The sonics connoisseur opens up about his artistic course of, founding legacy, and extremely anticipated solo debut, “If Not Now, Then When.”
Southern California native Joe Kay is a vibe curator. Unabashedly music-obsessed, all through his adolescence, he would uncover classic sonics and songs as in the event that they have been high-end collectible sports activities playing cards. Sonics to Joe Kay are compelling sounds and produced beats that will stimulate his creativeness to hunt out extra. The 35-year-old DJ and beatmaker based the Soulection collective, a music discovery platform the place DJs worldwide share their love for music, with Andre Energy and Guillaume Bonte in 2011. “[In Soulection Radio] we are saying future beats, eclectic soul, and forgotten gems,” Joe Kay prefaces on our Zoom name. “Numerous that’s actually how the Soulection collective is coded, what we reside by, it’s the Soulection Bible.”
In 2008, broadcasting sounds in his Grandmother’s basement, Kay produced his personal homegrown radio present on Podomatic known as “Unwell Vibes,” which might lay the muse for Soulection Radio and his forthcoming sold-out Soulection spinning reside occasions. The eclectic grooves that occupied the DJ’s mindspace sparked the concept of Soulection, which might go on to blossom into a world creative and cultural motion.
From February by means of March 2025, Soulection celebrated its 14-year anniversary in a giant means, making tour stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York Metropolis, and Houston. An astounding lineup of DJs (together with Kay himself) shared their synergistic adoration for sonics with a crowd of 5,000-plus attendees. These days, the vibe facilitator is selecting to take his fluency in curating worldly sounds and packaging them right into a musical physique of labor that captures his essence. If Not Now, Then When marks a serious second for Joe Kay, who has traditionally typically been camouflaged behind a standing desk of DJ turntables. Out April 4, 2025, the six-track EP was crafted within the government producer’s Joshua Tree sanctuary, which impressed a lot of the sound design. Out within the desert terrain of Yucca Valley, Joe Kay made a name out to his associates: Karri, Cruza, Isaiah Falls, Arin Ray, Blackway, Amaria, Dylan Sinclair, Merges, Sinead Harnett, and D’Mile. There, “the skeleton of the musical basis of If Not Now, Then When was laid down in about 7 to 10 days,” Joe Kay breaks all the way down to me.
Solely somebody like Joe Kay might ship out a bat sign within the sky to get artists and producers who all reside throughout the globe to return to a desolate, artistic protected haven. Kay caught up with Latina forward of his EP launch to debate his lifelong love for sound design, being impressed by the soul of California music, and his household family’s Hispanic-Caribbean heritage.
LATINA: Really standing the check of time in up to date music’s creator financial system, how does it make you’re feeling understanding you created the Soulection collective that has been round for this lengthy?
JOE KAY: I’m eternally grateful. I’ve stated this to my associates not too long ago, yearly that we make it, each additional 12 months added, it’s all the time a blessing. I simply really feel to have the ability to do what we’re doing this deep in and have a loyal following and group of those who come out to the reveals. We don’t even announce the lineups or my title is just not even on there, and it feels actually, actually good to have the ability to deliver the quantity of those who we’re doing. I believe in New York, we did over 5000 tickets. We had so as to add bonus reveals for the stops that we determined to do within the US. Someplace between 10,000 to 12,000 folks with a handful of reveals that we did for this 14-year run. Persons are nonetheless listening to the radio present religiously and are devoted to the sound of Soulection.
LATINA: What’s on the core of Soulection’s artistic beliefs?
JK: On the core, the message and ethos of what we do is all the time to be intentional. That’s what folks really feel first [from] something we submit, something we share, something we launch, every thing from the communication, the language, the captions to the design, and the music. It’s a testomony to the longevity of us nonetheless being right here. It’s not about attempting to encourage folks to get into music or to be an artist, DJ, or producer. It’s about staying true to your self. Don’t dim your gentle, hold discovering methods to push by means of together with your imaginative and prescient it doesn’t matter what [your doubts are], and keep selective.
Picture: Mark P/@markpeaced
LATINA: What led you to create the concept of Soulection?
JK: I’ve been doing this since 2007. [The intent was] all the time to create this idea of uniting different like-minded folks. We created the early foundations of Soulection again in 2008, 2009, nevertheless it took a few years to [get going]. There have been so many artists, DJs, and those who I’ve introduced in alongside the best way throughout this journey to assist push it to what it’s. A lot of it was created in my grandmother’s basement within the den after I was in faculty.
LATINA: Tying to your loved ones’s background, what Latin music or artists impacted you once you have been youthful that nurtured this cultural concept of constructing music a motion?
JK: Music is my remedy. There was plenty of completely different music performed round the home, plenty of soul music, plenty of R&B. There was such a world sound all the time introduced into the home, whether or not it was home music or reggae. I’m half-Mexican, I’ve Puerto Rican heritage and Native heritage, too, so there have been all the time completely different types of music. There have been all the time Latin sounds, like Puerto Rican music, moving into salsa by way of my grandma—who solely spoke Spanish—and Dominican music. I’ve all the time resonated with Jamaican music, too. Dancehall, lovers rock, simply the general Jamaican sound. So plenty of what was impressed and created in Jamaica additionally influenced the Puerto Ricans and that’s the place reggaeton and all these completely different sounds got here from that I like.
“Music is my remedy.”
LATINA: How has Southern California formed your style in music?
JK: I really feel the Cali sound, the West Coast sound, has influenced me immensely. Typically, if I’m taking part in that music the world over, folks may not resonate with the West Coast sounds. The Chicano oldies tradition is big right here, [so] I believe that is part of my heritage rising up in LA—the lowrider tradition combined with that traditional Nineteen Seventies soul music. It’s a entire power, from the best way you gown to the best way you look. South LA’s Battlecat had a sure bounce and soulfulness. At present, Kendrick has accomplished a lot for the tradition, in order that’ll all the time be part of my DNA. Some sounds are nonetheless coming from the [highly influential musicians] of the Bay space.
LATINA: Referring to your first EP, If Not Now, Then When, the title may be very telling. What about this physique of labor made it proper to your solo debut?
JK: It’s six tracks and options 9 artists who I imagine in and love. The EP is a snapshot of what I already do on Soulection radio and what I do as a tastemaker. This time, it’s me leaning in and proudly owning that. There’s R&B, soul, some Jamaican affect, and Afrobeats. Primarily all with singers and vocalists. We had nice writers and a legendary producer, corresponding to D’Mile. I leaned into the tastemaker and government producer aspect. I’m not [doing production] on this mission. I put these folks in the correct room. It was most of the artists’ first time assembly one another and even discovering out about one another. So your complete EP felt like a real Soulection ethos of what I’m about: [introducing] folks to new artists and new sounds.
LATINA: The entire concept of If Not Now, Then When—have been you second-guessing this launch at instances? What was the timeline like for this mission?
JK: Unique music is the one factor I’m lacking in my portfolio and catalog. If Not Now, Then When was deliberately created at my house in Joshua Tree. The house the place we created these classes impressed the EP with the house’s inside design. The mission was impressed by the desert, the power and readability on the market, the quietness introduced everybody collectively. When it comes to, why aren’t you doing this a lot sooner? Or why haven’t you accomplished this earlier than? And to be trustworthy, I do really feel prefer it’s proper on time though I’m 14 years in with Soulection, I really feel like I’m essentially the most poised and established now. Earlier than, I used to be consistently telling myself, I’m not prepared or I want extra time, I’m round those who create the very best music.
LATINA: What artistic choices did you make certain to prioritize whereas creating this EP, or was all of it spontaneously natural?
JK: After we have been in Joshua Tree, it was nice to see how everybody was discovering one another for the primary time in individual, but there was this synergy. It simply felt like a jam session with like-minded people. The truth that folks took the time to trek two to 3 hours out from Los Angeles, some folks flew in, instructed me that folks have been critical about this and it was essential to me to take cost. Folks instantly resonated with each other and had chemistry inside the first two hours. A few the information, corresponding to “Moonlight and “Sluggish It Down,” have been created inside the first 24 hours.
LATINA: How did you strategy these artists in introducing their sounds collectively?
JK: There was an actual spark and chemistry that happened from bringing these folks collectively. It felt actually good. I did come into it telling all people: Be your self, but in addition be happy to create and step out of your regular sound. Come out of your regular pockets of sounds that you simply’ve been producing or information that you simply’ve put out. Let’s make a second to strive one thing new. That’s what Soulection is about. It’s about taking dangers. I began off the entire session by giving them that speech and that introduction allowed these artists to experiment and take a look at one thing completely different.
LATINA: Within the digital age, the music world is more and more saturated with artists tapped into algorithms and social media. How do you keep impressed as an artist and hold issues sounding pure?
JK: I keep impressed in numerous methods, not simply by means of music. I’ve tapped extra into inside design and spatial design, [like,] How do I would like my place to really feel and sound? That correlates to how I spend all of my days at a time in a single place. I’d as properly put money into my house and make it really feel the very best—art work up on the partitions, furnishings items, and chairs, lights, and aromas that encourage me to wish to create. Even after I expertise author’s block, I’d have a look at a poster or have a look at {a magazine} or a espresso e book or one thing that I’ve on my desk that was made within the ‘60s or ‘70s and suppose, Rattling, this nonetheless feels timeless.
“That’s what Soulection is about. It’s about taking dangers.”
LATINA: What concerning the state of up to date music are you enthusiastic about? Any criticisms as a music lover and somebody who loves artwork?
JK: Proper now, there are extra artists than ever. I used to be listening to the newest present that I did for Soulection Radio. I used to be listening again to it and I had performed this artist Jayla Darden, and he or she has an identical tone and pitch to Brandy. She is form of slept on—she must be greater. We’re in a time when there may be extra music and extra creatives, designers, DJs…simply extra every thing than we’ve ever had. After we have been youthful, there wasn’t social media, [everything] wasn’t as accessible. [I think] it was a lot tougher to change into profitable within the music house—to be identified and seen. You needed to create this distinctive body-of-work and actually rely in your assets and undergo the label system. I discover out about new artists daily, each week, and there are such a lot of extra which might be untapped. [But] we now have to do much more these days. You must be your personal artistic director, your personal designer, and your personal visionary.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Malik Peay is a options author based mostly in Los Angeles who focuses on tradition, leisure, and extra. He loves the artwork of touring and connecting with folks by means of their style in music. You’ll be able to comply with his work on Instagram.
