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Interview: Electrograssman

Looking forward to Electrograss at the Shanghai JZ Fest - By Morgan Short, Oct 14, 09

Nathan Michael -- aka The Melkman -- is a DJ, producer, promoter, former 'Man in China' for Gibson Guitars, organizer of the Electrograss stage at the Shanghai JZ Festival, and bringer of the cream.

Nathan has lived in China for close to one billion years now, and has wracked up an impressive resume of working on and with China-based festivals (several Midi Festivals, Beijing Pop Festivals, Split Works¡¯ Yue Festival, etc.). He also organized his own mini-festival, Electrograsss, which took place at a much beleaguered Donghu Hotel a few months ago.

In anticipation of the Electrograss portion of the Shanghai JZ Festival, SmartShanghai talked to Nathan about putting the stage together, his own musical projects, and Sebastian Bach being awesome.

***


Nathan: Originally, it was through Zhang Fang, the guy who organizes the Midi Festival in Beijing. I was sponsoring Midi because I was working for Gibson. I organized the Gibson Hard Rock stage. He wanted to do a Midi in Shanghai so he found Lao Ren, the JZ guy, to be the venue-slash-government guanxi guy and he found me to be the promoter-slash-sponsorship beggar guy.

That was earlier this year, and I was basically working with Lao Ren for three months on that, but the Midi guy was planning this much better Midi...


Nathan: Yeah. The government was paying for the whole festival, so we realized that "fuck, it's a better festival" and all the kids online were talking about going to that one, but that's how myself and Lao Ren bonded.


Nathan: It wasn't that though, it was totally my decision. It was weird because I already had sponsors confirmed, but we realized, "shit all the kids are going to go to the other one." So there was like a four day period of "should I do it, should I do it?"

And then the media is like writing, No... Yes... No... Yes. So it was kind of fun. [Laughs].


Nathan: [Laughs]. But yeah, I had done the separate Electrograss one and I had always talked to Lao Ren about doing a bigger electronic one, because he's got the skills and the guanxi and whatnot. And I was always just going to work for him for a while because he wanted to do bigger stuff, but in the end he just saw the first Electrograss and wanted that crowd as well.

He wants to make JZ Festival not just a straight Jazz festival. He's been to the North Sea Festival in Denmark like five or six times, and at that one they have like heavy metal bands, and Mars Volta played there and so on. So he's thinking, "okay jazz festival -- it's like what it means in the West," which is not a pure jazz festival.


Nathan: Yeah, yeah...


Nathan: For three years actually. We had a Gibson Stage and we had Suffocated, and more like the sort of guitar enthusiasts, skills, flying around the fret board... stuff that was really popular in the '80s, which they still love in northern China. It was all those sort of bands: Tang Dynasty, Spring and Autumn -- Kaiser Kuo's band -- just sort of those sort of people who we thought would purchase Les Pauls for twice the price they are in the States.

But yeah, I just wanted to go to Midi and make it cool anyways. When I left Gibson, they stopped doing it. The people at Gibson wanted to go in a different direction. I also sponsored the Beijing Pop Festival a few years, which was pretty awesome because it was bigger and had better acts -- Supergrass, Sebastian Bach [Ex-lead singer of Skid Row and all-around crazy person], who was actually an enormous hit. [Laughs].


Nathan: He was super funny. He wore this big Chinese gown and was just ridiculous. And he was awesome in the press conference. He walked in and there was all these metal heads there and he was like [mimics hair metal operatic screech], "IIII Reeemember Youuuu."

Like every once in a while, someone would ask a really dumb question and he just launch into [reprises heavy metal screech], "18 and Liiffefeee, yeah!"


Nathan: I've been in Shanghai for seven years, but lately I've just been DJing and doing silly waidi tours. Also, spending a lot of time just making beats at my house. That's sort of the direction I'm going in more. I'm also becoming a yoga teacher in the long run.


Nathan: I've always been into a lover of all genres but not everything in it of course. Initially, I'd guess when I was young I used to listen to gangster rap and Rage Against the Machine. I'm from Minnesota, you know. And then more into golden era of Hip Hop. And then I got really into Drum n Bass in college, and that's when I got my turntables. So Hip Hop, Rock, and Drum N Bass are my influences, but lately I like playing a lot of World Music stuff.

I guess I would describe my production style as taking stuff that's really not funky and very white and making it sound funky. Dave Mathews Band, Steely Dan, Allman Brothers, I'll sample that...

[Ed's Note: Taste the goods. The Melkman performs at 6pm on Saturday.]






Nathan: Yes. Totally. Here's the stage. You can have your banner. Yeah, I think that Shanghai has enough for it too. I mean, The Shelter actually does cool shit. And the fact that it's here is great. Even in major cities in the States there is usually only one of those that's that cool. I think that partially due to the ease of the economic situation here, there's a great creative community with international people. So I want to have the chance with Electrograss and say, you know, "we're headlining this shit and it's actually that good."


Nathan: Well, if it's sunny on Saturday afternoon and Uprooted Sunshine is rocking with a bunch of people, then it fits pretty damn well. And I think it's really cool to have Drum n Bass there as well, because there is a lot of local people into that scene. I also wanted to get just a good sampling of what's out there.

A little bit of everything.


Nathan: Well, I think the main draw is the festival itself, you know. I think it's the best thing to do on the weekend with the weather and being outside. It would be cool to have international acts as well too...


Nathan: Well, yeah I'm looking forward to Freshly Ground. A lot of them I guess. Cui Jian, I've seen a couple times and he's pretty cool. US3 will be awesome as well. Actually, I'm not going to be seeing any of them. [Laughs.] But Isaradixie would be cool. I like Cold Fairyland too.


Nathan: Yeah well, everyone has their own deal. Ego is in there...


Nathan: [Laughs.] No, no...


Nathan: Well, doing a music festival is like being a diplomat. There are so many people to make happy. I think if you could successfully do a music festival in Shanghai you could also like make peace in Afghanistan or some shit like that. I mean, Lao Ren, that's what this dude is. He just makes everyone happy. You have to be a master of being buddies with everyone.

But yeah, they've just slaved on it, and it's not for the financial reward. He's got all these other businesses on the side which help out -- the school, the theatre camp. I think he could do truly amazing things in the future if the right sponsorship was there. You just need that communication with the brands. These brands throw out money like crazy on dumb shit, but if they gave it to the right person -- like 3 million rmb -- bananas cool stuff would happen.

But I think that this year is such a big step because the festival is bigger and cooler than it ever was.


Nathan: Well, Bacardi is there. I think Element Fresh is doing the catering, and there should be Chinese options there as well.


Nathan: Sunny. Beautiful.


["Laughs" all around.]

***


More of The Melkman at his MySpace page right here. Send over your friend request and become internet friends with him.

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