MDC.295 Justin Carter

With a remarkable fourteenth season of their Mister Sunday open air parties just around the corner, @mistersaturdaynight's @misterjustincarter shares with us a special excerpt from his NYD sunrise set at Nowadays back in January, pulling out some definitive house and disco classics with heartfelt nods to NYC's deep-rooted dance music history. Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when recording this mix at Nowadays? How would you describe the feeling in the room that day, and is there a sound, or time/place in dance music history that connects all the different moments in one way or another? A. I know Nowadays' indoor dance floor intimately, and this slot in particular, starting around 5am on New Year’s Day, is one I’ve played for the past four or five years, so I came in with a very specific idea of what to do. I knew that the party would be in full-tilt New Year’s Eve energy and that I’d want to hold the pace but move into a more liminal space, so I played records that are propulsive but dreamy. Once I established that headspace, the sun started to rise, so there was a natural energy shift, and I leaned into that. I stopped mixing and played Loft-style for about thirty minutes. Letting records play from beginning to end, playing music with vocals and live instrumentation, it’s grounding, makes it feel like a house party, reminds us that we’re connected with each other. That felt important to me, knowing that the dance floor had been in a more driving mode for eight hours. After that interlude, I built it back up, because there was still like twenty hours to go! In general, I’m piecing together a few elements in my sets these days: deep, soulful elements that first drew me in when I arrived in NYC in the late 90s; psychedelic, minimal music that was coming from Europe in the 00s, when I first started to DJ; and then that Loft thing I referenced above. Q. Are there any records in the set that are especially close to your heart, or old favourites that you had been keeping up your sleeve for the right moment? A. I hadn’t played my 45 of “Be There In the Morning” by Renee Geyer in years. (It’s a record I found on my first Australian tour in Melbourne, at Licorice Pie, back in 2015, actually!) Good sunrise record, obviously. “Will you be there in the morning?” Yes! Here I am! Q. With the winter months in NYC now behind you, how are preparations coming along for the return of your legendary outdoor Mister Sunday parties? Will you and Eamon be planning to do anything different for your fourteenth year? And after doing it for so long now, how do you guys continue to keep yourselves inspired? A. We purposefully try to keep Mister Sunday consistent. Of course we’re always digging for music, and we always invite a couple guests who’ve never played, so there’s something that feels fresh for every season. But the consistency that comes from having a weekly party that’s been happening for such a long time, it’s something we consciously try to maintain – it’s one of the main ingredients for the community that has developed around the party. No one has to wonder where the party will be this week, whether it’s happening this Sunday or not, etc. That said, we’re going to be throwing our 500th(!) party this season, and we’ll do something special to commemorate that.