Click photo to enlarge
Touring British DJ-producer-recording artist Dan Havers, of
London, checks out the decks at Queenstown's Subculture
after entertaining 700 partygoers in Auckland last
Saturday. Photo by James Beech.
A touring British DJ says New Zealand nightclubbers are
renowned in international DJ circles for their high-energy
enthusiasm, compared with those hitting the clubs across the
Tasman.
DJ-producer-recording artist Dan Havers (28), of London, one
half of upcoming drum'n'bass duo DC Breaks, visited
Queenstown this week but has no plans to perform in the
resort.
He has been a DJ for seven years - five of them on
international tours - but is touring Australasia for the
first time.
Mr Havers played drum'n'bass, mixed with dubstep and
electronic music, at Auckland venue Zen to a crowd of about
700 last Saturday.
"It was the best gig out of all of Australia and New Zealand.
The numbers were great for the size of the club - it was
quite a young crowd, but they were up for a good time."
"We're quite hot property at the moment. The promoters in
Australia and New Zealand wanted to get us out and we put
together a three-week tour, including Sydney, Adelaide,
Perth, Melbourne and then Auckland.
"Unfortunately, Wellington and Christchurch fell through at
the last minute, but I'll be back in November."
Bristol DJ and producer Chris Page is the other half of DC
Breaks and the pair have released their own material on Viper
Recordings and Frequency Recordings.
Pickett Line, a soulful drum'n'bass summer hit this year, was
the follow-up to up-tempo electronic single Mankind last
year.
Mankind will be remixed and land on the upcoming duo's
four-track EP Halo, before work starts on their first album
next year.
MP3 and dwindling vinyl record sale were becoming less
significant for recording artists, Mr Havers said.
Remixing, DJing and publishing were the main ways artists
could earn a living, symptomatic of the way the music
industry was changing.
The latest trend in British drum'n'bass music was a move away
from "loud pop star production" and marked a return to the
sound of 15 years ago.
Mr Havers remixes for Universal Music, EMI Music, Island
Records, Rough Trade Records and Ministry of Sound.
Clients approach him to create a drum'n'bass remix of new
tracks to increase interest in their artists - particularly
emerging talents - across musical genres.
Mr Havers has most recently remixed for Liverpool five-piece
electro-pop band Soft Toy Emergency, young Swedish pop soul
singer Erik Hassle and London rapper Example.
"They would supply me with the vocal parts and sometimes some
of the backing instruments. My process would be slicing up
and re-ordering the parts I wanted to use and throwing in my
own personal sounds."
