Sean Johnston on A Love From Outer Space at 15 – “There never was any plan”
An Interview with Juno Daily
15 Jan 2025
“It was the right place and sound at the right time,” recalls Sean. “What we did completely flew in the face of fashion but it went so against the grain, it still struck a chord with so many people.”
A Thursday night in London’s Stoke Newington might be an incongruous time and place to birth a new dance music movement. But back in 2010, it was in a basement club, The Drop (now known as the Waiting Room) where the first A Love From Outer Space (ALFOS) parties were held. With Sean Johnston and the late, great Andrew Weatherall at the helm, each party was billed as “an oasis of slow in a world of increasing velocity”. These special nights saw the pair play four hours of new beat, electronic body music and an ever-evolving disco chug to a rammed sweaty room of devotees.
“The people make the community and it wasn’t something me and Andrew set out to do, he used to call it the alchemy of circumstances,” says Sean. “We never pushed it or marketed it. We just wanted to play good music – and that attracts great fucking people.”
