ÌFÉ Brings Garage and Bassline Energy to a Renegade Warehouse Night in New Orleans

NOLA EDM: For people discovering you through this warehouse party — who is ÌFÉ? 

ÌFÉ: I’m a musician and artist, label owner, producer, and DJ.  I made my living DJing from maybe 1998-2016 mostly playing HIp Hop and Dancehall Reggae, but later in 2006 was one of the first people to really open up what is now called open format at the onset of the Serato Era. During that time I started a DJ crew in Dallas called The Party, booked us alongside countless acts like CobraSnake, Blaqstarr, Flostradamous, Roxy Cottontail and the Cool Kids, opened for JUSTICE, Chromeo, etc.  I moved to Puerto Rico from Texas in the late 90’s as the island’s rave scene was sprouting. In TX I was around folks like Erykah Badu who ran a little open mic nite in Dallas to Norah Jones who went to school with me and was a regular at my nights. In PR I played with everybody from Craze, to Goldie, DJ Rap, LTJ Bukem, Dieslboy, Armend Van Helden, Bambatta, Osunlade, and on and on. I ended up making friends with the Mars Volta and played with them in PR, Steve Aioki in LA. Did Conan O’brian as MIA’s DJ. In 2016 I retired from DJing and started making my own music and ended up touring the world singing and performing my own electronic music. I have a Tiny Desk, played all the festivals worldwide, Summer Stage in NYC bla bla bla. I’ve just been at this for a while. None of these things are so important, but I think the journey is and mine has been a long and adventurous one. I moved to New Orleans in 2020 to try and find some musical peers and to come back to the US after 21 years in the Caribbean.

NOLA EDM: You’re stepping into a renegade open-air warehouse party during one of the busiest times in New Orleans. What drew you to this particular night and this moment in the city?

ÌFÉ: When Tristan approached me about collaborating on this party we talked about a couple different dates. I’ve thrown a couple parties at the Music Box on the Wednesday in between Jazz Fest weekends and those were amazing nights. Great energy, lot’s of folks in town, but also kinda chill and more easy going than the weekend hustle and bustle. Yeah, not in anybody’s way, local focus, IYKYK.  

NOLA EDM: This event lands right between Jazz Fest weekends, when the city is already full of energy. How do you approach playing for a crowd that might be discovering this side of dance music for the first time?

ÌFÉ: My approach is always the same, no matter the day or place or time. Now when I play I just try and draw people into my world as quickly as possible and just do what I love and love doing it. I don’t pivot and I don’t cater. There’s absolutely an area of this electronic music world that I’m fully dialed in on and I just try and give people an on ramp to that area and then focus on making it the pot boil and never taking the heat off. There’s maybe a version of this where I have to “simmer” so that people can carry on a conversation but that’s not what I’m good at or interested in so I try to avoid those types of settings at all costs. At this stage I only want to do what I’m good at, and what I’m good at is playing music loud to big rooms and pouring my heart through the speakers to connect it with the hearts of others. I’m really good at that.

NOLA EDM: You mentioned bringing a garage and bassline set. What about those sounds feels right for this kind of space and environment?

ÌFÉ: Garage and Bassline is music that just moves me emotionally. I love everything about it.  It puts me in a mood and space that I like. Listening to it and playing, especially loud, I feel “extra alive” in a way that’s hard to describe and I think I’d like to feel that way in any space and any environment more often than not. So it’s not that the sounds are right for any space or environment, it’s that they’re exactly right for me, and I’m playing them to share that feeling and find people who might resonate with that frequency.

NOLA EDM: Warehouse parties carry a different kind of energy than clubs or traditional venues. What does that setting unlock for you as a DJ?

ÌFÉ: Again, as a DJ I’m kinda Green Eggs and Ham with the shit. On a plane, on a train, in a car, at a bar. My approach doesn’t shift. It’s always turn on the best version of this one thing that I do, and try and make it so good that you can just float away in it with me. Now as ethos in action, I LOVE warehouse and renegade parties because they’re usually just about the music and the social energy surrounding it. You’re not gonna see the Redbull branding or corporate so and so showing us how or what we’re supposed to be excited about. I’m there for people powered street level shit ALWAYS. I appreciate deeply what Tristan is doing here and I would love to see more folks throwing generators up in dope settings and just building something that isn’t supposed to appeal to everyone. We’re in a lawless place so let’s make the most of it.

NOLA EDM: You’re sharing the lineup with DJ O, DJ T-Roy, and Trissy James. What excites you about this mix of artists and how the night might unfold?

ÌFÉ: I think the common denominator here is soundsystem culture. We’re all rooted in this Jamaican Soundsystem tradition in one way or another. T-Roy with Bayou International and DJ O being a Jamaican born in the UK, raised in NYC, working in Dancehall and Hip Hop for years in LA. O actually used to work with T-Roy at a record spot in LA as the Reggae buyer and they played together out here a lot when O first moved to town. Tristan is cooking up a set that is very Dub and Reggae influenced.  I’m gonna play Garage, which is essentially UK dance music meets Soundsystem culture. Yeah, the roots of the tree are super visible above ground, swamp style LOL. 

NOLA EDM: Tristan Dufrene has been building a reputation for intentional, community-driven events. From your perspective, what makes her approach stand out?

ÌFÉ: She makes her approach stand out by simply doing it. And by that I mean she’s just creating what she wants to see in the world and not doing it with an obvious “what’s in it for me” end game. Unfortunately what probably makes it stand out is that there aren’t very many people in this space doing that, so against a backdrop of endless hustle culture this approach will stand out. And that says nothing about how good it actually is. Which is very. To me she’s just the right balance of optimistic delusion and dreaming meets experience and know how. I kinda struggle with notions of community but she is really doing the one part of the work that I can kind of rally around and that’s putting the gifts that you have at the disposal of others to help nurture something larger.

NOLA EDM: There’s a strong DIY and underground spirit behind nights like this. Why do you think those kinds of spaces are important for a city like New Orleans right now?

ÌFÉ: I think the status quo over here is incentivized to keep telling the same story over and over again. It’s old to us and truthfully it’s old to the people they’re selling it to. But they’re heavily invested and so it’s up to us as artists to push back and make things that we just want to make without having to fit into the established sales funnels that are both antiquated and vehemently anti-change. Sometimes younger artists don’t have great examples of how to successfully circumvent the system and these types of nights can give people a living example. In the same breath, I’m at the stage in life where I don’t have to do just any old thing to pay the bills and stay alive and neither does Tristan so I think it’s incumbent on older artists to help make risk seem less brutal and more attractive to younger ones. I’ll stop there.

NOLA EDM:  When you’re playing something like garage and bassline, what are you trying to make people feel on the dance floor?

ÌFÉ: I don’t know. I can’t exactly describe what I’m feeling when I play it. It’s like my heart is racing and it’s trying to come out of my mouth. I have an old 1979 Honda CX500 motorcycle that I’ve been filming on a lot lately. The other day I edited a reel of me on the bike going over Claiborne bridge to the song “Cause of You” by MPH and that’s what I feel like when I hear gooooood Garage and Bassline super loud. It’s like flying super fast and low, in a danger zone that I somehow feel GREAT in. Better than great, I’m at home there. I like the darker, more dingy side of Garage and Bassline. There are these deep synthy basslines and moody chords. So yes to that, but also it’s very soulful and kinda poppy. I like vocals and a lot of more “underground” dance music doesn’t have them. Garage and Bassline are sort of a darker house music meets minimal power ballads LOL. I don’t know. I love the shit.

NOLA EDM: Looking ahead through the rest of 2026, what should people keep an eye out for from you?

ÌFÉ: Hard to say. I’m gonna be doing all I can to play as much as possible in the city. I want to play Arora and Republic BAAAAAAAD! So hopefully I can slide in there soon. I love big room energy and that’s where I really shine the brightest. I’ve been so inspired recently by meeting New Orleans artists that are playing things very near my lane like Zevy, NOKEFÜ, ISEEYOUPLAYERONE, Maximo and Hetti. Really trying to play with some of those folks and see what I can contribute to the conversation. Definitely gonna be dropping more of these SHADOW WORK mixes throughout the summer. Yeah, pressure cooking.

Put on your dancing shoes