Ultimate Optimo: Mark Murphy Interviews Optimo.
Well that's what happened in 1997 when Twitch and Jonnie Wilkes decided that 4/4 techno all night long was about as interesting as listening to the BBC test pattern signal.
Twitch was resident and co-founder of Scotland's first techno club, Pure, while Wilkes was based at the Glasgow night, Knucklehead. Both became disillusioned with the trappings of techno and the restrictions of playing in that genre.
As great stories go, they hooked up and decided to open their own club. They decided on the name Optimo (Espacio), which summed up musically where they wanted to go. That was back to the early eighties to New York where the fusion of electro, disco, punk and no-wave knew no bounds. The name also came from seminal New York band Liquid Liquid's song of the same name from 1983.
As legends go, the club has now become a Glasgow institution and was first to push emerging artists like Franz Ferdinand, Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and more.
You can find their music and remixes on labels from Eskimo to Domino from Dissident to Endless Flight and the pair has also toured the world and are making their way back to Sydney for Ha Ha's next Under The Radar warehouse gig on Saturday night alongside locals Dean Dixon and Dave Fernandes.
I had the chance to catch both of them before they headed for the airport.
It's a pretty amazing feat to have a club still open and relevant after more than a decade and more so with dance music changing so much in that period. How do you explain that?
Wilkes: Our early aspirations were nothing more than that we wanted to have a party which was FUN to be at and somewhere we could play whatever we wanted – really literally, whatever we wanted. It sounds cheesey but we really did want to put a smile on people’s faces and play music they could have fun dancing to. It’s important to remember that dance music in the UK was not very inspiring around ‘96/’97. In fact it was monotonous to say the least. The clubs were populated mainly by males and there was an aggressive atmosphere in a lot of places. The whole experience of going out and playing in dance parties was getting grim. We wanted to have a place that was, yes, 'fun'. Djing became really fun again for us and to our surprise, people really connected with it. I think they still do.
Does that also say something about Glasgow? It is as much about the music as it is about the punters. How do you think you have created that loyalty?
I think people everywhere want to have fun. It is true to say though that the Glaswegian crowd especially do. We feel very fortunate to have a crowd like it week in, week out. I’m not sure why we’ve enjoyed such a loyal following...I suppose we have strict quality control over what we bring to the club and we never cash in nor charge more than we ought to at the door for parties. I think it’s important to remember what’s expected of you as a host.
You always hear (and I'm not sure how accurate this is) how depressing and cold Glasgow is. Tell us about your Glasgow and what it means to you?
I was born and brought up in Belfast and I remember a lesson at school when I was about 10 years old – you had to draw your impression of another city in the UK - I had to draw Glasgow. I drew slag heaps, factory chimneys, rain and a football ground but I didn’t draw any people and it’s the people who make the city. They are so warm, energetic and creative. It’s been a great place to live and always continues to inspire me.
Can you remember the first time you two met and what you thought of each other?
It was on a bus going to Pure in Edinburgh where Keith was resident. Don’t know what Keith thought of me at the time but I thought he was a nice chap.
You wear your influences on your sleeve (hence your name). Is this the music you were listening to as a teenager or was it something you discovered later on?
Much later in life, the nineties in fact. I was into punk from a very early age. There was a burgeoning local scene in Northern Ireland in the late 70s/early 80s and I was lucky that I got the bus home from school with some older lads who kept me informed and helped me make good choices on what music to spend my pocket money on. As for the NY scene, obviously I knew the Ramones, Patti Smith and later on as an art student I discovered Robert Mapplethorpe, Yoko Ono, even Glenn Branca and a few others who crossed over scenes but it wasn’t until later that I explored the post punk scene in any detail and got into bands like Liquid Liquid.
Was there a club night in Glasgow which formed your first great impression? Was this where the notion of being a DJ came from?
Pure in Edinburgh more than anything really. No, I became a DJ by accident.
What were you playing when your first started DJing? You mentioned that you were getting bored playing techno hence the reason for Optimo.
Twitch: I started DJing in 1986 and was playing things like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, lots of Wax Trax 12"s, lots of Adrian Sherwood productions, ultra heavy dub, HINRG, Schoolly D and early hardcore, hip hop, electro pop and some guitar bands like Swans, Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth. Then house and techno came along and I started Scotland's first techno club (Pure) in 1989 which ran until 2000 (we were the first people in Europe to bring over Richie Hawtin, Carl Craig and Green Velvet). By 1997, I was bored only playing techno and house so started Optimo purely for my own amusement and that of a handful of friends.
Tell us about Optimo, the club? How did that come about? Where was it and what was the music policy? Can you still remember opening night? What year?
It came about because at that point clubbing had become a bit boring and I was bored of all the clubs in Glasgow. I wanted to start a party purely for the enjoyment of myself and a few friends and with it being a Sunday, realized I had a lot more freedom to play whatever I wanted. It was never a consideration that it might be successful or last more than a few months. I needed someone else to play so I asked Jonnie (Wilkes) as he had a similar outlook. It opened in November 1997 in the same club where we are now - The Sub Club. There were about 75 people there and it was the most fun I'd ever had DJing. The music policy was that there was no music policy.
It sounds like it was pretty outrageous? What was the crowd like?
The crowd was very sparse and I think I knew almost everyone there on the first night. Then it started to grow and seemed to draw in every freak and outcast in the city.
When did you start producing as Optimo? It sounds like a logical step?
I started producing in the late 1990s. Originally we didn't use the Optimo name but I started using it for remixes around 2003. Jonnie remixes under a different alias - Naum Gabo. As yet, I have still to release any original music under the Optimo name.
What was the first thing you produced and was it easy to get it released?
The first thing I produced was a 12" under the name of Mount Florida. It came out on my own label so it was very easy to get released!
How did the How To Kill A DJ comp come about? Anyone who puts 'Sex Dwarf' on a comp is OK by me. Was this a good indication of the music at the club?
We had played the Kill The DJ night in Paris a few times and become firm friends and musical allies with the people behind it so they asked us to do a mix for them. The idea was to condense a whole night at Optimo into 75 minutes, so yes, it was a good indication of the music we were playing at the club at that point in time.
Obviously dance music has changed a lot. What are you guys playing and making now? Are you still enjoying the club?
Yes, very much although we have some big changes planned for later this year.
What can we expect from Optimo's set in Sydney?
It always seems disingenuous to say this but it is true - I really won't know until I get somewhere what we will play. But, we will definitely be playing music for dancing to.
Murphy.
Comments