A group of DJs who spin together and share the same dwelling? Felicity Martin digs the new breed...

You might expect a house shared by multiple DJs to be one constant b2b2b2b. But inside the east London home of Tia Cousins, Rosie Ama and Sarahtonin (real name Sarah Isaacs), it’s more leafy houseplants, jigsaw puzzles and yachting reality show ‘Below Deck’, than 24-hour kick drums. “We have clubs for a reason!” laughs Cousins as some rare disco drifts out of a nearby stereo. “We rarely listen to dance music at home. We’re always listening to, like, listening stuff,” adds Ama. They’re more likely to have some folk spinning in the kitchen, although Isaacs recently deep-cleaned the living room to Underworld (“Room One,” she jokes).

Choosing what they put on the speakers isn’t tricky, thankfully. “We’re actually really musically aligned,” says Ama, although yesterday they had their first-ever musical disagreement (over dubstep, which Isaacs never got into). Cousins and Ama have lived in the house since December 2023, and a fourth DJ, NTS Radio’s Sofie K, is the longest resident, while Isaacs is a more recent addition. There are multiple pairs of decks, which they mainly use for recording mixes – Cousins and Ama both have monthly slots on Noods Radio.

Beyond DJing under their own monikers, all of them work in the music industry – Ama and Isaacs at Defected, in the marketing and sync departments respectively, while Cousins is an A&R at Ransom Note. Ama – formerly one half of Kiara Scuro – has frequently appeared at Optimo (Espacio) nights, along with supporting slots for Erol Alkan, Factory Floor and Dave Clarke. Cousins is a regular at festivals like Field Maneuvers, Waterworks and Love International and has appeared on slots alongside Overmono and Bicep. Isaacs, meanwhile, hosts a weekly live show on Do!!You!!!Radio and holds a residency at Low Life, Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s party that has run for over 30 years.

If their names aren’t immediately recognisable – although bearing in mind where they’ve played, they should be – they are among a new breed of Disco Pogo-friendly DJs that are helping keep the electronic underground vibrantly alive.  

“They’ve all been behind the scenes learning and being part of what’s reaching a wider audience, so you’re already being influenced by them without knowing it,” More Fountains promoter Rupert Walton enthuses. And he should know, having booked all three of them for his brilliant parties on the south east coast. “If you want to be a great DJ, you have to believe in yourself and your ability to pick the right tune at the right time. They’ve learned their art and have the confidence to follow through with their convictions. The best people in the world are nice people and they’re some of the nicest I’ve met.”

Another to vouch for them is Brewster. He gave Isaacs her first gig after he put a call-out on social media during Covid for a young female DJ to mentor. She was just outside the age bracket but applied anyway in a cheeky bid to get her name in his inbox – she’d written her university dissertation on Brewster and Broughton’s influential book ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ – and it worked, as Brewster booked her to play at Corsica Studios. “I didn’t really know how to use CDJs. I booked myself in a Pirate [rehearsal studios] a bunch of times and just kind of taught myself in a big panic,” she says. “But it was one of the best nights of my life.” Her Do!!You!!! sets are known for – as her DJ guise would suggest – a sense of mood-lifting, with Isaacs reaching for lesser-known house and disco.

Ama – who also runs Ransom Note sub-label Human Endeavour – recently went solo after almost a decade DJing and producing alongside her friend Nadia Harris. When she first started playing club sets on her own, she’d forget she had to put on the next song, “because we’d always play one for one!” Although Ama had previously enjoyed bouncing off Harris’ energy, she’s now relishing being able to dip into more personal styles and scenes like the 00s electro era – Soulwax and Digitalism – and more guitar-led stuff, alongside the leftfield acid house and low-slung chuggers she’s always loved. “It’s nice to have complete freedom. It’s a new chapter, I guess,” she says.

Cousins learned to DJ at university, after a friend stashed his decks in her room. “I used to smoke a lot of weed and lock myself in my room and ignore everyone’s calls and just taught myself,” she says. Since getting her first radio slots and gigs, she’s become a fixture at the likes of Field Maneuvers, Love International, the Golden Lion and Bugged Out. She even closed Convenanza last year, a suitable endorsement.

Her eclectic tastes and extensive knowledge of jazz, krautrock, EBM and more, have helped her star rise as she masterfully bridges the old and new. She also co-runs Music To Watch Seeds Grow By, an ambient label inspired by the unhurried pace at which plants grow. Somewhat fitting given how proudly she talks about her box of seedlings on the dining table.

Cousins first met Ama while working as her artist liaison at a festival, while Ama and Isaacs met at Defected, although working in different departments meant they didn’t really cross paths properly for some time. “Sarah says we were colleagues for ages, to piss me off,” Ama laughs, “until Field Maneuvers last year, that’s when we became actual friends.” They’d start going on nights out together, and Isaacs would crash at the house so often that it felt odd when she wasn’t there, so she moved in.

The DJing circles they move in often overlap, such as bookings at Bugged Out (they all played the recent Weekender) and Watching Trees, the micro-festival from Optimo and Ransom Note. Two years ago at the festival, Cousins and Ama dropped Perry Como’s ‘Magic Moments’ as a reset for their slot between African Head Charge and James Holden, two acts they had no idea how to bridge. “We were debating it before, like is it gonna throw everyone off?” says Ama. Isaacs, who was in the audience, had a personal attachment to the track. “I won’t go into details, but it meant so much to me that they played it. Rosie was just my colleague at that point – she had no idea. It was an amazing moment.”

Realising they both loved the track – and smooth, yearning vocalists in general – Cousins and Ama drunkenly pitched the idea of a ‘crooner’s set’ to Keith (JD Twitch) McIvor. He loved the idea, and the result was a set that stitched the romantic sounds of Marty Wilde to Dean Martin and Verna Felton’s ‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (The Magic Song)’. People started ballroom dancing, and Ama’s brother slow-danced with everyone in the tent. “It was incredible watching people wander in and then being like, ‘This is amazing!’” Isaacs recalls.

The tragic death of McIvor last year has been tough on them all – each knew him in different ways, and Ama describes going to his memorial in Glasgow, which culminated, suitably, with an afters at the basement club where Optimo began (“it could only really end up at Sub Club!” she says).

Until recently, their unofficial second home was The Gun, the storied Hackney rave pub which shuttered in March 2025 due to financial pressures. It was the place they’d hang out most outside of the house, and the top suggestion in Ama’s taxi app for some time. Sundays were the best there – they’d call it “Sunday Gun day”, meaning their Mondays would often have a slow start, with everyone holed up in their rooms. Cousins recalls how eclectic it was, fondly remembering Vladimir Ivkovic playing a Yugoslavian new wave and post-punk set on a Thursday night years ago. She DJed the closing party, which she can’t quite remember but the others suppose it must have been “muscle memory” as they glow about how good her set was. “It was so busy that we were like, ‘We’re gonna have to crowd surf you down the stairs!’” Ama laughs.

Although the pub’s closure has left a hole in their partying schedule, they’re optimistic about the clubbing landscape in London, pointing to places like OM, a new venue in Dalston that’s open until 6am, the newly renovated Peckham Palais, and the immersive Odeon-turned-club Lost. One party they shout out is Tryouts; the hush-hush event held in a secret King’s Cross location they’ve all DJed at. “The average age is like 50, it feels like you’ve almost gone back in time in terms of the vibe – everyone’s so up for it,” says Ama.

It’s a reminder that however much a venue’s physical space matters, it’s the people and friendships formed there that make a scene. In some cases it can even lead to the start of beautiful flatshare.

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This article first appeared in Disco Pogo issue 9