Once A DJ

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Once A DJ is a https://remote-ctrl.co.uk production

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This week I'm joined by KnowleDJ — and this is a slightly different one for the show. He's the first Canadian I've had on since about episode two, and he's built a career that doesn't really look like anyone else's. He grew up in Kelowna, a small city in British Columbia, started out as a hip hop promoter to pay his tuition, and got talked into DJing by a club owner who wanted him to do college nights. He was a "hip hopper for life" who couldn't stand the idea of playing anything else — until the money, and then the music, changed his mind. From there it's cruise ships playing to wildly diverse crowds, an economics degree feeding into how he thinks about the whole game, and eventually opening for the Backstreet Boys, Ice Cube and Ariana Grande, and running the after-parties for No Doubt's Sphere residency.
What I really wanted to get into was the thinking underneath all of that. We talk about cultural deference and why you have to prove you've done the digging before a crowd trusts you. We get into ADHD, diet and the idea of conscientiousness as a cheat code. He walks me through the worst gig of his life — a Vegas set he says was sabotaged, which blacklisted him for years — and the fate-tipping opportunities that came after. There's a genuinely moving stretch about Fat Man Scoop, who mentored him and passed away the very night Knowledge told him he'd played "Be Faithful." And we finish on the economics of it all: why he built himself a "category of one," what blue ocean strategy and ikigai have to do with DJing, and why, with his book The DJ Diaries on the way, he still believes music is the answer.
In this episode we get into:
Growing up in Kelowna and going from hip hop promoter to open-format DJ
Reading diverse crowds on the cruise ships, and learning that people hear music differently
Showing cultural deference — proving you've dug deep before a crowd trusts you
Rebuilding the No Doubt set from scratch, and the real story behind "Don't Speak"
ADHD, diet, and conscientiousness as a cheat code (the OCEAN model)
The brain science of doing hard things, and telling yourself a realistic story
Learning the mic, the art of the warm-up, and getting over stage fright
The worst gig of his life and being blacklisted in Vegas
Opening for Ariana Grande, Backstreet Boys and Ice Cube — and reading GA crowds
Fat Man Scoop's quiet, huge influence on hip hop — and a tragic full-circle moment
The economics of DJing: supply and demand, a "category of one," blue ocean strategy and ikigai
The DJ Diaries, what's next, and the idea of the "otrovert"

I thought I'd re-publish this one for any of the heads who missed it first time round.

He doesn't really need an introduction round here — one half of the production team behind Jurassic 5, and honestly one of the best DJs I've ever seen live. I got Nu-Mark on to talk about his new book Amunu, which is part Persian cookbook, part memoir, part travel guide, and really a celebration of togetherness — family, food and music all woven together. What I love is how much ground we covered getting there.
He told me about the mum who raised him with total freedom (and who, 24 years ago, told him to start making Middle Eastern beats — advice he's only just taken), about growing up half-Iranian in the States during the hostage crisis, and about buying 20,000 records for $500 as a teenager, a haul that ended up powering 85–90% of those early J5 productions. We got deep into the group: how it became Jurassic 5 when there were six of them, why he refused the single deal that everyone else signed, the fact that the UK recognised them before the US would, and the whole first EP being made on an eight-track. He's wonderfully honest about confidence too — something he says he's still working on — and about losing his father, and how it was putting his dad's old records on that finally let him cry. We finish on Lesson 6, two record collections meant to meet, and the kebabs-on-site book launch in LA. A proper one, this.
In this episode:
His mum, Nowruz, and the Middle Eastern beats advice he ignored for 24 years
Growing up half-Iranian during the Iran hostage crisis
The alphabetised 35,000-record collection (and the $500 haul of 20,000 records that built J5)
Making peace with a tough upbringing, and music as therapy
Losing his father, and the records that brought it out
Drumming, Brazilian rhythm, and house parties that ended on slow jams
Bum Rush Productions, $2 on the door and the 40 ounce posse
Why it's Jurassic 5 when there were six of them
Turning down the Blunt single deal — and signing Kanye at Correct Records
The chemistry with Cut Chemist, and the art-first philosophy
Breaking in the UK before the US, and touring like a rock band
Retaining the publishing, the long life of "What's Golden", and a surprise Pandora hit
The whole first EP made on an eight-track
The Interscope era alongside Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent, and the Scott Storch sessions
Going solo with the toy set, and building his own ecosystem
How Amunu came together — and the LA launch

Cut Chemist has been on my list since the day I started this podcast, so getting him on for Episode 85 was a real full-circle moment. He's someone whose records genuinely shaped how I dig and how I think about putting samples together, and across this conversation he traces the whole arc — from kicking along to a Bobby Darin concert in the womb, to a McDonald's straw on a snare drum, to Star Wars soundtracks, to the moment hip hop landed for him in 1983.
We get deep into the Hollywood scene that raised him, the Rhino Records parking-lot quarter bins where he and his friends amassed beats nobody had touched, and the Jungle Brothers album that made him realise he could make "a record made out of records."
From Unity Committee into Jurassic 5, sharing the production chair with Nu-Mark, the all-45s leap into Brain Freeze with DJ Shadow, the solo tightrope of The Audience's Listening, and right up to his candlelit listening parties now — this one's a masterclass in following the unfamiliar. It's long, it's nerdy in all the right places, and I couldn't have asked for more from a guest who's influenced me this much.
In this episode we cover:
His earliest musical memories — parents, live drums, Carpenters and a deep sci-fi soundtrack obsession
Discovering hip hop in 1983 via KDAY, breakdancing, graffiti and the elements one at a time
Public Enemy, Bomb Squad and why Main Source is his production template
The Jungle Brothers album that turned him into a sampler
Learning gear the hard way — reel-to-reel, Roland S10, MPC, the Pro Tools learning curve
Forming Jurassic 5 out of Unity Committee, and the east-coast heart in a west-coast city
Pre-internet sample sleuthing and the legendary Rhino Records quarter bins
First DJ gigs at 15, learning to cut, and the up-and-down fader style that became his own
Qbert and the 1996 X-Men vs Scratch Pickles battle
A digging philosophy: is the juice worth the squeeze?
Sharing production with Nu-Mark, building Lesson 6, and breaking in Europe with Mr Format
The Rare Equations mix, the Number Song remix and the all-45s origins of Brain Freeze
Ozomatli, Brazilian and African digging, and constructing a set like a composition
The Audience's Listening at 20, The Garden in Brazil, and the Italy trip that changed everything
The Good Life Cafe education and record shopping with Biz Markie
Stable Sound, the Bandcamp subscription, and his candlelit psychedelic sound baths
On Keb Darge, on Edan, and the Expert of None shows coming next

Once A DJ is brought to you by:
https://www.vinylunderground.co.uk - 10% off your next order using code onceadj
https://www.sureshotshop.com/ - Record adapters (including customs) & accessories
https://myslipmats.com/ - Custom and off the shelf Slipmats, dividers and more.
Once A DJ is a https://remote-ctrl.co.uk production

Other ways to support the show
Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Any feedback or questions? Hit up the Once A DJ Instagram Page
Subscribe to the Once A DJ Patreon
Buy your Once A DJ Sureshot 45 adapter clamps

This week I'm joined by Eddie Otchere — a name that might be new to some, but his work absolutely won't be. Eddie is the photographer behind some of the most iconic images of 90s hip hop, jungle and drum & bass, garage and grime. He was Metalheadz's official photographer, shot Wu-Tang Clan, Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, So Solid Crew, Estelle, Chronixx, and pretty much every rapper you cared about coming up. His work is currently exhibited at the V&A East, and he's spent the last 30 years documenting London's black music and dance culture.
Eddie grew up in Brixton, Stockwell and Vauxhall, falling into record collecting at Groove Records in Soho when he was so small he couldn't see over the counter. He picked up his first camera in the late 80s — a Praktika left behind by a friend's granddad — and went on to build one of the most important visual archives of UK club culture. This is a long, deep, wide-ranging conversation, and one I came away from genuinely feeling like I'd learned something. I hope you do too.
Topics covered:
Growing up in South London and the village mentality of the area
Early days at Groove Records, Red Records, Dub Vendor and the record shops of Soho
Getting online in the mid-90s via Direct Connection in Stockwell — and how hip hop became the global language
Picking up a Praktika camera and falling into photography alongside record collecting
Why being analog matters in a "post-fact" world of remastered records and retconned history
The Canon EOS 10 and learning to shoot in pitch-black clubs
Shooting jungle raves, Metalheadz, and protecting young people from tabloid demonisation
How Red Bull, smoking bans and changing crowd behaviour shifted the look and feel of clubs
The art of the loop — Alchemist, Dilla, No I.D. and chasing perfect samples
Working with Wu-Tang as teenagers and learning to build a body of work
Photographing Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, Estelle and Chronixx
Around the early days of grime and why he gravitated toward So Solid in South London
Drum & bass being run by women, and the importance of Chemistry and Storm
The General Levy "cancellation", gatekeeping, and protecting a culture
The V&A East exhibition and the tension between DIY scenes and academic curation
Lee Scratch Perry, dub museums, and what music history should look like
Meta glasses, AI as a personal agent, and digital asset management for photographers
His advice for new photographers: intention is everything

Once A DJ is brought to you by:
https://www.vinylunderground.co.uk - 10% off your next order using code onceadj
https://www.sureshotshop.com/ - Record adapters (including customs) & accessories
https://myslipmats.com/ - Custom and off the shelf Slipmats, dividers and more.
Once A DJ is a https://remote-ctrl.co.uk production

Other ways to support the show
Follow the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Any feedback or questions? Hit up the Once A DJ Instagram Page
Subscribe to the Once A DJ Patreon
Buy your Once A DJ Sureshot 45 adapter clamps

This week I'm joined by Carl Loben, Editor-in-Chief of DJ Mag and a man who's spent more than three decades chronicling dance music — from blagging his way into gigs as a freelance writer for Melody Maker in the early 90s, to running DJ Mag for the last decade. I wanted to sit down with Carl because he's seen the whole arc from a vantage point most people haven't: Two Tone gigs at Hammersmith Odeon (where everyone had to leave their DMs at the door), an acid house epiphany at Glastonbury, the drum & bass evangelism that defined his 90s, and a publishing career that's covered the rise of the superstar DJ, the bottle-service era and the digital revolution from the front row.
We get into Carl's own DJing journey — the false start, the freestyle rooms in Hackney, the international gigs that came with the editor's chair — and the labels he's built along the way: Westway with Barry Ashworth from the Dub Pistols, and Jack Said What with Irvine Welsh and Steve Mac (the underground house Steve Mac, not the pop one — there's a great story in there). He's also really frank about the shifting cultural landscape: the whitewashing he and Ben Murphy set out to address with their book Renegade Snares, the wellbeing reckoning that's reshaping what DJ life looks like, and the sea-of-phones problem that's quietly killing the dancefloor.
In this episode we cover:
Growing up between Beatles, Buddy Holly and Two Tone, and his first gig at 13 (Madness, Hammersmith Odeon)
His acid house epiphany at Glastonbury and the unsung heroes the history books missed
The Hackney freestyle rooms, becoming a drum & bass DJ, and almost painting himself into a corner
Blagging his first reviews for Melody Maker and what life was like as a 90s freelance music journo
Why Melody Maker went down the toilet and how he ended up at DJ Mag full time
International gigs in Brazil, Ecuador, Poland and China — and learning why touring DJs burn out
The cult of the superstar DJ and the hangover from rock and roll
Westway Records, Jack Said What, and the realities of running a label after the vinyl crash
Renegade Snares, the whitewashing of drum & bass, and the genre's reckoning with diversity
Why digital was a blessing and a curse, and what happens when 20,000 tracks a day hit Spotify
The wellness shift, the sea of phones, and his advice for new DJs trying to break through