Live from New York: Ty Sunderland

Ty Sunderland didn't always want to be in nightlife. The self-taught DJ began by throwing parties in college while studying economics. He started working in fashion after graduation, but fell into the New York City nightlife scene. "I was interning at Barneys and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is not for me at all,'" Ty tells me over FaceTime on a Monday afternoon, hungover in bed from a weekend of parties. "So I was like, 'Okay, I'm just going to DJ until I find what my passion is in New York.' And I never found it. So I just kept DJ'ing." This was in 2013, and now in 2022, Ty Sunderland is a premier nightlife DJ and promoter throwing some of New York City's best gay parties.

Ty got his start at straight bars and clubs like Lit Lounge in the East Village, where he met Paul Sevigny, who booked him for a residency at his legendary club Paul's Baby Grand (you can still find Ty DJ'ing there on Wednesday nights, if you make it past the notoriously difficult door). Soon after, Ty began working with the DJ group The Misshapes for a party called Linda on the roof of the Public Hotel. But his first time producing a party solo came from throwing what was meant to be a one-off commemorating Ty's favorite pop star, Britney Spears, and his favorite album, Blackout.

"Heaven on Earth, which I didn't even realize when I called it 'Heaven on Earth' that it shortens to HOE, there was just a hole in the market. There were no good pop parties," Ty says about the party, which became a monthly success, by demand of the gays and girls waiting in line outside of the infamous venue China Chalet. "Everyone was taking nightlife way too seriously and dark at the time. And I just wanted something light, fun, pop-y, wild, looks, kiki because it was cute—a good time."

As someone who danced on the shaky floors of the Chinese restaurant during the day-turned-makeshift nightclub at night, I can tell you, it was a good time. HOE felt almost like a house party. Ty brought in a makeshift stage with stripper poles and speakers that shook the walls. "I was like, 'I have to rent the most expensive sound system I can afford because I want it to sound like a fucking club in here,'" Ty says. Each month, drag queens lipsynced and performed to pop divas like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, and Rihanna.

It was during the peak of HOE, which has since seen its very last dance due to the venue's closure over the pandemic, that I first met Ty (something I made sure to do to skip that long-ass line). HOE was a mix of everything Ty Sunderland: fashion, pop music, performance, drag queens, and a lot of sweaty dancing. The popularity of HOE propelled Ty into not only DJ'ing parties but producing them, something that he doesn't exactly enjoy. "I don't think I love anything about [producing parties]. It's so stressful," he says. "If you ever see me before an event, I'm having a breakdown somewhere. I only fell into producing because I can't just push buttons forever. What do I love about producing? I guess bringing my little dumb gay ideas to life. Really, I'm a man with lots of ideas, and I get to see a lot of them come to fruition as a producer."

Under the Ty Sunderland Presents umbrella, he produces Love Prism, Devil's Playground, the Gayflower boat series, and Ty Tea. Each of these parties has unique vibes, marketing concepts, and music genres, all carefully thought out by Sunderland. "They kind of just come to me," he says. "I usually just look around and I'm like, 'What am I not experiencing? What's missing?'"

Love Prism, thrown at the Brooklyn-based queer nightclub 3 Dollar Bill, was Ty's next big gay idea after HOE. "I wanted to step away from pop music, but not go into what I thought everyone else was doing, which was darker," he says of the ongoing party, which features a different color of the rainbow each month as a suggested dress code to dance to the house, disco, and pop remix vocal sets by the resident Love Prism DJ's (Ty himself, Boyyyish, Erik Izquierdo) and special guests. The Gayflower boat party series came soon after and has all the elements of HOE–the battle of pop divas, but on the water, with a tour around the city that never sleeps.

But, it's Devil's Playground (playfully abbreviated to "DP," a double entendre of an elicit act) that is now Ty's biggest party, and perhaps the largest pop party in New York City. It's part of his residency at the iconic Webster Hall and is typically a sold-out affair. Devil's Playground (which sells out at fifteen hundred people) has featured surprise pop-up performances by drag queens like Alaska Thunderfuck, Aquaria, Milk, and pop/house singers Vincint, Slayyyter, Allie X, Crystal Waters, and Kim Petras—twice ("We're besties," Ty will tell you at any afters).

The pause brought on by the pandemic allowed Ty to reflect on all that he has accomplished and plot what is next. "I was just on autoplay before the pandemic. Then when I really got just to unplug and sit with my thoughts for a minute, I got to think about what I wanted to do and what I want to accomplish," he says. "That's what lit a fire under my ass. The second that we could do anything, I was one-hundred-percent ready to go."

New York City has returned to nightlife, with partygoers vaccinated against Covid-19 and testing regularly in order to dance again during the new Roaring Twenties. Ty launched a new summer outdoor party series, Ty Tea, a mini-festival every Sunday with DJ sets and pop-up performers, including Vincint, Slayyyter, Aquaria, Alex Newell, Rebecca Black, Gia Woods, and the Knocks.

His recent success hasn't been limited to the parties he produces. He continues to be a sought-after DJ for events, shows, and even high-profile weddings. He sits front row at his designer friends Christian Siriano and Christian Cowan’s shows and has DJ'd their afterparties. He recently DJ'd his friend Ivy Getty's wedding afterparty alongside Earth, Wind & Fire and Mark Ronson. He appears in the latest season of Gossip Girl as himself and still has so many more gay ideas under his signature black-and-white baseball cap. It’s clear: Ty Sunderland is having a moment.

What should we expect next from the mind of Ty Sunderland? "I'm working on original music and I want to open a nightclub," he says of his long-term nightlife goals. "I don't know which one will come first. Most likely music, but I want to open my own club. It's time I put my take on nightclubs into a physical space, a place people can go to multiple nights a week."

As one of his grandest plans, he knows how much time and dedication he would want to put into a space with the Ty Sunderland name attached to it. But it's a dream he'll accomplish, to cement his place in New York nightlife history for creating parties that provide community, dancing, and for a Ty Sunderland Presents, some signature dance pop escapism.

"I love making people smile," Ty says, smiling himself. "There's no better feeling than when you play a song and you look into the audience and someone's freaking out. I also love seeing the next generation, the 21-year-olds, the next generation of movers and shakers in our world, experience what I experienced when I was that age, which is realizing that there are other people like you and they like the same things as you, and they're all in the same room right here. And you're not this weirdo. There are other people like you, and we're all just here to dance."

Ty Sunderland Presents Devil's Playground: Gay Prom this Saturday at Webster Hall, New York. Sunderland will co-produce Planet Pride on June 25 at Brooklyn Mirage. See the full Live in New York series here.