What’s up guys, just a quick update with some upcoming gigs.

Friday June 29th
Blind Pig @ Loop, Meyers Place (Melbourne)
Stuart McKeown vs Dean Millson
3.30am - 5am
FREE PARTY

Saturday June 30th
Loose Kaboose @ The Flinders Hotel, 63 Flinders Street (Melbourne)
Stuart McKeown
2am - Close
$5 before 11pm

Sunday June 31th
TBA

Drop me a line using the contact form if you’re keen to come along.

Interview with Street Mag Sydney

1. You say when you moved to Melbourne progressive breaks was your sound of choice. Did your new home encourage a move towards the glitchier, techy side of things?

Moving towards a deeper sound was always a natural progression for me, even with my earlier sets I experimented with a wide range of musical genres. I’d originally moved to Melbourne to experience the whole ‘Progressive Breaks’ scene, but since the music takes so long to actually get released; by the time I got here it had already fizzled out. The Melbourne Sound needed a revival & that’s where the DJ’s like Gavin Keitel, Ozzie La & the Rollin Connection boys are taking things now. Melbourne is now getting a name for itself again, not for Prog Breaks but for music on a more ‘rollin’ tip.

2. Your appropriately titled dancefloor bomb alongside Darius Bassiray, Our Sound, is a tidy piece of work. How has the response been?

We’ve had a great response from the track, Proton are a great bunch of guys who are always looking for up & coming producers to really break the norm. The title tries to convey what ‘Our Sound’ really is. I’m pretty sure Darius has played the Opencloud remix in every set this year. We were really stoked with how the remix turned out, they encapsulated the feel of the original whilst still making it totally devastating on the dancefloor, check it out on Beatport.

3. How does Belfast compare to Melbourne in terms of an electronic music ‘scene’?

Belfast has a much smaller scene than Melbourne, much more ‘commerical’ too. When a scene is so small it can get frustrating to run parties that suit your style of music, but that’s the risk you take. Melbourne has a much more established scene with a much wider range of genres available. I often plan on having the occasional weekend to myself but that never happens, there’s always an international playing or something happening.

4. It’s quite interesting what is happening in minimal/techno quarters, especially here in Sydney, where the style is weirdly and often disingenuously hyped, making the long-time believers a bit peeved and protective. Have you noticed this kind of thing in Melbourne?

There’s a fine line between DJ’s that play Minimal just because it’s cool & those who play Minimal as part of a larger combination of genres. There are very few parties that play just Minimal alone, a few that come to mind that do this very well would be Nano & the Pinksilver party. Most of the other DJ’s tend to integrate the Minimal sound with Tech House & Deep House to really set the mood better. I would definitely say there’s those purists out there but at the end of the day you have to play what works on the Dancefloor & I feel you need to be versatile to achieve that balance otherwise you can’t cater for every type of party, only the purists.

5. Trawling through your archived DJ sets, there are certain names that continue to pop up. Who are you finding the most consistent producers around at the moment?

There’s so much good music around now that’s very accessible, Beatport is a DJ’s dream yet a nightmare for your rising credit card balance. A few highlights of the past few months have been Someone Else’s new album on Foundsound Records called Pencaps & Coloured Pencils, other consistent producers have been guys like Paul Ritch, Sarah Goldfarb, Polder & Minilogue.

6. You’ll be playing an intimate, underground gig in Sydney. What can we expect from your set?

Expect it to be deep & rolling. You only get one shot at the title.

Check out Stuart’s web forums for more Electronic Music mayhem: http://www.idmforums.com/