No Requests presents: Native Sun

Nativesun's style is a gumbo, equal parts lush and banging. House, r&b, go-go, Jersey and Baltimore Club, Ballroom, footwork, ampiano, jungle. It doesn't matter. It's club music. It's black music. It's music to make you sweat.

"If there’s a reason you can hear how fluidly one of DMV’s favorite native sons, [Nativesun], moves from style to style on the mixer and the beats, it’s because he long ago internalized the diversity of local D.C. music culture." - Afropunk

"Call it an edit, a remix, a refix, whatever fits: When a DJ chops a song into bits just to reassemble it, you’re being offered a window into how this person hears the world, or maybe even a glimpse of their consciousness. In [Nativesun]’s busy head space, things feel vast, intimate, metaphysical and multidirectional. Machine rhythms crumple like gum wrappers and sheets of corrugated steel. Human voices blare like angel choirs and car alarms. The beats tend to punch, the melodies tend to tickle, but everything keeps changing position, including your body parts, and that’s called dancing." - The Washington Post

It’s easy to imagine what the life of a DJ might look like to the outside world: at a different party every night, playing sets in glamorous locales and constantly having fun with friends. But the reality is often much different.

“DJing for me is a back-and-forth,” says Chris Harris, known as DJ Nativesun. “It’s not a pretty picture like everyone thinks.”

It’s hard work, he continues, and has been a struggle at times. To Harris, it’s much more than a cool hobby or aesthetic for social media – it’s a way of life.

“You’re providing people with a place to come be free, let go and forget about shit. It’s serious work to me because I take pride in making people dance and giving them a place to really let go.”

You can find Harris making people dance at a myriad of venues across the District, where the DJ grew up and got his musical start. Raised in a musical home, his parents would often play funk, soul or house music. His mom could often be heard listening to gospel records in one room while his sister played piano down the hall.

Harris and his friends would spend almost every weekend at go-go shows, where they would dance and listen to covers and remixes of some of their favorite songs on the radio.

“Going to see [local go-go bands] on the regular growing up was a huge influence for me, because go-go music was a place where I could dance and let go with my friends and be inspired by the music.”

The DJ’s biggest influences growing up included Frankie Knuckles and The Isley Brothers, but at the top of the list were Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix.

“Jimi was a talented guy, but his musical career was a struggle,” he says. “That always brought me back to reality – even now.”

Although music was always around him, Harris didn’t begin to DJ until he was in his 20s. What started as messing around with records in his room ultimately led to the chance to play a house party.

Soon after, he came up with the name Nativesun: a combination of being a District native and bringing the energy of the sun to his sets. Since then, Harris has played across the world for broadcasting platform Boiler Room and at festivals like Afropunk, Bonnaroo and South by Southwest.

“[DJing] is something I love because I really love music. It’s always been there for me. It’s always been something that I could turn to and dive deep into.”

Always looking for ways to bridge the cultural gap between more popular music and the underground, his sets consist of sounds across a wide variety of genres like afrobeat, house, trap and R&B, to name a few. Harris is known as a melodic archivist: in his words, someone who combines musical influences from the past and present and across numerous genres.

“I like to take on the challenge of not only playing the stuff people know but [also] playing the stuff they don’t know, and opening people’s minds up to different sounds and genres.”

Harris also cofounded and is a producer for The Future R&Bass Collective with collaborator DJ Underdog. The collective, which began as a movement in the form of a party bringing new sounds and artists to DC, has hosted a variety of artists from around the world like Sango, DJ Lag (co-presented with L.E.N.G), Full Crate, Abdu Ali and SassyBlack.

Harris hopes to host more women of color in 2020 but beyond the collective, he wants to keep producing and become more involved in the festival circuit, with potential stops in Europe and Africa. He’s also focused on building up more projects like Future R&Bass locally – projects that feel different.

“I want to have more raves in DC focused on people of color, for the LGBTQ [community and] people that feel like they don’t have these spaces. I want to provide a space where people can dance all night and not have to worry about a curfew – where we can just go until the morning.”

In 2021, a group of friends were out late one night in Portland, looking for a place to listen and dance to amazing house music artists and DJs.We weren’t just looking for any club. We were looking for a house music oasis. A place that consistently embodies the club culture we grew up with, where house and electronic music is enjoyed by everyone, without intolerance or judgement. But… we couldn’t find it in the way we wanted.

We were an eclectic mix. Passionate house music DJs influenced by the European club culture, event curators and long time DJs from Portland, and transplants from all over the world who now call Portland home.

One day, we came together to create a new concept based on our experiences and our love of house music. As an eclectic bunch of music lovers, we know that diversity has always been at the heart of club culture and house music. Celebrating and respecting everyone regardless of religion, race, physical ability, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity is the foundation of club culture.

After months of creative planning, we decided to contribute to the house music scene in Portland in a very special way and open a club called No Requests. At No Requests, we follow a radically open dance floor and door policy. We ensure that all of our house music events embody the club culture that we love, believe in, and want to foster, while keeping our guests as safe as possible during this time of ambiguity.

Our commitment is to consistently showcase the best Portland-based house music DJs as well as regional (Oregon), national, and international house music DJs, while celebrating diversity and equality, and constantly innovating the experiences and services at No Requests.

And by doing so, Portland's club culture and house music scene will be globally recognized as one of the top destinations for house and electronic music.‍

No Requests, and no regrets.

Host or Publisher No Requests