Bio

Brendan Clay

In the spirit of defecting from the much-maligned third-person bio approach: in short, I am a Sydney-based DJ who specialises in the sounds of deeper house and disco. I take delight in playing a solid warm-up set and revel in the success of watching a room build around it.

Since making my club debut as a fresh-faced eighteen-year-old at ‘Thursday Delights’ at the Icebox—a popular trance and hard dance event of the time—I have been lucky enough to play right across Sydney, enjoying bookings at Sounds on Sunday, S*A*S*H, Chinese Laundry, Plastic, Café del Mar, The Burdekin and Candy’s Apartment; as well as larger-scale events such as Big Day Out and Harbour Party NYE.

In the process, I’ve also been fortunate enough to support some of the leading names in dance music—both locally and from around the world—including LCD Soundsystem, Booka Shade, Subb-an, Chymera, Sonja Moonear, Luke Chable, Jasper James, YokoO, Kenny Glasgow, Darren Emerson, Mark Dynamix and Kid Kenobi, to name just a few.

I like to put on the promoter hat, too, hosting and playing at events of my own: Attic being my main project.

Since its inception, the Attic brand has enjoyed success in its standalone parties—for which we’ve toured renowned house and disco artists, Fouk, Nachtbraker, Folamour and Laurence Guy, to name a few—as well as appearing all around Sydney for invitational takeovers, radio appearances, and exclusive showcase sets.

Away from the club dancefloor, you might also find me playing an extended-length set in a low-lit bar, exercising the deeper, more eclectic selections of my record box—lower, slower and groovy, just the way I like it!

For ten years, I was heavily involved with the Internet radio game, hosting successful programs, ‘Friday Night Live’ and ‘The M Shift’; on Indiesoundz and NSB Radio networks, respectively. The M Shift, which ran for six years, specialised in breaks, house and drum ‘n’ bass, and was regularly enjoyed by thousands of live listeners, downloaders, and Podcast-listeners alike.

As above, I pride myself on playing a good warm-up set—added again for emphasis!—and believe it to be somewhat of a lost art form in this current age.

I also don’t mind getting in the studio occasionally, but that facet, for now, is still very much a work in progress!