Matt Consola

Producer / Artist / DJ / Billboard #1 Remixer / NARAS (Grammy) Voting Member

Completely devoid of the politics, ego & attitude, which run rampant in the music industry, Matt Consola is a sincere and genuine artist and businessman who consequently has a long and impressive list of International credentials & accomplishments. From owning America’s largest LGBTQAI+ Record Label, Swishcraft Music, which has an impressive roster of Grammy-nominated, Billboard chart-topping, and award-winning talent, in which he is an Out & Proud artist, producer, and remixer, to being one-half of the Remix Producer teams Division 4 & Matt Consola, Rip City Boys, and Dirty Disco & Matt Consola, Consola has officially remixed Twenty-One Billboard #1 Dance Remixes and Twelve Top 5 Remixes for artists including Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Silk City & Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson & Mylie Cyrus, Galantis & Dolly Parton, Enrique Iglesias, Gwen Stafani, Cher, Jess Glynn, Beck, and Tony Moran. His own 2020 Top-Ten single “Proud” by Heather Small, Dirty Disco, & Matt Consola was the official DJ anthem of Stonewall 50, which played to millions at Pride celebrations, clubs, and festivals around the world. Their follow-up single “Movin’ On Up” by Heather Small, Dirty Disco, & Matt Consola went Billboard #5. Consola is also voting and current member of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy, NARAS (The Grammys) since 1999.

The world’s hottest clubs, circuit parties, and festival events have depended on Consola as their resident or headlining guest DJ for well over 25 years. Consola got his start in the early 1990s playing the legendary San Francisco clubs Universe, Pleasuredome, 1015 Folsom, The End Up, The Edge, and Metropolis, to name just a few. As his star grew, he began playing mega-parties and week-long festivals including The White Party (Palm Springs), Winter Party (Miami), Hotlanta & Southern Decadence (New Orleans), Metropolis (Mykonos), Dore Alley (SF), Lazy Bear, and San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair, the worlds largest Street & Music Fair in the world.  In 1993, while playing his first gig in New York City at the infamous Roseland Ballroom, Consola found himself sharing the stage with a hot new talent also making his Roseland Ballroom debut, none other than RuPaul who was there to perform his new hit “Supermodel.” Also there that night making a surprise 2am performance was Madonna who had just dropped the single “Rain”. They had only a brief encounter in the green room.

Consola became a top roster talent for Pride festivals in San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Miami, London, Dublin, Toronto, and Mexico City. But growing weary of the constant travel in 1999, Consola settled into weekly residencies in SF, Chicago, Miami, and Denver while he regrouped and started planning the creation of his first record label, Redzone Records with co-owner and renowned New York record producer Keith Haarmeyer (Martha Wash / Cindy Mizelle / Erin Hamilton). Still a top pick for worldwide Pride & Music Festivals, Consola became a brand ambassador for Altoids from 2004 to 2007 traveling the country DJing live on Altoids Pride floats, helping them land an impressive nine “Best Float” awards in cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, and New York. In 2009, Consola had the honor of opening for The Pet Shop Boys at the historic Warfield Theater for their sold-out Pandemonium World Tour on Sept. 22nd & 23rd 2009, which led to additional opportunities opening for major acts and newer bands at the Los Angeles/Anaheim House of Blues from 2009 through the end of 2010.

An original and current resident DJ for the International traveling queer party Bearracuda established first in 2006 in San Francisco, Bearracuda now plays in 64 cities in 12 countries, boasting pre-and post-pandemic attendance numbers of 700 – 1400 attendees a night. In 2015, Consola began as a guest DJ for the parties Dirty Disco and Daddy Issues, two queer club parties that began in Houston, Texas created by Houston Eagle owner Mark De Lange and former Dirty Disco co-producer JD Arnold. The party originally traveled to fellow Eagle branded clubs and bars in America and Canada. In 2018, Consola was brought on to guide and DJ both parties, eventually becoming co-owner. Consola quickly expanded Daddy Issues to twelve recurring cities in America, Canada, and Mexico with new cities slated for 2022. His traveling Dirty Disco club, whose largest party attracts up to 1,000+ attendees per night at Chill Bar in Palm Springs, a monthly residency for Consola, expanded in 2021 & 2022 to now include the cities of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, and Denver where the parties will to take part in each cities LGBTQAI+ Pride Celebrations.

Matt Consola got his first taste in the music industry hosting his own college radio show in the late 1980s at KSJS 92.3 FM before graduating and moving on the San Jose, California’s #1 pop station, KWSS 94.5 FM. There he worked as a mix-show DJ for the Chicago-based Windy City DJs who took over the weekend late nights at various pop FM stations around the country, including San Jose. But Consola was not long for the ridged rules of radio playlists that could only include pop chart titles. But it was this taste of radio that Consola revisited in podcast format in 2005 launching Adapter Radio, a weekly one-hour DJ mix-show that quickly grew to 5,000 downloads and streams per month. Eventually, the show was picked up by several worldwide networks, the Sobel Nation Radio Network, Wild Cat FM, and the HotMaleRadio Networks which syndicated his show to 210 FM, satellite, and internet stations. But the podcast would get rebranded as Matt Consola presents: Swishcraft, and then just Swishcraft Radio, named after his soon-to-be-launched 2012 record label of the same name. With well over 600 past episodes archived in the iTunes Podcast section of the store as of 2022, as well as on podcasts services like Mixcloud & Soundcloud, today Consola’s Swishcraft Radio can be heard on international radio 7 networks, a combined 511 FM, Satellite, and Internet stations, boasting an average of 25,000 listeners a month. With his recent 2022 move over to the new Vancouver, BC-based dance station and app, CueTheMusic.online, Consola, alongside his contemporaries, Todd Terry, Seamus Haji, and Marcus Purnell are experiencing a dramatic boost in international listeners. Consola’s one-hour mix-show, Swishcraft Radio, is currently the 5PM-6PM (PST) drive time radio show Monday-Thursday, with new episodes debuting on Fridays.

In 2012, Consola launched his current record label, Swishcraft Music dedicated to raising the voices of queer artists around the globe. Swishcraft, which means “Queer Magic,” quickly launched singles onto the Billboard Dance charts, as well as ARIA (Australian Billboard), England’s DJ Times, and the Music One Radio global charts. A noted early Swishcraft Music project brought together International dance producer Saul Ruiz with Two‐Time Grammy Award Winning Singer/Songwriter Matt Alber to cover the Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams.” The track immediately shot to #1 on the Music One Radio Charts where it remained for 10 weeks before its official release on April 9th, 2012. Not soon after, in the winter of 2012, the Swishcraft hit “Amazing” by Mars & Vans feat Adam Turner became a worldwide club and chart sensation when it was licensed not once but twice by Abercrombie & Fitch for the launch of several European flagship stores including their largest store in Berlin. The track was also licensed for use as their website, Facebook & social media holiday campaign theme song and for their winter 2012 runway shows in Berlin, Paris, and New York. Since then, Swishcraft Music has had 215 releases as of January 2022, that have included seven Billboard Top 5 and number 1 dance hits, and six annual Swishcraft Pride Compilations.  As an artist, Swishcraft owner Matt Consola has released fourteen solo or co-artist singles, with his releases ‘Coming Back,’ ‘Every Moment,’ ‘Proud’, ‘Movin’ On Up,’ and ‘Banana’ being recurrent favorites of Peloton instructors. Combined, these four singles have had over 800,000 plays through Peloton in just 2021 alone.

 


 

In March of 2016, the Remix Team of Division 4 & Matt Consola celebrated remixes on Four Top 15 Billboard Dance Chart hits in one month including #1 hit single “I’m In Love With My Life” by Phases, “Stranded” by Dirty Disco ft Inaya Day, “Love Is” by Inas X, and “Burning Up” by Karine Hannah & Dave Aude. The Division 4 & Matt Consola remix of Lady Gaga’s  “Til It Happens To You” was one of only five officially commissioned mixes on the Oscar-Nominated, Grammy Nominated and Golden Globe Winning Diane Warren & Lady Gaga #1 track, alone with remixers Tracy Young, Mike Rizzo, Frank Lamboy & Dirty Pop.

In April 2016, Swishcraft Music had its first entry onto the Billboard Dance Charts with Joe Gauthreaux f. Abigail – February (Our Last Kiss) which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Dance Chart and included a Swishcraft Mix by Matt Consola & Leo Frappier.  And the 2017 Swishcraft Records release “Lick Me Up” by Tony Moran & Dani Toro ft Zhana Roiya was Swishcraft Music’s first Billboard #1 Dance Hit, hitting #1 on April 15th, 2017.  Swishcraft also scored a #5 Billboard Hit just a few months prior with “One Night In Heaven” by Toy Armada & DJ GRIND Ft. Inaya Day, a cover of the M People classic.

Speaking of M People, Matt Consola teamed up with M People’s Heather Small and long time production buddies Dirty Disco to remix and re-release a 25th Aniversary set of remixes of the M People classic “Movin’ On Up” and a 20th Anniversary set of remixes for the Heather Small iconic solo worldwide #1 hit “Proud.” As Heather Small Feat Dirty Disco & Matt Consola, “Movin on Up” scored a #5 Billboard Dance Hit for Swishcraft in July of 2020, and “Proud” went to #10 in July of 2019 the previous year. The year 2020 also saw a Billboard #11 hit for Brett Oosterhaus & Debby Holiday – “Living For The Music” that was cut short when the Billboard Dance chart was closed due to COVID-19 and the closer of nightclubs in America.  And while the charts have been closed Consola and his label Swishcraft still saw massive success with releases that included Peyton – Things Can Only Get Better, Headrocka x Kiva – Step Into The Light, and his Rip City Boys produced release, Matt Consola & Aaron Altemose ft Brenda Reed – Every Moment.

The later releases will see a second release date once COVID ends and clubs reopen.  But as 2021 begins, Consola is not letting COVID and the continued club closures slow him down. New releases Dan Slater feat. Zoë Badwi – We Are and Dan Slater & Zoë Badwi – I’ve Been Waiting will begin to drop in March of 2021 as well as Brett Oosterhaus & Kalia Medeiros – Are You Living and Brett Oosterhaus & Kalia Medeiros – Touch The Fire, as well as the long-awaited update to the classic The Freemasons ft Katherine Ellis – When You Touch Me produced and remixed by Matt Consola & Dirty Disco. Consola will also drop his latest solo single “Banana” ft Luna Nixx on vocals. “Banana” is a considerable change in style for Consola who goes in a decidedly darker tech house direction.