New York Blues: Inside Kozlow’s World of Sound & Spontaneity

From a classical violin background to collaborating with some of dance music’s heaviest hitters, Brooklyn-based artist Kozlow has become one of New York City’s most intriguing cultural catalysts. 

Equal parts artist, curator, and instigator, he has quietly blurred the lines between performance and experience through his now-iconic ANTHR FCKNG PARTY (AFP) series, a no-lineup, no-phones dance floor sanctuary that’s evolved from word-of-mouth chaos into a defining force in NYC’s underground.

Serving as both conductor and participant, Kozlow has played electric violin alongside Carl Cox at Burning Man, Cedric Gervais, and Alesso, soundtracked a Kevin Hart party, and stepped up behind the decks to support the likes of Diplo and John Summit. His debut AFP label release, “Untitled,” formally expanded that ethos into the recorded realm, a stripped-back tech-house weapon designed for the late-night hours.

Yet behind the movement lies a foundation built on discipline and classical training.

“Coming from violin, I always thought emotion lived in chords and textures,” Kozlow explains. “When I first started making house, I’d throw a kick, hat, and snare together and say, ‘Okay, it’s done!’ But I realized the percussion shapes emotion just as much. That discovery was huge.” That realization became the backbone of his increasingly nuanced productions, including his new track “New York Blues”, a tune that fuses warehouse intensity with the city’s bittersweet melancholy.

“Context is key,” he says. “I can play violin over anything, but it only hits if the moment is right. If I’ve been playing heavy club stuff for an hour and then break into a melodic section and pull it out for the first time, that’s when the room erupts. Timing is everything.”

That instinct for emotional pacing is exactly what helped turn AFP into a phenomenon. What began as “just another fckng party” quickly revealed itself to be something much deeper, a place where chaos, connection, and trust outweighed celebrity bookings and Instagram stories. The no-phones, no-lineup policy wasn’t just a gimmick; it was a mission statement.

“Growth can make things feel less underground,” Kozlow admits, “but scale also gives you the power to protect the culture. Ideally, someone says they’re going to ‘anthr fckng party’ and they don’t even know who’s playing, they just trust it’ll be good.”

That trust has resulted in over 10,000 people attending AFP events in 2025 alone, despite the absence of traditional promotion. A party grown through secrecy, powered by anonymity, driven by community.

“When AFP started, it was all about energy, the people, the chaos,” he says. “That DNA cannot change. The whole point is connection. Strangers become part of the same ecosystem on a dancefloor. The records aim to recreate that feeling, whether you’re in a warehouse or zoning out on the subway. Same heartbeat, different setting.”

That ability to translate physical communion into sound has shaped Kozlow’s recent output. “New York Blues” followed collaborations on ‘Find A Way’ and ‘Cowboy Killers,’ each showing different edges of his sonic persona. While one leans into hypnotic groove, another dives into distorted emotion and peak-time aggression.

For Kozlow, creative direction isn’t led by trend, it’s fuelled by curiosity and a willingness to fail.

“You have to be willing to be bad,” he says. “Creativity comes from admitting what you don’t know. I keep endless lists of track ideas, most of them are terrible, but trying is the point. Contrast is everything. Meaning comes from context.”

That openness also led to a collaboration with ForgiveMeTommy!, whom he refers to as both “big brothers” and “chaos merchants.” Their remote sessions, spanning from Montreal to Croatia to Tulum, shaped his approach to highlighting the moment inside a track.

“They’re incredible at finding the one section that matters, and then building everything around it,” he says. “Working with them is like hanging with family, if your family happened to be producer-DJs.”

Beyond dance music, Kozlow’s journey has touched some unlikely worlds: Scott Storch, FunkFlex, King Von, Burna Boy. What started as him sending out violin samples blindly turned into real-world placements, sometimes discovered only when the track dropped.

“You never really know where things lead,” he says. “That taught me something important: stay authentic and focus on the music. You can’t control reactions, but you can control discipline, creativity, and intention. There’s so much noise out there, blinders help.”

Those blinders are especially important in a city like New York, where nightlife reinvents itself almost weekly. Currently holding residencies at Outer Heaven and Gospel, Kozlow uses the two spaces as yin and yang creative laboratories.

“Gospel feels like conducting a bacchanal,” he describes. “Warm, organic, perfect for melody and violin. Outer Heaven is like flying a spaceship, insanely precise, incredibly intimate. Both let me take risks, test demos, and build very different journeys.”

Regarding the direction of the city’s underground, he points to collectives like Renegade, whose guerrilla-style parties and instant crowd mobilization are reigniting a kind of raw magic many thought was gone.

“The I Hate Models show in the Chinatown mall was the most fun I’ve had in years,” he says. “Prices are up, people drink less, attention spans are cooked, but the desire for connection hasn’t gone anywhere. Renegade lit that match.”

And yet, Kozlow doesn’t romanticize the term “underground” itself, especially in 2025.

“The moment something is known, it stops being underground for someone,” he reflects. “For me, it just means ‘not pop’, music that lives outside the commercial machine but still moves you, still feels dangerous, still feels honest.”

With AFP, his own label, he’s attempting to exist in that sweet spot, between accessibility and rebellion. Between structure and spontaneity. Between a violin’s disciplined beauty and a warehouse’s raw sweat.

“Let the purists yell,” he laughs. “I can take it.”

In a city that never stops moving, Kozlow isn’t just following rhythm, he’s rewriting it, one anonymous night at a time.

Read the full interview with Kozlow at The Night Bazaar.