Introducing: musclecars

The historic spirit of New York City lives on in the music of musclecars.

The project is comprised of the DJs, producers, event curators, and NYC natives Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield. Both big sneaker heads, they initially connected virtually on a sneaker forum where the conversation shifted from shoes to their shared interest in electronic music. After that, they met in person for the first time when they attended the debut edition of New York’s once-revered dance festival, Electric Zoo, in 2009.

Now, almost 16 years later, they are contributing to the New York scene through a residency at Nowadays, the underground dance haven on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, and they have a regular slot at the mainstay Brooklyn broadcast station, Lot Radio. Both of these outings are under the name of their party brand, Coloring Lessons, which they started in 2018.

Their respect at home permeates to the rest of the world as well. They are international touring artists who have spun at iconic parties like Rhonda in Los Angeles and well-known festivals like We Out Here in the UK with dates that stretch all over Europe, down into Australia, and over to Japan and Korea.

No matter where anyone may see musclecars, though, they will be playing a set that stems from the uncaged sonic exploration that produced other New York greats like Duke Ellington, The Ramones, and A Tribe Called Quest.

Similar to those unmistakable names, Weems and Handfield have the courage to channel a wide variety of styles through their individual musical identity, and theirs is built on a foundation of soulfulness. From their 10-minute mesh of live improvisation and club beats, “There’s Space For Us All,” to their jazzy ambient composition, “Hello?,” soul is the core element.

“All of the music that we make, whether it be a jazz fusion record or something that's more Latin inspired; we have some stuff that sounds a bit on the techno side and on the house side. All of it has this throughline of soulfulness. Very rich and dreamy instrumentation,” says Handfield.

This multi-genre pallet can be heard all over their 2024 debut album, Sugar Honey Iced Tea!, which came out on the storied UK label, BBE Music. Through this signing, musclecars is within the same catalog as New York legends from both the hip-hop realm, like Pete Rock, and the dance realm like Louie Vega.

Vega has become a close friend and mentor of Weems and Handfield as well. They play each others’ parties, and Vega provided four remixes of musclecars’ glittery nightlife anthem, “Tonight” on their album follow-up release, Double Honey Pack.

To boot, with their generation-spanning sound, Vega is just one of many greats who have given musclecars the stamp of approval:

“Considering Maurice Fulton a friend, or being able to reach out to Louie if we have any questions about something. Or Ron Trent. It's definitely a very unique position. We feel very grateful and blessed to be in that position,” Weems says. But as grateful as they are for the respect of their idols, they feel just as appreciative for the respect of their fans.

“Anybody who's listening is really special, whether it be somebody we're super inspired by or an up-and-coming DJ we've never heard before. It's definitely a privilege to be able to make and play music for folks,” Handfield continues.

This welcoming attitude is at the core of New York dance music. NYC dance culture in the 70s and 80s was similar to that of Chicago and Detroit. Larry Levan and David Mancuso set up shop in the hallowed halls of Paradise Garage and The Loft the same way Frankie Knuckles and Kevin Saunderson commanded the Warehouse and The Music Institute, respectively.

Black people, Brown people, and LGBTQ+ people congregated at Paradise Garage and The Loft to dance together and enjoy their cultural music, which includes the funk/soul sound of classics like Levan’s remix of “First True Love Affair” by Jimmy Ross.

That soul fuels musclecars’ music, and back when they started their party, Coloring Lessons, there weren’t a lot of spaces to play in this style. So, they created their own space where the sound would be welcome and they could play out all 11 minutes of their dance/jazz odyssey “I Don’t Remember The Last Time I Saw The Stars” in their sets. They link this slower-paced DJing back to NYC as well.

“David Mancuso and Larry Levan would play records from start to finish. It's a very New York style of mixing where you let most of the record breathe. It also makes it way less about the DJ and more about presenting the music. That removes your ego from it,” says Handfield.

For Weems and Handfield a Coloring Lessons party isn’t about them. It’s about telling a story of the night, and they tell stories within their tracks. That’s why so many are eight minutes or more (which even for club tracks is on the longer side) with a wide variety of live players and singers recording original parts into the production. musclecars are not concerned with making songs that are palatable to radio play or TikTok. Each new work has its own story with characters who go on individual journeys.

“We're very inspired by all forms of art. In the same way that we see stories and narratives in shows and films, it really excites me when I'm seeing this beginning, middle, and end in ways that feel very complete and tell a whole story. But inside of the story, there's lots of twists and turns and things that I didn't expect,” says Handfield. “This is the kind of thing we try to highlight in our music. Painting the full picture and telling the story.”

The story of musclecars spans three different decades at this point, and in 2025 they are seeing a global shift towards appreciation for their approach to production and DJing:

“People want to find out more about the history of dance music in general. Whether it be the roots of techno in Detroit or house music in Chicago and New York, there's definitely a lot more of this open-mindedness I see not only at our parties but even when we play overseas. We play the same way that we play back home in New York. People are very receptive and people our age and younger know the music as well,” says Weems.

Frank Sinatra famously sang of New York: “If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.” Well, musclecars made it there. Now they’re making it everywhere, and they're bringing the history of their hometown with them along the way.