JULIAN LINDSEY: “I CARE ABOUT DESIGNING A LIFE WORTH LIVING”

With his debut EP Don’t Know How To Change, the New York DJ and producer turns years of club experience, constant travel and a deep attachment to house music into a personal four-track statement for Sound of Vast.



Released on 15 July, Don’t Know How To Change captures Julian Lindsey at the intersection of movement and memory. Its two original tracks were conceived while travelling: the title cut emerged during a surf trip to El Salvador, while Miami Air began taking shape on a flight into Miami, en route to perform at SXM Festival.

The release places soulful vocal house, acid tension and deep late-night atmospheres inside a distinctly contemporary framework. Subb-an reshapes the title track through a dancefloor-driven dub mix and an additional digital remix, while Francesca Lombardo carries Miami Air from sunset warmth into darker, more humid territory.

Before releasing his first EP, Julian Lindsey had already built a strong reputation behind the decks, appearing at defining New York spaces and events including Output, The Brooklyn Mirage, Teksupport, Elsewhere and House of Yes, alongside international appearances at Womb Tokyo, Burning Man and SXM Festival. In this conversation with Ibiza Sonica, he reflects on the house community that shaped him, the production lessons learned from years of reading dancefloors and the creative value of remaining in motion.

You have described Don’t Know How To Change as both the story of your relationship with house music and a snapshot of a particular moment in your life. What was changing for you personally and artistically while you were making the EP?

I was constantly on the move a few years ago when I made these tracks. My headspace was transient. Don’t Know How To Change was made in El Salvador during a surf trip, and Miami Air was sketched out on a flight into Miami while I was travelling to Saint Martin to play SXM Festival.

That was simply the era of my life: constantly moving. When I first titled the EP, I was only thinking about it as a snapshot of that moment, and it felt natural. A few years later, however, I see it as something much more reflective of the mindset I was in—and still have.

I am who I am, and I care about designing a life worth living.

Your connection with house music developed strongly during the 2010s, and you have mentioned seeing Crosstown Rebels at the Ice Palace during WMC 2013 as a defining moment. What did that era teach you about the kind of music and community you wanted to be part of?

I remember Infinity Ink playing in the outside area and being completely awestruck. It was vocal-forward, but still deep and grimy—simple, emotive and driving.

I had never heard a vocal treatment like Ali Love’s used in a club environment. Until then, I mainly knew Detroit vocal house and more soulful anthems. I was also new to hearing that kind of sound on a large system. The entire genre of house began to make sense after that, because it is at its most powerful and relevant inside a club.

It genuinely felt as though I was witnessing something new and important that had yet to be fully discovered. It was a small community and very much in that “if you know, you know” phase. I met many of my closest friends during that period, when I travelled almost exclusively in search of that sound.

You established yourself as a DJ in New York before releasing your debut EP, playing venues and events such as Output, The Brooklyn Mirage, Teksupport, Elsewhere and House of Yes. How did those years behind the decks shape your instincts as a producer?

DJing helped me identify my exact tastes within the enormous body of music that falls under the house umbrella. It also gave me a very specific perspective on what keeps a dancefloor moving.

I never play tracks with a breakdown where the entire groove disappears. I need a hi-hat or some form of percussion to carry the crowd through a tension-building moment.

I now apply that idea to the composition and arrangement of my own productions—perhaps sometimes to a fault, heh.

The title track combines soulful vocals, funky house keys and an emotional TB-303 passage. How did you find the balance between classic vocal house, acid elements and a contemporary production approach?

At the time, I was hunting for vocal samples and focusing heavily on creating interesting stabs. The vocal is a sample of LoLo Rachelle, which I formant-shifted so that it sits in a more ambiguous space.

Once I had developed the central groove around the vocal and the stab, I designed a 303 patch in Arturia Acid V that could enter into a call-and-response relationship with the stab. It took me some time to configure the 303 so that it sat properly in the mix and sequenced well, but I am very happy with the result.

A fun detail is that the two 303 sections actually use the same sequence. The difference is that the second sequence is polymetric, while the first is not. That gave the part a performative quality.

In my opinion, having an element you can “perform” is important when trying to get a track over the finish line.

Miami Air has a warmer, deeper and more cinematic atmosphere than the title track. What place, memory or feeling were you trying to capture when you created it?

As with Don’t Know How To Change, I was in a period of production where I was searching for vocal samples and experimenting with large reverbs and delays on stabs. The cinematic atmosphere comes from the sense of space created by those elements.

The memory comes directly from the flight. I was travelling from Costa Rica to Saint Martin to play SXM Festival, with a layover in Miami. I had spent the whole flight sketching the central idea.

As we were descending, the flight attendant asked me several times to close my laptop for landing and was becoming properly irritated. I was rushing to save the project, looked out of the window at the Miami sunset and named it Miami Air in haste.

The name stayed. It continued to feel right throughout the entire post-production process.

Subb-an and Francesca Lombardo have both been important influences on your musical journey. How did they become involved in the project, and what did their different interpretations reveal to you about your own productions?

That connection came through my agent and longtime friend Sam at Aurora Talent. I feel extremely fortunate, because I have been a huge fan of both artists for a very long time.

Subb-an impressed me with how technical and thorough he was, as well as his ability to apply his own style to an idea so quickly. His workflow is incredible.

Francesca Lombardo took the track somewhere I could never have expected. I sometimes struggle to produce outside my comfort zone, so watching how easily she moved between genres was dope.

Don’t Know How To Change EP — Tracklist

A1. Don’t Know How To Change – Original Mix

A2. Don’t Know How To Change – Subb-an Dubmix

B1. Miami Air – Original Mix

B2. Miami Air – Francesca Lombardo Remix

Digital exclusive: Don’t Know How To Change – Subb-an Remix

Artist: Julian Lindsey

Label: Sound of Vast

Release date: 15 July