For those who don't know, tell us a little bit about yourself. How long have you been involved in dance music and when did you discover the harder side of dance music? Was it a natural progression for you over the years?
Well I'm really called Dan; I'm married and have a little baby girl called Kira. I've been clubbing for nearly 15 years, DJing for just over 10 and involved in the London scene for about 4 years.
I think I discovered harder music right from the off. I always liked Acidy stuff and even though it wasn't fast it was extremely hard and aggressive music. If anything I regressed over the years and started to favor the more melodic stuff as time has gone on, still with a hard edge I would say. You still can't beat some full on stomping music now and then though.
What styles do you play in your sets these days? Do you find that there is a lot of good material around or is it thin on the ground at the moment?
Style-wise, anything good. As I hold a couple of residencies for parties with different music policies (Zoology - anything goes, Alumni - Old Skool and Just Groove - Hard Dance) I tend to try and mix it up as much as possible. I'll play House, Trance and Old Skool if doing a warm up set but will play Hard Dance if I'm doing a later set. European Hard Trance is my favorite sound but there isn't as much good stuff available regularly as there was about 2 years ago. I've been doing a lot of shopping on eBay recently picking up classics for £1.50 a go. It's very satisfying.
What's going on with your night Zoology? What's the musical policy of your night and which guests have you got coming up?
It's still going well. We've had a quiet summer, I think a lot of the smaller parties have this year, but have some bold ideas for next year. Musically we mix it up and have DJs playing just about every style imaginable. I think the only styles of dance music we haven't featured are Gabba, Drum and Bass and Garage. Everything else has been thrown in somewhere.
As for future guests, well I can't say much right now as we are having a bit of a rejig with our parties for the last few months.
How did all you Zoology types meet each other in the first place?
Chris (B.S.E) and I have known each other for years and started doing free parties at a St John's Ambulance hut in Richmond. All highly dodgy, but we used to get over 200 people in towards the end. We met Richard (RedCaT) through some mutual friends and he then came to one of the Richmond parties and that was another catalyst to get him more interested in dance music. Elvis came along as a result of playing an amazing set for us the first night he played for us and then being made resident as a result. Markus is, I consider to be, the best party starter in London and after hearing several tops sets from him it wasn't hard to convince the others to bring him onboard.
What are the best and worst things about running your own night?
The best thing is hearing people talk about how good the night is, right next to you or to you, when they have no idea it is your party and just watching people go mad to an event you've organized. The wors is low turnouts. Not so much from a financial stand point but just because I feel bad for the guest DJs playing that night to a smaller crowd.
So...where did your DJing name come from?
Unglamorously enough, from a drunken game of hangman down the pub with my Wife. It caught our eye and made us laugh and we thought if it could do the same for anyone seeing it on flyers then it could only be a good thing.
If you were to change your name to something else...what would it be?
Well I have no plans to change it anytime soon. The one time I suggested it my friends threatened to lynch me, and stop supporting me if I did. I suppose if I had to because I was getting mocked by clubbers or not booked by promoters then I'd just use my name. Seems a bit boring though and it shouldn't make any difference - no one complains if popstars record under bizarre monikers.
We are here to talk to you today as you are playing at Timeless on October 1st at Koko, London. This night celebrates the past and DJs plunder their record collections to pull out their finest gems from yesteryear. For you, which periods hold special memories for you in terms of the music? When were your golden ages?
The mid 90s is my favorite time period musically. The UK was putting out some great music and the European Trance was getting harder and acidier. You also had the London Techno scene kicking off. Basically if you liked it hard you were spoilt for choice and it just got harder as time went on. The late 90s were amazing for Trance as well.
What are your feelings about this upcoming edition of Timeless? You must be excited about playing your set in Room 2 through the mighty Funktion One sound system....
I'm always excited about playing for Frantic. I've wanted to play back2back with Marc Antoine for some time so this is a great chance for us to see how well we work together. I love Funktion One as well after getting the chance to play on it at Logic.
Do you approach classics sets with a different mentality to upfront sets? In terms of set progression, crowd-pleasing requirements and so on?
I always sprinkle a few classics in all my sets but when playing nothing but you have to take into account that DJs before and after are likely to be thinking of the same big tunes. As a result I try and pick out tunes that will be instantly recognizable but not as obvious and are time appropriate to the set.
What kind of stuff will you be spinning at Timeless? Are there any tracks which you are particularly excited about blowing the dust off?
I will need to chat to Marc to see what he has up his sleeve but I'll have a variation of Hard House and some Trance classics. To name a couple, Lock n' Load - Blow Your Mind, De Niro - Mind of Man and Robert Miles - Children.
We'll have to be there on the night to find out the rest.
What valuable lessons have you learnt in your time as a DJ/promoter/producer?
Get a thick skin, take the rough with the smooth and if you know you're going to be out all weekend take a change of clothes with you.
