A Love Story: Junior Moyo

Junior wears the Christian Wijnants ruffle detail A-line dress.

Dilettante meets musician, DJ, and all-round bright young thing Junior Moyo on set for Ashley Brockman's Love Story.

When did you first come to music, and how? What role does music play in your life now?
I first came to music through church. Both my parents are pastors, and so my whole life I’ve been invested in being able to serve. I started playing drums in the praise and worship team and since then I’ve always had this love for the way people not only connect with music, but how they respond to this connection.

This is what led me towards becoming a DJ and sparked my interest in production. There’s an amazing, elusive complexity to making and playing music - one you don’t see until you are in that position.  That’s what it comes down to for me; making an impact using the thing I love the most, through the thing that I believe is the most powerful resource anyone can access: music.

Left: Junior wears the full-length A-line dress with ruffle details by Christian Wijnants. Right: Junior in the Pleats Please Sprout top, with printed trousers by Issey Miyake ME.

You now run events celebrating black music. How does music help to connect communities?
Music has always been an extremely important part of expressing culture and self. There are so many distinct elements within music that are directly tied to a particular cultures or communities (and almost all have stemmed from being black or queer). I find it amazing how artists are able to include a variety of these elements and find a way to perfectly portray their identity within culture and community.

I currently see issues within our electronic music scene here on Boorloo - issues that shouldn’t still be a thing in our current day and age. Seeing events and collectives repeatedly booking the same white, male DJs is kind of just sad at this point. Especially when the music being played is black music… which is all music (do your research)! When there’s diversity, there becomes space to open your mind to not only a world of music, but also to ideals that you would’ve never considered. That’s how we connect cultures and expand communities.

Have you got any events coming up that you're especially excited for?
I’m lucky enough to be running my own events which really try and emphasise celebrating black music. These events are called ‘Ndawonye’ which means 'together' in Zulu. I have a couple of dates in November which I’m really looking forward to!!
Tuesday the 23rd of November we’re in the bird courtyard, and I’ll be doing a monster 6 hour set!
Then I have a Ndawonye x Si Paradiso basement takeover coming up on the 27th featuring some of Boorloo's finest artists.
All info can be found @nda.wonye on the gram.

Opie wears Comme des Garçons' floral brocade jacket with a Christian Wijnants striped top. Junior in the Christian Wijnants ruffle dress. Cooper wears Christian Wijnants floral print top.

What tracks do you have on high rotation at the moment?
Spells - Greentea Peng
Tectonic - Tirzah
Feel the Feeling - Guy Contact
Normalizo - Letta Mbulu

I see that you're quite the dancer, when the time is right. What's your perfect party outfit?
If I’m going out with the intention to really party, I’ll be keeping it as simple as I possibly can. Cropped tank with a pair of slim trousers and loafers. Most likely all black too, hehe!

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See the full Love Story with Ashley Brockman here.

Photography: Tülay Dinçel.
Creative Direction: Ashley Brockman.
Hair: Pauline McCabe for Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Makeup: Ashley Brockman and Shana MacKinnon for Artists@Play.
Models: Junior Moyo, Opie Robinson, and Cooper Cooper.
Production assistant: Stuart Williamson.
Hair assistants: Jodie Woodhall, Jasmin Montaut, Elle Rose Corby, Halle Crawford.