Jordan Nocturne

Hey! I'm great, thank you. I'm just back from Love International in Croatia, where we hosted a sold-out boat party as The Night Institute. Black Bones, Jonnie Wilkes from Optimo, and I played back to back — it was a very wholesome party. We all agreed that the entire festival was filled with truly authentic people and parties, everyone smiling, looking out for each other. I caught up with friends from New York, LA, Belfast, and London. It was a really beautiful trip.

I guess I'm always making music that fits into various parts of my sets. I'm very lucky to be booked for peak time festival sets, setting the tone as a support for artists I admire, as well as getting the opportunity to play all night long with Timmy Stewart at The Night Institute. So there's not really a ‘one size fits all’ sound to my productions. This release was meant for peak time crowds. It's playful and a reminder that not everything has to be too serious.

Rachael (Ambient Babestation Meltdown) has been a long-time supporter of my music, and I share her enthusiasm for everything she does. She's a great DJ and person, and our musical timelines have crossed paths a few times before knowing each other, from indie sleaze to a mutual love for electroclash. We'd had a tongue-in-cheek idea to record a vocal run of various types of dancefloor stimuli, and when she played it on NTS Radio, the chat room blew up, so it's eventually out in the world!

I love a piano, and a lot of the music that Peggy has played of mine in the past has been euphoric piano music with more than a nod to the past, so it was a perfect fit for Gudu. It has an energy that I've always been drawn to. I grew up playing trance and big room house records, and while it wasn't something I really thought about listening to for over a decade, it's only in the last few years that I've reconnected with those early inspirations. I've found there’s a real joy in being able to reinterpret those sounds through a modern lens, where it doesn’t feel like pastiche.

I'd regard Insane and Feel in the same musical sphere, personally. Insane is a chunky acid-led club track, while Feel has a similar sonic palette. In both of them, there are very few elements, but it's the FX, transitions, and subtle changes that keep things interesting and give the tracks movement. Insane actually samples an old hard trance track that I used to play in one of my early residencies, and the glitchy vocal in Feel is another sample from an old school house track that I didn't play, but was definitely on my periphery.

It's really changed everything about my outlook as a producer and DJ. The Night Institute has a benchmark for all other gigs I play. We're truly lucky to have such an energetic and engaged community, and there's great chemistry between Timmy and me when we play. We're always challenging each other musically, finding new artists and digging out old finds. In the studio, I'm inspired by tracks that went off at certain points of the five-hour set, and those that I maybe don't have enough of. Similarly, having prepared so many folders for extended sets at The Night Institute takes the pressure off a little as a DJ when you arrive at a new venue, and you have the versatility to adapt accordingly.

I don't think we've been called a global institution before — we'll have to start getting the branded coffee cups into production! But that's very kind, thank you! This year in particular, we've had parties in Valencia, Croatia, with London, Liverpool, and Ibiza lined up, but we've been very lucky to work with partners in those cities who have had the same ethos and DIY drive as us, so maybe that's where the synergy lies. We've felt lucky in that the energy seems to translate wherever we go, and we still haven't been disappointed. The longer the set is, the more riotous it seems to get.

I'm actually feeling quite burnt out at the minute, but I'm not really supposed to admit to that, am I?! We have a lot of big parties with The Night Institute this month, which means a lot to both of us for them to be the best they can be. There's a lot of creative back and forth on promotion, site production and planning, so there's not a lot of downtime to be had right now.
I'm also heading to Pikes and New York over the next couple of weeks, which are places I have taken a lot of inspiration from, and clubs there that I've either wanted to play or have long-term relationships with, so I guess there's a drive to do a good job, which keeps me on my toes.

It's definitely important to be able to be reactive and versatile as a DJ, regardless of where you're playing. Saturday past in Tisno is probably a good example. Playing in the sun amongst friends on a boat at 2 pm meant things started around 80 bpms, whereas darker rooms and sweatboxes can be more likely to lend themselves to high energy and moments.

I was conflicted about it for a while, and settled into the idea that we are quite fortunate, particularly us artists coming from working-class backgrounds, to have these free platforms to share music, share our inspirations and share moments with people who want to hear them. For me, as long as what I'm sharing on social media is related back to sharing music, I think that's as authentic as I can be. While, of course, there's the flipside that the more money people can pump into content and these platforms, the bigger their perception can be, I think most promoters who do things for the right reasons can see through what has quality control and what is smoke and mirrors.

It's everything. I've no interest in the cliquey industry DJ green room culture. The Night Institute, in particular, has nice people who are there for the right reasons, so it's important that we give back to those people, whether it be with our time, our performance, or the odd guest list if someone's supported us. It's nice to give back. We would not have a party that has lasted ten years without the community that allows us to continue to do this, so it's a two-way street.

I've been making edits for quite some time of non-club music, and it's something I'm quite comfortable with as I grew up listening to bands and DJs, and going to student parties where they were played side by side. The Franz Ferdinand remix was a straightforward one, as I think there's a lot of electronic edge to what they do anyway. When I was growing up, they were already being remixed by the likes of Erol Alkan, Daft Punk, and Trentemoller, so it's not difficult to reimagine their music in a club setting.

Gudu is a great label, and Peggy has been particularly supportive of many emerging artists. I've always played the Matrefakt records that come out on Gudu, as well as the Matisa and DMX Krew releases. I think it's a truly diverse community of artists, and I'm delighted to be a part of it. Also, special shout-out to Tom from the label, as he's been a dream to communicate with.

I think caring less about what's perceived as cool and or relevant is important. Spend less time at afterparties. If you go to bed, you get two parties for the price of one. I think it's good to be open to your sound evolving and being inspired by both the new and old.

I actually spent so much time in the studio at the beginning of the year to plan my twelve months of releases, but they've all landed pretty much in quick succession. I have an EP dropping on Cormac's Polari label — he’s been a real friend to me in music over recent years, and I think the new EP can stand shoulder to shoulder with the last one we worked on together, so I'm happy about that. We're continuing our ten years of The Night Institute tour, and next week we have our biggest show yet with our annual EastSide Electronics open-air show in Belfast. We've got Luke Una, Erol Alkan as well as Belfast's finest: Venus Dupree and Katie.em joining me and Timmy. We're also bang in the middle of a various artists EP featuring Spencer Parker, Lauer, Capes, Viper Patrol and Neville Watson, so it's a busy, busy summer!