Every industry has “veterans” whether it be work, sport, politics or music. Greg Packer has been involved in the dance music industry for over a decade now since moving to Australia in the late 80’s. The old adage “a year is a long time in music” rings true when taking a browse at Packer’s travel diary over the last 12 months. “There was a stage when I was playing a gig almost every weekend” says Packer down the phone “It was a really hectic year in terms of playing shows all over Australia, it seemed that no sooner had I been back home in Perth, that I was soon jumping on a plane again for the next weekend.”
In between playing packed gigs around the country, producing tunes and lining up on the regular bills around Perth, Packer has released a mix CD “Soul Fuel” on Inertia records. With himself and fellow Perth trio, Pendulum, Flying the flag internationally for Australian Drum and Bass, Packer attributes his long term success to the local nights. “It all starts somewhere, and while its great to be considered a pioneer in the scene, not enough of the local nights are being supported, many people are under the misconception that the Drum and Bass scene is ‘dying slow death’ so to speak. In Perth there is an abundance of top quality internationals touring week in week out which is leading to the punters wanting to save their dollars to see them and its having an effect on the locally run nights. The scene certainly isn’t dying, Shy FX and Roni Size just toured over the last month and they were both sell out, cue down the road kind of nights. That doesn’t tell me that the popularity of Drum and Bass is decreasing at all, if anything its an indicator that it is all still going strong with internationals all raving about their shows over here”. Drum and Bass is particularly popular on the west coast with many proclaiming Perth as Australia’s and the world’s capital of DnB . “I don’t think that is an entirely accurate statement, I think that there are other cities in Australia and the world that have as good if not a better following than Perth.”
And what of the ITM TOP 50? With Packer taking 3rd spot for WA last year and being the only Drum and Bass dj in the top 50, Packer feels there could be a change of the guard in this years poll. “The Breaks guys have been doing really well over the last 12 months. The name that seems to be on everyone’s lips is Micah, he placed 4th last year. And of course Kid Kenobi has been as solid as ever.”
With Greg Packer achieving so much in the last 12 months what is on the cards for Packer, a trip back to his roots of hardcore? “laughs I have been on the line up for some hard core nights recently playing some old skool jungle sets, DnB is still my love and I will never get sick of making and playing drum and bass, I do like to diversify though. I played an old skool breaks set before Grand Master Flash which was a bit of fun, and I have remixed some of my dnb tunes to breaks. Ragga Ninja was remixed to a hip hop kind of ragga tune and the original is being remixed again to add the breaks version in the middle of it. I plan on getting back in the studio as much as possible to get more tunes coming out.”
With a year being a long time in anyone’s world, Greg Packer is still going strong after a decade of being in the industry, and its little wonder that Packer has placed so highly in the ITM top 50 over the last two years, and I have a feeling that another decade is not out of the question.
Where will Packer feature in the 2005 Technics inthemix50 DJ Poll? Have your say! Head to http://www.inthemix.com.au/50/ to cast your vote.
