Overdose.am doesn’t just report about art, music, fashion and food. We get involved too. Under the name Next Monday’s Hangover (named after our weekly night life guide) we host electronic music festivals. Here, we offer a platform for local music and art talents with whom we try to create a different world. Next up: Buiten Westen, NMH’s new summer festival. In the coming weeks we will interview all the creative parties that we will work with for the festival to give you a small preview what is to come.
Part 3: BlackOut – stage host
BlackOut is a concept that is orientated exclusively around house music. The classic U.S. house sound, but also modern developments from Ibiza, the U.K. and Berlin. It once started as a house spin-off from Dekmantel, together with an exclusive disco and an exclusive techno night. Of these three only BlackOut has managed to survive, and its success is still growing. This summer BlackOut will take over a stage at Buiten Westen, so I spoke with Dekmantel head honchos Thomas Martojo and Casper Tielrooij and resident DJ Michael Jacques about their vision and plans.What makes BlackOut more than just another house party?
Michael: “BlackOut is about quality house, the best from the past but also the music of the moment. We try to keep all the good things from before with us, to respect the past and the roots of the music, but also to keep an eye open for its future.”
Thomas: “We’ve had eight editions in Studio 80 now, in which we’ve managed to book artists from the U.S. (Mike Huckaby, Kerri Chandler), Berlin (Prosumer) and the U.K. (Joy Orbison, Julio Bashmore). A lot of the spectrum of influences in house music.”
Casper: “The only ‘movement’ which we haven’t really had is Jamie Jones and co, but that is such a hype right now that we can’t book them with our budget.”
Joy Orbison at BlackOut:
A lot of concepts that pop-up nowadays have a lot of focus on everything but music; decorations, performance and such don’t seem to matter as much as BlackOut. How do you guys see this?
Thomas: “For us music is the most important thing. Good artists and great sound is what influences the vibe at a party most in my opinion. Of course you can also achieve a good vibe by going all out with decorations and other gimmicks, but this is our priority.”
Casper: “We might go more in that direction when we have bigger locations. There is more space for extras then, but it will always be second to the music.”
You’ve moved from Studio 80 to the MC Theater for Queen’s Night and you’re going outdoor. What’s next? Where are you heading?
Thomas: “We want to do less club nights in the future, and more special bigger editions at locations that offer something extra. We want to create complete productions in our own vision.”
Michael: “I guess that’s the extra dimension we want to add to BlackOut in addition to the music.”
Who is Wayne Horse?
Casper: “When we started with BlackOut we needed new artwork, something very different from BlackOut. We knew Wayne Horse via some people we worked with before, and we really liked his work, so we asked him. He is great to work with, a real creative mind and his ideas have never dissapointed us yet.”
Michael: “For Buiten Westen we have some plans to take this cooperation to the next level, and involve him in our stage.”
Artwork by Wayne Horse:
BlackOut is a spin-off from Dekmantel, what is the difference between the two?
Thomas: “Dekmantel does a lot of different things in a lot of different musical genres. The things we do with Dekmantel can go in multiple directions which is a lot of fun to do, but sometimes its also nice to do something more defined where people know what to expect. We started three spin-off concepts from Dekmantel to experiment with this, a disco night, a techno night and a house night which was BlackOut. The other two didn’t survive, and Blackout is still growing bigger and bigger. Of course there are some DJs that you might see at both BlackOut and Dekmantel, but there are also a lot that we would never book for BlackOut, but have had at Dekmantel before.”
Michael: “I got involved with BlackOut as a DJ and promoter because it is the sound I also stand for. I was already part of the Dekmantel agency when the guys asked me to take this step and I’ve been part of BlackOut ever since. Together we’ve created something new.”
Tell me some more about your stage at Buiten Westen!
Michael: “All three of us will be present, and we have three international headliners. Blawan from the UK, Prosumer from Berlin and Levon Vincent from New York. The whole range of diversity in house music we stand for. Local support comes from mr. sexy house himself Makam, and upcoming DJs Bob Nagel and Maarten Bloem.”
Thomas: “Blawan is someone we are very happy to have. A lot of people tried to bring him to the Netherlands for this summer, as he is one of the leading men of what is happening in the UK right now. He had his major break through last year, but he convinced us that he would be a good closing act when we booked him in Paradiso recently. His productions can be very dark with techno influences, but there are also a lot of UK and garage influences, and his DJ set in Paradiso was really funky.”
Michael: “Another real hero is Prosumer, resident DJ of the panoramabar in Berlin. The way he mixes records is incredible. A lot of old stuff, but all very, very good.”
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