APPAREL INTERVIEW:
Bruce Tantum, Journalist/DJ, New York [USA]
Bruce Tantum over at X describes himself as "North America editor, DJ Mag. And I DJ, I have fun and I do other stuff." The editor-in-chief of DJ Mag is many things, but above all, he's an intriguing individual whose journey, from being a passionate enthusiast to making a profession out of his love for music, has led him to become a respected figure in the music scene. And most importantly, it has brought him here today to chat with us about a myriad of topics (lol). We're thrilled to be able to ask him a mix of serious and less serious questions, without taking ourselves too seriously, as we like to do, and without a clearly defined logical or temporal thread, a bit freestyle as often happens in our interviews.
Bruce Tantum Q&A
-Hi Bruce, it's an absolute pleasure and thrill to have you as our guest for this interview. While we're itching to delve into many facets of your persona, we thought we'd kick things off with the simplest yet often overlooked (and tragically so) question out there. How are you doing?
- I’m doing well, thank you – I hope you are as well! Keeping busy and staying out of trouble… sometimes.
-We know that as a native of NJ, you've had a certain fascination with New York City since you were a little kid. Tell us about those blurry childhood memories, the first time you set foot there, and the vivid recollections when you realised it would become your home.
- Even though I only lived 45 miles from the city, I was probably 11 or 12 years old before I ever set foot in NYC — and then it was only through class trips, probably to some museum or another. But well before then, I specifically remember seeing the city on the television news — it was all broadcast TV back then, and we got all the NYC stations — where it was usually depicted as this dying, decaying yet somehow glamorous mess of a city. Which, in truth, it was. For some reason, six-year-old me thought “yes, that’s the place I wanna go!”
By the mid-’70s. when I was old enough to actually know what’s what, both punk and disco were really starting to percolate in NY, and obviously that sucked me in even further. By the time I was attending university at Rutgers, which was still in NJ but even closer to NYC, my friends and I were heading to the city whenever possible — and right after I graduated in 1980, I made the move and have been ever since. And after all these years, still spending way too much time in clubs.
-How does it feel to see images of NYC in the 80s compared to what the city is like today? How did NYC evolve and changed throughout the years in either a positive or negative way?
- Well, it’s undoubtedly a good thing that people get shot and stabbed a bit less than in the ’80s, and it certainly LOOKS shinier nowadays. But I do miss the grunginess of the ’80s, along with the cheap rents (the first apartment I had on my own, in the East Village, was $300 a month), and you could go out with five or ten dollars in your pocket and still have a full-on wild night. I still manage to have a bit of fun, even though things have gotten a tiny bit more pricey over the years.
-You’ve developed a deep passion for the club culture since a very young age. Given your experience, what do you think we should bring into the present from the clubs of the past?
- Let yourself get lost in the music, in whatever form you want to get lost – no need to stand there and watch the DJ because they not really doing anything all that interesting.
-Let's talk about your careers as both a DJ and a musician. We'd like to ask you something that ties both professions together: what's the best club or venue you've ever performed at?
- My band performed at Danceteria, Peppermint Lounge, late-period Mudd Club — and CBGB, which was past its prime but still pretty viable. As far as DJing goes, I played a few times in the ’90s at the Pyramid in the East Village (google it if you are not familiar); a bit later, a Meatpacking District club called Filter 14, in the same space that once was home to the great Jackie 60; a bit after THAT, still in the Meatpacking District, a great little space called APT; and in recent years, the Lowlife party at Corsica Studios in London.
Bruce Tantum Q&A
-Hi Bruce, it's an absolute pleasure and thrill to have you as our guest for this interview. While we're itching to delve into many facets of your persona, we thought we'd kick things off with the simplest yet often overlooked (and tragically so) question out there. How are you doing?
- I’m doing well, thank you – I hope you are as well! Keeping busy and staying out of trouble… sometimes.
-We know that as a native of NJ, you've had a certain fascination with New York City since you were a little kid. Tell us about those blurry childhood memories, the first time you set foot there, and the vivid recollections when you realised it would become your home.
- Even though I only lived 45 miles from the city, I was probably 11 or 12 years old before I ever set foot in NYC — and then it was only through class trips, probably to some museum or another. But well before then, I specifically remember seeing the city on the television news — it was all broadcast TV back then, and we got all the NYC stations — where it was usually depicted as this dying, decaying yet somehow glamorous mess of a city. Which, in truth, it was. For some reason, six-year-old me thought “yes, that’s the place I wanna go!”
By the mid-’70s. when I was old enough to actually know what’s what, both punk and disco were really starting to percolate in NY, and obviously that sucked me in even further. By the time I was attending university at Rutgers, which was still in NJ but even closer to NYC, my friends and I were heading to the city whenever possible — and right after I graduated in 1980, I made the move and have been ever since. And after all these years, still spending way too much time in clubs.
-How does it feel to see images of NYC in the 80s compared to what the city is like today? How did NYC evolve and changed throughout the years in either a positive or negative way?
- Well, it’s undoubtedly a good thing that people get shot and stabbed a bit less than in the ’80s, and it certainly LOOKS shinier nowadays. But I do miss the grunginess of the ’80s, along with the cheap rents (the first apartment I had on my own, in the East Village, was $300 a month), and you could go out with five or ten dollars in your pocket and still have a full-on wild night. I still manage to have a bit of fun, even though things have gotten a tiny bit more pricey over the years.
-You’ve developed a deep passion for the club culture since a very young age. Given your experience, what do you think we should bring into the present from the clubs of the past?
- Let yourself get lost in the music, in whatever form you want to get lost – no need to stand there and watch the DJ because they not really doing anything all that interesting.
-Let's talk about your careers as both a DJ and a musician. We'd like to ask you something that ties both professions together: what's the best club or venue you've ever performed at?
- My band performed at Danceteria, Peppermint Lounge, late-period Mudd Club — and CBGB, which was past its prime but still pretty viable. As far as DJing goes, I played a few times in the ’90s at the Pyramid in the East Village (google it if you are not familiar); a bit later, a Meatpacking District club called Filter 14, in the same space that once was home to the great Jackie 60; a bit after THAT, still in the Meatpacking District, a great little space called APT; and in recent years, the Lowlife party at Corsica Studios in London.
-If you were to explain what a DJ is to someone who isn't familiar with the DJ profession, how would you explain it?
- You play songs that you love in a way that makes some sense to yourself, and then hope that people enjoy the results and perhaps even dance — that’s about it, really! It’s basically just about being in the moment and being yourself – all the other bits are extra.
-Talking about music in general, do you think music still holds the same crucial importance for communities as it once did, or is it increasingly becoming a useful tool for individuals to communicate something uniquely about themselves?
- Within the universe that I hang out in, it is probably as important as a defining aspect of our community (however you want to define that) as ever. But within the world at large, it feels like music is more like a fashion statement, at best. Sad but true!
-Bruce, let’s talk about the written word in the world of music. What’s your take on that quote wrongly credited to Frank Zappa, "writing about music is like dancing about architecture”?
- I never really bought into that quote — though yeah, it is kind of hard to describe something as ineffable as the feeling that certain songs (or any kind of art) can give to you. All you can do is circle around it as best you can and hope that people can figure out what you mean!
-In today's music world, where hundreds of thousands of songs are released every day, where the content binge far surpasses its quality, what role does the written word play?
- I’m not sure it does, to be honest! But I do try my best to focus on writing about music and artists that I actually care about, with the hope that a few people will follow up on in and perhaps find out about something they might not have otherwise known about.
-By its very nature, writing (and reading) requires time to be pondered and put down on paper (whether physical or digital) and It's something that requires the audience to be active rather than passive. Do you think the written word is still a vehicle that can put concepts down (scripta manent, as the Latins used to say), urge people to take a moment to breathe and read, in short, do you believe it can act as a counterbalance to the utterly frantic and sometimes passive, pace of the digital world?
- I certainly like to think so, and the written word is still mainly how I personally how I navigate through the process of discovery, with music and everything else. But I suspect I’m in the minority nowadays.
-Let's start with the phrase William Burroughs said to Patti Smith: "Build a good name, keep it clean. Don't make compromises. Don't worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency." Considering this quote, what advice would you give to a young musician entering the music world today?
- That quote pretty much says it all. If you can’t make enough money by doing your art without compromising too much, then just get a side hustle to fund your art. Be the fullest you that you can be, and you’ll sleep better at night — though it might be on a cheaper mattress than you might like.
-Here's another recurring question from our past chats. We ask it because we're genuinely curious about the little details that make up the lives of the people we're conversing with, and also because we believe that details, in the end, are what truly matter as they add up to create the big picture. So, tell us on what's on your bedside table and desk, and tell us (as a famous commercial fashion and lifestyle magazine would put it) what are your essentials?
- Let’s see… at the moment, there are headphones, a printer, some random music magazines, a bottle of bottle of over-the-counter pain killers (my aching neck!), a bunch of reference books, an external hard drive full of music, and my cat.
Here are some rapid-fire questions. We usually ask them to students or artists to better understand how to guide and advise them on the best way to communicate their passion to any possible audience.
-If you were a geometric shape, what would you be?
- A square — because I’m kind of a square.
-And if you were an animal?
- A sloth, maybe? Because I’m slow and algae grows on me.
-If you were a city, which do you think would best reflect your personality?
- NYC circa 1984. Or maybe West Berlin, around the same time.
-And what object would you be if you were an inanimate entity?
- A slow-moving train, just chuggin’ along.
-Where would you like to live for a while, in a place where you've never lived before?
- Any tropical beach with a bunch of my friends.
-Finally, we'd like to ask you for some advice for our readers. Could you recommend any online magazines, blogs, or music critics to follow on the web?
- This is a pretty obvious one, but absolute everyone should pick up a copy of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton for a good background on this whole DJing thing. For the NY obsessives, Tim Lawrence’s three books — Love Saves the Day, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, and his Arthur Russell book Hold On to Your Dreams — are pretty essential. Substacks/blogs from Piotr Orlov, Philip Sherburne and a lot of other great writers. And you can always read my stuff at DJMag.com, and tons of other good stuff flowing through the interweb pipes as well. Bye!
-If you were to explain what a DJ is to someone who isn't familiar with the DJ profession, how would you explain it?
- You play songs that you love in a way that makes some sense to yourself, and then hope that people enjoy the results and perhaps even dance — that’s about it, really! It’s basically just about being in the moment and being yourself – all the other bits are extra.
-Talking about music in general, do you think music still holds the same crucial importance for communities as it once did, or is it increasingly becoming a useful tool for individuals to communicate something uniquely about themselves?
- Within the universe that I hang out in, it is probably as important as a defining aspect of our community (however you want to define that) as ever. But within the world at large, it feels like music is more like a fashion statement, at best. Sad but true!
-Bruce, let’s talk about the written word in the world of music. What’s your take on that quote wrongly credited to Frank Zappa, "writing about music is like dancing about architecture”?
- I never really bought into that quote — though yeah, it is kind of hard to describe something as ineffable as the feeling that certain songs (or any kind of art) can give to you. All you can do is circle around it as best you can and hope that people can figure out what you mean!
-In today's music world, where hundreds of thousands of songs are released every day, where the content binge far surpasses its quality, what role does the written word play?
- I’m not sure it does, to be honest! But I do try my best to focus on writing about music and artists that I actually care about, with the hope that a few people will follow up on in and perhaps find out about something they might not have otherwise known about.
-By its very nature, writing (and reading) requires time to be pondered and put down on paper (whether physical or digital) and It's something that requires the audience to be active rather than passive. Do you think the written word is still a vehicle that can put concepts down (scripta manent, as the Latins used to say), urge people to take a moment to breathe and read, in short, do you believe it can act as a counterbalance to the utterly frantic and sometimes passive, pace of the digital world?
- I certainly like to think so, and the written word is still mainly how I personally how I navigate through the process of discovery, with music and everything else. But I suspect I’m in the minority nowadays.
-Let's start with the phrase William Burroughs said to Patti Smith: "Build a good name, keep it clean. Don't make compromises. Don't worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency." Considering this quote, what advice would you give to a young musician entering the music world today?
- That quote pretty much says it all. If you can’t make enough money by doing your art without compromising too much, then just get a side hustle to fund your art. Be the fullest you that you can be, and you’ll sleep better at night — though it might be on a cheaper mattress than you might like.
-Here's another recurring question from our past chats. We ask it because we're genuinely curious about the little details that make up the lives of the people we're conversing with, and also because we believe that details, in the end, are what truly matter as they add up to create the big picture. So, tell us on what's on your bedside table and desk, and tell us (as a famous commercial fashion and lifestyle magazine would put it) what are your essentials?
- Let’s see… at the moment, there are headphones, a printer, some random music magazines, a bottle of bottle of over-the-counter pain killers (my aching neck!), a bunch of reference books, an external hard drive full of music, and my cat.
Here are some rapid-fire questions. We usually ask them to students or artists to better understand how to guide and advise them on the best way to communicate their passion to any possible audience.
-If you were a geometric shape, what would you be?
- A square — because I’m kind of a square.
-And if you were an animal?
- A sloth, maybe? Because I’m slow and algae grows on me.
-If you were a city, which do you think would best reflect your personality?
- NYC circa 1984. Or maybe West Berlin, around the same time.
-And what object would you be if you were an inanimate entity?
- A slow-moving train, just chuggin’ along.
-Where would you like to live for a while, in a place where you've never lived before?
- Any tropical beach with a bunch of my friends.
-Finally, we'd like to ask you for some advice for our readers. Could you recommend any online magazines, blogs, or music critics to follow on the web?
- This is a pretty obvious one, but absolute everyone should pick up a copy of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton for a good background on this whole DJing thing. For the NY obsessives, Tim Lawrence’s three books — Love Saves the Day, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, and his Arthur Russell book Hold On to Your Dreams — are pretty essential. Substacks/blogs from Piotr Orlov, Philip Sherburne and a lot of other great writers. And you can always read my stuff at DJMag.com, and tons of other good stuff flowing through the interweb pipes as well. Bye!
