Mike Callander

Most Recent Affiliation(s):

• RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

ISEA Bio(s) Available:

• ISEA2024

  Dr Mike Callander is a Lecturer in Music Industry and a key figure in Australian electronic music. His work as a producer and performer since 2001—including a coveted weekly DJ residency at Melbourne’s Revolver Upstairs since 2010—informs his practice-led research and creative output.

  Callander’s work with chart-topping artists has taken him to music festivals such as Glastonbury, Roskil-de and Fuji Rock, and to a collaboration between The Avalanches and The Adelaide Symphony Orches-tra. His sound design can also be heard on The Avalanches’ Australian Music Prize winning album We Will Always Love You (2020). Callander’s collaboration with The Presets, “Until The Dark,” was the closing track of the top-5 album Hi Viz (2018), and the crescendo for their energetic live shows.

  The reach of Callander’s work is vast: an online audio-visual performance co-presented with The City of Melbourne; sound design for Josh Muir installations in Australian and Singaporean art galleries; a vinyl release and cultural panel funded by Australia’s embassy in Berlin; a set-opening club track played by a superstar Brazilian DJ at Coachella.

  In 2013 Callander became an Ableton Certified Trainer, one of less than 400 specialists worldwide to be endorsed by the makers of Live (software) and Push (hardware). Subsequently he has facilitated perfor-mance, production, and training in conservatoriums, in the homes of rockstars and politicians, and in abandoned warehouses.

  After completing a PhD at The University of Melbourne, Mike joined RMIT’s School of Media and Communication, where his current research scrutinizes the traditional form of recorded music and the im-pact of technology on performance and culture.