ElectronicSessions Intervew For Harderfaster
London clubbing has seen a big change over the last 2 years. Club nights have been and gone without even a dot on the radar. Bigger club promotions that once dominated the scene have now disappeared without a trace and nightclubs themselves have sensed the pinch from less consumer spending in the underground dance scene and had to shut their doors for good!. Things are not looking good for the average clubber who wants to go out and listen to the undergrounds finest DJs and acts. And now the credit crunch has left many people counting the pennies and choosing to stay in rather and spend money they don’t have.
But there are glimmers of hope. As the underground scene has been pushed even further away from the big clubs, smaller promotions have taken the clubber who still craves the sounds they fell in love with under their wings. One promotion that is riding this wave and has done for nearly 3 years is Electronic Sessions. Not content with pigeon-holing themselves, the party strives to provide good quality electronic music, be it trance, techno, electro, house, breaks and progressive, its all about providing a great balance and making sure the party rocks as best it can.
Electronic Sessions (or ES for short) is a family run business, run by two brothers Ross and Greg Sullivan who are massively passionate about music. The boys are clubbers at heart and this love for going out and having a great time with friends and great music is what really shines through. Being brothers though I can image there being some great sibling rivalry, a few fights and disagreements and general family banter between the pair. Sadly there is not. The party runs smoothly on the night and both of then are fired up for each event and join in with the party as best they can, socialising with the people, chatting to ‘newbies’ and generally making the party feel like an extension of their own family. The boys certainly have a great taste in music as ES has attracted some serious acts over the last few years. What other party can boast London debuts for Menno De Jong, Re-Locate, Jonas Steur, Mr Sam, Bryan Kearney and Andrew Bennett as well as headlining acts such as John Askew, Matt Hardwick, John O Callaghan, Solarstone and many, many more. But not only do ES excel with their trance line ups but they also push the boat out securing such fine talent as Futureshock, Phil Kieren and Montana, all stuck in the other rooms!
Starting off with an idea on a long haul flight by simply looking at club nights and writing down their ideal line ups for the next 6 months, the idea quickly snowballed. Electronic Sessions’ first party was at Deep Blue (part of the SeOne complex) with a line up consisting of Ashley Casselle, John Askew, Chris Salt and Andy Bagguley. Not too shabby, but naivety of the two new promoters meant that they had booked the night up against Ferry Corsten at Turnmills and Wildchild at Heaven, both big heavyweights on the scene at the time. “How we got over 250 was anyone’s guess. Talk about coming in at the deep end”, says Ross. Not too bad for a launch party, considering the competition on the night and also a great starting point for future parties.
The party has since moved from Deep Blue to venues such as Corsica Studios and Hidden as well as the infamous Summer Boat parties. “To be honest, clubland in London seems to suffer slightly in the summer, for all of the obvious reasons but we didn’t want to leave it 4 months before doing a party. Our friend Zoelee was doing some great boat parties for Kurruption and it got me thinking it would be a great idea for us to do one for ES. Since then there has been no looking back!” The boat parties certainly sparked off something with clubbers during the summer months as each boat party has sold out weeks before they set sail and yet the party still keeps true to their musical ethos with the upper deck hosting the prog and trance side of the spectrum and the lower deck with the electro and housier side of things. “I think the thing we love about the boat parties is the fact we can get everyone on board at once meaning the stress levels are massively reduced. On a given club night we literally cannot relax until at least 3am when you know that you will not be getting in anymore punters.” Thankfully it is something that they will continue long into 2009 as a great summer alternative.
They haven’t forgotten the club nights either. After an absolutely mental second birthday at Hidden earlier in the year the boys got itchy feet to get back to proper banging club nights. “Coming up this year on top of the huge Jody Wisternoff party we have two huge parties. We’re teaming up with one of the biggest electronic record labels in the country and also doing a collaboration with one of the most exciting promotions in the country from up North! We also have a new website on the way and more exciting parties in the pipeline.” So the end of 2008 is looking pretty busy for the ES boys. Eager though to push forward even more the boys have also spent a lot of time researching and setting up new promotions to help push forward the house sound they love and to also give a branch to the ES family in the form of Plastic Fondu. Originally starting off at Fluid in Farringdon, it has gone on leaps and bounds to now host a room at the legendary Ministry of Sound nightclub for The Gallery promotion. No mean feat for a night that has only been going for about 9months!
Reports so far have been met with amazing comments from clubbers and fellow promoters as the boys put their winning formula of great music and great friendly people to the test. It works! The room for the last two parties has been full to the rafters with an atmosphere second to none and an incredibly beautiful crowd going nuts to great house music! Plastic Fondu continues to gain more credibility with a night planned in West London at Cherryjam in Paddington on August the 1st with the massive Prok & Fitch and more great acts and new blood. The party also allows them to ‘road test’ new DJs before bringing them onto the main ES party if they perform, a great way for new talent to break through in a very difficult market to now get a name for.
ES wouldn’t be continuing to prosper if it wasn’t for the team behind it. Not only do Ross and Greg work hard but they are helped by a loyal following of friends who assist in the ‘behind the scenes’ work. Helping with websites, podcasts, promotion and on the night hospitality; tt’s the dedication from these people who work hard that have given the party a true edge that few parties at the moment can beat. Another great part is the resident DJs ES has, the card up their sleeve, giving them a varied mixture of DJ talent in their arsenal.
Chris Salt has been with ES from the start and has recently started playing all over the world due to his new artist album No Surrender doing very well. Lizzie Curious, an electro/house DJ, has been blowing up the place since she became resident over a year ago. Also with an album out now, she will be appearing in Amnesia for Robbie Rivera’s night ‘Juicy’ this year. A real future talent to watch for! Niklas Harding, the famous Armada prog house DJ has been touring around the world and holds his exclusive residency with ES. At only 22 he’s making huge waves internationally. The Persuaders are London favourites and already appear at another London institution, Kidology which showcases their house and electro sound. You can always find them headlining the house room at ES. Rounding of the residents is Niall Gilliland a young up and coming DJ who has already played at some of the capitals biggest clubs and impresses with his ability to really mix between genres, a perfect addition to the family.
But it’s not just the residents that continue to impress the boys and girls of ES, it’s the regular guests they bring to the party such as Futureshock, Disciple of Sound, Jon O’Bir, Andy Moor, Orkidea, as well as local talent such as Alan Banks, Jez Eyre, Stu Cox and Matt Dahl. It all combines to bring a rich tapestry to the ES sound and brand and helps push things even further. But of course in an ideal world there are some names that the boys would love to get at their party but have been prevented from doing so, “One of our biggest gripes about the scene is the politics involved. It’s bollocks really and has prevented us booking the DJs we want so many times. I can see both sides, but this is a huge City and there are many people to go round!” Markus Schultz is one of the boys favourite DJs as well as Hernan Cattano, Above & Beyond and Nick Warren, “Maybe a few of these will be possible over the next year or so? Watch this space…”
Having had the ups and downs like all promoters they are eager to share the wealth of knowledge that they have learnt to try and push the scene forward. “Network, network, network!! Many promoters start up and presume they can put a line up on a few message boards and the people will come flocking! It doesn’t work like that, especially in London. You really have to put the ground work in meeting people and basically spreading the word as much as possible.” Also at the top of the list is to research the market. Understandable really but the boys have been around London for a while and know the competition and also what has worked and what hasn’t worked before. Many promotions have fallen at the wayside by putting on tired, stale line-ups that have also clashed with other big nights, proving that research in the industry is vital. Other factors that the boys say you should look into seriously are factors like the venue, financial restrictions and also the local talent who are going to be vocal about the party. “Mixing up the headliners with local DJ’s is important. In London there is so much great talent around that it seems silly not to use this valuable asset. Many of our best parties have been because the local talent rises up and perform amazing sets” So what’s the last piece of advice the boys can give, “Stick with it! If the party is unsuccessful think where it was you went wrong and how you can sufficiently improve it for the next party, whether it is due to budgeting, logistics or whatever!”
Internationally dance music has seen a massive growth over the past two years but in the country that took the sound to its heart and turned it into the global religion it is today it’s a very fragile scene. Commercial house and cheap electro have now started entering in the charts and a new breed of clubbers are now cutting their teeth into the 4/4 beat of dance music as opposed to the ‘bling’ of the urban world. So could we see a renaissance of dance music back into the country that nurtured it? Well only time will tell, but I can be assured that Electronic Sessions will still be with us when it does and it will be at the top of the pile for quality dance music events and a major force to be reckoned with.
