All Hours: 10 Years In, The Lot Radio Team is Still Booking With Its Gut

By Arielle Lana LeJarde

“All Hours” is a column by culture journalist Arielle Lana LeJarde about the places, parties, promoters, and nightlife personalities that make Brooklyn light up after the sun goes down.

Francois Vaxelaire had likely strolled by the plot of land that would become The Lot Radio dozens of times by 2015, when he spotted a “for sale” sign on the corner of Nassau Avenue and Banker Street. The property was privately owned and virtually abandoned for 40 years before the landlord decided to find a tenant, and Vaxelaire, a Greenpoint resident already freelancing as a photographer and videographer, knew just what to do with it: Turn the space into an online radio station, obviously.

But it wasn’t exactly easy for that lot—small, triangular, and empty—to become what we all know and love as The Lot today. For a year straight, Vaxelaire made his way to the Department of Buildings (DOB) to obtain the necessary permits. After hundreds of “No”s, one administrator, who happened to like music, decided to give him a chance.

(Photo by Huas Pena)

“[Getting] the lease was kind of crazy,” Vaxelaire tells me. I’m sitting between him and his two bookers, Sasha Cwalino and Four Kamaal, at one of the tables in The Lot Radio’s outdoor cafe. They’re sharing a bottle of Croci Campedello, eager to tell the story of how everything came together. “There was nothing here, really. The only thing there was electricity. I took the risk because I thought in my gut that there was something to be done.”

After signing the lease, Vaxelaire realized that even though there was electricity, the internet would be impossible to set up. He had companies quote him for tens of thousands of dollars to install the type of connection he needed. So, for the first three years, he paid San Damiano Mission, the Catholic church across the street, to syphon their line. The shipping container housing the small studio from which it livestreams daily was built, in compliance with the DOB, on Long Island.

(Photo by Huas Pena)

The station officially launched a year later, on February 7, 2016, with sets from Discwoman, Matt FX, Darker Than Wax, and more. It hasn’t stopped airing since, and as time went on, the sterile white walls of the container that hosts its programming have become covered in the stickers of artists leaving remnants of their visits, the unmistakable backdrop of all Lot Radio sets, which have been methodically recorded and uploaded to YouTube and Soundcloud since the very first show. Notable guests over the years include Lil Yatchy, PinkPantheress, Channel Tres, Zack Fox, and, recently, a surprise set from Kevin Parker of Tame Impala. Four Tet also has a standing December 1st set.

Ten-ish years and thousands of shows later, The Lot is as much of a geographic landmark as it is a musical and cultural institution for budding and legacy DJs and musicians of all sorts. Hitting their decks has become a bonafide, coveted, and enviable marker of success, especially in the underground electronic music scene. And while locals can enjoy its built out patio as a third place—one where you can read a book, connect with friends, or just relax while listening to some of the best DJs in the world perform for free—for The Lot’s 200-plus resident selectors, it’s home.

(Photo by Huas Pena)

So it’s no surprise that when it was shut down in October of last year, amid a new commissioner coming in and fighting with Vaxelaire about its nearly decade-long rap sheet of health code violations, the founder did not let anything stop them from streaming. “I screamed at them and said they will never touch the radio,” Vaxelaire remembers.

Vaxelaire’s persistence and heart for music, which he stresses is “sacred,” has been the fuel for the station’s success over the years. But he doesn’t do it alone. With Cwalino and Kamaal’s help booking artists and handling its social presence, plus a team of baristas who not only serve customers but also take care of guests and work behind the scenes to keep the streams running every day, the DIY broadcaster has been able to grow and thrive despite only having a lean team.

In 2017, Cwalino, known by her stage name deep creep, walked up to The Lot Radio one day. “I went up to the barista and was like, ‘Hey, I’m a DJ, and I want a show here.’ They were like, ‘Ha, ha, ha.'” Ironically, after the COVID-19 lockdown and the departure of Pauline Le Mell, its previous programmer, Vaxelaire asked for Cwalino’s help with booking. Kamaal, on the other hand, started as a barista, occasionally nudging Vaxelaire about booking slots, and eventually became one of the station’s bookers, too.

(Photo by Huas Pena)

I’ve been lucky enough to get behind The Lot’s stack of decks four times and have been hounded for introductions that never went anywhere. So I asked, How exactly can someone get on The Lot Radio? And, maybe more importantly, How do they keep The Lot Radio authentically New York when huge international DJs are making it a point to try and stop by on every tour?

“That’s a conversation we have every day,” Vaxelaire says.

“It’s tricky,” Cwalino admits. “It’s really, really tricky.” The trio, a multi-generational braintrust of seasoned and developing bookers sifting through mountains of submissions by hand, isn’t trying to make their platform as exclusive as it may seem, but with hundreds of residents to account for and thousands of applicants to sort, the team can’t possibly accommodate every request for a slot.

“Some requests [come from] huge EDM circuit DJs,” Vaxelaire explains. “They come here because they want to have a bit more street legitimacy. I don’t think they need us, so we’re not going to reply.” Contrary to popular belief, someone wanting to DJ at The Lot Radio doesn’t need to know someone or have a certain follower count to get a show. They just have to be there for the right reasons. “It’s either the people who are there to cut up clips and promote themselves or the people who are actually music lovers, and they want to say something,” Cwalino says.

Francois Vaxelaire, Sasha Cwalino, and Four Kamal—the team behind The Lot Radio (Photo by Huas Pena)

“You can feel it,” Kamaal continues. Not everybody who gets a slot is something everyone necessarily likes, either. They give people chances, and ultimately, still go with their gut, taking their respective tastes for genres, eras, and BPMs into consideration. “I want to emphasize the generational difference,” Kamaal says. “We have three generations that span a whole vast audience of music.”

Vaxelaire, who’s 44, reads all of the submission forms that people fill out every day. Cwalino, 37, and Kamaal, 27, both have their ears to the ground about what’s going on inside and outside of New York City.

While we’re talking, Kamaal points out a grape vine tangled between one of the station’s fences. Vaxelaire recalls how a random man came and asked if he could plant the sprouts when they opened. It’s the only plant that’s survived in the space. “It’s a perfect representation,” Kamaal says.

And he’s right. The vines grew and survived in unlikely circumstances. And they appear to be here to stay.