Mathys Rennela is an active presence on Twitter, with deep knowledge of the ins and outs of dance music history from a fan's perspective. He's also a keen student of people, and can see what's wrong with things even when others turn a blind eye. Since we speak so often about the many failings of the industry, and indeed it was his prompting that meant I decided to interview people at all, I figured I should ask him a few questions about how he saw 2020.

Can you explain briefly your position in the dance music world — are you a dancer, are you a fan?

Definitely a dancer, first and foremost. I used to show up in clubs as soon as they opened and I’d be one of the last ones leaving.

Life is catching up to me these days, and I need to take a strategic nap before going to the club… A couple of times a year I try to make it until the end, but it rarely happens.

I actually rarely listen to dance music records at home, except for records which are RnB or pop adjacent.

This has made this year particularly challenging to me but I found a way around it by blasting techno and house in my living room, and dancing on my own.

We've talked a lot in DMs, it seemed every other week this year one or other online music publication was falling over and embarrassing itself. Beyond representation, which in itself is meaningless, what can online magazines do to address the balance when it comes to race in dance music?

I think that at this point, the bar is so low that it would suffice for a lot of writers to just ask themselves “maybe I shouldn’t?” to bring a noticeable change.

It’s clear to me that music publications haven’t been challenged enough in the past 10 years and one way to remedy to that is for them to re-evaluate their own level of expertise, and the praise they get.

I don’t know how much the people involved in those platforms are willing to get out of their comfort zone, and maybe that’s the core of the problem.

There are so many things that seem to be known behind the scenes but never make it to the pages of such publications. Whose responsibility is that — is it just a question of a kind of dance music whisper network? In the absence of proof it's very difficult to make accusations or even statements for fear of legal action.

I feel particularly uneasy when I see people suddenly taking a social media break when their friend is being exposed as an abuser.

I find it hard to clearly define responsibilities in those situations, but in my opinion people who are aware of someone’s history of abuse and still continue to work with them have a responsibility in enabling abuse.

I think that it’s an easy line to draw. You don’t necessarily have the ability to hold every abuser accountable but it’s up to you and the people around you to decide who gets your support.

What I encourage people to do is to have a more active attitude in challenging abuse in their local dance music scene.

Too often people focus on the fact that “they didn’t know” and I wish more people would ask themselves “why didn’t I ask?”.

Have you seen anything positive this year?

I’ve seen networks of solidarity and mutual aid pop up a bit everywhere, and a growing collective consciousness of the importance of community building.
Those connections are genuine and making waves through dance music and I hope to see more of this in 2021.

I’ve seen more and more people realising that it was time to take care of themselves and learn how to distance themselves emotionally from the initiatives they invest so much energy in.

Will 2021 simply be a case of business as usual? there have been what look like positive efforts from some outfits, such as the Mixmag blackout, and RA have been featuring more black writers and covering more black artists. how much of this is lip service remains to be seen.

I don’t think it’s lip service, but I can definitely feel that some form of survival instinct is kicking in.

A lot of platforms are conscious of the fact that 2021 will also be a very rough year, and that addressing the criticism that they have received is essential to their economical survival.

I don’t think that this is a purely calculated move either. There are people who work for those platforms and genuinely want to change them for the better.

Everyone talked about the new normal this year, but then the old normal wasn't all that great either. Is there any chance that we can make something good without full scale reorganisation from top to bottom?

I think that this full scale reorganisation is inevitable. Mostly because I think that the pandemic killed the dance music industry.

The DJ economic bubble isn’t coming back… It was never sustainable anyway.

So many clubs have gone bankrupt without necessarily announcing it. Sometimes the spaces don’t even exist, and gentrification is rapidly accelerating.

This sounds grim but I am actually very hopeful about this: we actually have the opportunity to restart everything from scratch.

Everyone missed out on travel this year, I know we were planning on meeting in Dublin in April. Was there any particular trip you missed out on that upset you the most?

Yes, Glasgow! I never know how to really justify it but I really love the city. London feels like a second home and I really missed it this year.

I really missed the festival season too. I go to Tisno for Love International and to Barcelona for Primavera every year.

It’s been really hard for me to miss out on that because I use those two trips to “recharge” and connect with friends that I don’t necessarily see often.

Hopefully there will be more of that… in 2022?