Before happening upon a stranger’s entire record collection and teaching herself how to mix, Anna Wall would have never imagined that her love for music might take her beyond the dance floor and into…
Before happening upon a stranger’s entire record collection and teaching herself how to mix, Anna Wall would have never imagined that her love for music might take her beyond the dance floor and into a multi-hyphenate career. Now DJ, producer, music journalist, and founder of record labels and , Anna’s work is guided by a long-standing fascination with narrative-driven sound and the artists who create it.
Through her younger years, Anna’s intrigue into sonic storytelling materialised as hours spent recording the radio to build mixtapes, scouring the web for obscure hip hop CDs, and passing sleepless nights plugged into Pirate Radio. Fast forward to now and her habits never really changed, but the tools did. It is the same uninhibited curiosity that finds Anna curating unexpected journeys on dance floors and supporting artists from around the world to find their evolving voice through production.
Anna’s Sundowner Mix #33 arrives as The Bricks celebrates its 10th anniversary, kicked off with a party held in Room 3 at Fabric earlier this year, the club where Anna now holds a residency. The year also marks the label’s 10th release, which will take the form of a collaborative EP to be released this November.
You've mentioned that when you were younger you knew you loved music but you had no clear idea of the path you would take. Retrospectively, is there a moment that feels particularly poignant?
I grew up in London where there’s an abundance of different music scenes. My early years were spent sneaking into hip hop shows, but everything changed for me when I discovered raves like Raindance, which first started in the 80s. They used to throw parties in SE1 under the arches and we would go with our fake IDs, we were quite lucky that we could get away with it back then. There used to be acts like Ratpack and Altern 8 live, channeling the spirit of the 90s UK rave. It was all very high energy especially with the live acts. It attracted every walk of life, you’d see fifty year olds bringing their teenagers along. The afterparty would start at 10am in the next door arch, so you could end up there for two days straight.
Could you have imagined that one day you’d be up there sharing music too?
I actually never imagined that I'd be the one playing the music, ever. I always thought I'd be on the dance floor, that was where I felt at home at this point and that's where I was meeting all these incredible new people. There were some really exciting things happening in London during these times. Ironically, I started DJing when I felt like I was partying too much. I felt like I needed to tone things down a little bit and change the focus. I was living with my sister at the time and one day I came back home with a pair of turntables, like a hundred odd records, and some old school mixer. My sister was fuming, so I set them up in the attic.
I found a guy online selling two turntables, a mixer, and his whole UK garage and jungle collection for a bargain price. So all of a sudden I just had this abundance of records and I had no idea how to mix. It took me a while to figure that out.
To be handed someone’s personal collection is a pretty special introduction.
Totally, and actually a lot of those jungle records are super rare now. Some of the garage records were never put out commercially. So I ended up with all these white labels and dub plates, it was quite an initiation. I had no idea how to beat-match. Back then there wasn’t access to tutorials like there is now. So I spent hours upon hours in my bedroom, trying to mix. At least it was keeping me out of trouble. But I think I always had this desire somehow, because when I was younger I would tape the radio and make mixtapes on cassette. There was something pushing me towards this. Even if it was only for my own pleasure, you know?
What kind of mixtapes were you creating?
At that time I was obsessed with underground hip hop. I was buying CDs from America from all these really underground hip hop labels because they just weren't available in London. So that was my life for a long time. I didn’t begin to fully appreciate dance music until I discovered Pirate Radio. I used to have insomnia when I was little and, when I couldn’t sleep, I would listen to the radio on my walkman. I came across Pirate Radio and suddenly I was discovering jungle, house, techno, garage. This was way before I was old enough to even step foot in a club and I was already hearing all this dancefloor focused electronic music.
You seem to be very motivated by storytelling. Hip hop is a movement so revolved around voicing culture through storytelling and your label, The Bricks, has a heavy focus on your artists’ individual narratives.
It's so interesting you say that. Yeah, I think that the art of listening to an album all the way through from the start to finish is lost a little bit in this day and age, in this world of streaming. It’s like a thirty second hit of this or that, but I still try and carve out that time to listen to an album from start to finish because that's how the artist wants to speak their story. I even had hip hop albums – I think it was Capital D & The Moleman – where it literally plays out like a film. They're telling every story as a chapter. It fascinated me. I hope that the art of listening is not lost in this fast-paced world we live in.
Let’s talk about your residency at Fabric. From the outside looking in, that feels like a milestone in your career.
Becoming a resident was the greatest gift I could ever receive. I was given the opportunity to play there for my first time by the amazing Judy, who's been there since day one and she is truly a part of the legacy of the club. It was in December 2018, I played a three hour warm up for Craig Richards and Seth Troxler in Room 1. I wanted to put my heart and soul into this set. Many friends came down to support and it was such an amazing experience. What I didn't realise was that they were in the process of inviting more residents to join Craig Richards and Terry Francis on Saturdays. It's been the most incredible education for me, every time I play there I learn something and I'm always trying out new things. I'm so grateful for it.
As a DJ when you want to try out something new, you’re not only sharing your creativity with the world, but you’re doing it live. There was a moment in your Boiler Room London set about five years back where a record gets stuck, after which the crowd showed even more support and engagement. Artists tend to strive for perfection, but do you think moments like these that can actually deepen a performance?
I was so lucky that I had such a forgiving crowd and had so many friends around me. I could feed off that energy and I think that gave me the confidence to smooth things over. But like you said, this mistake, people went crazy for it for some reason. It was a very intimate set up in the middle of the room with wooden floorboards and bouncing people and bouncing needles. There are certain things that are out of your control and if you let them get into your head, it could affect the rest of your set. You just have to smile and move on. But it was an incredible experience. I think it really matters who you have around you. And if there’s an amazing energy in the crowd, you feel it and vice versa.
You've founded two record labels; The Bricks and Dream Theory. Has working with so
many different artists given you new perspectives on what it means to create?
For sure. I was getting sent so much incredible music from both established and emerging artists. For me, it was just another outlet to present music and it's such a beautiful way to connect with people all over the world. The first VA that I did featured Toke from Tbilisi in Georgia, Two Phase U from Uruguay, Len Lewis from London and then a track from myself as well. The last release, The Bricks 009, featured Radiant Futur from Ukraine, Santiago Uribe from Uruguay, Italian producer LVCA who lives in Barcelona, and Young Adults from The Hague. I love to hear about where artists get their inspiration from and what inspired them to make the kind of music they do. It's just a beautiful way to thread all these things together.
Dream Theory also gave birth to your first solo EP, ‘Missing Moments’.
Yeah, this ambient album actually came out before I released any solo dance-music focused EPs. I wondered about creating an alias, but in the end it felt right to put it out under my own name. I had some great feedback on the album, which was so nice to receive, and one review talked about hearing the dance music influences within it. Maybe because I use sub bass and pads from classic synthesisers, so some tracks are like an elongated euphoric breakdown that never returns to beats.
That’s such an interesting way to put it.
Well, this is what people have told me, and I never saw it at the beginning, but then I realised because I recorded an analog sub bass into an ambient record, all of a sudden it just has a whole new meaning. The process of creating ambient music was such an outlet for me, and a very different one to making records for the dance floor.
There does seem to be a craving for this more spacious world of music among dance-music DJs and producers.
We’re constantly exposed to loud frequencies, especially every weekend in the clubs. Ambient music is what I listen to during the week to reset myself before I immerse myself back to a club sound system. That’s why I also like listening to healing frequencies, I really believe that these frequencies can reset your body. One of the artists that has made records for both Dream Theory VAs is Apart from Portugal, he’s a techno producer. But when he makes music without beats, it’s these incredible musical landscapes with emotional pads and swirling synths.
Anna will be playing b2b with Chez de Milo this Saturday 28th March at Cobalt Studios in Newcastle, followed by a full calendar bringing her into festival season where she will play at Love International, Garbicz, Moko, as well as joining Jeff Mills on the line-up for Junction 2 x fabric in July.
