Birthday wishes are in order at Electric Disco, as they celebrate their first birthday this month. ITM had a chat to Michael Costin and Mark Evans, aka Goodfella and Trix, the masterminds behind Zero Events, Electric Disco and Art, to find out how they’ve found the last year, and what they’ve got in store for the future!
What can we expect at your birthday bash?
Michael: Well it will have all the ingredients that people expect from an Electric Disco – hot crowd, great vibe and most importantly amazing music. And that sounds like the usual promoter hype for pretty much any event – but I can honestly say there’s nothing like Electric Disco come 1am when the big tunes are pumping and the crowd is right into it. It fully makes you peak or something like that.
Mark: Lots of drinking, lots of dancing, lots of pretty girls prancing. Oh and music – you gotta have music!
Having started out at a young age in DJing, just after you finished high school, what do you parents think about you being promoters?
Michael: I pretty much sat around for a year doing nothing. Obviously my parents would get on my back about getting a real job, but I used the “I want to be a promoter” line – in those days promoting to me was sitting on the computer writing proposals and reading inthemix, without much event action! But yeah they have been very supportive. When we did our first rave I had to hit Dad up for funding the day before the event, which was a surprise to him haha.
Mark: My mum wasn’t too happy trying to drag my ass out of bed for school after I’d been up all night emailing the Stanton Warriors management about a new “massive” breaks party we were planning that was going to get 5,000 people and boost record sales for them… they didn’t write back though the, fools! Now she’s cool with it though because deep down she knows she doesn’t have any other choice.
Did you ever think you guys would reach the level you have so quickly?
Michael: We started young and clueless so we had the naivety to think that anything was possible. So I guess we always dreamt it. But once we started learning more about promoting we discovered how hard it is, so it has been amazing to watch Electric Disco and our weekly event ART grow so quickly. We honestly owe 90% of it to the friends we made while clubbing, who have supported us all the way.
Mark: No way. After we lost so much money from our raves it was hard to get back on our toes and do another party. Especially since every venue we approached turned us down and gave us little hope. I guess the main people to thank for our nights popularity are our friends and the punters. But, as they say, you’re only as good as your last party and with that in mind we’ll just keep doing what we do and hope everyone still has as much fun at our parties as we do.
The tables have turned now, so to speak… rather then you guys looking for events to play at people are now asking you to play at their parties. How does this make you guys feel?
Michael: That’s the thing that’s got me the most! Playing parties like Kink to that massive main room and at Afterours and Bang Gang and all the rest. These are all places that a year ago we were partying at in the crowd. Now we still are partying there, we’re just behind the decks! I guess we’re in the position to be given these gigs because we’ve put our names out there as DJ’s by playing at our own events massive thanks to all the promoters who have booked us and keep giving me the chance to do what I love every week!”
Mark: Couldn’t have said it better myself Costin. Two points.
Do you have anything to say to those venues or clubs that missed out on giving you guys a chance?
Michael: I totally understand where they were coming from. If I was a venue owner or manager and had two teenagers with no experience and no contacts wanting to run an event I wouldn’t let them either! And I’m glad, because as a result we ended up with the chance to work with Le Panic. Le Panic has been instrumental in the success of our nights – as we’ve grown in popularity so has the venue, so it’s worked hand in hand. We really lucked out when we got to work with a “new” venue as we were able to define the image of our night the way we wanted to rather than trying to run an event at a venue where people already have pre-conceived notions of what the nights there are like.
Mark: Thanks for barring us because things couldn’t have worked out better. For a while we were desperate to find a venue and lowered our expectations of its quality. We’re lucky we found such a great club like Le Panic to give us free reign. It’s one of the nicest clubs in Sydney and if one of those other venues accepted our proposal then we probably wouldn’t have found it.
What can people expect to hear when you guys are behind the decks?
Michael: Train wrecks and un-structured mixing? Oh no that’s just from Mark! I like house music. House music is so many different things, but ideally for me I have the most fun playing the tougher house and the electro-influenced stuff, but in saying that there’s only a few venues where that can be played and work well. I also like breaks and hip-hop, and if the time is right I’ll play whatever track from whatever genre. That’s why Electric Disco gets so many props on the music policy – we play a bit of everything, as long as it works.
Mark: Costin’s a bit of a control freak behind the decks and thinks he runs the show but after a couple of fuck ups he quickly gets back in his box and has a warm cup of “back the fuck up”. Once that’s done I hop on and play good fun party music; not proper electro, breaks, house – ultimately stuff that will get me attention from pretty girls.
Electric Disco’s 1st Birthday takes place this weekend, Saturday September 17th, at Le Panic. You can also catch them at the Earthdance Festival on Sunday September 18th. For more info on either event check out ITM Whatson.
