With the first birthday for Mumbo Jumbo coming up and gigs at Dirty Donkey, the Burdekin and Wired for Sound, busy Sydney DJ Simon Mann took some time out to chat to ITM’s Delerious.
Sit down and talk to Simon Mann for just two minutes and one thing will become instantly apparent – he is a hell of a nice guy! About four years ago I ran across Simon when I was out looking for interesting music in Sydney after returning from living in London. I was immediately taken with his mixing and his ability to play to almost any type of crowd in various environments and consistently get them up and dancing. I’ve heard him play progressive, house, funk, breaks, funky house, electro and techno amongst other things – all mixed with talent and emotion.
Ever since Simon had a “scratch” on his mate’s decks many years ago, he has been dedicated to learning the craft and sharing his music with others. In those very early days he didn’t even realise that people went to clubs to see DJs… he thought they were all bedroom bangers or standing behind hip hop bands! Lucky for us that has proved wrong and the good people of Sydney have been able to see him over the years playing parties such as Four Play, Clean and Serene, Zero Kelvin, No Frills (which he co-hosted with others) and various other on off parties and clubs around town.
Today Simon is excited about his night Mumbo Jumbo, which he co-hosts with Aphasic and Marcdemo. Mumbo Jumbo started originally as Simon looking for a place where he could play his own style regularly. He got chatting to James Atkinson (The Admiral) and they decided to start a tech house night together at the Sly Fox. They then approached Aphasic after hearing a set of his at High Jinks and Mumbo Jumbo was born.
Originally Mumbo Jumbo focused on funkier and tech house elements with James being a driving force behind the tech house. Unfortunately James had to pull out as he had other commitments. Marcdemo stepped into James’ shoes and introduced hip hop into the Mumbo Jumbo mix and started with a bit of electro influenced music which suited Simon’s style (he labels it electro and acidy tech house) so things have moved to a more electro feel.
Simon says of the venue. ” The Sly Fox is very accessible and best of all its free entry with cheap drinks! You can’t go wrong with that!” He adds, “It always attracts a good crowd of energetic and open minded people looking for something a bit different.” I have to agree with him there, as the atmosphere at Mumbo Jumbo is definitely fun, up for it and zero attitude from the punters.
As with any regular night, it took a while to build up attendance, but when tech DJs Mark Murphy and N-Zed played, Simon realised that they really had cemented their crowd attendance and didn’t need to feel quite so nervous every time Mumbo Jumbo was on. And looking back over the year tells me that although Mark Murphy and N-Zed get top marks, he also heard some memorable sets from Adam Hatfield, Mitch Buchanan and, he says, ” Synik’s first set had the whole place jumping to German influenced tech, EVERYONE got into it!”
The feedback Simon has from Mumbo Jumbo is that it’s a great night with excellent music and people just keep coming back. He also feels that the Sly Fox is getting a good reputation for quality Saturday nights and he is proud to be a part of that. He sums up how far Mumbo Jumbo has come when he says “You know you are having a good night when you look around and can’t recognise anyone, that’s just nuts!” If you haven’t been down and checked out Mumbo Jumbo yet, put it in your diary, it’s a sure fire good fun night out.
Wired for Sound is on July 9 and it’s a fundraiser for Vibewire.net – a community based youth website which covers subjects ranging from music and theatre to politics and youth issues. Simon has been involved with Vibewire.net previously through dance events like Lucid at the Manning bar and Translucid at the Globe. He was particularly excited about playing at Translucid with Scott Carelli on the bill as it was his first and only international backing gig!
After chatting to Simon about Wired for Sound I realised that not only is he excited to be included in a superb line up of well respected acts such as Ollo, Alphatown and Coda (all of whom he is keen to check out) but he is also going to enjoy the challenge of playing a cross over set, in between a tech influenced electro DJ and a progressive psy set. “There will be a wide audience as there are 11 live acts that bring each bring their own following, then there is the Vibewire community as well as electronic music community.” he said. Simon is clear that on a bill of hip hop, dub, beats through to tech influenced, gritty electro that he will find a spot and give the audience something to dance to.
Dirty Donkey’s third party is coming up and Simon has played at them all. He tells me that Bigcatz promotion have quite a following from Sydney dance scene and gay community and the Dirty Donkey parties bring together a really diverse bunch of people. Simon enjoys these parties as he says the atmosphere is quite fun and the crowd very open minded. “Where else can you find jeans, striped shirts etc dancing next to fishnets, pvc and stilettos”? What can we expect at the third Dirty Donkey party? Simon laughs and says “Now with more donkeys than ever!”
“Well as the front room will have DJs like Mark Murphy, Sveta etc I think that the back room will reflect a more eclectic style to match the crowd. So you can expect me to play anything from house, funk, electro and breaks. But it will be a lot more on the deep side compared to what I play at Mumbo Jumbo.”
And so what’s coming up in the immediate future? “Well everyone tells me that things quieten down in winter but I’m absolutely thrilled to be getting regular gigs and I’m busy!” grins Simon. July does find Simon pretty busy as you can also find him at the Burdekin every two weeks on a Friday in the main bar playing for the after work crowd. With all this going on Simon is still keen to get some bookings at more diverse venues and as summer approaches he would be thrilled to play at a large festival.
Busy as he is Simon has much more up his sleeve … when I ask him what is in store for the next year he has many plans. The first and definitely most important is becoming a family man as he is expecting a baby with his long-term partner in October. The smile on his face as he relays this leaves me in no doubt as to how proud and happy his is about this forthcoming event.
But he isn’t going to sit still either, he has plans for getting live acts to play at Mumbo Jumbo and wants to see if the three Mumbo Jumbo DJs can play out as a group more often. “There is still a lot of work to do to continue establishing Mumbo Jumbo as a consistently good monthly night and I’m keep to push some new and fresh DJs as part of Mumbo Jumbo as well” he says. They have considered putting on nights with longer opening hours (the Sly Fox closes at 3am) but at the moment it’s a bit tricky to fit in with other commitments just now.
I said it four years ago and I will say it again today… I think Simon Mann is one of Sydney’s best and most versatile DJs… do yourself a favour and go check him out.
Sat Jul 9th – Wired For Sound, Abercrombie Hotel
Sat Jul 16th – Mumbo Jumbo 1st Birthday, Sly Fox Hotel
Fri Jul 29th – Dirty Donkey, Rouges Nightclub
