Who were your earliest musical influences and why?

My earliest musical influences came from the sounds my parents and grandparents were listening to. My dad was mad into reggae and a lot of the Manchester bands of the 80s and 90s. My mum was similar. I remember she was also into artists like Soft Cell, Buzzcocks, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Pet Shop Boys. Another early memory of mine was receiving my great aunt's record collection when I was around 12 years old. She was a huge northern soul and disco fan and I used to listen to her collection on my parent’s old record player. I later discovered my grandfather was a huge jazz and soul fan who regularly went to watch the greats of the UK and America when they came to Manchester to perform. In fact, my mother was actually named after the jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson. 

My grandparents on my dad’s side were really into country artists like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Elvis. I’d also add that game soundtracks and film scores were also huge musical influences for me growing up. I’m still rediscovering these compilations that sound tracked my childhood now.

Tell us a bit about Ordinary Friends. How did it start? 

In June 2016, five of us came together (now six) – all with similar musical interests and the desire to throw real parties and play in clubs. We threw our first rave in the hills above Rochdale, which we later discovered was the exact same location as the legendary acid house rave “Joy” in 1989. The rave was a success and that was when we realised people would come to our parties in clubs if we took it seriously. 

We had heard about this new creative space on the outskirts of Manchester city centre from our mate’s dad who was a regular and knew the guys who ran it pretty well. The place was called The White Hotel. Back then it was pretty much an empty MOT garage with a sound system inside, which it still pretty much is now, but a more professional version. 

For our first party in the space, we had a grand total of 90 attendees. We just about broke even. But we pushed on and more and more people came with each party we put on. We began by booking local artists and then branched out further afield. 

The first time we sold a party out was when we booked Gideön. Kornél Kovács was another huge milestone for us, we sold out the event two months before the doors opened. It was unbelievable honestly. We achieved this accolade very early on and everything seemed to fall into place nicely thanks to our hard work. We really set the bar high with what we could do from there.

What has been your favourite event to date and why? 

It’s so hard to say! There are so many standouts. Call Super tore The White Hotel a new one. The Optimo parties were unreal and Saoirse is another great selector! Skee Mask at Soup Kitchen was phenomenal, Moxie rattled the walls ridiculously well, and Fort Romeau and Spencer Parker are both outstanding DJs. ND_Baumecker has been a regular booking of ours too, probably the best selector I’ve heard. He’s incredibly fun but he also has such a broad and deep arsenal of sounds and an unparalleled taste for anything electronic. Gideön also, one of the best house DJs on the planet, a house head through and through.

How did you find recording the mix? Has it been a struggle to find music in the past year? 

It wasn’t as easy as I thought. I had so many ideas of where I wanted to go and stuff I wanted to play. It was also tricky because I’ve not played or recorded a mix for over a year now. In the end, I settled on playing stuff I would’ve played in the clubs had they been open. I leant towards the idea that people would be listening at home, so I didn’t want to include anything too heavy. Everybody is missing the club, so it’s a nod to a nice club set. More on the house side of things. One of the principles of Ordinary Friends is to never take things too seriously and this is echoed in the sounds we play. Club culture is supposed to be fun! We tend not to play doomsday techno or anything too dark. Keep it fun and keep people dancing! Finding new music for the mix wasn’t difficult, I’m finding new music daily. The challenge for me was deciding which tunes to drop from the mix that deserve to be heard.