Perfect 8 With HE. SHE. THEY.
HE. SHE. THEY. has grown to become a key movement within club culture. Kicked off by a handful of clubbers, DJs, producers, and promoters, they’ve grown to epitomise inclusive London queer excellence – an ever-expanding multitude of divine outliers, voices who might otherwise be silenced.
Unity is key, but so too is throwing the odd wild party or two. HE. SHE. THEY. are maintaining the global schedule, hitting up Snowboming in Austria, Italy’s Kappa Futur festival, and hosting a stage at Brooklyn Mirage.
Returning to the UK, HE. SHE. THEY. will touch down at Secret Garden Party this summer, hosting and curating a stage at the revered electronic festival.
So, there’s a lot going on. Toasting five years of inspired debauchery, Clash sat down with HE. SHE. THEY. co-founders Sophia Kearney and Steven Braines to pull out eight tracks that define the collective.
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Cakes da Killa x Proper Villains – ‘What’s the Word’ (Wax Wings Remix)
Sophia: Having Cakes da Killa on the label was an honour for us, it was such a pleasure to work on this campaign as we were fans and to show how HE.SHE.THEY. Records can turn their hand to running campaigns of all different genres.
The whole ‘Muvaland PT. 2’ EP is so good, for the lead track ‘What’s the Word’ we wanted to commission some club remixes for the dance floor, we had a Warehouse Edit from Proper Villains, a jackin’ house remix from DJ Deeon and this absolute gem from the remix king and HST resident Wax Wings.
This remix came out in summer 2021 when gigs were just coming back, I remember getting the email from Wax with the mix and putting it on my headphones and before It was even mastered I was like ‘fuck this is so good it’s going to slay all the dance floors’ haha. It was still being played out a lot during 2022 when gigs fully came back to life and remains one of our top tracks on download stores, it reminds me of finally being able to hear our label tracks on a system after all the time spent listening on headphones during the pandemic.
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Giulia Tess Ft. Ell Murphy – I Feel You
Sophia: Giulia sent us this record in summer 2021 and I was so excited to release it already and listened a million times before it actually came out for everyone else in February 2022.
Giulia is a sick producer and DJ and Ell’s vocals on this are so cute. Seeing this track do so well for both of them and how happy they were is one of the reasons I love the label the most. They were a pleasure to work with and it was so awesome to get loads of support across Radio 1 and 6 Music for this record.
Giulia played at a set on our Secret Garden Party stage in July 2022 and played this out to a full crowd and it was such a lovely moment.
Louisahhh – ‘Love Is A Punk‘
Sophia: Louisahhh is such a force and trusted HST Records with her first full length LP with this being the first track. This was also the first full length album to be released on HST Records. I love how raw and punk the track is, all the lyrics mean so much to me and this is still one of my angsty anthems whenever something isn’t going right I will blast this track LOUD and it helps me remember all the many reasons we started HST parties and the label, to be disrupters (in a positive way!) of the scene and carve some space, spotlight and opportunities for the huge range of diverse talent out there doing their thing.
Braines: Yeah the video as well is amazing – few artists have ever given themselves so freely to their art in the video ever, which she filmed with her real life partner. So intimate, so raw, so good. Like Sophia said this was such a huge reason why we started the label.
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Ryussi – ‘Greener Pastures‘
Sophia: Releasing Ryussi’s first ever music was such a pleasure and what HST is all about. Giving people opportunities and building blocks to be able to showcase their talent and us to be able to use our contacts and privilege to get them heard. This track is nearing half a million streams now on Spotify alone which we know makes Ryussi super happy. It also gives the label a chance to show its softer side and another facet to our very eclectic taste!
We are already working on their next EP to come in 2023 and have been able to offer shows on our stages at Secret Garden Party and Lost Village. Ryussi is just an incredible producer and person, shows up to our events to say hello and just loves being part of the family and the feeling is mutual.
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Wax Wings Ft. NIMMO – ‘Reclaim Me‘
Sophia: Wax and NIMMO are literally like HST family, we’ve also been artist managers for Wax for coming up ten years and NIMMO have been forever friends even longer I think!
This was our first ever music video for the label and was shot by Kassandra Powell. Kass has shot lots of our club after-movies including the first ever HST show in London through to the five year anniversary and I trust her eye implicitly on how she portrays the brand. It’s really important to us that the crew behind the scenes of what we do is diverse or we are making improvements for it to be so. Our go to photographer and videographers often happen to be female identifying, there’s just the way the feminine viewpoint captures the tiny details of beauty in our world I find shows everyone what it really feels like inside a HST event. So there was no one else I wanted to shoot our music videos with other than Kass.
The models in the video are even two performers who have subsequently ended up being part of our talented hosting performers at HST shows; Taboo and Body By Kenn Add to it that remixes on this single package were from Maya Jane Coles and Absolute. and this entire package from start to finish is London queer excellence at it’s finest and my absolute honour to shout to the world about this incredible art and all those involved with it!
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Catz N Dogz – ‘Reach’
Braines: Many moons ago we managed Catz n’ Dogz so it was a lovely full circle moment to release a track of theirs on HE.SHE.THEY.
The vocals are so beautiful as is the backing track. It’s one of my personal favourites on the label and then there is a naughty little mix from LSDXOXO on there too which is a devastating club tool.
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DJ Minx – ‘Queendom‘
We just found out that Minx was going to come out to the world at large when we signed this and it was completely our honour to be part of that journey for her.
We love that she is getting her flowers after being one of the godmothers who wasn’t honoured in history in the way she should be but is finally starting to be. Minx is another person who is so warm and caring and nurturing.
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Alanis Morrisette – ‘Reckoning’ (Eris Drew’s Standing At The Gates Remix)
Braines: As an angsty teenager Alanis Morrisette’s ‘Jagged Little Pill’ and later ‘Super Infatuation Junkie’ soundtracked my mind. So when the chance to release a trans inclusive remix album with Alanis we jumped at it. It was really important for us that a feminist icon like Alanis wanted to make a trans inclusive declaration of support like this.
There are remixes from acts like MUNA and Lauren Faith on here but the really special one for me is this one by Eris Drew. Sonically it’s great and I love what it represents. Alanis talked about the remix album on Jimmy Fallon and that was so surreal. She’s really lovely and supportive too.
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