When it comes to selectors who blend political edge with pure dancefloor energy, few do it quite like GIDEÖN. A respected figure in both underground house and queer club culture, his journey spans decades – from Glastonbury’s Block9 to co-founding London’s queer rave institution Adonis. With deep roots in vinyl culture, activism, and community, GIDEÖN brings a singular depth to the booth. We were lucky enough to chat with him ahead of his Future Disco Dance Club debut on May 31st, where he’ll be joining house music icon Roger Sanchez for a night of serious dance floor escapism.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey into the world of DJing?
A: I came of age in the 90s in London and grew up obsessively listening to London’s pirate radio stations. It was through this medium that I got a taste for US imports of underground deep house and garage.
When I was 15 I began going to Heaven, a gay nightclub under the arches at Charring Cross Station in London, multiple times a week, and was a part of that whole community from a very early age. I got a different kind of musical education there and ended up spending the rest of my life on a voyage of discovery into House Music: The internal wellspring of queer musical expression.
Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in music, specifically as a Producer and DJ?
A: I studied music at University. With my first year student loan I bought a giant club sound system and started putting on illegal free parties, warehouse raves, and festivals with some of the sketchy London squatters I was spending my time with. It was the birth of electronic music at illegal festivals and raves in the UK at the time. We were very much divorced from the capitalist system. The parties we were doing were for social, cultural, political, and arguably spiritual reasons, not to make money. I then ended up buying a 1977 Bedford Dominant Duple full-size coach to move the sound system around in and as I had no money for accommodation, I moved into the bus and started living with the new age traveller crew, putting on illegal raves and parties. These raves laid the foundation for my work in scenography, stage design, and production design, which in turn evolved into the kind of creations you might expect to see at Glastonbury Festival. I am co-director of Block9 where we build temporary realities devoted to the exploration of music. Starting a record label was a project that I embarked upon out of necessity, not any other reason. I needed a vehicle for self-expression, a way to release music that was not going to involve any other party or any other creative vision other than my own..
Q: How would you describe your signature sound or style?
A: Classic, underground, deep, house, tipping its hat in the direction of New York City.
Q: What does the Future of Disco and Dance music look like for you?
A: I hope the future of dance music moves away from relentless monetization. I hope for the widespread recognition of the communities that founded the genre. I’d also like to see it move away from endless smartphones on the dance floor, social media, and the ridiculous, narcissistic, empty, cult of the DJ influencer.
Q: What are your usual rituals before Dj’ing?
A: Unfortunately, it’s nothing glamorous. It’s just preparing, revising, digging, ripping vinyl, remastering and re-editing.
Q: As a DJ, what do you hope to communicate or evoke through your music?
A: Somebody came up to me at Honcho Festival in Pittsburgh last August and said, ‘Oh, you are GIDEÖN. You’re the DJ that plays political house’, and that made me laugh. I’d like to think house music and the cultural and political values found in its DNA remain on my dance floors. What house meant in the early 90s has been lost in translation these days. I also hope to highlight and signpost the original values associated with the genre. As Frankie Knuckles said, ‘house is disco’s revenge’.
Q: Can you share any memorable experiences or highlights from your career so far?
A: One of my first DJ gigs was playing at the Criminal Justice Bill counter demonstration in Trafalgar Square to 50,000 people. As I played the first record on the sound system, the whole of Trafalgar Square went ape. It was boiling hot and everyone jumped in the fountains. Another memorable experience is smuggling a giant sound system into a cordoned off police area in central London for an anti-Nigel Farrage and anti Brexit protest. We blocked the centre of Soho for hours and hours and hours with a huge rig and played some amazing DJs. Horse Meat Disco. Luke Solomon, Prosumer…
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring DJs looking to make it in the industry?
A: I get endless approaches from new DJs who want me to book them for the Glastonbury Festival, for Adonis, for the Roof Gardens, for R3 Soundsystem, for any of the projects that I am involved in. Principally, I would say that I don’t care how many followers you have on Instagram, I don’t want to see you doing a dance routine behind the decks, I want to be able to close my eyes, hear your musical output, your selection, mixing style and unique sound.
Unless you are able to put the time in to really establish your own specific sound, then I personally would say don’t bother. There are enough wannabe DJs out there who are in the game for all the wrong reasons and they all sound the same. Unless you are bringing something that is distinguishable from everything else then just move on.
Q: How do you stay creative and inspired in an ever-evolving music landscape?
A: By going out and listening to music. Clubs and parties and radio in UK, US and EU.
A: I have my next EP coming out on Friday, 30th May ‘The Two Houses’. It’s a musical project memorialising prominent members of New York’s House of LaBeija and House of Xtravaganza, many of whom have passed away since their founding in 1977 and 1982 respectively. Both houses were made famous by the 1990 documentary ‘Paris Is Burning’, chronicling the NYC ballroom scene in the late eighties.
Initially the song was a personal tribute to my friend Simone LaBeija, who tragically died in 2023 but it subsequently evolved into a broader memorial project when Grammy nominee
Rush Davisfrom Xtravaganza became involved as vocalist and co-writer. The track is a roll call, an homage and a dedication to the original founders of New York’s ballroom community. Those lesser-known heroes who paved the way for the now fully exploited global phenomena we know today. As Queer, and more specifically Trans human rights come under increasing attack, The Two Houses remembers, underscores and reveres those pioneering artists responsible for the birth of ballroom culture and more broadly, their place in the history of House Music itself.
Q: Finally, if you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, who would it be and why?
A: Billie Holiday. She’s the greatest queer icon to have lived.
Catch GIDEÖN at the next Future Disco Dance Club event this Saturday with Roger Sanchez, Raw Silk, Queer House Party and many more fanatastic selectors stepping up to deliver a fusion to have you locked till the early hours.
Last tickets remain HERE. See you on the dance floor ✨
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