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“People in Europe treat their DJs like they treat their sports stars” - DJ Sessions: Spiro & Goldfish, @ H2O, South Africa
Reported by SunnyAli
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Submitted 14-04-08 16:10
Order, order in the house!! Its always an experience putting DJs in a room together, but when you throw two very happy but pretty knackered Capetonian musicians slash DJs in with one of Johannesburg’s most experienced and hyperactive DJ names, there’s fun to be had.
Our HF SA reporter, SunnyAli, grabbed Dom and Dave, the musical pairing of the moment that is Goldfish, and dragged them for a chat with Spiro, one of South Africa’s longest running and most influential DJ names. All three had just walked away from playing their headline sets at the H2O party, so I seized the moment to sit all three down and get their views on music, making it, and how to make South Africa party even harder.
For those unsure of the territory, Goldfish is the up and coming duo from Cape Town who have made their name at stellar speed through their original breed of dance. They expertly mix live instrumentals with electronic beats and funky special effects to create a fusion sound that draws on jazz and breakbeat but is effectively lodged between funky and deep house. They’ve just been snapped up by global label Pacha – on only their second album release – so are currently coming to terms with the giddy prospect of a residency in Ibiza and a future of superclub audiences around the world. In the flesh, however, they’re smart, polite, cheerful and frank about their wide-eyed lack of experience of the dance world – its club culture, exhaustive genre classifications, and industry structure.
Enter one of the country’s most experienced and knowledgeable contributors to the dance scene, the frankly irreverent Spiro. He’s trodden the path through clubbing to DJing and producing in South Africa and now holds the title of Head of Promotions at global music giant Sony BMG, where with ear to the ground he spends his time promoting, sourcing and growing new music across the country – as well as striking fear into the hearts of aspiring young bloods. He’s an established South African headline act and today has come fresh from playing funky and progressive house on H2O’s main stage.
Together, the trio made for a total contrast – Spiro’s worldly approach and healthy cynicism stood out against Dave and Dom’s newbie enthusiasm for the new culture they’re just beginning to tap and the appetite they’ve discovered for their sounds.
*Lots of shouting* Hellooooo...hello love….hello sausage…. *Spiro grabs mike and waffles in camp accent* “…oh, you’re so nice….”
I take it from the smiles and energy that you’re all pleased with your sets – how did you find the H2O atmosphere?
Spiro: Well, I was on a different floor to these guys and it took a little while for me to get up there, but I eventually got playing and yes it went very well.
Goldfish (both speaking): We had a similar experience: our set up was a bit of a rush, our plane was delayed and there was horrendous traffic so we got there with about five seconds to go. Then when we got to set up on stage we had to move the DJ out of the way and then the music from the main floor was just killing us from behind – thanks Spiro!
Spiro: Well, being Greek I came in from behind….
*hysterical laughter*
Spiro: But the crowd went wild, they seemed to really enjoy it.
So come on – as professionals in this industry, what’s happening right now in South Africa’s dance scene?
Dom: Well, as something crossing over between a band and a DJ, we’re finding this scene is exploding big time. There’s definitely a huge growth and it’s really injecting new life into the dance scene. Every day we’re hearing of a new band starting up. People are taking up DJing, and saying – OK, maybe I can team up with a musician, a sax player or keyboard player, and take it to the next level.
Dave: We’ve been playing sold out shows for a year and a half and had queues around the block for most of them. We’ve broken records for attendance at every single place we’ve played.
You must also remember that it’s only been about 12 or 13 years since South Africa was under the control of the old [apartheid] government, when there wasn’t really a scene of any kind. Everything was very much under the cosh, very underground. When it all began to liven up, people were very down on South African bands; recording quality wasn’t that good and production wasn’t that good either.
Now, production is getting to the point where it’s level with elsewhere in the world and we’re coming up with a whole new vibe. The scene is growing and there’s a whole new culture forming. There’s an amalgamation of cultures coming together and that’s very difficult politically and socially, but there’s some amazing things coming out of it.
Spiro: Ah, but in terms of dance music, I think it pretty much peaked in about 2000. Dance music had about a three or four year reign where it dominated the charts internationally. That was the heyday of dance. Dance music is still though one of the biggest genres – it has so many different names: techno, deep, hard, progressive, trance. Music is very cyclical in nature, so one day rock is the big thing, then it’s gone and you’ll have RnB or hip-hop. Dance music peaked, but I think we’re now starting to see it on the up again.
Dom: I see dance music as the only genre that crosses over every singe cultural barrier – we’ve found that when we’ve gone to Japan, to Dubai, America or Malawi and have played to black, white, coloured audiences; everyone listens to house, but only certain demographics listen to other styles of music.
Spiro: We also have a very unique situation here in South Africa where we’re influenced by all the major global cultures. In the UK, its very UK and Europe orientated, the US is very US-orientated, but in South Africa it’s very multicultural. I think we’re very edgy, and it’s only a matter of time before we get our first global superstar, our first Kylie Minogue.
Dave: Like Goldfish…!! *laughter*
Spiro: Exactly – it’s coming. These guys have got the potential to break it, and go play Pacha in London – they’ll rock it.
So, do you think there’s a South African “sound”?
[Goldfish nod enthusiastically]
Dave: Yes, I really think there is – we’re influenced by literally all sounds, as well as the Europe and US sounds we’re listening to, there are our own local sounds, local influences like kwaito. We take them all in and come up with our own South African sound.
Where’s South African dance going, do you think?
Spiro: I think the scene’s now going progressive. Electro and funky have been big but are now on the way out and I think progressive is the next big thing. I used to be a trance DJ but stopped playing trance music many years back, as I saw the end, its demise. There are still a few people still going with it – Paul Van Dyk still plays to a packed dancefloor. Tïesto is still huge, but I think really trance has gone from the mainstream. Progressive is coming in, which is great for me. Progressive is becoming a commercial sound, from having always been a very underground sound.
[Dom and Dave sitting blank faced, clearly totally in the dark as to what on earth progressive could be]
Dave: Um….can you explain progressive to us?
Spiro: Progressive is like house, mixed with trance, it’s not as banging as trance, but builds up in the same way.
[Confusion reigns]
Dave: Can you give us an example of a track?
Spiro: Well, take something like Fragma - Toca’s Miracle – the new mix that’s out right now, that’s pumping on the airwaves, that is exactly what I’m talking about. Eric Prydz, have you heard of him? They’re all very much into the progressive vibe. Its still house, but has a trancy element.
Dave: We’ve not been into the house scene that long, so we’re not sure about all the minute differentiations in the names!
Dom: One thing we’ve seen, especially in the dance community, the dance scene, which we’re sort of standing on the periphery of, we’ve got one foot in and one out, is that it’s always about what’s the next new thing, whether its prog or whatever else it is. For Dave and I, though, we’re almost immune to that – it’s fantastic – because we don’t actually care, we’re playing original sounds.
Spiro: But that’s what makes you guys unique – when I listen to you I can hear such a blend of styles. You’ve got a bit of deep, you’ve got a bit of funky, there’s a bit of uplifting, a bit of banging, with more of a clubby vibe. Everything comes into the equation.
Dave: I think that’s right, we try and mesh a lot of things together, whether it’s progressive or whatever. Over the last two years we’ve been exposed to a lot more dance sounds simply because we’ve been in the clubs more than we’ve ever been in our lives, so we’re hearing people like Spiro and Roger Goode, because we’re playing after them or they’re playing after us.
Actually, today Dizzy was playing f*cking hard before we started – I was listening to our normal opening track in my headphones before we started and was like, oh dear…we’re gonna have to start with something different….
Dom: Yes! We play a lot of our stuff at just 110bpm, with the fastest maybe going up to 125.
Actually, one of our biggest tunes is 109bpm – but it actually pounds harder than some much faster other tracks.
Spiro: But its funny you should say that, because if you look at the Kwaito [African blend of pop, rap and house] scene, people like DJ Cleo, like Usquito, like those two brothers, what are they called? Revolution. You listen to them now and they’re also starting to head towards the proggy side. They’ve left the house sound behind and all of a sudden they’re also getting a progressive vibe. We’re now getting eight or nine minute epic tracks that go on a journey and we’re hearing synths in there. There’s an epic vibe coming in.
We’re in a very unique situation, I believe, in South Africa. We have this amalgamation of sounds, we’re a melting pot of all these sounds.
Tell me about South African clubbers. In London, people are very obsessive about following their DJs around and listening to the tunes they play. It’s not the same here, why?
Dom: I know! We totally experienced that when we played Ibiza – we drove down the freeway from the airport and saw the billboards, that would ordinarily be advertising cellphones, and they were showing huge adverts for Paul Van Dyk, Pete Tong and the likes.
People in Europe treat their DJs like they treat their sports stars – which just doesn’t happen here.
Why doesn’t it? What can be done to change it?
Spiro: I’ll answer that question – I think South Africa missed out on a whole swathe of house music – the whole warehouse party time, the gay vibe, South Africa missed it. Completely. So when I went to London thinking I was in the know, I arrived and realised I knew nothing – oh my God, that was an experience. The choice there is so incredible – the techno, the hard house, the trance, that it took me a year to find my groove, and get to know the DJs that I liked. That’s a whole education process just isn’t happening here.
Why don’t clubbers respond so much?
Dave: I take it back to what I was saying earlier: we haven’t had that whole culture of thinking our music is superstar, yet. And what’s happening is that slowly, over time, these bands come up from little towns, getting bigger, and gradually are playing their songs on the radio, and people are following them around – and that’s how it develops, you know? People realise they’ll see their band now, but in a year’s time they may be playing in stadiums and their fans won’t be able to see them in a little 100-person venue any more. And that’s never happened before. It’s never been like that.
Spiro: We’re effectively in an unsaturated market, compared to the UK which has its clear trends.
Dom: It isn’t like overseas – here, it’s all wide eyed innocence.
What can you and other DJs do to build that recognition about your music?
Spiro: Well, Goldfish have started to build a brand, by playing live and having their tunes played on the radio. People are starting to come to see them to check these guys out, even if they don’t know if they like them or not.
Dave: We released a CD independently and sold a lot, almost 11,000 copies, and we’re now seeing our audiences starting to recognise and respond to our tunes, so when we play, there are some songs that the crowd will jump about to, and those are the ones from the album.
Spiro: You have got to develop your fan base – whether you’re playing at three in the morning or the main stage at H2O, you must deliver the goods.
Dave: A lot of people don’t realise that as a DJ or a band, you have to start at grassroots level. You have to play your gigs, develop a base of fans but within that you have to have a good database, a good website, and get your CDs out there. You have to push it as hard as you possibly can – touring, trying to get on the radio – its hard work.
And finally, tell me what you each really want from 2008?
Dom: I think Dave and I want to spend at least four months of this year overseas. We’ve got some really big gigs coming up, we’re playing with people like Frankie Knuckles and Macy Gray and we’ve got a residency at Pacha to handle as well. It still amazes me that two unknown guys from Cape Town can get a residency on a Friday night in one of the world’s biggest clubs. It gives, I think, a lot of people faith that this really can happen. It hasn’t sunk in yet.
Dave: We’ve been playing some of our older tunes for over a year now, so this year we really to take our music forward. We’ve got a new CD and we want to see it out there with everybody, then blow them away with our show. When people know the songs and start getting into them, that’s when we can really take them live and start pushing them, mangling them and take them to really new places. That’s how we come up with new material and get to a new place our music hasn’t been before.
Spiro: Well, besides getting Goldfish going, I’ll be bringing new bands into this part of the industry, that’s part of my core job at Sony BMG. On a personal level, I’m getting more into the production side, which is fantastic. I’m also really just enjoying my quality of life – that’s what life is all about, isn’t it?
For more information on Spiro visit www.spiro.co.za and for Goldfish visit www.goldfishlive.com
Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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