Photography by: Quasar Media
Words by: Nina Posner
Club Aerobics wants to make you sweat. Three LA-based, already-rad-in-their-own-right DJs and producers (DUCKY, Bianca Oblivion, and Suspect Bitch) have come together to form a collective, label, and radio show, all with the mission of getting you out on the floor. The project has only been around for a couple months, but it’s easy to see why so many people have been drawn to it already – Club Aerobics’ “no genres, no rules” philosophy creates an accessible space where anything goes, so long as everyone dances.
Seeking to showcase the most dynamic, club-ready tracks out there, the label side of the project has so far released two incredibly hype songs (one from DUCKY, one from Japanese producer Ryuki Miyamoto). The radio show, two unmissable hours of sheer, unrelenting energy, was previously aired live on Sub FM every Tuesday night, and will be moving to a new station very soon. Over email, we got to talk with Club Aerobics about what it takes to kick off a label, inequality in dance music, and the future of the club scene.
From what I understand, Club Aerobics is many things – a label, a collective, a radio show, a club night. What is the general philosophy of the project, and how does each individual facet complement that philosophy?
Across the board, our philosophy is simple: we push dance tracks to help you make ‘em sweat. We are genre-free but consistently club-ready. Each Club Aerobics outlet serves as a tool for the same ultimate goal: to push and play dance music we believe in.
P.S. We’re not actually a club night! We play b3b sets as Club Aerobics, but we’re waiting for the right time to begin throwing curated events.
How did you all meet each other, and come up with the idea of Club Aerobics?
The short story is that we met through the Internet, but all ended up doing some work for a different label IRL. We quickly realized we all shared the same vision: a solid outlet for club-ready tracks, that one-stop source for building out your set list. It was a wide-open space, and we went for it!
Your styles of music complement each other, in that you all play super high-energy club jams that really get people going. Do you three envision any collabs with each other, live or recorded?
Absolutely! As we mentioned, we have been performing b3b and there will definitely be a Club Aerobics production collab in the future.
I love the LA scene because at the moment it seems there are so many great spaces for groups typically marginalized in music. Do you think Club Aerobics can act as another one of these spaces? How so?
This is always an interesting question to address. As individuals, all of us are vocal about the lack of representation in dance music, and the challenges many artists face in a scene that is unfriendly or even actively hostile to anyone who doesn’t fit a very specific profile. Behind the scenes at Club Aerobics, we make a conscious effort to seek out and support artists of color, women, queer, trans, and gender nonconforming individuals. But we deliberately keep these efforts out of our “brand”. Parading around your support of marginalized groups reinforces the idea that their participation in the scene is somehow novel. It can also turn off the people who need the most convincing – if you’re conscious of and care about inequality in dance music, there’s a good chance you’re already seeking these artists out. But if you’ve got a distaste for engaging in social issues, we have a much better chance of getting your eyes on these artists by keeping advocacy out of our Twitter bio. If we can provide artists with a larger audience by being a little sneaky with our activism, we’re gonna be sneaky.
The first Club Aerobics release, Ducky’s “Work”, is a 150 bpm anthem that playfully and directly addresses the inequities and assumptions regularly faced by women In the music industry. Did anything in particular inspire that track, or was it a long time coming? Can you talk a bit about why you chose that song for your first release?
Hi, DUCKY here! I actually wrote this track long before Club Aerobics was even a thought. It was like…my battle anthem. I didn’t know where to release it, and when Club Aerobics started to come together it was too obvious of a fit not to go for it. Not much of a plan behind this one, just serendipity.
Recently, there has been a lot of press focusing on the same issues discussed in “Work”, both negative (ex: the Justin James incident) and positive (ex: various lists by major publications highlighting women DJ crews all over the world). Are we making progress in changing the industry to a safer, more welcoming space for people who aren’t straight white dudes? Do you think marginalized groups can ever truly reclaim the club, or do we have to build a new scene for ourselves that will truly suit our purposes?
It’s impossible to answer this question for the “industry” as a whole – it comprises too many independent and interconnected scenes to speak broadly about something as complex as inequality.
First off: there have always been spaces in the underground dominated by and open to marginalized groups, from disco to ballroom to Baltimore club. That’s who invented modern dance music. Which is not to say that these subcultures could be considered safe spaces for everyone – there are styles pioneered by POC with notoriously sexist scenes, gender equality movements that fail to include trans and gender nonconforming people, etc. Some scenes are simply inclusive of the people who created them, because they created them. It’s when a culture is co-opted that it becomes exclusive for all individuals but straight white men. It’s also important to note that there are already specific underground movements for whom the club is a deliberately political space – KUNQ is a good example.
But your examples, like much of the current public discourse, focus specifically on sexism against cisgender women in EDM. We think there’s always hope, and things are looking up – people seem ready for the conversation, at least. Gender equality movements like Discwoman are doing things right. Female producer/DJs are rising through every genre, from Mija to Maya Jane Coles to Rezz to The Black Madonna. More women at the top means a lot of things. As they rise, they can biggup and bring up other women, the way men have for years. Like a trickle-down economy of success that actually works. Increased visibility for these incredibly talented artists also works against one of the most unfortunate assumptions about women in dance music: that they can’t produce or DJ. As ludicrous as it is, the (not so) subtle sexism of lowered expectations is pervasive. We hope it begins to erode. That visibility can also inspire and invite more women to participate in dance music, expanding the pool of female talent that bookers and labels can tap into.
TL;DR… it’s complicated.
Ultimately, what do you want Club Aerobics to accomplish? What does 2016 hold for you all?
We’re just here to make, play, and release good music. Check in every first Tuesday of the month for our next free single, and keep an eye out for our b3b sets, an upcoming compilation, and a big announcement about our radio show!
