Justin Carter

The Sunday dance floor in Ridgewood

In the Nowadays garden, between Ridgewood and Brooklyn, Sundays have their own tempo. Justin Carter hosts Mister Sunday alongside Eamon Harkin: long sessions of house, disco, funk, and boogie where the crowd puts their phones away, dances in the sun or under the shade of the trees, and treats the club like a shared backyard. That idea—a space for the community, not a showcase for headliners—runs through nearly two decades of his work as a DJ, musician, and dance floor builder.

From Santos Party House to his own club

He arrived in New York in the late nineties, went through NYU, and cut his teeth on dance floors like Body & Soul, with François K, Joe Claussell, and Danny Krivit. He started DJing in 2003 in the Brooklyn DIY circuit and soon became a resident DJ, programmer, and label manager at Nublu, as well as music director and resident at APT in the Meatpacking District between 2006 and 2008. With Harkin, he launched Mister Saturday Night on January 17, 2009, at Santos Party House. Months later, the project moved to lofts and spaces like Market Hotel, 12-turn-13, and House of Yes. In 2015, they opened Nowadays: first the outdoor area; the interior, with an SBS Slammer system, arrived in late 2017. They remain residents.

Planetarium and The Leaves Fall

In parallel, he runs Planetarium, a deep listening series started in 2016 where the audience lies down with pillows and sleeping bags. As a musician, he released the album The Leaves Fall (2017) on Mister Saturday Night Records, featuring collaborations with Move D and The Twilite Tone. He also sang in Butch Morris's Chorus of Poets. The label, co-founded with Harkin in 2012, has released music by Suso Sáiz, Esteban Adame, CCL, Anthony Naples, Musclecars, Avalon Emerson, and Floating Points. In 2024, they celebrated fifteen years with a fifteen-cassette box set.

Booth craft, without the festival rush

His sessions—documented on Boiler Room and in long mixes from Nowadays—prioritize the journey over the impact. The Guardian once placed the duo among the most reliable in the city. Today, Carter continues to close Mister Sunday, playing all-night sets and nurturing a club designed so that the dance floor, the sound, and the people last longer than a trend.