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Skrufff.com Interviews Nag Nag Nag’s Jo Jo De Freq: London’s Number 1 Electro (Clash) DJ
““For the first four or five months the club was consistently quite dead. I used to joke, ‘You know what, one day they’ll be a queue out there’ and we’d all laugh but then after it got full for the first time it was rammed every week.”
As one of the three founding promoter/DJs at London danceteria Nag Nag Nag promoter, 25 year old Canadian DJ JoJo De Freq admits she’s surprised by the astonishing speed of her club’s success. Though not by its actual success.
“I felt there were lots of things lacking in London clubs and we basically wanted to do something to fill those gaps,” says Jo Jo.
“I’ve also always liked electro and suddenly I was hearing all these great electro tunes coming out from the likes of Fischerspooner, Miss Kittin and Felix Da Housecat. It felt like something was happening musically and coupling that with our intense boredom of clubbing, we wanted to mix up the gays, the straights, the art kids, the fashion kids, whoever- the people wanting to go out in a space where they could express themselves however they liked.”
Technically the most capable of her fellow Naggers Jonny Slut and Fil OK, Jo Jo’s youth, gender and penchant for dressing up in supersexy, sometimes bizarre outfits have helped to make her one of London’s most in demand new DJs, recent gigs at Dior’s Paris show preceding Alexander McQueen’s at Harvey Nichols. She’s also set to appear in next month’s Mixmag as one of the mag’s Top 10 new DJs (as the only girl) suggesting her global profile is about to skyrocket. She’s also astute enough to align herself with the artistic and alternative types who remain the bedrock of Nag Nag Nag and, no doubt, her own bright future.
“I’m quite happy to say I’m a part of this electroclash scene emerging but it’s not about being purist,” she says.
“That’s where the ‘clash; comes from, it’s a clash of everything and I definitely have a distinct style.”
Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): What was the original idea for Nag Nag Nag?
JoJo De Freq: “I was really bored of clubbing in London and having been a dance music fan for years it was something that really mattered to me. I felt there were lots of things lacking in clubs and we basically wanted to do something to fill those gaps. The London club scene was dominated by this really serious attitude towards music, almost in the way that progressive rock was in the 70s, with those long, drawn out monotonous songs, with everything sounding the same and no personalities, either with the DJs or the crowd. I’ve also always liked electro and suddenly I was hearing all these great electro tunes coming out from the likes of Fischerspooner, Miss Kittin and Felix Da Housecat. It felt like something was happening musically and really coming together. Coupling that with our intense boredom of clubbing, we wanted to mix up the gays, the straights, the art kids, the fashion kids, whoever- the people wanting to go out in a space where they could express themselves however they liked.”
Skrufff: When did you first come to London?
JoJo De Freq: “Two years ago. I came here originally to check out London because I was also bored with what was happening in Canada. I came here with a 3 month ticket with no real plans to stay but after about two weeks, even though it was a hard place to adjust to, I decided to stay. There’s a certain buzz about this city, there’s so many things that could happen here. But I did give myself a limit of two years, I thought if nothing’s happening after that I’ll go back.”
Skrufff: Did you start by going to superclubs?
JoJo De Freq: “Yeah, I went to The End a lot, and checked out all the big clubs but was immediately dissatisfied. Before I got here, I’d imagined that the London club scene would be really exciting because you read so much in the media but when I came, yes, I found big-name DJs and big clubs but the vibe was just stale. I also checked out small clubs and anything that was remotely electro or electro-clicky type music. There were a few places for that but they still had those serious DJs concentrating on their 3 minute perfectly beat matched mixes.”
Skrufff: How did you meet Jonny Slut and Fil OK?
JoJo De Freq: “I met Fil working at a record shop and one night in the pub he was telling me about Atomizer (the band he does with Jonny Slut) and how he liked Peaches and instantly, I said ‘Let’s do something together’. Then he told me about Jonny and I was instantly interested in meeting him. I was already actively looking for people that liked this kind of music and had spoken to other DJs and club promoters but nobody was remotely interested; Nobody that I met, anyway. I met Jonny on New Years Eve and that same night we decided to do Nag Nag Nag and began planning it.”
Skrufff: What was your impression of Jonny the first time you met him?
JoJo De Freq: “He showed me his old video with Adamski from when they were in a band together and I really liked the personality he showed on stage and the music. I thought ‘This is someone who’s really full on and is not worried about pleasing everybody’. That was exactly the kind of person I was looking for. I also appreciated the fact that he’s gay. I knew that this scene already had a strong gay component and I’d already encountered a lot of brick walls from some of the straight DJs that I knew who were saying ‘That’s faggot music’.”
Skrufff: What happened next?
JoJo De Freq: “A couple of weeks later we had a meeting, found a venue, agreed the club’s name, printed up some flyers then went to City Rockers and started giving out flyers outside the club. We started around the same time they did, in February.”
Skrufff: What was the very first night like?
JoJo De Freq: “It was a bit of a nightmare, to be honest, we were in a fairly down at heel basement club where the sewers seemed to be overflowing so every night there’d be a bad smell. At the time we did want somewhere that was a little bit dirty and we couldn’t afford anywhere big so, it was very humble beginnings. There weren’t very many people there, just our friends plus a couple of ‘lookies’, people looking in, because they saw an interesting flyer. We were also working out what each other were like as DJs and what our styles were like. But we had fun, we were playing music to our friends and it was slowly building.”
Skrufff: Was it a steady progression in Nag’s popularity?
JoJo De Freq: “For the first four or five months the club was consistently quite dead. We moved to the Ghetto after five weeks and it was dead there for the first few months which put us under more pressure, because it was a better club, with a proper owner, promoter and sound system but there was still nobody there. But thankfully Simon (Hobart) was really supportive and he was willing to be patient and gave us advice. Then suddenly after 6 months it filled up. I used to joke, ‘You know what, one day they’ll be a queue out there’ and we’d all laugh but then after it got full for the first time it was rammed every week.”
Skrufff: Why do you think the club nowadays attract so many celebs?
JoJo De Freq: “ I think they come because they enjoy it and they like the dressing up factor. We’ve had lots of famous people down but we don’t make a big deal about them and I think that’s why they like it. We don’t give special privileges to people because they’re friends with some designer; we give everyone the same treatment. And everyone there is in some sense just as glammed up or charismatic as any star- there’s lots of artists and creative people there so it’s a comfortable environment.”
Skrufff: How important do you think mixing is for DJing electro?
JoJo De Freq: “It is very important but only for functional reasons. If you’re on the dance floor and you hear a bad mix it can really ruin the vibe so mixes should be decent technically. But beyond that, trying to do 3 minute layered precision mixes is silly, you’re primary concern is to entertain. As long as you can match a beat for a few bars the main thing about DJing is getting the vibe right and taking people on a ride; for me it’s more about programming.”
Skrufff: Have you been back to Canada recently?
JoJo De Freq: “Not since I started Nag. I see my life as here now, if I go back there some day and get to tell a few tales then that’s fun but I’m looking more towards the future of what’s happening here. I love travelling though and I’m keen to go everywhere, that’s on of the reasons I got into DJing.”
Skrufff: The club’s getting media hyped constantly, and must be in danger of being swamped by fashion victims, how do you guard against it?
JoJo De Freq: “It’s inevitable that the hype will die down though we’ve already had two waves of hype now. The first time we were like ‘this is too good to be true’, and the crowd suddenly changed with more trendy type people coming down and even then we thought this will last a month of six weeks at the most then it will be dead again as it was. But it hasn’t. And now they’re writing articles again and it’s even more packed. I don’t mind either way, we’re just going to concentrate of doing what we started out doing- providing good music, a good vibe, good ideas and a place for people to go and wear their most ridiculous outfits that they can’t wear anywhere else.”
http://www.nagnagnag.info (Click of Jo Jo De Freq for details of her upcoming DJ dates)
Interview by: Skrufff.com
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