Get to know DEBONAIR, the genre-busting NTS Radio regular

With a show where you’re just as likely to hear some Simple Minds or Pink Floyd as a smattering of Detroit techno, throbbing German electro or Italo-disco, DEBONAIR quickly got a reputation as a selector with the ability to draw the dots between seemingly disparate styles of music. “If I had twenty great techno records that week I probably wouldn’t play them all as it’s not how I connect with music,” she explains. “I can’t really imagine doing a one-genre show. It’s important to give people some variety.”

With the show picking up fans, DEBONAIR says that she started to get offered club gigs before she’d “really learnt to DJ”, and has spent the past few years building her own club sound, as broad and inimitable as the one that’s won her fans on air.

“I’m one of the few who came to DJing from radio presenting rather than the other way round,” she begins. “And being a club DJ didn’t even feel like a tangible dream to me when I began.” With some of the world’s most iconic clubs already ticked off, and some very exciting gigs coming up, that dream’s looking more than tangible right now.

DEBONAIR is on fortnightly Thursdays, 5–6pm on NTS

This feature is from the October 2017 issue of Mixmag

Sean Griffiths is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, follow him on Twitter