Terri McQueen, better known as Whodat, realized that music was going to be a major part of her life at an early age. Growing up in Detroit, she found herself enchanted by jazz on the radio, and by the age of 10 she was so deeply intrigued by new sounds that she’d spend her free time record shopping with her mother. She’d expand her tastes by rooting through crates of records from her aunt, but it took 20 years because she really considered playing her favorite records out. After losing her job, she sought solace in electronic music and one afternoon bumped into Marcellus Pittman, Rick Wilhite and, Theo Parrish at a local record store. When they encouraged her to carry on the legacy they’d established through the early 1990s, she made an agreement that she’d only start DJing if she could find a pair of Technics 1200s for $400 or less. Within a year, she’d worked up an audience in her hometown, and she’s since shared her melody-led house and funk selections as far afield as Canada, Japan, and Germany.

On the production front, McQueen has compiled a small but impressive discography. In 2013, she caught the attention of Lakuti, who signed up a bunch of her early sketches to Uzuri for The Recovery—an EP of spellbinding house. Since then, she’s collaborated with German artist Viola Klein on some deep house jams, including the exceptional “Funeral Song” on Workshop. After an instantly difficult 2020, disrupted again by the seemingly endless pandemic, we wanted to spread some optimism and positivity through some feel-good dance vibes, and Whodat was one of the first names to spring to mind. Though it was recorded in the dead of winter, with dark clouds and hazy evenings, the vocal-laden house jams of her XLR8R podcast will melt all those troubles away, transporting you to a sun-drenched patio in the middle of summer. Here’s to a better year ahead!

01. What have you been up to recently?

I’ve just rearranged my studio. I moved it into a bigger room about six months ago. Now I’m purging my record collection. I think this might take a while!
 
02. What have you been listening to during lockdown? 

I have been listening to a lot of jazz and R&B. I love listening to jazz on 90.0 WRCJ in the evenings.

03. What have you been listening to recently? 

Lately, I have just been listening to my surroundings. This is what helps me to create.

04. How did your first releases and DJ bookings come about?

Lakuti contacted me after hearing some of my tracks. She said liked the groove of my productions. That led to my first EP on Uzuri. Viola Klein was the first to book me in Europe. She invited me to her Bring Your Ass party in Cologne. We had met in Detroit a few years before.

05. What drives you to make electronic music? 

I’m still trying to figure that one out!

06. When did you record this mix? 

I recorded this mix on a Monday with a case of the Mondays.

07. How did you go about choosing the tracks you’ve included?

Most of the tracks were selected according to my rough few days before I had to get this mix done.
 
08. What can the listener expect? 

Behind every dark cloud, there is a silver lining and a party.

09. What’s on your horizon for 2022?

I’m starting to feel a lot better, finally. I’m really gonna get some music done. There is a website and Patreon in the works. Maybe some other stuff if I feel up to it.

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to hear the podcast offline you will need to subscribe to our Select channel to listen offline, or subscribe to XLR8R+ to download the file. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Nubia Garcia “The Message Continues” (Mark De Clive Lowe Remix) (Concord Jazz)
02. 2Lanes feat. Kesswa, John FM, Ian Fink & Shigeto “Baby’s Born to Fish” (Portage Garage Sounds)
03. Delphic “Doubt” (Kyle Hall Remix) (White-Label)
04. Hugo LX “A Wave Supreme” (People of Earth) (White-Label)
05. Tall Black Guy X Chaka Khan “I Know You, I Live You” (Kaytronik Love Dub) (Tall Black Guy Productions)
06. Claude Young “Santa Barbara” (NDATL)
07. LadyMonix “It’s A Party Dammit!” (Frizner Electric)
08. Mike Huckaby “Baseline 87” (SYNTH)
09. Big Strict “Balance” (7 Days Ent) (White-Label)
10. Larry Heard “Missing You” (Track Mode Recordings)
11. Theo Parrish with Maurissa Rose “This Is For You” (Special Version) (Sound Signature)