Escape Music Festival | October 11 & 12 | Governor's Island, New York City | #ESCAPEORDINARY

Billy Caldwell: A Selector’s Tale, Told Like It Ought to Be

“Well, you see, it was never about ‘career moves’ or ‘scene politics’—it was about chasing that moment. That feeling. The one where the bassline bends time and space, and for a few fleeting hours, the outside world doesn’t exist. That’s what got me. That’s what still gets me.”

Billy Caldwell, Manchester-born but now very much part of New York’s nocturnal fabric, has spent a lifetime in pursuit of those moments. His sound? A mongrel blend of Balearic warmth, NYC disco sleaze, and the raw, machine-soul of Detroit and UK techno—stitched together not with precision, but with instinct.

“It all started, as most of these things do, in the thick of it—late ‘80s Manchester, the Haçienda looming large over everything. But it was the afters, the places you’d stumble into at stupid o’clock, that really shaped things. Epping Walk was one of those places. A couple of knocked-through flats, a sound system that could shake the fillings from your teeth, and a rotating cast of reprobates, geniuses, and people who somehow managed to be both at once. New Order would be in one corner, Tony Wilson holding court in another, while someone like Sasha or Mike Pickering was test-driving the next evolution of dance music. It was beautiful chaos.”

That chaos became the foundation for a life spent soundtracking dance floors from Manchester to Manhattan. These days, Caldwell is a resident at Brooklyn’s Good Room and The Standard Hotel, regularly weaving his sonic narratives at Le Bain, The Boom Boom Room, and Sunset Beach. His radio show, Camino Del Sol on The Lot Radio, is a love letter to the Balearic spirit—freewheeling, eclectic, never predictable.

“Venues? I’ve played a few. Some grand, some gloriously grimy. From The Haçienda to Red Rocks, Radio City Music Hall, Sankeys, Festival No. 6—they all have their own stories, their own ghosts. And then, of course, there’s New Order. Opening for them on tour is a bit like coming full circle. One minute you’re sneaking into clubs to hear them, the next you’re stepping up to the decks before they take the stage. Surreal. But then, this whole thing has been surreal, hasn’t it?”

A defining force? A tastemaker? Maybe. But Billy Caldwell isn’t much for labels. He’s just a bloke with a record bag and a knack for reading a room. And maybe that’s the whole point.

Established in 2014, Emika founded her own imprint for self-releasing & the music of her friends.  Now includes Emika Records Studio in Schwarzwald, South Germany.  Sign up to the weekly newsletter Music With Meaning:
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