“A Night With...”: Leo Pollock catches up with Michael Mayer and Derren Smart about the new party set to innovate the London scene.

The electronic music industry has been plagued for some time with an obsession with names. After the early rave scene, when dance music was new, innovative and captivating, naturally it became a commodity: people became aware of the profitability of the club scene and capitalized on it. With such a huge weekly demographic committed to consistently going out, it was only a matter of time before people became aware of its value economically. With the growing popularization of dance music, DJs became increasingly famous and as such could be used as crowd-pullers to ensure the success and revenue of a party. As a result, it has became a common occurrence to fill a club's line-up with a plethora of big names to ensure numbers, rather than making the music paramount in importance. And so we have a scene where the presence of say one Minus DJ on the bill can be more important than the actual quality of the music. Welcome, then, this rare phenomenon on the club scene, constructed by a promoter unique in his philanthropic attitude to the masses and inaugurated by one of the most groundbreaking producers and DJs on the scene: “A Night With…”. To get a full insight into this new gem of London's clubland, we caught up with the first guest, Michael Mayer one of the promoters, Derren Smart, formerly of T Bar, ahead of the launch party.

First up, we have Michael Mayer, co-founder and co-owner of the acclaimed and renowned Kompakt group, giving us his take on the party, the industry, as well as a heads up on what he'll have in store for us.

It's rare that a DJ has the chance at the moment to play alone for a full night—usually there are a plethora of attendant residents with whom to share the decks. Are you looking forward to having free reign for a full night?

It's a rare thing indeed... which makes it even more exciting. When I started DJing in the late 80s it was a normal thing to play the whole night. When shortly after the big raves came up it seemed to be more important to print as many names as possible on the poster. I'll never understand the concept of programming 45 minutes sets. An ideal night should follow a constant flow, there shouldn't be any breaks or changes if you want to get properly lost. I'm very looking forward to this night and I'll bring an entourage of friends with me in order to enjoy it to the max!


What will this constitute in terms of set progression?

Like always, the common denominator will be a 4/4 beat but that's all that's provided. I'm currently re-organizing my record collection due to moving to a new apartment. Naturally, I'm coming across a myriad of old faves so I might very well bring some along. The great advantage of playing 8h+ is to have time to dive deeper into certain moods and styles. With the usual 2-4 hours sets you can merely take short detours which is often not doing justice to the music.


Your sets are renowned for their eclecticism, are you planning to indulge in even more obscure tracks then you might otherwise be able to?

Sure, why not? Whatever turns us on : )


What can the lucky few who attend this party expect?

Apparently, a potent soundsystem, a great host and a very motivated DJ. There might be some drinks available, too.


For me this is a welcome change in the industry: a night specifically programmed around the music, not profitability. One DJ chosen to take us on their specific musical journey, and an intimate audience. How do you feel about playing this kind of gig? Do you think that this kind of night is emblematic of the scene in London?

Luckily, I get to play long sets quite often. But still, there's mostly a resident DJ playing the first couple of hours or so. I've got a longstanding passion for warm ups which probably stems from our Total Confusion parties here in Cologne where we mostly played ambient until the club was completely rammed... the suspense was incredible. You can imagine what happened when the first kickdrum was played around 2 o'clock! Anyhow, kudos to Derren for this rather radical concept. Hope I'm not catching a stomach flu before Saturday!



Also, what have you been up to of late in the studio and with Kompakt? Can we expect some new releases this year from you or from Supermayer?

After a pretty long studio break I did a remix for Manchester's Delphic. Apart from that I'm knee deep into preparing my Immer 3 mix CD. It's quite a suicide mission after Immer 1 did so amazingly well in certain end of the decade charts. But hey, no risk no fun. I'm enjoying the process a lot and I'm confident that I'll be able to come up with something decent. Supermayer is on hold as Aksel (Superpitcher) is about to wrap up his new solo album. Nevertheless, we're already looking forward to new adventures!



Next Derren Smart spills the beans on his new concept, what he and co-promoter Rob Star are trying to achieve and all the vital information about the parties in the coming months.



Tell me a bit more about why you decided to part ways with T Bar after all this time?

After 5 years of programming and promoting T bar I decided to leave due to a change in what a considered one of the main factors of T bar’s success and that was to change the free entry policy and introduce door charges. I had supported and upheld the no door charge policy since it’s introduction in the early stages of T bar and felt that it would be hypocritical of me to change status at this time. I also felt that now was the right time to move on to develop concepts and ideas that being committed to the one venue made difficult to present.


Next, what was your impetus behind putting on this night?

I wanted to present a party that on the surface seemed very basic and stripped back but in actual fact is quite complex and challenges what is normally expected of a club experience.


I like the concept: a night of pure musical indulgence from what looks like will be some of the biggest and most exciting names in the industry. How do you expect these mammoth sets to pan out?

I’m not sure to be honest, what I do know is that playing a warm-up set can be one of the hardest and challenging sets to play, it should provide an introduction of what’s to come, it should complement the artist that proceeds you, it’s a selfless musical statement that should excite and pave way for the evening ahead. It will be interesting to see how the artists plan for this stage but it will be equally exciting to experience the entirety of their musical journey.


The location. Is this going to change with every event? Can you tell us anything more about it without giving the game away?

We have secured an amazing unused warehouse space in the heart of East London, it will be the exclusive home for ‘A Night With...’ and will not be used by other promoters. When I first stepped out of the lift onto the top floor of this imposing space overlooking the Thames it blew my mind, it was perfect for this event, framing an intimate dance floor with it’s original features I knew it would work. BUT due to a license issue that was out of our control we were unable to use the space until the next party on April 10th. We could have gone ahead without a license but when you bring over an international artist to play for 8 hours to an intimate crowd of dedicated party goers, you just don’t take that risk! The space we are using in London bridge on this one off occasion is an amazing little warehouse with lots of character and I know it will be embraced.


Are you excited to be working with Rob Star on this series of parties? The two of you together must be an unstoppable promoter partnership.

Rob is a good friend and we have worked together previously when I gave him the Friday nights at the old T bar, we also did the Loco Dice Under 300 tour together so it’s great that we are working together again on ‘A Night With…’


You kick things with an almighty bang with the great Michael Mayer. Are you excited about this? I'm sure he'll serve up a set of the most eclectic music.

Michael has played for me on many occasions and is not only an incredible artist and character but also a friend, there is no better feeling that being able to invite a friend to come and play, especially when you know how much fun is going to be had. Of course I’m excited about the music I’ll be the first and last on the dancefloor…


And in April you have Matt John, followed by future appearances from Tobi Neumann, Steve Bug, Anja Schneider, Magda, Heartthrob, Ellen Allien. How did you go about programming this type of party? There are so many DJs that I would relish the chance to see play for 8 hours without stopping...

Well that was simple, the artists selected for the first series are friends that I have had the pleasure to spend some truly memorable times with, this was thanks to them being incredible artists and myself being a promoter, it really wasn’t that difficult, in fact the hardest was to narrow it down to the 10 artists that are Series One 2010. Series Two will offer me the chance to work in the same vein but also to introduce artists that I haven’t had the pleasure of working with, yet!


It seems from the slew of big names you've already secured that DJs are really excited to be invited to play for these parties. Likewise, there's quite a buzz on the club scene about it, much like your Loco Dice party last year. Do you think that people are tiring of big clubs with an over-abundance of big names and are now leaning more towards quality? Do you think the increasing demand for nights such as this indicates the need for change in the industry? Or of a changing landscape in clubland?

I don’t want to comment too much on the state of the London club scene, there are some clubs that are attempting to make the changes needed to keep pushing things forward, fabrics ‘on and on’ is an example of this, a big club, big names but a new clubbing experience, fantastic. ‘A Night With...’ simplifies the clubbing experience to a degree but then again offers so much more. To have DJs excited to play and to have people excited to go out makes me incredibly happy and proud and hopefully we will achieve what we set out to... But lets not forget this is a disco, ultimately I want the people that have spent their money on a ticket to have the best experience they can in that moment and time, make a friend, meet a lover or just dance till they drop.


Finally, anything else you'd like to tell us about this series of parties?

After the next party we are simplifying things more, the date will be announced but the artist won’t be, you will have to trust in us, I’m sure some people may think it’s a promoter trick just in case an artist drops out or we don’t have anyone. I can assure you that this is not the case. Clues will be given during the weeks prior to the date but hopefully people will see our intention and embrace the surprise element of turning up to experience 8 hours of Magda or Steve or Ellen or Anja...


“A Night With…Michael Mayer” takes place on Saturday 6 March 2010 at a secret East London location. The event is advance tickets only, available here