Mages Guild is a Chicago-based label and event collective inspired by the lawless spirit of Myspace-era digital music scenes. Founded by Care Online in 2023, the project has been a champion of experimental and outsider electronic in the age of A.I.-generated slop, with a deep love of rave culture and the queer community. And with a mission that resonates with many others in the underground, Mages Guild and its gatherings have become a nostalgic portal back to an era of discovery and connection, bringing together a group of people who’ve always existed on the fringes of internet music.
Read more about what Care has to say about Mages Guild’s work, alongside a photo gallery of events like Valhek II: Gatekeeper’s Revenge and their collaboration with Tennessee's Raverfurrest, below.
Photo by Gunner Manley
Mages Guild artist Sulffffffur
Can you tell me a little bit about Mages Guild, and how it’s been influenced by outlier dance genres?
Mages Guild is deeply inspired by the netlabel scene that existed on Myspace, Bandcamp and standalone websites in the early ‘00s. Many of the labels around that time had no rules and were pushing the strangest music possible at any given moment. Breakcore is extremely near and dear to my heart, mostly because of how common it was in these spaces. Sometimes, a compilation would be relatively normal and then have the most ridiculous, blown-out breakcore track. I really fell in love with trying to find the strangest songs I could when I was in high school, and [Mages Guild] quickly became the easiest way to go about that.
How would you describe your audience?
Every show I've ever booked has had a majority queer lineup. It hasn't really been an intentional thing… [it’s more because] those are the main people carrying the torch for this kind of outsider electronic music. I spend a lot of effort prioritizing people who really know their shit and spend a lot of time looking at, researching and working to shape a new dance music culture. I think it's made our average audience really special and really diverse.
I don't really try to promote our events beyond posting them on Instagram and Resident Advisor, so it ends up being for real heads only, which I vastly prefer to trying to cater to people who go to $300 EDM shows.
How has Mages Guild, its goals and vision changed since it started?
My goals are mostly the same, but due to the rise of online fascism and the internet becoming even more unusable than it already was, I've lost a lot of motivation to be pushing our label releases on social media. I never was crazy about it, but with Instagram and Twitter both being openly hostile to trans people, and Bandcamp coming under new management, I'm not necessarily thrilled to be posting on their platforms. As a result, most of my attention has been placed on trying to make stuff happen in real life. Despite that, we are currently working on a standalone website and a mailing list, similar to how older netlabels went about distribution and promotion. The rest of 2025 should be busy for releases, if everything goes according to plan.
Introducing VEXT