At 15, after discovering deep, soulful house at local raves, he learned to DJ with a pair of Technics and a mixer he bought for $500. His memorable first-ever DJ gig followed a few months later at a leather bar in his hometown of Denver. During this fruitful, youthful era, Butler met many local mentors, found the queer community (which he hadn’t at his high school) and “soaked up a lot of history” at raves.
Two years later, he moved to New York City to attend music college, where he studied under Phillip Glass’ piano teacher and learned modular synths, tape-to-tape and (then-new) Pro Tools. He even booked Honey Dijon for a party at his university. He graduated into New York nightlife, and befriended many lifelong friends, including many Hercules & Love Affair accomplices and fellow DJs.
In addition to having less rules about sticking to one genre, he appreciates how the early rave days required active, in-person participation. “It was much more of a body-to-body community connection thing, where you had to run into someone at the record store, rather than seeing a post on Instagram or Facebook, which made it feel also a lot more subcultural,” he posits.
