PNWforager

Cool interview, the album is fucking dope!

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The AKAI SOLO Interview

![IMG_5509.jpg](https://finals.blog/api/uploads/IMG_5509_4bd305444c.jpg)

*Shout out to my friend Arielle -- a Brooklyn-based writer, thinker, and DJ -- for this reflection on her past year in DJing. I am honored to be rocking with her b2b at the next Generator 1/25/26, Generator being the NY events series I've been throwing with [Laron](https://finals.blog/posts/The-Laron-Interview) for the past 8 or so months. We are going [strong](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9HjDvPWgAAOkTo?format=jpg&name=large) into the new year at CWW Radio Shop (1136 President) with a lineup consisting of Arielle and I, Laron, Quincy Davis, and SWAYA. It's free and all ages and starts at 8. Come through for the best music you never heard.* 

*-Andrew* 

--

**By Arielle Lana LeJarde**

In the beginning of 2023, this very blog's lord and savior (co-founder) Matson asked me to spin a DJ set. I said yes. The problem was, I'd never even touched decks in my life. After months of practicing, I spun my very first set at **stakes is low** (*ed. note that's what I was calling Finals events when we were at Erzulie*) and the [result](https://soundcloud.com/ariellenyc/big-ass-blends-for-finals-blog) was something I've always been proud of.

(*Ed. note: The set is fire, and first times are special.*)

That is, until I sent my friend the recording a couple of days ago and listened back to it myself. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't as good at mixing as I remembered. But what I lacked in technical ability, I made up for in gusto, fearlessness, and a genuine love for every track I played — a combined delusion that may just have come with the territory for someone who says yes to a DJ set when they've never DJed before.

(*Ed. note: I love this. Technical ability is great in DJing, but imhhhho should never stop anyone from doing it or else how would anyone ever begin? Also some of the most technically amazing DJs have no taste and no [nunchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunchi).*)

I'm not close to my 10,000 hours yet, but since that day almost three years ago now, I've already played nearly 50 DJ sets. And every time I get behind the decks, I learn something new.

I remember the first time I learned about mixing in key. It was before my first DJ set and a house producer friend named wev came to Pirate to give me a lesson. I didn't understand it, and it felt like too much information to take in, so I ignored it. Along the way, mixing in key started taking over my brain. All I cared about was mixing in key — and I lost the fun of finding unlikely tracks that would go together. There were times I even curated crates with tracks that I knew were boring just because they were in key. (Side note: the best advice I ever got was from DJ Noir who told me: No filler. If you don't love it, you don't like it.)

(*Ed. note: Mixing in key is great, and some of my favorite DJs like DJ Topspin are harmonic masters who were geniuses at it before you could change a song's key digitally. However, I personally think that caring about key is way more of an issue when it comes to making remixes and edits, which are meant to be replayed, than it is with DJing, which I fundamentally consider to be ephemeral. That said, I am extremely permissive of "bad" transitions, and care WAY more about the vibe, energy, and the strength and power of whatever song it is that the DJ is playing.*) 

One day, I [tweeted](https://x.com/ariellenyc/status/1778201508544413986?s=20) "mixing in key you will Crumble," and it sparked so much discourse that I was [interviewed](https://www.musicradar.com/news/harmonic-mixing) for an article about it. I told Harold Heath of MusicRadar that "trying to mix in key was stifling my creativity — in my opinion, it was making my blends boring and the set less dynamic. I was also having less fun and feeling boxed in."

(*Ed note: This is called insight and not everyone has it!*)

I still feel that way and I try as hard as possible not to care about harmonic mixing, but the truth is: it does sound better when you mix in key. Now that I've started to use three or four decks, it's even more noticeable when tracks are off-key. It's annoying, but people were kind of right to come for me. On the other hand, I do feel extra-accomplished every time I find a fire blend that "shouldn't" necessarily go together.

(*Ed note: Arielle told me she mixed in key all 2025. What a fkn feat! I could never.*)

With all that being said, I still feel like a baby DJ with a lot to learn. But my hopes are to become so good that I'm able to mix off-key and it still sounds good somehow. There has to be a way.

(*Ed. note: With her writing, DJing, and events-throwing, Arielle has always found a way and that's what I respect most about her. No cosigns or permission from whatever establishment needed. Rock on.*)

A Year of Mixing in Key

The Sewa Choki Interview

I did a lot of stuff in 2025 that I really wanted to do in 2024, or maybe the ideas of what I wanted to accomplish started brewing then. Either way as this year winds down, I can firmly say I ended up on the positive side of my middle aged psychosocial developmental goal of generativity vs stagnation. Shout out me, shout out Finals, shout out this years’s contributors kimdollars1, Nick Viagas, Atoosa Moinzadeh, CB Rucker, Tyler Burston, and Jaiyn, and shout out our interview subjects and coconspirators at the live events. 

**Use film photos in blog posts**

Atoosa came through on Goya Gumbani and Theravada stories this year, and the homie CB did too shooting his first photo mission of 1Alkebulan. The film-on-blog aesthetic is something I love, and have done prior on Finals with Enumclaw and JWords stories, where I gave them disposables. I think it looks cool, emphasizes the “moment in time,” and creates a future nostalgic impact with some analog flavor in an otherwise digital realm.

**Buy SAS shoes**

San Antonio Shoemakers, which I believe manufacture in New Orleans, make Medicare diabetes type shoes that I can’t get enough of. They’re like American Mephistos. Sort of. This year I bought the first Body Of Work collab (grails), the Ambassador, the Amigo, and the Journey velcro. I even bought an SAS hat. All used, mind you. 

**Buy fitteds**

Bought a navy Braves fitted, the first fitted in about 20 years, and then bought Cardinals and Orioles 80s deadstock ones. Forgot how hot they are. Good winter hats. 

**Not-write (more in editor role these days)**

Like half Finals stories were written by someone else this year, while I guided things, connected dots, crossed Ts and dotted Is. I find less and less reason to inflict my taste and opinion as I get older, and more opportunities to pass the mic. This is developing naturally, and sometimes, makes it so when I do write, I enjoy it more. 

**Make music**

Dropped a solo EP with Tomu DJ producing and a grip of edits on the Finals bandcamp, plus three collab beats with Laron. 

**Start a new night with Laron**

What started as “Let The Music Play” morphed into “Generator” as I teamed up with Laron for lineups that draw from our existing and expanding worlds, while giving us a cozy record store back room to DJ in. It’s all real organic and we’ve had legends like kimdollars1, Elise, Tomu DJ, MIKE, and Niontay perform, and the next one 12/14 has Jaiyn and Tony Seltzer. It’s free for the culture and so far, so fun. 

**Wear Eighteen East more as a shirt brand than pants brand** 

This is something I noticed. I sold like four pairs of 18 East pants this year and bought a couple shirts. One of the two brands I buy new besides shoes and hats.

**Continue wearing Earth\Studies pants**

They keep getting better. Best pants since Errolson did ACG.

**Watching music videos on my bigass TV**

I love me some YouTube. A lot of artists in NY like Shawny Binladen seem to only drop there, or drop there first, so there’s always something to watch. This years music video of the year was a two way tie between the NTS Oklou ice skating live EP, and MIKE’s Tiny Desk. Speaking of, 2026 goals: interview Savannah Harris. 
 


Featured Post

The AKAI SOLO Interview

Posts

A Year of Mixing in Key

The Sewa Choki Interview

Trends of my year, things I did heavy

The Nondi_ Interview

The 1010benja Interview