INTERVIEW: LEXXY JAX

THE NEW SCHOOL OF NYC RAVE

I’m not the most qualified person to chime in on the state of New York underground electronic music. I’ve lived in the city for almost a decade, but I haven’t drank for nearly eight of those years. I can count on two hands the number of clubs I’ve been to in that time. Because my brain is broken, though, I can’t help but continue to be curious about “cutting edge music and culture,” so I’ve absorbed some shit by osmosis. And here is what I have absorbed: For awhile now, a lot of New York dance music has been defined by the Germanic tendency to play poker-faced techno music for druggy durations of time.

Post-pandemic, pockets of activity have emerged that put gonzo fun above Berlin club cosplay. One of these pockets focuses less on self-serious party concepts and more on hardcore rave music, created without regard for the rigid musical guidelines that define many techno circles. Within that, 909 Worldwide member Lexxy Jax has been setting up some of the best parties in the city. She builds the bills and designs the flyers and brings in top rave talent, new and old. Her event with Flapjack The Kandi Kid reminded me of how fun it can be to rave, even for just a couple of hours. 

Lexxy also makes sick music of her own, both solo and with the duo Union Jax. Her music freely blends different strains of fast rave music in a way that ‘90s heads would find unimaginable. The whole scene has an urgency that feels refreshing. In its combination of cultural inputs, it transcends pure revivalism and pushes toward something new.

How did you first get into rave music? Did you dive straight into the faster, harder styles, or was there a ramp up to that? Were you making music and DJing before your interest in hardcore?

I first really got into rave music in 2017. I had a friend and my brother show me gabber before then and I enjoyed it, but in 2017 I was on YouTube and found “Have You Ever Been Mellow” by Party Animals. It was pretty much game over from there… After that I dug deep into happy hardcore n gabber and that was like my gateway into all things rave. There really wasn’t a build up, I was pretty hooked to hard stuff from the jump and I still really only prefer 180bpm+.

That was also around the time I got into actually going to raves. My homie Johnny took me to see Machine Girl DJ at Tilt BK and they were playing a lot of hard rave music and I was like woah people actually rave in real life :o, I thought this is something they just do on YouTube videos from the ‘90s. After that I was religiously going to any rave I could find.

I’ve been making music for a long time, since I was a freshman in highschool (I’m 24 now, so 10yrs). Before I got into hardcore I was obsessed with making like Italian soundtrack music lmaooo. Like Stelvio Cipriani, Franco Micalizzi n Piero Piccioni were my favs but then I found rave n was like wait I need to make this lol. Making happy hardcore n rave music allowed me to take what I liked about making music like epic melodies, chord progressions n arranging and just add a hard fast edge to it which makes it even better imo! I started DJing like a year and a half ago. I’m still learning haha it was just something I started doing cuz me and Johnny (who I do Union Jax with) wanted to fuck around and DJ while we cook dinner.

You’ve been setting up some of the best parties in New York. You do graphic design for a lot of the flyers, too, right? I’m curious about your process when it comes to building out these bills and designing the flyers. 

Thank you for that huge compliment! xD Yea I do graphics for all of them, it’s probably my favorite part other than the day of when I get to rage with my homies. Making flyers and graphic themes is when I most get to express myself and my experiences. More so than music which is kinda funny. I’m very inspired by graphics I would see growing up, like amusement park brochures I’d see at hotels in 2006, Cartoon Network ads or video game covers. Those things make up a database in my brain of inspiration to pull from. Just being an American kid in the 2000s being force fed ads nonstop really does a number on your brain. I just want everything I make to look like an awesome ad that is colorful, eye-catching and would be yummy to eat. While building out bills I just want to create a lineup that is cohesive musically and it’s mostly just my friends or people whose music I really like and want to be friends with lol.

Are you excited about the state of the New York underground right now? There seems to be an interesting cross section of people interested in happy hardcore. 

Mega excited lol! I’ve had some legends, who have been in the scene for a while, tell me the rave scene right now is the best they’ve ever seen it. That makes me soar! In NYC the scene is very inclusive and Queer/POC lead which creates an energy that hardcore rave hasn’t seen before. It affects every aspect of the scene from the music to the clothes to the way we dance which makes it a completely unique rave movement. Like fuck it me n my friends will wepa to a jungle track n when a hard kick comes in we’ll hakk in a circle. It’s just fun, no rules! 

Before Covid NYC underground, from what I was experiencing going to shows pretty frequently, was a lot of dark techno sexy ketamine parties and people screaming over industrial noise which is awesome and definitely still exists today. But it makes me so happy that now people are embracing happy styles like makina, euphoric frenchcore n donk. It’s extremely refreshing and definitely a necessity after such a weird/dark period like Covid. I’m looking forward to seeing where things go with rave in the next few years, I know things will continue to get bigger and better!

I’m obsessed with your rave flip of “Do You Love Me” by The Contours. It feels like the ultimate merging of high-energy dance styles. How did that come about?

That was really fun to make and I’m glad people really like that track! I was fucking around on rave generator vst with the “piano chord” sound and accidentally played the “Do You Love Me” chord progression. It took me like an hour and a lot of youtube searching to remember what that song was called because it was so deeply buried in my psyche. When I found it I downloaded the acapella and went to work with rave generator. I love ‘50s era music like Shirelles and The Del Vikings. I admire how all the songs had dances you’d do with them like the madison n twist. It literally is the first iteration of modern dance music and we wouldn’t have rave music without that era of music. I’m dedicated to getting to the point where all the songs I play in my set are originals but I also want to keep the old school rave energy in my sets so I want to make a lot more tracks similar to “I Can Dance” that feel like they were straight from ‘90s rave mixes.

Take me through a typical DJ set. Do you have any new records you are excited about playing right now? You've also been touring a bit? How has that been going? What's the scene like in, say, Orlando?

Typical DJ set goes like this… For the two days prior I start working on coming up with a few blends. Usually I try to plan my whole set but usually I end up not having enough time so the last 15-20 minutes of my sets are usually improvised. I hop on the bus/subway to the rave and listen to [DJ Nrgize - UK Makina Set - Vol.11] because it’s my good luck ritual. I show up at the rave and wait for my turn patiently. As my set time approaches my nerves go through the roof. I kiss my special kandi 3 times for goodluck and waddle on stage. I then plug my Apple laptop into the CDJ, plop my laptop onto the CDJ and rock out :) Simple as! Anyone can do what I do just download Rekordbox or Algoriddim or something on your computer and start blending. You don’t need a controller, trackpad mixing is easy!

I’m working on this split EP with my bestie Replicator that will come out in July so I’m excited af to play all those trax!

Idk if I’d use the word touring lol but yea been playing around the US occasionally and it’s fucking awesome! I love traveling around with my laptop in hand spreading the word of the rave gods :) My takeaway every time I play somewhere out of state is that rave is blossoming everywhere! Like in places you wouldn’t expect it. From Reno to Salt Lake City to even Orlando rave is everywhere. Scenes are popping up in every state because all you need is a group of like minded freaks and speakers to create a scene. Anyone can do it and the blueprints already exist. If you want to start a rave scene look up Norm Corps and just study how they started an insane rave scene in Portland from scratch.

Orlando is awesome, shout out to the ravers down there and Joy (RabbitCrime). Also Miami is awesome shout out to Urgent Care Records they are the best! The best thing about rave in smaller scenes like Orlando or Inland Empire is that it’s 100% about the music. No one is there for clout or networking, everyone is there just to escape all their worldly problems and release their inhibitions. Feel the rain on their skin some might say…..

In the ‘90s, there seemed to be a fairly clear delineation between different styles of rave—if you were a head who loved evil-sounding gabber, you might not fuck with happy hardcore, for example. To me, an outsider, this era of hard rave music maybe seems less fragmented. Do you think that’s true?

That’s definitely an accurate observation. The essence of American underground hardcore is that we all take influences from every subgenre of hardcore and mash them together like a fucked up little Frankenstein. Because we are so removed both physically and generationally from all the rave genres created from the ‘90s to now in Europe we have no alliances to any subgenres. Like yea makineros in Spain probably wouldn’t listen to Russian hardbass for various reasons. But we are in a generation where all that music from different countries and decades are just a YouTube search away and it’s something I feel extremely grateful for.

Of course with that being said us ravers still have preferences and are different people with different tastes. All I ask is that ravers don’t shit on other hardcore rave subgenres, like at the end of the day we are all still freaks that like our music loud and fast. We are such small fish in a big big sea we have to stick together if we want to thrive <3 and thrive we shall muahahahahahah (evil maniacal laugh) >:)

Lexxy Jax on Instagram and Soundcloud (Photo by @haunted.reverie)