-led Start From Scratch workshops designed for underrepresented groups to the game-changing gear she can’t get enough of. In conversation with Headliner, GDY takes us from the gritty West London DJ subculture she calls home to her thrilling First Set, powered by AlphaTheta and broadcast live on TikTok. HEADLINERHUB.COM

GDY GDY GURPS

Jungle Is Massive

On the Rise, and his whole mission is to get underrepresented people into DJing. He could sense how keen I was, so he offered me sponsorship to do an eight-week course that was part of the AlphaTheta Start From Scratch programme. I was one of four people who got selected that year. Start From Scratch removed all my preconceptions about DJing – that it was quite a white-male-dominated space. That was one of the reasons I thought DJing wasn’t for me, but this programme was the opposite. We have to ask – what’s the story behind your stage name, GDY GDY Gurps?

How did you get into DJing? I have always been a massive music lover. My Spotify minutes are through the roof, and I love sharing music with my friends. I never associated myself with DJing until I was on Instagram one day. I was going through a weird period in my life where I needed to plug into hobbies and meet new people. I had just moved to a new place in London where I didn’t know anyone. I saw this advert for a threehour beginner DJing workshop with AlphaTheta at a studio in Wembley called On The Rise DJ Academy. It was for people of colour specifically and felt like it would be a safe space to learn in. It was honestly more for me to get out there and do something new, but it wasn’t until I got there and started having conversations with other people about music that I realised how passionate I was. When I faced the decks for the first time, I realised DJing was more accessible than I thought it was. That single three-hour workshop sent me on a mission. I messaged Terry [Hooligan], who runs HEADLINER MAGAZINE

It came from one of the classes I did with Terry. Every week at Start From Scratch, I’d practice my one-hour set, and Terry was loving it. He put on this garage MC voice and shouted “Goody Goody Gurps,” over one of my sets, and I thought, “Hey, I kind of love that” [laughs]. If I was DJing back in the noughties at Ministry of Sound or Carnival, and someone MC’d over my set, that would be ideal. What does the jungle scene in West London look like today? West suffers from the fact that we don’t have loads of venues around this way, and placing myself within the London scene, I’m a small fish. But I think what’s so special about West is being in a space near home that represents the music that I grew up with. It’s nice to be able to platform that music today. Are there any DJs on the scene you find inspiring or are doing something a bit different? There are so many DJs I love. One DJ I love in particular is a guy called SIMMS. He’s based in Northwest London, which is pretty cool, and he’s predominantly a jungle DJ. One of the things I love about his sets is that he gets so into it, and you can tell that he really believes in the music he’s playing. I’m also really loving a DJ and producer called Shirley Temper. She’s putting female jungle DJs and producers on the map, which is so reassuring and validating.

How did you find your First Set with Headliner? It’s the first set I’ve ever done live on a social media platform. I get a bit freaked out livestreaming on my page where I don’t have many followers. It’s a catch-22: it’s nervewracking having no listeners, and it’s nerve-wracking having as many as there were for my First Set. At the end, there were about 10,000 people looking at that stream. It was nuts. With a live set like that, you can catch any person’s interest. With the current culture of indecision and people not committing to going to events, you’re less likely to fill a room or catch people’s attention. With my First Set, it was really cool to play underground sounds that anyone could be listening to – someone who’s never heard jungle footwork before, or wouldn’t normally go onto my page and look at what I’m playing. I kept finding myself getting excited as I was playing, thinking about how I love this music so much and I could be introducing someone to it. For your First Set, you used the AlphaTheta DDJ-GRV6 fourchannel club-inspired DJ controller. How did it feel to get behind it? The DDJ-GRV6 isn’t something I would normally encounter in a club. The controller allowed me to do everything with ease. Everything is well laid out; if you want to switch your deck, the buttons are very clear. It’s very secure, and you have a lot of freedom. Some other decks and controllers lack functionality, so this controller is really good because you can see everything on the screen, like where your hot cues and pads are. That section is really satisfying to me, to be able to easily access beat jump and beat loop. You also used the AlphaTheta HDJCUE1 headphones during your set – how did you find using those? I love those headphones – they’re actually the headphones I use

FIRST SET: POWERED BY ALPHATHETA

“MY PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT DJING WERE THAT IT WAS QUITE A WHITE-MALE DOMINATED SPACE. THAT WAS ONE OF THE REASONS I THOUGHT DJING WASN’T FOR ME.”

personally. The design is sleek and the wearability is good, given there are certain other headphones I’ve worn that either feel too loose or way too tight. I also love the noise-cancelling. I find that I can really tune into the cue, and when I need to turn the noise-cancelling off and hear my booth monitor, it’s very separate, which helps get a clear idea of what you’re producing at the time.

and fast pace. One of my favourite bands is Pierce The Veil, and I’m currently in the process of designing a tattoo to commemorate my love for them. I don’t necessarily play them out, which I’m working on. I saw this video of a DJ who mixed in a Paramore song during her set, going from Crew Love by The Weeknd to Paramore’s Decode, and I just thought, “I need to do this.”

Are you into any music that might surprise people? I’m a massive rock and metalhead, which given I’m a jungleist makes sense, especially with the heavy drums HEADLINERHUB.COM

GDY GDY GURPS

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Jungle Is Massive

FIRST SET: POWERED BY ALPHATHETA

Some of your Inner City Life shows have been successful fundraisers for humanitarian relief causes in the Congo, Gaza and Sudan. Is using your platform to raise awareness an important part of your identity as an artist? Definitely. When I did my second edition of Inner City Life, I had the opportunity to raise some money, and I didn’t want it to be for me. There are so many bigger things happening right now. We are in a desperate need for togetherness, and in the context of a music related event, it’s a perfect way to bring people together, especially when my sets, and the people that I picked for my lineup, are always driven with so much emotion. You also describe yourself as a novice food blogger. What’s one of your favourite eats post DJ set? My go-to post set food would be a really good set of sushi. It just has everything, and my favourite thing ever is raw fish, followed by a pint of Asahi!

Do you think you’ll ever combine your love of food with DJing? I’ve always liked the idea of DJing at a supper club. I would really like to do a collaboration with music and writing, and I’ve always had this vision of holding an exhibition – not just my writing, because then it would be super self-obsessed! But combining music, food and writing in an exhibition would be the crème de la crème of accomplishments.

things. I was finding it hard to balance DJing with my nine-to-five, but every time I would take time out to look for new music, it was almost therapeutic. I need to make sure I keep doing this, and make time for it. Having a strong intention is really important. ALPHATHETA.COM INSTA: @ GDYGDYGURPS

You’ve been DJing for almost three years: what are the most valuable lessons you’ve learned so far? One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to not let myself get caught up in how many gigs I’m getting and where, and how much I’m being paid, otherwise it just takes away my drive to create. If I compare myself to other DJs who are constantly getting booked, it defeats me a little bit. But when I zoom out and look at what I am doing, these are really incredible HEADLINERHUB.COM

HARRY OLIVER

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Finding his own groove

RA DOS ZA A H NJ

RD WO S BY

NEXT UP POWERED BY ALPHATHETA

FINDING HIS OWN GROOVE

HARRY OLIVER London-based DJ and producer Harry Oliver is most authentic when he’s making house music. His two-track debut, This Feelin EP, follows in the footsteps of his muses Josh Baker, Max and Luke Dean, and Frank Rizardo with its melodic and groovy sound cut with ‘90s nostalgia.

Since he first took on a festival crowd at just 14 years old, Oliver has been crafting his niche as a DJ, evolving from techno to a deeper, biting sound with This Feelin EP. With almost 20,000 followers and over five million views across his socials, Oliver is set on fostering a community through his music, from creating online tutorials for novice DJs to giving underground house the spotlight it deserves.

The DJ catches up with Headliner following his livestreamed Next Up set, powered by AlphaTheta, and reflects on his journey from an eager teen to an established DJ, and how he’s pushing the boundaries with his new music.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

HARRY OLIVER

Finding his own groove

Congratulations on your debut, This Feelin EP. How does it feel to finally have it out in the world?

Do you have a track in mind if you ever need to turn a dance floor around?

It feels really good. It’s been a few months in the works because I made the tracks back in May, and we signed the contracts around a month ago, but it’s good to get them out now. I’m happy with how the support has been.

That’s a tough question. There are a few tracks that can bring people in, but Music Sounds Better With You is a good one. It’s a classic, but everyone knows it.

What first drew you towards DJing and electronic music?

What about your first bad gig? Was there a moment early on where something went wrong that taught you a lesson you still carry with you now?

I’ve always loved electronic music. The main thing that got me into it was YouTube videos of DJs at Tomorrowland. I went to see Martin Garrix at Amsterdam ADE in 2019 – that’s when I got involved in DJing, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

One time I was playing, and right before the drop, I accidentally paused the track [laughs]. I didn’t realise I was loading the track onto the deck that was playing, so that was a bit embarrassing.

What are you listening to or taking inspiration from recently?

How would you describe the sound you’re building now?

Right now I’m really digging the more melodic side of things with Marsolo, Job de Jong, which is more ‘90s-influenced, and Max and Luke Dean, all their latest stuff.

A good groove – melodic elements with deeper sounds. I want my set to feel energetic and to have a lot of depth, and I want people, when they hear a set from me, to know who’s playing. That would be a massive compliment.

Do you remember the first time you played a proper DJ set? What do you remember about that night? My first festival was when I was 14 years old, to 2,000 people. I had no idea there were going to be that many people! It was a local, and it was just insane. It went super well, and it was inspiring and surreal. That’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Let’s talk about your debut EP. How did This Feelin and Housework come together, and what inspired them? This Feelin is led by an organ, so I wanted to create an organ track. I started plotting the melody down, and it came together really quickly.

I put it together in a few hours – the main idea – and the rest got finished really fast. I wanted something a bit more aggressive, underground and deep. Was there a particular moment during the production of the EP where you felt, this is properly me now? Yes – when I stopped trying to make something that sounded like what I thought people might like. I trusted my own instincts, and once the track started feeling natural to me, that’s when I knew it was heading in the right direction. I want to keep experimenting rather than trying to do what’s already worked. I want to keep pushing boundaries and going forward. Have you got any new music in the works? My new single, Like The Bass was made around a similar time to This Feelin and Housework. Right now, I’m just trying to figure out where I want to go musically.

You’ve built a significant following through production tutorials, with several videos passing a million views and 100,000-plus likes. What have you learned about what people actually want to see from an emerging producer or DJ online? My videos did well when I was giving something to the audience. When I was doing tutorials, people would get something from that video, and that’s what helped get the views and engagement.

NEXT UP POWERED BY ALPHATHETA

HEADLINERHUB.COM

HARRY OLIVER

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Finding his own groove

What does going live on TikTok do for you as a DJ – is it about discovery, community or building a fan base?

For Headliner’s Next Up session, you used the AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ all-in-one DJ system. What was your first impression of it?

With the stream with Headliner, you could see the number of people that were there in two hours. I think it was around 16,000 people. The number of people you can reach in two hours is pretty nuts. And from there you can build a community and get discovered by people who might not have seen you before.

Firstly, I was really impressed by how much you can do with just the one system. It’s formatted easily so it’s not too confusing, and it can get you used to club-standard equipment. Having the option [of the four decks] gives you room to develop your sets and experiment as you become more

NEXT UP POWERED BY ALPHATHETA

There’s real momentum around you right now that’s very much still building. What are the milestones that make you think your career is moving in the right direction?

It gives you that club-style workflow while still being really practical. The more comfortable you get with different setups, the easier it is when you turn up to a bigger club or festival, and the equipment is slightly different. You can adapt easily, and just focus on playing. comfortable with the system, and it’s good knowing that you’ve got that available. It felt really familiar, which meant I could focus on the music rather than thinking about what everything was. The layout was really simple, easy to understand. It felt very similar to a club standard CDJ setup. Why is it useful for DJs like yourself to use this kit and how does it prepare you for bigger gigs and clubs in future?

You also used the AlphaTheta HDJF10-TX wireless headphones. What was your impression of them? I thought they were super sick! Having them wireless definitely makes it a lot easier, as you don’t have the cable getting in the way. They also had noise cancellation, which meant even with the sound going on around you, you can hear the track you’re queuing up next really clearly.

Releasing my first EP is the big one, but for me, it’s also seeing people respond to the music, getting more DJ opportunities, and seeing the audience, fan base, and community grow. It’s all those little things set up that make me feel like I’m moving forward. What does success look like for you? That would make you think, I’ve made it. In 10 years, I’d like to have built a proper career around my music, DJ, and production, and definitely have a residency in Ibiza. Being a resident there would be the pinnacle of it all. I just want to continue doing what I love, enjoy the music that I make, and share my music with the world.

INSTA: @HARRYOLIVERDJ ALPHATHETA.COM HEADLINERHUB.COM

ERIC MOORE II

Building the ultimate drum room

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

s d

BUILDING THE ULTIMATE DRUM ROOM

bY ALICE

STAFSON GU

Wo r

STUDIO ACOUSTICS

ERIC MOORE II Renowned drummer and producer Eric Moore II is known for blending lightning-fast gospel chops with deep, rock-solid grooves. Headliner discovers how GIK Acoustics helped him turn his new Las Vegas studio into a world-class recording environment, balancing precision and control with the natural energy of his playing.

After making a name for himself by winning the prestigious 2003 Guitar Center Drum-Off, Moore went on to build a global touring career, performing with major artists like Sly & the Family Stone, Bobby Brown, and Suicidal Tendencies. For his new Las Vegas studio, Moore’s vision was to create a worldclass drum recording and music production space that would support professional recording sessions alongside the social and educational content he shares with his worldwide online community. As well as a room that accurately represents the

sound of his instrument, the studio had to provide a comfortable and inspiring environment that would allow for maximum creativity for in-person recordings and remote collaborations. Measuring approximately 6m x 7m with a 2.4m ceiling and a carpeted floor, Moore’s room was designed to serve multiple functions, including recording, filming, and daily practice. Accommodating a full, professional drum kit within a relatively compact footprint presented some unique challenges, particularly at low

frequencies. “Achieving the right acoustic balance was essential,” explains Vahagn Stepanyan, music producer and Moore’s manager. “The primary challenge was creating controlled acoustics in a room that could handle the extreme dynamics and frequency range of a large drum kit. We wanted to minimise problematic reflections, standing waves, and low-frequency build-up, which are all common issues with drumming recording spaces.” The low end demanded particular attention. Uncontrolled room modes can easily cause the kick drums and HEADLINERHUB.COM

ERIC MOORE II

Building the ultimate drum room

toms to lose definition, resulting in muddy recordings and inconsistent monitoring. The team’s ultimate goal was to achieve a balanced listening and recording space that translated accurately for tracking and playback, whilst preserving enough liveliness to retain the energy and character of Moore’s playing. Working with GIK Acoustics and mixing engineer Alen Konakoglu, Moore and his team adopted a hybrid approach combining broadband absorption with diffusion around the drum position.

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Corners where two or three room boundaries meet were the starting point for addressing low-frequency decay. TriTrap Corner Bass Traps were installed to help tame modal build-up and provide a more even bass response throughout the space. Above the kit, FlexRange Bass Trap panels fitted with Scatter Plates were installed in the ceiling to address the vertical floor-to-ceiling room mode at source. These plates preserve mid- and high-frequency energy, maintaining clarity and avoiding an overly absorptive sound that could deaden the cymbals overhead.

Amplitude Bass Trap panels, featuring GIK’s 1D diffusion pattern, were positioned around the kit, helping to scatter the cymbal energy, while further controlling low-frequency resonance. On the wall opposite the kit, an alternating arrangement of Amplitude and Classic Bass Trap panels managed reflections, whilst keeping an open, natural ambience. The goal was to maintain a lively acoustic character without allowing reflections to compromise close and overhead microphone capture. “Drum rooms are demanding because of their high sound-pressure levels and extremely fast transients,”

STUDIO ACOUSTICS

says Nick Hepfer, GIK Acoustics, who designed the treatment. “The ceiling above the kit was the priority, because the floor-to-ceiling mode is one that cannot be changed by moving the kit, so by treating directly overhead with the Scatter Plates, we could keep the cymbals bright and embrace that energy around Eric. “We then designed the absorption and broadband panel pattern on the rear wall to make sure that we kept reflections in check for the producer’s space, where monitoring takes place. “The aim throughout was control without an overly dry space: a room

that’s accurate to track and shoot in, but still feels alive to play in.” According to Stepanyan, the room is providing more consistent monitoring and cleaner microphone capture, reducing the need for corrective EQ and processing later in the mix. “That gives Eric a reliable environment for recording, practising and collaborating,” he says. “Whether sessions are taking place in person or remotely, he can focus on performance, knowing the room is providing an accurate representation of his iconic drumming style.”

Moore agrees: “The biggest difference for me has been consistency. The kick and toms translate much better, the cymbals don’t get harsh, and I can trust what I’m hearing when I’m tracking. “We managed to keep the room lively, which is important for the way I play, but without the low-end buildup that can make drum recordings difficult. It means less time correcting things later and more time focusing on the music.” GIKACOUSTICS.NET

HEADLINERHUB.COM

BOOTSHAUS

360° Club Sound

by Alic e

BOOTSHAUS HEADLINER MAGAZINE

stafson Gu

360° CLUB SOUND

Wo r

CLUB SOUND

“WHEN I HEARD L-ACOUSTICS DJ, IT WAS IMMEDIATELY CLEAR THAT THIS WAS MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER SOUND SYSTEM.”

Since opening its doors in 2004, Bootshaus has built one of the most recognisable identities in electronic music. The Cologne club, consistently ranked among the top venues globally by DJ Mag and recognised as the world’s fourthbest nightclub by the International Nightlife Association in 2025, has long staked its reputation on its top-notch sound. Headliner discovers how Bootshaus made its most significant audio investment yet in time for its 22nd anniversary, with an upgrade of the Mainfloor to L-Acoustics DJ and a new 8.1.7 A Series loudspeaker configuration in 360°. The flamethrowers and CO2 cannons may indeed be part of the Bootshaus mythology, but the club’s sustained position at the top of global rankings reflects a more deliberate commitment to attracting the best artists in the world, because the sound is worth the trip. Niclas Aigner, COO at Bootshaus, experienced L-Acoustics DJ firsthand at Amsterdam Dance Event

2025, where the system made its commercial debut alongside pilot partner The Other Side. For Aigner, who books the artists that define the club’s programme, what he heard in Amsterdam had direct implications for Cologne. “When I heard L-Acoustics DJ at ADE, it was immediately clear that this was more than just another sound system,” says Aigner. “The precision, impact and immersion were on another level, and I knew we needed that experience at Bootshaus. For us, it’s the next step in making the Mainfloor one of Europe’s leading club environments. Combined with our crowd and reputation, it gives top artists another strong reason to play Bootshaus, and a system that lets them experience their music at its absolute best.” More than 200,000 visitors and 500 DJs pass through Bootshaus each year. The artists who play the Mainfloor arrive with expectations shaped by experience at the world’s best venues. The ability to perform in spatial audio – to place a bassline

stage left, a vocal overhead, or a melody circling the room – is a new creative offer that few clubs anywhere can make. Tom Thomas, managing director at Bootshaus, has spoken consistently about the club’s commitment to prioritising sound. “Upgrading to L-Acoustics helps us keep our coveted position as one of the best clubs in the world,” he enthuses. “Bootshaus has always been recognised for prizing sound over visuals. The addition of L-Acoustics DJ takes that investment into new territory. Competition for both artists and audiences is stronger than ever, so for us it’s not enough to simply have a great line-up. We have to keep improving the experience itself. Investing in spatial audio allows us to create a level of sound, immersion and precision that people can genuinely feel the moment they enter the room. “For Bootshaus, this anniversary is not about looking back – it’s about showing where we want to go next. We’ve always tried to stay curious, push boundaries, and invest in the HEADLINERHUB.COM

BOOTSHAUS

360° Club Sound

things that make a night unforgettable. This upgrade is another step in that direction: combining the energy and raw character Bootshaus is known for with technology that puts us at the forefront of the international club scene.” L-Acoustics DJ runs on the L-ISA Processor II and is powered by Source Separate, a proprietary low-latency technology that uses machine learning to isolate the discrete stems of a stereo track – beats, basslines, melodies, vocals – in real time, as the DJ performs. Those separated elements can then be positioned and moved around the physical space, transforming the dancefloor from a place where music plays in front of the crowd into a space where music plays around them. The system integrates into existing DJ workflows without disruption. There is no requirement to rethink the set, the routing, or the technical rider. The spatial dimension is added on top of what the DJ already does, which means the only barrier to adoption is the decision to use it, not a new skill set.

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

To support L-Acoustics DJ’s full spatial potential, Bootshaus has overhauled its Main floor loudspeaker system with an 8.1.7 A Series configuration in 360°. Flanking the DJ booth, two hangs of two A15 Wide over one A15 Focus anchor the system at the front. Six further hangs – each of one A15 Wide over one A15 Focus – extend coverage around the sides and rear of the dance floor, completing the horizontal immersive field. Seven X12 coaxial enclosures provide the height layer overhead. Two A15 Focus serve as DJ monitors, and the entire system is driven by three LA7.16i amplified controllers. The result is a system that can deliver the SPL and low-end that Bootshaus audiences expect, while simultaneously placing a bassline stage left and a vocal overhead – an experience that stereo cannot produce. L-ACOUSTICS.COM

THE WORLD’S BEST SOUNDING CONVERTERS

DREAM ADA-128

8 TO 128 CHANNELS OF ANALOGUE I/O FOUR CLOCK DOMAINS UNRIVALLED

NOTHING ELSE COMES CLOSE, NO MATTER WHAT YOUR APPLICATION

SALES@PRISMSOUND.COM WWW.PRISMSOUND.COM

PERFORMANCE FLEXIBLE MODULAR CONSTRUCTION

BACKGROUND PIC: WISSELOORD STUDIOS, NETHERLANDS | WISSELOORD ACOUSTIC DESIGN BY: JV-ACOUSTICS, AUDIO & ACOUSTIC CONSULTING, JOCHEN VEITH

PAUL JACKSON JR.

This Is How I Did It

THIS IS HOW I DID IT

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

by ALICE STAFSON GU

Wo r

PAUL JACKSON JR. ds

PRO AUDIO

For legendary session guitarist Paul Jackson Jr., whose credits include Michael Jackson’s Thriller, delivering pristine sound is both a personal philosophy and a professional necessity. Headliner discovers how he uses Lectrosonics gear to ensure pristine audio capture for his highly anticipated new guitar instructional video series, This Is How I Did It. To support his illustrious career on stage and on set, Jackson relies on Lectrosonics LT and LR Digital Hybrid Wireless transmitters and receivers for his live guitar rig. Captured in partnership with Emmynominated director Keith O’Derek of Upfront Productions and three-time Emmy-winning location sound mixer Sean Garcia of SRG Sound, the This Is How I Did It team uses Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless products including SMa and SMQV transmitters and a UCR411a receiver.

“LECTROSONICS IS THE ROLLS ROYCE OF WIRELESS SYSTEMS. WHY WOULD I RISK MY SIGNAL ON A CHEAP OR SECOND-RATE WIRELESS SYSTEM?”

Filmed in Jackson’s studio, they capture three audio sources for the instructional series: his line out from his pedalboard, plus a lavalier and boom mic for dialogue redundancy. “Since Paul is wearing a guitar while speaking, his movements could easily cause clothing rustle,” explains Garcia. “Having both a lav and a boom running simultaneously guarantees we capture clean dialogue without interruption.” This attention to detail suits a guitarist who has spent decades shaping the sound of modern music. Born and raised in Gardena, California, Jackson’s musical journey began with what he describes as a “threeway explosion of opportunities.” Immediately after graduating from high school, Jackson joined the band of his neighbour, Dr Patrice Rushen. Around the same time, he met Ray Parker Jr., one of the top session guitarists of the era who was

transitioning to a solo career and began referring session calls to Jackson. Simultaneously, prominent record producer Frank Wilson began utilising him on major records. Jackson’s career skyrocketed, leading to recording with Ella Fitzgerald at age 19, playing on Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Bad albums, touring with Whitney Houston, and playing on Daft Punk’s Grammy-winning Random

Access Memories. He has also scored nine seasons of American Idol and performed at the Oscars and the Kennedy Center. Jackson created This Is How I Did It to address a common frustration with online tutorials: poor video and audio quality. “Keith, Sean, and I don’t approach this like a simple web video; we approach it like we’re filming a

HEADLINERHUB.COM

PAUL JACKSON JR.

This Is How I Did It

movie that will last,” Jackson explains. Currently hosted on the Udemy platform, the series features Jackson breaking down his original parts, sheet music, techniques, and studio anecdotes for hit songs. The first unit focuses on Michael Jackson hits like P.Y.T., Dirty Diana, with upcoming units covering Whitney Houston’s I Want to Dance with Somebody and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky and I Feel It Coming. To ensure absolute authenticity, Jackson even HEADLINER MAGAZINE

uses the exact 40-year-old guitar he played on the original Michael Jackson tracks. For Jackson, maintaining a pristine signal chain is paramount. “Every piece of gear I have is the best because I’m trying to play the best, sound the best, and be the best,” Jackson says. “I have pedals on my board that cost $1,500 and very expensive guitars. Lectrosonics is the Rolls Royce of wireless systems. Why would I risk my

signal on a cheap or second-rate wireless system? “Other players have massive rack units, but the quality is nowhere close to what my tiny Lectrosonics set-up delivers. It never goes down, always sounds great, and we never have a dropout. I swear by it,” he grins. LECTROSONICS.COM

AZAM TV

Future-proofing the OB workflow

BY ALICE

FUTURE-PROOFING THE OB WORKFLOW

STAFSON GU

WO R

AZAMTV As one of East Africa’s leading broadcasters, AZAM TV relies on robust and agile production facilities to deliver live sports, entertainment and news programming to audiences across the region. Headliner discovers how it further enhanced the capabilities of one of its OB vehicles with a seamlessly integrated Lawo IP ecosystem.

The project was realised with German systems integrator Broadcast Solutions, one of Europe’s leading broadcast technology integration specialists, responsible for the planning and implementation of complex broadcast infrastructures worldwide.

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

The new installation combines a 32-fader Lawo mc²36 MkII production console with A_stage80 and A_ stage48 stageboxes, an A_digital64 Audio-over-IP gateway, and HOMEenabled control and management. Together, these components form a coherent production environment in which signal acquisition, routing,

processing and control become part of a single, streamlined workflow. At the core of the installation is Lawo HOME, the management platform that brings the entire IP infrastructure together. Automatically discovering and managing connected resources, HOME unifies the mc²36 MkII,

BROADCAST

A_stage80, A__stage48, and A_digital64, as well as third-party devices within a single operational environment, simplifying deployment and day-to-day operation while ensuring seamless interoperability across SMPTE ST 2110, AES67 and RAVENNA networks. Audio enters the system through Lawo’s A_stage80 and A_stage48 stageboxes, positioned wherever signals originate. Microphones, commentary units and other sources are converted directly into IP streams and made instantly available across the network. The resulting reduction in cabling complexity not only accelerates setup and teardown times but also provides the flexibility required for a wide variety of live production scenarios. All signals converge at the mc²36 MkII, whose compact footprint

and comprehensive processing capabilities make it ideally suited to mobile production. Acting as the creative and operational centre of the truck, the console gives operators direct access to all networked resources while delivering the sonic transparency, workflow efficiency and reliability for which Lawo’s mc² family is known. Complementing the IP workflow, the A_digital64 gateway integrates AES3-based devices into the network, ensuring interoperability with existing equipment while preserving a clear path toward future expansion. The result is an infrastructure that remains both technologically open and investment-secure. More than a technical refresh, AZAM TV’s upgrade establishes a connected audio ecosystem in which every element – from stagebox to console,

gateway and management layer – works as part of a unified whole. The benefits are felt throughout the production chain: faster deployment, simpler operation, greater resilience and, ultimately, a consistently superior listening experience for viewers. “The installation of the Lawo mc²36 audio console marks a significant milestone in Azam TV’s broadcast infrastructure,” comments Raghvendra Tiwari, HOD, technical, Azam TV. “It provides a future-ready foundation for IP-based live audio production workflows, delivering greater operational efficiency, enhanced reliability, and the flexibility needed to meet the evolving demands of the broadcast industry.” LAWO.COM

HEADLINERHUB.COM

GONSHIRO

Live production gets cinematic

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

s d

by ALICE

LIVE PRODUCTION GETS CINEMATIC

STAFSON GU

Wo r

LIVE PRODUCTION

GONSHIRO Riedel and ARRI are strengthening their collaboration with Japanese live production specialist Gonshiro Co., Ltd. to advance cinematic live production, combining advanced camera systems, wireless communications, and networking technology for largescale live events. Headliner learns how the three companies are working together to address the growing complexity of modern live productions and to develop workflows that connect imaging, communications, and operations within a single production environment. Gonshiro handles approximately 1,000 live productions each year and is involved in 60% of Japan’s major concerts, spanning music, entertainment, sports, and broadcast events. The company operates 22 ARRI cameras, including 16 ALEXA 35 Live units – among the largest deployments of the camera anywhere – alongside six Riedel Bolero wireless intercom antennas and 15 beltpacks. That scale gives Gonshiro sustained, hands-on experience with both technology platforms in demanding live environments. “The combination of ARRI and Riedel creates exciting possibilities because cameras, communications,

networking, and operations are all part of the same production workflow,” explains Yuji Morihara, president of Gonshiro Co., Ltd. “If we can bring together camera systems, tally, talkback, monitoring environments, and communications into a more integrated environment, the benefits for live production would be absolutely real.” A central part of the collaboration is exchanging operational feedback from Gonshiro’s live production work. That input is informing ongoing dialogue between Riedel and ARRI around live-specific development priorities, including camera-tointercom integration, network-based LUT and settings management across multi-camera deployments, and more compact camera options for tight on-stage positions. “Our goal has always been to create the best possible images while making it easier for crews to do their jobs,” Morihara says. “As productions grow more demanding and experienced technical staff become harder to find, simplifying workflows will become increasingly important. We want camera operators to focus on creativity, not infrastructure.” Gonshiro’s production environment reflects this approach. The company deploys ALEXA 35 Live to bring

cinema-grade quality to live entertainment and uses Bolero to connect mobile camera operators, backstage crews, and production staff. A single Bolero beltpack supports up to six channels of send and receive, and centralised management from one system PC lets engineers configure and monitor communications efficiently across large-scale productions, reducing operational complexity. “Gonshiro operates one of the largest ALEXA 35 Live fleets in the world, and their feedback from live music, sports, and broadcast work is a direct line into how the camera needs to perform outside of a controlled cinema set,” adds Michiyo Funayama, sales manager, ARRI. “That input shapes decisions we make for live production going forward.” “We used a combination of Bolero and MediorNet to solve Gonshiro’s recurring problem: keeping large, distributed crews connected without adding friction to the production,” concludes Guillaume Mauffrey, director of sales Asia, Riedel Communications. “Pairing that expertise with ARRI’s imaging gives us a much more complete answer for live production teams working at this scale.” RIEDEL.NET HEADLINERHUB.COM

NIGHT & DAY

New sound for Manchester icon

BY ALIC E DS

NIGHT&DAY HEADLINER MAGAZINE

STAFSON GU

NEW SOUND FOR MANCHESTER ICON

WO R

INSTALL

setup with specific performance and aesthetic parameters in mind. Having considered the use of CODA’s APS loudspeakers, Adlib settled on a system based around CODA Audio HOPS technology. “The HOPS boxes have amazing power-handling for their size, so this allowed them to be installed above the proscenium, ahead of the stage, and not visually impair performances,” explains Adlib project manager Roger Kirby. “We were mindful of not having hanging loudspeakers, so we designed a distributed system based on four CODA Audio HOPS10i-Pro deployed in two phases.”

Developed into a music venue by maverick Dutch entrepreneur Jan Oldenburg during the early ‘90s, Night & Day is located in Manchester’s vibrant Northern Quarter and remains a vital cultural hub for both local and visiting musicians and creatives. Headliner discovers how a major CODA Audio upgrade is transforming the sound and audience experience at this iconic Manchester grassroots venue. The independent 250-capacity venue still plays a key role in Manchester’s cultural scene and is now owned and run by Oldenburg’s daughter Jennifer and her husband Ben Smithson. The list of major acts who have passed through Night & Day as up-andcomers includes Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, Elbow, Jessie J, Manic Street Preachers, My Chemical Romance, Kneecap, and it remains an important focal point for national and regional tours. The venue’s busy schedule, which sees anything up to five shows a week, places heavy demands on its technical infrastructure, and Ben Smithson, who is in charge of

operations at Night & Day, concluded that its sound system needed attention. The time had come to invest in a major upgrade. “Our first step was to reach out to sound engineers who’d had previous experience of working in the venue – some more than two decades ago – who are now specifying equipment for major tours and festivals,” Smithson explains. “They gladly came back with their thoughts and recommendations based on what was quite a high budget for a grassroots venue. That feedback gave us direction and led us to CODA Audio. “The more we learned about them, the more we liked them. The holistic design philosophy and patented technologies, combined with the backstory of its founder being a former musician, all felt right. We had our heart set on CODA Audio, so we reached out to Adlib to design and install a new system.”

As well as the four HOPS10i-Pro units, two HOPS8i are located behind the mix position as rear delays, with a further two HOPS8i as side stage fills. Three CODA Audio U4 dual18” subwoofers line the front of the stage, meanwhile stage monitoring is courtesy of four CODA Audio CUE TWO stage monitors and the system is powered by eight CODA Audio LINUS6.4i DSP amplifiers. “I’m fully aware of the legacy of this venue and even mixed a few gigs here back in the mid ‘90s,” Kirby reflects. “It’s a well-loved room, historic in Manchester and means so much to the city. Everyone at Adlib is delighted to have delivered this level of upgrade to it. A special mention must go to our systems technical manager, George Puttock, for sound design work and commissioning on the project.” “Because of the intimacy of the venue, the audience experience has been massively elevated by the new CODA Audio system,” agrees Smithson. “Adlib came in and delivered in buckets. We were super impressed with them at every stage, including all their work prior to the installation to model the venue and ensure full coverage in the areas we wanted. The project has exceeded our expectations.” CODAAUDIO.COM

Liverpool-based audio specialist Adlib set about designing a new audio HEADLINERHUB.COM

DAVID BOWIE’S LOST PA

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

Crossover of Dreams

ICE GUSTA AL

ON FS

ords by W

LIVE SOUND

CROSSOVER OF DREAMS

DAVID BOWIE’S LOST PA For years, one of David Bowie’s most iconic PA systems was sitting in a garden shed in Slough. Now, more than five decades after it powered the Ziggy Stardust era, the original Turner Audio system has been brought back to life by audio historian Chris Hewitt of CH Vintage Audio.

Following the global success of his Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii PA restoration, Hewitt has completed his latest project: the relaunch of Bowie’s 1972–73, Celestion-loaded Ground Control PA system, which powered David Bowie and The Spiders from Mars during a pivotal period in the artist’s career. Created by Turner Audio, this historic analogue wall of sound was officially relaunched in July 2026. The legendary rig served as the sonic engine behind David

Bowie and Mick Ronson during their creative zenith, culminating in the final, iconic Ziggy concert at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973. Hewitt delves into the painstaking process of tracking down the original cabinets, the unique design of Turner’s enclosure cabinets, and why classic analogue audio continues to outshine modern digital rigs.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

DAVID BOWIE’S LOST PA

Crossover of Dreams

Your restoration of Pink Floyd’s Pompeii system was a big success. Did that directly inspire you to tackle David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust PA? Yes, it did. Following the Pompeii project, we also recommissioned Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon PA. Once we had succeeded with those rigs, the David Bowie system was the logical next step. How did you manage to acquire Bowie’s original Ground Control system? It’s a classic rock ’n’ roll story. I was supplying the vintage PA systems for Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols television series, Pistol. The opening scene dramatises the Pistols breaking into the Hammersmith Odeon during Bowie’s final Ziggy gig to steal his microphones. I had to build a replica of Bowie’s stage setup for that shoot, so I knew what I was looking for. Shortly after, I was at the PLASA show in London and a chap came up to me. He said, “I’ve seen what you’re doing. I actually have David Bowie’s Ground Control system from The

Spiders from Mars tour sitting in my garden shed in Slough.” I hear these kinds of claims all the time, and 90% of them turn out to be nonsense. But we exchanged cards, and a year later, he rang me to say he’d dug it all out. I drove down in my truck and picked up the authentic cabinets. We spent the next three to four years contacting the original crew, gathering schematics, and rebuilding the rig to its exact historical spec. What is the historical background of how David Bowie ended up using this particular system? It started with Tucky Buzzard, a band produced by Bill Wyman and managed by Tony Defries, who also managed David Bowie on his early rise to global stardom. Tony had bought a Turner PA system for Tucky Buzzard’s tour and one night, Defries put a young Bowie on the bill as a support act. This was before The Spiders from Mars band, and it was just David and guitarist Mick Ronson on stage.

Bowie was incredibly impressed by the sound of the Turner PA and spoke to the soundman, Robin Mayhew, about running his live audio. Recognising Bowie’s star potential, Defries bought the PA back from Tucky Buzzard, expanded it, and hired Robin to run the sound. The Turner Ground Control PA was born, eventually expanding to a 24-channel Turner mixer powering legendary tours across the UK, America and Japan. What did Bowie find so special about the Turner Ground Control system? Bowie absolutely loved the system because of how it controlled feedback. The cabinet designs allowed him to climb up onto the stacks or sing directly in front of them without any feedback issues. Turner utilised very unusual designs. He used reflex cabinets—similar in size to a traditional WEM 4x12 but wider—with a 15-inch speaker facing backwards, ported at both the top and bottom. Above that sat a frontfacing 15-inch flare bass bin, a 10inch midrange cabinet, and various high-frequency horns. Visually, the system was very distinct because Turner fitted custom one-inch aluminium trim on the edges of all his cabinets. Which Celestion drivers are featured inside this restored Bowie system? Inside the speaker stacks, the 10-inch midrange cabinets are loaded with Celestion G10L-35 10-inch drivers, and several of the high-frequency horn boxes are fitted with Celestion DC100 compression drivers. Additionally, we have Celestion T1791 G15C 15-inch drivers running inside the reflex bass bins. It’s also worth noting that Mick Ronson’s legendary guitar tone was driven by Celestion. On stage with the Spiders, Ronson ran a 200-watt Marshall head through Marshall cabinets loaded with classic Celestion

HEADLINER MAGAZINE

LIVE SOUND

Greenbacks. So Celestion’s signature sound was truly voicing both the instruments and the main PA on those tours. Did you have to do extensive restoration work to bring this decades-old PA back to life? Fortunately, I have accumulated a massive stock of vintage 1970s Celestion speakers on the shelves of my workshop—from 10s and 12s to

rare pre-Rola drivers—all of which are fully functional. This made it straightforward to load the cabinets with historically correct, working components to get the system operational. How are the crossovers set up on the Turner system? In the early Ziggy era of 1972, they ran the PA full range with no electronic crossovers. They used passive

capacitors on the positive leg of the horn drivers to protect them and set the crossover frequency, but the 15-inch and 10-inch drivers were getting the same full-range signal. By late 1972 and early 1973, Turner introduced a two-way crossover. We have restored the system to accommodate both options, allowing us to experiment with both historical configurations.

HEADLINERHUB.COM

DAVID BOWIE’S LOST PA

Crossover of Dreams

You officially unveiled the system with a live band. What was it like hearing David Bowie’s music through the restored rig for the first time? It sounded absolutely magnificent— so organic and natural. We set up an outdoor stage on my property. Before the band started, I played the Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory albums through the PA just to hear it. When we switched the PA on with a live Bowie cover band, it all fell into place immediately. There was no wandering around with an iPad adjusting digital processors. You simply plugged it in, adjusted your basic levels on the analogue console, and it sounded incredible. We overcomplicate modern sound with computers. Why do you feel it is so vital for people to experience classic rock through authentic, analogue systems? Because modern live sound has become too homogenised and clinical. Today, concert audio is driven by accountants, because of HEADLINER MAGAZINE

the cost-effective choices that are made. Everything is run direct to the mixing desk via digital emulators; you rarely see real, massive guitar stacks moving air on stage anymore. The musicians are on in-ear monitors, and the audience gets a heavily compressed, processed digital feed. Classic rock and roll was created by physical air moving out of big speaker cabinets. In my view, the speakers are the most critical link in the entire audio chain and Britishmade Celestion drivers give them their distinct, organic warmth. When a bassist and guitarist move air with massive cabinets, the drummer feels it, the band reacts, and the audience experiences a physical, exciting performance. What does the Celestion brand represent to you as an audio historian? Celestion is the ultimate survivor. Back in the late 1960s, the British audio market was dominated by three main manufacturers. Celestion has outlasted them all.

They have successfully maintained their dominance in both the highpower pro-audio PA market and the guitar speaker market for decades. Whenever you pop the back off a vintage cabinet from almost any major manufacturer, more often than not, you’re going to find a Celestion driver inside. Celestion is, quite simply, the voice of rock history. CELESTION.COM CHVINTAGEAUDIO.UK

BOOTH N1821

SEE IT. LOVE IT. REPLAY IT. RIMOTION REPLAY

REPLAY FOR EVERYBODY, EVERYWHERE. RiMotion is an easy-to-install replay solution that can be implemented almost instantly in broadcast environments of any scale. It streamlines traditional and modern workﬂows and provides real-time performance, even when working remotely.

• Intuitive touchscreen UI • Dedicated Remote Controller • Compact 1RU or 2RU server

Available in seven cost-eﬀective bundles

RiMotion R6, R8, R10, R12 & R16 with 6 to 16 HD channels RiMotion R84 & R168 with up to 8 UHD SDR / 16 HD HDR channels

SUPER-SLOMO CAPABLE

riedel.net

The FIRST Compact , dual 12”, dual DDP, high output line array system

‘Innovation not imitation’ Still the lightest* Still the smallest Still the most powerful Still the best return on your investment

*40kg

356 mm

674 mm

555 mm

https://www.codaaudio.com/speakers/airay/

What makes the difference? Our patented DDP Technology