DJ Moose’s Biography

DJ Moose is currently the host of the dark scene focused podcast The Gothic Moose. It is available at on Apple, Amazon, Hearthis, Mixcloud or via your favourite RSS reader or Podcast App. DJ Moose also occasionally guest DJs in Montreal (and anywhere else if you invite him).

DJ Moose has a new show called DJ Moose’s TWIT – This Week In Trance, where DJ Moose spins the latest and hottest tracks in trance, EDM, electronic and house.

As told by DJ Moose:

On December 31st, 1990, I went to my first club, Alcatraz. I wasn’t listening yet to alternative music, but it was fun listening to the Cure, the B-52s, Depeche Mode, etc. However, I was still underage and in high school so regular clubbing didn’t go over well with my mother.

Then, on May 24th, 1991 I went to a super club that would become my home for the next two years, La Nausée. Although, I was a Rockabilly at the time, I loved hearing songs by Ministry, RevCo, The Pogues, Social Distortion, The Sisters of Mercy, Front Line Assembly and Front 242… and even a little EMF…. plus the club was so cool. Over the course of the next year or so I slowly morphed from Rockabilly to Goth… and I was with my people. The girls were pretty, the music was great, and the beer was cheap!

Then, in 1993, the unthinkable happened. La Nausée became the Loft – a techno club. I wasn’t ready for that. I needed a new home.

I quickly found one. The Gallery which was a small hole in the wall, but it had incredible music, first by DJ Faith and then DJ Law (and they both used to play a lot of my requests). It was the kind of place I just enjoyed hanging out at. Sadly, it didn’t last long. Afterwards, my music fix was filled by DJ Law’s loft parties, the early Skull Product nights, and a once a month night put on by Erebus Productions (I think) at Backstreet (where I’m sure I saw Santeria a hundred times).

Then one fateful night in April 1995 at the Mardi Alternatives at the Loft (which was like Tuesday’s at La Nausée with cheap pitchers, but the music had changed in the last couple of years, with a lot more grunge and less dark alternative), a couple of my close friends, Matt and Tom, told me they had become promoters at a place called Bar Lézard and that I was to become their DJ.

A few minutes later… DJ Moose was born.

Incubus at Bar Lézard quickly became the go to night for Goth/Industrial/Alternative… and it was on a Tuesday (try that today)! Our concept was simple: play great music that you couldn’t hear anywhere else. Bands such as Leaether Strip, Christian Death, Nosferatu, Einbaser, Project Pitchfork, Haujobb and more.

From there I moved to the Saturday’s at the Sphinx and then in June 1996, I went home. Les Dimanches Alternatifs at the Loft with DJ Moose started (replacing a great night, the 7 Days of Thunder with DJ Terry).

With crowds that on special occasions peaked at well over 1000 people it was an awesome ride. But all good things must end. And in 1998, I retired the antlers and disappeared from the scene.

I still went out once in a while to enjoy some music… and my thanks go to DJ Mr. Black and Dark Wave Nights at Saphir for making me dance when I did go out by playing great music. I was also lucky enough to be invited a few times to DJ at Foufounes Electriques for Industrial Wednesday’s (late 90s), and then at a couple of Dark Wave Nights and Skull Product nights, at Saphir, in the years up until 2008… but I think I has lost a bit of my DJ lustre.

In the meantime, my wife and I had become fans of a weekly Goth/Industrial radio show on CISM, the University of Montreal radio station, called Les Mouches Noires hosted by François Richer. We would listen to it as we drove places, very much enjoying being able to download and listen to it wherever and whenever. 2008 begins, my wife and I had just had our first child and then François Richer announces that he is having (or had had, not sure) a baby and is hanging up his headphones and the show is coming to an end. I was really sad. Where was I going to find out about new music now?

Something else also happened around the same time. I bought Navigator by Funker Vogt… and to my surprise they were coming to this new festival called Kinetik that would be taking place in May of 2008 in Montreal. There I was watching Memmaker (an incredible band from Montreal), looking at the people around me… and I realised that I was home.

That very night, I was speaking to DJ Mr. Black and I mentioned that I was thinking of starting a podcast, maybe to fill the void, at least for me, left by Les Mouches Noires going silent. With enthusiasm, Mr. Black encouraged me to go for it! I should also mention that Mr. Black was instrumental in developing my love and knowledge of Goth and Industrial by providing me with a trio of 90 minute compilation tapes, called Corpse Compilations, for my birthday in 1993. Here we were 15 years later and he was giving me the push I needed.

The DJ Moose Show was born a few months later.

From those early days the show slowly evolved, from trying to focus on Montreal to looking at the bigger dark world. Early interviews with local DJs like Arketype, Dreamslave, Kommandant, Draris and Mr. Black to name but a few eventually became interviews with bands like Faith & The Muse, Alter Der Ruine, and Left Side Neighbour. There were Kinetik and Wave Gotik Preview shows looking at who was playing and who I was looking forward to seeing. A couple of memorable episodes featured me alongside Edwin Somnambulist of Industrial Strength Nightmares (ISN Radio) and DJ Razorgrrl of Regen Radio as we previewed Kinetik.

Then in episode 120, I was joined by Outsider as a regular co-host. The show stabilized, moving from irregular bi-weekly to more stable weekly(ish) and being frequently joined by regulars like Brian Graupner of The Gothsicles, Gord Clement of nTTx, DJ Lore Oz and Cage. There were many more band interviews as the years passed by.

In late 2018, my collaboration with Outsider as a regular co-host came to a natural conclusion and I resumed solo hosting duties. The show’s name changed in Episode 280 with the show being renamed The Gothic Moose. Then in September of 2020, The Gothic Moose joined the Kracradio.com family, first as a weekly show that was an hour and a half, eventually becoming two hours. Nearly 3 years later you can listen to The Gothic Moose first on Kracradio.com every Friday at 8pm ET.

There are hundreds episodes, many still online, that feature of interviews and a crap load of amazing songs by even greater artists.

In the years since, I was very fortunate to guest DJ fairly regularly at Dark Wave Nights at Saphir and at Different Mode at Passeport alongside resident DJ’s like Mr. Black, Uriel, Draris and Harshangel as well as other DJ’s like Ahriman, Kommandant, Dreamslave, Kranky and Doomcookie to name but a few. It was as if I had refound my DJ MOJO.

With Covid also came new DJ experiences, streaming live on Twitch and playing various global events, even being a guest on the biggest podcast in our scene, Communion After Dark. Those were amazing experiences!

Then on February 24, 2022, Ukraine was invaded. I could not listen to music. My heart was broken. Seeing millions of people fleeing for their lives was gut wrenching. My mother, 80 years earlier, as a 4 year old had to flee the same invading hordes. What could I do? How could I help? After days of being glued the news, I realised I could use my podcast as a tool to promote Ukrainian artists and bands who support Ukraine. I will try keep doing this as best as I can until the murderers and rapists go home.

At the same time, I feel betrayed by so many of the bands that I used to love. So many said nothing. Did nothing. Or worse, justified the invasion. How could you?

To help me deal with the pain I feel in my heart, I have decided add to my online shows something that makes me a little happier in these dark times. My love of trance. I can pin this love to a specific track… that I often played in my sets so many years ago at the Loft. Children by Robert Miles. In the years since, I would often listen to mixes by Paul Okenfold, Tiësto, Armin van Burin, Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox and more… as well as amazing DJ’s like SPFDJ and others playing Hör Berlin and The Boiler Room. So while I might not be the best DJ, I am having a lot of fun making DJ Moose’s TWIT, my new weekly hour long podcast. I hope you’ll like it too.

Slava Ukraini!

P.S. Both shows are much more enjoyable if you listen to them naked…. even more so if you listen to it with other people who are also naked, cause really, club wear is just for the clubs… as to whether DJ Moose wears pants during the recordings… some things are just better kept a secret.