Turntables and Transitions: Lex Nell on the Rise

Welcome to the Vinyl Underground Podcast: Behind the Deck Series! In this episode, hosts Tony Technique and Tim Pinner sit down with Lex Nell, an emerging musician, DJ, vocalist, and songwriter from the North Carolina electronic music scene. Lex shares her eclectic musical journey, from her beginnings in New York City's band life to her breakthrough in the Raleigh area. Discover how Lex seamlessly blends various genres, her influences, and her thoughts on the evolving electronic music scene. Lex also discusses her upcoming projects, local residencies, and the importance of community support. Tune in for an in-depth and inspiring conversation with one of the most versatile and passionate artists making waves today.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:31 Lex Nell's Musical Journey
08:28 Transition to DJing
11:25 Exploring Musical Styles and Influences
26:33 Upcoming Projects and Events
31:45 Upcoming Day Parties and Events
32:41 The Rise of Female DJs
33:09 Favorite Female DJs and Influences
36:43 Shoutouts and Acknowledgements
37:25 Ideal Collaborations and Career Aspirations
40:36 Musical Background and Influences
42:50 DJ Sets and Performances
48:59 Equipment and Sound Quality
54:57 Local Music Scene and Events
01:00:07 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Creators and Guests

Host

Tim Piner

Host of the Vinyl Underground Podcast

Host

Tony Rivera

Built from the streets Specializing in Crowd Control

Guest

Lex Nell

NC underground dance music bookings & guest mixes - [e-mail]

What is The Vinyl Underground?

Welcome to The Vinyl Underground, a podcast created by fans, for fans of electronic music in North Carolina. Hosted by Crowd Control, this show dives deep into the local and regional scenes across Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, and Wilmington.

Our first series, Behind the Decks, showcases the hottest emerging DJs—sharing their stories, musical styles, inspirations, and favorite dancefloor moments. Whether you're Gen Z discovering the scene or a seasoned Gen X raver revisiting your roots, The Vinyl Underground is where beats meet community.

Tune in, get inspired, and stay connected to the movement.

002 Vinyl Underground - Lex Nell
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Default_2025-05-07_1: Welcome to the Vinyl Underground Podcast, behind the deck series.

I'm your host Tony Technique, along with my co-host Tim Pinner. Our guest today is Lex Nell, a, a musician and DJ who also has a history as a vocalist and songwriter. Lex is a rising artist in the North Carolina electronic music scene and has been creating quite a following with her eclectic DJ sets and well-rounded style.

Welcome Lex to show. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Good to see you guys. Alright. Yes. Cheers. Glad to be here. I've been following you, you know, already for since what? After set you free before that actually, I, I started seeing you your name pop up. I don't know, maybe ever after 2021 or something like that, in which, yeah, you, I think that's around the time when you really started breaking out, right?

Yeah, that's when I came down. Yeah. And that's from Got in early, got in from, came down from New York or something, right? Yeah, I came down from New York, slowly came down. I was in Wilmington for a year before I made it [00:02:00] to Raleigh, but I think by the time we did set you free, that was, I was in town for maybe not quite six months yet, so.

Oh, wow. You met me, like pretty did know that. Yeah. You guys both met me pretty soon after I moved to the area. That's right. That's right. And yeah, I'm still fairly new in the scheme of things. Yeah. I, I feel like an old veteran of the scene now, but I know, yeah. I remember seeing your name, like pop up on, on different, you know, flyers and whatnot, and I'm like, you know, who's this Lex now?

And I've, you know. Um, kind of merging out into the, into the scene and whatnot. And then I started, then we met you at set You free and you know your history. I know that you were up in New York for some time. I was there. Yeah. I was in New York City proper for 11 years.

Mm-hmm. Um, but the majority of my time there, I was, um a band leader, vocalist songwriter, doing band life. So I was not DJing for the majority of my time in New York. I was, I was in a different zone doing like [00:03:00] art. That's awesome. Art pop. Art rock stuff. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I heard a little bit of your, your little vocalist just before a few minutes ago.

What did you do? You lit a little harmonization. I did. Let's hear next. Oh, that's hysterical. No, that's enough for another podcast. Yeah, that's try. I can sample your own stuff though, see? Oh yeah. Your own Cynthia vocals. Yeah. Yeah. Just sneak, yeah, sneak, sneak on in there. Be some, yeah. I ha I do have some tr I do have some things in the works to, to to incorporate vocals, but I'm not gonna speak too much on that now.

Mm-hmm. But I do plan on singing again. It's been a, a very long break. , The longest break I've ever taken. Um, but I've been singing since I was a little, a little one. And, um, yeah. People don't really know me as a singer in Raleigh. They, they know me predominantly as a dj, but I'm, I'm looking forward to bringing that back out a little bit.

Cool. I kind of feel like, I kind feel like it's time Is like a swipe back. You mean in, in a band or kind of just, um, [00:04:00] no, I think I'm gonna, I think I'm going to, I have some, I have some things in the work to do some experiments in with, in conjunction with my DJ sets. That's cool. Bad. That's awesome.

Yeah. Right. So I'm, I'm started the rehearsals for, for that and we'll see what happens. I mean, I, that's good. I could do bands again, honestly. Yeah. I've, I have a jazz background. I've thought about like, getting into jazz singing and stuff like that, but, um, we'll see, there's a lot of time for that, so That's awesome.

Yeah, a real musician. She can lay down every layer she wants. And that's come from different, that's refreshing. Yeah. I, I, everybody has that. I come from a my dad's a full-time, you know, musician and his dad was a musician and jazz fusion, yeah, definitely in the blood.

It's the blood. Blood. DNA. Yeah. Yeah. It's in the dna. That's awesome. Mm-hmm. Thanks. Thanks. Parents? Yeah. I'm super blessed. My and my mom's like, um, incredible music lover [00:05:00] and like the taste is just so my mom loves, like, she'll come to the raves. Like she's down, like anything. I show her, she's down for. Yeah.

I saw her one time at, at one of the Bodies. Yeah. She'll see her around, you'll see Amy Nelson around from time to time. Wow. Wow. Put around Blast. Um, that's pretty awesome. Yeah. I've been really blessed with like, awesome musical parents that have been supportive of music and have good taste and stuff. And have you done like training, like vocal training or study piano and stuff?

Yeah, I mean, so I grew up, um, I grew up playing violin. I was just telling Tim mm-hmm. Um, before we started so I did violin all throughout this, all throughout school. I wasn't particularly great at it, but I have a really good ear. Um, I, I write on keys. Again, I don't consider myself a pianist, but I can get around well enough to play in bands and so I, I can play to a certain degree, but I'm not like super proficient in complicated sheet reading, you know sight [00:06:00] reading.

I was like a choir girl all growing up. And I also was a theater kid, the choral aspect was a lot of awesome music training. Um, and I did do like some, I did like some vocal lessons, but more so for like nerdy stuff like competitions and trying to, not necessarily for like learning, but for like being, trying to get gold medals.

Yes. As a nerd dominating. That's cool. I did study jazz for a bit in New York. I studied, out of the New England Conservatory for a little while. I thought maybe I wanted, wanna do that in New York, but then I ended up just doing my own music. So there's, there's some training, but, a lot of it is like ear and feel and.

Jeans, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Having the ear for just Yeah. Humanization. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't like everything. Mm-hmm. Part natural part you worked hard at Yeah. Filling in the blanks on technical aspects. Right. But also I think you have to kind of both gifts to Yeah. [00:07:00] Collectively. And I went to like a conservatory program in college and I had to do like music theory classes in there, in, in, um, that program.

And I. Just was not, I'm not good at music theory, but I'm like really good at cheating. 'cause I can use my ear to cheat. Mm-hmm. So I can like get by, but Right. I'm not really doing it the way you're supposed to do it. I'm not really doing any of it the way you're supposed to do it. I don't know which, which musician?

Um, it's like some famous musician I know. If it's like some jazz musician, I don't know if it's Miles Davis and one of those guys. Anyway, I never studied their music theory and never don't even know how to read sheet music. But they're like amazing. Right. I not, I might not, I might not be the right artist.

Yeah. That's, that's a fact man. Some are well trained and they work hard at, they're not naturals, but others are. Yeah. Stevie Wonder. This guy's a blind. I mean, they can even read cheat music, right? They do everything by ear and whatnot, you know, so it's a talent, you know, that doesn't need, need to be so formal.

I'm a firm believer in that, is like, you don't need to like, reach music theory level X, y, Z in order to like [00:08:00] be a creator and make things like with if you wanna do it, you can do it. I don't think a lot of people feel like super blocked 'cause they don't have like a formal training in music.

And I just, I definitely am like, I have both lived it and know it's like you don't really, you don't really need that stuff. If you have a passion for it, you know, you're down to like experiment and Sure. And it with, now there's YouTube, so you know. Right. The rest is history now I know you gotta play, you gotta play that game a little in a way.

Then you got into DJing after your vocal, after your, yeah, so I was doing like band Life for, played in other people's bands, um, you know, smaller bands. We, I did like some small touring internationally and nationally. Nothing crazy. I always needed to have a music project in my life.

While I was working day jobs, like I always needed to be in a band or singing my band, um, in New York before I left. Um, I was like on average like six [00:09:00] piece. And I, I inherently, I don't love managing people and being a band leader, I had fantastic, I worked with fantastic musicians that were lovely people and were incredible to work with, but it's just not really like, my favorite aspect of music is, you know, having to manage bands.

So I, I kind of burn out on that whole zone and I got into DJing because I just wanted to. Feel like just complete joy in music again. Mm-hmm. Because band leading and doing that whole thing had like, kind of become kind of stressful for me. And so I had also like some background doing radio in college.

I'd always like, I'd had a music blog for friends. I was always sending like mix tapes to people and stuff like that. So I already was curating from like a very young age. And I, I was like encouraged to DJ [00:10:00] much younger, but I just expected it to be very expensive. I just thought I couldn't afford to do it and this, and, you know, that's kind of when it was a little more expensive, it's, you know, um mm-hmm.

But now it's not. When I got into it, I, I think I started, I started actually gigging in like 2019 in New York. Um, I finally like, I was bedroom DJing for a while mm-hmm. And doing radio and stuff like that. And yeah, so 2019 came and it was, it was going really good. Um, found myself a crew and played some shows and it was going really good.

And then, and then the Covid days hit. So, so it, it was a, a break from, from there. It wasn't much to do it New York at that time. And I left, um, did a bunch of radio during those days and, and now here we are. That's amazing. So, honestly, even though I started in New York, I feel like I've gotten my feet wet more here in North Carolina than I really did as a DJ in [00:11:00] New York.

I got some tastes of it. I got some good times, but I've been doing a lot more here than I ever really did DJ Wise in New York, but my sound, I think, is influenced by New York a lot. Nice. I think when people hear me down here, they notice they, they're kinda like, what's your, like, where are you from?

Like, yeah. You know, they don't, I don't identify, like my sound doesn't always inherently identify as like a North Carolinian. Yeah, I'm kinda like, where are you from? What's going on? Right. 'cause I was, I was wondering Dad, like, you know, why electronic music? Why don't you just become like a, you know, wedding DJ or something?

I don't know. I mean, oh, she's not mainstream. That's, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't even know. I wouldn't even know. Um, listen, and I'm not knocking wedding. Your disco sets are solid though. You could still do. Thank you. Yeah, that's one of, yeah, I'm doing a monthly, a monthly disco thing. Yeah. Which has been really, really fun.

I wasn't, I wasn't sure what to make of it 'cause I kind of started out DJing some disco. Yeah. That was kind of like the beginnings. When I would do some, like bar dates, I would always incorporate disco. And one of the radio shows I was on in New [00:12:00] York, um, was a soul base station. And so we, I would do some like disco, um, to kind of like.

Mold into Yes. You know, what kind of worked with that platform. Sure. Disco definitely worked in that zone. So I, I kind of started out doing some more disco, and it's been a long time now. I don't play disco anymore, but I've started doing this monthly at, um, velvet Hippo in Durham. It's been super fun. Has it? And it's like, really? I thought it was gonna be a piece of cake, but it's, it's great practice because so many of those tracks were recorded live, um, without a click. So you, you really, it's very close to having to play vinyl because the tempos move a lot. It's a very live feel.

It's the grid. It's not on the grid. Nothing's on the grid. So it's, it's a good, it's good practice for your ear , when it comes to disco? I mean, we know the influences from Chicago and Detroit, New York, and there's, you know, a certain epicenter of, of that, or is it.

Are there a ton of new artists that are in that vein too, that you can kind of play modern 2025 people still putting out in that [00:13:00] genre, but with there are with an electronic feel that's Yeah, there are a lot. Um, there are a lot. I've, my sets I've been trying to grab into the older bag. Mm-hmm. More for mine.

But there is a lot of newer, it's updated. Yeah. A lot of newer disco. Yeah. There's a lot of new stuff coming out that's super good. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have a show on Dance Groove Radio in Durham. Yes. And there's a really good disco show on there, and they play a lot.

And I can't remember the DJs now. Um, if anyone wants to hit me up, I can get the name for you. Yeah. But they play a lot of really good current disco stuff. That's cool. That's been really cool Too. Outdated, because it's not something that like I'm always on. Right. You know, the, it's not, I'm not on the. Um, I don't always have the tip for it 'cause there's, I'm digging for so many things and that's not generally, it's on the list. I just can't get to everything on the list. They call it new disco, right? I mean that's like the drawn disco to an extent. Like there are And new disco. Yeah, it's definitely a sound. I went through that phase kind of 2015, I don't know. [00:14:00] Just mm-hmm. New di you know, like, um. Like Inspector Norris, there's a song, like there's Certain Track.

Oh, well that's stuff I love. That's true. New disco. Yeah. Yeah. And I and U Disco. Yeah, I have played that at the dis Yeah. I had, yeah, one of the nights recently Did a lot of the Todd or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of like, um, the French influence The French, yeah. The Italian stuff. Love that. From like, you know, those early two thousands, the Cassius, the Air Punk Justice, I played all of those tracks the other night.

I was like, I gotta do the French House. That scene is so good. Early Def Punk. I mean, jeez. Yeah. So good. So good. Yeah. That's some of my favorite. That's, that's some of my favorites. If we don't go back to the seventies, eighties, then I air love a good French house. French disco, like Yeah. Classics. They don't, they are Never gets old.

Never gets old. No, that's good stuff. And it went over super well because Yeah, it's never gonna get, never gonna get old. And then fossils like me running around get to sort. Oh yeah, I know they shake. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But then, but then the young people don't even know why they like it, but then they get to hear it for the first time.

It's like 20, you know, like it's kind of way before [00:15:00] 25 year olds at this point. Yeah. Unless they're super, you know, like knowledgeable. They might never have heard that stuff or they, until Kanye samples that or something, man. Right, right. Yeah. You guys get production, but it's kinda like, ah, this is bigger, stronger, fast, rather, it's like, yeah, they're doing so, so many You messed up my DAF punk track.

Yeah, didn't they do a re like they just redid like lady? Oh yeah. I'm like, why are we doing that? No. So freaking don't redo that. My fitness music that's like, what is that Mojo? The original Majo Ma Majo. Something like that.

Why are we redo that? Yeah. It's a classic. No, no, no offense. Yeah. No. It's a four to five remixes are never, they shouldn't even try. It's like it is still fresh. Yeah, it still fresh. Yeah. But, um, anyway, you want, we can just complain about remix for, for a while I know we we're positive people, but every now then we're intimately together.

We gotta dis we. You have a big disc button. PPP, disc truck. Right. I we're gonna work that on end, this button. Matter of fact, let's put the disc button. Yeah. You need some buttons. [00:16:00] Need some buttons. Reject. Boom. Yeah. Um, but yeah, no, I, you know, we, we were just talking about, um, like different styles that you go into and whatnot.

You know, you can, you can go into like, some UK garage, then some sort, like techno and then some house. I mean, you know, where do you get all this stuff from, man? You know, it's like, and, and we can go and, and usually when I'm, when I'm going to your sets eclectic. The other night we were at the, you know, back to back with, with Adam? With Adam and, oh, I love that guy. I wanted ask, I'll ask about your relationship. He's one of my favorite humans, Sam. And Yeah. And you guys were just going at it. And I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. You know, and I've, and I've heard you solo low before and everything and, um mm-hmm.

You know, it was always something new to expect. So that's a, yeah, that's a, you know. It's good to be well-rounded that way, I guess, you know? And, and I'm just wondering, what is your favorite style? Like what is it, what is that you like to play? I appreciate that you are, have been like, intrigued and appreciative of the variety and the eclecticism of the sets because it's definitely, I feel like not [00:17:00] always encouraged.

I think it's kind of often to like find your niche and kind of stay there. Yeah. Yes. And maybe to some degree I am, I'm like fairly feeling like I'm never gonna be able to stay in one lane. I don't know if that's gonna happen. That's awesome. Um, I am giving a lot of thought into like, what are my favorite, favorite things to play.

I definitely came into the Raleigh scene known as like a minimal deep house. Mm. That's kind of how people started to know me. I played a lot of like deep Yes and minimal house, but it's really gone off the rails since then. Yeah. So it started to be like, oh wait, I thought you did this. And now I've played a lot of different sets, it keeps me interested and excited.

Mm-hmm. And I feel like for the most part people have been pretty cool to hang. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm sure it confuses some [00:18:00] people. I'm still kind of trying to figure out that whole thing, but I honestly feel like I was even thinking about it today in the car. And I do a lot of like digging and think I do, you know, I'm a big, I love the car time.

Like car time is a, a great time for thinking I brain brainstorming. Yes. Right. Yeah. I, I'm a big driving person for like, having hazah moments and thinking about, um mm-hmm. Music and gigs and planning and stuff like that. And. I think that things that I keep coming back to, and I do deviate often, but I really love, like the UK bass sounds.

, Garage breaks. Yeah. a lot of those uk, the UK club sounds I really tend to resin resonate with, especially if they are base heavy breaky, um, or just have like really wonky percussion, like I've been playing a lot [00:19:00] of like UK bi Funk and I didn't even really know that's what it was called.

And it has like, you know, the Latin Soca rhythms and, um, I really keep coming back to that stuff and I think that that's always gonna be, I think I would. Like to play more of that. Yeah. Um, there's just not always a lot of space for that raleigh Durham has some of it going on, but I'd like to see more of it.

Yeah. Um, and I'm really like grateful every time I get opportunities to do those kind of sets. Um, but it is really location dependent I think in my heart I probably lean more towards like music that is more challenging for listeners. You know, like not easy listening.

Um, could still be really danceable, could still have some melodic elements. Always. Percussion is like a very big. Thing for my sets mm-hmm. Is just like really intricate, unique percussion. [00:20:00] It's always kind of what I gravitate towards is like cool poly rhythms and wonky sounds and stuff like that. A lot of like sound design textures.

I do think the more that I dj, like the more interested I am in like, more challenging sets and challenging listener more.

'cause I spend a lot of time learning how to like, move the floor and read the, you know, and yes. And work with the crowd and make everyone dance. And I only feel like I'm starting to have a handle on that now, honestly. Mm-hmm. I feel like that takes a while in itself. To really feel like you have control over that to some degree has like, I feel like that's, I'm pretty new at even having a handle on that to some degree.

And now of course I'm in a position where I'm like, now I wanna make you all Yeah. Run away. No, I don't wanna do that. Yeah. But I just, like, you, you want to teach. I think I think you're in, you have a probably a musical IQ that I know you wouldn't say this, but I'm perceptive just from your background, what you've said.

Um, you probably can enhance others and get them, you know, here, this is within 10% of a range. I know that [00:21:00] you already like, well, let me give you a little more complexity and Yeah. Um, you know, whether that's your motivation or just you almost selfishly saying, Hey, this is kind of cool for me, and oh, by the way, I hope some of you like it too.

Yeah. It's definitely more selfish usually. Mm-hmm. I feel like I'm always trying to entertain myself when I play. Like I'm definitely, that want the audience to be a part of it, but like, I, I have trouble like. Recycling songs at all. And I know that's gonna be, oh, that's really sacrilegious for a lot of DJs who are like, you need to know your catalog.

I'm like, yeah, but I am so bored if I just play my catalog. I've, I've gotta keep it fresh, like all the time. So I think I get lucky a lot of times where a lot of the stuff that I'm excited about, I just get really lucky that it happens to resonate with people. And that, and, and some of that is just, I mean, that's just luck.

, My taste could be far more, um, obscure and avant garde where it's much harder for people. But some, I think that, I feel like my taste sometimes walks like a, [00:22:00] a very a line between, you know, intellectual but still danceable and relatable to people, which is kind of, again, just, just luck of, that's kind of where my taste sits.

It's not like, um, too difficult for people, hopefully. Um, so that's a very long-winded answer. Good answer to your, to your question, but yeah. I, I'm actually in making, working right now on a new mix that's gonna be, um, a lot of like UK Club sounds with like a lot of Latin percussion and very bassy and a lot of breaks.

So, which I have some of those up, but going, going and do that again. Well, that's the name of your, um, dance group Show Dance group, radio show called Percussive. Percussive. Euphoria. Euphoria. Oh, big Clever. Yeah. My good friend Luke, um, actually came up with that name not pertaining to the radio show, but I asked him once, what do I play?

Like what is it, like, what's my vibe? Because it's just so hard to like name right. Sometimes what? It's [00:23:00] hard to hear your own, like, know what you do yourself. You're like, what do you play? You're genre. Genre. Like, how does this come across? 'cause sometimes I'm over the map, all over the map, like, you know, and he was like, I would say that like, I.

I would say that like the two elements is like, there's, it's always like heavy, like it's very percussive. Like percussion is Yeah. Always a part of it. And then there's usually some sort of like, like ethereal, euphoric, like ambient thing going on. Mm-hmm. And so he came up with that term and I was like, I'm, can you mind if I use that?

Yeah. So I gotta give him credit for that. Um, and it's perceptive. 'cause I don't know that I would've necessarily figured that out for myself. Yeah. 'cause I go by feel and not necessarily like. You know, thinking about it genre wise or verb wise or, you know, I, I, I don't like mine's. It's, mine's very much feel-based.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so I don't always even really have an idea what I'm doing. Yeah. It's not necessary qu hard for end of being how it's perceived maybe by others are a good friend with identify. Yeah. Ill play sets and be [00:24:00] like, so what do you, well, how, what would you call that? That's probably why I'm drawn to a lot of that because I'm big into percussion styles. Um, a lot of my sets, when I, when I, when I'm putting this stuff together, one of my friends said, are you like that delayed percussion style?

Right. She's like, you know what I'm saying? Say, so it's like, yeah, I kind of like that percussive, you know, percussion type, you know? And, and that's why like with. With when I'm playing like techno or something, you know? I like that very hypnotic, percussive, percussively, sound sounding techno, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You can tell in, in the stuff that you play. Yeah. And, um, I'm really into that. And, and then, you know, of course the amniotic, you know, ambiance, you know, type layers of, of of synths behind it or something just makes it so much richer. Oh, you know, more complex, the better man. Yeah. You know, I think. Yeah.

So, um, that's cool though. Yeah. Yeah. My dad, he's a, a jazz fusion guitarist and his favorite music, and, you know, what I've brought up on Latin [00:25:00] jazz is like the pinnacle of like, the most intelligent music on earth. And because the percussion is so complex and, and it really is, especially in like, in Cuban music and, you know, and Oh yeah.

Um, and so, you know, again, like that was kind of always kind of, I was hearing that in the sa songs that he was playing and the things he was writing and the stuff he put on. Yeah. Um, and so I think that, you know, that just inherently, I, I picked up on a lot of that interest. Nice. Through, through his interest.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well-rounded type, you know, um, um, musical upbringing too, as well as like, you know, you mentioned disco and, you know jazz and Latin jazz, all that stuff has influence, right. So, same here on my end it was like, you know, just disco and, and funk, and.

You know, being, being, you know, Latino had, you know, salsa and Latin jazz, all that stuff. So I guess the percussion in all those things, you know, is like, feel, you feel like Right. That's, that's my [00:26:00] thing. It moves a lot of music too, you know what I mean? Like if you Oh, yeah. More than anything. Tomi Barcelona sound where they're taking flamenco, but they're making it just as fuck Nova.

Yeah. But it's like, it's intelligently done. Yeah. And you still have the beauty of say, flamenco or certain styles like you said, every country matters or you know, whatever. Mm-hmm. Spain's certainly different than Mexico, which is different than Cuba, but, but I kind of find that music it just gets, bodies move.

It's like a rich sound. Right. It's what I think about it in anyways. It's when I think about it, you know? Yeah. And I know you have some stuff coming up. You got some new projects and whatnot and, you know something with I. Fem fatals are coming up next, right? Yeah, yeah.

We're doing a bi-monthly residency at Ruby's in Durham. Mm-hmm. Where it's all femme lineup every second Friday of the month. And that's this Friday. And it's a, it's a, a really good lineup this Friday. Friday. And Ruby's is super fun. Yeah. The ninth, [00:27:00] god. The ninth. So it's twice a month. Yes. No, no. It's bimonthly.

So bimonthly. So if this one, this one's probably gonna be aired after it. So the next one would be, um, July 2nd, Friday in July will be the next one for that. Um, and actually think we're gonna have some vinyl DJs come through. Oh wow. For that one. Fun. So that's gonna be exciting. I don't know that I'll be prepared to play vinyl, although I'm learning.

Mm-hmm. I might be the, the lame one on that one. But we're gonna have, but it'll be great to have like some vinyl Yes. Figure it out. And some ladies who put the vinyl together. Um, it was, um, Kat who goes by poetic note, right? Yeah. Um, she is, she, well, actually it was kind of funny because I think at least three female DJs, we all had the same idea at the same time.

Mm-hmm. And just Kat was the one to open up the conversation and then I was like, oh my gosh, I was gonna hit Ruby's up about doing that. Someone else was like, oh my gosh, I was just talking about doing that. Yeah. So I was like, why don't we all do it? Um, so essentially like Kat is like. [00:28:00] Um, you know, in the driver's seat.

Um, I'm kind of like second in command. I'm supporting. And then we have a couple other ladies who are like regular residents, um, epiphany. Mm-hmm. And, um, Elysium. And, um, yeah. Yeah. And the letter V is in there as well from time to time when you can get off work. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll be bringing in a lot of like fem femme DJs.

But it's been really fun. I, I'm a big fan of Rub. That's cool. I've always loved Rub the, it's built in crowd and they're always down, like Yeah, they are. And I, I find in my experience that they're very open-minded. Like, it, it, they would love if you'll play the hottest track that everybody knows, but if it's good and they don't know it, they're fine.

They're down for that too. Yeah, that's cool. Which I, I love about it. That's so, they're open-minded. They'll, they'll shoot their requests, but then when you give 'em something else, they're like, oh, this is great too. I'll take this. Which I love about Rub. Yeah. That's Yeah's cool to hear. Yeah. Spot way to describe in a club.

[00:29:00] And that's 'cause this is meant to be a highlight on the triangle. Yeah. Scenes, yeah. Rubies. The more we can hype our friends and Yeah. Go over rubies even if you don't know what's going on. 'cause they do bands all the time. Yeah. I haven't never seen a band there, but they do bands all the time there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was speaking to Kat about that. Shout out to Kat from Kinetic Audio Badass. She was, she was like, she was like, yeah, Yohan, we love you too. Yeah. Not to be forgotten. She was check out. She was check out, you know, rubies and whatnot that they're pretty open to things. And I was like, all right.

Yeah. Ruby's is great. Great people. Yeah. Great to work with on the back end, like just fantastic people. Yeah. Really treat the artists well. A lot. Treated really well. Yeah, I mean when is it, when can you get a dinner and you play? I mean it used to be, I've heard of the golden era where you'd get a meal when you have played and rubies will feed you.

Oh nice. And you're like, go get a burrito on us. You're like, can't be. Love this. Yeah, yeah. Get on the owners proper hospitality. Get it. They've been there for a while too, right? I mean, I'm sure they've been, yeah. Well I pretty Spanish. I mean, I wouldn't know how long, but I mean, you, [00:30:00] even if it's just the gr other great thing about it is like, you don't have to have that stress of promotion.

'cause like they will be there. Like they might not, you might be like, oh shoot, it's 10 15, it's 10 30. Like the, the room is empty. But like there's gonna be a point in the night where it's going to fill That's nice all the way up. Which is just so cool that they have that kind of like Yeah. Um. Yeah. Not necessarily following, but just like that kind of clientele that are just that built in.

Yeah. Crop. Let's do a tentative plan two months from now, let's do it. Because, you know, I'm, I'm a restaurant guy so I, um, you know, sometimes you just miss this, you know, Durham, that's the problem. You gotta get there. You gotta, yeah, for sure. And then, you know, so Yeah. But if with a little planning Yeah, I know.

Maybe, maybe we'll look at our schedules. Yeah. I mean, because heck, I didn't miss a damn show back in the day and now I'm like, ah, this sucks. I'm off the clock at one in the morning. Yeah. Not that we aren't used to some late nights in our life, but at the same time, you know, you want maybe 1130 would be better to be there.

Why? Why you to, to our thing in June. [00:31:00] So we have something in June and June 8th. Oh yeah, man, I, okay, so do I know what it is? 23rd, eighth? Not yet. 20th. June of June. So those are my three, but you know what, maybe I'll, I'll pick up a dud Tuesday, Wednesday and take a weekend off. Are usually the weekends.

Yeah. I'm more weekends. 'cause that's busy. I'm gonna come visit you. You must, you must. And I mean. You know, tail. But yeah, you'd love the place. It's a place that would look good for a sun. A sun sunset set. We're just trying to figure out logistics and Oh, and I worked for That's you're talking about you done a really good club in rally.

That was before its time. And we helped start these day parties back then, which they've then carried over and there are people you know, like Jermaine and Ashley. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I want Keith Ward and blah, blah blah. Yeah. Are they doing that this year? Jefferson from Wilco? Yeah, they are. So the first one there, and this is good for everybody to know 'cause these are great parties in the daytime.

Mm-hmm. Um, Sunday, I think May 30th. Then there'll be let's just call it June 29th, June 31st, whatever that ends up being. Yeah. But the end of every [00:32:00] month, and I think they do four or five, but they're fun and it's nice just to be in the sun. Two to six, they go to William and Company afterwards. One of my favorite go-tos.

Great DJs, great lighting. Yeah. So, yeah. So maybe that's another one. We'll, we'll cross paths. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The day parties are a big thing right now. It's just a good vibe. Yeah, good vibe. You know, and it's shifting. I mean, you know, it is now it's like coffee house parties or you know, bodega and whatnot, you know, some yoga and nine to 11, and then it starts, you're like, all I can go with that.

I mean, that's, that's, that's cool's something different, right? It, I'm still gonna be in the nighttime, but I mean, let's, the daytime too. Let's go. Right, right. Sometimes I have to go to bed early. Right, right, right. We were talking about female DJs and how, you know, it's becoming more and more into the scene now.

And how, I dunno, there was a mixed mag you know, poll or something, or stats shown that back in 2021 there was like 6% of DJs were female. And now that's been blowing up. Mm-hmm. I [00:33:00] mean, I've seen a lot of really good female DJs coming out, um, internationally and, and all, all over the place. Any any particular ones that you, you follow that you, you like that to?

Yeah. I love Moxie out of the uk. Mm-hmm. She's been around forever. I mean, she's probably like two decades in now. , I just found an awesome producer today named INE out of France, who's doing some really cool. UK club sounds that are super basey.

, I love Cynthia, who does like, owns a record shop in London and is a awesome house producer. Um, I love so many, I'm not gonna go through the list. Those are just the ones right now that are coming to the top of my head. Mm-hmm. But honestly, they could I could go on for quite some time. Um, on, on female DJs, um, Amy Dabbs is doing some really good like drum and bass and again, London.

I mean, I was just saying the other day, like I was, I, I'm gonna embrace being [00:34:00] American, but I was born in the wrong country. Okay. Like, everything I like is from the uk. That's awesome. And they, they get it done, man. Wait, wait. It's so done. Even when it's acting in Hollywood's better good music over there, just tur capital, they kick our ass.

And you, and it's just tough because I don't. I don't really know why it is, but their flavor just, I mean, you can find that flavor in New York. You can find that flavor in LA, maybe a little bit in Chicago, but like, it's kind of weird that it doesn't, I think there's some going on in Atlanta. Mm-hmm. Um, Atlanta does have have some, some going on with that.

Maybe more than I know. But just, just the whole, like the romanticism of like being able to go hear that stuff every night anywhere. Like, I'm like, man, dang it, scene. So, yeah, it's a vibe. And then I said that the other day and then I was like, ah. Well, at the same time, like, I mean, you know, as coming from a jazz background, I was like, I can't disown the US 'cause like, you know, we, we did [00:35:00] jazz, so come on, jazz.

Goodbye Jazz. Come on. Yeah. You gotta give us credit for something. Yeah. Come on now. Yeah, I'll give. Yeah, exactly. And we're a superpower, right? We'll bomb your ass. Jazz. That's Vilin. V-I-T-I-L-I-N-E. Is that what I'm gonna do? I think it's VIT. I heard you LINE and she's from France. Yeah. I, I just found her today and I was just bumping her stuff in the car.

Wouldn't expect that from this like, cute little Parisian. Um, sister Zoe is doing some really, really cool club sounds and she's not UK based as far as I know. Maybe she is. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, I don't know. I think, I think Moxie was probably one of like the first female DJs that I really fell in love with when I got into DJing.

I saw her when I was still in New York, and I have a lot of respect for her because she actually never produced. Mm-hmm. She does, she has a record label, but she's, you know, they're always like, you can't, you can only get so far unless you produce. Mm-hmm. And she's like, def defied [00:36:00] that whole thing. Mm-hmm.

Um, and her taste is also super diverse as well, which, so I can always appreciate that. Um. Just opened up for Heroku Yama Moura. Oh no. Who was Mad Ass and the Fruit. So there we go. Legend right there. There's too many to name or we're out here. Mm-hmm. There's, that is really cool.

You opened for, man. I know. We talked, did you make that? Sure. Yeah. You did go right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Talk about an eclectic set. She did an eclectic set. She did, she she sled it? She did. I didn't really, you know, I had heard some of, I think I heard that one boiler room she did in Durham, but I don't think that one was nearly as diverse as the one at the Fruit recently.

Yeah. Wow. She was really all over the place. What a decent turnout. Yeah, it was pretty packed job. It was, it was really good. They did, they did a good job over there. Shout out. Morning choir. That's right. Shout out. The fruit. The fruit. Right. Morning choir. They, they changed the whole orientation over there.

They did. Oh, it was sounding great. Oh, they did shout out cloud or mountain incredible audio tech who upgraded, helped them tweak the sound to Yeah. To get [00:37:00] the optimal, um, shout out to Ian. Ian out there to Yeah. Shout out to Ian. Yep. Being Ian. Yeah. Sable Patrick. Up, up, upgraded the lights. Shout out to Patrick Tree City.

Oh, Patrick. Yes. That light is Patrick's. Nice. Baby. Um, yeah. And shout out to Sable, who, who keeps that place running. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Talk about a powerhouse female. Right. Wow. That's pretty cool. Mm-hmm. Who would be your ideal person to open up for, I mean, or collaborate with or something. Right. The person that I look to the most, like as a well-rounded, like, is just like, what an awesome career to have is Ben UFO.

Mm-hmm. Is hi. He just kind of can do whatever he wants and people are just down. And again, it's challenging music. It's not in a box. You don't really know what you're gonna hear when he plays. Yeah. And again, he's not a producer. Um, and I'm not saying I won't ever produce, I haven't, I haven't produced house music right now or electronic club music now, but, [00:38:00] um, I may do that.

But the fact that you can have such a longstanding career without that aspect, and to really just be unapologetically yourself in what you wanna play and not pander to any audiences. Yeah. And, you know, trying to hit any numbers and make that work and become like one of the most well-respected DJs in the world is just is just, yeah.

Awesome. So I, I definitely have like, I kinda look to him a lot as like a, a really, um, you know, a, a a, a similar kind of career that I, you know I'd like to have, you know, or, or aspire to like, kind of walk that mm-hmm. That same kind of path. Um, eclectic, I mean, as it is a kind of eclectic That's, Tim hit that on nail the other day.

He was like, you know, I like her style. Eclectic, you know, for a short period of time. Like it, it kind of ties in with you, but I think you have a very high IQ thought process and your right side of your brain's firing on all cylinders. So I think you just kind of, yeah, amongst just a lot of great talent.

But I mean, just [00:39:00] hearing you speak on it and musical background, but yeah, like to, to crunch a bunch of stuff. And you've probably been compiling a encyclopedic amount of songs in your head for a long time, but you haven't been doing that this long, I don't think. No, it's not too long. So it feels like you've kind of skipped to the front of the line on, and I think there's a lot more and more to see from you, you know, coming down the road. And I think, you know, if I. If they haven't found you yet, I'm sure they'll find you soon. And, you know, you're out on all the platforms and everything and I, and I know that you're on, you have a YouTube channel and I, you see some stuff on there?

Yeah, I gotta, yeah, I gotta get some. Yeah, I think, well, there'll be some, some new videos coming up soon. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna be doing a new video set in the next couple of weeks. , Nevs tv, who is a shout out, Matt Landis. He has an awesome YouTube channel mm-hmm. With, um, they do a lot of like live DJ set uploads , one of the partners I think is in [00:40:00] New York, so there's a lot of like New York DJs, but it's an international channel.

So there's a lot of sets from people all over. Um, and I'll be, um. Getting one of those up. Oh, cool. Soon. I hope it's okay that I said that. I think it should be okay. Yeah. We don't know when, it's my love.

And I don't have, like, I don't have a lot of hobbies. Like this is, this is the passion. Yeah. Nice. So I love it. So if it's well received, that's, that's great. Because I love to do it and I like to spend every waking moment doing it. Yeah. Either digging or listening or attending or supporting or whatever the heck I can do.

But it's all, it's always kind of been the music for me, my track mind. It's cool when you turn off the you know, house, electronic music, whatever, what music that, what is, what's the other music that you get into? I know you mentioned jazz and stuff, but that's your go-to after all the yeah. I generally I on when growing up, my memory was that, like on the weekends my dad.

Worked a lot. Well, both my parents worked a lot during the week, but we were all home on the weekends. [00:41:00] And I, and I just remember like jazz being played on the Sunday. So now kind of like following that tradition. I generally have it on on Sunday. Yeah. Um, I think my sister does the same thing. Like, weirdly, like we've kind of carried on that tradition.

I haven't listened to other things lately. Like it has just been like four to the floor for a solid, like five years now. Yeah. Yeah. I am so deep in it. Um, you're not dwelling with eighties, nineties, two thousands alternative acts.

Some of my old friends still spend no, I probably some that I love of that. I mean, I do love. So right before I got into DJing I was like really into like a future hip hop phase. So, um. I every once in a while go back and listen to like, some conscious rap from a few years back. Like just some of the production and like the conscious hip hop and like mm-hmm.

Future r and b scene, um, you know, around like, let's just say around the era that like, Frank Ocean was [00:42:00] popping. Like there just a lot of those, like, yeah. Those production elements were like really, really clean. The stuff that TDE was putting out, the label that Kendrick Lamar has been on for a while.

Like, all of that stuff I was super into, um, you know, I, I definitely had a lot of like hip hop and like, um, a, a love of that for a period. Yeah. Um, I do, um. I'll listen to classical. Tim and I were talking about classical before we started, but, um, yeah, I mean, if, if the classical station is on and it's a good piece, like mm-hmm.

I won't totally vibe. It is an interesting day when it, it when I am tired of it and every once in a while it's good to like have a couple of days where you're tired of it. 'cause it can be like, oh my gosh, like, probably need a break from this. You speaking to me, man. Every, yeah.

Every now and then it's and it's, it's, how can I listen to this much of this? Yeah. But I do, and like recently, like the, I was listening to like grime, like really into grime again, other like UK genre, um [00:43:00] this MC Manga, manga Saint Aire. And just like, just so good, like just the super grimy beats with.

Badass MCing with good messaging. Um, so I'll take a break with that and some and, and yeah, it, you know, I'm, I'm open. I'm open. Yeah. Send me something for my days off. Yeah. What about, um, Lex, um, the Lex layer man got, like I said, yeah, you've got such a, a bibly, oh, I don't dunno what the term. Deep cut.

Deep cut. You've got a shit ton of music. And, um, yeah. So I couldn't, you know, but I was having fun just kind of trying to set pseudo preparing. Um, I still gotta go back and listen to that, but you put in some work. You, you recorded a lot of shows. Yeah. That was for, um, the face radio too. Like you got all this stuff that you're Yeah, I was at Mixed Cloud.

I was listening to some SoundCloud, um, YouTube. Yeah. Shout out the Face radio. Bk they are still active Yeah. Out of Brooklyn. Yeah. Um, and they're inter they have a lot of [00:44:00] in international DJs on that, uhhuh on that. And I, I did that for two years and it was a month, it was a monthly two. Hour show. Yeah.

Which is pretty, was it every month or soon? Was it, I think it was every two weeks. I don't, it was something insane. Was it a lot of, I know that, but I know how to quantify it. It was a lot on your level, but yeah, it wasn't monthly. What the heck was it? I can't remember how many times a month I had to do it now.

I think it was bi, I think it was biweekly. Yeah. So I don't think it was weekly. If it was weekly. That's insane. It was covid though, and it saved, it kind of like saved my sanity. Sanity. It's like gave me something to do. I didn't have a job. I can go anywhere. Yeah. So, um, that's kind of why I was able to like do that output.

Yes. Um, I think I wanted to do it monthly and then my friend was like, no, you should do it. You should just do it. I think it was either biweekly or it honestly might've even been weekly. Yeah. And in like hindsight, that's. [00:45:00] Eight hours of new music. 'cause I only played like, new stuff that I'd find. Yes. But it was like, it was kind of outta control the amount of, I think it was weekly.

That's crazy. Yeah. But I did that for two years. Um, and that was a lot of, like, I was kind of known on that station as like the Ric queen at that era. I was like playing a lot of lyric stuff. Like every, all my sets were like, play this at Aha. You know, and it was like, um, and it was just kind of the right place for that vibe.

So it was super fun to do some like down tempo stuff. A lot of stuff like slower than one 20 and, mm-hmm. Super fun. And a lot like coming from like, a lot of like soul and funk on the other shows. Like, it was kind of like a, a little, a little something different. A lot of great DJs, um, on that station that are still active.

Shout out to Curtis who runs the Face We Met on Craigslist. No way is that. Wow. That's still working. Dear Craigslist, man. Yeah. Still going right. Oh, that's cool. Oh my [00:46:00] gosh. Yeah. And you have some recordings with, um, installation, right? Those guys? Yeah. Luke Thompson. Luke can, don't sleep on Luke Thompson installation.

Look up the YouTube. Shout out. Just incredible to Visual canopy. Visual canopy. Good work. Yeah, incredible work. He has done so much for the North Carolina DJ and creative scene, like single handedly filmed like dozens and dozens of incredible talent in the area just himself. Um, oh yeah.

And really happy to see his stuff taken off. He does really great work. Yep, yep. Definitely. He's very talented and, um, and you know, bringing a lot of DJ to the forefront. Yeah. You know, and that's a good thing that, you know, something like what we're trying to do here, right. Bring some of that talent.

People, you know, people to the forefront who are up, up and coming and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. He'd be great to talk to actually. He's outta town for a while, but if he comes back through, man, he's, um, he's, he's a, he has a really cool creative vision and yeah, definitely [00:47:00] really cool conversations with him. He's a good friend.

Yeah. Hey, did that DJs with that, that recording on the, on the beach, was that like last year or something? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I saw before the, yeah. Yeah. I'm really, really, I'm so grateful I got to do that because That's neat. I spent so much of my life in that. At that time, everything, again, it was like the end of Covid, so it was pretty quiet, not a lot going on.

And the music, like music scene was kind of starting to come back. But I just spent so much time on that beach. I was doing a lot of healing, um, you know, through some things that I had been through and was just like, had so much gratitude and love for that beach and then to be able to go play a set on that beach and kind of as an homage to that place.

Mm-hmm. And it was just like, yeah, very grateful I got to do that. It was a fun one. I'm glad I have that in the archives. Yeah, it was fun. When you play on the beach, um, remind me, are you, um, [00:48:00] I tried to remember this. Do you have, do you have speaker set up or any, or do, do you just play through your, I'm trying to remember the aesthetic.

I just did that whole thing through the headphones. That's what I thought. Because I, I don't know, it's just a, because I am not you guys, you guys no immersed. So I was just curious kind of Yeah. What I remember, but I just think I remember just seeing you that one was just headphones because um, he brought a little Bluetooth speaker, but that wasn't doing anything for me.

Right, right, right. There was wind and Oh, of course. And like yeah, the elements noise. Those are tricky. Acoustic imaging, bit of beach, you know. But I live in an apartment with paper thin walls, so I have to do all my stuff in headphones anyway, most of the time. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I had like the most glorious last month where my upstairs neighbors moved out and no one had moved in yet.

Yeah. So I got all my loud music. Yeah. In then. And now we're back to headphones and that's partially probably why. I like to play out as much as I do 'cause and as, as much as I can. 'cause I don't get to like, yeah, the volume levels like what I want at my apartment. I have a feeling you'd know this and this would help me.

[00:49:00] I used to be a big home theater guy, you know, just exquisite products. A lot of 'em made and written actually just fit and finish sound. But is there a, when it comes to headphones, your, your monitors, your, is there, are you an equipment OCD kinda, you apply that same Lex brain towards that? Or is that another, like a secondary thing?

Mm, not really extra credit. I mean, I know when things sound bad. Yeah. I know when things sound bad. I have HD 20 fives like every other dj. Nothing fancy or anything. I grew up in a household where we, we were kind of a barringer family, meaning that like.

Affordability and quality. Yes. And I, Beringer is a very, again, split, split team on Beringer, but, um, essentially like getting, doing whatever you can that sounds the best on a budget. So I haven't like ever really had the bank account to like get the, [00:50:00] the most yeah. Expensive stuff. But, um, I did get to like, I, um, had a roommate in New York who, um, was a audio engineer who designed rooms and sound systems and he had a really awesome custom pair in our house.

So I've, I've gotten to like. My dad has gift, like got gifted, a really good set of speakers for our home from his friend who owns a studio. So like, kind of by proxy. Yeah. I also worked in like one of the greatest recording studios of all time in New York City for five years, which doesn't exist anymore.

Mm-hmm. It was called Legacy. And so, you know, like every, everybody that ever played you got a taste of Primo. So I got to like, and I actually got to record there. Yeah. Which, these are all other stories, but like Yeah. I, I've been very fortunate to be in many rooms with really great sound. That's the same thing that counts.

Yeah. Yeah. I know enough about it to know what's good and what's not good, but I don't, um, I don't have anything [00:51:00] special Gotcha, gotcha. At my place, of course. Um, but have been, but have like been blessed to be in a lot of like really awesome spaces with, great sound Sure have. Mm-hmm. And work with people that knew about great sound.

So yes, I set you free. I remember that set you did over there and um mm-hmm. I think you were there, right? Yeah, I was there. And again, didn't really just, I was like, I think I've seen the sound was amazing too. And it was. It was good. It sounded really good. Sound was amazing. Had his little danley set. It was Sean.

Some of it was Sean. Mostly was Sean. Was Sean, was it Gabe? Two? Was it the Gabe and Sean combo? I think that was a nice combo. Shout out Gabe Bji album. Yeah. Gabe y. Shout out to Sean from Rabbit Hole. That was a great, great set. I mean, thank you. It was a great set. It was a great collective. It was my first kind of camp ish thing.

Yeah, awesome festival. That was a pretty damn good, magical local gig. It really was super awesome. It was. I love that size. Yeah, the land is awesome. Yeah, I, I was, it was very awesome. Made a lot of great new, you know, you, you, you got your foundational, I [00:52:00] felt like I knew about 25%, but then just every, there just was nothing.

And now all possible pan and now pania that. Yes. Glad, shout out to the pan Claudia and shout, shout out me as beast to rethink technology. Very excited about that. That's June 13th to 15th. Yeah. Coming up. That's right. Promo code Lex. Now for discount tickets. Let's go. The scout tick is getting now join me for a magical weekend.

Yes, that's right Out in the woods, South Carolina. That's right. It's a, I like that land. Have you guys either, have you been I haven't been there. No. The land is good. The land is really good. It's, there's some lake city. I mean, it's kind of where it looks greener and more water driven. It's more, yeah, it's, it's definitely more trees.

It's more wooded. Yeah. It's a lot more wooded, it's intimate. Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember how big set you free was. I think it might be slightly bigger than 73.

Yeah. Um, it's hard to quantify. I don't know if I've asked. They're expecting like 500 over at that pan. Five. Oh, that's, that's a good turnout for I think. Yeah. I think that sounds about right to me. [00:53:00] But, um, manageable. And I'll, and this is so random, but like the food at Panga was really good last year. Oh, shit.

They had great food vendors. Awesome. They had, I've driven Dream about those food vendors. That's awesome. Yeah. I don't know. I don't, I can remember their name. I wish I did. So, wait, are they giving an hour set or do you know? I don't know. I'm gonna guess it's an hour set, but I, I it's a, I'm not sure yet. I haven't got the details because they got quite a lineup.

I mean, they got about 30 DJs. Yeah. Victor Calon. I know Victor Cal. That's, that's a big one. That's big. Yeah. Victor Calderon as lining. Yeah. Um acid Buddha also from Raleigh. Shout Buddha. Oh, and Sean, this place. Yeah. We got some Raleigh people doing the deal on the lineup. And Kai. Um, yeah. Nice. Yeah, so I'm, I'm very much looking forward to that and it'll be fun.

It's gonna be really fun. I've, I've been, I've been really, really excited to play outside, um, after this winter. It was a little colder here this winter, so I'm ready to go outside. I feel like, I feel like [00:54:00] I feel like I'm kind of made to play outside more than inside. Yeah. Like, like the festivals. Yeah.

Yeah. Just, I mean, sure. Whether, even if it's just, I mean, honestly, if there was a club that just had a outside vibe, that'd be great too. But they do end up generally being festivals. Mm-hmm. Um, and there's another really good one, um, that is happening in July. It's called Sonic Oasis. I would keep your eyes open for that one as well. That's gonna be a super intimate one. But, and that's local Asheville. Asheville, Asheville based. And that is also, um, gonna be a really good, I can't excuse to get Asheville too, speak too much on that one.

But that's, um, that's gonna be awesome. That's happening in July. Nice. So keep your eyes open for details on Sonic Oasis. I think you can look that up on Instagram. I think they have a page. Mm. But they haven't made like a, an announcement on who's playing that or anything yet. I think, um, something I was thinking about out loud, 'cause there's been different things.

We've had these parties in the park, we've had things that have [00:55:00] mill things that are just like impromptu day things that aren't necessarily a festival, but I feel like there's room to kind of like really kickstart something like that. Yeah. Like maybe, I think so. Find a every other Sunday. Maybe it doesn't conflict with day party, but, but whatever it is, um, you know, like the fact that you're so kind of gung ho about that, you know, a lot of people would be stoked about something like that and, and I don't know if some of these few things.

Um, I get invites to some that are in Chapel Hill that sound really cute and fun and it's a good, good crowd, but there's gotta be room for that. Yeah. Clubs have gotten a little tricky around here because there's mm-hmm. The population, I don't think has, if you, if there's five options, you need to divide up the amount of people that kind of want a vibe with house music on a given night, it can kind of suck out some of the numbers that, you know, that problem doesn't happen in DC or New York or a real big city.

You still could have a hundred filled this small venue and 600 in this big one and we kind of thin the herd [00:56:00] on our own unintentionally just because we're not as populated, I guess, or probably, yeah. Maybe the scene isn't as blown up. It's growing. I think it's expanding more and more and I think, um, you know, from when I started, you know, out here in the scene in 2021, was it when I found mm-hmm.

Sean and Rabbit Hole and these guys, and then following that, you know, from until now, I mean, it's. A lot of stuff has popped up. It has quantum growth. I agree. I mean, you've been in the scene longer than I, so you've seen, it's been amazing. I feel like there's some of 20 12, 13, 14. I think it, um, I remember kind of being, I oppressed and kind of being plugged in where I kind of had two things could do a week, but now it's, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm omniscient.

I'm like, yeah, there's eight things tonight. If some, if a friend reaches out that knows the lesson isn't as geeked out and once every six months they wanna meet for some fun show, it's, it proves that. Mm-hmm. We've come a long way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just gonna con continue growing and we wanna be a part of it here at the Vinyl Underground with, you know, DJs.

I know and, [00:57:00] and you know, shout out to Yes. All the DJs in the area and, you know. Follow, follow us on, on YouTube and subscribe. You're gonna see more of DJs, great. DJs like, like Lex coming on. And we'll be, you know, entrepreneur. Tell 'em where you, where, where they can find you, Lex, I mean, oh yeah. Um, what am I now?

I got hacked in December, so my new account is, yeah, I heard about that Lex Nel music on Instagram that changed that one. Um, yeah, I have a link tree there so you can find my other, my other sites through that. But it's Lexel music on Instagram. Okay. Yeah. Um, and if you just Google it, you could probably find, find some stuff there too.

Lex Nell. Um, but yeah, if you, there's, there's a lot of great parties going on, um mm-hmm. To follow. Definitely. Um. Definitely follow the fruit. Mm-hmm. Definitely follow kinetic audio. Fem fatal. Fem Fem. Well, it's fem fragments now. Yeah. Fem fragment fragment. Our current series is Fatal Frequencies, but she's like the [00:58:00] umbrella.

It's under, um, fem fragments, fems. Right. Um, the floor, um, Adam Marshall Novi. Alec Ami Doing great. Parties. Um, party Legal. Party Legal with Matt. Shout out to Matt and these guys. Yeah. Um, Patrick. Patrick. Yep. Um, and mood board. And there are just quite a few really, um, rabbit hole as we've mentioned before.

Mm-hmm. Um, and I apologize for anyone that I'm missing right now. Um, but there's, there's, there's too many to, that's a good problem. That's a good problem. Yeah, it's a good problem. There's lot go, go triangle. Yeah. Yeah. I, but I'm, I'm glad everyone's doing their thing. We have a lot of, a lot of talent in the area, so I'm, I'm grateful to be a part definitely, um, of a super talented crew in a, like, I think for, for the population, we have like a really good talent pool.

And it's spilling over. I mean, you know, we have, we have Charlotte, you know, we have Asheville. Yep. And it [00:59:00] seems like we're, we're starting to kind of, you know, get some Greensboro too. Greenboro Salem kind of comes into it. There's good stuff. Wilmington. That's true. Wilmington's got Wilmington. Yeah. Shout out Airly Entertainment.

Yep. Um, shout out. Sound waves. Sound waves. Those guys out there. Yep. Um, and it seems like there's some integration happening with people coming over here and, you know Yes. Others going over to different cities or, or a couple of move from Raleigh to Charlotte by bay. Yeah. Charlotte just come up here, you know, to play and you know, and I think you guys have been out to, to Asheville.

To play has great. Yeah. Place, great talent, great scene. So well, white Rabbit. Oh man. Okay. There's too many. But yeah, DM me if you want any recommendations of any good parties anywhere in, in North Carolina, I can, I can hook you up with some, some people throwing shows if you don't know where to go.

'cause sometimes people, I've talked to, some people that're like, I didn't know this was going on in this area. Like, I, I wouldn't have known there was this big of a scene going on. So, yeah. Um, yeah, and I'm definitely, and I'm sure if they hit you guys up, um, definitely on your site, you might be able to, to come to [01:00:00] Line on the Ground podcast on Instagram.

You can find Lex, you can find all kinds of information. We'll be posting stuff on there, you know. But, um, Lex, thanks for, you know, joining us today and telling your story and, you know, giving us your time here and really appreciate, you know, learning about what you're about here as a dj. Hopefully the audience got to know you a little better.

Thank you. I know. Appreciate, thanks for having me guys. Good hanging with you. Yeah. Yes, an honor. I met Tim. You know, he's, he's got to learn a lot about you's. Like, I don't know much about her, but I'm gonna find out. Yeah, he did his digging. All right. Yeah. You guys did your due diligence. You gotta honor and but you, hey, knew, knew enough.

And I was like, oh, she's gonna be a great Gus. So yeah, you just know good people and and I've enjoyed your music specifically. Thank you. So, kind of all of the above. Thank you. Yeah, that's right. Well, appreciate your thank you guys for joining, and we'll wrap it up.

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