Defected's Ben Lovett looks forward to our New Year's Eve shindig and speaks to the key players involved in the night.
Defected Records will embrace 2013 on New Year’s Eve at the Electric Brixton, a smart music venue launched last year out of the ashes of legendary Brixton space The Fridge. Its party, running for nearly 12 hours, will feature some of the finest names in underground house, ranging from New Jersey don Dennis Ferrer and big Swiss cheese Deetron to talented Dane Noir, Ibiza staple Sam Divine and, naturally, label owner Simon Dunmore.
“It’s been a fantastic 12 months for Defected and what better way to celebrate than with an end of year party?” opens label boss Simon Dunmore. “We don’t normally do this sort of thing; I mean last year’s NYE event at Proud2 [within London’s O2 dome] was something of a first for us. But the feedback there was amazing; Proud2 had a real purpose and it’s no different this time round. We’re celebrating our success at an appropriate point in time...a London label on its home turf seeing out the old and bringing in the new...I’m totally proud of that.
“The DJing dovetails well with running the business” Dunmore continues. “And maybe the business wouldn’t have been quite what it is today if I hadn’t kept up with playing out. There’s always a pressure in our scene to remain current, keep your eyes in the right places and innovate; I love DJing because I love music, yes, but also because it allows me to look at the audience and work out the things that should matter to the business. DJing and, in a wider sense, throwing events, does help prevent you from becoming too detached. I view the dancefloor as the end point of all we do; you start with the demo, then comes the A&Ring, then mastering, promoting and finally... this. It’s why this New Year’s Eve is so important to us.”
December 31, 2012 is also particularly important to Danish DJ-producer Noir, AKA Rene Kristensen being that its represents his biggest ever New Year’s outing. “Club-wise, this party will be my best New Year’s Eve by far” he remarks. “I’ve never played on this scale before, in the past it has always been me as headliner. But here you have big names like Dennis and Deetron. It’s really special. I love hanging out with the Defected family, the association has built over time and I feel kinda home.”
Is Kristensen nervous on such a stage? “Not really, I’ve been living in a higher-profile world for some time now. Also, the shared focus between all of the acts on the line-up removes any sense of pressure. In a sense, we are collaborating and enjoying how the crowd reacts. I’m a spontaneous performer, I don’t like to over think things. So long as the music is deep, groovy and sexy then I’ll be happy. And I’m not afraid to use vocals. I like to build things but, really, there are no rules. Someone came up to me after a gig in Stuggart a couple of weeks ago and told me ‘you were great, you played really eclectic!’ and I was like, what?! Am I not normally like that?”
Dunmore promises plenty of spontaneity in spite of Defected’s sometimes routine labelling as a house imprint. “Depeche Mode could be house, anything could be house, and that’s going back to the very origins of the music” he urges. “Defected has continued to evolve its offering this year and refuses to stand still. I think all this genre segmentation does our industry a disservice. It ends up splitting audiences. Things are more open-minded than ever and that also applies to us.”
How does Dennis Ferrer feel about New Year’s Eve? So much negative talk continues to swirl around clubland about the rising cost – to both clubber and promoter – of the annual institution; talk fuelled by global economic fragility. Some parties have even shifted in recent years to January 1 because everything from DJ rates to taxi fares home are less prohibitive. Does Ferrer feel that New Year’s Eve is slowly losing its sparkle?
“I sympathise with those people on both sides of the party – party goer and organiser – who maybe feel that their previous New Year’s celebrations haven’t been so good” he begins. “But, look man, it’s a revolving door. Some years are good, some are bad; at the same time, everyone has an individual experience, which makes it impossible to spot trends. I don’t over analyse it, all this negativity and economic talk. Let’s put it in context, I’m an entertainer...it’s as simple as that. I play other people’s records. I’m there to get the party popping; lift people out of their doldrums for the duration of the night. It needs to be simple; I love being around music and so do the people I play to. New Year’s Eve is still a great occasion to be celebrating something.”
So Ferrer is ultra confident about Defected’s shindig? What can people expect him to play?: “I don’t know man, just some fucking great music. It’s about having fun and I can get that from something tech-y, or soulful... whatever. I’m probably on more of a tech-soul vibe right now but my sound in Brixton will depend on the crowd. If there is all this doom and gloom out there right now, then history teaches us that people will want to party that bit harder...escape their shitty work and problems. What I do isn’t brain surgery; it’s entertainment. I’m here to take people out of themselves; what’s not to like about that? This is my first New Year’s Eve in London and I’m sure it will be extra special.”
Ferrer is one of the world’s biggest house DJs and producers, currently riding high with his snakin’, bass-loaded remix of Nick Curly cut Underground (and due to drop further, hotly anticipated remixes of Ane Brun – as Son Of Raw – and Nasser Baker, a signing to his Objektivity label). The offers of gigs around the world undoubtedly hurtle in to his agency at a rate of knots; how does he filter them down? What makes him pick something out like Defected?
“It’s a weird process; if you can call it a process” he suggests, in the middle of paying for a cab in downtown New York. “There are so many factors...the venue, the location of the venue, the promotional aspect of the night...the kinda crowd it attracts.”
Much, of course, has been made of the Electric Brixton as a venue since its launch in September 2011. Formerly The Fridge – first opened in 1913 as a cinema before mutating into kick-ass club at the other end of the century – it endured a two-year £1m refit and makeover after closing in 2010. A brand new sound system was installed alongside state-of-the-art visual projection equipment and super-slick interiors; since re-opening, the venue has hosted successful events for everyone from Soul II Soul and Jessie Ware to Carl Cox and Sven Vath’s Cocoon Heroes.
“I haven’t actually had the pleasure of playing there yet” Sam Divine admits, “but my mate went to see Jessie Ware there earlier this month and was calling me up afterwards raving about the sound; I can’t wait to get in there.”
Divine, a close associate of Defected who played for the label during its Ibiza residency at Ushuaia last summer, and returned there this year to huge acclaim (albeit under her own hat this time), thinks that everyone on the Electric Brixton line-up is coming to the boil at just the right time. “Everyone is making noise at the moment, whether its Dennis and his Underground remix, Noir with his releases this year on Noir Music or me; my track with Rebecca Knight, Deserve Me, has had a great response this summer and I’ve literally just finished re-editing it for a new release before Christmas. You want to have a party when the DJs are all right in the moment....”
The buzz is building nicely, on and off-line. Tickets, according to Dunmore, are selling quickly. “People do tend to worry that New Year’s Eve will cost an arm and a leg” Divine adds. “What’s really good about Defected is that they’re offering a fair price here for some great music-makers; particularly with the early-bird ticket. Too many events are extortionately priced and, as a party-goer, the feeling has to creep in that these parties are more about the profit than the experience. That kills the atmosphere....”
Kristensen has the final few words. “Denmark, where I’m from, is a difficult scene. There’s not really the awareness of an electronic underground; there’s more focus on the mainstream. Therefore local DJs need to work really hard to make the underground captivating and important. That’s definitely my secret force as a DJ and for playing New Year’s Eve. I will go the extra mile.
“This party in London will round off what has been my busiest and best year yet in the perfect way. It’s not been so great in terms of the studio. I’ve had so little time to get in there and work on my new album; that will probably arrive later in 2013 now. But I can’t complain ... I always dreamed of getting to this point in my career and being part of a respected family like Defected. It hasn’t happened over night; it’s taken over 10 years of hard work, but big things have clicked fairly recently and New Year’s Eve will be a fantastic night to reflect on that. A fantastic night full stop.”
Defected In The House hits Electric Brixton, London with Dennis Ferrer, Deetron, Noir, Simon Dunmore and Sam Divine. Full event info and tickets here.
