The second installment of our monthly mix series WITNESS debuts Brooklyn based DJ/producer PUSHPIN.
PUSHPIN is so refreshing. Her sets chaotic, full of backbeat energy, unapologetically black, latin, hardcore… its an inner city kid’s RAVE paradise.
I first experienced PUSHPIN live at a street rave in Bushwick a couple months back. It was the first outdoor music gathering of mutants in the COVID era. The underground community had begun to reimagine what live music looked like in a virus-isolated age… experimenting with a socially distant, mask-draped, PPE tabled, all day/night block party & rave. PUSHPIN went first. I didn’t know what to expect.. but it wasn’t that. PUSHPIN began to summon a nonstop energy of jersey club, hardcore, baile funk, industrial, gabber, ghettohouse, bounce, not just mixed together, but re-imagined. She directed hard hitting counter rhythms that commanded the dance out of you. It was so hood, so club… a sweat inducing fever I hadn’t heard from anyone else in the club community. It was right then and there I knew we had to work with PUSHPIN and asked if she’d wanna be apart of our WITNESS mix series. The rest is history. PUSHPIN’S WITNESS mix is an audacious onslaught of hood and hardcore. Filled with bounce, hardstyle and sprawling vocals that won’t let you quit, you have to WITNESS PUSHPIN to believe. Sermon 3 got the chance to interview PUSHPIN and go behind the scenes a bit with her mix, mindset, inspirations, hopes and plans for the future. Peep below. INTERVIEW Sermon 3 Recordings: Love your mix. It’s chaotic, hard and full of energy. Can u tell us a bit about your production process with DJ mixes? What programs are you using? How do you like to play around? PUSHPIN: In the past, people have told me that my dj set-up is boonky. But they not putting money in my pocket to buy this expensive ass gear! You make do with what you have. I like the freedom of Virtual Dj. I taught myself how to Dj without using headphones or queues — my mixing is entirely run off loops, cutting, beat distortion, etc. Mixing these loops to find new, riot-inducing beat patterns. Beat-a-bitch music. TUh! S3R: Strong backbeat/afro rhythms fill your sets, mixed with heavy no on-sense hardstyle energy. What in your background inspires this? Being black and of the diaspora. Freestyling and creating on the fly is a strategic and natural coping mechanism. Trauma is heavy-handed. When performing or dancing to a high intensity set, you release a lot of that energy within you. My family is from the Dominican Republic, but I moved all around the East Coast of the United States. The DR has a rich history of music. We are known for bachata, merengue, and my favorite, Dembow. All very soulful, fast-paced genres. Early El Alfa, Wilo D New, El pródigo, Los Teke Teke, list goes onnnnn. When I lived in South Florida, it was Broward County’s sped up songs like ‘Stickin ‘n Rollin’ by DJ Chipman, ‘Wig’n (fast)’ by COA BABII, and ‘Clap Them Thighs’ by NMB STUNNAZ. Then I moved up to the Northeast and was introduced to various amount of club music and fell naturally in high-bpm hardcore scene in NYC. S3R: What would you like to see grow, develop and ultimately change in the NYC underground club community? Interaction and collaboration need to look more like poetry instead of scripts. I would love to see a new wave of authenticity in creation and collaboration. I think a lot of people can agree underground felt pretty stale and sparse for a while. Ban iconography and love on your neighbor. S3R: What’s next for Pushpin? Have any new projects you about to unleash on us? Pushpin is coming out with an EP towards the end of 2020 with extensive visuals. Something to compliment the chaotic energy in the air, and make you want to overthrow sumn. xxx WITNESS PUSHPIN HERE: 
WITNESS PUSHPIN [002]
