A monthly highlight for Loverboy is tuning in to Cormac‘s Rinse FM show as he introduces us to carefully curated cuts of HI-NRG, Techno ands Italo in that seductive Irish accent. Now Cormac and his voice are branching out with Queerly Beloved, a fortnightly podcast which sees him talk with Queer family about backgrounds, creativity and how music unites us all.

Episodes 1 & 2 with Romy & Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler respectively are out now. Future episodes feature Peaches, Planningtorock and the legend, Fat Tony. Cormac has sat down with a great mix of Queer DJs, all with different stories to tell that shed light on important queer experiences.

Also dropping this month is the most excellent No Tears In The Backroom Vol 2 on Cormac’s own Polari Records. A compilation packed with new tracks from Joshua James, Jordan Nocturne, Hifi Sean and more. While elsewhere via Polari, Cormac has been slowly releasing his own anthems, serving us vocals, on ‘Heartcore’ & ‘Leather’n’Lasers.’ Loverboy catches up with Cormac to find out more about the banger of a beginning to his 2024…

Cormac, good to see you. What are you upto?
I’m working on a few things with the label and the podcast. But the world is kind of asleep at the moment which is nice, it’s very quiet for the holidays. It feels a bit like the pandemic actually…just without all the critical death involved.

Amen! There were some good things that came from that time though.
Yes, it’s a real privilege to be able to say that but I felt the same. I really loved the feeling that the world had stopped. It was kind of nice.

I had so much time to discover new music. I found myself listening to harder music, newer sounds that looked to the future. Something away from the present and even the past.
It’s really fascinating because as a DJ, going back to work after the pandemic, everything was harder and faster music-wise. That trend kind of started pre-pandemic with the Copenhagen Techno which was really hyper-fast but Techno in general has just speeded up. I’ve noticed that everyone plays 135-145 bpm now.

Was it the same for you?
No. Haha….For me, obviously I am exposed to lots of music but I kind of stay in my own lane. I don’t listen to many other DJs. I never want to be influenced, positively or negatively.
When you are a new DJ, you’re still finding your sound and jumping ship from genre to genre. But when you do it long enough you realise, ‘Yeah, I like that but actually I’m more like this.’ You might think you’re like this really fierce Alsation Doberman mix but then you find out you’re an LA poodle. Haha…People can tell too. If I started playing Dark Techno it wouldn’t work even though I have great Techno in my collection. It’s like finding your true niche.

I needed to thank you actually because you played Barcelona Pride ‘23 weekend and it was such a terrific night.
Oh that’s so nice to hear. I really enjoyed that show. When it comes to more ‘men only’, or male-dominated spaces, I definitely prefer it a bit more Bear-centric, Queer-centic. I’m interested in that side of our culture moving forward. A more inclusive experience. More Queer.

Which leads us nicely to your new podcast, Queerly Beloved!
Yes! This podcast has been a long time in the making. It’s changed shape a little from the start. I actually started recording pre-pandemic, then Covid hit and it went on the backburner. But I kept coming back to it and it’s been really fun.
The first series is DJs and it will expand I think. I’m interested in including allies because I don’t want it to be an exclusive thing. The point of the podcast was that there is so much focus now on individuality, identity and that’s very important, especially for people who haven’t felt seen or represented. I think the goal beyond that, and I say that from a place of privilege, as a CIS queer/gay guy, but it has to be to find a commonality. Maybe through telling our individualities we can find our similarities.

Absolutely. Romy is the guest in Episode 1 who seems so great.
I can talk to Romy until the cows come home. She’s so warm, gentle and talented. There was something lovely about hearing Romy being inspired by Peaches and how that has carried on to Romy making music for a new generation of queer kids. I thought that was magical.

Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler is in Episode 2 with Peaches, Planningtorock, Josh Caffe and so many favourites to follow. What a great line up.
Thank you, Season 1 is really just people being successful but still so lovely and humble. There’s something in the past about having to be ruthless to be successful. As a Queer person if I am to be blessed with more success I want that to be gracious. I felt that from my guests. They were all very sweet.

I really enjoyed the upcoming episode with Fat Tony, hearing how he was your first sponsor when getting sober…
He was. He is such a character. He drove me absolutely mad and he saved my life. Haha…I’ve known him about sixteen years. He was always kind of infamous before that. It’s funny to talk about that now but looking back at it with a recovery perspective, he was in tough times. People also celebrated it primarily because he was such a good DJ. Half the thing was knowing if he was even going to show up.

On the episode with FKA.m4a, they discuss catching the Spice Girls concert over the wall at Wembley. They also talked about one of their musical favourites, Roisin Murphy. What was your perspective on her 2023?
We recorded that episode prior to Roisin’s moment, shall we say. I think what she said was wrong and ill informed. Seems she has fallen for reactionary click bait.  A trans woman, Alex Silverfish taught me how to mix records when I started to DJ and I cut my teeth professionally in a trans club in London (Stunners).  I think if we want to know what’s good for trans people, we need to listen to what trans people have to say. The queer community was obviously very disappointed which I understood. I don’t think she apologised well either. However we are all a bit confused or even contradictory at times. Being a human by default is being a bit of a mess. There has to be a way back for all of us. Calling people out has to be a call to accountability not a cancellation.  And why was Roisin given so much status? To my knowledge, Roisin, and no discredit to her music, but she never actually spoke out for us. She looked great, she sounded great and she made you feel great. But I would say to our community, is that enough? We all want to be dazzled by the lights sometimes but maybe it’s time to really get behind the artists that speak out for us.

Agreed. We need to discuss the rise and rise of Polari Records too.
Thank you, it’s a continued labour of love. I’m probably slowing down a little bit release-wise. I say that but I’ve just signed three more EPs. I want to make sure it’s a quality-reliable space for people. I love the artists on there.
Our new ten track compilation, No Tears in the Backroom Vol. 2, is coming out too. We have Xols, a Spanish artist opening with a beautiful Italo track, that sounds like it could be in the past but it also sounds very now. We also have Joshua James and Nimmo on there.

That was actually the track I pulled out as my favourite.
It’s so good and it works so well. It was kind of a last minute addition because Joshua sent it to me and I was like, ‘Ohh I really want to play this, when is it coming out?’ He said he didn’t know and I was like, ‘OK, well now I do.’ Also DJ City is on the album and I am a big fan. I’ve been trying to get an EP from him for some time.

There’s one Polari artist’s trajectory I am very excited about and that is your own, serving us vocals now!
Thank you. It wasn’t necessarily the initial intention, similar to DJing, but I found my voice a bit and my inspiration. I am more interested in recording a vocal that works for the track, more than it being a diary-led lyric.

Is this for you to be performing from a DJ booth?
I have been doing that this year, yeah. I’ll probably continue until people pull the microphone off me.

Lastly we are named after the biggest selling single of 2001 and always ask what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
I recently listened to a podcast about her, she’s actually quite fascinating. The journey she has been on in terms of her music. When she got a bit more Hip-Hop and apparently Tommy Mottola didn’t like that. She was maybe similar to Whitney a bit at the start and white-washed and not celebrated for her actual heritage. She’s kind of become a gay icon. Jeremy Scott was saying that before he had the bravery or the self-knowledge to say, ‘I’m gay’, he would just say, ‘I like Madonna.’ It was like the childhood equivalent. Does she speak up for the community?

Not enough.
But she is surrounded by us. We owe a lot to those people because they give us encouragement when no one else can speak to us in that way. My Mariah song is really boring because it’s the Definitive David Morales mix of ‘Fantasy.’ I love that track because I was never the biggest Mariah fan. But there was something very soulful there which i got into later. That track also has the Tom Tom Club in it as well. What’s not to love about that? Isn’t that also when she started working with ODB? Which Tommy Mottola didn’t like, so I also like it for that reason. She’s almost become this caricature now. But she’s in on the joke. She knows the camp of it for sure.

Episodes 1 & 2 of Queerly Beloved are available now wherever you get your podcasts.
No Tears in The Backroom Vol. 2 is out 31st January via Polari Records.