You Are We
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
BLACK is the new black, Croatia is the new Ibiza and Sundays are once again the new Saturdays. Or are they the new Fridays? Either way, London has been at the forefront of the end-of-the-weekend clubbing phenomenon for many years and the options are more exciting than ever. Now there’s a new kid on the block that’s freshening up a competitive field and may just be giving the established players a reason to look over their shoulders.
You Are We is the labour of love of five friends – promoters Ali Watson, Gareth Chappell and Sam Matthews along with resident DJs & production duo Ashley Wild and Tom Roberts, aka PlaySet – who decided earlier this year that London was ripe for a new, regular and free [not an insignificant factor in these uncertain economic times] Sunday session founded on an exciting booking policy that combines burgeoning international talent with emerging British producers.
Having set-up home at Corbet Place [formerly the venue for Retox] in the heart of East London’s vibrant and creative Brick Lane district, You Are We are still only three parties in with three more to come this year [August 30th, October 4th and December 6th]. But with David Keno [Frankie/Kindisch], BLM [Fear of Flying] and Leif [Trimsound/Morris Audio] having already headlined and Ekkohaus [who played a much-talked about set at Fabric earlier this year] top of the bill for the forthcoming Bank Holiday event, it’s evident that the boys not only know their onions in musical terms but, given there’s no door tax, collectively they are willing to put their money where their mouth is too.
And when one of your headliners declares he’s coming back as a punter because the party was that good and follows it up by doing just that – as BLM did – then you’ve got to be doing something very right.
So in the less-frenetic surroundings of London’s South Bank, bringdownthewalls met up with You Are We’s Ali and Tom to chat about Sunday clubbing, the importance of supporting British talent and why it pays to be nice.
Tell me about You Are We.
ALI: Myself and my two business partners Sam [Matthews] and Gareth [Chappell] have been promoting for 10 years under various other banners and during this time we’ve been quite successful; built some big brands and hosted events at all of London’s well-known venues. Over the years we’ve been immersed in music and eventually we felt we’d got to the point where we had something musically to say ourselves. The issue is it’s difficult to strike a balance between credible and commercial, especially on a large scale, so we wanted to make You Are We cooler and smaller.
So this year we decided to set-up You Are We, which is more of a musically-focused night. It’s not about the money. It’s not about packing out huge venues, it’s about doing something small and without compromise, and that’s basically how it started.
TOM: I think it’s probably a little more self-indulgent than Ali makes out. We have a very similar taste in music and we thought, yeah, let’s have a little party, get our friends in. Nothing too heavy, no massive responsibility on numbers, just a nice, friendly vibe and an excuse to book the artists that we’re into. And we thought the best way to do that was a free Sunday party. No pressure, people can roll in and it makes sense to do it over East London where a lot of our friends are and where there’s a positive vibe anyway. Gareth actually suggested the ideal venue for the party, Corbet Place, which sits perfectly by the Truman Brewery. There’s a great vibe about it.
It came together quite naturally, quite organically and the first party was much better than we ever thought it could be. It was a surprise. We thought, ‘ok, we’ll give it a go, see what happens’. Didn’t really promote it, more a word of mouth sort of thing and, yeah, it was fantastic. The weather was great, we booked David Keno, he was brilliant, and the crowd was great. It just ticked every box. At the end of the night we were glowing and thought, ‘ah, we could have something here’. It was very exciting and we’ve just gone from there.
ALI: You Are We is an excuse for us to book some really interesting artists without the need for them to be household names. OK, so we have booked Ekkohaus for the next party and we booked David Keno for the opening, both of whom are a really big deal in electronic music right now. But there is also fantastic talent coming out of the UK such as BLM and Leif, both of whom have already featured at our party. That’s another reason why we’re doing it, to support up-and-coming talent. Very often they’re in the UK and not Berlin. If they’re making good music then we want to support them. Most promoters will book a big name that everyone knows to pull in numbers. Our idea is simply to have the right music and bookings and let the right people gravitate toward the party.
TOM: It can be really difficult getting numbers through the door and we’re going through a trend with promoters booking DJs because they think they’ll do the promoting for them, that they’ll bring in the punters for them without the promoters actually doing what they’re meant to be doing. We’re lucky in that we are able to bring numbers through the door without having to have a huge name and that’s great because we can book the people we enjoy, music that we think is great despite whether they have a big profile or not. And it’s great for guys like BLM and Leif because we can put them top of the bill. They may not have a huge profile, but we think they’re great and we can whack them on the top of the bill and that’s just nice to be able to do.
Given the competition out there, were you at all concerned about making You Are We work?
ALI: There is a lot of competition out there but something I’ve always lived by when doing parties is that if you’ve got a good product then your 75% of the way there. Of course there is a lot of effort that goes into every party on top, but getting the basics right is paramount. When it comes to East London’s Sunday scene, people know their music and know what they want. There are a handful of parties out there who are getting everything right but there a whole lot of people who are not. I think what’s key is our target audience know the difference. With this in mind, it’s consistency that counts toward success.
TOM: I must admit I was a little bit apprehensive when we said ‘ok, let’s do a Sunday party’. There’s fuck-loads going on on a Sunday afternoon especially on a Bank Holiday. Obviously there’s Secretsundaze and more recently Lo*kee. They’re all really good parties, really great music. Is there room for anymore? Well, yeah, there obviously is. From somewhere there are obviously enough people to go round especially as from what I gather, and certainly those names I just mentioned, nobody’s really struggling. Everyone’s doing all right and it’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be. It’s a bit of a surprise.
Secretsundaze, as you say, has obviously been a huge success. Do you have aspirations to develop You Are We in a similar fashion?
TOM: Fair play man, I’ve got a lot of respect for Secretsundaze. Massively. They are still pushing the boundaries musically. Still quite cunning, slightly more commercial success but still maintaining credibility with the music they book. I think they’ve done it very well.
ALI: I think you’ve got to have aspirations but to say we have some kind of corporate-style blueprint or business-plan?… That’s not in line with the music. We’re really going with what feels right, and developing it from there.
TOM: I think once you do get to a certain size you do have to start making compromises. If you move to a 2000-capacity venue, and you do bump it up a scale, I do think you lose that cosy, friendly vibe. Of course you are. I wouldn’t like to see us lose that.
You mentioned the vibe. The feedback has been excellent and you have already cultivated a really friendly following. How did you manage that?
ALI: We pride ourselves on the fact that it’s an extended family sort of thing and that’s something we actively encourage. Yes, we have a lot of friends in East London, which helps, but we are extending that now and we are starting to meet a lot of new people. Everyone involved makes a massive effort to go out there and meet people and not just rely on Facebook!
TOM: It’s not so targeted. It’s more relaxed than that and more real I think. We’re just lucky that people are friendly.
ALI: I put I it down to, and without blowing my own trumpet, just being a nice person. I’ve met so many idiots in this industry. If you’re quite genuine it seems to transmit over to other people.
And the parties are free.
ALI: That’s the lynchpin, it just gives you freedom. When you are not counting the door takings and already know what you spent on the event upfront, this allows you to really enjoy the party and embrace the vibe. It’s basically a labour of love so you’re willing to spend your own money to do it right.
You’ve booked some great guests. Tell me about your music policy.
TOM: It’s not really that organised a process.
ALI:. Both of us have a keen ear for music and we are constantly on the look out for new talent as well as keeping our ears to the ground for established artists’ new releases. Music is always evolving and producers who were making straight up techno not so long ago might be making house today. It pays to stay on top of things really. If we like an artist’s current output or a label’s sound then they are in the frame for booking requests.
TOM: There is such a wealth of music especially in the UK. Emerging producers are everywhere. When you are buying records, listening to music, there are new names all the time. It’s just kind of easy really. You hear a great record; you check out Myspace, they live down the road, fantastic. Ok, let’s get them down.
The house and techno scene is stronger than it’s ever been, I believe. There’s great music coming from everywhere, all four corners of the globe.
Where do PlaySet fit into You Are We?
TOM: We’re the residents and with Ali we basically programme the music. It’s worked out nicely. Shortly after Ash and I started working together, You Are We happened and it’s a great platform for us to play and indulge in booking the artists that produce the tracks that we play and everything else.
And I hear you’ve been working on your own tracks.
TOM: Ashley and I have been together about eight months and it’s going well. We were starting from scratch and we’re now at the stage where there are a few tracks that have interested some labels, which is great. But more importantly I think we’ve found our sound and our pace. It’s great to just get down what we’re feeling and just to be able to express ourselves. When you’re learning it’s kind of inhibited but now we get together and have fun.
The sound is predominantly house, although that of course covers a broad definition. I would say tech house, but again that covers a broad spectrum. So expect lots of organic, live sounds with a little bit of wonkiness thrown in. We like it deep and we definitely like our techno but we also like it funky and playful, so there will be a spectrum of sounds.
Can we expect a release anytime soon?
TOM: Based on the interest we’ve had, I’d like to think we’d have a release in the next couple of months. It’s a bit daunting when you pour your heart and soul into something.
It looks like being a big year all-round then?
TOM: Yeah. I’d like to think so. Ash and I, we’re in a great place right now where we’re really enjoying it. Stuff’s happening and we’re at that stage of our lives right now where we’ve been on the scene for many years and we’ve had our fair share of fun! But now we’ve learnt how to be proactive and make things happen whilst still enjoying ourselves. I think with the music production being there and the platform to express it in You Are We, I’m definitely looking forward to what’s to come this year and 2010 as well. There is a couple of interesting production collaborations in the pipeline later on in the year as well, so watch this space.
I’ve known these guys [You Are We] for 10 years. We’ve done the scene together and become best friends. You Are We is another chapter and it feels really good.
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August 2009