{"id":206681,"date":"2026-03-06T03:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T03:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206681\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T03:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T03:18:13","slug":"getting-to-know-oaklands-space-ghost-the-producer-behind-peace-world-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206681\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting to know Oakland\u2019s Space Ghost: The Producer Behind Peace World Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

Space Ghost is known among dance music heads for blending house, boogie, and dreamy downtempo textures. During a visit to KALW, the Oakland producer and DJ spoke with Marcus Rosario<\/a> about his beat scene roots, the records that shaped his sound, and the story behind launching his label, Peace World Records.<\/p>\n

Press play above to listen to the conversation or read the transcript below.<\/p>\n

We’ve got a really special guest with us today here in the studio at KALW. Oakland’s own Space Ghost. I’ve been wanting to have him on the show for a while to chat about the new music he has coming out, some past projects, and just generally connect with him here at KALW. Welcome.<\/p>\n

Hey, how’s it going?<\/p>\n

How’s it going?<\/p>\n

I’m doing pretty good.<\/p>\n

I’ve known you for a minute now and you’ve been putting out a lot of music over the years. How would you describe your music, and who is Space Ghost?<\/p>\n

Space Ghost is my music persona. I make ambient music, downtempo music, house music, dance music. I DJ as well. It’s kind of heady, synthy, euphoric music.<\/p>\n

You started making music when? Can you tell us the origin story of when you started and how you got into music?<\/p>\n

I’ve always made music my whole life. The Space Ghost project started when I was about 17, right around the time I moved to Oakland.<\/p>\n

Okay. Who were some of your early influences? What inspired you?<\/p>\n

Back then it was totally different from now. I just wanted to make hip-hop, so probably artists like MF DOOM, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla. Over the years it\u2019s changed. When I first met you we were all about the LA hip-hop beat scene and all that. The last time we did an interview, I was starting to move more into dance music – boogie, house, disco, that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

That was in 2018, the record that came out on Tartelet.<\/p>\n

Correct, yeah. Endless Light.<\/p>\n

Right. And that made a lot of waves. I saw on Bandcamp that you have a new record coming out that we can get into, but first\u2014what was the progression from Endless Light to now?<\/p>\n

I think Endless Light, for people who aren’t familiar with my music, was a bridge from my old style of making hip-hop beats into trying to make more dance and house-related music. It\u2019s kind of a combination of those two things. Fast forward to now, I\u2019m always listening to \u201990s and early 2000s house music, \u201970s and \u201980s disco, and \u201990s R&B. My music is influenced by a lot of that and comes out in a more modern sound.<\/p>\n

How would you describe the influences around 2018? What artists were you really drawn to at the time?<\/p>\n

Around the Endless Light era I was really inspired by Lone. I was getting into Larry Heard and the whole Mr. Fingers catalog. I\u2019m always inspired by D\u0101M Funk as well. It\u2019s about bridging the gap between different styles. With every album I make, I usually have a different obsession at the time.<\/p>\n

For instance, in 2019 my album Aquarium Nightclub was heavily inspired by Larry Heard and some Italian producers on Periodica Records, like Mystic Jungle. It\u2019s a bit deep and obscure, but I was really inspired by \u201980s boogie and \u201980s and \u201990s house music at that time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of music that you consume and make, and you\u2019re also a DJ who plays shows around the Bay Area and elsewhere. How would you compare the two? What do you play out versus the music you make?<\/p>\n

Sometimes I get booked for shows and people think I perform live, but I usually just DJ depending on the context. My albums can be a little more heady\u2014music you listen to at home\u2014with ambient or downtempo styles. When I play out, I like playing house music a lot.<\/p>\n

My sets vary. If I\u2019m playing a long set, I might start slow with downtempo stuff like UK street soul or slow R&B dance music, then work up to faster, more energetic tracks.<\/p>\n

Nice. I\u2019ve always been a fan of your sound. When you’re making music, how do you start? Do you chase a groove, chords, a feeling? Does inspiration come from listening to something or from an experience?<\/p>\n

I absorb music daily and listen to a lot of the music I want to recreate. Then I go into the studio and sometimes put a song in my session that I\u2019m heavily inspired by. I might try to recreate the drum rhythm in my program and build a track around that.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the inspiration might be a little obvious if I do that, but other times it morphs into a brand new idea. My sound is always there, but it usually starts from something I\u2019ve been listening to.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always varied and always really unique to you. You started a label back in 2024, right?<\/p>\n

Correct.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the label and what was the impetus behind starting it?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called Peace World Records<\/a>. I\u2019ve been making music for a long time and putting records out with different labels around the world. I\u2019m also trying to figure out how to make money as a musician, to be honest. I don\u2019t make a living off my music\u2014I work a day job.<\/p>\n

Starting the label was a chance to build a business around my music and see if I can take it somewhere. Right now I\u2019m in the red, but maybe ten years from now all the music I\u2019ve put out on the label will generate some royalties.<\/p>\n

Real. With the label, do you see it being mostly your music, or other artists too?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be a mixed bag. I\u2019ll put out a lot of my own music there, but I still want to collaborate with other labels so my music can reach different audiences. I\u2019d also like to work with other artists\u2014locally or people I find online.<\/p>\n

The first release was a 12-inch of my own house music\u2014four tracks. The second was a collaboration with a singer where I produced the music and he sang on it. The third release is from another artist who sent me a demo. I\u2019m not really at the stage where I can regularly receive demos, because it\u2019s all just me running the label, but I thought his tracks were special.<\/p>\n

I mixed the record, so it has a bit of my sound in there, and I also did one remix. We\u2019ll probably announce that in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

Nice. We\u2019ll play a song here after this. Before that, who are some artists you\u2019d love to collaborate with?<\/p>\n

I actually sent an email to someone recently and didn\u2019t get a response, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too far out of reach. He goes by Mr. YT.<\/p>\n

Oh, okay.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know his full name because it\u2019s Japanese and I don\u2019t want to butcher it, but he\u2019s really cool. He made \u201990s house and techno, though he only released a little music in that style and then spent decades writing video game music.<\/p>\n

For some reason I thought I\u2019d email him and ask if he wanted to collaborate. He never responded.<\/p>\n

Maybe give it time\u2014it could come back around. We\u2019re going to play a new song of yours. Can you tell us a bit about it?<\/p>\n

This is the Tanukichan<\/a> track. A couple of years ago an artist based in Oakland\u2014she writes music and performs with a band around her tracks\u2014hit me up about doing a collaboration show together. That was new for me because I never really performed my music live.<\/p>\n

She set up a show at MoMA, of all places, so we had to write a bunch of music together and do mashups of our songs to perform live. It was hectic but really fun.<\/p>\n

From that collaboration we ended up with two tracks of me remixing her songs. One is a drum and bass, ethereal R&B-type tune, and the other sounds more like classic \u201990s or early 2000s R&B.<\/p>\n

Cool. Excited to get into it. You DJ around the Bay and around the world\u2014do you have any gigs coming up?<\/p>\n

Yes. Next weekend actually. Saturday I\u2019m playing at Bar Part Time in San Francisco with Chungtech. I think it\u2019s free or a small cover. That\u2019s a good chance to see me DJ.<\/p>\n

Then Sunday I\u2019m playing in Oakland on a pretty stacked lineup\u2014Moodymann and Marcellus Pittman, two famous Detroit DJs and producers. There\u2019s also local support from me, Nina Sol, Patrick Wilson, DJ Patrick, and Infinite Jess.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a stacked weekend.<\/p>\n

Yes. A lot of good house music.<\/p>\n

Last question: where can people find you online?<\/p>\n

You can find me everywhere. I\u2019d suggest going to Bandcamp<\/a> first and purchasing my music. If you have to go to Spotify after that, that\u2019s fine too. I\u2019m on YouTube<\/a> and SoundCloud<\/a>\u2014there are a lot of DJ mixes on SoundCloud. Just look up Space Ghost.<\/p>\n

And on Instagram: SpaceGhostOakland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Awesome. Anything else you want to share with the greater Bay Area before we wrap and get into the song?<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m good.<\/p>\n

Awesome. Thanks for coming by KALW.<\/p>\n

Thanks for having me.<\/p>\n