Interview: Siesta

It's like a jungle sometimes it make me wonder... - By Morgan Short, May 14, 09



Siesta is "Phreaktion", the longest-running, nicest, and most loveliest platform for the mass dissemination of drum n bass music in Shanghai. Although synonymous with the one genre of dance music, the influence of Phreaktion extends into all that which comprises "nightlife" in Shanghai, and it's one of those things that makes living in this city terrific. Salt of the earth, voice of resistance, pillar of the community type stuff.

This Friday, Phreaktion celebrates ten years of drum n bass warfare in South East Asia, so get off your lazy ass, go to the Andy C party and say thanks to someone who deserves all the success in the world and all sorts of nice things.

Andy C is the biggest name in drum n bass in the world today. Check him out on the MySpace here. Pre-sale tickets to the show can be purchased here.

SmartShangahi waited until she was a little drunk and then blind-sided her caught up with her at her weekly party EKLEKTIK at The Shelter to talk about promoting parties, the past, present and future of Shanghai nightlife, what a nice guy Goldie is, and leading kids astray at Bonbon.

***

How did you get into promoting parties?

Siesta: Well, I was on holiday in Taipei and I heard drum n bass for the first time, and I thought, 'oh this is wicked,' so I went back to Hong Kong and there was already a small crew doing their thing there, and it just picked up from there...

Where you DJing yourself at the time?

Siesta: No, I was a promoter first but I think in the fourth year or so I started DJing. Because from like 10pm to 12am there would be no one showing up and I'd have to pay someone to play to no one, so I thought I might as well do it myself.

So you were a promoter in Hong Kong for a few years before moving to Shanghai. What were the parties in Hong Kong like?

Siesta: We were doing like mid-sized events with four or five hundred people. Back then the whole rave thing was very fashionable. But now it's all kind of died... It was more of a fad and after a few years of it people got bored and went back to the Top 40 clubs and KTV.

Hong Kong right now is very commercial and you have very few people doing the left field things -- everything is back to a small scale.

Do you go back to Hong Kong?

Siesta: [Laughs.] Only for visa runs...

How did you come to move to Shanghai then?

Siesta: My real job brought me here. I was doing trading. Like car audio stuff. Manufacturing in China, importing, exporting -- that kind of stuff.

So you started throwing parties five years ago in Shanghai?

Siesta: Yeah, it started off very small and we would have around a hundred people coming out. At the time Madam Zung was open and around then was the whole underground uprising thing. Now all these parties are very established -- Uprooted, Antidote and so on -- but they all started around then. They all started four or five years ago. So I think it was just the right place at the right time.

Madam Zung was kind of short lived and then I moved to Pegasus and was bringing in international DJs there. And then a few parties later, Bonbon asked me to go over...

So when you're doing these big DJ parties, flying people in, you have to go pick them up at the airport...

Siesta: Wine them and dine them, yeah...

Have there been any over the years who have been just complete assholes? Like pre-Madonna...

Siesta: Most of them... almost all of them have been good. You have a couple, well I wouldn't call them assholes, but they're... high maintenance. And they don't have the time for you, they don't want to hang out, they just want to stay at the hotel, fly in, fly out.

Looking at the club scene in Shanghai over the years how would you say it's changed?

Siesta: I would say from like 2004 to 2006, that's when things really exploded -- everyone was doing very well. The way everyone developed, it was really, really fast. And then in 2007 it all kind of hit a plateau and a lot of things got tapped out. When we all started there was a huge expat community supporting us, but a few years later they all left.

And now I think it's like everyone is starting over. The crowd we were originally marketing to, they all left. So everyone is starting over, kind of.

Looking at this year, it looks like things are taking off again, and this time you have a lot of good Chinese websites, local websites, and internet radio -- all these Chinese medias that are helping us target a more local crowd to build it back up again. And it's more viable in the long run to target people who will be here for while rather than expats who will leave in a year or two.

So what are the standout parties from the five years in Shanghai? Goldie twice... Goldie at I Love Shanghai must have been the tops.

Siesta: Yeah, the first time Goldie came that was something very, very special. Picking him up at the airport I was like, holy shit I'm meeting Goldie... and he had that really hard exterior.

He's streetz, man. He's totally streetz.

Siesta: Yeah, and then you meet him and he's the sweetest guy, so it was really good.

Did he have a big rider -- Chivas in the hotel room?

Siesta: No actually he's a vodka guy. Give him a bottle of vodka and he's alright.

Yeah, he's very easy going and he met, in his words, "the love of his life" in Shanghai.

Bjork?

Siesta: [Laughs.] No, not Bjork. Someone else, but they met here and now they're living together... but yeah doing events over the years it gets you kind of jaded so it's more like which DJs you got on with the best with that you remember. There were a few DJs like Blame and Shimon and Goldie that we became really good friends, and that made the party special -- not because of their amazing DJ skills or the crowd or whatever but because you made a connection with people.

So how did you come to start working with Bonbon? They approached you to do some bigger events for them... Looking back on that experience, how was that? Positive or negative?

Siesta: I think I've been very lucky that I've been able to work with Madam Zung and Pegasus and Bonbon -- all these opportunities have given me a different kind of platform to do what I do.

Yeah, working with Bonbon was mostly positive, and yeah we had our difference but I stayed with them until the end. I think it was.. I don't know -- I always though of Bonbon as a means to get a kind of music to a certain crowd who would never come to The Shelter or who would never go to a drum n bass party, you know.

And hopefully a handful of them would walk away and say, 'I actually enjoyed that, I don't know what that was but it was good'. Bonbon played a crucial part in bringing that music to that crowd.

And you know what, you have to give them credit because they could have played it safe and done Top 40 hip hop, or done top 100 DJs, but they didn't -- they took a chance on other stuff. They went outside the box...

Yeah, they went outside the box, stomped on the box, pissed on the box, and then kicked the box into the fucking ocean.

Siesta: [Laughs.] Yeah, and now they need a new box.

Well done. That was a funny exchange right there. Just for the record I never had a problem with Bonbon. I think going out clubbing is supposed to be covered in puke. That's called "doing it up right".

Siesta: Yeah, and you know Andy C was supposed to play there and when they closed I took it to other clubs and none of them wanted to do it. That says a lot, you know...

The clubs in Shanghai tend to be pretty conservative I guess.

Siesta: Yeah, so in that respect you have to give Bonbon credit because they did have a lot of balls. Even though they were never worrying about the turn-out to the club with the open bar and all...

Those dudes own like... MacDonald's and fucking Jupiter too so it's not like they're worried about cash. Do you think if and when, hopefully -- praise god -- hopefully, they reopen, you think you'd go back to work with them again?

Siesta: Well, they haven't asked me. It also depends if I get a real job. After ten years I kind of need a real job...

Seriously... this promoting parties thing. I mean, come on. Come on now. It's getting silly.

Siesta: Yeah, I need a real job.

*Speaking into the tape recorder loudly*

So if any companies out there want to hire me...

So tell us about Andy C.

Siesta: I've actually waited ten years to get Andy C. I've never had a chance to book him before. When Bonbon closed, the easiest thing to do would have been to cancel but I was like, fuck this is 10 years of Phreaktion and it's Andy C. You know. So at the end of the day we're going ahead.

So I'm also viewing it as an indicator of where drum n bass is at in Shanghai. It will say a lot about the whole scene has developed -- there is no one bigger in drum n bass than Andy C, so we'll see what happens.

It'll be good. Don't worry about it. So do you listed to other stuff besides drum n bass?

Siesta: Yeah, I listen to everything.

Come on, everyone says that shit.

Siesta: Well you know I recently developed a new love for... uh ... what is it called.

Death metal?

Siesta: No, no. ..uh

Grind metal?

Siesta: [Laughs.] No, nothing to do with metal. Oh. Indie rock. Is what they call it. Yeah, a new found love for rock music. Also I'm still listening to stuff from DJ Zinc, who I brought out in March. He calls it "crack house", but I'm really liking that.

I wouldn't get into promoting indie rock shows. I hear it's not all that lucrative. Who are your favorite Shanghai DJs?

Siesta: I can't answer that because then people will hate me!

Oh come on. We'll get people hating me. I'll pick the fights for you. Here: "Carl Lorimer is the worst DJ ever. The worst."

Siesta: [Laughs.] Okay, I like Blaise. If you're making me answer. I think he's one of the most under-rated DJs in Shanghai because he doesn't play other places than The Shelter too much. But he's really well-rounded and can play everything... yeah but I don't really want to name like five names.

I'm just happy you didn't say Carl Lorimer.


***

Ed's note: Just kidding about Carl -- he's one of our fav's.

Celebrate ten years of Phreation this Friday at the Zhijiang Dream Factory. Andy C will be playing, along with MC Lowqui and the local drum n bass junta. Pre-sale tickets are available here, but they¡¯re going fast. You can also just show up and pay at the door as well if you cant get yourself sorted until the last minute.

Louder.cn has more on Andy C here (in Chinese).

carte

Jun 01, 09

cool sis..
sorry about missing her beijing party
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