You have played, quite a few times, at Job Jobse’s Drukpers Trouw night. How would you describe your relationship with Job? How did this relationship originally form? What were your impressions on Trouw as a performance space?
JG WILKES: First and foremost we are friends. We first met when he invited us to play at Drukpers (Trouw). The thing which struck us about Job initially was that although he performed well as a dj, he was still not over-confident or egotistical – he had a very gentle demeanour. Job seemed to be aware that there is always more lot to learn and to explore about music and we would talk a lot and share a lot. He had a maturity despite being and looking so young at the time and he approached DJing in a more exploratory and thoughtful way than simply downloading the “big tunes” that week. He would play a lot of older music within his sets , music which seemed connected to the newer sound he was pushing too. This was surprising because he was so young. Trouw as a space and as a “family” was a very special indeed, a pleasure to be involved with. In many aspects it was unique.
In Amsterdam, we had Trouw, which was a club that seemed to be in tune with the same values Optimo has, and, like your club night, they closed on a high note. For yourselves, was this decision to end a difficult one or rather an organic one?
JGW: We made the decision together whilst on tour in Australia and wrote and issued the press statement from our apartment in Melbourne. It was one we gave a lot of thought too of course because the residency had been the centre of the Optimo project for so long and had been what made our connection and understanding of one another as DJ partners and friends so strong. That said, it felt like absolutely the right thing to do and we planned the remaining parties with an energy and commitment as strong as the day we started. By the the time the last party came, we were ready to say goodbye to the weekly Sunday. It was an amazingly positive feeling to have completed the residency on such a high and to be able to think about the future with optimism.
As you will be playing the Buiten Westen festival in Amsterdam, what are some of your quintessential Amsterdam experiences? These could be personal or professional (that is, if you’re willing to share, of course)
JGW: Although we have been playing in Amsterdam for quite a few years and in many of the city’s clubs and venues, our connection has obviously become much stronger since both the Trouw residency and working with Dekmantel (The Dekmantel Festival is inspirational as a smaller festival in the way it has developed and taken care of it’s paying customers – always striving to improve facilities for the public and it’s artists at their events, providing such consistently high quality line-ups and installing superb production – all this in such a short space of time and without swelling the capacity to simply cash in). So yes, our basements parties at Trouw were all very special and playing under the trees at Dekmantel after Magic Mountain High was an amazing afternoon. On a personal level… of course as first time visitor in the early nineties I reinforced the “Dam” tourist stereotype of underestimating the dangers of the coffee shop to a novice and losing my mind and all my possessions in the space of a couple of hours but happier memories are boating on a lake with Tom Trago, swapping a jacket for a remix, talking shit with San Proper, eating amazing food at Trouw with all our friends and riding a dutch bike round the park.
How has the Glasgow electronic music scene evolved since your original dates? What is something about Glasgow, and its nightlife culture, that you think the world should know that they might not?
JGW: Yes there are considerably more parties now and more venues in Glasgow specialising in electronic music. In fact quite an astonishing amount every weekend for a city with a population of less than 600,000. I think there’s probably more individuals producing music too. It’s well known that we have a vast amount of talent in Glasgow and that the “party scene” for want of a better expression is really really vibrant. Often visitors from outside Scotland are surprised to discover that we have licensing hours which only allow venues to stay open until 3am. This short span of the party makes for a really intense and energetic atmosphere and is something we’ve always loved about the scene here.
However it’s important to say at the same time as acknowledging the wealth of talent in Glasgow, the vibrancy of the scene and the energy and passion of the audience that in the light of some very recent action taken against one of our larger venues in the city by our current local councillors, (action that I can only describe as “stone age” in approach)that we must look at other cities in Europe like perhaps Amsterdam and Berlin for ways to properly support and nurture the arts here and develop our night time economy to it’s full potential.
Fritz Kalkbrenner LIVE | Claptone | Guy Gerber | Daniel Avery & Barnt | Lil’ Louis | ItaloJohnson | Max Cooper | CW/A (Clockwork & Avatism) LIVE | Kerri Chandler | Delano Smith | Aeroplane | Melon | & More
28 July 2015 | Buiten Westen | Tickets | Westerpark Amsterdam |