Vanilla flavoured trance isn’t on the menu with John ‘00’ Fleming, for his style has a flavour that will leave you both positively shaken and stirred. A pioneer of the electronic music scene since the early 90s, when you hear his sets you’ll be listening to the sounds of originality and pumping dark delight, instead of the type of predictability and vocal cheesiness that gets the eyes rolling in the back of your head. Jetting in for the Godskitchen ‘Boombox’ tour this October, ITM caught up with him to chat about what to expect, on working with the big labels, as well as his take on where the scene is at right now.
“It’ll be the sounds of new music, and a mix that won’t be a typical ‘hit after hit after hit ‘, which seems to have become the norm at so many of these festivals,” he said. Touching on an interesting point, I asked the outspoken Fleming to elaborate. “As a clubber when I went out it was to be blown away by hearing new music, where you would walk away and go, where the hell did that guy or girl that music from, rather than leaving and saying that they had just heard all of the hits in a formula, that many big name DJs are repeatedly copying.”
So, Fleming’s a maverick. An individualist who leads in musical style and who is never shy to speak his mind. Nevertheless, self cast in this unique mould, he’s still popular with the big-name brands, and I asked him on this marriage of peculiarity. “With Ministry of Sound for example, they turn to me when they want a specialist sound. The trust is there, and they allow me to express myself musically without messing around with the track listing. I’m putting another album together for them at the moment and they’ll say to me, ‘Right John, just do your thing, the results are there and you’ve got a strong following,’ that’s what I love about them.”
It’s not only in the studio where John gets his musical way, and he says it’s for the same reasons he gets invited to headline stellar events like Godskitchen. “They invite me to their events because I bring this different musical flavour to the line-up. On paper we may not all fit together, but the aim is not to have boundaries but to put people in the mindset that this is how it used to be like, and to experience different types of electronica”.
How it used be like? Many people reminisce on the ‘good old days’ of dance but I normally dismissed them as ‘old farts’, belonging to an era of Atari’s and Intellivision’. But Fleming is resolute, blaming it squarely on commercialisation and unoriginality – an issue he says is often only privately spoken about in DJ circles is labels and promoters chase the dollar. “It seems everyone’s forgotten about electronic music’s history. I want to emphasise, I’m not against the mainstream but there’s no new talent being born, no new styles of music coming through and for anyone trying to break through, and there are a heap of talented artists out there, they’ve got a huge challenge, it’s a real shame” he bemoans.
I ask John to elaborate on this touchy taboo of dance, and on what he’s doing about it. “Many of today’s clubbers only know what the scene is about today, and know nothing about its origins. People seem to have blinkers on, only wanting the candy stuff. I’m saying be more open minded, don’t leave the dance floor when the big hits stop spinning and appreciate the styles bordering the stereotypical genres.” He adds, “It’s gotta be about no rules, no genres, and all in one big room. That’s where I express myself musically, and in not having to reach for the emergency section of the CD wallet for anthem after anthem after anthem”.
It what are strong words from a strong DJ, it is this progressiveness and honesty that makes John ‘00’ Fleming a true artist. Furthermore, such bluntness is typically what’s needed to not only perk punters ears up to new sounds, but to also unlock their starry gazes from the dazzling lights at the top. I laughed at the mention of CD wallets, and it prompted me to ask if he’d fully embraced the digital world like many of his peers. “I’m still on CDs after giving laptops a go. I desperately wanted it to work for me, and theoretically it does work, in making it easy to drag and drop files as opposed to burning discs, but my record bag was so heavy with gear that it became a logistical nightmare. Paul Van Dyk, for example, carries three laptops with him simply for the technical issues. There can also be so many compatibility problems. When you get to a gig with only 30 minutes to set up, rather than taking in the crowd and the vibe, you’re frantically setting up and hoping everything is going to work. I’m a people person, I’d rather feel the crowd”.
John ‘00’ Fleming is no holds barred kind of guy. However, in all of this there’s no arrogance or abrasiveness; just an insightful and sincere passion, with a candour which can only be found in someone so long in the dance game. Musically, expect the unexpected. But one thing is for sure, when he whips that wallet out you’ll be in for a treat that’ll leave you savouring a smorgasbord of new tastes, splashing you harder than a face full of martini.
Godskitchen Boombox Tour 2009:
Friday October 2nd: The Met, Brisbane
Sunday October 4th: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Friday October 9th: Metro City, Perth
Saturday October 10th: Hisense Arena, Melbourne
Stay tuned to our Godskitchen Festival Page as the tour draws near, and check out a video of the Boombox firing on all cylinders below..