Along with raves you have the greater community within them. Something that happens within any large community are the smaller communities within. One such group within the rave scene here in New York are the glovers. They all go to raves, some together, some separate, but always gravitate toward one another with a common love of throwing lights. Every glover is unique and has a unique story to tell. They also help keep the scene alive with a newer artistic side of the culture.
For the first ever Glover's Spotlight, I sat down with G-reg, aka [OWL] Supernova, to hear his side of gloving:
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| Supernova By: Reptar |
[PAUS3] What’s good everybody, I’m here with G-reg! what’s good man.
[SUPERNOVA] Not too much man.
[P] Glad to have you here. So tell me, everyone seems to have a glover name, what’s yours?
[S] I go by Supernova when I glove.
[P] Where did the name come from?
[S] I made it up! I was tossing names around with a couple of raver friends, and it’s just something that stuck, something I really liked.
[P] When did you start gloving?
[S] I started back in the spring of last year after I saw a couple of kids at a Deadmau5 concert with them. I had been throwing around the idea of picking up a pair of gloves for a while actually but it wasn't until the end of April 2011 when I finally decided to make the purchase.
[P] So was it the kids at the concert that really inspired you to go do it?
[S] Absolutely, yeah.
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| Tunnels By: Taylor Flash |
[P] Where do you find the inspiration to actually glove? What is it that moves you to express yourself with your hands like that?
[S] Well, I guess it’s a combination of the lights themselves and the music. Just… creating different shapes with my hands, and different trails of light to a beat, to EDM. It’s my passion; it’s something that I love.
[P] Which glovers specifically do you look up to?
[S] Mimik was one of the first glovers that I looked up to, Mimik is on Team (AYO?). As I started getting into the community a little bit more there was this glover over in California who I spoke with on Throwlights(.com), his name is Fry, and he was on Team (Who?) and now he’s on Team [Fuck]. So he’s actually one of my favorite glovers at the moment.
[P] So, I’m kinda curious, were you part of rave culture before you started gloving?
[S] Yea, I started raving a couple years ago. Then I went to college and I didn’t have too much time for it. And then this year I started picking it up a little bit and, you know, gloving and raving kinda go hand-in-hand.
[P] In your own words, what is gloving?
[S] Gloving is… well, I see gloving as two separate things. One, it’s an art form. It’s self expression in its purest form. The other is just to fuck someone up! If they're sitting there and they're zoning out looking at your lights and you’re straight putting them into a trance… like that’s the two different avenues of gloving right there.
[P] Onto the music, what do you like to listen to when you glove.
[S] I like trance, because it’s slow and it gives me time to think about what I want to do with my hands. I can really get into a nice slow beat.
[P] Let’s talk about the gloving community as a whole. Describe what that community is like.
[S] The gloving community…I’d say it came out of the rave scene, but the two are very different from each other. Ravers are all about PLUR and all that but I'd say that a lot of glovers are more about their own swag.. They like showing off their stuff and trying to look cooler than one another. I’m not saying all glovers are like this but the community as a whole does kind of strike me as that kind of an organization.. at least on the west coast. The east coast isn't really like that at all! We're ravers at heart man.
[P] But what about what happened with Deblette not too long ago and having her gloves borrowed but not returned and the reaction on the NYC Glovers page? **
[S] Right, well these glovers were ravers first. So I'd say they have PLUR in the forefront of their mind. Whereas a lot of glovers that are just starting to get into it, like over in California, twelve year olds, fourteen year olds who have never been to a rave before, but now look on youtube and see videos of glovers… they get inspired by this and they’re not necessarily all about the PLUR like the old school ravers are. Over here on the east coast most of the glovers are old school ravers, whereas over on the west coast, not so much.
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| Entertainment for a Whole Row! By: Angie Radar |
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| Even Clowns Love his Lights By: Sam Freund |
[P] So do you think that the east coast has the old school ravers and the west coast doesn’t? Did they not have raves over there?
[S] Well over here it's a lot less commercialized. So in order for someone to find out about gloves they'd have to go to a rave or know someone who throws. In other parts of the world like in California for instance, it’s just so commercialized with Emazinglights(.com), and the BOSS videos that you don’t necessarily have to go to a rave to know about it. It’s a little different.
[P] Do you think that’s the only difference, commercial versus PLUR?
[S] Well I’ve never actually visited the west coast, so all my knowledge comes from whatever I see on the internet. I’m not a hundred percent sure I can really answer that question..
[P] The internet has bridged this gap of these two communities, how do you see that interaction.
[S] It seems like the majority of glovers on the internet are from the west coast. Gloving on the west coast started way before we knew what a microlight was or how to use one haha. But seriously, our communities are slowly integrating and we’re starting to become one big happy family.
[P] I hope that’s true! What about your style, it’s very fluid. How would you categorize it?
[S] I would say my style comes out of the basics of finger rolls and tunnels. I’m only recently getting into digiting and starting to work on my liquid. But for the most part when I started gloving, I would just sit in front of a mirror practicing my finger rolls every day. I was all about trying to clean them up. Now I’ve gotten my rolls to a point where it’s respectable; same thing with my tunnels. They're always the core of my shows now. Whenever I give a light show it’s all about fluidity... finger rolling, tunnels, and just different variations on them… I'm just trying to keep it fresh.
[P] So let’s talk about crews, why start one?
[S] Crews are sort of like rave families here on the east coast, whereas I think over on the west coast they are more for competing. They have those BOSS competitions and if you're competing you want to represent your crew… I guess in a way it is very similar to the east coast with rave families and glovers and their glove crews.. but there are subtle differences, it’s hard to explain.
[P] We actually just formed a crew out here, let’s talk a bit about that.
[S] That’s right! You and I are part of Team [OWL]. We just started a crew because you can really help each other to grow and learn faster that way. It’s nice because we have different bulbs and you we can trade and like check out each others lights. Most importantly it gives us the opportunity to trade moves, trade lights and trade shows.
[P] What’s the difference between you gloving for your own enjoyment and actually giving shows?
[S] When I’m giving shows at a rave I’m not really trying to keep my moves clean. I’m not worrying about practicing this new move I learned last week. I’m just going out there and having fun. I'll go up to someone who has gloves and be like “Hey! Do you want to trade? See what you got, see what I got?”, or I’m just going up to people that look like they're bored and sitting on the side and going “Hey! Want to be entertained for a minute?” It’s fun for me; a fun little interaction.
[P] Tell me about the deepest, greatest, most melty-faced show you have ever given.
[S] I think my better shows are at the after-party. A lot of the time when I’m gloving, my mind is over active and I’m thinking too much about my show and what I’m doing. But at like 6 or 7 in the morning after a rave, after an event, you’re just kicking back at someone’s place… you’re too tired to think about anything, your hands are doing all the thinking for you. That’s when my best work comes out. I’m just not caring about the show, because everyone’s tired and we're all on the same page. It’s a much more intimate experience.
That does it for this installment of Glover's Spotlight!! More to come next week!!
**Deblette's gloves were borrowed and never returned one night. She was very upset and thought she'd never see them again. So the NYC Glovers group put their heads together and made her a set until she could get her own new lights or got her old ones back.**
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