Kenny Carpenter is a survivor. He’s a DJ who has gone through from every part of nightlife from doing the lights with Walter Gibbons to DJing at Studio 54 and, finally, addiction to crack cocaine and has come out the other side grinning. He’s an old-fashioned entertainer who knows to have a good time, is as dapper as they come (he does a great line in fur-trimmed coats) and can still rock a party. We love him.

Where did you grow up?

Though never a DJ, Tom Moulton was instrumental in creating some of the essential tools and techniques of the craft, being responsible for the first remixes, as well as the accidental invention of the percussion breakdown and the 12-inch single. His name appears on hundreds of classic records.

When did you start collecting records?

Before you were born. The first record I asked my mother to buy me was ‘One O’clock Jump’ by Count Basie. I was five years old. That was 1945.

A 78?

Tony Smith is from the first wave of New York disco DJs, having grown up listening to block party DJs in the '60s and then discovering David Rodgriguez at the Limelight in 1971. He was the resident at Barefoot Boy, Xenon and, later, Funhouse. Tony still DJs and played at the 15th birthday celebrations for Lowlife alongside Danny Krivit. 

Let’s start at the beginning…