Interview
Currently residing in San Francisco, Mutt B has recently become a fast friend and well-respected selector on this side of the Portal.
Tied to a flourishing dance music community throughout California and stretching beyond, Mutt B aka Tristram Craig, is often found repping his musical kin behind the decks with LA-based Space Milk.
Geared up with a collection of afters-minded minimal and left field house that demonstrate an athletic understanding of the dance floor, Mutt B is a proven trainer of party fitness using the weight of wax. With that, it's a pleasure to share Tristram's thoughts on community and the sesh.
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Even away from the decks and dance floor, Space Milk is a tight knit crew. Describe your relationship to Space Milk musically and personally.
Space milk is a group of friends that started throwing parties during college. When I first started I had no idea how to DJ, but was happy to stay up all night, carry gear and climb trees to hang disco balls. They are my chosen family now and it has introduced me to a whole world of friends who have helped me become more myself.
Space Milk is a part of an incredibly prolific community of musicians and producers, the likes of which include Huerta, Dylan Payne, and others across the globe. Lend us your perspective on this broader community.
The underground thrives in the margins, and I've been lucky enough to be connected to a few folks far more talented than I over the past few years (who aren't so marginal anymore). I think implicit in its brilliance is the fact that most of it is DIY, bring the stacks and they will come attitude--Space Milk was the perfect incubator for that mentality. Looking at my corner of music globally, I think we're in a really cool spot, with people like Dylan, Huerta, Louiv and Gene on Earth referencing some of that late 90s magic in their current productions. I feel like I identify a new city/party I have to go check out almost weekly--and maybe because it's not a super lucrative venture financially--nearly everyone I meet seems to come at it from a place of love. The past few years have been tough what with the pando, but I'm optimistic about where the scene in California and beyond is headed. At its best, this space is a place for people's authentic selves to thrive--cultivating space for that is a big driver in what I do.
With this mix as a great example, your selections are pulled from a collection of records that consistently feature and draw from the influence of this music community as well. What is your inspiration and mentality towards collecting?
As far as the records are concerned, quirked out stuff always prevails in my bag--and the stuff that keeps people dancing. I'm looking for things that make one think "I don't know what this is but I like it". Dylan P is a great example of a person I absolutely look up to as a friend and digger--always looking for the things in the margins as well. I'm not really organized enough to have much guidance behind my search, but I'm much more interested in the $2 record that seems off the grid than the $100 record that is valuable solely because it got popular and there won't be a repress. I just get sucked into Discogs for hours really--and love to sit on the floor of Vinyl Dreams looking through the cheap bins. There's so much good music from the last 35 years that I've still never heard and that limitless resource feeling is addicting.
Events with Space Milk and others over the Spring and Summer so far have led you all across California this year, including Lucidity, a recent party featuring Hiroko Yamamura, and more. How has the party been treating you, and what else is on your radar?
The party has been ripe these past few months--it feels like a blur at moments. I'm looking forward to a return to the Euro zone in August and early September, I have some unfinished business with Waking Life and can't wait to return to Croatia for Dimensions. After that, things are much looser, but I know the opportunity to load my truck up again and get out there will present itself--the West is ripe for renegades.
Can't thank you enough for having me on this side of the Portal.
Love one another.
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