‘Love Injection’ Brings the DIY Back to Brooklyn

The saying “Everything is as it was” feels extremely apropos of electronic music in 2016. If you listen to the media, the fall of SFX seems not unlike the death (and rebirth—of the sound, at least) of ‘90s rave culture; everything is circular. However, too often when one pontificates in a grand way about a scene or a time or a place, they overlook the niche aspects that are left in its wake.

Paul Raffaele’s Love Injection is just that: a throwback to a simpler time of punk zines, made by outcasts who know their shit. Inspired by early dance music zines such as Heather Heart’s Under One Sky and Boy’s Own, Love Injection looks to capture that DIY spirit that comes from getting off your computer, going to the record store, reading ink on paper, and hopefully connecting with like-minded individuals IRL.

When profiteering is taken out of the equation, you really can get a clearer view of what matters most. Moonlighting as the curator, ad salesmen, designer, and primary interviewer, Raffaele does it all for the love of the scene; Love Injection is his gift to the electronic music world. He does this all while holding down a full-time gig as an art director at VICE. Over afternoon tea at Verb Café in a very hip area of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the humble Raffaele discussed with us at length the inspiration behind the zine itself, and what makes dance music such an integral part of the Staten Island native’s life.

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