Back in 2005, Lister Cooray and Paulie C launched InProgress Entertainment with an event featuring some of Melbourne’s most respected talent. The party was appropriately named ‘Vaccine’ and was a great success. After building a strong reputation and gaining respect from their industry they took a well deserved break from the music scene, but now they are back in search of another remedy, to assist the Make A Wish Foundation grant seriously ill children their most cherished wish.

On December 7th, InProgress in conjunction with some of Melbourne’s most treasured DJs, will host “Make A Wish and Dance”. The charity event will forward all proceeds from the small $10 entry fee directly to these children in need. Lister and Paulie were happy to discuss their achievements to date with ITM, as well as their plans for this event and the future.

You have taken a bit of a break recently. What made you decide to return with a charity event?

We have both been very passionate about charity work. It was one of the first things we discussed when we set up InProgress. Giving something back to the less fortunate on behalf of the EDM community has always been a priority of ours and we are just glad that we have this opportunity now to do so.

Why is the Make-A-Wish foundation your chosen charity for this event?

We sat down and put a list of charities together. The list derived from our personal choices and input from our friends and family. We thought Make-A-Wish Australia really fitted into what was most important to us right now in our lives, so they were an easy choice in the end.

There are several crews involved in this event, how did you all get together?

We both put a list of crews together of whom are in the same scene as us, most of them are already good friends of ours so it was pretty easy, what we found is that all the crews we asked were more than happy to help out and donate there time, at the end of the day we all have the same thing in common, we follow this scene and run these events for the love of the music and not for our hip pockets.

What can we expect from this night?

Well as you can see, you can expect a kick arse line up. People will be in party mode due to the nature of the event, and we have also ramped up the lighting and sound for the event, we are trying to make it a night to remember!

If you could have any wish granted what would it be?

Apart from capturing the underground clubbing vibe in the 90s and injecting it into today’s scene, it would have to be growing InProgress Entertainment to a level where we are regarded and renowned for great parties which will then intern give us more opportunities to donate money and also our time to the less fortunate.

What other projects have you been involved in lately?

This is the first event InProgress has done since the Luke Fair ‘Balance’ CD launch. Lister has been playing some side gigs, Paul has played a couple of small gigs, but in terms of events, Make A Wish & Dance is definitely overdue! Other priorities took place but we are both glad to be back in the swing of things and bringing InProgress back in a big way! We are definitely looking forward to running some parties in 2008.

You launched InProgress back in 2005. What are your biggest achievements to date?

Launching InProgress back in 2005 helped us meet some great friends, DJs and promoters. These relationships helped us both play around town supporting many international gigs and also a supporting role at the Godskitchen Festival at Melbourne Park. The best is yet to come but we know that it will take a lot of hard work to get to where we want to get, and we are both willing and determined to do it.

Are you still following the same direction in sound?

Definitely not! We both still love the progressive we used to listen to and play out, but times have changed and it’s about adapting and embracing new sounds and technology. We both play a lot more techy than usual but don’t ask us for a genre as you will hear 3-4 in the one set. In our opinion that’s what music has evolved to.

What are your plans for the future?

2008 is the year to start getting things rolling to where we want it to be. We are not keen on running things out of our control but concentrating more on intimates club gigs where DJs can play in an appropriate environment for the sound they’re pushing. What you will also find is that in any of our parties that we will run in the future we will be looking to bring on some new talent – bedroom DJs – and give more and more up and comers a go. Without the up and comers, where will the scene be in 5-10 years? We are also pleased to announce that in the not too distant future we are setting up a monthly Sunday afternoon for the summer months and also running a few international side shows in 2008.

If people are unable to make it to your event how else can they help this worthy cause?

People can get in contact with either of us via the forums, email (makeawishanddance@hotmail.com) or go to www.makeawish.org.au. For people that can’t make the event but would still like to donate, we are accepting donations and we will provide an official receipt from Make-A-Wish Australia. On behalf of InProgress Entertainment and Make-A-Wish Australia we would like to thank everyone for there support and help with this event and we hope to see you there!

Here at ITM we can think of no better way to spend your Friday night. Get yourself down to Brown Alley to dance for a good cause; check ITM Whatson for full details.