James Priestley Interview
We grill the secretsundaze resident and boss...
James Priestley is co-founding father and resident DJ at legendary East End party secretsundaze. We decided to pit the two heavyweights of al fresco raving, secretsundaze and Mulletover, against each other in a Top Trumps battle. We got James on the phone for an interview, and discussed the highs and very highs of its seven year history.
Endclub.com: You grew up with music – but what turned you from playing the piano, flute and sax to DJing?
James Priestley: I first started listening to electronic music and going out clubbing in my early teens, and that’s when I laid all those instruments to rest - everything else kind of goes out of the window when you get into dance music! I didn’t get decks till I was about 17 but I was messing around on friends’ decks for ages before that.
Endclub.com: secretsundaze made its name with parties in unusual locations – where is the most unusual place you've ever held a party?
James Priestley: My favourite was the Blue Marlin in Ibiza, we did two free parties there 3 years ago. Blue Marlin is a really nice beach club / restaurant / bar on Cala Jondal - these days it’s very established and high end - there are lots of rich people going there and it’s all sunbeds and champagne. Back then, however, it was a bit more organic – not many people had really done parties there. It’s beautifully styled with white sails and drapes, and a lovely garden terrace. It was the perfect venue for us – the kind of place we’d always dreamed of doing a party. The first one was really good, we had about 800 people. The second one we had Ricardo Villalobos playing, and we had 2,500 people turn up – it was insane! It was the biggest party they had ever had there, all the roads in the area got completely blocked, people were parking up and walking for hours just to get to it. Unfortunately we were a bit of a victim of our own success, as the guy who owned it said we brought too many people and he didn’t want that in his venue. They had a really nice restaurant next door where people were trying to have brunch, whilst a couple of thousand ravers were just going for it! I think it might have put them off their food a bit!
Endclub.com: Which has been your favourite London venue?
James Priestley: I think probably The Poet – it has a very special place in my heart, especially as it is unlikely that we will ever be able to do it there again. It had this walled garden which made it extremely intense, plus it had really good sound, and in those days we didn’t really worry too much about annoying the neighbours - we have to be a bit more sensible these days! It was when the party was still really underground and we weren’t really advertising the venue, it was really word of mouth…plus in those days we were a bit younger and free-er, so we were partying a bit more!
Endclub.com: You’ve always picked venues with outdoor areas – is this crucial to the atmosphere at secretsundaze parties?
James Priestley: Definitely - whenever we do a secretsundaze party – whether it’s at Sonar, Ibiza or elsewhere – we always try and find somewhere with an outdoor space.
Endclub.com: You used to have a BBQ in the afternoon when SS was at 93 Feet East, right?
James Priestley: Yes! Some friends of ours used to make the burgers, we always used to help with the cooking and flipping the burgers, running up to the Brick Lane bagel shop to get more rolls…
Endclub.com: When you first launched the parties, it was all about secret venues, word of mouth promotion etc – do you think this has been one of the major factors in the party’s success?
James Priestley: The first year we were at 93 Feet East, but in the second year we lost the venue due to sound complaints – and that was just when the party was really starting to kick off and we were pulling in 1,500 people. So we found ourselves without a venue and we had to start moving around. We used to do posters with just the name, the date and the DJs – no venue name. We actually stopped announcing the venue name as in a lot of the venues we started using, we just couldn’t fit everyone in, and we wanted to make sure all our friends and regulars could still come to the party. Plus, to be honest, a lot of the time we didn’t actually know ourselves until the last minute! I don’t know if that has contributed to our success or not – but I guess people do quite like to go on a bit of a mission so it makes it a bit more exciting, a bit more underground.
Endclub.com: 7 years on and SS still has queues round the block to get in. How do you keep it fresh and exciting now that you’re one of the most successful promoters on the scene rather than the new party on the block?
James Priestley: Most of my friends are now in their early thirties rather than their early twenties so they don’t always want to go out every Sunday afternoon any more, so one of the things we’ve tried to do in the last few years is make sure we’re still getting a fresh young crowd coming down. We’ve also started selling tickets in advance – and for the last few parties we have ended up totally selling out. It kind of helps the crowd as well, as the kind of people who make the effort to buy tickets in advance are the kind of people who really want to come to the party – which helps make for a good atmosphere. We also do the friends and family parties. In the past we had problems with really big queues, and our friends and regulars had been turning up and not being able to get through the door, so these parties are a way of making sure all these people can still come down.
Endclub.com: How has the party’s musical style changed from when you started?
James Priestley: It’s never really changed drastically; it’s just constantly evolved to reflect mine and Giles’s taste and what’s going on in music generally. The more electronic sound that came through a few years ago was key to us – and we were some of the first people to book artists like Tiefschwarz and Ivan Smagghe. Before that we were a more traditional deep house party. The last couple of years we’ve been moving back towards the deep house sound. We’ve always had the tradition of a long warm up in the afternoon - I used to play mostly in the afternoon, spinning soul, disco, jazz and funk - keeping it really mellow. These days we do start with house straight away but we’ll keep it quite pitched down until the sun starts going down.
Endclub.com: Your party inspires lots of loyal regulars – are there any in particular that stand out?
James Priestley: There are plenty of outrageous London club characters who come down – it’s hard to pick out individuals.
Endclub.com: Tell us a bit about your new mix album?
James Priestley: We’ve got a new mix album coming out – secretsundaze volume 2, mixed by me and Giles, so we’re going to take that on tour. We’re doing an album launch in New York at a night called Basic, and then the album’s out over here on October 13th. We also launched a second compilation series called ‘secretsundaze presents’, and Tobi Neumann mixed the first one. We wanted to see how the first one went, as it’s fucking hard releasing CDs these days…plus we needed to see how much time it would take up for us in terms of label management, how well received it was etc. It did OK, so I think the plan is to do some more of those next year.
Endclub.com: What’s with the cricket jumpers on the new album?!
James Priestley: Wait till you see the rest of the artwork! We hired a cricket pitch for the day and played all afternoon – it was brilliant! I’ve never been a particularly big cricket fan, but spending the afternoon there I really got into it!
Endclub.com: Your debut solo production effort ‘Chariots’ signed to Simple was a massive deep house anthem, as was the follow up ‘The Source’ with Dan Berkson. Have you got any more new material in the pipeline?
James Priestley: I’m actually in the studio with Dan today. We’ve just finished a remix of Robert Owens’ ‘Happy’, from his new album – that’s actually the last track on my mix on ‘secretsundaze volume 2’, and that’s coming out on Compost the same day as the mix album. We’re also just finishing off two remixes on 2020 soundsystem for Ralph Lawson, which will be out next year. The stuff I’m working on at the moment is more disco influenced, a bit more old school sounding, so it’s a bit of a new direction for me.
Endclub.com: And is Gilles doing any more ‘Two Armadillos’ stuff with Martin Dawson?
James Priestley: Yep – he’s had quite a few releases this summer then he’s got a few more bits and bobs coming out soon. I think he’s doing a track for a Dessous compilation…
Endclub.com: Do you think Shoreditch has lost a lot of its spirit in the last few years?
James Priestley: Nothing ever lasts forever…it was really great for ages but the vibe of the whole area has really changed in the last few years. We’ve done parties all over London in the last year - Canvas, Ministry, Dex in Brixton, London Bridge on the August bank holiday – so I don’t think we’re really tied to that area anymore. Our closing party will be on October 5th, we’ve got Dixon as a headliner, and it will be at the carpark of The Arches in London Bridge.
Published: 22/09/2008
