Undercurrents is an ongoing column on SmartShanghai in which we profile Shanghai-based promoters and music makers living and putting on events in this city, specifically within the context of the larger cultural, economic, and arts landscape in Shanghai. These are your manufacturers of cultural capital, Shanghai. This is the business of art and music.

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For the past five years, Sub-Culture have been booking some of the most respected and unusual DJs and live electronic acts Shanghai has ever seen. And weirding people out at their Tuesday night film screenings. And making posters, and now T-shirts and generally being an inspiration to many fans of electronic music and bass culture in the city. Without them, our nightlife scene would undoubtedly be a much more mealy-mouthed and meager thing.

Now, as they celebrate five years with parties this weekend in Beijing and Shanghai, and prepare for their first Sub-Culture in Tokyo next week, founding father Drunk Monk takes us through the history and possible futures of the crew.

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Drunk Monk: It was an offshoot of Uprooted Sunshine, which is our reggae crew. We’d been doing reggae nights for two years before that, but we’re we’re into all kinds of electronic music, too, so this was the electronic wing of Uprooted. It started as a dubstep night, because this was back when dubstep was… good [laughs]. The Shelter opened, we had an opportunity to do another night at a good club with a good sound system so we started Sub-Culture. And it started off with mainly the same members as Uprooted — me, ChaCha, dji, Didje, Ubec, Esia and Arminda, though over the years a few more people have joined, Steven Lorenz for example.

Now we also have George Wyndham, Nick Muzyczka and Olivia Xiong, too. It was all dubstep at the start, but over the years it’s just kind of turned into music that we like that’s not reggae. The dubstep scene has changed and grown into other things and so have we. Saying “dubstep” these days you get funny faces from most people. Even though there’s a lot of good dubstep at the moment, it just gets hidden by all the shite.


Steven Lorenz


DM: Well, we’ve brought over people like DāM-FunK and Doc Daneeka, who played a straight-up classic house set, so it’s come a long way from when it was just dubstep. It’s mainly… I don’t know, it’s mainly British music, I guess. Now we just call it “bass music”, which is really vague, but vague is fine [laughs].


DM: To be honest, when we started we weren’t getting good turnouts. Compared to the other weekend events at The Shelter, we were probably the smallest turnout. People weren’t really getting the music because it’s kind of slow, but not slow. One time within the first year it was suggested that we move to a Thursday night because we weren’t getting the numbers. So it took a bit of time for people to get into what we were doing.


DM: I don’t know. It’s probably the most popular regular night down there. The last party we did was the busiest night the Shelter’s had all year, so that’s something.


DM: When we started Sub-Culture I was working with a promoter in Beijing, so we did do some bookings together in Beijing before this. We did Pinch, Kode9, the Bug. But then this guy moved to Italy and I didn’t know anyone else up there to work with. But now Dada’s opened up there and so we can throw parties in both cities. It seems to be working well. It’s building up there. The vibe’s a bit different, but that might be just because I don’t know so many people in the crowd. Pinch was really good up there. Scratcha was good. I have a feeling this Friday with Kode9 will be wicked.


Ubek


DM: That’s me, Chacha, Hamacide, Downstate. Andrew Rochfort is coming to do photographs for us. Two friends are coming from Manila, Red-I and Soulflower, and we’ve got Kode9 as well. He’s playing a festival called Electroglide on the Friday, which we all really want to go to, so the timing’s worked out really well.

The trip was all hooked up by Rumi and Skyfish, who we brought over a few months ago for Sub-Culture. While Rumi was here she did a track with ChaCha and Hamacide and it’s coming out on Black Smoker Records in Tokyo, which is quite a popular underground label. So we’re going over there to play the launch party. But the next day, on the Sunday, I’ve arranged the first of what I hope will be many Sub-Culture Tokyos. It’s an early afternoon and evening thing. All of us are playing that one. We’re also doing a reggae night on the Tuesday with a local crew from Tokyo.


Flyer design by Kim Laughton


DM: Yeah exactly, especially people like Kode9, who we bring every year, same with Pinch and Shakleton if they’re available. Kode9, each time he comes he stays for at least week. Pinch is always really happy to come back. So yeah, everyone who comes loves it. I think they’re always really shocked by the vibe and the reaction in the Shelter. Lots of them don’t expect much in terms of the sound system and the crowd. They’re maybe prepared for a small turnout or for people to not really get their music, but then they see the reaction in the Shelter and they’re blown away.


DM: That’s something we’ve wanted to do for quite a while. It’s more of a self-indulgent thing for me. I’ve collected posters and screen-prints for a while and for every party we do, we commission an artist to design a poster, which is then screen printed up by Idle Beats. Over the years we’ve met a load of great poster artists and so we thought it was time to make T-shirts. Now we’ve finally found a guy who has really good quality shirts, so for this weekend’s parties we’ve got a T-shirt designed by Zeke Clough, who does all Shakleton’s artwork. Then, all going well, after Chinese New Year, we’ll start doing a small clothing label. I don’t know, I’ve got to the point where I need to do something that’s not always inside a dark sweaty club. I’d like to wake up in the morning and work on something that’s not just a party.




DM: Absolutely. I love the Tuesday nights. It’s always free though we get a little bit of money from the bar, a couple of hundred kuai, and we’ve been saving it for years and we’ve finally been able to buy a nice projector and screen and everything else we need. So we almost have a portable cinema now. That’s another thing I’ll be doing a lot of next year, movie screenings but in different locations and working with Idle Beats on that, making movie posters.

Every week we’re amazed at how busy it is. We’ve created this nice group of movie buffs, people into weird movies who get together once a week. In some ways, this will sound funny, but I get more excitement from the cinema night than the club nights and the best time for me all month is when the new poster comes into my inbox. Of course I still enjoy the gigs, but it’s being able to do a whole range of things, not just nightlife-centered.


DM: [Laughs] Not really, but mainly because when I’m not working, the last thing I want to is go to a club. I’ve still never ever been to Bar Rouge. But I think my own taste in music has become broader in spectrum. I was pretty pretentious for a long time about music, I now realize. Even when we first opened Shelter I wouldn’t even give house or techno a second look. I was a bit of a pretentious twat for a while with what I was playing. I was playing weird for weird’s sake, abstract stuff just so other people would check me out, and then a couple of years ago I realized that maybe I was just being a bit of a dick [laughs].

These days I don’t give a fuck what people think of the music I play. I just play what I like and that could be classic house anthems as much as bass music. DJing’s become a lot more fun in the past couple of years. I’ve stopped caring about my own image, in a way, stopped trying to impress people, I guess.




DM: We don’t make anything off the door. We aim to cover our costs, you know. But there are so many of us involved that even if we do make some money, by the time we split it between everyone it’s hardly anything. We always share everything, all the profit, between the whole crew. But that’s not the point of the night. It costs a lot to do the posters and the fliers, but hopefully it all ads to the feel of the night, makes it something more permanent.


DM: Yeah, Flying Lotus, but he’s way, way expensive. We’ve talked about bringing Theo Parish, but he’s pricey, too. We don’t book expensive people, or if we do, we don’t pay them as much as they probably earn elsewhere. People have got to want to come over here and play. We don’t want people to pay more than 60rmb on the door. All this 500 or 600rmb for Skrillex… Sure, he’s a big name and I’m sure he’s expensive, but that’s an obscene amount of money. I don’t know anyone, bands or anyone I’d pay that much to see. We want to keep things as cheap as possible, just so it’s open to a wider group of people. Next month we are teaming up with Berlin-based collective Leisure Sound and bringing over Objekt and Puzzle. That will be sick.


DM: There’s a nice little scene of quality stuff here now. Five years ago you were happy that someone was doing something, and you were quite forgiving on the quality, but now it’s getting to a point where what’s coming out of this country is competing with what’s going on overseas. It’s of an international standard. Take Tzu Sing, who does Stockholm Syndrome. Those are great — they have an idea, an image, they’re aiming for something. I also really like what Kim [Laughton] is doing with TimeFly and his installations at Tzu Sing’s night. He keeps raising the bar with his craft every time I see him.

Same for Sub-Culture, each member of the crew is really coming into their own. Steven Lorenz, his new productions are fantastic and he’s a really good DJ. I think he’s going to be really exciting in the future and he’s still a very young guy. ChaCha is really doing her thing. Her solo stuff under the name Faded Ghost is getting really interesting now, really abstract. It’s very different. She’s also finished the AM444 album now and next year she should be focusing on that, and I think there’s also going to be a solo album.


ChaCha speaks at the Red Bull Music Academy

So yeah, it’s nice to be working with people who are really honing their skills. Same with the rest of Shanghai, really. For years I wasn't really into the Acid Pony Club but their live stuff is fantastic, and they’re warming up for Kode9 on Saturday. And Downstate is just phenomenal. He’s the best live electronic musician in Shanghai right now. And Hamacide too, his productions are just sick.

We’re talking to some people about doing a Sub-Culture night in Seoul, too, early next year.


DM: No, just for our crew and other Shanghai DJs to go over and get some exposure playing over there. It’s all just for the music scene, to enjoy it and watch it grow. It’s just nice to be part of something.

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Drunk Monk and the rest of Sub-Culture have the Shelter this Saturday, with special guest Kode9. On the door, it's 60rmb. More info here.