When 1980s electro and freestyle music from Miami, New York, and Los Angeles touched down in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, it ignited a wildfire in the minds of DJs, soundsystem operators, and dancers. In this episode of Rave to the Grave podcast, we go back to the roots of baile funk with Priscilla “House of Pris” Cavalcante. Priscilla grew up in Fortaleza in Northeast Brazil, where as a pre-teen she became hooked on first-wave baile funk. Priscilla now lives in Miami, Florida, where she throws a party called Proibidae and is in the process of collecting and reissuing the lost anthems of 1990s and early 2000s baile funk. We talk about tamborzao, furaçao, pancadao, and hear some of the samples and records that formed the sound.

McKenzie Wark is an Australian born writer, critical theory professor, and 61-year-old trans-femme techno raver currently living in NYC. Her latest book, Raving, thinks deeply about dancing, dissociation, drugs, bodies, and identity as McKenzie, recently transitioned, navigates the queer techno spaces of Bushwick, Brooklyn. On the line from Berlin, we talk about experimenting with language and writing, bodies and the beat, smart vs. stupid drugs, cultural theory, rave utopias, and McKenzie's extraordinary journey from growing up in an Australian mining town to dancing on the bleeding edge of the NYC underground.

Seana Gavin is a London-based visual artist who spent 10 years immersed in the free party culture in the UK and beyond, traveling to week-long parties in the Czech countryside, the mountains above Marseille, or Berlin squats with soundsystems like Spiral Tribe, Bedlam, Desert Storm, and Hekate. Her photos and diary entries of the adventures of these roving cyberpunks are collected in books like Spiral Baby and Spiralling, and we sat down to talk about border crossing, squat raves, politics, drugs, freedom, and just how dirty things can get.

In part 2 of our interview with rave icon Flapjack the Kandi Kid, we talk renegade Burning Man, the business of EDM, the importance of DIY art and culture, haunted weed, and get treated to a steaming handful of wild party stories, including a trilogy of poop-related bad trips. Hosted by Vivian Host (aka @stareyezzz).

In Part 1 of a two-part interview, L.A. DJ, rave archivist, and pied piper fo the underground (happy) hardcore scene, talks about DIY ideals, sacred objects of ’90s rave, EDM festivals, kandi kids, and more. Hosted by @stareyezzz. Follow us at @ravetothe.grave.

Elijah of Butterz on UK Grime History, Bad DJ Gigs, and How to Run a Successful Brand

Noncompliant (fka DJ Shiva) is an uncompromising queer techno DJ/producer from the conservative state of Indiana. We talk Midwest raves, speaker freaking, phone taps, mixtapes, sci-fi and more.

Kurt Eckes put Milwaukee on the map in the ’90s with his Drop Bass Network parties and Even Furthur festival. In Part Two of this interview, he talks to Rave to the Grave podcast about Satanism and rituals, how to throw a rave, the craziest stories from Furthur, the RAVE Act, the Drop Bass label and Midwest hard acid, plague raves and starting a Kult.

Kurt Eckes of Milwaukee’s Drop Bass Network on American hardcore, acid tests, Midwest raves and being a rave outlaw.

Harry Harrison from Nottingham’s DiY Sound System on the Dawn of UK Rave Culture, Free Parties, and Fusing Anarcho Punk with Acid House

Detroit house and techno in the 1980s, underground queer nightlife, raving as resistance, the San Francisco scene: journalist and club veteran Marke B tells all.

Dance, underground performance, costume and clowns: Ms Easy rocks the stage from St. Louis to New Orleans to Shanghai.

Fast times in Florida raves, floor drugs, Internet message boards & DJ tips with NYC’s beloved bass queen.

Counterculture journalist & party girl Michelle Lhooq on rave utopias and the future of drugs.