Melbourne club My Aeon to undergo renovations

What initially attracted you to the club? I was initially attracted to My Aeon when Phil K decided to run his SloMotion Social Club night there. It felt like being at a house party, only with a great soundsystem and friendly, family-orientated staff. It had a great outdoor area to chill in which also had an open-air stage for a second DJ area, as well as an intimate dance floor. It always attracted a great crowd, usually avoiding the lowest common dominator audience. Finally, once you added good music to this mix—it really became a home away from home for me and countless others. What do you hope to achieve with the space? What's going to change? We will be moving the bar, cool rooms, seating and storage areas from the middle of the downstairs room to the far corner of the left feature wall. Therefore, downstairs will be one big open dance floor, and we will be knocking down the upstairs area and offices, completely revamping it into a fully functioning club room. All will be connected via a staircase to the ground level. The club will have a legal capacity to trade until 7 AM on Friday and Saturday nights as usual, with the additional room within the new space allowing for single events as well as multi-promoted shows with various crews. A full Funktion One Phase Three soundsystem is being installed for both rooms. This will be an Australian first in terms of its implementation. We will have a significant amount spent on acoustic treatment and sound engineers. Our aim is to have one of the best soundsystems in Australia and I believe we will achieve this. Currently I believe the Civic Underground in Sydney is currently number one in Australia, so hopefully we can get ours at that level. The rooms are essentially being designed like sound studios, with Mike March and the management team from Funktion One flying in for four months working directly with two leading sound engineer firms, at the advice of one of Melbourne's leading building architectural bodies specialising in sound installation. The outside area will also be getting a full renovation, with new toilets, undercover areas, new bars etc. How will you be approaching the programming of the club? What will you look to feature? There will be hand-selected resident DJs that will rotate over the two rooms in the venue each week. There will be only three to four DJs for the entire night in each room, therefore it's going to mean long sets, proper programming and a focus on all the right elements of the night. Some internationals will play, but only when they are the right fit. On any given Sunday morning expect some unannounced shows from the biggest names in the business. Musically we will be implementing a strict music policy similar to the way we run SloMotion, actually having DJs play extended sets with the freedom to go in their own unique direction, without having to play hits or compromise. The resident roster includes Duncan Gray, Robbie Lowe, Tom Moore of Otologic, Oscar Key Sung, No. 1 Delicious, Ben Fester, Phil K, Safari, Jesse Young, Louis McCoy, Matt Gatt, Stockholm Syndrome, Planet Jumper and Jon Beta. Where do you see the venue fitting into the broader Melbourne club scene? By focusing on the basic foundations of what a night should be—namely an exceptional soundsystem, exceptional DJs, a clued-in crowd and a club owner who gives total creative autonomy and freedom to implement and enforce the ethos of the club without comprise—I hope we will contribute to being an agent of change in the scene.