Photo by Daniel Ramos/@spiribolt
Audio By Carbonatix
Fifteen years into Soulection, Joe Kay still moves with the curiosity of someone just getting started. Speaking from Tokyo, where he was spending time on holiday while still recording the first episode of Soulection Radio for the year, Kay sounded both reflective and restless, using travel not as escape but as fuel.
“I’m not really here for shows,” he said. “This trip is more about experience. I brought some vinyl, I’ve been digging, and I’m playing a couple of listening-style sets. Full records. Letting the music speak. It’s not about getting people to dance. It’s about creating space for conversation and feeling.”
Even while “off,” Kay remains immersed. Tokyo, one of his favorite cities in the world, has become a source of recalibration. Cafes, record stores, underground restaurants, and unexpected musical moments all bleed into his process. Inspiration is never scheduled.
“Every time I come here, it rewires my brain in a good way,” he said. “I’m collecting sounds everywhere I go. That’s what ends up on the radio show. It’s always in real time.”
Looking back to 2011, Kay describes Soulection’s beginnings as intuitive, curious, and unstructured. At the time, there was no clear lane for the kind of artists and producers he believed in. “There wasn’t a home for a lot of these artists,” he explained. “There wasn’t really a format. We were just discovering people, sharing music, and creating a safe space.”
What began as a tight-knit crew quickly evolved into a global movement. As consistency built year after year, Soulection grew beyond a collective; it became a blueprint. “We started to see other crews and communities wanting to build their own version of what we were doing,” Kay said. “That’s when it became bigger than us.”
While open-format DJing has always existed, Kay believes Soulection helped normalize something once uncommon. Playing multiple global sounds, tempos, and influences in a single set without losing cohesion.
“In a Soulection set, you’re hearing music from all over the world. Different tempos. Different switch-ups. All in one hour. That wasn’t common back then.”
At fifteen years old, Soulection is older than many independent music brands ever get to be. Kay credits that longevity to passion, work ethic, and a refusal to compromise the experience.
“A lot of time and energy early on wasn’t reciprocated financially,” he admitted. “We were doing things purely on belief. Now that we’re older, with families and responsibilities, we’re more intentional with where our energy goes.”
That shift has not dulled the mission. Instead, it has sharpened it. “The curation, the artwork, the sound, the way things look and feel, even the aromas. That’s always been high-level. That’s what separates Soulection.”
Kay also spoke candidly about learning to lean into momentum rather than shrinking from it. “I used to feel bad about my blessings,” he said. “Now I realize that when I lean into momentum, everybody wins. When I’m excited about something genuinely, that energy travels further.”
This mindset has opened the door to new collaborations, including Soulection Radio’s partnership with Swizz Beatz. “That collaboration reflects where we’re at now,” Kay said. “Bringing in people from different worlds and different diasporas. Expanding the audience without losing the soul.”
One of Soulection’s biggest moments this year comes in Miami, where the collective will take over Club Space for a full fifteen-hour, multi-room experience.
“This is something completely new for us,” Kay said. “Space does this every weekend. Late night to early afternoon. For us, it’s a challenge, but it makes sense.”
The lineup reflects Soulection’s global ethos. Artists like Sango, Benji B, Jayda G, Silent Addy, Sparrow, Ape Drums, and African-influenced acts like Descendants and Korokoko bring a wide range of sound palettes into a venue traditionally associated with house and techno.
“We’re bringing soul into Space,” Kay said. “Not just high-tempo electronic music all night. There are switch-ups. There’s groove. There’s culture.”
The collaboration with the Club Space team has been unusually hands-on. “They’ve been deeply involved in the curation,” Kay said. “That doesn’t happen often. It’s been very intentional.”
As for surviving a fifteen-hour marathon that stretches into sunrise, Kay laughed. “I’m still trying to figure it out,” he said. “Do I nap? Do I power through? I’ve never done this before.”
At the core of everything is Kay’s obsession with discovery. Whether it’s new releases, forgotten records, or sounds picked up in passing, his mind is always scanning. “On a slow day, I’m finding one to five records I love,” he said. “On a good week, maybe fifty. That’s what keeps me going.”
That same curiosity fuels his own music. While curating Soulection Radio is about responding to the world in real time, his personal releases come from a more internal place.
“It’s still connected,” he said. “But the radio show is a reflection of where I am, physically and emotionally, at that moment.”
As Soulection looks toward 2026 and beyond, Kay sees no ceiling. “There’s still so much ground to cover,” he said. “I’m not burned out. There’s still legacy to build.”
One of the biggest upcoming projects is a Soulection album, designed to celebrate the brand’s fifteen-year journey and collaborate with artists who have grown alongside the movement.
“We’re working with people who were part of this early on and are now huge,” Kay said. “That feels full circle.”
More partnerships, larger productions, and continued global expansion are all on the horizon, but the mission remains unchanged. “It takes a village,” Kay said. “There’s no way this happens alone. I’m grateful every day that we’re still here, still curious, still pushing.”
As Soulection enters its fifteenth year, it feels less like a retrospective and more like another beginning.
15 Years of Soulection. 11 p.m. Friday, January 23, at Club Space, 34 NE 11th St., Miami; clubspace.com. Tickets cost $20 via dice.fm.
