Dano and JZ are the DJ frontmen and label heads.
Familiar for releases on numerous labels including the mighty
NRK, Dano heads the in house production efforts from his mackin
studio deep in the heart of Oakland.
Jay Zimmerman is the organised force behind the label, building
a strong catalog and racking up studio time for his own immenent
releases.
Both Dano and Jay can be found contributing their West Coast
viewpoint and knowledge to the tech-House list.
The third leg of the tripod is the shadowy Chris Rosa! Little
is known about this elusive gentleman, except that he pops
up on The List every now and then, builds and maintains the
excellent RM website, and it the crew's all round MacGuyver
do-anything-with-a-pocketknife kinda guy..!
"Community Feature" reporter Phil WIlliams asked
the boys a few questions about their experiences running the
label, and future plans...
"JZ, you've
got a few releases under your belt as a label, all of them
stellar tunesl... I know it would be tough for you to pick
a favourite, but we're gonna make ya! Which release, and why?"
Hmm, I think it
would be Dano & Joeski "Chikko".
Why? Not quite sure, but it´s the one that comes into
my mind first. The tracks on this release are pure Red Melon
to me. Classy, DEEP but totally techy, relentless in it´s
forward movement, yet doesn´t hit you over the head
with an obviousness that so may throwaway records do. Production
values are crisp and top notch, with catchy sounds and hooks
galore. Just enough vocals to keep you "in the party",
but so hypnotic that by the time you realize it, you´ve
been locked in it for longer than you thought. Solid all the
way around, and doesn´t ever sound overplayed.
Next in line would be Downpressorman from Dano´s Defining
Life. Both of these tracks remind me of the vibe that´s
found on Francois K´s "FK EP", one of my alltime
favorite 12´s.
"Yep, Defining
Life is a definite fave for me too... my copy is nearly
worn out! The drop at the start just slays it on a big system!
Alright, next question... there are times when we feel like
grabbing loved ones by the neck and
giving them a right throttling... ever had this happen in
the Red Melon camp? Tell us a story...
Well, this one time,
at band camp.... just kidding. hmmm... There are plenty of
times when we probably feel like that toward each other, but
that´s just part of doing something you love with your
friends. It´s inevitable. We all care about it so much,
and are doing it for the love of the music (because we sure
aren´t getting rich from it!)
that it´s just a matter of time before someone gets
too passionate about some issue that it all comes out with
a bang. But it´s therapeutic, isn´t it? And honestly,
it´s never been so bad that we´d really want to
get
violent. We´re not a violent bunch... EXCEPT that one
time.... about 10 years ago when.... (fade into the scene
of packed, sweaty party in a tiny underground space in Idaho,
circa 1991)...
We were just starting out, at one of our earliest gigs. Dano
is playing to a packed house before me and it´s the
final track of his set - I´m standing behind him in
the booth, taking my leisurely time, picking out my first
few records and getting my headphones out of its bag. Dano
turns to me and gives me that "Alright, you´re
up!" gesture as he unplugged his headphones from the
mixer and steps away from the decks.
The crowd had been responding enthusastically to his set and
were ready for more. First thing I do is go to plug my headphones
into the mixer when I realize the little adapter plug (the
one at the end of my headphone cord which turns the mini-jack
into a proper phono plug) is missing! Gone. Nada. Nowhere
to be seen. It was there yesterday, but somehow it´s
been removed and I don´t know how. I scramble, look
through my record bag pockets but no luck.... The crowd is
totally up for it, oblivious to my dilemma and the party is
rockin'... I look at the record that´s playing, and
there´s MAYBE one minute left, if I´m lucky. Bastard
left me with one minute on the last track! I turn around to
talk to Dano, but he´s long gone, having run out of
the booth to go chat up a cute girl in the back of the dancefloor
that´s been eyeing him (or has he been eyeing her?)
all night long. I can see that he´s still got his headphones
around his neck, fully looking the part of a superstar DJ
and enjoying himself immensely with this hottie.Meanwhile,
in my mild panic, I´m trying to get his attention, yelling
his name but no so loud as to break the vibe that´s
building, as his last song builds into it´s finale.
Dano isn´t even looking in my direction and basically
I´m fucked. I need his help, or at least his headphones...
but the song... it´s ending... it´s fading into
beats... and.. oh shit. it´s done.
Silence from the PA. No music. Fuck. Dead air in the club...
well, not quite dead air, because you could hear the ´click...
click...click..´ as the record continued to spin and
the needle skipped in it´s groove. All I see is puzzlement
on the punters faces... panic in my chest. At this point,
there´s not much I can do but smile, bring the faders
all the way down, shout "Alright, now make some noise!!!"
to the crowd and point to Dano on the dancefloor, standing
there with that shit-eating grin still schmoozing this girl!
The crowd responds by cheering and clapping... I grab the
first record out of my bag that I can find, slap it on the
deck and slam the needle down, turn the faders ALL THE WAY
UP and let the first few chords of Moby´s "GO"
fill the room as the crowd screams, with the beats finally
kicking in and the dancing starts again. I´m bright
red with embarassment as I turn to my left and there´s
Dano standing next to the booth with the cute girl, laughing
his head off. Next thing you know he reaches into his pocket
and says "Were you looking for this, dude?" as he
pulls out the goddamn headphone adapter and holds it up in
my face, laughing hysterically. I thought I was going to kill
him... but instead, I decided I´ll just have to get
him back some day, when he least expects it...
(This may or may not have happened. Dano may deny it. Nobody
will ever know,
unless they were there... heh heh :-)
"Hehe...
I'm sure all the DJ's on here can relate to that one... ;)
On that note lets get a story from Dano. Dan, you've done
a lot of globetrotting recently, and touring DJ's tend to
accumulate some great travel stories. Recently I heard a horror
story about Terry Francis playing in eastern Europe. After
a gig, he found himself alone and penniless in a village in
Croatia, after being stiffed by a dodgy promoter... wearing
his jandals and clutching his record box! Whats your craziest
/ scariest DJ travel tale?"
My scariest tale.....
Fortunately I have escaped anything really bad! I always fear
losing records or being stiffed on fees. The closest "scary"
call I had was in St. Louis in 1995 when I went to play a
gig for the Super
Stars of Love. I got there Saturday morning after they had
a pre-party on Friday night with Jeno from SF. I had a rental
car and drove to the promoters house at about 11am and after
knocking on the door I entered a large flat with probably
40-50 cracked out kids scattered about the house, all passed
out. The rooms littered with nitrous bottles. Every bedroom
had about 10 people laying on the floor. It was a really sleazy
vibe.
I waited around for about 30 minutes before someone woke up-even
the promoters would not stir to greet me. So this guy from
Chicago staggered out and wanted to go get some food and drop
into a record store, so I figured what the hell, I'll check
out some records. It appeared that no one would be waking
anytime soon anyway and my instincts told me to get out of
that crack den.
After about two hours we returned to the house. Completely
empty except for a couple new faces. These sober people had
just arrived and seemed disturbed. They told us that about
an hour ago the St. Louis Police had raided the house and
took EVERYONE down to the city jail for drug trafficking and
drug possession charges. Had I been there I would have been
likely been charged with something serious as I was over 21
and most of these kids were minors. I didn't even know anyone
there. Scary! I thank God that my only addiction was vinyl!
A lucky escape there mate..! Usually craziest travel tales
tend to involve a lot more alcohol... ;) Now, for the non-DJ
perspective on things, it's over to Chris Rosa. Chris, of
the three RM'ers, you're the only one who *actually* lives
in San Francisco (Dan and JZ live in Oakland)... please explain
yourself!
Wait? The guys don't live here too? They've been tricking
me this whole time! ;) Unfortunately, I'm afraid there isn't
a very exciting answer for this one. Believe me...I hear every
day how much Jay and Dano would prefer to be in the city.
There are certainly some benefits to being home owners, and
the east bay (even though we're just separated by a bit of
water) is practically the only place guys like us can make
it happen around here. If I had the cash and the same opportunity...I'd
probably still pass it up.
Particularly now that the dot com bubble has burst, and most
of the opportunists/silicon-rushers have moved back to where
they crawled from...the city is ours again, and is slowly
reverting back to it's funky, less starbuck-y self. There's
a real vibrancy here now that I just can't miss.
Yeah, as a recent visitor to SF, I noticed the difference
in vibe between summer 2000, a seething mass of late-bubble
corporate wank, and summer 2002. Arelaxed "lifestyle"
kinda atmosphere was really noticable this year... good to
see SF back on the music high! Now, we got Jay to finger his
favourite release, and I've got a similar one for you. You've
had many great parties in your Melon and Watermelon series,
and it would be hard to pick one out. But humour us... what
is your *personal* favourite, your most memorable gig and
why?
Ack...tough one. You know how it is...different parties stick
out in you mind for different reasons. It's by no means an
easy feat, but I'm going to narrow it down to our Watermelon
boat parties. Out on the bay, amazing
sights, a rare crowd...it's hard to beat that. But then add
the music to the equation...Terry Lee Brown Jr., Darren Emerson,
Doc Martin, DJ Dan, John Howard, Joe Silva...to say nothing
about Dano and JZ, headliners in their
own right. It's painful, but I'd have to say Watermelon 4,
November 15, 2000 with Darren Emerson. I'm not a breast man,
I'm not an ass man...I'm and everything man. And this party
had everything...the music, the people, the
locale...the vibe was perfect. It was a very intense 4 hours,
I'll tell you what. We strive for that feeling in all of our
events. It's not just about one single thing...it's about
bringing it all together.
Phew...sorry for rambling on like that. Makes me want to throw
another party...tonight! We won't even go into private parties.
That's a whole other can of worms.
No doubt! OK, thanks heaps for your time guys... best of luck
for your upcoming releases and parties, may Red Melon continue
in the top quality vein we've come to know and love!
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