Now into their second year with successful club night 'Twitch" I caught up with Chris and Phil (Paddy, the other res is away in Germany) to find out more and how it all began.
How did Twitch start?
CMG: Twitch started life in some random field in the middle of Keady, Armagh. Myself and Paddy Towe along with Phil and a host of other local DJs braved the wind and rain to stick up a marquee at the infamous homemade jam. For those who where there it was definitely a night to remember.
Still buzzing from the weekend, the 3 of us met up and decided there was only one thing for it, we had to put on a night, and so twitch was born.
Where did the name come from?
PL: All three of us banging our heads off walls for a long time, I wish we had've kept the list of names we didn't use, some of them were ridiculous.
You just celebrated your first birthday, how has the year been for the Twitch?
CMG: The last year for twitch has been immense, and we have had some very memorable parties. When we first started the night, we weren’t really thinking about where we would be in a year or how successful the night would be, your where really just planning for the night ahead. I think after the 5th successful month it began to dawn on us that we might actually have something special going on here so we continued to work hard at the night and despite a few inevitable obstacles we still managed to pull through each month and continue to throw great parties.
Pl: It's been a great first year, things started off well and it just seems to keep picking up speed. I think we've done more than we'd hoped for, like getting Marc Ashken over was excellent but it's been down to our local guests more than anything
At Twitch you seem to support local talent a lot, do any local djs or producers stand out for you?
PL: We started off with the three of us wanting to play out and put on good parties but its developed into a means of giving other people gigs, and the quality of our guests has been great and we've tried to vary it when it comes to guests with a good mix of house, techno and a lot of other stuff as well. Belfast has so many good dj's and its crazy that some of them aren't getting any gigs. There's too many to single any one person out.
CMG: I think it would be unfair to pick out one or two people who have stood out simply because every single DJ who played for us over the past year has been fantastic and they have probably all been the main factors for the success of the night. What always took me by surprise was not only the quality of some of the DJs but the individuality among everyone who's played for us with each person bringing their own sound to the night.
How are you finding the local club scene?
PL: Really good, it's good to see a lot of smaller club nights starting up and the people running nights are supportive of each other. I think thats really important.
CMG: I think the scene in Belfast is definitely on the up again. Smaller nights seem to be back in fashion, with a new night springing up almost every month now. I think its fantastic that every week your almost certainly guaranteed there will be a choice of nights on that will cater to almost any musical test. I think the only thing that is hindering the club scene here from exploding wide open is a lack of suitable venues and our ludicrous opening hours. Hopefully that is all soon to change.
What clubs do you rate outside of Northern Ireland?
CMG: I suppose all of the obvious ones, Fabric, The End, Space, Amnesia…. Other memorable clubs would be Spundae in L.A, which was an eye opener to just how different the club scene in the U.S is to the UK. One of the most beautiful clubs i've been in was Razzamatazz in Barcelona.
PL: I was at The End in London a few weeks ago and it was a great place, the sound was amazing and the people there were all really sound, it's also good that it goes on to 8am. Was also at Razzamatazz in Barcelona earlier this year during Sonar, it was really cool, loads of rooms and unbelievable line-ups.
What artists and labels can we expect to hear played at Twitch?
CMG: For me one of the main factors to the success of twitch has always been in the variety of music we play as myself, Phil and Paddy all play very different styles of music. My sound has always been firmly routed within Techno. From myself your likely to hear anything from Par Grindvik on Drumcode or spectral to Kevin Gorman on CMYK or Apnea, Marc Ashken or Raudive on Leftroom or vakant , as well as some more housier stuff from the likes Simple Recordings or Conniseur.
PL: I always try to mix it up and not to get sucked into playing a lot of tracks by the same artist or on the same labels, but there's some really consistent labels out there like leftroom and , I'm loving a lot of Spanish labels at the minute like Factor City and Software, I love finding smaller labels that are consistently putting out really interesting and different stuff.
What format do all dj with?
PL: I mainly use vinyl, but i recently ventured into the world of using ableton live, it has its good and bad points, it means I can play my own re-edits out and have more control over what i'm playing but i prefer using vinyl as you have more control over the club, you can take things wherever you want its more spontaneous.
CMG: Generally I use CDJs. However on occasion I sometimes like to do a LIVE set. I have also combined both CDJs and LIVE along with the DJM and a Evolution UC33e, which has been fun but as it difficult to sync the two its not something I do out too often. The most recent addition to my set up has been a Sounbite Pro XL sampler which is a serious piece of kit. Eventually I would like to be using CDJs with Live for loops and effects in all my sets, incorporating both is definitely the future of music as far as im concerned.
With an infinite pit of cash at your disposal what would be your dream line-up?
CMG: Rtaher than name the obvious big name choices I would have to say Rejected, Johanes Heil (LIVE), Michal Ho, Danilo Vigorito, Marko Nastic
PL: Matthew Jonson, Ellen Allien, Magda, Michael Mayer, Phil Kieran.
With your first year over what's you future plans for Twitch?
PL: We're currently looking at bringing in more guests from overseas for next year, like with Marc Ashken we want to bring over up-and-coming artists, we've got good plans for 2008 so watch this space.
Can you provide a Twitch top 5 of 2007?
CMG: For me the stand out tracks over the past year at twitch where most certainly:
Inexc – Bittersweet
Athos – On The Run/Sleep Archive – Elephant Island (My own live re-edit)
Par Grindvik – Do Us a Part
Billy Dalessandro – That Trick She Knows
MarcAshken – Roots Dyed Dark (Beats Mix)
PL: If it was a top 5 for 2007 I'd say;
1. Mousedown - Sexy4All (DARYL Remix)
2. Shonky - Solar
3. Superflu - She
4. Canvas - The Cat
5. DARYL - Phoslitos
TWITCH MYSPACE
