quote:

Originally posted by John 00 Fleming System J makes a good point. Why do I allow myself to play alongside others that don’t suit me? With lack of specialist clubs in certain territories do I let my fans down and not play in their city at all, or make the effort and do this for them? My fans come first, even if this means I’m out of my comfort zone. When I see their faces enjoying themselves on the dancefloor, I know I’ve made the right decision

Truth. Second last time I saw you play was at Godskitchen '09 in Melbourne. All the other acts were complete rubbish (anthem after anthem), but it was worth it to hear you come on last and reset the floor with Magna, then launch into a set of ferocious rolling psy. We chatted for a while when everything was getting packed up, and I think I made this pretty clear to you in an idiotic sort of way.

Oh, and to clear one thing up, Anton Chernikov is a great DJ. At the Brighton gig where this was filmed, he played a cracking warmup, moving from ~135 to ~140 BPM very adroitly.

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Mix archive | Melbourne club guide

What drove the independent scene to the ground is that it got too bloody big for its own good. The proliferation of music in the 90s, the internet that came and allowed people to network on an international level, the rise of pear to pear sites like napster, the accessible sound of trance which was catchy coupled with the album orientated marketing of labels such as global underground (The 1997 boxed CD GU 007 Paul Oakenfold new york sold 170.000 copies in the US alone) meant that many newcomers were entering the scene and were no longer interested in what was going on in the mainstream american scene as they happily existed outside its sphere of influence. When a subculture running parallel to the mainstream gets too big for its own good it gets shut down with some unseen media hand fueling the process. This is what drove the scene to the ground mate. It was the endless propaganda in mixmag every month about how it is no longer fashionable to enjoy it. What drove the independent scene to the ground was the loss of influential clubs in the uk and abroad that were literally forced at gunpoint to shut down. What drove the scene to the ground was the endless praise for the shallow music that went on to replace it. What drove the scene to the ground was the deliberate deception towards artists and label owners from the industry coupled with the lies about how digital distribution has the answer to the decline of record sales.
But let me ask you this, I reckon if digital distribution and experimental music really had the answer and they had about 6 years of it shouldn't we be talking about the increase in label revenue? Shouldn't we be seeing the dance industry recovering from the loss of physical distribution? Shouldn't we be seeing new people entering the scene that are there for the music rather then there for the drugs? But no... everytime we question these schemes we are seen as being blinkered to the bollocks they are force feeding us. There there is a big elephant in the room and mate I reckon this is a classic case of destroy and rebuilt. What we are seeing here is some dodgy media agenda. Erase the scene and replace it with a new one you want to take credit for and the people are too gormless to know any better.

Fair play to you John.

As I said before, I agree with a lot of what you stand for and respect what you are doing musically.

As for Anton in fact playing a live set, then that has to be commended and perhaps I was premature in my initial assumption.

Please understand though that many of us here feel the same about the industry and in some cases have issues where we are banging our heads against never ending brick walls.

I recently came across a DJ competition that would be decided on the amount of people you could bring to the final heat.....
Not about music....just the numbers.

I guess it's pretty easy for everyone to have a go at something they are not happy with in the scene.

Yeah I would love the local record shop to be still going strong too.
I also miss the community and social aspect alongside hunting out those precious tunes not yet 'officially' available.

The fact you yearn for the same yet praise technology to the heavens is where I was referring to 'cake and eating it'

I would put to you personally John - Since the digital age has became the norm (download stores, cdj's, laptop dj'ing etc) how has the scene improved??

It hasn't!
Some things have got easier. That doesn't make them better

If downloads had never been invented (an oxymoron of sorts) and vinyl was still considered the only tangible medium for DJ's, do you think the scene would be more healthy and less saturated with the commerical pop idol / x-factor culture??

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My Soundcloud

quote:

Originally posted by John 00 Fleming 4) System J makes a good point. Why do I allow myself to play alongside others that don’t suit me? With lack of specialist clubs in certain territories do I let my fans down and not play in their city at all, or make the effort and do this for them? My fans come first, even if this means I’m out of my comfort zone. When I see their faces enjoying themselves on the dancefloor, I know I’ve made the right decision.

I can appreciate that when you're playing in some far-flung country, but I live in the north of England where there is surely no lack of specialist clubs, and yet I always end up seeing you at Off The Rails in Sheffield, which is a prototypical terrible trance night with crap residents, crap promoters and crap DJs for the most part. I just wish in these circumstances you'd be willing to accept a smaller fee and play at a smaller, more underground and better night. Perhaps that's unrealistic, but it's impossible to say the scene should be "all about the music" and also say "I need to make a living". I sympathise with the position you're in, because it's harder and harder to make a living from music without compromising your artistic integrity, but unfortunately it still undermines your position.

___________________
Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

quote:

Originally posted by John 00 Fleming 5) didn’t have time to spell check or grammar (both my weakneses!)

Eh, not too much of a bother, all things considered. Thanks for posting, too.

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Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

slobberpenises and such.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I just wish in these circumstances you'd be willing to accept a smaller fee and play at a smaller, more underground and better night. Perhaps that's unrealistic, but it's impossible to say the scene should be "all about the music" and also say "I need to make a living". I sympathise with the position you're in, because it's harder and harder to make a living from music without compromising your artistic integrity, but unfortunately it still undermines your position.

Absolute fucking nonsense. Lets look at the facts.
A - Most people who are still making a living out of electronic music got their big break before the scene folded and are riding that tide. A lot of these same producers are expressing how hard it is to continue to make a living doing this since the dance scene is fading into obscurity. Some have already called it quits.
B - The majority of producers cannot make enough money to live on in this scene.
C - The majority of labels are having a hard time paying their bills and sustain their labels the ''is their even a point in this anymore'' feeling is expressed very often.
D -Digital distribution means that anybody can put out a record which is great but the natural consequence of this however is that people do not want to listen and they certainly do not want to buy.
E - This leaves the weekend warriors making the music but not too many people listening anymore that means that a producer can't grow and evolve from that into an artist with bookings licensings and sales and be able to reach hundreds of thousands of people so only people with major label push can be heard.
F - Even on youtube most of the electronic music that has hundreds of thousands even millions of hits are the classics from the era when the scene was strong and people made big sounding records.

How can a new artist build capital to promote himself and his music without a viable economic model that can at least earn him some money to make a living on so he can evolve from a bedroom warrior to an artist with bookings, licensing and sales?
How?
How can a dj or producer be able to promote his music and reach hundreds of thousands of people without money?

Yeah money is one thing soul is another and dj rap can't rap but personally these days I am all about the money.

Kinda like this guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi2udfD-G-w

^ He's all about the money too.

Not only have you copy-pasted that entire post from another thread, it's completely irrelevant. When you make decisions based on financial gain, it is no longer all about the music. By default. As I said, I can sympathise with people who're doing this job full time, but the fact remains. Artistic integrity is about making decisions solely for the benefit of your art. That's why the underground is so romanticised, because an underground scene is one purely about love of the music, not about turning a profit. It's in those conditions that music best prospers.

You may have this ludicrous, nostalgic view of the 90s dance scene as the best period ever, but the whole thing collapsed because DJs were out to make too much money, asking for bigger and bigger fees and constructing cults of personality around their image, not their music. You idolise the likes of Oakenfold, but it's exactly his business-oriented approach to squeezing the market dry that killed off all that progressive and trance you can't shut up about.

___________________
Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

WEST

27TH

PROGRESSIVE WAS BORN HERE, AND THERE IT DIED. OR DID IT?.............

quote:

Originally posted by freakster one of the most honest interviews Ive seen with a dj. I have loads of respect for john 00 fleming.

+1

Some just won't get what he means if they haven't experience the older days when DJ's and Producers were two different things. Producers respected the DJ's and DJ's respected the Producers; and a trust. The line between the two has since become blurred with the help of software and mass music download portals and therefore no more quality control. The End.

Being a DJ/Producer I remember actually meant something in the 90's; Producers in house music got so big like David Morales working with Mariah Carey actually together in the same room. That's the difference.

very cool of john to come on here and respond to people

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J When you make decisions based on financial gain, it is no longer all about the music. By default. As I said, I can sympathise with people who're doing this job full time, but the fact remains. Artistic integrity is about making decisions solely for the benefit of your art.

To promote that art need money you cretin!
If money is gonna help you be in a position of helping other up and coming producers be heard in these fucked up times where the majors control the whole bottle neck of the music industry then I say you are full of shit and there is nothing wrong with making money.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J That's why the underground is so romanticised, because an underground scene is one purely about love of the music, not about turning a profit. It's in those conditions that music best prospers.

No it is not. Because if you can't afford to make a living making music you are going to look for something else to do. Now tell me how is a producer quitting his music and focusing his energy digging a ditch somewhere to pay his rent is somehow better for the scene? How?
Why is a scene where only the wealthy well-off people can make music and the poor not having that luxury a good thing? Yeah that is your idea of a prosperous scene because you are dealing from the position of hypocrisy.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J You idolise the likes of Oakenfold, but it's exactly his business-oriented approach to squeezing the market dry that killed off all that progressive and trance you can't shut up about.

Oakenfold created the environment where young people of modest means and noble intentions had a voice to be heard. And he always supported the bedroom producers.