This month’s mix features a DJ from Detroit – CoveLove, founder of Love Club. He always finds ways to give back to the community and I’m looking forward to seeing what CoveLove + Love Club continue to do for the city. His mix is 1.5 hours long, featuring tracks from his EP that drops this weekend. It’s got funky disco vibes and a house groove.
Be sure to check out his EP release party this Saturday, September 11th at Tangent Gallery. It’ll be a great event with 25% of sales going back to the Highland Park Fire Department.
In his interview, we talk about his upcoming EP, words of advice for anyone putting together their own EP, his favorite accomplishment so far, his sound, why giving back is so important to him, what Love Club is/will be, what he sees when he looks at the night sky, and more.
I hope you enjoy his mix and features this week.
Each mix will exclusively premiere on Deep Space Radio at noon on Wednesday – and then be available on the detroit.dance SoundCloud as per usual at 3:13pm EST.
Be sure to check out his mix, on SoundCloud now.
detroit.dance: What do you do for work?
CoveLove: I’m a biomedical technician. I repair medical equipment for a hospital. I started doing it at around the same time I started to make music, and electronics and music go hand in hand as far as signal pass forms.
detroit.dance: What are some of your interests outside of music?
CoveLove: I’ve skateboarded for 15 years. I just bought a house so now I’m trying to learn how to do electrical and plumbing and typical homeowner stuff. I just got a new dog from the shelter and she’s lovely, we are going to start training her soon. She’s a chocolate lab golden mix. I also like traveling, hiking, and outdoorsy stuff.
detroit.dance: CoveLove – where did you start at and where are you at now with your sound?
CoveLove: I never grew up playing music. I went to Bonnaroo enough times that I was standing in the crowd and I thought to myself, “Why am I not doing this?” So I got Ableton and started playing guitar… I was really set on doing Ableton looping live sets for a while, which is difficult if you don’t really know what you’re doing in either a DJ setting or band setting.
I went from DJing and producing in Ableton, to eventually getting actual DJ gear. I got more into DJing after I moved to the city and then I also fronted my own band for a while. I gained more experience working out arrangements and stuff with an actual band.
After that, I went back through all of the stuff I had made before that point, and deleted everything I didn’t like. I’ve been starting projects and trying to push myself to be a better producer and collaborating with more people. That basically led to these couple songs that I really like for this new EP.
My heart is definitely with the disco, funky vibes. Ideally eventually here I’ll be making records where it’ll be a mixture of live instruments being sampled, or being recorded in the studio with musicians, and turning them into house tracks or band tracks or whatever it may be.
detroit.dance: Your EP is coming out this weekend and you have a release party at Tangent Gallery on Saturday 9/11/21 – are you excited?
CoveLove: Yeah, it’s going to be my first headlining event. I took this event as a chance to give some DJs that I’ve met recently a shot at holding the stage at Tangent with me, as well as similar sounding artists. I have some surprises for my set, and might have some live instrumentation come up. There will be art vendors and limited edition upcycled merchandise. All in all, a good closing event of my season this year at Tangent.
Pre-Save his EP, here.
detroit.dance: There’s two tracks on your EP, did you have a certain inspiration for them? How do you put tracks together?
CoveLove: Both of the tracks on the EP were finished in a couple hours. Usually, I’ll start an idea and it’ll turn into a loop that I file away and never really finish, or I see where I can get the track to go. These two had the main idea finished, I arranged them and mixed them with transitions and the songs were finished in a couple hours. When tracks flow like that they naturally finish themselves, so that’s why I felt confident in them and they sound cohesive so I’m releasing them together.
detroit.dance: Do you have any words of advice for someone who’s trying to put together their own EP?
CoveLove: Yes, the biggest thing for me that I didn’t realize when I was starting out that I realize now is that collaboration with other musicians is one of the biggest most important things to do. Having someone else’s feedback to bounce ideas off of makes everything go way faster and way more interesting creatively. I’ve been working with my friend. Nuntheless – I just had some credits on a vinyl he released on Young Heavy Souls – and if it wasn’t for him becoming a good friend of mine and us doing studio sessions together, I probably wouldn’t be as good as I am now.
detroit.dance: What is your favorite accomplishment so far as CoveLove?
CoveLove: The last show we did, “Human vs. Machine” was unreal. I got to share the stage with Ladymonix and Pontchartrain who are two people that I’ve looked up to and been inspired by since I’ve been involved in the Detroit scene. I also got them and Scan 7 to sign all of the records that I own by them, and close out the night from 2:30-3:30 with like 600 people listening to my set.
detroit.dance: What are some other goals or ambitions that you have going forward?
CoveLove: I’m trying to get bookings in other states. I might have some coming up in Austin, Texas, trying to reach out to some folks in New York and Chicago, trying to build connections between Detroit and other places in the world… so that myself as CoveLove and my label Love Club and all the friends I have can go travel and make moments happen like we do here in our city.
detroit.dance: Love Club – what is it and what are you aiming to do with it?
CoveLove: Love Club is a platform for myself and people that I want to work with and that I feel inspired by… to release music on, for them to perform at events, for me to book Love Club Collective shows here or in another state or country so I can put on the people that inspire me elsewhere too. When I go to someone else’s show I want to feel like I’m involved in it in more of a personal way, so I’m trying to slowly build my team of people to help run the label and run the shows, to make it more of a community atmosphere, and give back to our community.
For the Juneteenth show we put on, we donated about half the sales to Auntie Na’s, who is a wonderful woman who has a group of houses for the community on the northwest side of Detroit. She has a shelter house, a house for education, and a house for healthcare that are all open for everyone. For the album release party we are donating 25% of the sales to the Highland Park Fire Department because the show is on Saturday 9/11. It’s important to me to always give back.
detroit.dance: Why is giving back so important to you?
CoveLove: Having lived in Detroit for a little while now, you see what people go through and how people come here and change a block to be really nice with disregard to the people who’ve been here already. So for me, I grew up close to the city my whole life, but now that I live here and I pay taxes here, it’s important for me to pay my dues to the people who have been living here instead of me trying to change it in a new way. That’s why I moved here, because of the history, people, and culture. Not because I feel like I can change it.
detroit.dance: What have you learned from putting on events as Love Club and how are you taking them to the next level?
CoveLove: A big, big thing is paying people what they deserve so that they want to be involved. That’s why I started an LLC. My friends that want to help load and unload gear, I throw them some money, I pay the people that do posters, the people that play the shows…unfortunately the industry is filled with people overall that don’t do that or don’t give people what they deserve. The people involved are what makes the event run smoothly.
detroit.dance: Who is someone that you have not worked with yet that you would like to collab with?
CoveLove: I really want to get Wajeed at one of my shows next year. I love everything that guy does.
I also want to get more bands at my shows, I want to have two stages for the shows that I do. I came from more of a band background so for me it’s important to make sure Love Club isn’t a genre-specific thing. It’s important to get different scenes exposed to each other so that other people can experience other types of shows more often.
It’s all music and we’re all in it for the same reasons if you really enjoy live music. I might go to an electronic show and if there’s a band playing in another room I might love that band and never would have seen them otherwise if they weren’t at the same show.
detroit.dance: Would you rather set up an easel and be live painting in a beach setting or a forest setting?
CoveLove: The beach. Because then I can go swimming. There’s something special about water and a sunny day.
detroit.dance: What does the word “love” mean to you?
CoveLove: Love means a lot of things…caring for your family, your partner, and also a sense of community and responsibility to look out for every person you come across, to the point of just saying “Hi” to people – for the sake of trying to brighten someone’s day. I guess that’s kind of why that word has stuck with me so much is because I try to spread that empathy towards everyone and everything I come across.
detroit.dance: What do you see first when you look at the night sky?
CoveLove: Infinite possibilities.
Keep up with CoveLove on his socials: