Dance Policy Shorts: d. clemente

Tell me about yourself David, who are you?

My name is David and I'm from the Canary islands, I moved to the UK six years ago. This is my sixth year in the UK.

You’ve made quite an impression quite fast.

Yeah, and a lot of people say that! Feels like I’ve been here for much longer. My friends are like, well, were you not here when this happened? And i’m like…no… (laughs)

You lived in Manchester the whole time?

I moved to Bristol originally, I spent four years there. This is my second year at Manchester, I moved just before the pandemic, in December, 2019. I was born in the Canary islands and now I run a school cafe with kids/teenagers with autism. I teach how to make coffee and serve coffee. I’ve worked in so many cafes and then started working in the school in Manchester and at the end of the year, they were like, oh… we're opening a cafe! There’s an open position as well to run the cafe with the kids, would you be interested in it? And that’s what I do now. I work with kids between the ages of 12 and 18 with different abilities and different sides of the spectrum.

How come you decided to move to Manchester from Bristol?

After living in Bristol for four years, I only started DJing in my last year in Bristol. After this time… I still didn't feel fully settled. I basically started realising how the music scene as great as it is, and some people would kill me for saying things like this, but I think the music scene in Bristol is not welcoming. I've found it quite elitist and I just never felt welcome. After four years of not feeling settled in Bristol, I decided to move on my own somewhere else where I knew was there was a good music scene going on. That’s why I moved to Manchester and I moved here not knowing anyone except for my friend, Evan.

So moved here, not knowing anyone… then 2020 happens. And I literally made all the friends I have right now and just got into the music scene during the first lockdown. Then I did that live stream for Save Our Scene, as Marcos from high hoops, asked me. And then after that, I just stayed in touch online with everyone.

And then a month or two months into lockdown in Manchester, I finally felt settled somewhere. And that's the first time I felt settled since I left my house, Since I left Canary islands to go to uni and then come to Bristol, I've never actually felt settled until I moved to Manchester. So, just needed to change just needed to change of scenery. Moving from Bristol to here was the best decision ever.

So you've only been DJing since your last year of Bristol?

This is my third year DJing. I got into dance music properly after moving to the UK, I really liked techno at uni because where I come from there's no dance music. When I moved to Bristol, I used to just be out all the time and got into it. Then, three years ago I was like, I'm going to buy CDJs and just put them on finance and then just be poor for two years. I just did it. Maybe I should have started ages ago, but I didn't realise until then.

I think it's pretty impressive to have been only DJing for three years and already have a mix identified by RA. How did you feel about it? Being recognised by RA like that?

Luke Daniels from Eastern bloc, he runs RA Manchester. He messaged me saying after listening to the mix, he just sent it to the big bosses in America saying “I think we should make this mix of the day”. He asked me what I wanted to say about it, And then suddenly the big bosses were like, okay, well we'll have a listen of it. At first I I thought I just got it because of Luke, but they genuinely listened to it and they saw the track list and they thought it was really good and it was worth putting it on RA, the mix of the day.

A lot of people kept saying to me, well done to me. Kind of like, well done for doing this well done for doing that. But… I didn't really think of me as a DJ when I was putting together that mix. With so much radio I do, or so many mixes, I record, I'm just thinking how I want to just bring this or like club feel to this mix and I want to like create these emotions or whatever. And with this mix that got on RA, I was literally just thinking these tunes are so fucking good. And they're from like a lot of people I love in Manchester and a lot of people that have inspired me.

So I didn't really blend the tunes that much. I was just so happy to put it out there. 'cause I just wanted all those producers some recognition and they’re so good. It's just great for them to get some more recognition as well.

And I try to keep it as diverse as possible. So had a lot of queer artists and a lot of POC artists from Manchester Everyone on the track list are people I've met throughout the last two years in Manchester that have inspired me. So I was quite happy to get it out because I felt I it's so nice to just get all of these producers out in the world.

That's a really nice story behind the mix.

There are so many talented people in Manchester. A lot of good producers and DJs just forget the producers are doing more than they actually are.

I agree. I just don't believe in doing anything unless you're like elevating other people with you.

100%.

Who is someone you really looked up to?

Three years ago I’d have said something like Call Super, or similar to that… but I was thinking about so many of my friends that run events or just close friends that DJ who are key part of Manchester and have motivated me and inspired me. And I've learned a lot from them, especially like, the High Hoops boys or Alice from Meat Free or Chris Packet who goes by the DJ name sonice. But I think I've got a lot of inspiration from a lot of people…

My final answer is Lucy, the manager from The White Hotel. In retrospect, the whole of the scene and all the friends I've made in the scene, have really had an impact on me. But part of the reason why The White Hotel is so great is because she puts so much work into it. She cares about every single aspect of the scene. Whenever she's working you just see her walking around, but she's just thinking of people's wellbeing in on the dance floor. She's so concerned about safety and genuinely cares about the music so much and about the quality of the night that everyone is having. She's thinking of security, she's thinking of light technicians, She's thinking of the people in the toilets throwing up… whilst dealing with the DJs and the promoters. And us, our staff when we're working on the bar. She’s someone that needs more recognition than what she gets, and she's got a really tough job. A lot of people talk about The White Hotel and how great it is. They all talk about the promoters, they all talk about the DJs that get booked or the residents, or like P13 or whatever. Lucy keeps it altogether.

Also… If I started listing my friends I would just go on for ages and probably leave someone out. But if it has to be one person, I think it has to be Lucy.

What’s the inspiration behind Tough Act?

Something I wanted to clarify because the whole idea behind Tough Act comes from Becky, salt pillar.

Tough Act originated from Becky, she is the main person behind Tough Act. She came up with a concept for the night, and the ideas for our logo, which thanks to our graphic designer, Stephen Weller (Phhhyu), became the Tough Act puppy. The concept for like running queer nights, that don't play stereotypically like queer music, which tends to be quite like, you know, like trance-y and house-y. She loves playing GABBA and she’s an excellent DJ. I was talking with them about the concept of the night and the queer scenes, who love fast music. I feel that a lot of queer people thrive in like fast music and there's just not a lot of options for queer people to listen to like jungle or GABBA or really hectic breaks. A lot of queer people that like all of this kind of music, or like even like Emo Rock. Becky has played some, well I don't even know what, tunes. She plays crazy edits, cause she's an amazing producer as well.

I met her during that first lockdown, when we started being naughty and meeting at my friend's house and in the studio. And I was like, oh my gosh, she's so amazing. Cause she literally just has so much energy inside of her.

Anyway, she had the idea [for Tough Act] and then, after running a pride event alongside DJ Soyboi and others at The Derby Brewery Arms, got together with them and FKA Hardcore and started what was to be Tough Act and then as soon as those three were on board, I joined later on. We are now working as a team constantly and just trying to make it bigger and make it go in the right direction. But the whole concept comes from Becky.

It's just great to see trans people, and very young trans people, saying they have never experienced freedom and like safety like that in a club before at Tough Act. some people said they hadn't been out in two years and it was the first time they felt like they wanted to go somewhere. Because also … what is stereotypical queer music anyway? what does that even mean? to see queer people enjoy hardcore breaks and GABBA, just having absolute freedom and just going crazy. That is much more meaningful for everyone because I'm just exploring like that side of music that I feel that has been hidden for queer people for so long.

it's like… oh! queer people can play a drill tune and it's absolutely fine!? You know what I mean? It's almost like why would we have to be enclosed in one genre?

Yeah. I think it applies to all of Dance music as well. I feel like there's a sort of sense of elitism in it. I've really got a lot of for respect people who want to just undo the rules. Play whatever you want.

100%. You just be free to play out actually wherever you want to play, even if it doesn't feel right for the standards in Dance music.

What is something you hate about DJing?

The first thing that comes to mind is DJ’s (laughs).

I genuinely think, and this is something that a lot of my DJ friends also think, a lot of us actually hate DJs… I feel that basically the thing I hate about DJing is having to deal with some DJs. A lot of DJs just think about themselves as the artist. It’s like when the RA mix came out and I said, “I can’t believe I said that” but basically DJs are the ship, but the producers are the sailors or something like that, haha… oh god…

Does make sense though!

Some bigger DJs are amazing, but then I've also met some bigger DJs who are quite inaccessible as human beings. Some DJs, after meeting them or knowing about them, it's like, why are they so horrible? And why are they so inaccessible?

So many other DJs will also not stop talking about it. And I find that quite triggering because as much as I love DJing… There's so many more things to talk about! And so many times that will be the whole concept for our conversation for hours and hours and hours and you will come out with it and there'll be, there'll be talking about it in such a selfish way and always say, oh yeah, because when I played here! and when I played there!, like, you know, they just play quite regularly sometimes.

The people I respect the most are the people who talk about DJing the least.

Yeah! And you can talk about it, I do rate it when DJs are like proper nerdy about music and they know a lot about. The problem is when they are talking a lot about *their* DJing, *their* sets. Something that really triggers me as well about DJing is just the whole DJ vocab, the lingo. When they talk like that on social media and they use words that only DJs understand, it feels like they're only appealing to DJs and people that really understand that. A lot of people that are into dance music really don't understand DJing. They really don't understand any of these words they're using. It's mostly…. always been men as well.

I don't know if I should say only male DJs because there must be female DJs somewhere that do this, but honestly, its always been straight white males, which is quite a big thing because there might be other cases around.

What is it about DJing that you attracts you to it so much?

To make it so cheesy and cliche… all the friends you make through music. I've made some of my best friends for music and I'm so glad for it. Then also I've had incredible experiences playing recently. I wasn't expecting to like, feel so much love from because I've only been DJing actively for the last year after lockdown.

I’ve had so many incredible sets, and just felt such a great energy from the crowd. I know its cliche, but it's actually beautiful and that's partly due to human connections. One time I had this girl come around the booth and ask, can I speak to you? And I said yes, of course. She said “I’ve had the worst two weeks of my life. I've been out all night and I was going to go home, and then you started playing and I've been looking at you and the tunes you choose to play and your energy is the first time I felt okay In two weeks. So thank you so much.” And that literally I was there just open mouthed. I was so happy that day.

…You come back being like, wow, I've just made so many beautiful connections, you know, the whole lot looking at people and just like smiling, just being like, oh my God, I've just made so many friends. it's very cliche, but I think the most important side of dance music is your human side. Doing things for your communities and just making people have fun and feel better and just get it all out.

Well, I think that's a really lovely note to end on. Thank you David.