The Mix 046: Bianca Oblivion

Bianca Oblivion’s music taste has always been defined by discovery. Having grown up in Los Angeles, encompassed by scores of styles and sounds, she’s opened up a huge sonic rabbit hole into a broad spectrum of genres – an all-encompassing fascination with music from a young age. “I was less discerning in my taste back then,” she explains, sitting at home in Los Angeles. “I just wanted to experience everything.”

Bianca was first introduced to dance music by the rave posters pinned to her cousin’s bedroom wall, and the high-tempo sounds of Latin house she’d often hear on the radio during the ‘90s. Paired with an insatiable love of live music, her attention turned to a whole spectrum of different genres – still unwavering today. Now, as a DJ, producer, label head, and promoter, Bianca Oblivion is one of the most fascinating artists to watch perform, slaloming through genres like bass, grime, dancehall, house, jungle, and garage, with a real hardened love for global club music. From her earliest edits flipping tracks from famous female rappers into certified Jersey club and baile funk bootlegs, to her established productions and collaborations sitting on the shelves today, Bianca’s discography ranges countless styles on labels like Future Bounce, Pineapple Records, and N.A.A.F.I, and soon to come, her debut EP on LUCKYME®, 'NET WORK'.

Outside of her non-stop touring and studio schedule, Bianca is the co-founder of Warp Mode – a roaming LA party and a platform for femme, non-binary, queer and POC artists – alongside AK Sports and Star Eyes. The club night caught international attention when it became the centre point of a monumental Boiler Room takeover in 2023, and has since continued to hit up warehouses across Southern California, as well as hosting a free production workshop last year centering marginalised artists. After a bubbling few years, which have included main stage gigs, international debuts, and even landing a track on FIFA’s latest EA Sports FC game, Bianca’s upward trajectory continues – an underground dance music powerhouse stepping up to the heights of her career so far.

We sat down with Bianca Oblivion to speak about the intricacies of throwing parties in Los Angeles, creating a platform for marginalised artists, and her new EP, ‘NET WORK’. Check it out below alongside an all-genre, high-octane club mix.

Happy New Year! How was your 2024?

2024 was busy! I was touring a lot and working on the EP. It was a year full of shows in cities I’d never been to before. I played Bass Coast again and this time I was on the main stage, it was a really pleasant surprise being asked back. There were a lot of high notes – I’m really happy with how last year went overall. So now, I’m just seeing what comes this year after the release of my EP.

You’ve said before that you started going out to clubs young with a fake ID, was that common practice in your early clubbing years? What were your first club experiences like in LA?

I was actually late to the game with that ID – I was 17 at the time, and an older friend of mine gave me her old ID, so I was able to get into places. But other kids I knew had been going out to bars and clubs at 15 or 16. Back then, you could just buy a fake ID pretty easily, I think it was a lot easier at that time. But even before that, I wasn't going out to nightclubs, I was going to all-ages clubs for bands. That was my early exposure to music events.

There were a lot of all-ages venues at that time, and a lot of younger bands playing, teenage bands mostly, but also some established acts touring. It was a really special moment, because those venues don’t exist anymore. It was a nice time for kids to be able to do something that didn’t involve just going to a mall or a movie and spending money, it was an activity outside of that. We could enjoy music and meet other people who liked the same music, or if you had friends from your school who had a band, you could go see them play. It was a really incredible time, and I’m talking about middle school — we were like 12, 13, 14 years old. I think the act of going out at that age set everything in motion. Even though the music itself changed and the types of acts did too, just going out to see live music was very pivotal.

What kind of music were you into at the time?

I was into everything. I was open to rock music, electronic, hip hop. I was really into anything, which I still am, but I was less discerning in my taste back then – I just wanted to experience everything. The bands I was seeing were mostly kid rock bands, but they were really talented. A lot of the kids I went to see had been doing music for years already. I went to an arts middle and high school, so the kids there were really passionate about art and music. When they formed bands, they’d invite all the kids in their grade to come and see the show. Even if I didn’t necessarily care for the songs, it was just fun being around.

I guess LA is inherently a pretty musical city, there’s always something going on…

Yeah, it’s hard to avoid that scene. You know, you've got kids whose parents are already in the industry, so they’re just surrounded by that environment, we all were. I was once invited to go see this band called Kara's Flowers, who later grew into Maroon 5!

In a past Mixmag feature where you wrote about LA’s rave scene, you mentioned these wild punk raves under bridges and in parking lots – do you feel like the party scene in Los Angeles has almost reverted back to this anarchic era where there’s less focus on high-end clubbing? How have you seen it change over the years?

Yeah, those parties have always been here and I think with the decline of clubs and the whole transition of club closures, there are more barriers to throwing events. Drink prices are so high, rent costs to book venues are high, and you’re locked into this 9:PM until 2:AM slot where the venue owners are like: ‘This is how much money you have to make during that time’. You want to book the artists you like, but even when people come, the bar minimum is so expensive. It's hard to make it work in the clubs. At least with underground events and warehouse parties, you have more control over the music. You can play later into the night, which is what people want – they wanna rave until 4 or 5:AM. It’s illegal to have club events past 2:AM in LA, and it’s illegal to serve alcohol anywhere past 2:AM too. Some clubs occasionally stay open later, but that’s not very common.

Read this next: After the pandemic, LA's rave underground bounces back stronger than ever

Is that something you’ve struggled with when throwing your Warp Mode events?

Yeah, all of the events we've done have been underground, warehouse-type parties. We’ve maybe had one or two that were at more conventional venues, but mostly in underground spaces. Once it was finally safe to go out again after the pandemic, people really needed that release, but the only real option at that time were these warehouse parties. Even then, it didn’t always feel like the right time to go out, but as people got more comfortable and COVID numbers went down, it felt okay again.

Many clubs closed during the pandemic and never came back, so we were left with a pretty bleak party landscape. Some promoters also gave up after the pandemic, so there was a whole new wave of promoters and fresh events, and this combination of factors really helped rejuvenate the underground scene. Since COVID, it feels like there have been more promoters and one-off parties popping up, rather than clubs just opening regularly. I guess with the cost of living crisis, this trend makes sense.

Can you tell us more about Warp Mode, how has it been going?

To be honest, we tried to organise some events last year, but due to clashes in our touring schedules, we couldn't make it work. But we did host a production workshop last year, so even though we weren't able to host any underground events, we still wanted to give back to that community. We did some demos ourselves, and then had SANDUNES (aka Sanaya Ardeshir), a certified Ableton trainer, come down and do one using the new Version 12. We had a solid 50 people come through and filled the room, it was really special. We want to continue that, so I think we're going to properly plan something this year. We don't know on what scale just yet, but we want to host a day party and expand what it is that we do, because ultimately, we still want to keep queer, POC, women, and non-binary artists at the core of it.

When we first started throwing those parties, no one was really booking artists from the UK in the soundsystem music events that we enjoyed. There were several artists that we put on early like Introspekt, and we hosted the first Keep Hush event in the United States. So we’re always trying to just reach out and put people on who don't usually have the opportunity, but even though the underground scene here is thriving, it's just hard to make that jump if you're not doing it as regularly. Booking venues and bringing in a whole soundsystem is still very expensive. The LA underground scene is now so focused on these warehouse events, and there's a lot of risk in those getting shut down by the cops and losing all your money on the party, so it's risky. But ultimately, we're still around and trying to plan things.

You have a new EP out next month on LUCKYME®, ‘NET WORK’. You’ve collaborated with some pretty exciting names on that, can you tell us about the process of putting it together?

It all kicked off in the summer of 2023. I was in Montreal, hanging out with my friend James Benjamin, who has a studio there. He invited me to work in his studio, so I stayed a few extra days. During that time, Amsterdam’s Lamsi was also there working, and that’s when we first met. We started working on some music, and then James mentioned that Lunice was in town too and invited me to work with him, so we all linked up. I pulled up a song file that I’d started months before, it was originally a remix for another artist, but the project never came out. I hadn’t used much of the original song, so I thought it would work for what we were going for. Lunice added vocals, we did some additional production, and after it was finished, LUCKYME® loved it. They wanted to release it, and we decided to turn it into a bigger project – a full EP.

I wanted to bring in the people I’d been collaborating with. I’ve played with Machinedrum a few times and we’ve become good friends, so I wanted him on this project because I’m a huge fan of his work. The same goes for Sam Binga, we collaborated on our ‘Sweatboxx’ release, toured together, and I wanted to include him because he’s been a key part of my journey over the past few years. In between tours this summer, I was in France and reached out to King Doudou, who lives in Lyon. We’d tried to work together before, but this time, I made it happen during the gap between my Paris and Marseille shows. I went to Lyon, and we made a track in just two or three days. It was an amazing, such a fun production session, and we became better friends in the process.

So, the whole project really came together organically. I had to plan the sessions, but the choices of collaborators felt natural. The music doesn’t stick to one sound, it spans several genres, as is often the case with my DJ sets and production. But at its core, it’s about the relationships and friendships I’ve built along the way. That’s what the EP’s title, ‘NET WORK’, is about – it’s a network of friends, meeting new artists, and creating a global web of collaborations. I value these connections, especially because we stay in touch via WhatsApp, FaceTime, Instagram, etc. So the title reflects how we’re maintaining these relationships online and in person, and it’s also the idea of nurturing international connections.

The last time I saw you play, you were on a bit of a grime, jungle, and booty bass tip, but your next record covers everything from dancehall to techno. Where did you pull inspiration from for this release? Was it informed by the collaborations on it?

With ‘Scat Track’, the vibe was already there, but with Lunice’s productions and vocals, the track really transformed. It kept the same mood and energy that we had already established, but it came together in a fantastic way working with these other artists. For ‘Til’ Tomorrow’, my track with Machinedrum, he had this library of samples from old Italian film scores, so we went through that and found one that we loved. We wanted to make a juke track, 160 BPM, inspired by Chicago juke and footwork. That really excited me because I’d always wanted to make a track like that, and he had a lot of experience making those sounds. With mine and King Doudou’s track ‘Teazerz’, I had a more specific vision in mind. I grew up in the ‘90s in LA, and house music was very popular then – it was the first time I heard a lot of Latin house and hard house for the first time. I wanted to capture that feeling and era, because it always stuck with me. I came back to it later on in life, so I wanted to revisit that part of my life and that very specific scene in LA on ‘Teazerz’.

Read this next: Bass Coast is proof that free party spirit is alive and kicking in Western Canada

Can you talk us through Club Aerobics, your label and monthly NTS show?

My friends and I launched Club Aerobics as a SoundCloud label, where we dropped monthly dance singles from producers across different genres. At first, there wasn’t any type of long-term plan, we just wanted to release fun club tracks. But once we released ‘Work’ by DUCKY and the acapella, the reaction was huge. Producers downloaded the acapella and started making their own edits, and the momentum grew from there. We launched a radio show on Sub FM, which I eventually took solo on NTS and still host today. Through the label, we’ve released some tried-and-tested underground club anthems – my personal favourite is Doctor Jeep’s ‘Brighta Dayz’ bootleg from our ‘Leg Day’ compilation. I still hear it dropped regularly in clubs and it always goes off. I’d bet most DJs playing it don’t even know about the Club Aerobics label, but I’m glad that bootleg lives on. That’s all because Doctor Jeep is an incredible producer, and newer DJs are digging deep into his discography (long live Bark Lee!).

About a year after Club Aerobics started, the rest of the crew left and went on to do their own projects, and I continued solo. That’s when I moved the show to NTS’s new LA station. Club Aerobics Radio has become an important outlet for me — it’s where I can share the new tracks I discover each month, test out my own demos, and play tracks I don’t always get to include in my live sets. It’s also a way to connect with DJs and producers worldwide, not only to feature their music, but to have them as guests on the show. Once I took on the show, I had less time to devote to the label, so it went on hiatus for a few years. But in 2020, I revived it and released my first original single, ‘Bumbum Pra Cá’, alongside remixes from Amadeezy and Lazy Flow. I followed that with ‘Bubble Pon Di Bed’, featuring XL Mad, a remix featuring UNIIQU3, Thai Chi Rosè, and Charly Gynn. Balancing the label with my touring schedule and releases on other labels has been difficult, but my goal is to put out more collaborative projects with artists I love and mentor emerging artists. I’m hoping to really bring Club Aerobics back in 2026 for its ten year anniversary, but it all depends on what this year brings. I want to do it properly, and make sure the comeback is the right one.

What have you got coming up next?

Planning more shows! After the release of the EP, I’ve got another release coming out on HARD Recs, and I have some people that I’m lining up to work with. The release horizon is pretty open, but I’m excited to work on some different things.

Can you tell us about your mix?

This mix features all the tracks from my EP, which was a bit of a challenge, but I found the common threads that tie them together. You’ll hear some of my go-to styles like grime, baile funk, club, and breaks along with heavy, driving 4x4 rhythms and rave classics.

Tracklist:

Bianca Oblivion, Sam Binga - Hypnø [forthcoming on LUCKYME]
Darude - Sandstorm (BRLLNT Edit)
Miss Jay & Girl Tool - WALK
LU2K - EZ TOOL 4
Effy - CLUBGRLS
Bianca Oblivion ft. Lunice & Lamsi - Scat Track
DJ Pablo RB ft. Vitu Único & Vini do KX & JD - Boca de Veludo
petrus.wav - VEM FILHA DA PUTA
BRLLNT - FIGHT DA FAIDA
Ital Beat - Fluxo 22
Big J - FREAKY HORNS
Sam Binga, Skream & Bianca Oblivion ft. Toya Delazy - Fiya Selecta
Kyle Starkey, Inafekt - Ultimate Rave
Lock ‘n’ Load - Blow Ya Mind (Club Caviar Remix)
Sam Alfred - Summer Saturation
Maurice - This Is Acid (DJ Love Edit)
DJ Self - Crazy Noise (George Centeno’s Abstract Mix)
Bianca Oblivion, ONHELL x Joy Orbison - Badda fm (OOAH flip)
WERK - HORSEPOWER
Bianca Oblivion, King Doudou - Teazerz [forthcoming on LUCKYME]
Poogie Bear - Activate
Duty Paid - Make Dat
Dj Deep RH - Radical Evolution
X-Coast - House It Up
PETERBLUE - BICHO AL CALLAO
Y U QT - Badboy DUB
William Kiss - The Beat
Bianca Oblivion - Middle Finger RIP
Ceechyna - Peggy (Rahul.mp3 Remix)
RIANRIOT - NA ONDA DO MD
Bianca Oblivion, Machinedrum - ’Til Tomorrow