SmartShanghai | Interview: Bang Gang Deejays

Interview: Bang Gang Deejays

By Morgan Short, May 13th, 2009 | In Nightlife

This Friday, hot, hot, hot Aussie (Ozzy?) record label Modular celebrates their launch in China, and they're kicking off the first in a series of four events featuring artists on their roster. If you didn't know, Modular is home to big time acts like The Presets, The Avalanches, Cut Copy, and The Bumblebeez (among others). Check them out on the web here, and also have a look at their blog here. This first Modular Records party features cut and paste, slash and burn DJ collective the Bang Gang Deejays.

Usually rolling six-deep, the Bang Gang Deejays have streamlined their number down to two for their shows in Shanghai and Beijing -- Jamie Doom and Gus Da Hoodrat -- and they'll be bringing devastating aural dynamite to the decks for all of us to hear. Wiz, bang, boom.

SmartShanghai caught up with the pair at a nice pub on Henghsan Lu to talk about how on-the-ball Japan is, the trouble with the kids these days, Falcor, and fantasy gang bangs.

Check the event details here (take note of that address: it's weird). Check out the Bang Gang Deejays on MySpace here.

***

SmSh: When did you guys get in?

Jaime Doom: We got in last night. We were in Japan for a week doing four gigs. In Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokoyo, and then we hung out in Tokyo for a few nights.

SmSh: How was Japan?

Jaime: Japan is dope. We've been there like five times. Probably our favorite place in the world to play. The kids just go mental there, so it's really...

SmSh: What kind of parties? Huge ones or smaller clubs?

Gus Da Hoodrat:: Different sizes.

Jaime: Yeah, this time it was like small to medium clubs, like 400 people. They have lots of good venues there though. Everyone has a really good sound system and everything is so organized...

*Tal Backman's "She So High" comes on the bar stereo*

Gus:: This song is going to be the soundtrack to the interview you realize.

SmSh: I can put a little MP3 on there at the bottom, so people can download it and listen along at home...

Jaime: [Laughs.] Yeah, but in Japan, the kids just go mental there. It's a very responsive crowd. You know Japan though. Everything there is like to-the-max.

SmSh: Yeah, in Japan everyone takes it very seriously. My friend was telling me about full-on Japanese rock-a-billy bands that just busk in the streets, with proper gear -- better gear than they have in Chinese clubs -- and they've got the greaser look down pat with stand-up basses and sleeve tattoos... so the Bang Gang Deejays started as a party in Sydney?

Jaime: Yeah, we really just started as a party, like Bang Gang was the name of the party. Now were more like a group of DJs -- we play together and we still do some parties but when it started it was just... well, we had all been doing little bits a pieces of parties in the past but it all kind of stopped and then there was nothing to do. So there was six of us who were all friends and we decided to start something.

We were going to run it through summer, like a weekly thing, and we found this old venue which was failing and really keen to have people in there -- it was like an old lesbian strip bar...

SmSh: How could that possibly be failing? A lesbian strip bar.

Jaime: Well, there was another 40 strip bars, so maybe it was the competition, but yeah we ran that and then it turned into a three-year...

Gus:: A three-year bender.

Jaime: Yeah, and from that we got asked to do other clubs and other venues. Some mix CDs. And we started being more of an act I guess.

SmSh: So it was six people from the start or was it more like picking people up along the way?

Jaime: It was six from the start. It seems a bit weird to have so many people, but it was originally all about parties so it kind of worked. At the start I didn't even DJ, I just sort of hung out and helped put on the party.

SmSh: Was everyone coming from similar backgrounds?

Gus:: Quite different actually, and everyone was different ages as well, like 20 to 30. The people were coming from different backgrounds and different tastes, which is why I think it worked actually because it made it more random and mish-mashed and thrown together. And no one could really DJ. [Laughs].

SmSh: But you guys have figured out how to DJ since then?

Jaime: Yeah, we worked it out.

SmSh: So how does it work then with six DJs?

Gus:: Well, for gigs like this there's two of us, and the six DJ thing we have for specific parties. With the six it's chopping and changing, with two people playing and then someone else will start playing, so there's three of you playing, and then that will change and they'll be one person playing, and then the record will end so there will be no one playing and then six people will be trying to play -- 'I want to play this record I want to play this record.'

It's confusing. I guess it worked because we weren't really thinking about it. It was just sort of happening.

SmSh: What kind of setup do you guys have for just the two of you?

Jaime: Now it's like two setups, like two mixers with however many CDs and turntables on each, and we just have one running into the other, so that the main one controls the second one but if you have them close enough it's like...

Gus:: It's like a fire truck. You have the guy driving in the front and then the guy steering on top at the back, you know. So it��s two guys working together but there's one guy at the front driving it.

SmSh: How improvisational is it? Do you have stuff worked out before or is it...

Jaime: It's all improv'ed.

Gus:: Sometimes we make an intro but then it��s all seeing what people like...

Jaime: It depends where you are, with different crowds in different countries. Like in Australia, people are more into vocal, more song-ey, not so hard music, but in Japan every song has to be really hard and have a really big breakdown. You can have a set and if you pull it off and the crowd likes it then great but if it��s not very flexible then you won��t go down so well with certain crowds...

SmSh: What��s Sydney like these days?

Jaime: Sydney��s good you know. But I guess the club scene there's a bit of a lull...

SmSh: Why's that?

Jaime: Lack of venues...

Gus:: Well, in the last three years there's been like a hyper-takeover of younger kids into the "digital generation" coming through. Like the access of music through blogs and MySpace and stuff -- kids can access stuff at such a young age, good music and shit music -- and it's like if acts can impress kids on the "blogosphere" with their image and stuff, the kids buy into stuff.

When I was 18 or 19 I liked shit music as well but I had to go looking for it in the stores or the clubs, but now you can just download 400 Bloody Beetroot songs...

SmSh: So you think it's keeping people out of the clubs?

Gus:: Well, I think it's just changed the way people view dance music and club music. It used to be a very...

Jaime: Controlled system. Controlled access. You used to hear stuff because the DJ bought it on vinyl and probably because they'd spent time investigating it and maybe had some taste...

Gus:: Like a hierarchy of information.

Jaime: In some ways it's good that all these kids can access music themselves but...

Gus:: I think it was better when there was more vinyl and you had this other source to give you an indication of where to search out stuff, but now it's like all the music comes from this one place.

Jaime: But outside of the clubs, Sydney is really good in terms of bands, producers, and labels -- it's really healthy and the success is there for labels like Modular and acts like The Presets, who are on Modular. They are the biggest band in Australia, and in terms of music they are a fairly underground act -- for them to be the biggest act in Australia is a pretty amazing thing.

SmSh: How did you come to be involved with Modular?

Jaime: Really, we're just good friends with Pav who owns Modular. They had some parties and we played those and then we did some mix CDs for them. After a while we were doing mix CDs for other people and they were like, how about we make it official that you're on our roster. And we're all good friends with all the acts and stuff. Australia is a pretty small place. Everyone knows everyone.

SmSh: So I guess you guys are the first act in Shanghai as a part of a series of Modular acts. And you're also on an Asian tour?

Gus:: Yeah, a small Asian tour. Japan and China.

Jaime: In the past we've done Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong... we've done Europe a lot but I think maybe six months ago we decided to try to play in Asia more because it's so much closer and it makes more sense to try to do it semi-regularly. In Japan and wherever else.

SmSh: I have to ask the pain-in-the-ass question. The one that annoys everyone... if you were to describe your music to someone who has never heard it...

Jaime: Ah. That one.

SmSh: Yeah you have to ask that one. If people click on this, they want the facts...

Gus:: I guess it's like party music.

Jaime: In all it's forms.

Gus:: Techno party. [Laughs.]

SmSh: I've read the term "mash-up" associated with you guys quite a bit. Do you feel it's an accurate term applied to your music?

Jaime: Well, mash up... when we started, I guess bootlegs were this whole new thing, so like you get a rap vocal and you put it on ACDC. To me that's what mash-up was when Too Many DJs first started doing it. And that was an interesting thing and we were playing that but it got old really quickly and done to death and it's still being done to death... so I don't think there's anything too interesting going on in it anymore.

But that name kind of stuck to people who were playing that music at the time, and although we don't really do that kind of mash up we got associated with that style.

I guess we are related to that, but it's such a bad term... it's like "funky".

Gus:: I quite like "funky". I'm going to bring that back. Groovy funky techno.

SmSh: Are you guys working on recording?

Jaime: Yeah, a bunch of remixes. We've kind of been very slack about it.

Gus:: We never saw ourselves as producers either. We kinda went as party guys into more serious DJs, but when you're DJing you get to that point we're you have to make your own stuff. You can keep slagging off people's music unless you��re making your own music as well. [Laughs.]

Jaime: We just did some remixes -- a Presets remix, a Tiga remix.

SmSh: What kind of stuff are you guys listening these days.

Jaime: As far as the techno stuff, some of the obvious stuff -- the new Tiga album I really like and the new Zombie Nation album is really good...

Gus:: Shadow Dancer...

Jaime: Shadow Dancer on the techno vibe. There some young guys on our label like Damn Arms and Gloves and Shazam...

Gus:: Gold and Silver.

Jaime: Gold and Silver, yeah they��re not on our label though, but we'd like them to be [Laughs.]

Gus:: We listen to a lot of our friends music because...

SmSh: You get it for free.

Gus:: Exactly you get it for free and they want your opinion... would you play it in the club, do you like it... yeah I like it, I've already bootlegged like 500 copies and I'm selling them out the boot of my car.

In my headphones I've been listening to The Never Ending Story soundtrack. It was done by Moroder and ... someone else...

SmSh: Is Falcor on it?

Gus:: Yeah, there's a sound on there like 'woooooooo' when they go flying. I��m also listening to another soundtrack called Mystery of the Third Planet, which is like an old Russian cartoon. I really like soundtracks... a lot of the time when I��m listening to music I'm in planes or trains or cars. I��ve also been listening to "Dark Side of the Moon" on repeat...

SmSh: Okay, so I thought of a very clever question at home, but on the cab ride over I��ve sort of reconsidered it and maybe it��s not all that clever but we'll try it anyways:

If you could get in a gang bang with any three historical figures, alive or dead, who would they be and why?

Jaime: Do they have to be sexy of is it just an odd situation...

SmSh: Three people. From history. Alive or dead. Gang bang. And why.

It��s tough... I��ll let you think about it.

Jaime: Well, I can think of odd combinations... I kind of have to make it three girls because I'm not the other way inclined, but if you didn't have to think of that aspect of it you could come up with some very freaky combinations. Like... Falcore. Hitler. And Marilyn Monroe.

SmSh: That sounds like a horrible gang bang though.

Jaime: Yeah, but... interesting.

It's one of those questions that I'll get home and then think of what I should have said...

SmSh: It's tough. It's tough. Because you would want to sound clever and witty... but at the same time it could be quite revealing.

Jaime: Can I email you my answer?

SmSh: Sure.

***

Tal Bachman - She's So High Above Me