Don Ray - Standing in the Rain

In my dream, we collected in a living room with 15 foot ceilings, gathered around to sing songs for the holiday. There were three, maybe four of us, studying sheet music— one person on the upright piano and another on a drum set. Slowly banging out the synthesizer line on the ivory, with a magnificent improvised drum break. If there’s a holiday theme to ‘Standing in the Rain’ I can’t be sure what it would be. The first time I heard this was at a record store in Greenpoint- the last time I heard this song was driving around LA with Sosa and Reina. We were listening to the Jamie XX Boiler Room Mix driving to Santa Monica --- whether it’s intentional or not this year I read two books about middle spaces. The middle space is the refuge from category, from societal expectation, from institutional inertia. The idea of a loft party is a middle space for me. David Mancuso, Tee Scott, Larry Levan, to name a few. That’s my inspiration for Night Shift, a middle space where people can come together, all different types of people to be free to express themselves in a non-zero sum game of dancefloor chess.