Hello, I'm Diz

Thanks for taking a minute to find out who's actually cutting your record. I'm a DJ, crate digger and turntable tech, and I cut records by hand here in Newcastle.

I grew up playing guitar and have worked in music for around 14 years. DJing nationally and internationally, running a radio station, working in record shops, promoting events, working in nightclubs. These days a lot of what I'm drawn to is underground music. Dub, disco, house, jungle, soul, ambient, leftfield club music. Anything with weight, texture, space and history. I like music that feels physical. The kind of thing you feel in a room, through a sound system, not only through headphones.

Public House HiFi

That obsession with sound led me to build Public House HiFi, a vintage custom audiophile sound system and party built around old Altec, JBL and TAD components imported from America and Japan. The goal is pristine, immersive, high quality audio. We run weekly parties above a pizza shop in Newcastle called Gingerino's, booking DJs who are genuinely obsessed with the art form. It's about building a community of people who come to listen attentively, and eat pizza. Years of collecting equipment, all in service of getting a room to sound exactly right.

Learning records from the other side

After collecting records for the best part of 15 years, vinyl was already a huge part of my life as a listener and DJ. I've always been technically minded too, with a degree in music technology and years spent fixing and modifying my own gear, from guitar pedals to turntables to speaker systems. Lathe cutting came from wanting to understand records from the other side. Not just playing them, collecting them, or repairing the machines that play them, but learning how sound becomes a physical groove.

After a long few years trying to source a cutting lathe, I finally got hold of one and built the best rig I could from various parts. At first it was curiosity. Then it became an obsession. You start realising how much is involved. The audio, the level, the groove spacing, the stylus heat, the blank temperature, the vacuum, the mechanics of the lathe. Every small change affects the result. It sits somewhere between music, engineering and printmaking. You're making a record in real time, one cut at a time.

How I work

Every record is cut individually, one at a time. Before anything is cut, I check and prepare the audio. Low end, stereo width, harsh top end, sibilance, overall level. Vinyl is physical, so it's not only "does this sound good?" but "will this track cleanly as a groove?" There's no undo button. If something goes wrong, I cut another disc. It's slow, and that's exactly what gives it its value. Whether it's a single dubplate or a short run, your music gets the same care I'd give my own selections.

If you've got music you want on wax, get in touch. I'm always happy to talk it through.