Space Yacht founders Henry Lu and LondonBridge sat down with us to chat about the latest and greatest from the super collective.
For the past decade, Henry Lu and LondonBridge have been putting their hustle and dedication to create one of the most influential event organizations in all of Sourthern California: Space Yacht.
We have seen it morph from just what was a weekly event into multiple themed curated musical events each week, even expanding into a label releasing multiple compilations, as well as hosting events outside of the state. The growth of Space Yacht has built a community within dance music and provided way for Los Angeles to support its local talent.
More recently, Space Yacht closed the chapter on their nine-year run of hosting Tuesday nights at Hollywood’s Sound Nightclub, which is where it all started. A bittersweet moment turned into a night of celebration and reflection on the organization’s growth. It’s hosted multiple types of events there including Tech My House, Big Bass Ting, and Night Temple – even launching a Boat Party series.
Space Yacht has also hosted countless events headlined by artists like Sicaria, Justin Martin, and Tony Romera just to name a few. Because of its rapid expansion in attendance and popularity, Space Yacht has made a name for itself across the country, including gatherings in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. It’s also started hosting weekly events in San Diego as well as returning to its stomping grounds at Sound.
Looking to bring local underground LA artists to light, LB and Lu decided to create Space Yacht Records, creating a series of compilations showcasing multiple genres including dubstep, riddim, house, and techno. They even celebrated their 100th release with A Sequence In Time, Vol. 3, featuring more types of experimental bass sounds. including expermimental 140 and drum and bass. Along with their livestream, Tune Reactor — where the duo discover and reviews new tunes — the label has allowed Space Yacht to really show off the artistic value of undervalued artists and allow them to be discovered on a bigger platform.
Just this month, the group has their hands full with upcoming events, including Space Yacht Seattle with Mary Droppinz, a specially curated 420 event in partnership with Insomniac at the Avalon, and the return of Tech My House at Nova SD. You can expect Space Yacht to cover multiple subcultures and provide a guaranteed party, created by those with the most genuine investments and dedication in the scene.
You can check out Space Yacht’s events and music via their website, and read along to learn more about what the future has in store!
Stream Space Yacht’s releases on Spotify:
Hey Henry and Rami, thanks for chatting with us today, and congratulations on reaching 100 releases on Space Yacht Records! That’s a huge milestone. The last time we spoke, you two had just released the first-ever volume of Tech My House. Now, the label has reached even greater heights. Can you describe the growth you’ve experienced over the past few years? Have there been any hurdles you’ve faced?
Henry Lu: The label started as a passion project born out of our desire to put artists on in different ways compared to putting them on lineups. The motivation is similar, but the execution is different in having a successful release compared to a successful event. We need to keep these realms integrated so that they all work together and make as much of an impact on our artists as possible.
LondonBridge: I think the growth of our label is a product of the engagement we’ve had from new producers both in and out of LA. We are discovering so many talented artists who may or may not be just starting out. The biggest challenge for the label is figuring out how to promote artists who may just have a couple hundred followers on SoundCloud. We’ve found that our compilations are a great place to showcase these artists and engage a large number of artists on one release. The compilations have definitely led to the overall growth of the label.
Space Yacht Records has developed into so many different spaces. Being a multi-genre collective, how do you scout for up-and-coming artists and local talent within each subculture?
HL: It’s all about what’s exciting to us. Our best finds have been from the Internet. We’re finding all these people in distant parts of the world that we wouldn’t be able to access if we were just doing events. We find so much amazing stuff from Twitch streaming that it was a no-brainer to turn it into a functioning platform.
LB: One of the unexpected aspects of this journey is the influence that our live streaming has made on our A&R process. We started a show called Tune Reactor originally as a way to connect with our existing community, but it quickly became a discovery engine for both the label and our booking for live events.
We’ve been doing the show twice a week religiously for the past three years, so it’s been a part of our A&R process since the start of the label. We source 90% of what we put out from Tune Reactor, enabling us to reach a global audience.
We also book many artists whom we meet on the show. Henry and I are passionate about all electronic music, so being a multi-genre label really allows us to sign what we love, no matter what the genre might be.
The 100th release on Space Yacht Records was marked by the latest A Sequence In Time compilation, which featured 140, drum and bass, and dubstep tunes. Can you speak to the curation behind this milestone release specifically?
HL: Our initial brand for bass music, Big Bass Ting, has, over time, evolved to sound heavier and heavier. After a while, it became clear that we needed a new platform to represent the diversity of bass music better.
I came up with the name A Sequence In Time, visually inspired by geometric shapes, golden ratios, code, and portraying subtle beauty within the Fibonacci sequence. You can map the Fibonacci spiral to some of our artwork. The music of ASIT can be anywhere from 80 to 172 bpm, so it’s rather genre agnostic, but it can all be unified by forward-thinking productions and visual cues.
You’ve already touched on house, techno, and various bass styles with past releases. Where do you see Space Yacht diving into genre wise in the future? Are there any other subgenres you want to explore?
LB: The 140 bass scene has been really exciting for us lately. We are hearing so much of that sound on our live streams and in the clubs, so I think we’ll be doing a number of live shows featuring that sound. We also love the hard techno and hard groove stuff that has been bubbling up in the LA underground, so we’ll probably have a few releases in that style coming up later in the year.
While Space Yacht Records has begun to become its own behemoth, you cut your teeth as trailblazers in the event space. How have you seen that side of the scene shift and change over the past decade?
LB: I think the main difference in the Los Angeles dance music scene over the past 10 years has been the growth of various events around the city. From club nights to warehouse after hours, there are just a lot more things to go to in 2024 than there were ten years ago. Whether it’s secret lineups or announced headliners, it’s our job to create something compelling for someone who has options. That’s our grind every day. Innovate or die.
What’s been the biggest challenge running a multi-dynamic event organization this long? What’s been the most satisfying part?
LB: The biggest challenge for any of our businesses is keeping up to date with the music itself. The most satisfying part of all of this is when we get a positive response from our community, either from a show or a release. It makes all of our hard work with it.
This year marked a new beginning for your events as you brought your weekly Tuesday shows to an end. Was this a difficult decision to make? Have you felt something missing on Tuesday nights now that the longstanding series has concluded?
LB: It’s been refreshing not to have Tuesdays every week. We’ve been able to focus on new events and have more focus on the label. At the same time, we do miss the community that would gather around that specific night. For lots of people who work on weekends, it was their main night out. Who knows, maybe we’ll bring it back one day.
HL: It was a difficult decision indeed because we grew so attached to it, but it was absolutely the right decision. It was such a dramatic moment as we pressed send on the announcement, but within a day, it really dawned on us that we’d been wanting to do it for ages. The one thing I miss is that if you’re going out on a Tuesday, you know exactly what you’re getting into… and it’s intense in the best way. Our main goal was to let it breathe and nurture other projects. We may re-introduce it to the new class if the energy feels right.
Space Yacht has hosted shows everywhere from Seattle to Miami and more while also curating stages at festivals along the way. Is there a specific city you’d like to return to or one where you haven’t hosted a show yet but would love to?
LB: It’s been awesome to expand the brand to other cities. Each spot has its own vibe and community. Our goal for the next few years is to double down on shows in our existing locations (LA, SD, Vegas, SF, and Seattle) and grow those communities in each city. We’ve also had some great experiences in Salt Lake City and Chicago, so we hope to do some more events in those cities as well. We’d also like to throw the first party on Mars. I’ve been hitting up Elon about it, but so far no response.
HL: On top of that, I’d like to do a show in the middle of nowhere. It would be a logistical goliath, but it would be a true testament to who’s in it for the right reasons.
Finally, looking toward the future, what are the plans for the Space Yacht in 2024? What are your plans for upcoming events and releases on the label?
HL: People, especially those we’ve connected to via events, seem to be barely catching on that we are working on strengthening our label and digital presence, and that’s where it’s at for us in 2024. And it all ties into the events that we put on. LB has all the specifics.
LB: We are really focused on expanding our livestreaming reach. We’ve been working with Twitch to get featured on the front page and music section, so as a byproduct, we’ve been able to grow a lot in that area. Additionally, we are really looking forward to our new Pool Party series which starts at the end of May. We’ll be doing four pool parties at various pools around LA. Should be a fun summer!
On the label side, we are going deep with a handful of artists this year, including Crumb Pit and Wes Pierce. Both are artists whose music we’ve released in the past, but we are also prepping upcoming EPs and putting them on our shows. We are really excited about the ability to push these artists through our live events and help them level up in their careers.
