Artist profile
About
Heidi Lawden is a UK-born DJ, producer, promoter and occasional vocalist whose route through London's early rave and queer club culture shaped an unusually wide musical vocabulary. She began absorbing dance music as a teenager, later working at and hosting nights at foundational London rooms including Blue Note, the Gardening Club and Ministry of Sound, where she created the Rulin night. That background made her as comfortable with the social life around a party as with the technical work in the booth. Now based in Los Angeles, Lawden presents the monthly Magic Roundabout show on Dublab and travels selectively for clubs, festivals, underground raves and long-form sessions. Her selections move fluidly between house, techno, wonky bass lines, synth-led disco and left-field oddities; the through line is a strong instinct for rhythm, atmosphere and the emotional temperature of a room. She prefers to build a journey in real time rather than follow a fixed playlist, and has become known for open-to-close or all-night sets that can last ten hours or more. Lawden also treats the dance floor as a community. She plays across queer and straight spaces and uses her parties and radio work to amplify women, queer artists, gender-fluid performers and newer voices, helping connect scenes that are often kept apart. Her own music appears under Heidi Lawden as well as the aliases Heidi Hoven and Locussolus. Releases such as Dancefloor Dreams, Choose Love, Dicky Birdies and Second Highest on the Peak sit alongside Locussolus material and collaborations with Lovefingers and David Holmes. A Locussolus track featuring her vocals appears in the Searchlight film Greatest Hits, while her Extra Sensory imprint gives her a home for edits and productions made for the booth. Beyond records and DJ sets, Lawden has music-supervised and sound-designed campaigns for fashion, television, hospitality and major brands; a series of Heineken commercials that she helped shape went on to receive a Cannes award. She collaborates with the ESP Institute and DJ Harvey and co-hosts the Los Angeles Take It Outside party with Masha Mar, creating space for artists such as Honey Dijon, Avalon Emerson, Eris Drew, Octo Octa, DJ Minx and Paula Tape. Appearances at Panorama Bar, Basement NYC, Pikes, Glitterbox, Coachella, Glastonbury, Love International, Hï Ibiza and other international rooms reflect a practice that is both technically assured and deeply curious. Lawden's work in the studio, behind the decks and behind the scenes is bound by the same principle: keep music open, welcoming and capable of surprising the people in the room.