Ana Matronic Invites Pines Party to Get a Little Weird
Ana Matronic
For Ana Matronic, the dancefloor has always been playground, classroom, and sacred ground. Before Scissor Sisters, she made mixtapes for her mother, performed alongside San Francisco’s Trannyshack queens and built her own nightlife community in New York.
Since then, Matronic has moved between music, broadcasting, storytelling and historical research. She toured with Scissor Sisters, hosted Dance Devotion on BBC Radio 2, created her history podcast Good Time Sallies and now hosts a weekly show on Virgin Radio UK. On Fire Island, she is a resident DJ and the Ice Palace’s in-house historian.
Across those roles, the same instinct surfaces: uncover the sounds and stories that might otherwise be overlooked, bring people together around them and keep the lineage of the dancefloor alive. Ahead of her return to Pines Party’s secret room, Matronic caught up with Sainte Francis about alternative queer music, sacred nightlife, Fire Island history and the slightly supernatural journey she is preparing for the Pines.
Sainte Francis:
Ana, it’s such a pleasure. You have had a very busy year already. What have been some of the highlights?
Ana Matronic:
It has been full of travel and firsts. I went to Disney World, DJed a wedding in Savannah and took Queerdo, the Fire Island party I started three years ago, to London for the first time.
Once spring hits, it is all about Fire Island. I joined the Underwear Party roster, DJed the Invasion and host Queerdo every Tuesday. I also started my Virgin Radio show in January. Once the season kicks in, it does not stop.
Sainte Francis:
Wow. I thought I was busy! For anyone who may not know the full story, can you take us back to how your career began?
Ana Matronic:
I am from Portland, Oregon, and moved to San Francisco in my early 20s. I fell in with the drag queens at Trannyshack and became a regular performer.
Then I moved to New York and started a club called Knockoff, where I met Jake Shears. Jake and Babydaddy first performed as Scissor Sisters there, and a couple of months later they asked me to join.
I was part of Scissor Sisters for 10 years, four albums, four world tours and an insane ride. Since 2012, I have worked in broadcasting and presenting. I had my own BBC radio show and created Good Time Sallies, a history podcast about three women who owned nightclubs in different eras. I have had my fingers in many pots, let’s just say.
Sainte Francis:
I am absolutely checking out Good Time Sallies. Where did DJing enter the picture?
Ana Matronic:
I always had the DJ thing because all DJs start as rabid music fans and collectors. My mother loved Motown and Stax Records, so I made her mixtapes.
In San Francisco, I started with two CD players and no mixer. One song ends, the next begins. During Scissor Sisters, I became more serious about it.
DJing helped me find my way back to loving music. When you make music professionally, you can become so analytical that it takes away the love of listening. For about seven years, I would come home from tour and prefer silence. DJing brought that love back.
Sainte Francis:
How did you find your way to Fire Island?
Ana Matronic:
I was a fan before I ever came because I am obsessed with disco history, and Fire Island is instrumental to it. I first came in 2013 to see Justin Vivian Bond and Carol Channing at the Ice Palace. I got to meet Carol Channing, and that was the greatest day of my life!
After that, I tried to come every year. I had already been telling Daniel Nardicio, “When you buy the Ice Palace, install me as the in-house historian.” Since 2023, that has been part of my mission.
Sainte Francis:
Queerdo grew out of a specific whitespace you saw in the Fire Island party calendar. How did it come together?
Ana Matronic:
I was surprised there was nothing for the alterna-gays. I kept thinking, “Where is the weirdo night? Is there not a party where somebody plays Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus?”
The mission of Fire Island is all about finding holes and fill them.
Sainte Francis:
Heard.
Ana Matronic:
I started Queerdo as a Tuesday tea dance, and people came up the ramp who do not attend many other parties. Some have cried because they rarely hear this music in gay spaces.
What is amazing is how deeply queer it is. Vince Clarke, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Soft Cell, Erasure and Bronski Beat are instrumental to dancefloor history, but rarely get played. I think that is a crime, so I am here to bring them back. It is basically me playing for my inner teenager.
Sainte Francis:
You are also the Ice Palace’s in-house historian. What does that look like, and what is one fascinating piece of history you have uncovered?
Ana Matronic:
One project is the collection of historical photos outside the building. I helped select them, and they include Michael Fesco, who named the Ice Palace, and Roy Thode, who was the king of Saturday night there in the 1970s.
One thing I discovered is that there is an original Ice Palace disco ball. It exists. The one hanging there now is not the original original.
I recently joined the Cherry Grove Archives Collection, so I am hoping to learn what condition our elder disco ball is in and perhaps bring it back in some capacity.
Sainte Francis:
Last year, you were the secret DJ playing all night in the room. How does it feel to be official this time?
Ana Matronic:
It is nice to be on the poster! I was not advertised last year, so people wandered in and found me. It went over so well that they said, “We have to make it official.”
The people creating the room are old-school ravers. We cut our teeth in day-glo and pacifiers. We all took the good ecstasy. Last year, I said, “Let’s give them an old-school rave and melt faces.”
This year will be more transcendent and spiritual, but still very different from what people hear outside. There may be moments that are not for the faint of heart. Get ready to go deep, dark and dank and be visited by a witch, fairy or phantom. It will be magic regardless.
My husband and I have been known to throw wizard parties, so it was really just a question of which wizard look I would choose.
Sainte Francis:
Okay, I cannot wait. What do you think the secret room adds to the larger Pines Party experience?
Ana Matronic:
I play music you will not hear anywhere else. I bring a vibe that nobody else really does to Pines Party, except maybe The Carry Nation.
I like taking people on a journey and showing them things they do not normally get. It is different from the Underwear Party or Queerdo. It is also an expression of love from the friends creating the room.
Sainte Francis:
Given your work preserving the Ice Palace’s history, why do spaces like this feel especially important right now?
Ana Matronic:
It is important to invest in our history and keep telling the stories. You cannot dance to disco at Studio 54. You cannot go to Paradise Garage or The Saint. But you can dance at the Ice Palace in a space that has played that music since the days of disco.
You can tap into a lineage of people you are not related to, but you are. Queer people are often told we are not allowed in sacred spaces, that we are sinful. These spaces become our churches. I can feel that history inside the Ice Palace.
Fire Island reminds us that we have done this for generations. If we need to close ranks and keep one another safe, we know how. But we have come so far, and we will never go back. We also have to create access for those who need this island most.
Sainte Francis:
Looking at dancefloors more broadly, what do you think we need more of?
Ana Matronic:
Fewer phones and more chatting. Do not be afraid to talk to people or say hello. It is not a TikTok video. You can break the fourth wall.
The Ice Palace is about community. On the dancefloor, you can find salvation, love and friendship. It is a hopeful love letter to a future where the dancefloor becomes the utopia our songs talk about.
We will get to the Promised Land someday, and we will keep dancing on our way there.
Sainte Francis:
Earlier, you talked about coming home from tour and wanting silence. Now, you can hear how much joy music gives you again.
Ana Matronic:
My life has been shaped by music from so many sides, and I really enjoy the side I am on now. It is so great to make a room full of people dance and make them happy. It is not about the me. It is about the we.
Sainte Francis:
Before we get into some rapid-fire questions, is there anything else you want people to know?
Ana Matronic:
On August 23, I am giving a talk at Reflections on the history of the tea dance, followed by a good old-fashioned disco tea dance. There is a lot of misinformation about its origins and whether it is a gay invention. I have spent two years piecing together a history that goes back almost 170 years, and I will be presenting it for the first time.
Sainte Francis:
Wow, that’s fascinating. I’m so glad we got that plug in. Okay, a few rapid-fire questions before I let you go. Which Disney character were you most excited to meet?
Ana Matronic:
Maleficent.
Sainte Francis:
What is one disco track that always hits?
Ana Matronic:
Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love.” That is a no-brainer. But I will give you another: Dimitri From Paris’ remix of Diana Ross’ “The Boss.”
Sainte Francis:
What track has been heavy in your rotation, either as a DJ or just listening at home?
Ana Matronic:
The 12-inch of Soft Cell’s “Memorabilia.” I have also been playing A Certain Ratio and The Emperor Machine’s “Emperor Machine,” and a fantastic Afro house remix of Bad Bunny’s “NUEVAYoL” by Dave Ruthwell and SGX.
Sainte Francis:
Who is one artist, DJ or producer people should be paying more attention to?
Ana Matronic:
There is a band called The Acid that I really like. I also enjoy Pixel Grip and the Chicago duo DRAMA. They make really cute music.
Sainte Francis:
Final question: Fuck, marry, kill, three genres of music.
Ana Matronic:
Kill country music. I do not care. Fuck industrial, because that would be some quality lay. And marry disco.
Sainte Francis:
Ana, this has been so much fun. Thank you for all the knowledge. I will absolutely be popping my head into your secret room.
Ana Matronic:
Please do. It will be fun!
Catch Ana Matronic with Someone from Berlin in The Backdoor Saloon.
