DOCUMENTING MUSIC AND THE CULTURES THAT SHAPE IT

My musical journey began way back in the late ’90s as part of indie-electronica trio Brothers In Sound. We released three acclaimed EPs and an album on the Parlophone imprint Regal and existed at the precipice between the old-school music industry of physical formats, record deal advances and print media, and the millennial shift to digital. After this, I made two albums under the name Sancho whilst holding down various jobs, including working in record and book shops.

Through the late 2000s and onwards, after studying Music Culture at UEL, I became Head of Music for the immersive event company Secret Cinema, where I devised musical happenings for groundbreaking events based on films including Blade Runner, Wings of Desire, Back to the Future and Dirty Dancing. Over my tenure, I saw the company grow from boutique East London event status to a multi-million-pound institution.

My love of music led into presenting: I hosted radio shows on London Fields Radio (2012–15), the weekly new music show on Hoxton Radio (2015–2018), and the music news on London Live TV (2015–2018). At the same time, I was a full-time DJ for the agencies Sauce DJs and Euphonica – I played film wrap parties and premieres, festivals like Wilderness and Latitude, and residencies at the Shacklewell Arms and Fence. I curated music for events at Tate Modern, Cannes Film Festival, Somerset House, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

In 2018, I moved to Berlin and, with an award from the Arts Council of England, set up Lost and Sound, which runs most weeks and for the last few years has been sponsored by Audio-Technica. Early on, I recorded a season exploring strands of underground music in Berlin and a second season in Kyiv – exploring the Ukrainian capital’s, at the time, thriving electronic music scene. Since then, the show has morphed into long, in-depth conversations with some of the world’s most cutting-edge and respected artists. These have included Laurent Garnier, Kali Malone, Peaches, Sudan Archives, Suzanne Ciani, I Jordan and Devendra Banhart.

Immersing myself in the city’s musical landscape, I wrote the book Coming To Berlin, published by the renowned Velocity Press. It was written over an extended period during the pandemic and released to acclaim and coverage on BBC Radio 6Music, Mixmag and Concrete Islands, amongst other places. I also wrote an essay on the New Romantic movement as part of Washington, DC based author and music historian Adrian Loving’s book Fade to Grey: Androgyny, Style & Art in 80s Dance Music, and the foreword for Gesamtkunstwerk 1987-2023 by artist and musician Danielle DePicciotto.  I have written cover features for Mixmag and longform pieces for DJMag, Huck, Wired and The Berliner, as well as trend forecasts for Canvas8.

Digging into my love of the cultural histories of music led me to start making radio documentaries with my partner, the producer Rosalie Delaney, for the BBC: The Man Who Smuggled Punk Rock Across The Berlin Wall for the BBC World Service and Wolf Biermann – The German Bob Dylan Exiled by the GDR for BBC Radio 3’s Sunday Feature.

I am currently a Principal Lecturer of Music and Culture at BIMM University Berlin, where I work with students on developing creativity, cultural awareness and collaboration. I have also delivered workshops for Apple, Refuge Worldwide and Open Music Lab.

I live with my partner and our cat in Berlin.