The Rev

It’s a strange thing, this life. We find it one night in the darkest and even most dangerous of places, and just like that, it’s who we are. It’s who we will always be. That’s the first thought I had as I sat in the passenger seat of our SUV as my wife and partner drove me to conduct the first interview I’d ever give to a DJ in my life.

Well, maybe not the first. Since my wife is a DJ and by that point, I had interviewed her a million times, she was technically the first, but those were different. It was always just her and I. Her believing in me enough to take me seriously, and me trying to be the person she always saw in me.

One day somebody will find those tapes of her and I talking, and I cherish them, but I also know deep down they were always meant as a lead up to the one we were going to do now. The one that helped me realize how much of a culture we have truly become. I didn’t snap about that, though, until I finally interviewed The Rev.

Timm Reynolds, or as we call him, ‘The Rev’ is a House Music Legend in New Mexico, and he’s been an active and positive contribution to it for such a stretch that he’s just as relevant now as when I first met him over twenty years ago.

Things were different then. I was a teenage loner looking for a place to fit in, and he was one of the most loved DJ’s in the state. Well, not much has changed. I’m still a loner and he’s still loved. Which Is why it was so monumental for me that he was the first DJ to agree to let me interview him. I assumed it would just be my friends, and maybe one day a DJ I respected, but with The Rev it’s something different. For many Raver’s around here he influenced our taste in House Music as much as any DJ I can think of.

He played every weekend for us, and during the week we’d find him at The Loft sharing the tracks he’d play. Or maybe he was helping promote the next gathering, doing the voice of the info line, and sometimes even selling tickets. He’s a part of this scene and this culture because he contributes and that is a huge part of why I decided to start interviewing local DJ’s. In all my travels, all the places I’ve been, I still always came back to New Mexico, and the people, and the sound you can only find here.

Who else is going to speak better of this place than us? Who will love it more? Or fight for it more? Or start over with it again? New Mexico is strong because it knows who it is, and that’s something that stood out about the Rev when we finally started talking on the record that Sunday afternoon.

He started by telling me about his background and how he first grew interested in Dj’ing by following his older brothers. One time he was just the younger brother wanting to be cool, wanting to be accepted. I suppose we all start with that no matter where we come from. He then told me about his discovering electronic Music in Austin, Tx as a teenager. Wandering into clubs during a time where industrial and punk were all over the place. House music would come to him in time, but like with the rest of us, he was connected to the culture before he was connected to the music.

Although, you just cant deny, most times they are always the same thing, and house music is perhaps the clearest example of that.
From there he found his way to New Mexico and made his way through the warehouses and desert raves that filled our youth. It’s so amazing to look back at that time and to see it for the thriving amazing culture it already was. I used to compare it to being allowed into a magical realm, and now all these years later I see that we don’t have to hide anymore. We can dance and discuss these things in the light of day, and we are allowed to remember them. The Rev is a connection to that moment and still he helps us grow.

What I discovered that Sunday afternoon, though, just as I notice now, is that this isn’t some victory lap for the Rev. He’s not slowing down and he’s expanding in a way he never did before. With over 20+ different releases of his own being a DJ isn’t enough anymore. He wants to create and produce and continue to contribute, just like how he taught the rest of us. House music is a place of growth and expansion surrounded by those who feel the same and the Rev is leading the way for New Mexico on where we want to go next. Not just with the tracks he picks but also with the tracks he makes.

From that first interview we have spent a lot of time talking and discussing not just the history of House music both in New Mexico and beyond, but also these moments that we only thought we were the ones who remembered. Whether it’s discussing his sunrise set at Junebug, or the Record shop he used to run in the South Valley, or even that time at Towers where we went just cause they said it was his birthday, and it ended with the Police everywhere and us wondering who had the guts to shoot up the Rev’s birthday party? All these moments we’ve shared, these memories we have, all come back when hearing them from the voice of a DJ who not only helped make the soundtrack, but also helped us find the way.

Now, as the summer of 22’ is quickly approaching, the Rev, like the New Mexico house music scene is going to be bouncing like it’s 99’ again, and we are happy and grateful to be there still. Such a wild trip it’s really been. From my first rave in a Santa Fe warehouse listening to Dnb, to sitting there with the DJ while he shared his story with me, I know without thinking twice, we still have more to go. I know there will be more to say, but for now, please listen to the Rev’s latest mix, a powerful reminder that House music will never stop, and it will always be true. If you’d like to see him this weekend, he is playing the sold-out Paul Oakenfold @ Meow Wolf show in Santa Fe on Friday, and with the Adobe Disco crew in Albuquerque on Saturday. And from there he just keeps going, just like the beat. Just like us. Just like House music.

When the first interview that day was finally over, and the air grew colder and more demanding with the sunset, I sat back in that same SUV, hours after we arrived, and I turned to my wife. ‘I think I want to do this for the rest of my life,’ I told her. And just like that, I realized the path I was meant to lead, even if it was barely at the beginning.

The Rev gave me that by believing in me and sharing his words with me, and I have heard similar stories from other DJ’s all around New Mexico. He is the one they look to as the standard, and the one who accepts them. And he does, and with that acceptance they grow, and they help build something that started when most of us were children and are now full-grown adults. The Rev isn’t just a DJ or an artist, he’s a pillar of the New Mexico Rave community, and just like when I was a teenager, I know I can count on him to show me the way.

Bump this mix, buy his tracks, go dance to his music in person, and show your appreciation for those that not only did it first, but also the ones still going strong. House music, the Rev, and New Mexico will always be connected, and with these words it is my hope that they will never fade. See you on the dancefloor.