Thursday, February 24, 2011

Brand Focus: Dansville

The second of our MTTM competition Brand Focuses and the spotlight is on the guys supplying the main prize a set with Mix n Blend at the legendary DANSVILLE!

We sat down with the brains of the Dansville operation, Brendan Meyer.


MTTM: How did the Dansville parties start out, where's the name come from and all that, tell us the story!

Dansville: The first parties started out at a small local bar in durbanville called kunskafee which had a small stage for bands to perform. I've been a big fan of electronic music since I started studying thanks to Tyron Kuypers (Bruce Willis??) & Graham Kennedy (Kennedy) the masterminds behind Brick City and all those kind of parties were only available in town at the time. I come from Durbanville
but stay out in town so the highlight of my month was the Homegrown parties. When I went to durbanville over some weekends the only thing really happening were some local bands playing their gigs out in Durbanville side which I got gatvol of, so one night out at one of
these gigs after the bands played their set I went to my car, grabbed a Ed Rush and Optical cd and started playing some drum & bass and obviously
the few people left over at the early hours of the morning started going crazy, it was then when I decided I'm gonna start throwing parties out in the north. I knew there
was a crowd for this kind of music in the ville, but didn't think it would grow into anything at that time, I think the people were just waiting for it to happen, and it happened at the right time.

The next day with a fakken huge babbalas the idea was still fresh in my mind & I started thinking up some names and realised I was trying too hard to think up "cool" names and kinda sticked with something that was just straight forward and said what it was, a "dans" in the "ville". I started up the group page on facebook and people slowly started joining. The guys that helped build Dansville to what it is today are Rohan Olwage (Infemy), Mark Ackermann (Hydraglyph, Construkt) & Steffen Olivier (beatjuice).
After a few gigs at Kunskafee I realised we needed a bigger venue were the bar also stayed open for longer and Blizzards
was the perfect venue for it. I think were the parties really took off and people really started to hear about it was when Jack Parow did a set at the first party for 2010 and we organised a braai outside of the venue which was a huge success. From there on bigger names came, bigger crowds came and we still proud to keep the scene alive out this side of the world were I think most people probably thought we are still boer.

MTTM: What music genre's is Dansville known for?

Dansville: When it started out it was D&B, Electro and trance but now its DnB, Electro and Dubstep

MTTM: What makes Dansville stand out from other party brands/events?

Dansville: I don't think Dansville stands out that much from other events I think the only difference it has is that it's the first of it's kind in Durbanville and the people were just waiting for it to happen. I also think that because it isn't dedicated to one music genre it caters for all so wether you like DnB, Electro or Dubstep you know it's gonna feature at a Dansville event. And obviously the D'ville crowd are fucking nuts so at the end of the day they make it happen and are always keen to lose some face!

MTTM: Past DJ's that have played for Dansville?

Dansville:  Hmmm! Hope I can remember them all but I'll start off with the resident guys, Construkt (Hydraglyph), Infemy, Beatjuice, Illtastic, Haezer, Niskerone, Hyphen, Dublusion, Idioteque, Dynamo, Blitkrieg, LG Fritz, Liver, Das Kapital, George Daniel, Bruce Willis??, SFR, JoNNY RoBoTIX, Half-Life, Totem, Tommy Gun, AM Stereo, & Kennedy, Sparrow, Marci X & Kylie B Sorry if I left anyone out :)



MTTM: We saw something a while ago pairing the Dansville name and Assembly, tell us more about that.

Dansville: That was actually something Dansville & the band Foto na Dans did together for the launch of their album DIE VLOED, we combined the 2 brands and held 3 events called Foto na Dansville at Assembly,
Klein Liberates and one at Blizzards. Always good to try different things I suppose. Big ups to all the guys that were involved and to Assembly for giving the opportunity.

MTTM: What do you as a promoter think of the MTTM concept?

Dansville: Personally I think it's the only way now a days for DJ's to help promote themselves and to have the opportunity for people to hear what they are capable of apart from actual gigs which is sometimes hard to get by. As a promoter I only make use of MTTM & Soundcloud to hear who's who and what they have to offer in terms of producing and mixing and from their I can judge who's got the skills and who doesn't, so MTTM is doing a great job :)!

MTTM: What does the future hold for Dansville?

Dansville: To keep organising great parties, building and keeping the scene alive alongside all the other awesome Party brands in Cape Town, maybe even getting a few internationals out this side one day….. ;)

MTTM: Looking forward to that!!

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