DJ Mag's Carl Loben: "Everyone had to leave their DMs at the door" — 2 Tone and beyond

Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.Other ways to support the showFollow the show on Spotify or Apple PodcastsAny feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/This week I'm joined by Carl Loben, Editor-in-Chief of DJ Mag and a man who's spent more than three decades chronicling dance music — from blagging his way into gigs as a freelance writer for Melody Maker in the early 90s, to running DJ Mag for the last decade. I wanted to sit down with Carl because he's seen the whole arc from a vantage point most people haven't: Two Tone gigs at Hammersmith Odeon (where everyone had to leave their DMs at the door), an acid house epiphany at Glastonbury, the drum & bass evangelism that defined his 90s, and a publishing career that's covered the rise of the superstar DJ, the bottle-service era and the digital revolution from the front row.We get into Carl's own DJing journey — the false start, the freestyle rooms in Hackney, the international gigs that came with the editor's chair — and the labels he's built along the way: Westway with Barry Ashworth from the Dub Pistols, and Jack Said What with Irvine Welsh and Steve Mac (the underground house Steve Mac, not the pop one — there's a great story in there). He's also really frank about the shifting cultural landscape: the whitewashing he and Ben Murphy set out to address with their book Renegade Snares, the wellbeing reckoning that's reshaping what DJ life looks like, and the sea-of-phones problem that's quietly killing the dancefloor.In this episode we cover:Growing up between Beatles, Buddy Holly and Two Tone, and his first gig at 13 (Madness, Hammersmith Odeon)His acid house epiphany at Glastonbury and the unsung heroes the history books missedThe Hackney freestyle rooms, becoming a drum & bass DJ, and almost painting himself into a cornerBlagging his first reviews for Melody Maker and what life was like as a 90s freelance music journoWhy Melody Maker went down the toilet and how he ended up at DJ Mag full timeInternational gigs in Brazil, Ecuador, Poland and China — and learning why touring DJs burn outThe cult of the superstar DJ and the hangover from rock and rollWestway Records, Jack Said What, and the realities of running a label after the vinyl crashRenegade Snares, the whitewashing of drum & bass, and the genre's reckoning with diversityWhy digital was a blessing and a curse, and what happens when 20,000 tracks a day hit SpotifyThe wellness shift, the sea of phones, and his advice for new DJs trying to break through