VYPER

Hey Vyper! Thanks for sitting down with us! Can you introduce yourself to our readers?
VYPER: Hi! My name is Vyper. I am a DJ, producer, and rave organizer based in Brooklyn, NY. I’m a bonafide hardcore princess and an “NYC bitch.” I came up in the colorful, beautiful, chaotic Queer and Trans underground scene run by the dolls of NYC. I’m a sonic storyteller – I bring cuntiness, drama and suspense to my sets and have an ear for high bpms and uncanny sounds. I like to lure people in whenever I play. 

You have spent most of your nightlife experience in Brooklyn, NYC by choice. What makes Brooklyn so meaningful to you personally and professionally?  
VYPER: I was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and lived in New Jersey for most of my life. I have always been in close proximity to NYC, mainly through visiting my grandparents in Sunset Park. I officially moved back to Brooklyn around 2018 because I wanted to be closer to the art scene. At the time, I was working in finance and needed a huge change in my life and wanted to pull myself out of the soul-sucking normative hellhole I had found myself in. That’s how I found Brooklyn nightlife. 

You organise a party called Ayi Ayi. Can you tell us more about the impetus behind its creation?
VYPER: I didn’t have many friends or mentors around the time I started DJing. I struggled at first with getting into the scene because I didn’t have much in common with the people around me. The first time I really “found a community” was with Uklon back in 2019 (I happen to be dating its founder, Stealthy, now). In 2021, I started Ayi Ayi with Angzz out of a need for community during a time when AAPI hate crimes were at a high, sparked by the shooting in Georgia. We started off doing fundraiser livestream parties in my living room where we would gather a few friends to DJ on Twitch and fry spring rolls while raising $ for local organizations such as Red Canary Song, CAAAV, and Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP).

What are the goals of Ayi Ayi?
VYPER: Ayi Ayi first and foremost is a haven for AAPI FLINTA folx. We exist to create space for AAPI artists and lovers of music to express themselves fully and unapologetically in the settings we know best – dance parties. We exist as a collective to gather like-minded people, to heal and love, and to grow together. Secondly, we exist to extend our time, energy, and resources to our community and the causes we care about – from uplifting AAPI voices and creating visibility for marginalized folks, to BLM, to supporting native New Yorkers facing displacement due to the atrocities currently taking place in Gaza.

Do you believe there is a way for intentional community building and hedonistic partying to thrive together? 
VYPER: Of course. I am and will always be a party girl! Ha. There is always something to be said about those wee hours of the morning where your inhibitions are low, your brain is tingling and your curiosities are peaking – where you can discuss plans for the future, ideas for collaboration, off-kilter fever pitches, those “million-dollar” ideas, or simply share energy in one space. I’ve made my closest friends and formed my deepest bonds in these spaces.

That being said, the hedonistic partying lifestyle I experience today is another beast – a never-ending cycle of afterparties and drugs. All drugs seem to be so toxic these days, even weed makes me feel worse than before. It’s hard for me to have meaningful interactions after a certain point in the night. Plus, the notions behind “the carry” can be pretty toxic too. 

“Carrying” used to be a term I would hear in sports, as in “carrying the team.” Now it’s become a part of urban colloquial language to describe a prolonged state of partying. It involves not sleeping (sometimes for days) usually with the assistance of heavy drug use. I think there’s a lot of pressure to keep the party going, from one afterparty to the next, all in the name of keeping the energy and the spirit of the party alive. 

I think it’s worth discussing because if done in excess it can lower your overall functioning abilities, destroy your body, ruin relationships, and careers. There is a lot of excess that I think detracts from our goals of elevating ourselves and our community, lifting ourselves out of poverty cycles, and bringing more prosperity and purpose into our lives. I think this is where the community can come together and think of ways to lead with a more sustainable approach to partying.

How has your personal history with nightlife (as a participant and as a DJ) informed your own organising? 
VYPER: I have been a raver for about a decade and an organizer for about half that time. In the beauty there is chaos, and I have witnessed a lot of poor planning, carelessness, and self-motivated behavior in the DIY rave scene. To be honest, I’ve come up in a lot of dysfunctional spaces. I’m definitely one to actively speak out about them, although a lot of times my actions have gotten me in trouble. I think this is because of personal egos. I’m pretty socially awkward too, so I tend to overthink small interactions. When I first started raving I was very shy, felt very vulnerable and would try to blend in. I didn’t feel welcome at parties, nor did I feel confident enough to allow myself to stand out.

My approach to organizing is derived from these experiences that I have dealt with as a so-called “vigilante” with a careful eye to creating safe and welcoming spaces. I place extra care in communication and  promoting rave safety guidelines, as well as preventative and de-escalation measures. I involve the people I’m close with, bring them up with me, sharpen the trust. I draw boundaries when I can. I think a lot about physical space – how to optimize and promote longevity by creating comfort and variety within spaces. I think about the safety and comfort of queer bodies and the mixing of energies when I bring people together into a space.

What are the most rewarding aspects of being part of the Queer + BIPoC party space in Brooklyn? What are the aspects that still need work in this space?
VYPER: The Queer- and Trans- run underground nightlife scene is the only scene in NYC where I have felt SEEN and UPLIFTED. I owe a lot to the dolls for the work they do, the visibility they create, the confidence they exude, the spaces they command. There is truly magic and unmatched energy here. A lot of it can be attributed to the outward facing nature, the recognition, the intention, and the love I’ve received getting booked by and working with these organizers. I now realize I share this type of energy; being around it has opened something in me. As a result, I have grown to become a bigger, brighter, and more confident version of myself. That is literally why I named myself VYPER – I have become a dominant version of myself, the fangs are out. People might be scared of me and that’s okay. 

One of the first people to really put me on was Soo Intoit, founder of Critical Hit and Omega. She is someone who unabashedly centers the community (experimenting within the realms of gaming and sci-fi), often speaks up about things people are thinking about but are afraid to say, and brings intention wherever she goes – from curating all Black Trans lineups to spotlighting all types of performers and vendors at her shows.

While I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given, I must also acknowledge the difficulties I experience in this niche. Sometimes our music can be described as “too hard” or “too fast,” perhaps coming from a place of anger or trauma that’s just not palatable for most people. The music, the attitudes, the drug culture, the narcissism, the vanity, the chaos – they all give us a bad rap. “Normies” and the older heads may find it hard to relate. It’s no wonder our people are fighting over crumbs, even though we DESERVE way more. But for some reason or another, our value is hard to realize by those with money and power. I have been rejected many times by various institutions and clubs for being too edgy or “aggressive.” People don’t see me or this culture as polished or accessible enough for a mainstream audience, and that’s because they don’t care to pay attention or look beyond their preconceived notions.

We briefly spoke about hyper visibility and how it exists both within fashion and nightlife. Can you elaborate on what hyper visibility means to you in both of these contexts and its importance to you personally and from a communal aspect?
VYPER: The Brooklyn nightlife scene is beautiful and wild and maximal and loud. With IG and social media, we have become even more visible. Everyone is “branding” themselves. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. For one, I think the new generation of DJs is significantly better dressed, more interesting, more visually appealing, quite simply…hotter than the previous generation of 5 years ago. I think this increases the artist’s overall value, it elevates them even higher and helps them evolve even further. But it can also create more saturation and a watering down of skill. At the end of the day, the DJs who are actually talented are just next level.

Take a look at Euwhoria, for example. It’s a queer DIY rave collective founded by Xana 101 and Cyb3r Bull that puts out a slew of gorgeous editorial-level DJ promo for each of their shows, shot by founder Hadriel Gonzalez (aka Cyb3r Bull), who also happens to be a professional photographer. Their promo is next level. Their approach to organizing is next level. They create so much visibility while uplifting their talent, all while building a whole ass world around them – a queer utopia –  that has become my world too. 

The hyper visibility is even more important now than before. It’s what keeps us afloat, it’s what creates prosperity for all. We have learned to capitalize on our marginalization – create more value for ourselves out of it. We are no longer DJing in the shadows but rather in the spotlight, and we own the spotlight. 

That being said, since COVID, we’ve seen a trend of clubs and spaces shutting down or becoming less available. We don’t have many options these days in terms of clubs and venues. I have not felt inspired by spaces that are available, which is why I haven’t been throwing as many parties as I used to. The scene is struggling, spaces are harder to get, clubs are tougher to break into. A lot of clubs play the “safe option” and end up booking the same DJs every month. I think it’s the same way in Berlin and other pockets of the world. There seems to be a cannibalization of the scene where the top few DJs get rotated through all the big clubs and then there’s a huge gap and everyone else below is fighting over the little DIY crumbs. Tbh, we’re already in that weird insidious stage of club capitalism that has pushed us to the bottom. We resort to dingy home basements and party out in the wild. But we stay resilient, brewing something beautiful with every opportunity that comes our way.

That’s why our visibility matters, it’s what provides LAYERS to the scene. NYC has the most vibrant underground scene in the world because of us. We are creating so much beauty around us and offering different portals to our world week after week. But somehow we are still struggling to make ends meet. We’re not yet getting the visibility we deserve, it’s as if we are still trapped in a bubble. But I just feel like something big is coming for us soon and it is only a matter of time before the bubble bursts and we are able to find new ways to thrive.

You are currently working on launching your fashion label. Can you tell us more about this?
VYPER: Yes! Stealthy and I just launched a new fashion and lifestyle brand called Vyper One. He also runs Uklon Studio with me and is the Creative Director of Vyper One and designer of our future concepts. I am the muse, the CEO, the idea generator. In some ways, I am like Patient 0 in this experiment, or a Pokemon that is evolving. Vyper One is an evolution of me, an evolution of self, it is a product of our collective reimagining. We’re putting out forward-thinking physical and digital pieces that depart from and redefine what a normal fashion brand is. Because we both come from rave culture, we take this more anarchistic, liberated approach. We basically looked at these other brands and decided we don’t want to be like any of them. 

Nothing like what we’re creating exists yet, as we are still in the conceptual phase. But what I can tell you is that it’s hi-tech. It’s tactical. It’s dreamy. It’s made for a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future, which we exist in now, where resistance is not just an idea but paramount to survival. Think endurance and protection but comfort and sexy. We’re next generation ravewear. We also have some physical things currently being produced, but I can’t talk about them yet… You’ll just have to follow @vyper.one and see the rollout for yourself 😉

At the end of the day, we want to create a world that elevates our community and uplifts our people to the next level. We want to build this world together, one photoshoot, one campaign at a time. We want to create a more luxurious lifestyle for our people. I want to work toward creating my own utopia because truly, what’s stopping me from doing that? My goal is to be able to get to a point in my life where I can throw free raves for the true free spirits. I don’t know how we’ll get there exactly, but when we do I’m bringing my people with me.

What is in store for you for the rest of 2023? 
VYPER: I have two huge events coming up. I’m closing Euwhoria at Nowadays tonight (21/12) and playing Ooze x Agape at H0l0 on Saturday (23/12). You don’t want to miss these!    

I’m also looking forward to taking a break because this year has been a lot.

If you could personally choose who YEOJA interviews next, who would it be and why?
VYPER: JiaLing, Soo Intoit, evilo, and ciringe! All badass DJs, multi-faceted tastemakers, talented in each of their own ways.
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Vyper wears Vyper One
Art Direction: Rae (Mee-Jin) Tilly and VYPER
Photography: Rae (Mee-Jin) Tilly
Photography Assistant: Ryan Scullin
Styling: Vyper & Stealthy
Glam: Shoz

To follow Vyper on instagram, click here. To read more interviews with artists and creatives from the Asian Diaspora, click here.