We chat to Chandra from Durrr
The lady responsible for most of London's Tuesday morning sickies spills the beans...
The awesome Durrr celebrates its 1st birthday this month, so we sat down with promoter Chandra to mull over how the first year went and tell us a bit more about what makes the night so special. 2007 was a great year for the Durrr team – taking over Mondays at The End, the night aimed to cater for a new young crowd, to build a new home for those that weren’t part of Trash the first time around – and it looks like they’ve succeeded. Their first year saw breaking bands like Kap Bambino, Dan Deacon, Foals, These New Puritans, Yacht, Fanfarlo and Late Of The Pier playing alongside longtime favourites like Digitalism, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice and Soulwax.
Durrr closed 2007 with a storming party on Saturday 29th December – with Dan Deacon and Primary 1 live, Erol Alkan, The Long Blondes Djing and Skull Juice plus the lovely Durrr residents. They celebrate their first birthday on Monday 21st January.
Endclub.com: Hi Chandra. You’ve had a great selection of bands playing in the first year – can you tell us about the bookings policy for the night?
Chandra: It’s always been about the artists that we like; at least one of the team at least has to love them! So Jonjo, Rory, Fred or The P.i.X – if one of us really loves a band, then we’ll book them.
We try and get bands well in advance – the residents discover bands really early in their career, because they’re so involved with the music. I suppose we’re quite niche really – which is good, as the regulars can find likeminded people who are into the same stuff here, they can adopt the party as their own. It’s important for the night that people are up for what they encounter musically here, that they get involved.
A fair percentage of the bands you book must be new to your crowd – do they trust your judgement?
Hopefully! That’s one of my aims – I know that as a resident, Rory definitely has people who trust his choices musically, and I’m hoping that this is where Durrr has got to. I didn’t expect it to happen straight away – we’re not assuming anything, but yeah, hopefully! We’re revamping the website, and once we put up all of the bands that have played, people will see that, oh look, Foals played, These New Puritans played, Dan Deacon’s first UK gig was there, so they should be able to trust our judgement in the bands that are coming up.
What were the highlights of 2007 in terms of bands?
Slagsmalsklubben were brilliant. I got a call from a friend of mine, they’d just played his night so he called me up and said “there’s this band from Sweden, they’re crazy, you’ve got to book them”. I didn’t have a band booked, but I trust him and he really knows his stuff, so we put them on. They were amazing, and the crowd loved them. When I look at the Youtube videos from Durrr, they’re one of the most watched, so they obviously put in a very good live show. Obviously nights like Soulwax, Simian and Digitalism were amazing, I’m so thankful that they still come and play. Connan and the Mockasins were amazing, Late of the Pier were great, as was Dan Deacon – his first gig was insane. There have been so many!
Durrr’s very much a club, rather than a straight-up gig. Has this always been the aim?
Yes - I’ve never really considered doing the night as just live gigs. Because we often put on bands at an early stage in their career, we aim to give them the best sound and the best overall experience that they’ve had so far when playing gigs. And that’s where we come into their own – that’s our niche so to speak. Before us, they’ve perhaps played pubs, or small indie venues, and we try to be the next step up professionally – providing the details that perhaps, they’ve not had before. And we have only one band per night on the whole– we could do more, but I don’t want to lose the dancing element, the club element, and the atmosphere that brings – again making a better experience for the bands.
And how does Monday night clubbing differ from other days of the week?
Well people who have jobs generally find it hard – and if they do come down we know that they really want to be there, probably to check out a band. Because we are a club rather than a straight gig, we put the bands on at midnight – sometimes bands complain and ask to be on earlier so their PR person or reviewers can come down. We always say no though – it’s completely different from a regular gig, we want the bands to be a treat for the people who are there enjoying the night.
I hope with Durrr, people will discover the night, and come loyally for maybe a couple of years, but then they will get a job and can’t go out on a Monday any more. How can you get up on a Tuesday morning if you’ve been up until four? It’s not really doable every week! That’s what was so nice about our party on the 29th – there were so many old faces there, people that I know love the music but just can’t come out on a Monday any more.
How are the residents setting in?
Rory in the main room has really impressed me – he played the side room in Trash for so long and he totally had it down – he knew that he could play any new record and get away with it. On the main dancefloor the DJ has the job of getting people to dance, so it’s completely different – but he still plays a good mix of indie and dancefloor stuff. Jonjo – he’s great too– he plays harder music than Rory, so the music’s completely different from the beginning to the end of the night. The P.i.X and Fred are both new – although Fred has been involved with Durrr from the beginning. He does the warm-up set – he’s really into guitar bands, and I didn’t want to lose that just because right now a lot of people are more into electro-led or sounds. I don’t want to lose the ability to play bands like Connan and the Mockasins or Fanfarlo, so Fred makes sure there’s a guitar element to the night. I don’t think anyone should have to say that they only like one type of music anyway! The P.i.X is the best fanzine around – they interview all the bands, and they play their stuff, but with slightly different favourites to Fred. It’s a good mixture, a good team, and every once in a while we’ll bring in local DJs we love like Matt Walsh, Skull Juice and Matthew !WOWOW!.
What are your plans for the 1st birthday?
Well we’ve got Poni Hoax from France, and Sons and Daughters, both playing live. And a great guest DJ. I saw him in Belgium at the Soulwax-mas party, he was amazing, I was really impressed. You’ll have to come down and see who it is…
And how about bands and DJs coming up in 2008 – any sneak previews you can give us?
The Long Blondes, XX Teens and Mystery Jets are going to come and play live, and These New Puritans are coming again because they were really good last time and their album is great.
Anything else up your sleeve outside of The End?
Well we’re in talks with some people in Ireland and Paris, about doing some Durrr nights in other clubs – something that we definitely want to do a bit more, because in terms of the types of music we champion, I think we do it well! I want to take the nights abroad and find bands from the country that we’re visiting, that we haven’t had a chance to put on in London.
And finally – what would be your dream Durrr lineup?
Well I think our party before Christmas was pretty close - that was amazing. Hmmm, new bands, well there’s a few bands that we haven’t be able to book yet but will hopefully be able to get in the next six months or so, so maybe I’ll put them down. Glass Candy are one, and we tried to put on Vampire Weekend but we had too many bands already for that night so we couldn’t fit them in – so I would really like to put those two on. Plus the residents, and maybe Matt Walsh and of course Erol, that would be a pretty perfect night!
That’s pretty modest of you – you don’t want unlimited budgets, or to bring anyone back from the dead or anything?
Haha well we could go down that route, but I’m going to stick with what we do – which is new, young music and bands!
Published: 17/01/2008
