Dance Tunnel re-posts my DJ SPRINKLES interview

(Originally published on CVNTY, 2013)

By Niall Connolly

In May 2013 I travelled to Glasgow for the Arika 5: Hidden In Plain Sight festival, a celebration of the past, present and future of vogue and ballroom culture. Among those performing at the festival were Vjuan Allure, legendary dancer Pony Zion, and DJ Sprinkles, whose connection with voguing goes back to hir residency at famous New York trans*/drag bar Sally's 2 in the early '90s.

I conducted an in-depth interview with Sprinkles about vogue culture that touched on many other subjects like politics, activism and gender expression, as well as notions of “spirituality” found within house music, and Sprinkles' reaction to those ideas within hir own work as Terre Themlitz.

The following is an abridged version of the interview, which can be read in full (3 parts) by clicking here

You are primarily known as a "deep house" dj and producer, and yet so many elements of that culture have to do with "spirituality", and not even a religious spirituality. In the UK, I feel, house music culture and the drugs that surrounded it was in a way a kind of secular spiritual rebirth, though it didn't have a language to express that necessarily. I find it very interesting that you are directly oppositional to that. 

I am directly oppositional to that, but I also have no hope of crowds of people overcoming those spiritual subtexts.  But the promise of overcoming is not what is important, resistance is what is important.

But do you find that your position alienates you from certain parts of the house music genre? Are there songs you wouldn't play? 

Absolutely there are things that I won't play. But there are also things like that I will play, I just happen to like them in some way. And I will deal with them. Like "Inspiration" by Arnold Jarvis, a track that is politically antithetical to my own nihilism. But I love it! And the irony of a track like that in one of my sets is not lost on everyone. You have to allow for humour, and camp. And hypocrisy, and "the fake" and all these things that are also a part of drag culture and transgender culture... I guess for those reading this who don't know anything about me, we should mention I identify as transgender, by the way...

READ THE REST HERE

DAVID MORALES @ Dalston Superstore

TOMORROW this is going to be insane! A mojor superstar dj playing in a relatively small, intimate club - this is gonna be pretty special:

CVNT exclusive mix for Dalston Superstore

Wee bit of promo for my set at Body Talk on Sat October 19th. Tribal Diva Ckunt:


The Fog - Been A Long Time (CVNT TR4XXX Mix)
Craig ft Dajae - Mary Mary (Bok Bok Vocal Reconstruction)
Kelela - Guns & Synths
Rushmore - Bitch Please
Get Em & Sugar Shane - Move To The Light (Acapella)
Zanojin - Passenger Side
Auntie Flo - Zulu Death March (Weep Weep)
Trumpet & Badman - Go!
Roxy & Ride Committee Get Huh (Kutz Mix)
DJ Haus & Dedboi - Slip'n'Slide
Vjuan Allure - The Urge
Get Em & Sugar Shane - Move To The Light (Serving Ovahness Remix)
Lil Mo Ying Yang - Reach (Erick Morillo Remix)
Roxy & Ride Committee - Synthetic (CVNT TR4XXX Catwalk Mix)
Rokk Feat Dean Atta - Young Black Gay (Digs BloodSugar Remix)
The Joy Boyz - Pass It On
Harddrive - No Cure

CVNT @ Body Talk, Dalston Superstore, Oct 19th

Next London gig, playing at the awesome Dalston Superstore for BODY TALK:

Mark Moore played the last one, so I am PSYCHED! 

FAVE FICTIONAL GAY BARS for Dalston Superstore

After last week's run-through of the best gay bars in Europe for DS, here's the follow up: my top 5 (6 actually) favourite fictional gay bars:

The Tool Box, Wayne’s World 2

A great little nod to The Village People and gay culture in general, this scene from Wayne’s World 2 is one of those rare comedy moments where gay bars and patrons are in on, rather than the butt of, the joke. In a way it also foreshadows Mike Myers’ gig as the ULTIMATE gay landlord, Steve Rubell of Studio 54, and also hints at the top-notch job Myers would do with the role.



Blue Oyster Bar, Police Academy

The, ahem, Daddy of them all. Say the words “gay bar” to most people and this is what most of them will answer with. Actually not as offensive as it could have been, Blue Oyster Bar is perhaps now most notable for its excellent choice in music.



Read the rest here.

FERAL IS KINKY un-edited Gay Bars piece

These answers got trimmed down a fair bit fo the finished "Best European Gay Bars" piece for Dalston Superstore, so here they are in full. Many thanks to Caron aka FERAL IS KINKY for this! 

Vogue Fabrics 

Run by the enigmatic Maori princess AKA Chief Witch and Mayoress of Dalston: Lyall. This bar/club performance space started life as “Death Trap Disco” with parties rockin through til at least the next morning on most occasions. This subterranean lair still retains the feeling of a den of inequity and is now fully legal and even has a smoking area. The cute bar serves beers, spirits at reasonable prices and never shys away staging performances from the more art based, less commercial and way more exciting radical performers, without losing the full on party vibe. The crowd varies depending on what nights are on, ranging from boys to girls to mixed to fashion to Trans and everything in-between. I’ve spent many a hot sweaty night below stairs and last month saw a fab show from Christeene from Texas here. Once a year the Vogue drains the decanters and relocates to the Block9 field, in conjunction with the amazing NYC Downlow at Glastonbury Festival. “Fabulous Darling”

George and Dragon 

The George and Drag is at the start of Hackney road, has been running for years, it was one of the first places in the area that provided a more alternative vibe. I’ts got a warm atmosphere and the gorgeous landlord and performance artist Richardette let me have a party after the 1st year of my degree. I ended up dancing on the small tables with a large broom, that I think caught alight. I blamed it on the special cut price cocktails Richardette knocked up for us. The pub gets ridiculously packed, people pour out onto the street outside and different DJs play retro and alternative sounds most nights of the week. It’s unpretentious and friendly, there are a lot of regulars and some have almost morphed into the stools in the corner, but that’s part of the charm. Depending on what the night is, you can sit down and chat or dance all night. You’ll find a mixture of art and fashion and east London types, the interior is old British pub with a twist, the walls are covered in kitsch paintings camp objects and they also have art exhibitions in the toilet. There’s a particularly good vibe in the summer and it’s a good place to start the night or stay until closing time and move on to whatever else might be happening close by

Dalston Superstore 

This is the newest of the three bars, and sits on a well trodden route between the George and Vogue Fabrics. Its run by DJs and promoters Dan Beaumont and Matt Tucker so more emphasis is placed on the music. The interior is more industrial they have a really wide range of fab cocktails and the staff are young and good looking. In the daytime it’s calm enough to be able to work on your lap top of have meetings; you can get breakfast, lunch, snacks, cakes, teas, juices and sit outside. After dark it morphs into a really lively bar upstairs, sometimes with a gaggle of Trannies literally rocking the bar top in major heels, or with DJs who have flown into London and want to play there, as well as their busy regular nights run by different London promoters. The queues can be long, if you don’t know anyone on the door but everyone seems to get in. DSS operates on two floors with music on both. PAs, and art exhibitions and mellower music happen upstairs and after 11pm the full on sweaty club, known as the lazer pit, kicks off downstairs. You should check what nights are on before you go on their face book page, as they put on several different nights, some nights feel quite straight, there’s girl nights and Trans nights and often impromptu scenarios depending on what’s been going on that week or whos around. The music is varied but ranges from most types of house, to current pop, hip hop, disco and garage; the emphasis is on dancing, but you can still sit down and chat if you can find a space or dance upstairs along side the bar. Love box had their official after party here in July and the place was rammed with a really wicked atmosphere.

My GAY BARS piece for Dalston Superstore

I was comissioned by Dalston Superstore, roughly at the time of the Stonewall riots anniversary, to write a piece about people's favourite, or most historically important, gay bars. After thinking about America and Asia, in the end I decided to stick to continental Europe (and London), with gay haunts chosen by Daniel Wang, Hard Ton, Silvia Prada, Kiddy Smile and Feral aka MC Kinky. That means there may be a sequel looking further afield soon, maybe, and next week DS are going to publish the run down of our favourite fictional gay bars in film and TV.

Oh, the good ole gay bar! Love them or hate them, gay bars have been an integral part of LGBTQ social life since the beginning of time. Not always just a space for cruising and dancing, the gay bar/gay club has also been a vital tool for queers to define themselves and the kind of people we wish to be, the kinds of people we wish to interact with (for better and for worse) and, ultimately, the kind of lives we wish to lead, away from harassment and hetero-normative judgement.

Gay bars have also acted as a reflection of society’s acceptance, or lack of acceptance, of LGBTQ people, and our own increasing visibility in mainstream society. From New York’s Stonewall Inn (site of the Stonewall riots in 1969, the event which kicked the modern gay rights movement into existence) to Manchester’s Manito (the first bar in the city’s gay village to feature see through glass in the windows, ending the traditional stigma and shame of being seen in a gay bar) to London’s Admiral Duncan pub (which was horrifically nail bombed in 1999 to huge public outrage), it seems as though all of gay life could be traced through our pub and club spaces, and our interaction with, and within, them.

Although not always positive – very picky door policies have led to claims of exclusion and division among queer communities – gay bars and clubs are hugely important to this culture. As it was recently the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, we thought it was high time we celebrated the humble gay bar, so we’ve asked five of our favourite queer dance acts and DJs from around Europe to name their favourite gay bars for us. This isn’t a definitive guide however, consider it some insider tips for homos, don’t-knows, anything-goes and friends/allies to brighten up your next continental jaunt.

Read the rest of the article here.

HOUSE OF SHADE Interview for Dalston Superstore

By Niall Connolly

In the cult classic ’90s documentary Paris Is Burning, “shade” is defined by the legendary drag queen Dorian Corey as the art of throwing humourous insults at your rivals. “I don’t tell you you’re ugly, but I don’t have to, because you know you are ugly.” Accordingly, Berlin’s House Of Shade doesn’t have to tell his competitors they’re not as good. Just one listen to any of his DJ mixes on SOUNDCLOUD and wannabe ballroom DJs will hang their heads in shame, they’ll know they’re not as good. That’s the beauty of shade. Ahead of his debut London dj gig at Dalston Superstore this Friday for BANJEE BOY REALNESS, we sent House of Shade head honcho Jan some questions to answer…

Who/what is the House Of Shade?

House Of Shade is not a real house in the ballroom/voguing sense, so no mothers, fathers and children, unfortunately! House Of Shade is more of a DJ moniker and at the same time a characterization of the sounds I play, which is house, disco and ballroom beats that have a certain fierceness to them to get you in a legendary and shady mood.

You are known for your vinyl-only DJ mixes. Is it a conscious decision to just use vinyl, and do you think using one format only can limit a DJ?

Using only vinyl can be limiting, true, because a lot of the newer beats are not released on vinyl anymore. But often limitation is also a good thing, and personally I just love the whole process of mixing records too much to give it up for now. You know, the challenge of pitch adjusting and blending two records manually without fucking it up – so much can go wrong. It’s exciting!  

How is the vogue/house scene in Berlin?

The house scene is huge, obviously, but the vogue/house scene isn’t, at all. There’s not much drama on the dancefloors in Berlin, being competitive or even fierce are somewhat foreign concepts in the clubs. But there is in fact a budding voguing scene. Last year in August, Georgina Philp – who’s the best voguer in Germany – organized the first Berlin Voguing Ball which had legendary Hector Xtravaganza over as a judge and drew competing houses from Hamburg, Düsseldorf, even Paris. The next Ball will take place on August 17 at Festsaal Kreuzberg.  

Read the rest here. 
 

CVNT interview for Dalston Superstore

I am gonna be writing some stuff for Dalston Superstore’s website in the near future, so to get the ball rolling, Rachael from the London club interviewed me. Here’s an excerpt, read the whole thing here. 

Who is your production alter ego CVNT TR4XXX?

CVNT, or Cunt Traxx as it started out, is just me. I’ve been making music since the late ’90s, and I have collaborated with a bunch of different people, in bands, with previous singles as the Niallist on Dissident Distribution, and also on my last full length release, the MIXTAPE AKA from 2011. That features tonnes of collabs, from Yo Majesty, Cherie Lily, Ali Renault, Ben Butler & Mousepad and loads more people. 

CVNT is different though. It started off as a very functional thing, making tracks just for the dance floor, influenced by the new school of ballroom/vogue producers from the States like MikeQ and Vjuan Allure, as well as footage of the amazing dancers. Unexpectedly some of these tracks have blown up and gone viral, so it has kinda taken on a life of its own now. I’ve loved house music all my life though, since hearing MARRS as a child, so this project can’t help but be a personal thing as well, reflecting my love of house from now and back then, as well as reflecting the great influence I take from the actual voguers, watching their bodies move and thinking about that when I make music. I was kinda in a rut before this, as I think the whole house genre was, but getting into ballroom about three years ago really re-ignited my passion for house music. So CVNT is a weird mix of the personal and the functional, which in a strange way is a more liberating experience than working as The Niallist, where I think people had certain expectations of what I did.  

Which of your musical heroes would you most like like to see a biopic of? Who would play them and which era/aspects of their life would it feature?

That’s a good question. I studied film at university so I have thought about this. When I was younger I used to daydream about a Beach Boys biopic (not sure about Brian, but Philip Seymour Hoffman would play Carl, Owen Wilson would play Dennis and Dan Akroyd would be their dad) but that seems way too big in scope to do.

I would have to say that right now I would love to do a biopic on Willi Ninja. I’m not sure who would play a young Willi, but I’ve always loved Wesley Snipes, so he could play older Willi maybe. Or maybe he could be Paris Dupree, who would be Willi’s vogue mentor. I think Willi would have to be an unknown actor, preferably a very athletic dancer who could pull of his legendary moves. I’d like to have Bette Midler in there too for shits and giggles, I’d love to get Michelle Rodriguez to play a trans woman, and there’s just so many talented drag artists who could be involved. RuPaul would play Pepper LaBeija, Benedict Cumberbatch would go ginger to play Malcolm McLaren, and my current girl crush Brooke Candy would play Madonna. The setting would obviously be the Harlem ball scene of the early 80s, and expanding to international settings later as Willi gets famous for his dancing (Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo) and dancing at clubs like Sound Factory and events like Wigstock. The film would be told in flashback by Willi on his death bed, and it would have to be quite poetic with long arty scenes of voguing and references to all the music videos he starred in. I do seriously think about making a voguing feature film all the time, and putting as much love and care into capturing the dancing and clothes as Bob Fosse would. 

Read the rest here.