Articles - Interviews

“The best moment for me this year was when I was DJing and during a long track popped to the bar for a beer. As I ordered, the barman smiled and asked me if I’d like to join him to go and empty the toilets together. He hadn’t realized I was DJing.”

Berlin based tech-house type Sven L is ‘DJs With Bad Haircuts’

Articles - Interviews

“At Secret Island, people arrive with a respect for the climate and learn to enjoy it, in all its glorious dimensions and variations. It shows that we are not masters of this planet as many people think in most capitalist societies. We are here for a cosmic coincidence of gases and explosions . . .”

Articles - Interviews

“There are force 12 hurricane strength storms (like last year), spiky plants scratching your ankles, red stinging jellyfish in the sea, mountain rocks yet no trees or shelter other than your tent . . . Then you’ve got to cope with wet pants up to your knickers, rain lashing you hard in the face side-ways and the fact that you’ve got no idea when the next meal is really gonna’ be served or if indeed there's going to be enough food left for you when it’s your turn.

Then there’s no running water or showers on the island at all (not even a tap) and you've got the choice between going to the toilet in a crack in the rocks or a wooden shithouse filled to the brim, with no lights . . . and yet you can't think of a better place to be. What do I think of Secret Island Festival? IT'S BRILLIANT . . .!”

Articles - Interviews

“You don't necessarily have to be a rugged lumberjack survivalist type to stay on the island, but if you're the kind of person who needs to wear high heels and make-up at all times to feel comfortable it may not be for you. But if you're not made out of sugar, and you don't mind a bit of nature, you'll have a blast . . . “

Articles - Interviews

“In the late seventies and early eighties the yuppies were total losers in New York club-land. By the nineties they had taken it over. I never saw that one coming. However, I think that they and Mayor Giuliani get way too much credit for New York's cultural downfall. I think that they are symptoms of the decline but not the cause of it.”

Starting his DJ career at New York’s seminal downtown underground haunt the Mudd Club in 1980, Johnny Dynell rapidly became one of the City’s busiest and most popular underground DJs, going on to hold residencies at nightlife institutions including Danceteria, Tunnel, Palladium and later Crobar (between 2003 and 2007). A leading light and key player in the post-punk early 80s club scene that helped spawn both hip hop and later house music, he hung out with both Madonna (when she was a Danceteria coat check girl) and later David Morales, when the future house God was a teenage gang-banger.

Spending his entire adult life DJing, promoting and producing electronic music in New York, he’s perfectly placed to identify the forces that destroyed New York’s once fabled nightlife, singling out gentrification as one of the greatest single causes.