Ross Harper: The Dark Album, ADE Adventures, and Brighton’s Conscious Revolution on the On Location Sessions at ADE 2023 10/19/23

Ross Harper: The Dark Album, ADE Adventures, and Brighton’s Conscious Revolution

In this vibrant Virtual Session from Amsterdam Dance Event 2023, The DJ Sessions host Darran Bruce reconnects with UK-based DJ and producer Ross Harper to explore his year of growth, creativity, and community. Following the success of The Dark Album, which received support from Charlotte de Witte and Richie Hawtin, Ross launched a remix series inspired by his radio show connections and Solomon’s expansive approach to collaboration.

Ross shares how ADE 2023 has been a whirlwind of networking, performances, and inspiration, including multiple sets at Klink Nord Hostel (now an official ADE venue) and an intimate underground party in Amsterdam’s NDSM district celebrating The Dark Album. He reflects on his approach to ADE this year: moving quickly through different spaces, embracing spontaneity, and letting energy guide him toward unexpected encounters and opportunities.

The conversation dives into Ross’s residency in Brighton with the party “The Loosest Phenomena,” where experimentation and out-of-body experiences are central to its ethos. He likens creating music to cooking – combining ingredients into something greater than the whole – and highlights the freedom residencies provide for risk-taking and growth.

Ross also discusses Brighton’s blossoming scene, where techno events, sober raves, and consciousness-centered gatherings are shaping a unique cultural identity. With parallels drawn between music, food, and community, Ross emphasizes authenticity, experimentation, and unity as guiding forces in both his artistry and his hometown’s evolving nightlife.

Show Notes – 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Ross Harper
Location: ADE – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Overview:
Darran Bruce reconnects with Ross Harper about The Dark Album, ADE experiences, Brighton’s unique scene, and how residencies and collaboration fuel creativity.

Topics Covered:

• Success of The Dark Album supported by Charlotte de Witte and Richie Hawtin 
• Remix project inspired by Solomon and collaborations from his radio show network 
• ADE 2023: sets at Klink Nord Hostel and a private NDSM underground party 
• Networking and spontaneous energy-driven approach at ADE 
• Residency with The Loosest Phenomena in Brighton focused on transformative experiences 
• Philosophy of music as cooking – combining ingredients into a powerful whole 
• Views on experimentation, taking risks, and learning through residencies 
• Brighton’s cultural revolution: sober raves, yoga circles, and a growing techno community 
• Reflections on food, cooking, and how they mirror artistry 
• Thoughts on VR experiments and the future of virtual networking spaces 

Call to Action:
Follow Ross Harper on Instagram @rossharpermusic for new releases and updates.
Discover more exclusive interviews and live sessions at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions presents the On Location Sessions coming you from ADE in Amsterdam 2023. I’m your host Darran and right now we’re sitting on our On Location houseboat on the canals of Amsterdam with none other than Ross Harper. Ross thanks for coming on the show today.

[Ross Harper]
Oh a pleasure to be here Darran so nice to be back.

[Darran]
Absolutely it was a great time meeting you last year definitely you’ve been up to a lot of awesome stuff we’re gonna get into that right now tell us about the Dark Album remixes.

[Ross Harper]
Wow okay it’s been a really intense heavy year the Dark Album went out at the end of 2022 got picked up by Charlotte Dewitty picked up by Richie Horton and played in quite a few venues around the world and I was like really yeah really humbled by that you know and and then I was like okay well I’m connected to a lot of very talented producers through my radio show I do a monthly new music radio show on Adja based in Deptford South London which is like a community station but I pick up a lot of promos from underground artists a lot of up-and-coming talent and some more developed talent as well and I was like look I’m friendly with all of these producers let’s just roll out some remixes and I was actually inspired by Solomon who did seven volumes of remixes for his last album and I was like you know what if Solomon can do it I can do it as well.

[Darran]
There you go you know it’s about friendly competition you can say you know if somebody can do it I can do that too you know you’re not necessarily copycatting it’s just wow what an idea maybe I didn’t think about that you know maybe a collaboration with somebody would be awesome you know you miss 100% of the shots you never take you know and you never know who you’re gonna who’s gonna be at the end of that chat room or that conversation or whose track you might play who you might find that gold gem and they’re like I didn’t know my song played on that radio show well thank you so much for dropping my track I really appreciate that you know the collaboration that’s what the spirit of ADE is really about is meeting and collaborating people how has your ADE been going for you so far?

[Ross Harper]
It’s been brilliant Darran just on the point you made about Solomon I really admire Solomon you know I think I imitate the people I really admire and I love the way the guy is so human and so natural and he just plays music that he loves and and it’s like a magnet to people so so yeah he’s close to my heart and what you said about connecting with other artists and then it developing into something more you know a perfect example is this guy Humanoid Gods who’s based in Turin I played a few of his tracks on my show I asked him for a remix and then he invited me over to check out his studio in Turin and I popped there a few weeks ago and and we went to a underground techno party together and so yeah things just blossom from taking those little steps you know and but my ADE’s just been incredible absolutely incredible just like full-on like literally straight into the drum code pop-up shop yesterday thumping techno free free drinks can’t beat the

[Darran]
free drinks at ADE open bar that got me in trouble last year it’s awesome right

[Ross Harper]
and then just networking after networking that’s so many beautiful beautiful people and I took a different approach this year I really skipped around lots of locations even just in the first day right whereas last year I kind of like was going a bit slower sitting in some of the talks this year I was like no I’m just gonna like dip in here dip in there see who I meet here see how I meet there and I think that is actually for me a more productive way of

[Darran]
working yeah yeah last year I kind of we went back to back to back interviews and I just kind of felt a little burnt out and this year we kind of paced ourselves and set it up a little bit different gonna check out some of the sites obviously you know working Wednesday Thursday Friday and then you know Friday night party Saturday party you know all the fun stuff getting out there

[Ross Harper]
are you playing any shows here at ADE well yeah I’ve got a residency in the Klink Nord hostel where I’m doing three sets I did an opening set yesterday and I’ve got another one Friday evening and then a closing set on Sunday and they’re now a registered ADE venue which is very cool and they’ve been putting on it’s really grown there this year they’ve had a edm.com mixer yesterday and that was really cool lots of nice people and yeah so that’s my base and then I’ve got a very underground very cool private gig in the NDSM industrial district on Saturday night it’s an all-night party celebrating the dark album just like 80 or so people in a nice dark space with the red lights and a good and a good techno sound system yeah nice you

[Darran]
mentioned edm.com I actually met the co-founder last year at an event that I was at it happened to be that only media that showed up was the DJ sessions edm.com and one other person they were expecting like 40 50 people to show up to this to oh it was a relentless beats production they’re out of Phoenix Arizona well I guess they’re out of all over the place but they throw shows in Phoenix Arizona Raceway there and I met the co-founder and then I actually last year ran into him backstage here at ADE you know so yeah edm.com great great crew great team over there of people I’m sure that must have been a really awesome party and was that open bar?

[Ross Harper]
Yeah there was open bar to begin with and then it dried up after a while awesome well you know in

[Darran]
addition to getting out and seeing the shows you know unfortunately the only thing I got to see last year was a presentation and just by the nick of our pants we got in because we’re media it was a Carl Cox presentation yeah and we managed to get in there was like six seats left to the thing of like a room full of 120 people and Carl was talking about how he was reinventing his sound again reinventing his technique again which was interesting just to be in that room be 50 feet away from him you know out of all the presentation but there’s so many great people here so much to see and do is there anything that really is striking your fancy that you really that stands out to you gotta say I gotta get to this is what I’ve been looking to all looking forward to all year long you

[Ross Harper]
know I’m I really have stayed away from heavy planning I’ve really so like yesterday I’ve two people said I’m going to nine times nine and then I got an email from E1 club in London saying our nine times nine is playing in a few weeks time and I was like well that’s three things that have said nine times nine to me in one day and he’s playing tonight in Gasholder so that’s where I went right so I’m just really keeping very open and following where where the kind of energy seems to take me you know and that’s yeah that’s that’s the vibe

[Darran]
for me speaking about where the vibe and energy takes you one of the things I love about Amsterdam that I don’t get this really at home too much is all the little nook and cranny restaurants that are around food tell us about your obsession with food do you do you like the food here in Amsterdam do you find good restaurants here you have anywhere that really stands out to you I’m with you I

[Ross Harper]
just love it’s like experimenting and finding like a little cafe bistro by a canal somewhere and then trying some local cuisine you know that really yeah that really just grounds me you know and I think eating local cuisine I think well food itself if we think about the kind of just a really basic mechanics of what it is right it’s what keeps us grounded it keeps us alive it keeps us keeps our feet on the earth and you know somewhere like this where it’s very hectic energy yeah it’s very easy to get caught up in like a whirlwind you know and before you know it it’s like you haven’t eaten for 12 hours yeah yeah so just to kind of tap into that local that local cuisine and meet some of the some of the the Dutch and yeah that’s that’s that’s right but I love cooking I love I love cooking myself and even in a foreign country if I can if I’m in an Airbnb or something I’ll make sure I cook some of my own meals as well right because again I find it very grounding to cook for myself and and at home I love cooking I love I love putting all of my thoughts and anxieties and everything that’s going on in my head and my emotions they all go in the cooking pot right and they all kind of then get like digested and and boiled down I look at it like a chemistry set you know I always looked I always wanted

[Darran]
to own that chemistry set as a kid but then I found out later in life spices and my spice rack became the chemistry set you know and my spice drawer I love cooking I mean if you go to my Instagram and people were like I think one of my virtual assistants came along one time he was analyzing my Instagram he’s like you know there isn’t really that much electronic music information here there’s more food pictures here than there are electronic music information but I go I know I’m a little bit of a foodie I love food I love cooking thing is I’m Italian part Italian I don’t know how to cook for one person when I make food I have to cook like six to ten people the amount of food that I make you know people like you eat so much food you you make so much food what do you do with all this food I’m like I save it I mean I eat what I eat and then I save it later on like I’m meal prepping here folks you know you prep for a show you prep your DJ set you pick your mixes but you never know what the what the outcomes gonna be you’re working with it and I just kind of like go with the flow when I’m when I’m in the kitchen I really love it I mean I have my standard spice set but you know what I love my sous vide okay sous vide so basically it’s a technique where you you put the device in the water and you put you got a pot of water so you take a steak or chicken or fish and let’s say you want your steak perfectly medium-rare 135 degrees yeah you put it in your bag vacuum-packed bag put your spice in there set it for an hour and a half it cooks it to 135 you pull it out and go grill it on each side boom done chicken perfectly done fish perfectly done perfectly done so it was a technique that restaurants used to pick up on hey I don’t know if they do sous vide that much anymore in restaurants uh-huh perfect every time well I mean you can do vegetables if you want but you cook kind of crock pot ish but not really crock pot ish well yeah I just my sous vide is the best I can’t get enough of that but you know the joy of cooking cooking food you know how does that parallel to making music for

[Ross Harper]
yeah okay so so you know making making a good techno track is like cooking a good dish right you know you think about the different ingredients that are going in it’s alchemy you know it’s the combining of raw elements to come up with something that’s greater than the whole you know so yeah cooking and music production for me I see many parallels and you know you need to have like a good something to like a foundation for a dish right and it’s the same with the track you know what’s going to stand out is it going to be the kick drum is it going to be some lead sound is it going to be some monster bass line you know and then same with cooking right you’re going to have something that’s the main kind of hit of the dish but then you need other things around it to bring the flavors and excitement and so there’s many parallels and it and to deejaying as well actually you know a good DJ set it’s going to have many different ingredients to it you know if you just have the same style sound over and over again you know that can that can really kill an energy and variation and but also that kind of solid focus point is is is important yeah and in

[Darran]
and speaking of like if you were a culinary wizard or a chef and you had a restaurant your monthly residency talk to us about that where do you where do you cook up those beats at and play them drop them on the floor for the for

[Ross Harper]
the for the audience you know the beautiful thing about a residency is is the the freedom to experiment right because in my hometown Brighton we’ve got this party the loosest phenomena which was founded by a guy called yes he’s a DJ to DJ Florence and yeah he bought this party from Manchester in the north of England down to Brighton in the south and then he kind of picked up on what I was doing and he was like oh this guy Ross is everywhere what’s you know I’ve got to get him on my team kind of thing so he invited me to be the resident and yeah we’ve just created this space in the last year where people know they’re going to get something like that the ethos is it’s a party where people when they leave they know they’ve experienced something that’s completely next level right that’s that’s the kind of unique selling point is this isn’t a party where you might go and it might just be like mediocre music and everyone might I’ve had an okay time the the focus is for it to be a party where people have gone like out of body experience because of the music because that’s what music can do like both myself and the founder know the power of music to take people way into another place right and there’s so many parties where sadly that just doesn’t happen so so the ethos is to do that and the beauty of having a residency is just to be able to say right okay I’m gonna drop this tech house track in the middle of this techno set and see what happens and I’m gonna kind of play grooves on four decks that you know might things might go out of time and but these guys are gonna stick with me right because they’re like my family so that’s the beauty of a residency is the space to make mistakes and the space to experiment which is definitely and speaking of

[Darran]
experimenting and doing new things have you looked at doing anything in virtual

[Ross Harper]
reality yet oh I tried virtual reality at IMS the Ibiza music summit in April this year it wasn’t quite there I might have moved on in the last six months I had like I think some glove on and an advisor and I was trying to like reach out for the platter and it was like not quite giving me the sensitivity I wanted and then I was trying to hit like the Q button and it was a little bit kind of shaky and I was like I can’t quite get this I guess you know practice and sticking with it would would be something but I know there’s this thing here and it’s not actually I don’t think he means DJ related but it’s in the NES 42 where this there’s like one of our one of our spaces in AD and it’s like a giant bubble and you go into the giant bubble and you’re connected with someone else in a giant bubble anywhere in the world and you’re literally sounds quite

[Darran]
I gotta check this out yeah I gotta check yeah I gotta check this out now

[Ross Harper]
that’s that where is that again that’s 49 okay yeah yeah and yeah I kind of had a laugh with the lady as she was telling me about it I was like yeah I could see

[Darran]
where this could go quite quickly well I saw something it was a couple years ago Carl Cox say I’ve been invited by his management to go into and it was like a you go into virtually but as you kind of moved yourself virtually around the room now it wasn’t virtual reality but let’s say we’re on a 2d screen and you’re a you’re a dot and I’m a dot uh-huh but as we moved my dot over here yeah I would move away from this conversation over here and this conversation great quieter but this conversation would get louder so if you and I are over here talking in a corner and then somebody comes over you get quieter over there but then I’d come over here and now you’d be able to hear what you and I are talking about sort of like a like a virtual conference if you think about it we’re all in this room together but you’re have spatial audio and you wearing one of these boys you didn’t have to wear a visor no it was just a 2d image on the screen it was very interesting but you actually move around the room kind of talk and chat with people right but like 50 60 people in a room together and then like like said if I moved away from you you’d get quieter but this conversation would get louder it was very very interesting kind of like a networking tool of anything you know which was awesome I think what we’re gonna see come out with technology you know especially virtual reality over the next few years it’s gonna be phenomenal it still has to catch on because there’s not one key signature platform yet you know you have meta with horizons you have VR chat Microsoft just closed down all space in March which was like I totally killed our nightclub but we have a nightclub in virtual reality called beta in a VR chat but there’s all these different platforms and not one of them has emerged as the forefront forerunner and as artists start to get involved in these platforms I think you’re gonna start seeing see more the commercialization of them yeah more popularity of them but very exciting to be in a VR space we’re gonna wrap it up here really quickly is there anything else you want to let our DJ sessions fans know about before we let you get

[Ross Harper]
back to this wonderful event called ADE out here yeah well I wanted to talk a bit more about Brighton my hometown yeah you know I grew up in London I spent the first 20 years of my life in London and I love London I love the power of London and and everything that’s going on there the club scene but this little town where it’s a city it became a city about 15 years ago drew me away from London I just felt like I had to had to be there right and and I don’t know if anyone’s ever been to Camden Town in in North London it’s like a big hippie kind of the punks used to hang out there and now it turned into kind of hippie zone and Brighton is like Camden Town by the sea okay and it draws artists there’s there’s artists open houses and a yearly art kind of conference and but what I’m finding really exciting not only is the techno scene really blossoming and we’re seeing many artists supporting one another and building one another up but we’re also seeing this very interesting what I would call like consciousness revolution where there’s a lot of sober raves happening so maybe maybe even like twice a week there’s there’s sober parties where people are just going and dancing to electronic music no drugs no drink maybe doing like a cacao ceremony to begin with or some kind of meditation to begin with and then they’re just getting lost in the music we’re seeing new moon circles full moon circles more yoga teachers than people there’s something really interesting happening in Brighton right and it feels very unique and so I just wanted to shout that out to your listeners yeah that that if they want to experience a really alternative culture then Brighton’s a great place to visit what’s the population of Brighton right now now you’re testing me down I’m gonna I’m gonna put I know it’s more than a hundred thousand okay but I think it’s less than two hundred thousand we’ve got two universities we’ve got Brighton University and Sussex University so there’s loads of young people right the streets are just drenched with young people kind of experimenting with their look and their vibe and yeah it’s just it’s just a beautiful place it’s a really unique beautiful place awesome I’d have to I would love to visit there someday you’d be most welcome awesome thank you so much Ross and where can

[Darran]
people find out more information about you and what you got going on well the

[Ross Harper]
best place my shop fronts Instagram so Ross Harper music so just Ross Harper music and they can connect with me there send me a DM ask me a question you know I love chatting on DMS yeah awesome that’s instas you got a tick tock as

[Darran]
well I’m not a tick tocker I’m not a tick I should be a tick tocker right I don’t tick tock enough I don’t X enough right met as my kind of platform they’re changing their names now what’s the other one that the new one that they just launched to oh come on it’s the new Facebook one it’s a Oh threads threads

[Ross Harper]
thank you just like whoo and then everyone’s like sorry Matt not trying to

[Darran]
throw you guys and team under the bus but yeah Oh mark mark I should say mark not Matt Matt mark mark mark you’re all good well Ross thank you so much for coming on the show we’re definitely gonna follow up with you get you a virtual sessions and have you on the show for a longer interview here in the near future looking forward to it and you have a wonderful 80 thank you thank

[Ross Harper]
you Darran you’re welcome having me on your show again it’s always a pleasure

[Darran]
absolutely until next well we’ll see you before next year and the virtual sessions

[Ross Harper]
but see you next year here at 80 as well awesome yeah and if you ever fancy visiting Brighton then you know hit me up definitely well thank you so much all

[Darran]
right bless you man you’re welcome don’t forget to go to our website the DJ sessions calm find us on meta X tick-tock Instagram we’re out there everywhere but our website is the best place to go the DJ sessions calm over 600 news stories exclusive interviews live interviews guest mixes and more at the DJ sessions calm tell a friend go there go there now right now go there if you’re not watching the show there go there this is Darran and Ross Harper coming to you for the DJ sessions presents the on location sessions at 80 e 2023 and remember on the DJ sessions the music never stops