Dance System interview: “I’m not really a house DJ.. And I’m not really techno…”

Authenticity, influences…. and that new album

James Connolly can find inspiration in so many places. Speaking on the phone, our conversation veers from the visual work of Nam June Paik, a pre-eminent Korean member of the Fluxus art movement whose installations often involved multiple TV sets, to the joys of London queer clubbing institution Trade and its iconic late-resident DJ, Tony De Vit.

We called to discuss his debut album under the Dance System moniker, In Your System, but our reassuringly loose dialogue has gone off-piste because the man also known as L-Vis 1990 is, if nothing else, passionate about talking creativity. The wildly varied back catalogue of beats he has made since the mid-noughties more than betrays this penchant for trying new things, soaking up sounds and cultures, and developing new interpretations. It’s been a wild ride, packed with difference and constant experimentation. But one thing is clear — everything he touches has authenticity at its core.

“I feel the Dance System project is always kind of celebratory, you know? It has that positivity. But I think the album is a slightly darker, more twisted side to that psyche… I have a folder on my Rekordbox with good Dance System and evil Dance System sounds,” says Connolly. “If I want to fuck people up and just kind of twist things around I go to the evil folder. I feel like this record definitely has more of that side… Throughout my career I’ve battled with my pop and underground sensibilities.”

We suggest this is an important line to navigate, and our opinion clearly isn’t far off the mark. Soon, the likes of Basement Jaxx, Armand Van Helden, and Fatboy Slim are being cited as examples of electronic music from Connolly’s youth that focused on inducing smiles, rather than moods. But his admiration is less about the tunes, and more tied to the way those names — and others, like Daft Punk — imagined and constructed entire worlds, and then invited fans in. Method actors playing central roles in narratives they wrote for themselves, resulting in genuine individuality the likes of which many can only hope for.

“It’s all about character, and building albums and tracks which have character and a life of their own. That’s kind of what I wanted to do with the Dance System project as well. It was never strictly within the world of house or techno,” says Connolly. “I don’t really fit within either of those places, you know? I’m always somewhere in the middle. So it’s been a little bit of a struggle… it’s like, I’m not really a house DJ.. And I’m not really techno… I’ve just built my own world.”

A vivid place, to say the least, Connolly’s domain is at once accessible yet aimed at outsiders. In Your System has roots in what’s best described as ‘banging house music’, with one play revealing a record capable of turning any club into a chaotic, feral sweatbox. But then there’s nothing on the tracklist that feels predictable. For the producer himself, it’s a collection of tunes harking back to the genre’s original underground. Music for freaks, rhythms for miscreants, a feeling everyone can embrace once they find it.

“Chicago house is the ghetto house. It’s the weirdest shit. It’s Green Velvet, all of that early stuff, like Steve Poindexter. And that’s what I want to bring across now. The record is a house music record, really, but just calling it house sounds a bit reductive. It’s just the word house has been kind of moulded into, I don’t know, a money making thing, where it’s all about house music tunes going off on Instagram with those big drops,” Connolly explains.

In many ways, the new album is the antithesis of that surface-skimming dance music culture, delivered in an upfront, rave-inducing, direct way. Some tunes date to around 2019, including the logically titled ‘Shutter Track’, which Connolly made in the hope dropping it at Panorama Bar would trigger the iconic window blinds to open. The plan worked, but while many would rush to release such an effective weapon, inception to final public offering has taken the best part of three years.

“I feel you need to trust your gut on songs. A lot of times when I trust my gut it normally comes to fruition. When I’m making music, and I’m really deep into something, I’m like, okay, I can see this being a thing — a sound coming back or whatever — and I can trust it will come round. I’m seeing it happen now with a few styles,” Connolly replies when we ask how he knows when to put music out, and when to sit on tunes for a little longer. Naturally, our conversation segues into the fine points of releasing sounds in 2022.

“Some of music’s organic-ness has kind of been killed a little by your digital streaming platforms like Spotify, in terms of building hype on tunes. These days, it’s a different world. Like you used to be able to get your tune on radio a few months ahead of release and then start building momentum. Now you can’t release a tune on radio until the day your tune is out on Spotify, because Spotify sees it as a poor user experience if people can’t instantly access a tune,” he says. “I think there’s a lot of strategy with music now, and we’ve lost that organic kind of vibe.”

Although this suggests radio is more restricted than it once was in terms of tracks, its resurgence as a key dance music discovery tool over the past decade is impossible to ignore. Now Connolly, whose CV already includes stints on Rinse FM, is about to add another chapter to that story, with a new slot on BBC Radio One. The station’s legacy — one of the earliest legal UK platforms to throw cutting edge electronic music at a mainstream audience — is more than fitting for a guy who has always wanted to make and play ‘proper tunes’ while leaving militants and purists to brood.

“I’ve had a lot of support over the last couple of years from Radio One and done various mixes, including for Annie Mac and Danny Howard… I’ve always been a bit shy of radio, like whenever I was on Rinse it’d be me just playing tunes, you know, not getting on the mic,” Connolly says. “But I feel now’s the time to really find my voice within radio and tell people my story, where I come from. So they understand a bit more. I often feel like a little bit of a lone wolf in the world of dance music. I just want people to hear what I’m about, where it comes from. Because for many people, new fans, I’ve just come about in the last couple of years, but realistically I’ve been DJing since the age of 14. My first release was 2008. I’ve had various aliases and different projects, and this is a chance to show people I’m O-G, I’ve been doing this for time, and I’ve got crates.”

Martin Hewitt