Tom Peters, and the Freedom I Want from a Dancefloor

DJs · 26 October 2026

I have a soft spot for artists who put something of themselves into the spaces they create. With Tom Peters, what I admire is the connection between the music, the people around it and the freedom to express yourself. His work gives me reasons to be optimistic about queer nightlife.

When I think about the DJs I want A GAY Mafia to celebrate, I look for more than a recognisable name. I want curiosity, personality and a reason to follow what someone does next. Tom Peters interests me because his career moves between producing records, running a label, creating parties and working with clothing as a form of expression. There is room for pleasure in that picture, and room for thought.

My admiration comes from that combination. A queer dancefloor can hold glamour, humour, desire and a little vulnerability at the same time. The work around Peters — from DESSERT to BERLINCIAGAY — makes those possibilities feel worth paying attention to.

The freedom behind the ambition

In Charlie Taylor’s 2025 interview for HINTERHAUS, Peters recalls growing up in northern Germany, discovering records through older friends and finding a sense of release in his first experiences of clubbing. He describes moving to Berlin at nineteen, then developing a relationship with New York through the encouragement of Kevin McHugh.

What moves me in that account is the importance of someone opening a door. Peters remembers McHugh’s support with gratitude. It is a part of music history that I wish we discussed more often: the friend, mentor or collaborator who recognises a possibility before it becomes a career.

The same interview is candid about the practical strain of organising parties and the choices Peters has made to build a sustainable life in nightlife. I respect that honesty. It allows ambition and limits to exist together, without diminishing the love of music that brought him there.

Berlin and New York: two cities, a wider imagination

The DESSERT agency profile records Peters’ connection with Susanne Bartsch’s ON TOP at Le Bain in New York, alongside appearances at Berghain’s SNAX, Basement NYC and Gegen & Pornceptual at RSO Berlin. These are connections with distinct queer club environments, each with its own musical and social history.

I am drawn to the exchange between those worlds. Berlin and New York have given generations of queer people places to try out another version of themselves. An artist working across both can carry ideas about hospitality, performance and musical freedom between them. That is a richer story than collecting prestigious venue names.

Peters’ November 2024 appearance on Refuge Worldwide with Gesine Kühne offers a more intimate route into that background: a conversation about growing up in eastern Germany and discovering house and techno, accompanied by records from earlier years. I like having that listening route alongside the club biography. It brings the person’s musical memory into view.

“Take Your Chance”: a place in the Kompakt catalogue

A clear point in his production history is “Take Your Chance”, released on Kompakt Extra’s Speicher 73 on 25 February 2013. Peters shares the release with Quince, whose contribution is “Lost”.

Kompakt’s accompanying text connects Peters’ music with the landscape around Unnode, near the Baltic Sea, and describes a balance between expansive melody and rhythmic drive. That is the label’s account of the record, and the release page includes audio for readers to explore it themselves.

The title has an appeal of its own for me. Taking a chance is part of any creative life: putting a record out, beginning a party, offering something personal for other people to respond to. I admire the willingness to keep doing that as the work changes.

DESSERT: giving other voices somewhere to go

His agency dates the DESSERT event series to 2012 and the record label to 2021, followed by …is serving in 2023. In the HINTERHAUS interview, Peters explains that he later stepped back from the long-running party. The event’s history and the label’s continuing catalogue are different chapters.

For me, a label is one of the clearest expressions of musical generosity. It gives a producer’s own work a home, but it can also direct attention towards someone else. DESSERT’s catalogue includes artists such as Madame 007, Le Grand Phoenix, Michael Cignarale, Peter Napoli and Dolly Mariah. The names make that wider community visible.

“Te Quiero”, “Fuego” and the pleasure of exchange

“Te Quiero” received a Zombies in Miami remix on 13 June 2025. The label presents it as a new interpretation of Peters’ original, opening the track towards the Mexican duo’s approach to electronic club music.

Another connection appears in DJ Babatr’s remix of “Fuego”, released on 21 February 2025. These records give listeners concrete ways to follow how his material develops in other hands.

I like that willingness to let a piece of music become a conversation. A remix acknowledges that another artist may find a possibility in your work that you would not have reached alone. It is a small but meaningful form of trust.

“THANKFUL”: a collaboration rooted in a meeting

The recent “THANKFUL”, with Madame 007, was released on DESSERT on 2 October 2026. The label traces its beginnings to a meeting between Peters on the decks and Madame 007 on the microphone at Ladyfag’s Battle Hymn Thanksgiving party in New York. Their collaboration continued through further performances, including a BERLINCIAGAY broadcast at The Lot Radio.

The release contains a Basement New York Dub and a radio edit. The label describes a production informed by UK bass, percussion and Madame 007’s vocal presence.

Of all the details in this portrait, I find that origin particularly satisfying: a record growing from an encounter between people. It gives a practical meaning to the word “community”. Someone plays, someone responds, and together they make something that can travel beyond the night where it began.

Why I want to celebrate this work

Peters’ early Save Fashion project is documented by Kompakt in 2013, with its hand-printed slogan shirts. His more recent agency profile includes BERLINCIAGAY and CLUB SOBER among his projects. Music, clothing and the conditions in which people meet are all part of his creative life.

That breadth is what earns my admiration. I value an artist who keeps asking how people might express themselves, who can make space for another voice and who is prepared to change the way he works. There is confidence in that, but also an openness I find appealing.

I want our coverage of queer nightlife to make room for this kind of contribution. The records matter. So do the invitations, the collaborations and the effort of building a space around them. Tom Peters gives us plenty to explore — and, for me, plenty to celebrate.