Joey Riot on The Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 7/2/25

The DJ Sessions – Virtual Sessions does an in-depth interview with DJ and producer Joey Riot, conducted by host Darran Bruce for The DJ Sessions.

 

Joey shares his journey as an electronic music artist based in Vancouver, Canada, reflecting on over a decade in the industry. He describes his early influences and how he transitioned from a club goer to a full-time DJ and music producer. Joey explains how the club culture in Vancouver helped shape his musical taste and performance style, and how his work gradually evolved into full-time gigs and production.

 

The discussion touches on the nuances of Vancouver’s electronic music scene, emphasizing its deep house and minimal tech flavors. Joey candidly shares how he found his sound through extensive experimentation and club performances. He also provides insight into his creative process, often relying on emotional inspiration to fuel his tracks, and how he integrates real-life energy into his sets. He reflects on the importance of setting the mood with opening sets and the unique challenge of building a journey for the audience.

 

Throughout the interview, Joey offers a personal perspective on the importance of patience, consistency, and authenticity in music. He speaks on his desire to release more of his original productions and how being in the studio energizes him. He also reveals plans for future international travel and collaborations. This transcript captures the mindset of an artist who is both grounded in his community and driven by a global vision, offering valuable insights for aspiring DJs and fans of electronic music alike.

Interview with Joey Riot on The DJ Sessions – Virtual Sessions
Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Joey (DJ/Producer, Vancouver, Canada)
Date: July 2, 2025
Runtime: Approx. 30 minutes

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Early Influences and Entry into DJing

Joey, a Vancouver-based DJ and music producer, shares his personal and professional journey in electronic music. His path began as a passionate club-goer who transitioned into DJing after being inspired by the atmosphere and musicality of local nightlife. Encouraged by friends, he pursued DJing with increasing seriousness, eventually finding opportunities to play at clubs and private events, which grew into a full-time pursuit over time.

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Vancouver’s Electronic Music Scene

Joey speaks at length about the culture and soundscape of Vancouver’s electronic music scene. He notes that the scene leans heavily into deep house, minimal techno, and melodic styles, especially within warehouse and after-hours settings. This underground, moody vibe influenced his musical development and continues to shape his sound. He highlights how community support and event promoters contributed to his growth as a performer.

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Finding His Sound and Creative Process

He emphasizes that discovering his unique sound took time and experimentation. Joey’s creative process is emotion-driven; he creates tracks that reflect how he’s feeling and often lets the vibe of a set or production evolve organically. He values playing extended sets where he can craft musical journeys—starting slow and gradually building energy. He also highlights the impact of crowd interaction in shaping his performances.

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Balancing DJing and Production

While DJing remains Joey’s primary passion, he expresses a strong desire to focus more on production and release more original music. He mentions that working in the studio is creatively fulfilling, though it requires a different mindset than live performance. He’s careful not to release music until he feels it authentically represents him.

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Future Goals and Philosophies

Joey plans to travel internationally, collaborate with artists, and release new tracks. He’s motivated by community, connection, and personal growth rather than fame. He encourages upcoming DJs to be patient, stay consistent, and remain true to their sound. He also stresses the importance of respecting the role of opening DJs and setting a proper mood, a skill he believes is often undervalued.

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Reflections on the Industry and Advice

Joey comments on how the electronic music industry often places too much emphasis on instant success, social media hype, and chasing trends. In contrast, he promotes a grounded approach based on authenticity and perseverance. He reflects on the lessons he’s learned—from navigating nerves early in his career to building confidence through repetition and resilience.

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Conclusion

The interview provides a candid and thoughtful look into Joey’s journey as an artist who has matured through experience and passion. His insights about DJ culture, production, and artistic identity offer both inspiration and practical advice for anyone navigating the world of electronic music today. Joey’s story is one of transformation—from enthusiastic club-goer to respected artist—fueled by genuine love for the music and its community.

[Darran]
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the DJ sessions presents the virtual sessions. I’m your host there.

And right now I’m sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and coming in all the way from England, North Hampton, we have Joey riot today on the DJ sessions, virtual sessions. Joey, how’s it going today?

[Joey Riot]
Darren, I’m great. Thank you for having me. It’s an absolute pleasure to be here.

My friends.

[Darran]
Yeah, I know it took a little bit of everything going and everything, but you know, I’m glad to have you here. You know, we got a lot to talk about today and today’s show. Um, you recently just kind of read through yourself back into the mix.

Is that correct?

[Joey Riot]
Yeah, it’s been, it’s been a crazy year. I’ve been doing loads of stuff. I mean, uh, off the back of last year was my 20th year as a professional artists.

And I, you do use that term loosely because when I started out, um, when I quit my last job, um, I was doing music full time, but you know, I was eating beans and toast and, you know, I was like just making rent and stuff like that. But you know, that time is such a special time because I was waking up each morning. I was just thinking, all I have to do is write music and then DJ at the weekend.

And from there, you know, I brought up a steady career and, you know, I’m very fortunate to still be doing this after 20 years and obviously things have morphed and changed and we’ll go into a lot of that through this interview. But, um, it’s been a kind of landmark moment in my career last year when, you know, celebrated 20 years in the game. And then this year has been a full on of that.

It just seems to be things have just been magnified. Um, after I thought I may be like taking my foot off the gas. So it doesn’t seem to be happening at all.

[Darran]
No, I know how that goes. I’ve had people, you know, over the years of, of doing this show for gosh, 16 years now. Um, but I’ve been in media production business for years before that.

Um, it’s funny, you know, the image that happens in show business, that people don’t see a lot of behind the scenes stuff that goes on and they don’t know that, you know, at times in my life where I was being accused, it wasn’t really a bad accusation, but I was being accused of making like quarter million to half a million dollars a year with my brand and doing all this stuff. And I wasn’t paying people to be on my show and I was not knowing that I was, um, actually I’m disabled and you know, it was on bare bones SSI, like social security income and Samson going to food banks and not knowing how I was going to pay rent the next month, you know, but somehow the entertainment image was out there and I’m like, all right, cool. Whatever.

You don’t know what I like.

[Joey Riot]
Something I’ve encountered. And I think most people in this industry have, there’s a perception side of things and you know, how you’re presented online. If you look professional and everything else, people just assume you’re absolutely calling it and then, you know, making money hand over fist.

And you know, even if you are making a decent money, people don’t actually understand how much you invest back into the business that you’re running. Like, you know, sometimes when my accountant gets back to me and he’s just like, how much are you spending on like what you’re doing? And he’s like, it doesn’t make any sense for the profit you’re making.

Um, but you know, it’s my passion. I love it. And, you know, I don’t, I don’t really kind of, when I’m making purchases for my business, you know, whether it be new synthesizers, VSTs, plugins for the computer, um, other pieces of equipment, stuff like that, it doesn’t even cross my mind.

I’m just like, well, if I’m going to get better and I want to improve, these are things that I need. And yeah, uh, yeah, people do get a really skewed vision of what your life is actually like. And, and it just, it’s like they fill in the dots.

They fill in the blank study of what they think your life is. And then they make assumptions. People start talking, rumors get going.

And before you know it, you’re the devil.

[Darran]
So, you know, and curiosity, I do want to give a shout before we get really started here. Uh, give a shout out to Ben Bodger.

[Joey Riot]
Yeah. Ben Bodger was out in the room.

[Darran]
Shout out to Ben Bodger. Thank you for tuning in today. I’m sure we’ll have more of those coming through later on the show, but yeah, people just did the perception of, you know, the pitfalls that people go in and out of.

And, you know, I have a list. You see people join in the game and then they’re out of the game. And my list of DJs that I contact, you know, I have about a database of about 20,000 DJs that I contact to be on the show.

We were talking a little bit about this before in pre-show, you know, and even just after taking an eight and a half month hiatus. Oh, Carol Baker. What’s up?

Hi, Carol. Thank you for tuning in. Um, and uh, what do we got?

Cow, Oh, what’s up? Thank you very much for tuning in today. But you know, people don’t understand that sometimes you just need to take a break or, you know, there may be a bunch of backend stuff deals that you’re working on stuff that I’ve been under non-disclosure that I can’t talk about.

And I have to put things on hold because of that.

[Joey Riot]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And it’s like, well, what about this operation you were going to be doing? It’s all granted. And it’s like, but then you don’t know you’re working on something.

And some people say, you know, wait until the ink is dried and it’s out there and, you know, and it’s a real deal, but sometimes you want to be excited about what you’re working on and share that with people in the pipeline.

[Joey Riot]
I know. I know a lot of people say like, wait, like you said, wait till you’ve, you’ve got the thing finished and then talk about it. But I’ve always felt like if I say I’m going to do something before I’ve actually done it, it puts more pressure on me to actually do it because, um, you know, I’ve learned out and I’ve learned in recent times that I’ve got ADHD, which makes a lot of sense considering my character, but I find all these coping mechanisms over the years, um, because I didn’t have a, you know, a diagnosis, but you know, one of the things that I did do was I knew that I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t take care of tasks unless I like made myself responsible for it by putting it out there and then I put pressure on myself to like do the actual thing that I said it was going in. So I would always talk a big game, but then I would have to back up.

So yeah, I totally feel you there. And plus you’re excited to talk about things sometimes before they happen also.

[Darran]
Yeah. Um, it’s exactly, and people say that I’m always the king of vague booking, but it’s like, you’re excited about the food that you publish. You’re excited about everything you do.

I’m excited about the stuff I do, but sometimes I can’t talk about it because I’m under contract or I’m under a deal or I’m not going to let you all know what I’m really up to because then you’re going to just like what happened to me and Pandy, you know, when, when, when that hit and everything shut down, I was feeling probably over the course of the first six to eight months before I even started going back to live streaming or do anything, probably about 300 emails, inquiries, calls from everybody in the industry. How do you stream live? How do you do this?

How do I do blah, blah, blah, blah. And I’m sitting there going, you’re all wondering how to do it. Okay.

But then I started to realize I’m helping you set up my competition. You’re, you’re, you shouldn’t be, you aren’t wanting to work with me. I already have the infrastructure for this.

Let’s do it all through over here that I’m pushing it all there. Um, uh, so it was very, um, I started like withdrawing a little bit going, wait a second, what’s going on here? And I call it those, the 2020 to 2022 were kind of the look at me years when it came to online, anything.

Look at me. I got a podcast. Look at me.

I got a live stream. Look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me. Knowing after doing that for 10 years of live streaming, even, you know, five years before that, of, of, um, four or five years before that, a podcast and then broadcast television, I looked at a lot of these people and like, you really aren’t set up and ready to do this and let alone, you got to understand everybody else in the world is doing this.

[Joey Riot]
So that’s the thing.

[Darran]
Yeah. A person that you’re reaching out to can only watch one show at one given time. So if you’re going on the same time as Macy Oplex is going on the same time as insomniacs going on at the same time, going on, who do you think is going to get all the views?

They don’t, and then you get disenfranchised because nobody’s watching your show because, you know, um, you know, you’re sitting there and it’s like, wait a second. Why? Yeah, it was very interesting to watch.

So that’s why I came back and kind of revamped my brand and just started doing the new thing and doing interviews like this. I would have had to wait my old school thinking I would have to wait for you to come to the States, come to Seattle and interview on the ground is the way I’ve operated my show. Because if I tried to zoom in before 2020, nobody knew how to do this kind of stuff.

[Joey Riot]
Like I’ve wanted to do that stuff for, for years and even with music production stuff, being able to do some of the platforms to do that online now, it’s insane. But you know, I think the, you know, one of the few positives to come out of the pandemic was this sort of technology was ramped up severely because there was a demand for it, you know? So things like restream and stream labs and, you know, um, zoom and everything else, the, the really up to game in terms of the stability and stuff like that.

And, you know, the, the user friendliness of it. And yeah. And I think like myself included when, um, the pandemic kind of stopped happening, you know, everything opened back up again.

Um, like I stopped streaming and I wish, I wish I didn’t, you know, it’s one of those, like, could have, would have showed up, but I was building up a good audience and, you know, a bit of an exclusive here. I’m going to be doing it on the regular again. Um, because I just, I really enjoyed doing it.

I really enjoyed doing it all the time. Um, I’ve also prepared the mix for you guys that, you know, we’ll talk about in a bit as well, which, you know, that side of it. And also this side, I was doing, I was doing chats like this with other DJs, like just friends of mine, I was reaching out and saying, do you want to have a chat for three or four hours?

And they’re like, what about it? I’m like, I don’t know, like, and it was like, let’s just start talking because these are guys who I would see, you know, maybe once a month or something. And we would chat for a few hours at a time.

We’d be catching up and I’m like, let’s just put it on the internet. Like, you know, I’m going to talk to you anyway. Like if you’re comfortable just talking about whatever.

And it also brought down a lot of barriers in terms of, you know, what you felt comfortable talking about. And I think that’s something that’s really important as well as, as, you know, artists and, uh, you know, content creators and everything is to break down some of the boundaries about, um, you know, who you are and the perception and that we are just people at the end of the day, um, who are trying to kind of create something cool. And yeah, like you said, the perception and how you can get judged, you know, you don’t, if you don’t let your soul bare a bit on, on platforms like this, um, I think can be easily misconstrued.

Um, so yeah, I love doing things like this and just, uh, people can either love me or hate me, but this is who I am. I hear you.

[Darran]
No, I hear you. 100%. Speaking of loving people, loving you.

Let’s give a big shout out to Aaron Doozy, Scott Paffley, Lee, Lee McCarran.

[Joey Riot]
These are all, these are all British names.

[Darran]
McCann, Tracy, Aaron, again, Peter and fly on the wall TV. Thank you all for tuning in. I really appreciate it today.

Don’t forget to follow us on our website, the DJ sessions.com because there’s more stuff there, but we’ll talk about that later. Cause we’re going to talk to this guy over here, Joey Ryan. So you just recently did a tour, uh, Asia, Australia, Europe.

Uh, tell us about that. Uh, what, what, what did you just say? Okay.

I’m coming on. I’m going on tour. I’m coming back.

And you know, I know you got to come back and your alias. We’ll talk about that in a little bit as well, but what was that like getting out of the, uh, being on the ground, being on the planes and trains?

[Joey Riot]
I mean, I used to, I used to tour a lot with my alias destructive tendencies. And I did tour quite a bit as Joey right back in the early days. But the, I mean, one of the things like just pre pandemic, I pretty much was ready to quit everything.

I’ve been down to those for three months and I’d say I was close to having a nervous breakdown because the pressure of touring and then like coming off, like, you know, maybe doing five, six, seven gigs a week and you know, a space of maybe four or five countries and then having to fly back home and then be in the studio Monday morning and having record labels and agents and everybody on your case and everybody’s pulling you from pillar to post.

The pressure of that was like too much. And I was asked, I stopped kind of having fun. So, you know, when the pandemic, uh, I restructured my business, I’ve done a lot of online tuition and stuff like that.

And I thought maybe, uh, you know, the two days had this day, but you know, the pool of just getting on stage again and stuff is too much for me. Um, and this tour, it was actually supposed to happen in March. And the thing with tours, um, as you may be aware, some of the people listening probably won’t be aware of.

Like if you’re trying to put together a tour that’s across a couple of different continents, for instance, like it can just, all it can take is like one gig to say they can’t do a specific date and they want to move it and the whole thing falls apart. And that’s exactly what happened in March. I was supposed to be doing, you know, maybe another three or four dates and also like the, the, the date in Taiwan get moved and then Australia couldn’t do it and then the whole thing fell apart and Japan pulled out.

And I was just like, I watched this huge tour happen. I’m all excited to all crumble into nothing. And then I’m like, is this even going to happen?

You know, I’m going to help my manager and the team. We managed to kind of piece it back together again. I got out to Taiwan, played Taipei and Taichung.

This is the third or fourth time. I want to say it gets a bit blurry over there, to be honest, they feed you with too much alcohol, but, um, yeah, I mean, I’ll just love going over there. It’s, um, it’s been, it’s been a revelation going to Asia, um, because it’s like, it’s just a completely different, UK’s had it good for a lot of years, you know, a lot of stuff started here and you know, the LNA team was magical and there’s still a lot of good events.

Don’t get me wrong. But you know, when you go to places like Asia and some of the cities in Australia, where there’s a lot of really young people going out and they’re finding this music for the first time. So it’s a bit like, you know, when some of those older ravers that are in the chat and stuff and people that are sales, we remember like when we started going out and how new and fresh and exciting it was, well, these people are getting to do that all for the first time.

Um, and yeah, obviously I’d done a Taiwan. I went on Australia and played a few shows there. Um, then I was in the Netherlands.

I was, I was also like in between all that, I was like Singapore, um, Hong Kong. I was in, um, uh, what else was, uh, uh, Italy. I was, I was kind of all over the place, you know, it was all these, all these different, so I counted like I was in nine different, nine different countries in the space of maybe two months, um, which, which is, which is, it sounds fun, but like once you get there, it’s brilliant.

Like, cause I’ve got, I’ve got really good friends in all different corners of the world. So if I’ve been going to Taiwan for three or four years, I know people there. I’d friends come over from the Netherlands.

I had their friends from Singapore come over, um, Australia. I’ve been going there since two, I think it’s 2007. I first went over there.

It’s a long time ago. So I’ve been going for a long time. Like, yeah, a lot, a long time.

Um, and I know so many people out there. So getting there, meeting up with old friends, that side of things. Great.

But the traveling is, you know, as I’m getting older, it really knocks a life out of me. Um, and that’s the, I think that’s the thing that, you know, when people, you know, promoters even inquire about your DJ wage and stuff, and they think about how, you know, people talk about, you get paid that for an hour. I’m like, I don’t get paid that for an hour.

Like you travel 30 hours to the other side of the world to play for an hour and then 30 hours back. So that’s, and then you’ve got to be there for three days. So there’s, you know, there’s, there’s a week out of your life to play for one hour and you, you know, if you split that and you’re like, well, I’m actually getting paid for the hours on my way.

It’s probably not that great amount of money to me.

[Darran]
No, no, I hear you. I, it’s amazing. You know, people, you know, same with my industry and video production, people think, oh, I come in and I set up gear.

Like I come to an event, they see me at the event, I’m filming the event, you know, but they don’t see the pre setup, the pre production and then they see the post production. It’s like, you got to understand. I bring $25,000 worth of gear to work.

I bring 32 years worth of knowledge here, this production. And you know, if I were to charge in the scene, what I would charge, most places don’t have it in their budget, local DJs, promoters, even the bigger names. You know, they’re not going to bring in a full film.

If they already have a film crew, they already have, you know, photographers and video editors and then let there be real stuff. And they’re not really filming their shows because people don’t understand about rights and permissions and copyright and all that stuff that goes into play. The moment you hit that record button, you can record all you want, but the moment you hit a distribution button, that’s a whole nother level of contract and a whole nother game out there that people don’t get.

So that being said, I totally can understand about the, like we were talking a little bit about the back end that people don’t see of what happens putting into something like this, you know, more upcoming shows and tours, Croatia, Canada, US and the UK coming up, coming to Seattle.

[Joey Riot]
I hope so, man. I like, I’ve had played Seattle once before, a long time ago, maybe 2008, I think it was, um, but, uh, and I’ve still got, um, my Seattle, uh, well, I can’t remember what the team’s called, the baseball team. I’ve still got my jersey, the Mariners.

That’s the one. Yeah. I’ve still got that hanging up in my wardrobe.

That’s something I do. And especially when I would call it the States, but I started doing Australia as well, like whatever city or town I played in, I would like buy either, you know, a baseball jersey or, you know, American football top or whatever, whatever the, you know, kind of sport sports thing was. Um, and I would wear them on stage, but some places I went to, like, for instance, I bought, I can’t remember the Sydney team.

It was like a Australian nose football. And they were like, you can’t wear that on stage. And I was like, why?

And I’m like, cause it’s a bit like Glasgow. There’s like Celtic and Rangers and the Hague. How about those two teams in one city?

They’re like, you know, there’s like, there was 50,000 people there and like 25,000 people are going to boo you off the stage. And I was like, oh shit. So, uh, but yeah, yeah.

I’m off to Canada. Um, I’m well, I’m off to Croatia on Sunday. Um, I’m over there for a week, uh, drop zone festival, uh, amazing festival, uh, absolutely magical place called Park Island.

Um, and the, the place called such a beach on there, which is literally just all clubs on the beach. There’s maybe like, I don’t know, a dozen or something. And it is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I think this is maybe my 12th, 11th or 12th year going there. Um, and yeah, I don’t get bored of it. I love going to have, you know, multiple clubs running at the same time, the pool parties, boat parties, you know, I’m doing all of that stuff.

Um, uh, you know, I’m good friends with the people that run it. And, uh, you know, again, there’s people from all over the world. I was just talking to my friend from Australia who was playing at Defcon and in Holland and he’s going to Croatia.

I’m going to meet him there. We’d been working on a track and he’s done a remix of it. So you sent it over and I can’t wait to catch up with him.

So there’s all that side of things as well. Um, Toronto, I’m going to be over there and, uh, August, uh, for the, um, was Labor Day weekend. I’m doing, I’m doing a few shows then.

Um, and I’m hoping to get some another side of Canada. I’m talking to some people. Um, it’s a lot easier to get into Canada now with the visa situation stuff, you’ll actually, there’s no, no issues at all.

Um, America is a different animal altogether and it’s getting more tricky as, uh, as administration’s changed. So, um, that’s going to be interesting. I have been working on my visa.

I have had them a lot of interest in, in different shows, um, which I’m trying to just, uh, put that together. Like I said, with the other tour that just happened, um, you know, those things can look all rosy for one minute and then literally, you know, sometimes a couple of weeks before you’re due to go, one piece of the call, you know, one call get the machine can go and the whole thing falls apart. So, um, you know, Croatia’s confirmed, Canada’s confirmed, America’s in the works.

I’ve had them, you know, there’s options in Los Angeles, San Francisco, possibly Dallas and New York. Um, I would love to come to Seattle again. Um, obviously the more shows I can get on the tour, the more chance it has of happening for the visa purposes and stuff like that, but I’ve already started the process of that and you know, most of that’s went through.

So I just have to have my meeting at the consulate, which is going to be interesting.

[Darran]
Um, yeah, definitely. I, I, I, I know that, um, I saw something posted the other day and obviously I keep kind of a ear to the ground on national, international events, politics, try not to get too much into it on the shows, but you know, somebody posted recently, you know, it’s going to be tough for artists that are going to want it to come here just with all the complications that are going on, you know, I mean, you had the Norwegian guy who was a student coming over here for some reason and he had a meme on his phone and it’s

[Joey Riot]
like the vice president and it was such the most ridiculous thing ever. I just said, but I was like, you’re not getting in the country for that. It’s not, it wasn’t even anything offensive.

Yeah. You know, God, if they liked my phone, I would just get put in jail.

[Darran]
And so, you know, some of the boys, you think about it like this, if he had the phone in his photos or did he have a phone in his Instagram? Did he have it in his Facebook? Was it something that somebody else posted?

[Joey Riot]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
There’s so many, wait a second here. This is just getting really, yeah, we don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. Uh, that being said, you are going to be bringing back your alias, destructive tendencies on the main stage of harmony of hardcore.

Yeah. Well, that was 2025.

[Joey Riot]
Yeah. That, that just, yeah, it just happened.

[Darran]
That just happened. So, uh, tell us all about that and that experience of kind of re bringing a, a brand back. Yeah.

I mean, was that well received?

[Joey Riot]
Was that where people, it was really well received. And I think the timing of it was perfect. Also, um, we done myself and my, uh, my friend, Nick, we’ve done destructive tendencies for years.

And, you know, um, we started as a trio. Then it was just two of us. Um, and we played, we played all over the world.

And we were in the kind of, we call it the Benelux area. So like Holland, Germany, France, you know, all those countries that you can let you drive between. We were, we would play there every weekend.

You know, I had, you know, a KLM platinum card because it was flying with KLM that often, you know, the national airline, um, and yeah, it was, it was, I was even thinking about moving to the Netherlands because it was there that much. And, you know, so many good friends over there, producers and DJs. It’s kind of, it’s kind of the cornerstone of hard style and, you know, so many of the artists and other genres too, you know, so many big artists and different genres that come from, you know, a Dutch origin.

Um, and you know, it’s a real magical country in terms of that. Um, but like I said, when it came more as a pandemic, I was, I was just losing a bit of interest with, I get bored easily musically. And also the scene was moving in a direction that I didn’t really feel I was comfortable in musically.

And I was, I felt like the labels and the agencies and, you know, even events were kind of forced me into a corner a bit to do stuff. I didn’t really want to do. And I noticed myself going on stage and not being happy.

And I’m like, I always say that if I walked on stage and I didn’t have a big smile on my face, this is not the reason I got into this. You know, um, I could just keep going and use it as a cash cow, but I’m like, no. So me and Mick spoke about it.

He was kind of settling down, you know, how many’s, uh, miss he’s got a house and they’ve had some kids and, you know, he, he went full time at his job. And, um, so he was kind of settled and we were like, but then we were asked to sign a new contract. And I was just like, yeah, I don’t think we’re going to do it.

You know, we’re just, and you know, my manager thought it was crazy. And I’m like, you know, I’ve started new brands and new agencies multiple times over my career and you know, I know how to go back to square one. And every time you do it, you’ve met more people.

You’ve made more contacts, you’ve done more networking. So it’s not as scary. And when we decided to, uh, part of the destructive tendencies, we’d always, we’d done a big live stream about it.

We didn’t say we were going to like quit for good, but we said, we’ll just put it to the side at the moment. And you know, we’d really explore other things, you know, Mick’s settling down with his family. I’m going to go back into the joyride stuff and do more multi-genre.

Cause I was predominantly known as like a UK hardcore, happy, hardcore DJ. Um, and I wanted to explore other things, you know, which, which has been really fun doing, and I’m turning again, doing all that, but then the off, well, what happened last, last year in 2024, these end shows that they put at the big festivals, there was like four festivals where our old tracks were getting played on the end shows. And so there was this buzz about us again.

So I’m like, I’m not even playing there. And my tracks are featuring on these huge, you know, fireworks and, you know, everything going off. It’s crazy.

Um, and then one festival that we played a bunch of times, Harmony of Hardcore, they just said, who would like to see Destructive Tendencies back at Harmony? Um, and the place went, you know, then I went wild, went viral and we talked about doing a show and we played on the main stage, the weather was a bit crazy that day, but luckily the rain stopped when we went on, um, we had a great time on there, it was really well received. And, um, yeah, we’re just, we’re just taking that bit by bit.

It’s not like I’m throwing myself completely back into it, like, you know, full guns ahead, but I think one of the things I want to do, both me and Mick, is like each gig that comes in, we’re going to take them as they come and see the merits of them, you know, if we feel like it’s worth doing. And also like I’m writing music again under that alias, but it’s again more for, now I’ve not got the label to deal with and, you know, all the other moving parts of the industry. I’m just writing the music for me and for us and, you know, and we’re going to release some stuff as Destructive Tendencies.

And if things happen, great. If they don’t, it’s just another outlet for what I’m doing, you know, artistically. So yeah, we’ll see what happens with that.

But it was, it was a great, great comeback shit set and I really loved it.

[Darran]
Nice. You know, you mentioned networking and getting out there and meeting people. I had the opportunity and I really opened my eyes to when I first went to ADE for my first time in 2022.

And actually this show, The DJ Sessions got started back in 2009 from going to Winter Music Conference in Miami. And it kind of finding out some ideas, some stuff there and it started the DJ sessions back then, but going to ADE, you know, future forward, years later, you know, being out there surrounding yourself with those artists and the people and the vibe and the culture, and then going back the second year and kind of like, that was my first time going to Europe. That was my first time going to ADE.

And I was kind of like, Oh, second year. It’s like, we know where everything’s at now, you know, you kind of, you kind of know what to take in, what to do. And then, you know, last year I went to Rave the Planet in Berlin and was on the Riverside Studios float truck for that.

And that was just another awesome experience. And, you know, just being out there, I don’t want to have a nose up in the air or say that anyone that can’t make it to ADE isn’t an artist. I’m not saying anything like that, but if you really want to get yourself out there, you meet with the movers and shakers, you meet with people.

And this is what I hear from a lot of people. You meet people that you actually get to put in there. I mean, yeah, we can Zoom all day long, but I get to shake somebody’s hand.

You know, like BT’s walking right by me at a restaurant, you know, like BT what’s up, he’s like, turns around, you know, you see all these, I mean, Carl Cox, I’m like in a, in a, you know, I’m pressed. So I get in some doors that most people don’t get in a room with Carl Cox with 150 people, 200 people, you know, outside the door. About 3000 people trying to get into this little conference.

And I’m like, press, you know, and getting in and seeing those experiences and hearing what the new things are coming up with technologies, symposiums, and then the collaboration and ideas that come back. And so I recommend that for anyone in the industry to get out and party. And if you’re on the network, if you’re on the business side of it, you know, not just a party goer or an event goer, you know, basically getting out there and networking, these are the events you want to be going to.

And yeah, I didn’t go for years.

[Joey Riot]
I didn’t go for years because I felt like, you know, especially what we were doing with Destructive Tendencies, I was already working with a lot of the Dutch artists that I would want to be working with anyway, the agencies, everything. And they were the, our management and agencies and stuff were going to those events anyway. So because it was that busy, I was like, I’d taken a week out to go do that.

But I wish I did it earlier because when I did go, like you see, this is great chatting to you now Dan, but I would much rather be sat in Seattle or have you over here and, you know, like you say, shake your hand, look you in the eyes. It’s, you know, it’s great that technology can do this, but nothing beats face to face meetings. You can really, especially when you’re talking business and you’re networking, you can really get a sense of people’s character and, you know, the just communication, such subtle things that you can pick up on when you’re face to face.

And you really know if you’re wasting your time or there’s something happening, you know, you’ve got a vibe going and you can make something of that. So yeah. And I had such a great time at ADE, both the parties were great, but also, you know, the, the networking side of it was huge.

And again, like a lot of these people I’d see at events and stuff like that, but to sit down and have a coffee with them or like have some lunch, it’s a completely different setting. And then you talk in a different way, you get more personal as well. You start talking about each other, you know, your families and all this stuff.

So you create these bonds as well, which, which helps moving forward. If you’re going to be doing business, you feel that there’s more of a connection there. So yeah.

Yeah.

[Darran]
Absolutely. You know, and that’s like the year we went, I was kind of running around and in the press room at ADE. And so I was like right there in the action.

You’re right. Meeting with the people in person rather than doing online interviews. Cause we had switched to online because of Pandi and we’re doing a lot of stuff.

Being on the ground again, once again was awesome. Last year we actually rented a houseboat and then we just invited everyone to come by the houseboat and we were able to actually throw a really cool party and had some guests there that I can’t say who they were. It wasn’t a P.

Diddy party, but no, it was, it was very interesting. The people that showed up that we’ve managed to bring over and hang out with and it kind of, and they’re like, wow, this is really cool. You’re really cool.

And you get that connection. And then, you know, like I’ve been working with PR companies that I’ve never met in person. It’s been all email contact basically.

And yeah, show up at our houseboat and hang out with their artists and be like, Oh, what are you doing later tonight? We’re throwing a party on the houseboat. And they’re like, all right, cool.

And so, you know, you get to party in or hang out in an environment that you don’t see, you know, if you, you’re doing these events, you’re going to these events, but if you could host an event without any limitations, what five things would you want to have at the event?

[Joey Riot]
That’s a great question. I mean, I’ve played at so many insane events where they seem to have everything covered. And I think like when I have done events in the UK, what I’ve tried to do is bring the stuff that I’ve witnessed and been able to go through these big European events, especially, you know, and it seems quite trivial.

You probably think, you know, in the US you get like when I come to the US or I go overseas, generally, generally you’re really well looked after. Not to say that UK events don’t, but it’s a completely different ballgame. You’re seen in your own country.

You’re just seen as, you know, a local and one of the things that’s kind of old school mentality in terms of like creating spaces for people to network and get together. Like I was playing some of these like massive events in the UK and there’d be no like green room or backstage area or even like, you know, you wouldn’t get a ride there. That was unheard of.

And like, even if you ask for a drink, the bar’s over there, you know, get me one while you’re there, you know, that’s the way promoters would chat to you. But, you know, that has slowly changed as I think, you know, the European acts have been getting booked more over here and they’ve got, you know, their agencies are just like, you know, it’s got to be like this or you don’t get them. So, you know, there’s been a slow move towards that.

And that’s something I’ve tried to really do with my parties. So it’s really difficult to say like five things. I think number one would be a networking space.

And this is what I have done at my own events is like invite anybody that’s involved in the industry to come for free, if they’re press, DJs, MCs, whatever, give them a place where they can have some, you know, they can be looked after, some hospitality, they can just sit and hang out, they can connect, a bit like AD, just having that place where people can, and that’s something I’ve tried to do. And obviously that was limited by the scale of the, you know, the logistics of the venue that I had. But if I had unlimited things, I would have, you know, a massive artist village.

And a lot of the events, you know, I played at like Defcon and Dominant and all these huge festivals and stuff. They had those kind of areas, but as time went on and, you know, bigger companies bought the companies and mergers happened and all these things, they would, you know, trim the fat with all these little luxuries, they would call it, you know, and you’d find that those kind of spaces and things like that would sometimes, you know, fall by the wayside a little bit. And I think they are instrumental to making the artist feel wanted and not just the artist, any contributors, people like yourself, press and content creators, they have to have a place to get together, they have to get a place to exchange ideas.

And also, you know, if you’re in that environment and you’ve been invited, you know, you’re in that spot, you could walk up to anybody in that spot and they’re just like, oh, well, he’s allowed in here. It must be all right. You know, there’s not like you walk up to someone at the side of the stage and you’re like, excuse me, let’s do a CD.

You know, there’s not that kind of barrier, like virtually and virtually, metaphorically.

[Darran]
I know exactly what you mean. It definitely helps when you have press credentials and you’re backstage and you set up and they look over, you’re like, hey, we’re over here doing this. You know, I get a lot of I’ve had a lot of people when we’re backstage, though, they all approach people and be like, hi, I’m Darren with the DJ Sessions.

How’s it going? You know, I’m not trying to fanboy or hype up. I’m just kind of when I hit on camera, as you see the intro of the show, I go, OK, in five, four, three.

Welcome back to the DJ Session. And you can see him kind of like, whoa, what’s going on? And you seem like all of a sudden they know they’re not on camera yet.

Kind of like, yes, this is just like. Yeah, hey, I’m doing another interview. It’s awesome.

But yeah, being backstage can definitely have its perks. Who’s the most interesting person you’ve ever met or the most memorable experience you’ve ever had backstage with someone?

[Joey Riot]
Oh, I don’t know if I can talk about that.

[Darran]
I guess that’s a that’s a loaded question.

[Joey Riot]
Especially with Destructive Tendencies, things would go well backstage, like the hardcore and raw style DJs, the Dutch guys and us British guys and the Italian guys. We would just go wild backstage. Like, you know, there’s a lot of alcohol and testosterone flying about.

And yes, some of the hijinks we would go up to, like. Yeah, I didn’t talk about it, about how I’m going to write a book one day. I’ve had a few friends pressure me.

They’re like some of the stories I tell, they’re like, this has to be written down for posterity or just, you know, because some of it is really unbelievable. And like unless if there wasn’t people there, you know, it could it could be a huge lie. But yeah, these things were some of them were documented.

I try to think of one that’s not I could say on here, interesting people. I guess I met Scooter, which was really interesting. I interviewed him at a weekender event.

And like he’s never kind of moved in my circles before. And there was a person who was supposed to do the interviews who, for some reason, couldn’t do it. And people know that I’m quite confident on the camera.

And the film guy was just like, we need somebody to interview Scooter. And I was like, I’ll do it. And he’s like, really?

I’m like, yeah. And the thing is, as much as Scooter is, I don’t know how big he is in America or the band is in America, but they’re huge in Europe, like crazily huge superstars. And I didn’t know anything about them.

So I’m like quickly trying to Google some things about Scooter before I interview them. And then this interview was an absolute car crash because I’m just like, so what’s happening, Scooter? You know, he’s just looking at me like, who’s this sucker?

You know. So, yeah, there’s been yeah, Scott Pafferson, Kenneth and Marcus with Tequila backstage. Yeah, there’s been a few guys from the Tweakers.

Several of those stories do involve the Tweakers and Coppice Mounts, Jägermeister. There’s one there’s one I can talk about. There’s an event in Germany called Parookaville, a huge event.

We’ve done a Destructive Tendencies set there. We also played back to back with the Tweakers. So there’s four of us, two of them, two of us, both Destructive Tendencies and the Tweakers, DT versus DT.

We’ve done quite a few of those sets. But at this this particular event, I mean, we had a rider, so a rider at the time, I think it was a litre bottle of Jack Daniels, a litre bottle of Grey Goose. We’d been at the festival all day, so I was drinking beers as well, which I don’t normally do because it bags me up and stuff.

I was also eating at the festival, which I don’t normally do because I’m jumping about on stage. I’m quite animated when I’m on stage, as you know, some of the viewers here can attest to. And you probably see from the video that I provided as well, even when I’m not on stage, I’d still get a bit animated.

But we go on stage with the Tweakers. I’m already five sheets to the wind drunk to the stage where I was like, I couldn’t even DJ. So I was like, just give me the microphone.

I’ll just stand out front and stagger about. And then Ken from the Tweakers came out and grabbed the microphone off me. And he said, who wants to see Joey Riott drink a whole bottle of Jägermeister in one go?

And the crowd was like, yeah. And I’m looking at him and I grabbed the microphone off him. And I was like, fuck off.

I was like, it’s not happening. And he pulled it back off me. He’s like, it’s chicken.

And I’m like, it’s like Martin McFly from Back to the Future. I’m like, nobody calls me chicken. So I grabbed the mic back off him and I says, I’ll drink half of it if you drink the other half.

And he was like, OK. So he drank half of it in one drink and I drank the other half in one drink. And then I don’t remember much after that until we were in the transfer going back to the hotel.

Now, one of my friends appeared, Neil Trotter, in the chat. He’s saying, hi, Joey, good to see you, brother. Neil was there.

He was next to me. Oh, no, as if he’s there. I just spotted his name.

So he came out to me. We were playing Parookaville and then we were playing Dominator Festival the next day, so we’re in Germany and then we have to go to Holland. So we’re going back in this transfer and I just kind of come to and I’m feeling a bit, you know, about sick.

I can count one to hand how many times I’ve been sick and, you know, 30 years of drinking. And, you know, I’ve got the strong constitution of a Scotsman. I said, hi bud, I was there.

Yeah, yeah. So I’ve started feeling a bit more, you know, wobbly. And then I felt a bit sick about it to come up.

And I grabbed my mouth, you know, to hold it in. And it started coming out of my mouth and it was like filling up my hand. Now, Mick from Destructive Tendencies, he’s in the passenger seat in front of me.

The driver’s on the left because we’re in Europe. And bits of the, this is disgusting, bits of the Bomber were starting to squirt through the spaces in my fingers. I’m trying to keep them as shut tight as I can while I’m trying to wrestle the window down.

And it was just like squirting little bits onto the back of his head as my hand was filling up. And I think he thought it was a fly or something because he was going like that and going, what the fuck? And then I just couldn’t hold it anymore.

And this black doom, that’s all I can call it, this black doom just came out of my mouth, like the exorcist, all the back of his chair, all over him. And then I turned around to the window. I didn’t have the window down.

It’s like all over the window, down my T-shirt. It was just everywhere. The driver pulled the car over.

He’s like, what the fuck? You know, he’s going crazy. I get out, I take my T-shirt off, throw it in a bin.

I’m like, there’s a photograph of me just looking completely disheveled. And then like I got into the hotel, I threw my trainers, I threw my trainers out the hotel window onto the roof because I was like, these are completely ruined. And then we, me and Neil, we were sharing a room.

We had like, you know, maybe a couple of hours sleep or something. And then the driver shows up to take us to Dominator in Holland, which, you know, we’re on the main stage there in front of 40,000 people that day. And I am not good.

I’m like shaking and everything. You know, I’m still drunk, but I’m extremely hungover as well. And I say to the driver, I’m like, can we stop for some breakfast?

I was like, because I really need to eat. And they were just like, we can’t, because I thought we were playing at 7pm, which we were. But apparently we had the second set, which was in a secret stage.

And it was like two in the afternoon. Like, we have to go straight there. You’ve got another set.

I was like, oh, my God. So when we got to Dominator, my breakfast was vodka and orange. And yeah, and the day continued.

And yeah, I played to 40,000 people later that night, and it was great.

[Darran]
Oh, my gosh, that is just crazy. That is crazy.

[Joey Riot]
That’s quite a tame story.

[Darran]
That is, that is, and Neil’s definitely chiming in saying that’s a very accurate recollection of the situation.

[Joey Riot]
Well, the thing is, like, obviously there’s so much of the story I can remember, but I’ve been told that, you know, from other people’s, you know, their view of it. And also, like, there’s photographic evidence and stuff as well. And, you know, so being able to kind of go through all that and be able to tell the story again.

And that’s why I think it’s right about because I’ve got not just my view of what happened, but the people around about me have told me about it. And then I’ve like collated these stories in my head. And then when I retell them to other people, you know, I hopefully have all the information there.

As Neil said, it’s an accurate recollection.

[Darran]
We could, like you said, could probably write a book of just those alone. But, you know, more on that later. We’re going to definitely have you on the show.

We can talk. Maybe that’ll be a featurette for you on the show. Every time Joey comes on the show, you got to tell us.

What’s another experience you could tell us?

[Joey Riot]
Yeah, yeah, we could do that. I think that’s funny.

[Darran]
Yeah, your signature. Joey Riott’s experiences.

[Joey Riot]
Yeah, I’m not called Riott for nothing, you know.

[Darran]
Awesome. We’ll talk about, you know, all the other stuff that you got going on shows coming up, all that fun stuff. You have a label, Lethal Theory.

And some recent releases that just came out. And you do release on other labels. Well, let’s talk about Lethal Theory and get into that.

Didn’t you just release something not too long ago?

[Joey Riot]
Yeah, yeah. Latest track with my, yeah, my level with my metrics. The latest track, I believe.

And we’ve got we’ve got some more. No, but that was the latest one for myself. But we’ve released we’ve released another artist tracks as well.

I mean, I started a label in 2007 with a guy called BJ Kurt, who at the time we were both kind of breaking through, we were releasing on loads of other labels. And I had this idea to start the label. I had the name and the brand and everything for a couple of years.

But when I was talking about starting a label, people that I knew in the scene were saying, you better release on other labels first and get known. So that was kind of my my job. I was like, I’m going to get on as many labels as possible because, you know, someone that buys this label might not buy that label.

And if I get known by them all and then I start my own label, then that’s great. And I seen that Kurt was doing the exact same thing. We we got to get we spoke first on MSN.

I don’t know if you remember that MSN Hotmail Messenger. It’s just like a messenger app like program. It was really old and cagey from from Microsoft.

But yeah, I spoke to him on that through the idea about the label. We met up a couple of times and yeah, we started the label and really quickly we were winning awards. We were doing live shows.

We won Best Label, I think, like seven times at the Hardcore Heaven Awards. We won Best Live Act. In total, me and the artists on the label won 19 awards throughout the career of the label.

Then as I started doing Destructive Tendencies, the label kind of took a bit of a backseat. We were doing stuff for a little while. I was signing more people, trying to get them to kind of take up the mantle of doing it.

And it’s just tricky when you’ve got so many people you’re managing. And that’s the thing. At one point, I had 18 artists on the label.

And when I’m trying to manage my own career, Destructive Tendencies, I was running an event, Religion. I was teaching at a school. I was doing engineering for people, trying to write joyride music.

It was just too much. And, you know, kind of, you know, I’ve been really guilty in the past, taking on too many things and thinking I can do them all and just failing miserably. So kind of half arsing them all.

So I decided to put it to the side and we relaunched that a couple of years ago. And we’ve really been pushing it lately in the last year or so and getting some quality releases out. And it’s really starting to build now again, because it’s a completely different set up than before.

Like back when we were really, you know, smashing it as a label. First of all, we were releasing vinyl at the start and then we were doing CD albums. We had our own mp3 store.

This is before even before Beatport was a thing. And then as all those kind of moving parts started coming in and the distribution side, like label works and all these other things, the label started kind of taking a bit of a downward turn. So now as we’re in the kind of streaming age, this is us having to, you know, navigate a completely different landscape.

It’s just not the same as it was in any way, shape or form. So marketing, you know, getting on playlists, just all these things that were are completely foreign to me, you know, starting out. And I’ve taken on some help as well.

People are a bit more adept at that, because, you know, I like, you know, some sides of it, more of the admin and contractual side. I’m rubbish at. I’m just there’s just something that I’m not good at.

You know, but A&R, signing tracks, all this kind of thing, you know, and I love being able to create a platform for people to release music on that are maybe not as well known, that are just doing some good stuff. That’s something I always prided myself on, was being able to find some, you know, some gold out there that was hidden in the rough and, you know, give them that platform. So, you know, back in the day, we had like artists signed to Lethal Theory, like actual artists, and they could have like as many releases as they want.

Whereas now I’m just signing tracks, track by track basis. And any of the previous artists are, you know, they’ve got an open door to release whenever and how many things they want. But it’s a different landscape, even for artists.

You can release your own stuff now. And, you know, it doesn’t make any difference. The only thing I wanted to see was those guys doing well.

And if I had the platform that gave them, you know, the place to show that their wares, then that was great. And now it’s not it’s not needed as much. So, yes, a completely different landscape.

But I’m still having fun doing it. I like to have. It’s just it was such a big part of my life.

I hated that it kind of went away for a bit, you know. And it wasn’t a thing like we said we were quitting. Same as Destructive Tendencies.

It was like, OK, other things have come in before, you know, yourself. Like sometimes just other things move into your life and they take up more bandwidth than than other things. And you have to something’s got to give at some point.

[Darran]
Yeah.

[Joey Riot]
And it just seems now that now, you know, especially bringing other people involved from the management team and stuff, it’s really helped push the label forward. And I’ve had some great signings lately. You know, we just signed a track from two Taiwanese artists.

And that’s that’s doing great. It’s like, you know, I think it’s 30,000 streams like in a couple of weeks, which is for a small label. It’s pretty good.

You know, you know, I mean, some of the tracks I’m releasing on bigger labels are doing a million plus, which is, you know, that’s unreal. But they’ve got they’ve got access to all the playlists, everything else. And I’m just hoping that, you know, my profile through releasing on other labels, that’s one of the good things about the whole Spotify set up is like if I release on Dirty Works, for instance, the biggest hardstyle label, I’ll have, you know, maybe a million plus streams on there.

People will then follow me as an artist and then they’ll see I’ve got releases on Lethal Theory, then they’ll click on the label and then hopefully that will start bringing artists through. So there’s that. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight.

There’s not like I can’t just throw a big pile of cash that or something to make it work. It’s got to be something that’s a methodical approach. And I’ve got to keep releasing music and I’ve got to keep releasing on other labels as well as my own and build this thing again from the ground up.

So it’s interesting. And, you know, I love to be challenged. So it’s a new challenge to bring on.

[Darran]
You know, you know, somebody a long time ago told me once you might know him, Paulo Mojo. Did an interview with him. This is almost 20 some odd year.

How about 20 years ago to the date? But, you know, he was talking about being an artist, being a DJ and being a producer. And then he got this brilliant idea of starting a label.

And he goes in the interviews like, Ed, I just crashed and burned because I was biting off too much. I chewed and he found out he goes, I realized that I needed to bring somebody on to run the label and I need to stick to DJ and producing music. And he goes, once I did that, my label just started going.

[Joey Riot]
Oh, yeah.

[Darran]
And right up because he goes and it was the best decision I ever made. But yeah, you’re right. Biting off too much so you can chew and something’s got to give that happens.

A lot of people, you know, my own team, my own crew says, Darren, how are you? I’m in a discord with them. Let them know everything that’s going on.

So some of them are just like, how are you able to do this all the time? And I got to come back and remind them sometimes like, look, you have a 40 hour. You have a day job.

This is kind of a hobby. You’re trying to break into this business. Yeah, this is I get to do this all day long for a living.

I wake up at seven a.m.. I’m not off the computer till six thirty, seven o’clock at night.

[Joey Riot]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And this is Monday through Friday. Usually I get my weekends off a little bit. Some stuff comes in on the weekends, but I kind of segment my life to make sure I’m not burning myself out or having to take an eight and a half month hiatus again, you know, after 16 years of doing one show, though, you know, of only burning out a couple of times or taking a break a couple of times.

I deserve a vacation. I got it.

[Joey Riot]
Oh, yeah.

[Darran]
I’ve been running. And, you know, it does give you some perspective to come back in the line with what you want to do and where you want to go. Speaking of outside opportunities, though, that you do, you’re not just doing this producer DJ label thing.

You also teach and do speaking events. You know, we’ve got a little bit of time left here. I want to find out a little bit more.

And we’re definitely having you back on the show. I’d love to get back to all my other questions. Plus, I want to give a shout out to Scott G.

Grant, Raving Mad, ADHD Dad, Neil, Some DJ, if I haven’t already gave me shout outs up above. Thank you very much for tuning in today. We’re going to have more of this guy on the show later.

But, you know, you teach at the Lisa Lashes School of Music.

[Joey Riot]
Yes.

[Darran]
Tell us about that opportunity. What do you what do you do there for them?

[Joey Riot]
So I’m now head of, I guess it’s my title, official title is head of content creation, but I’m like the lead tutor. And I started out, Lisa Lashes, a kind of world famous hard house DJ who decided to set up an academy for for DJing and production and kind of the whole remit of what you need to do to get ahead. Social media, networking, all these different things.

And she first got in touch with me because I’d been to see a play. You know, I was a fan. And then I got a Facebook inbox from a fan page saying, do you did you get the I bought the Tidy Boyz studio off them.

I think you’ve had the Tidy Boyz on before or one of them. But they’re a big hard house name. And, you know, one of them was from Northampton.

They had their studio there. We bought it off them. And yes, she was inquiring about the space to set up the school.

And I was like, it’s just not big enough for that. I was like, but I had been doing like online chess and I’ve been doing one on one chess with people for four years, as long as I can remember, really. Just if anyone wanted to learn anything, I’m like, yeah, I’ll show you.

Yeah, I can show you. And then it started being a kind of side hustle, you know, charging money for it as well. And I got pretty good at it.

But then, you know, doing working with the school, we’ve done a bunch of stuff. We started off and the school was in a nightclub. So we’re teaching a nightclub environment with other rooms like upstairs where we had that was more like a classroom environment.

We were teaching people like on the stage. We’d go up on stage and do like little seminars and stuff like that. And then we would like, you know, show people DJ techniques and we’d have a room for production and stuff like that.

But more recently in the last couple of years, we’ve had all these different really interesting contracts, like some of the people that have been in trouble with the law who’ve got like kind of one last chance and they have to like get on some sort of like, you know, way back to society. And we’ve worked with, you know, some some people like that. And, you know, that’s been really interesting.

Some really crazy talented people. We’ve worked with, you know, young kids. We’ve worked with people with special needs and stuff like that.

And also like the more recent one is we’ve been working in conjunction with the Department of Work and Pensions, which is like social security and people that are unemployed. And that’s through the Haringey College in London. Now, so if anybody’s ever, I mean, I used to be unemployed before I started this.

You know, I couldn’t keep any job. I was terrible. I got sacked from everything, probably because I wasn’t getting in on a Monday because I was out partying.

But yeah, so like I know that I know the system, the benefit system pretty well from growing up on it and, you know, and then being on it myself and this opportunity to work with people who, because it’s people that are creative who want to get back into work. And then we work with another organisation called the NTIA, which is the Nighttime Industries Association, who work with nightclubs, venues, studios, anything to do with the nighttime industry. And they’re able to set up interviews for jobs when they come off the course.

So the course is like teaching DJing production. You know, I got to rewrite the course completely to my spec as well and then get other friends that are artists and DJs and help teach it. So I give them, here’s my class, let’s teach it to them.

And yeah, these people come in and do the course and then they get a job interview at the end. So it’s such a fulfilling thing to do. It’s loads of fun.

Plus I teach online with people as well. I’ll do like online session sessions and course production and all sorts of other stuff. So if anybody needs anything sorting, mastering or any of that kind of stuff, shout at Julie.

[Darran]
I’m really glad you brought up what the NTIA is. I think, I typed in NTIA online and it brought up the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the United States. And I’m like, wait a second, I don’t think that’s the right thing.

So I’m glad you brought that up. You know, that’s awesome that you work with the community, you work with, you know, kids, people that are interested. One of the questions that I ask quite frequently on the DJ sessions is, would you recommend the career path of a DJ slash musician, career path to an individual?

Knowing all the trials, tribulations, all the pitfalls, all the hurdles and everything that it takes to make that, would you obviously recommend that to a young person as a career role?

[Joey Riot]
Well, that’s one of the kind of main things of the course we do at the college through the Lisa Lashley School of Music is we’re taking people who are creative or interested in being a creative person in some sort of, you know, we have people from filmmakers to, you know, any type of videographers, editors, musicians, DJs, singers, dancers, you name it, we’ve had some weird and wonderful people. And we’ve had people that have had huge careers who, you know, like through the pandemic, everything fell apart and they’ve now been, you know, they’ve lost everything. They’re now signing on and, you know, getting a social security check.

And now they’re trying to get back into business and maybe they’ve been out of the game too long. So there’s all these really different characters, ages and demographics that we’re dealing with. And, you know, for young people as well, like going back to your question, is what we’re trying to do is give people the tools they need to monetise their skill set.

And that’s one of the main things is like, yes, I would 100% say it’s worth pursuing. I mean, I’m living proof, I’m still doing it 20 years later. I mean, I’ve been doing it 30 years in total.

I’ve been doing it 20 years as a professional. And I’m now teaching people how to do it as well. And that’s one of the main things is like showing people how to, because I think everybody has a set goal.

Like I always wanted to be Joey Riott, the guy on stage. But what I realised pretty quickly is that may not always be the case. And my career has fluctuated over the years, you know, as music trends change, and, you know, all sorts of different things, pandemics happen and God knows what else.

You know, personal breakdowns, the list goes on. But, you know, you have to be able to reinvent yourself, you have to be able to figure out how to get ahead. And that’s the things I’m showing people is like all the stuff that I’ve learned over these years and all the people that I’ve come into contact with.

Because when I was starting out, no one around me done anything like this. So my parents, you know, friends, everyone was like, you can’t do that, because they didn’t know anybody done this as a job. We talked about the people in Holland, they grew up with their friends and their family all listening to music.

They push people into their schools. There’s, you know, there’s a whole infrastructure for people to get into the music industry, not just as DJs or the person on stage, but also in your line of work and, you know, in the management side and the promotion side, there’s so many different avenues. And this is what we try to kind of bring forward to the students.

It’s like, sure, you may have this one individual goal, but we want to be able to show you how you open up all the other doorways to actually make money. Because like I say, I don’t just turn up on stage and play music, you know, I produce, I do a million different things. Anything that pops up that I think is interesting, and can, you know, bring in some money to keep the roof above my head, then, you know, I’m going to take an interest in it.

Say hello, this is Brodie.

[Darran]
I grabbed the Doja the Cat, the DJ sessions mascot, but he’s like passed out next to me on the couch right now. So one of my questions I ask, obviously, sometimes is, do you have pets and do you allow them in the studio when you work? So I guess the answer is yes.

[Joey Riot]
Yeah, he lives in here with me, like, since we got him. He used to sleep, I’ve got like a, you know, a subwoofer under the desk and he used to like, he’d put his bed next to that and sleep next to the bass thundering. So yeah, when I was recording the mix earlier on for the DJ sessions, he was like, you know, I had to put his bed next to the door because he always has to be next to me.

He’s got the studio chair I was going to sell when I got my new one and I put his bed on it and he’s been sitting on it since. So that didn’t get sold. He’s got his own studio chair and he sits next to me every day when I’m working.

He’s also my little alarm clock for me to have a break because he sets up at his bum like a meerkat when he wants to go for a walk. And I’m like, OK, I’m going to stop doing some work and go and get a bit of fresh air and recharge.

[Darran]
Well, just a couple of last questions here before we let you go. And I know we’re going to have you back on the show here pretty soon. There’s a ton of stuff we got in there.

Remember that stuff we can’t talk about, let the public know all about yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stuff we were talking about pre-show.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

[Joey Riot]
That’s a great question as well. Oh, yeah, this is what this is when I kind of retell quite a lot. So, the first hardcore track I made got played at a really big event because I’d been making trance and I had dabbled in hardcore before.

But one of my friends was like, why don’t you have a go at this? He let me hear the new hardcore that was being made. This is about 2003.

I made one track called Saving Grace. A big DJ called DJ Sy in the UK played a huge event called Hardcore Heaven in front of 5,000 people. He started his set with it.

I had to pawn my guitar at the time to afford to go and watch him play it. And I was standing on it, because he was on at six in the morning. I’d been there from eight at night.

I’m standing, waiting on him playing it, like, just to see if he’d play it, which he did. Now, everybody thinks that’s kind of the start of my career, but probably the next dozen or 20 tracks I made after that just didn’t get any traction whatsoever. Now, one of the things I started doing really quickly after that one track blew up was I would make two CDs every week.

I would make a CD for a mix CD, and I would make a production CD, and I would post them out. This is back in the day, posting. You know, there was no real internet kind of option to send demos.

And I would make tracks specifically for labels. So I’d be like, I would do them, because I couldn’t afford loads of CDs, I would just send out one CD to all the labels, and it would be like, first three tracks are for Maximum Impact, next three tracks are for New Energy, next three tracks are for Next Generation, so on and so forth. And there was a DJ called DJ Seduction, a big old-school DJ here in the UK, and he called me up and he was just like, why do you keep saying what tracks the labels are for, you know, specifying what tracks go on what label?

I was like, because I’m trying to write so I can get on the label, like write stuff that’s on your label. And he’s like, yeah, but I don’t like any of the ones you’re writing for my label. I like the ones you’re writing for New Energy.

And I’m like, what? And he was like, listen, this is the advice. And it kind of needs a bit of the back story, but the advice was, he was like, listen, it says don’t write music for other people.

He’s like, write music for you, first of all. He’s like, you’ve clearly got a talent for it. You’ve got a passion for it.

He’s like, but you’re trying too hard to sound like other people, and all you come off sounding like is a B-rate version of them, you know, a second-rate version of them, and people can tell you’re a fraud, basically. And it was very sobering advice, but also, you know, and I’ve fell into that trap a bunch of times over the years, and I do tell that story over and over, and not just for other people’s benefit, but for my own, not to fall into that trap again, because the tracks that I write for myself, like completely for myself and not for my fan base, they’re the ones that seem to get the most interaction. And they’re the things, that’s why I blew up as an artist, because when I got that advice off of him, I just completely wrote for me, and things went, so from releasing one track and getting big quite quickly to like, you know, crickets for a year, and then it just went absolutely mental for the next, you know, 19 years after that.

So, yeah, I think that’s one of the things is like, just be true to yourself, I know it sounds really cliche, but, you know, be true to yourself, do what you feel is right, because that’s one of the things about being any sort of creative person is like, you’ve got your own vision of what you think is good, and if other people think it is, great, and if they don’t, well, maybe it’s just a passion project, but if you try too hard to be someone else, you get found out, so that’s the long and short of it, I think.

[Darran]
Pretty much the best, that’s a rolling theory, that, you know, produce, don’t go out and say, oh, Beatport’s running track and on house music right now, so I’m gonna go out and produce house music tracks. By the time you put it together, get it out there, get it, even put out, it’s on the tech house, it’s on the trend, it’s on the dub, it’s on something new, you’re missing the train, just produce and stay in your lane and submit, you know, look for those places that are doing those kind of, like you said, those, don’t tell them, or don’t go, I wanna be on that label, so I’m gonna produce a house track and try to get on that.

[Joey Riot]
And it’s really difficult, people want to get ahead, and like, all the things, all the big moments in my career, when the Joey Wright stuff first took off, when lethal theory blew up, when destructive tendencies became massive, you know, this kind of new renaissance in my career, these have all been things that I’ve just been, I’ve just been doing what I love, and it’s just pure luck that at that moment in time, the particular thing I’m doing is resonated by a certain group of people, and snowballed off the back of it, because there’s been large periods where the stuff I’m doing is just like, you know, nobody gives a shit, it’s just like, you know, why don’t you write stuff like you used to write then? This is terrible, but as an artist, you’ve got to like, you know, find yourself and like, see new directions you want to go in.

I think if you’re going to, and this is the thing about longevity as well, another piece of advice is like, if you’re going to stick around, you have to move with the times, you know, there is a market for nostalgia, definitely, and I still dip into that, you know, the past, you know, now and again for sets and production, but, you know, dance floors move on, new people come into the crowds and, you know, they’re looking for something that’s their thing, you know, they don’t want the thing that was their mum and dad’s cool thing, that’s not cool anymore, you know, so they want something, you know, packaged for them, and it sounds like the new cool thing, so, and it’s just, like I say, there’s a lot of luck involved in that, but you just need to keep doing it and hopefully that resonates at some point with people and off you go.

[Darran]
Yeah, well, you know, we got to wrap it up here, Joey, really quick, ran out of time, you know, want to make sure you get back to your schedule and what you got going on. Where is the best place people can go to find out more information about you and what you do?

[Joey Riot]
Okay, so my website, lethaltheory.com, you can go there, we’re going to be updating that very soon. Also, yeah, it’s just there in the chat, we’re going to be updating that soon, loads of cool stuff, but also my social media, facebook.com forward slash joeyriot2.0, same on Instagram, forward slash 2.0, TikTok as well, forward slash joeyriot2.0. I did change it because it was like the kind of re-emergence of joeyriot, so I renamed it 2.0, plus my Instagram got hacked during lockdown, so, yeah. So yeah, I renamed things, but yeah, I’m updating my socials on the regular, my stories on Instagram are constantly getting updated, gig information and stuff is on my social media, but we’re going to be updating the site.

And I did say at the beginning of this interview, I will be doing regular streams again, I’m going to just figure out exactly how that’s going to manifest, but I’ll be back on Twitch, I’ll be doing stuff regularly, and we’ll be working closely with the DJ sessions as well, so lots of cool stuff happening there.

[Darran]
And we got an exclusive mix coming in for you as well. All that information for Joey is going to be down at the bottom on our website, so you can get those links, check them out, get out there, go to see him in the show, hopefully we’ll see you here stateside soon.

[Joey Riot]
You hope so, man.

[Darran]
Yeah, and on that note, I do want to give a shout out to everyone in Joey’s chat room, we got, let’s see, okay, if I say these wrong, please don’t come back on me, because everyone has their usernames and I don’t know how to pronounce them all. We got CJ Hosky, DJ Damska, Fly on the Wall TV, Insomniac 1138, Koshin UK DJ, Ken Jones, Mork, Neil Trotto, Rancheros, Raving Mad, ADHK, Reynis, Bee, S-Ferrix, Some DJ 82, Tony Ellis, and Tracy H43. Thank you all for tuning in today on the DJ Sessions.

Feel free to give us a follow. Don’t forget to, again, go to that website. One more time, lethaltheory.com for Joey Wright and all things up and coming with him and the label Lethal Theory. I’m your host, Darren. For the virtual sessions, that’s Joey Wright coming in from England, Northampton. I’m coming in from Seattle, Washington for the virtual sessions on the DJ Sessions.

Don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com. Find all our social links there. We got over 600 news stories that get posted a month, 2,600 past episodes, live streaming, live interviews, contests, and more at thedjsessions.com.

Go to our merch store. I also have a new music section that’s gonna be featuring artists just like Joey Wright in there with our website-wide live player. And we got a virtual reality nightclub as well in VRChat.

All that and more at thedjsessions.com. I’m Darren. That’s Joey Wright for the DJ Sessions.

And remember, on the DJ Sessions, the music never stops.