Mike Callander

Dr Mike Callander is a creative practitioner and practice-led researcher in Electronic Dance Music and DJ Culture, and a DJ, music producer and Ableton Certified Trainer. His research examines the intersections between DJ technique, recorded music formats, performance technologies and dance music culture.

The reach of his work is vast: highlights include music festivals across Europe, an art gallery in Singapore, record stores in Tokyo, and morning TV in Melbourne. He has collaborated with chart-topping commercial artists such as The Avalanches and The Presets, while also maintaining a coveted weekly DJ residency at Revolver Upstairs, arguably Australia’s best-known nightclub, since 2010.

In 2013 Mike became Ableton Certified, one of less than 400 people worldwide to be endorsed by the makers of Live (software) and Push (hardware), and one of only two in Australia to hold this qualification alongside a PhD. Accordingly he has taught music production and performance in conservatoriums, abandoned warehouses, retail stores and in the homes of rockstars.

Mike’s work with The Avalanches has taken him to renowned festivals such as Glastonbury, Roskilde and Fuji Rock, and onto the track “Running Red Lights” from the Australian Music Prize winning album We Will Always Love You. In 2022 he worked on the band’s collaboration with The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Buc.

Mike is equally comfortable making high energy dance floor ‘bangers’: his 2018 collaboration with The Presets, “Until The Dark” was the closing track of the top-5 album Hi Viz, and the energetic crescendo for their live shows. Mike’s collaboration with Market Memories can be heard moving crowds in the tens of thousands at international events such as Coachella Festival.

Recently Mike brought Techno DJ practice to the unlikely realm of Research Higher Degrees at the University of Melbourne, where he completed a PhD in 2022. His subsequent work challenges the traditional form of recorded music and music performance, as demonstrated in the creative folio series: Locked Grooves 2019-2023. Traditional research to that end was published in Chroma: Journal of the Australasian Computer Music Association. Mike's interactive installation, Ten Turntables, premiered at the International Symposium on Electronic Art in 2024.

Industry experience:
- DJ / Producer since 2001.
- Resident at Honkytonks (2005-2007), curator of The Last Dance (2006).
- Weekly Resident (ongoing since 2010) at Revolver Upstairs.
- Executive member of Australasian Computer Music Association.
- Co-writer and co-producer on Top Ten Aria Albums (2018, 2020).