BRAD SMEDE [20:08:08] BRINGING IT ON Brad Smede has not contented himself with rocking Brisbane dancefloors from the DJ booth. Uh uh, he’s also slid himself into the promoters chair. You've been on the scene for a little while now, how do you see the role of the modern DJ in the whole clubland scene? There's two reasons people go to a club and that's socialising and music appreciation. So to get people through the door they've got to enjoy the music and it's a DJ’s responsibility to craft a set that will please a lot of people, so they have to know what to play and when. Too many DJs just follow the safe road which is great for some clubs, but in the scene we're in, you have to play fresh new music as people aren't interested in hearing classics or the current favourites, so to stand out you have to be doing something different. If we were to take a gander through your record collection what would we find scattered amongst your crates? Well currently I only buy digitally as records are just too expensive. Currently you'd find a lot of 07/08 house music of various styles, mostly deep, tech and fidget. I was listening to a lot of minimal in 06 but most of the producers I was following clearly got bored and started producing house which definitely affected my DJ sets! If you dust off my old records you'd find a bit of house but mostly breaks which is funny because I haven't bought any breaks in years! The rest of 2008 for Brad Smede - what are the grand plans for world domination? I have a lot on my plate for the rest of the year. My promotions partner, Nick Therkelsen and I have some ridiculously massive artists lined up for Fidget Fridays at Monastery so stay tuned for details soon. We're also running a stage at Quantum Relic, a three day event 1.5 hours north of Brisbane from November 14-16. The lineup has just been announced and there's going to be plenty of artist features in Scene Magazine in the lead up so keep your eye out for those. We also have a special Valley Fiesta edition of Saturday Sessions at Birdee Num Num with local production duo Bitrok, which I'm really looking forward to. So yeah, two monthly events and a festival, hopefully that's just the beginning of my world domination! Utility Man Brad Smede plays at Fidget Fridays at Monastery on August 22. Quantum Relic runs November 14-16. Stay tunes for more details. back to top ^

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