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Features Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022!

Interview with Milky Piers Reported by tom / Submitted 22-07-02 18:11 Responsible for the creation and running of legendary Saturday morning after hours club 'Milk' at Brixton's Club 414 and more recently their Friday monthly at Vauxhall's Crash, HarderFaster took the chance to catch up with Milky Piers for his views on promotion and clubbing in London. HarderFaster: How did you first get into clubbing and promotion ? Piers: Lordy, now you’re asking! Music has always been a huge part of my life from as long ago as I can remember. I won’t embarrass myself too much but suffice to say that many a childhood night was spent glued to my radio listening to Radio Luxembourg in the ‘70s when my parents thought I was fast asleep. By the time I was at secondary school the nation was gripped by the bizarre sounds and even more exotic hairstyles of the New Romantic movement in the early ‘80s, which led me to save up my pocket money for my first synthesizer (a Roland SH09 for all you techno-geeks). After a few performances at school with my fledgling band I found myself gigging in various dingy pubs and clubs in and around my home town on the south coast, and that led quite naturally into clubbing. By ’87 I was heavily into hip-hop, but that was replaced by the tidal wave of acid house which swept me off my feet in early ’88. Mad raving ensued, and I’ve never looked back really. For a while I settled down with a partner who wasn’t really into the whole scene, but by the time I hit the clubs again with a vengeance in ’99 I was more than ready for something new. Hardhouse fitted the bill very nicely, and Provocation at The Office became my home for a couple of years, supplemented of course by Trade. I’ve always been a sucker for my afterparties... Promoting just kind of happened. I was a Submaniac addict, which used to be at the 414 and then Imperial Gardens on a Saturday night, after which we all used to troop off to Provocation or Trade. Then Subs moved to Fridays, and there was nothing to do afterwards so we all used to end up at somebody’s house – more often than not mine – to carry on into the weekend. These house parties soon outgrew the house so it was a natural progression to take over one room at Imperial Gardens when Submaniac finished and carry on partying. Thus was born Milk in November 2000, and we’ve never looked back. HF: Is Milk the first club you've run or are there others that have fallen by the wayside ? MP: Milk is the first promotion I’ve run in any official capacity but I’ve helped out with others and thrown quite a few parties that were in effect promotions in all but name. HF: Milk is one of London's longest running afterparties and is still going strong: why has Milk survived while others have fallen by the wayside ? MP: It’s really hard to have an objective viewpoint on that one, but I think that the one thing that motivates me more than anything is that I have to really enjoy something to keep on doing it. In the time I’ve been running Milk I can honestly say there’s never been a time when I haven’t loved every minute of it, and I think that’s true of the rest of the crew too. We’re basically one big happy family throwing a party every week, and since we never set out with any particular aims other than to have a good time, that’s all we do! For me personally the main point of doing it is for the music. Since we’ve never defined ourselves by any one particular genre we have that flexibility to play whatever we feel like, and I think our crowd appreciate that. I love pretty much all forms of dance music, and enjoy putting together lineups that others would laugh at. I mean, where else can you hear acid techno one minute and fluffy trance the next? As far as I’m concerned, if it keeps me interested and happy then hopefully others will like it too, and I guess to date that’s been the case. Something else I’m keen to do is give new talent an opportunity to shine through. It’s incredibly hard for a new DJ to break into the London scene and there’s an enormous pool of untapped creativity out there, so if we at Milk can help in any way then it makes it all worthwhile. That in itself keeps new blood flowing into the scene, and helps us survive by avoiding stagnation. HF: What are the biggest challenges involved in running an afterparty as compared to an evening event ? MP: Well, to be honest with you I think it’s actually easier running an afterparty. For a start there’s the obvious point that there’s a lot less competition, but that’s offset by the fact that far fewer people are still up for it at 6 in the morning. I think the biggest challenge is the same as for any promotion, which is just to get people to hear about us. Having said that though, it’s probably worth pointing out that it can be hard to keep people on their feet all morning if you don’t get it right. For somebody to dance the night away and then be up for another 6 hours of the same I think you’ve got to be able to offer something special, and I’m not talking chemicals here! Getting the music right is definitely the key in keeping people interested, possibly more so than for an all-nighter. HF: Tell us about some of the improvements which have taken place down at the the good old 414. MP: This is something close to my heart. I see the 414 as the spiritual home of Milk and it’s taken us a year to get to the stage where the owners of the venue trusted us enough to listen to what we were saying about it. Much as we love the place we could see it gradually falling into a state where it needed a bit of TLC. The first thing to sort out was the sound-system, which we’re now pretty much on top of, having fixed the monitor and tweaked the main amp. The next step was to make the whole environment more pleasant for us and everyone else, which we started by finally persuading them to let us open the roof terrace. They’ve also installed a breakfast bar opposite the upstairs bar, and will soon be installing bar stools, so people can sit in comfort and eat or drink without having to sprawl across the floor. At the same time we’ve got them to extend the menu to include things like jacket potatoes, lasagne, pizza and ice cream, which all help when you’ve been on your feet for 16 hours! Our next mission is to improve the toilets, and I’ve just come out of a meeting where they’ve finally agreed to put locks on the cubicles in the ladies. We’ve also had a mirror put up in the gents, and are looking into some sturdy toilet seats which will last more than a weekend. After that we’ll be doing some major redecorating upstairs, and improving the flooring downstairs, with some staging at the sides of the dancefloor. We’ve also got our hands on a new lighting controller which will actually link the lights into the sound, rather than just have them flash on and off randomly. All this will take time and it’s an ongoing process, but we hope people will begin to see the benefits straight away. The main thing is that we’re getting on with it now, and of course we welcome any suggestions for future improvements. Another major step we’ve just taken is that all the Friday night promotions there (KnowWhere, Submaniac, Swamp and Zoology) are working together to help boost the club’s image, which is something we’re also closely involved with. HF: Are the rumours of a secret switch on the 414 soundsystem which makes it sound absolutely awesome (but is only known about by Skol and Roosta) true ? MP: Aha! If it was a secret I wouldn’t know about it, would I?! Seriously though, those guys have been playing there for years and know how to get the best out of the system. Being such a small club, any change in the sound is very obvious and the mixer is particularly sensitive to being overdriven. At Milk we do take care to point out its peculiarities to any newcomers, and now that we’ve been let loose on the whole system we’ve discovered how to make it sound 100% better. As in so many things it’s a case of less being more, so we just remind people that they don’t need to max out every gain slider and EQ knob. When it’s all working properly there’s no doubt that it rocks – probably one of the best small club systems I’ve heard. HF: You've expressed your opinion on the HF chat forums that you think a night should not just contain a single music genre but should progress through different types of music. What sounds would you ideally like to hear over the course of a night ? Do you think this policy worked at your first event at Crash ? For me variety is the spice of life, and what I want to hear is different pretty much every time I go out. One thing that really gets my goat is to walk into a club at 10:30 on a Friday night to hear the hardhouse pounding out at a relentless 150bpm, knowing full well that it’s going to be exactly the same when I stagger out again at 6 the following morning. All the more so if there’s only one room... What I like to hear is a bit of imagination and creativity. One problem is that so many tunes try to stand out as an anthem, so you end up with an entire night of 5 minute cycles of buildup and breakdown, buildup and breakdown, over and over and over again. That’s one reason I like techno so much as it’s more about layering rhythms and melodies in a seamless way so you often don’t know when one tune ends and another starts. In the right hands this can take you on a genuine journey which can really move the soul. But I’m also a sucker for big uplifting trance anthems, and indeed hip-swivelling funkiness, so an ideal night for me will combine many different elements but always with a clear progression. In that respect I do believe we succeeded at Crash last month; certainly the feedback I’ve had has been overwhelmingly positive. However, Milk being Milk, it’s not going to be exactly the same next month – for a start, we didn’t have a single hardhouse set last month, but this time we’ll be weighting it more towards hardhouse than trance, with plenty of funky stuff and techno to keep things varied. HF: Does London have too many club nights ? MP: We’re certainly spoilt for choice in London, and I guess I’d have to say too much is better than too little, but at the same time it seems there’s been a lot of bandwagon-jumping and a sad lack of originality over the last couple of years. Luckily it’s a Darwinian world out there and the fittest will survive, but the scary thing is that it’s up to us to determine where our scene goes. HF: Which other promoters in London do you have most respect for and why ? MP: That’s a tough one, particularly as I don’t know all the promoters in London. Without naming names I have immense respect for anyone that dares to try something different. It’s all too easy to pick up on someone else’s winning formula and clone it but having the courage to take an original idea and effectively bare your creative soul to hundreds or indeed thousands of strangers is the way to gain my respect. HF: What is your policy when it comes to booking DJs for your events ? MP: Easy! If the music moves me then they’ll play at Milk. I get lot of demos and I make sure I listen to each and every one of them all the way through – if someone’s gone to the effort of creating something original then the least I can do is give it my full attention. I can always tell within a couple of mixes whether or not I’m going to like the rest of it, but it’s very hard to pin down why that is. Basically if something makes me bounce around and reach for the remote to crank up the volume then I know it’s going to work at Milk. Just for your information, about one in 20 demos have that effect, and possibly less. Basically I have to feel that someone has to have something to offer in order to play for us. That may sound pretentious, but it’s certainly not intended that way, it’s just that I have a very clear vision of how I like to structure things. Believe me, it’s no easy task putting together 4 or 5 people, each potentially playing a completely different style, but still keeping a smooth cohesive progression which will retain our interest and keep the energy going on the dancefloor. HF: What other plans do you have for Milk over the next 6 months ? MP: One of the great things about Milk is that we don’t plan. We do what we do and see where it takes us. All I can hope for is that we continue to keep people interested, including myself, and if that means pushing those boundaries a little harder then that’s what we’ll do. I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved so far but there’s loads more we could do. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is to drop an old-school set into the morning completely unannounced to see what happens, or indeed some Dutch gabba. You never know what might happen! HF: How did the idea for your night at Crash come about ? MP: I’ve been itching for a second room for ages, as I feel quite restricted with just one although I think that might actually force us to be more creative. Basically the idea grew out of the experiment we did at Imperial Gardens with the Barely Legal crew in May where I was completely bowled over by the fact that we were playing techno in the main room, hardhouse in the second, and drum’n’bass in the third – with all three going off like nobody’s business. When the opportunity at Crash came up I thought it had to be worth a go as we’ve got loads of ideas and life is short, so when you see a chance to try something you’ve always wanted to I say just go for it. HF: Why choose Crash as a venue ? MP: I love Crash as a venue and feel it’s hugely underrated. They have a superb setup there with a perfect split between rooms – the main room is about twice the size of the second, and there are loads of nooks and crannies to explore. I also like the staff and management, who really look after the place and run it extremely efficiently. It’s also handy for transport, although there is a real lack of bars and pubs in Vauxhall for pre-clubbing meetups. Plus of course there’s an excellent sound-system and loads of extras which make life easier for the promoter, and everybody I’ve spoken to enjoys clubbing there. HF: Which other promoters do you have plans to tie up with for your events at Crash ? MP: We’ll definitely be working with the Vinyl Zoo guys again as they’re coming from pretty much the same angle as us. In August we’re working with Element-7, who are a new management agency handling some of the hottest young talent around including D’Marr Ford, Ali Wilson, Matt Smallwood, Danny Gilligan and Raymondo, so that’s going to be great fun. Then in September we’re very excited to be involved with Ed Real’s concept of Bar Riot, where the Ignition Crew will be hosting our second room while Ed kicks off the night with a 3 hour tribal set. We’re suckers for anything tribal or funky, so that promises to be a night to remember. Other than that we’re talking to loads of people and will play it by ear. Flexibility is the name of our game and we’re keen to explore as many options as possible to look for the right combination. HF: How's it been running a Friday night event compared to a Saturday morning one ? MP: Great fun! I love Friday night clubbing, and the only drawback of running an event is that I can’t spend the whole night partying. Mind you, I do make sure I always get a chance to let rip on the dancefloor... However I have to say that afterparties are what really rock my boat, so the Friday night is very much a prelude to the morning, where I really enjoy myself! One of the main reasons for doing the Friday night was that so many people find it hard to do early mornings, so we wanted to be able to bring our Milky experience to a wider audience. HF: D'Marr Ford has been your resident for as long as I can remember and we're now seeing him increasingly getting booked for other promotions - how did he come to be resident at Milk ? MP: I first saw D’Marr play in a garden shed in Farnborough back in spring 2000, and was immediately bowled over by his energy and total commitment to what he was doing. OK, so it was just a house party for a few mates, but he was giving it 110%, as he always does. I got him to play for a couple of parties that summer, and when I was planning Milk he was the obvious choice for main resident. The great thing about D’Marr is that he won’t be bullied into doing anything he doesn’t want to. And believe me, I’ve tried! He’s very much an integral part of Milk and has played at almost every single event we’ve done, being the driving force behind our music policy. He’s also responsible for most of our quirky flyer designs! It’s great to see him finally getting the recognition he deserves, but to be honest I think he thrives on being one step ahead which by definition means that his true talent will only ever be seen in retrospect. HF: You're also responsible for the label Filler Trax... what has the response been like for the first few releases and what do you have in store for us in the future ? MP: D’Marr Ford and I launched Filler Trax late last year with the aim of releasing the kind of cross-over material that goes down so well at Milk. Our first two releases, Unison and Souleater, were very well received, and I still get a lot of demos which include those tracks. Both were written and engineered by D’Marr, who spends most of his waking hours locked in his studio. In the New Year we moved to a different distributor and relaunched the label as kcode (note: it’s all lower-case!) as we were moving in a different direction, primarily funky techno and hard trance. Our first release on kcode was Tokoloshe, with the A-side being a remix by Milk residents Spero and Kaygee. A couple of days after we sent the promos out D’Marr and I were at Riot bouncing around when we suddenly stopped dead as we heard BK drop Tokoloshe – only to lift the needle off it by mistake! Luckily he restarted it so we got to hear the whole thing on that amazing sound-system. Our next release is due out next month and features the brilliant hard trance anthem Desta by Milk resident Scottie, along with the TuffCub remix of Souleater. We’ve got the next couple of releases lined up and ready to go but at the moment the whole vinyl market is pretty dead so we’re waiting for things to pick up a little. HF: If money was no object what would be your ideal DJ lineup for a morning at Milk ? (call it 'Desert Island Milk' ) MP: Already done it – back in February D’Marr Ford asked to play the entire morning, all six hours of it. He pulled it off superbly, only flagging slightly around 11am, so he stuck on his new track Beatbox (coming out on Nukleuz soon), bopped around the dancefloor, then got back behind the decks to round off the morning with some big bouncy classics. Otherwise I reckon this would just about do it for me: first up, Mauro Picotto to kick start the morning with some funky Italian techno – gorgeous! Then Steve Thomas, with a smooth progression through tough but funky stuff building the pace with every mix, as he used to do so well at Trade. Then I reckon D’Marr Ford would be perfect to pick it up and take us off into some real kicking techno. Follow him with Chris Liberator for a trip into the darker side of the London underground, all rounded off with EJ Doubell to drive us ever deeper before finishing off on huge uplifting techno-trance anthems. Musical perfection! HF: According to Gatecrasher boss Simon Raine, weekly clubbing is dead and monthlies are the way forward... discuss MP: For the larger promotions that may well be the case as on that scale there is so much more risk involved. However I firmly believe that a small promotion can keep on going by operating on a tight budget, and there’s always the advantage of flexibility and being able to respond to a changing market far more quickly. HF: Is the clubbing industry in London on a downhill death spiral or is the current malaise a temporary summer setback ? MP: Clubbing is certainly nowhere near dead, although there’s no doubt that we’re going through one of the periodic shakeups that make the scene so interesting. There are loads of factors at play here, and the summer is traditionally a quiet time, but I’ve noticed a real change since the New Year. Attendances have been down across the board, so maybe we all need to take a long hard look at the success stories – School Disco, anyone?! HF: What advice would you give to a fresh behind the ears promoter about to start up their first event (apart from don't run it on saturday morning, obviously !) ? MP: I’d say if you really believe that you’ve got something to offer the scene then go for it, but start small and build it slowly. Go for quality, not quantity, and never lose touch with your crowd. HF: Ever get behind the decks and have a spin yourself Piers ? MP: I do indeed, but purely for my own pleasure. I have no aspirations to be a DJ, but you never know – if one day at Milk we get a no-show and I happen to have my records with me then prepare to be surprised!! HF: The question we ask everyone: what are your top 3 tunes of all time ? MP: That changes all the time, but right now I guess it would be something like this, in chronological order: John Foxx - Plaza New Order - Blue Monday BK & Nick Sentience - Flash HF: Any questions you would like to have been asked but haven’t ? MP: Errr, I guess the obvious one would have been where the name Milk came from – but now it’s too late and you’ll never know!! With thanks to Piers for his time Relevant Links: Milk website Milk runs every Saturday morning at the Club 414 in Coldharbour Lane, Brixton. For details of future lineups please click here and select a date. Details of the next Milk party at Crash can be found here. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By tom: Interview with Guffy Interview with Energy Dai Interview with Tara Reynolds Interview with Anne Savage Interview with James Lawson The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: Element-7 on 26th Jul 2002 08:11.53 Piers is a true legend, exciting to work with and a true friend. We cant wait for our joint event... the animated banner on harderfaster looks wicked by the way! Nolan - Element-7 From: ~deleted1390 on 2nd Aug 2002 08:26.11 Milky, Milky, Milky. Got love the Milk crew. Such a happy bunch and not a hint of attitude. Piers, seriously looking forward to another mental mix up of Zoology and Milk. Latex Zebra - Vinyl Zoo From: *Ting* on 5th Sep 2002 16:46.53 What a great and interesting read Piers. Well done to all the Milk crew. I'm really looking forward to coming and playing for you again on the 28th Sept. Huge hugs and massive respect *Ting a Ling*

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