Tracking a busy DJ down can be a challenge at the best of times, and so it’s not uncommon for interviews not to happen at their originally scheduled times. Usually, these things sort themselves out. In this case, our interview with Dan Mangan almost got permanently cancelled – for the morning of our interview, it seems dear Dan nearly wound up dead. “Yeah, bit of a near-death experience,” he begins, recounting the adrenaline-soaked adventure that kick-started his morning commute. “I was riding my bike to work, and nearly got sandwiched behind a parked car and a truck crossing over Chapel Street. A rather hairy moment!”

Thankfully, the near miss was exactly that, and Dan has been able to continue on with his plans here on earth – plans that include, among other things, a major festival appearance at Kiss My Grass this coming Australia Day alongside fellow Melbourne dance music veteran Sean Quinn as part of their Space Between the Beats partnership. “Whenever Sean and I play together for Kiss My Grass, it’s been an awful lot of fun,” Dan says, “even if our shows together are few and far between.”

For Dan, part of his having taken a step back from DJing every weekend is a product of the day job he’s held down for two years at EQ/Stomp, one of Australia’s best-known dance music imprints and home to the globally-renowned Balance compilation series. “DJing has taken a bit of a backseat over the past two years, in favour of focusing on the music business side of things,” he explains. “It’s really just this year that I’ve started easing back into DJing a little bit, now that I’ve got a good balance between my personal life and my professional life.”

To Dan, modern DJ technology will play a part in allowing him to maintain that balance while still performing as a DJ at the level he expects of himself. “I’ve just picked up Serato Scratch recently, so I’m going to be one of those annoying DJs who walks into the console and sets it all up,” he laughs. “But to me, it’s the answer. I’ve burned enough CD-Rs to last a lifetime already. I love vinyl and I always will love vinyl, and working at a record distributor I’ve had access to a lot of it for cheap or for free when white labels come through, but being able to just play any of my tunes, any week, off turntables just like I always have with a natural turntable feel, that’s a really good thing for me.”

Dan’s experience both as a DJ and as a music industry professional working in vinyl and CD distribution gives him a unique birds-eye view of the dance music industry and of how people search for and purchase new music. “It’s changed a lot with the advent of Beatport,” he observes, “and I see the sales that come from a vast range of digital download sites. Things are a lot more accessible now, and in some ways it’s also lowered the bar a little bit, but at the end of the day it’s just the same as going into a record store and picking up a massive pile of records and going through them. You’re going to come across a load of crap, but then you’re come across a couple of gems that are going to be mainstays in your sets for however long, too. You’ll always have those amazing labels that consistently put good stuff out, and so it’s just a matter of keeping tabs on them all.”

One new area that Dan sees as a hotbed of ideas for new records is the online blog community. “These days that’s where a lot of the hype tends to come from, instead of the PR campaigns that people used to have to pay a lot of money for. Artists and labels and bloggers are really connecting at a grass-roots level, and if you do the research, go through other people’s charts and new releases and recommendations, it really works – but it still comes down to the same ‘effort equals income’ equation. You still have to look if you want to have that point of difference as a DJ.”

Similarly, Dan says, the acceptance curve for breaking new records in a city hasn’t changed much, either. “I’ve always been one of those DJs where I might play a record, and the club won’t get it, but then I’ll walk into the same club six weeks later and it’s a huge track and people are loving it. I guess that’s the price you pay for being upfront sometimes – and as a DJ, I’d rather lead than follow.”

For Dan, part of his search to find balance means finding the time to sit down at a computer to work on music in the studio after having spent the entire workday operating the computer on his desk at work. “Sometimes, the idea of sitting down and doing another eight hours at a computer after a full work day is a bit much to handle. Factor into that the summer months, where it’s warmer, and there’s so much to do out and about, and it can be tough. Besides, if I was able to do that, eight hours at work and then another eight hours at home, I’d be a lot pastier and whiter than I already am!”

Even still, Dan is quick to admit that as technology gets cheaper, more and more budding producers are able to put together top-quality records on a shoestring budget. “Take Arno Cost, for example,” he says. “Until recently, he was still using Fruity Loops. Or take Habersham. Back in the day it was records made with Fruity Loops that put him on the map. At the end of the day, it’s the musicality in the person that matters, even if the process has been made easier.”

By way of example, Dan mentions up-and-coming Melbourne producer Lewie Day, who has quickly made a name for himself with top-drawer productions released on Audiotherapy, Proton and 8Bit as well as on Dan’s own EQ Grey. “I put one of his records out about this time last year, and the sound of it was like, wow. Lewie’s learned to play a lot of instruments, but learned a lot of the computer side himself after buying a couple of computer music magazines and teaching himself, but the results are there. So it can go either way. Whether you’ve got a lot of musical ability and a little bit of technical skill, or the other way around, it’s the music that matters.”

From an industry perspective, Dan acknowledges that, at the end of the day, making a proper name for yourself in the dance music industry is at least in part about sales. “Numbers-wise, trance and the hard stuff is still king,” he explains. “Also selling is that Justice or Simian Mobile Disco sound, which to me sounds like a poke in the ear with a sharp stick. Really atonal, distorted, with no dynamic in it at all. But for some reason it sells a lot. There’s no music in that music to me.”

As far as Dan’s personal taste in music goes, here he doesn’t mince words. “House, really,” he says simply. “That’s the only way I can explain it. I’ve always been one of those DJs who prefer to play within context – so I won’t walk into a place at midnight when people are just coming in the door and start playing massive club bangers. I’ll play more ‘welcome to the nightclub’ if it’s the start of the evening, to reel them into the dance floor as my set progresses.”

Dan Mangan plays the massive Kiss My Grass festival the Myer Music Bowl this Sunday January 25th. Check out ITM’s festival page or whatson for more info!