|
 |
|
|
|
|
Dean Millson – Dark, Deep and Twisted
Kick starting his DJ career at the age of twenty-five some would say that Dean Millson had a late start in the dance music industry. Over the last five years he has certainly made up for lost time with achievements that include playing Melbourne’s Two Tribes, Godskitchen and Sunshine People events. He has supported some of the biggest names in the business including Sasha, John Digweed and Anthony Pappa as a guest DJ and has run many parties featuring artists such as Steve Porter, Omid16b, Matthew Dekay and Chris Fortier as a successful promoter.
With already a long list of credentials to his name Dean has no plans on slowing down. Starting the year off by supporting Lee Burridge on his Australian tour and the recent announcement of a main room set at Paul van Dyk, 2006 looks to be his biggest year yet. Charlee caught up with Dean to talk about his musical past, the age of technology, lazy Sundays and his not so private function.
Your love for music started at a young age. Tell us more about this?
I’ve always enjoyed music from a variety of levels. I started playing Piano when I was about seven years old and pretty much took lessons all the way until I was eighteen. From about sixteen I started getting lessons in Jazz Piano, which was what I really enjoyed doing. I had an amazing teacher in Steve Sedergreen (the Sedergreens are possibly the most famous Jazz family in Australia) who really opened my eyes with respect to how music is put together, some of the rules that should be followed – then how I should go about breaking them. It was something I was going to follow as a career until I was accepted into design school and made the decision that it might be a more stable job option as opposed to being a musician. I am still more than happy with the decision I made, however it’s kind of funny how things turn full circle as if I was to make the decision today it might be a little more difficult.
My earliest memory of music really making an impact on me was probably around the age of ten (1986) when a close relative and I stumbled upon some Hip Hop being played on the radio. We both sat there transfixed at the sounds they were making later to discover that it was scratching. I think we spent the next few weeks searching the air waves for more of the same but we couldn’t remember the station. I discovered Run DMC and The Beastie Boys not long after this and Rap Music was really what I would call my first love up that lasted pretty much all through my school years. I had a good friend who started DJing when we were about fifteen and he used to get lots of hip hop, funk and rare groove stuff and at one point we tried get together some sort of band with another friend who was a drummer but we never quite worked out how to do that in any real meaningful way.
I started University at the height of ‘Brit Pop’ (1995) and London/England was a massive influence. I spent those years listening to Oasis, Blur, The Verve, Pulp, Portishead, Radiohead, Massive Attack and of course Underworld. After university I founded a design collective with some fellow graduates and one of them, Jason Evans, introduced me to US Garage, Larry Levan, François K etc. I found the history of it all so interesting and would read anything that I could on the beginnings of the Warehouse and the Paradise Garage. It was around this time I got into more underground sounds and after attending my first big party at Melbourne’s Victoria Docks at the somewhat ripe old age of twenty-five I really started to take an interest in what Melbourne’s scene had to offer – which is when I discovered Progressive House and then decided soon after that it’d like to have a crack at being on the other side of the DJ booth… So it’s been a rather long interest in music yes and a rather diverse journey you could say also!
You will be playing the Global Underground room at this year’s Two Tribes Festival. What style of set can Melbourne expect to hear from you?
It’s such a fantastic opportunity to finally get the chance to play in one of the main arenas at a party such a Two Tribes. I remember attending my first TT in 2001 and how wide eyed and overawed I was at such an amazing spectacle. Looking back like that and then reflecting on the fact that I’m playing in the Global Underground room—a series that has had such an influence on the face of dance music worldwide for so long—it’s very special to me. I like to keep things pretty diverse so I’m hoping to play a good mix of progressive house and progressive/minimal techno. I’m really into warm and somewhat analog sounds at the moment. It was the really dark, twisted and deep music by the likes of Anthony Pappa and John Digweed that first caught my ear when I started buying records but over time it was like many of the producers ran out of ideas with that sort of music however over the past maybe six to eight months there has been a real explosion of music which has much of the same arrangement as some of the old progressive house stuff but on a much more techno orientated tip which is what I am really enjoying at the moment. Deep, maybe that little bit twisted, but still very funky in its own right.
You recently celebrated the 4th Birthday of Private Function, a progressive music night that you have solely operated. What is your fondest memory of these parties? What are your plans for Private Function in 2006?
There have honestly been so many! It’s really something that has exceeded everything that I could have possibly imagined. It sounds like such a cliché but it’s really very true. I have made so many wonderful friends out of PF, some of them who were my idols originally, such as Chris Fortier, Steve Porter and Habersham who have all played at PF in the last few years. Steve was our first international guest so that party still has probably the fondest memories, but hosting Chris’ Balance launch in Melbourne, where the series was conceived and is based is also something that I’m extremely proud of.
We’ve got lots of plans this year, including hosting a couple of producers that I have been itching to get down here for some time. We’re currently venue-less at the moment however, so I’m working on finding us a new home first. We do have Anthony Pappa locked down for April, which should be fantastic. Anthony is probably Melbourne’s most successful DJ export so it’s always pretty special each time he comes home.
Moving with technology, the majority of your sets are now played purely on CDJ’s. Do you have any tips for DJs considering moving in this direction?
I started playing off CD a few years back. I was very lucky in I was getting given quite a number of tasty unreleased bits and pieces from friends. Once legal digital downloads really started to take off however it wasn’t long until I made the switch completely to playing from CD’s rather than mixed with vinyl. From a cost point of view it’s much cheaper and it’s meant that I can buy a much more diverse range of music to play out. I find these days that I’m listening to music more rather than just reaching for my favourite label as the way you browse things online is different than say buying records in a record shop. When the new releases come in each week at say beatport.com
I will generally spend a couple of hours browsing all of the house, minimal, progressive and breaks releases, something which I could have never done buying records conventionally. There is some argument to say that the shift in the market this way is hurting local record stores and in many ways that’s indeed true but unfortunately they’re going to need to take some initiative and evolve in order to survive which is not necessarily a bad thing. I know quite a few DJ’s who prefer vinyl over CD’s which is fine also, it’s really whatever you feel comfortable with.
Recently I’ve been working a little bit in Ableton live, originally just playing around doing mixes and a very tiny bit of production but what I’ve found is that with all my music digitally there on my hard drive I’m able to easily edit things if I’d like to change them a bit. Things like that I find are a real advantage over buying vinyl.
Some of the functions on a pioneer’s CDJ1000 are really useful also the loop function is something I find I’m using more and more when I feel that a track that I’m playing needs a longer outro. So there are a number of reasons that I decided to switch over and I’ve never really looked back.
Your sound has evolved somewhat over the years. How would you describe the style of music you are currently playing?
Currently I guess I would describe it as “Progressive Techno” but it really gets harder and harder to put a label on things these days (which was how it used to be). When I started DJing I was playing very deep and dark records, which have always been my passion deep down.
As the scene changed and there was a rather large backlash against this sound I started discovering more melodic sounds and also progressive breaks, no thanks to half of the most talented producers in the world making it residing in my hometown, like NuBreed, Phil K, Luke Chable and Andy Page.
Early last year a young producer by the name of Stuart McKeown moved to Melbourne for some time and he’s been the biggest influence on my taste in music recently. Late in 2004, Minimal house/techno had started to get a bit of a buzz about it locally thanks to guys like Gavin Keitel and Lance Harrison but the records that were being released around the time didn’t really interest me all that much because I found they were too loopy and lacked any real direction.
As a more diverse range of producers began to experiment with that sound I started to find tracks that were very similar to my previous taste in progressive house but at the same time so much more interesting. If you listen to the music by Trentemøller, Pig & Dan, Domenic Eulberg, Stuart McKeown or even Misc. you can hear the similarities to some of the old progressive house tracks especially in the way they are arranged. So recently I’ve been really exploring all this new music. It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s also been like learning to DJ again as you’ve got to think a little differently when programming a set, something which has kept me challenged.
Working in conjunction with Bar Altitude you have recently launched ‘Serendipity’ a Sunday afternoon gathering with a line up of diverse DJs. What is the idea behind ‘Serendipity’ and how does it differ from the usual “recovery” party.
For the last few years I’ve found it impossible to find any day parties that are playing the music that I want to listen to. Either it’s straight-up house or it’s hard dance, nothing really in between. So I wanted to try and put something together that catered for people like me to be honest. What I didn’t want to do however was another recovery so we decided to start things at 2pm in the afternoon going through until the middle of the evening rather than starting in the morning.
We put a lineup together with a quite a few up and coming DJ’s from around Melbourne, along with a few more well known artists like Luke Chable and Jono Fernandez so we’ve got a pretty good balance going on in our rotation. The club has just opened a great Balcony which is also handy on a Sunday afternoon.
There has been much discussion in recent times concerning the state of the Melbourne dance scene and the struggle to gather support from punters. What are you thoughts on this?
I find that most of the regular punters from a few years ago, especially where PF is concerned, are not going out as much as they have gotten that little bit older and moved on. The hard part is exposing new people to new music other than the harder styles of electronic music which are an obvious ‘entry level’ to the scene for most (including myself).
The internet was such a great medium for getting the word out about your parties a few years ago but I think it’s made many promoters, including myself to a degree, get a little lazy. In most cases, gone are the days of clubs having teams of promoters working hard moving flyers and getting crews of friends together, which is where the hard work really is.
I’ve heard some people talk about how small the Melbourne scene is and how everyone these days expects to get in for free or get handed a bunch of drink cards just for turning up and I think in some ways that’s possibly true. At the same time though I think that the production side of things has really fallen in recent years so parties are not as special sometimes to attend as they perhaps used to be.
In many ways there are a host of reasons why there is a perception that the support for underground events is dwindling from both sides of the argument. But I think as a promoter, if you can put in the effort then it will be returned to you. Whether it be about developing a concept for a party that’s a little bit different than the usual or about trying to tour new and innovative artists then people will continue to be interested.
You have worked with so many artists over the last few years. Who would you give your left arm (or leg) to perform with?
I’ve been lucky to play alongside (well sometimes in the next room) of so many of my favourite artists like Sasha, John Digweed, Anthony Pappa, Chris Fortier, Habersham, Steve Porter and Matthew Dekay so my list is getting shorter and shorter. Currently I’d love to perform with artists like the Wighnomy Brothers and Robag Whurme.
One DJ though who I’ve always had a great affinity for is Jimmy Van M. His Bedrock CD from 2001 is a huge favourite of mine and at the height of his popularity back then he ended up canceling part of his tour due to September 11, and hence he’s never made it to Australia. I believe there is a tour penciled in for later in the year again so finally he might make it down here and he would be definitely someone who I would love to perform with.
In your opinion where are the killer tunes coming from at the moment?
There is heaps of great stuff coming out of Europe at the moment, particularly Germany that I’m enjoying. Stuart McKeown is back in Belfast now so I’d have to say Ireland also as you’ll always find at least one of his tracks in any of my charts. He’s in for a big year with quite a few releases lined up on labels like Proton Music and Iron Box specifically.
Melbourne is still as musically blessed as ever with Lo-Step (Luke Chable & Phil K) about to release an artist album, Dan Mangan writing some really great stuff and another new producer by the name of Darius Bassiray about to make waves with a couple of releases also out on Proton Records later in the year.
Now that you have cracked the Melbourne circuit as a DJ, can we expect any production from you in the near future?
I wouldn’t say I’ve cracked it by any means, but I’ve been fortunate enough to get lots of great opportunities recently, along with trying to make a few of my own. Production wise I have written a few things with a good friend of mine, Andrew Dannaoui, who had a great release on Steve Lawler’s Harlem Records a few years back.
It’s really funny but I am completely surrounded by such amazing producers yet I always seem to find it hard to find the right amount of really focused time that music production requires. With such a musical background I always thought that I would find the step into production easy but it’s not been the case at all. It’s given me a whole new level of respect for all producers as it’s such a hard thing to do really well. I’m really hoping that I can get a little more disciplined this year and experiment more with production so we’ll have to wait and see I guess!
If God was a DJ what tune would he be playing?
16b – Escape (Driving To Heaven).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published / Wednesday, 22 February 2006
 Post a comment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Features
|
|
|
