Becka Diamond
DJ | Label Manager
In a conventional sense, Becka Diamond’s working title would be ‘Label Manager.’ But her self-titled position as ‘Head Nurse’ for Hospital Productions is more fitting. The label’s Bandcamp bio reads as ‘A Small Sado-Masochistic Family’ consisting of Vatican Shadow, Prurient, Clay Rendering, Nathaniel Young, Silent Servant and Becka herself.
The New York-based DJ is far from conventional and has an undeniably dark streak under her Becka Diamond moniker, something which she uses to her full advantage to curate Hospital’s trademark macabre, post-punk and thrash-metal-meets-techno aesthetic. With a wealth of experience from being immersed in the nocturnal scenes of New York and Berlin, the latter where she once resided, Becka has come from the fashion world soundtracking runway shows to playing in the sweaty caverns Berlin’s Berghain, fabric London, KHIDI in Tbilisi, Faust in South Korea and many more.
Through Hospital, she found her flair for executing the label’s releases and working with artists including JK Flesh, ORPHX, Oscar Mulero and Phase Fatale, curating Hospital’s archetypal merchandise, curating line-ups and assisting on production and sequencing.
The pandemic has brought a halt to some aspects of Becka’s day-to-day life including travel but Becka has thrown herself into keeping the label ticking and maintaining a stellar standard of results. She describes her approach further below, as well as a memory of the last Hospital tour before lockdown…
Where was this photo taken and why did you choose it? What was the music vibe at the time?
This photo was taken before my gig at Contact in Tokyo in February, as I was heading to the club.
This was the last gig I played before the shutdown, of course I didn't know that at the time. The energy I felt is hard to explain but all my life I had wanted to visit Japan, so it was an electric and exciting moment to say the least. We did a label night with Prurient, Guilt Attendant, Vatican Shadow and myself performing. The crowd was open to whatever experience we brought to them, through varying genres. Much love to Taka and Contact for having us...I will never forget that trip.
How have you found the last couple of months, particularly living in New York which has been in the news for many reasons...
I don't think I've realised how long I've been on the road and constantly travelling, including my 2 years living abroad in Berlin. It was strange to slow down but I think I probably needed it, and we have really stayed productive too. We didn't leave the house much for about 100 days. Emotions have been anywhere from extreme highs to extreme lows. But New York City is home, so I felt I had to stay here.
What has been going on over at Hospital Productions lately?
Since the shutdown, we knew that probably production for releases would slow or stop altogether, so we jumped into action, acquiring a huge amount of materials from local businesses with which to do everything by hand. We reached out to friends and artists on the label and got everyone recording, and thus prepared quite a bit of material to release to keep us going. Of course - doing everything by hand takes a very long time, so these projects are really just being released now, including a new album from JK Flesh. We have a new one from Ron Morelli coming in the next batch along with some exciting releases in fall as well, including an archival box set I'm particularly excited for.
Has the pandemic affected your connection to music in any way?
I think as usual it has kept me going. Obviously I miss the live shows and gigs (in particular was looking forward to seeing Dead Can Dance again!). I did a couple podcasts that were not dance music per se, and that was fun to basically record what I've been listening to lately. Nice to stretch in that direction again. Ireen from Under My Feet. in London encouraged me to do one for her show and then I did a second in this style for Projet Ohne/The Broken Arm in Paris.
What has been a surprisingly positive moment for you throughout all of this?
I think the positive in this is in fact slowing down. Reading, creating, cooking, working out, sleeping once in awhile haha.
Listen to Becka’s mix for Under My Feet here and follow her below: