One of the future superstars of Ibiza. Sankeys unveil Mr Late Night Society…
Interview : Dan Prince
Welcome to DMCWORLD William, and what a summer you have ahead of you as new resident at Sankeys flagship Carnival night in Ibiza. But before we delve into Balearic madness let’s rewind a few years, back to a decade ago when your first music venture began with your live band Jason and the Argonauts. What’s the story there…
“Hey guys, thanks for having me. I’m real fired up for this season that’s already underway! So yeah Jason and the Argonauts. End of 2003 three friends of mine started this live project. Around that time they were doing techno parties and DJing in and around The Hague. I was their host as I made me first strides into this music. Since we went to the same school, they were a year older than I, they knew I was a loud mouth and was easily fit as their MC. Early 2004 they asked me to join their project and in July 2004 we did our first show. We we’re pretty booming within this whole minimal techno scene in Holland playing every week and even toured to Germany, Belgium and Ireland. In 2011 we did our final farewell gig at the Welcome to the Future Festival in Amsterdam. In a packed tent emotions ran high and the love we felt was overwhelming. These guys taught me almost everything I know in being on stage and being in the studio.”
From there you moved onto production and DJing at Amsterdam’s infamous Trouw venue, what prompted the change in direction?
“Hehe, there were a couple of steps in between but in a nutshell that’s what happened. Around the time J&A split up as an act, I myself already had a couple of solo releases and was DJing for a bit in venues like Studio80, Paradiso and in cities like Berlin and Paris. I already knew the guys behind Trouw as they were formerly running late Club 11. My buddy Boris Werner(who I met at that first gig in July 2004) was asked to host a night at Trouw and as we were living in the same apartment at the time things progressed naturally for us hosting a club night together.”
It sounds you have music running through your veins, tell us about your childhood – were you born into a musical family?
“My parents and I always get into this because there is no real sense of me growing up in a musical family. Yes, we always had music playing at home ranging from my dad playing Phil Collins and Paul Simon to my mom playing America LP’s and her boogie/disco every now and then. I was however always fascinated with Michael Jackson as a little kid. Whenever MJ was on television my parents had to back away. Going to the market would be a nightmare for them, cause every time I would come across a barrel organ playing his music I would start dancing and impersonating him at only three years old. Where that drive for performing comes from still remains a mystery till this day.”
Your surname spins back to Cameroon, have you family still back there?
“Yes, I still very much have. I’ve only been there once together with my dad to see his family when I was 19 years old. It was a real hard time to go there and realising I have family living well beneath the standards we set ourselves here in the Western world. All in all the people there have to make a living everyday just to get through the day and don’t have a perspective like we have here to set goals in personal development. It makes me real proud of my dad knowing what he went through to realise his own dreams.”
What is your earliest memory of music?
“My mom singing me lullabies…”
Your first foray into clubland was via the Speedfreax parties at Now&Wow – what did you make of it all?
“The atmosphere created at those parties was tantelizing. Being a dancer myself I completely went up in the night. Dance battles, wearing dope outfits with belts around the shoulders and getting hyped hyped up by the MC’s. It’s fun to see this whole sound is finding it’s way back to the dancefloors again. Just pure energy and it makes the girls happy whenever I play out such a tune.”
You produce, DJ and promote – what is your number one love?
“Out of the three I would have to say performing live. It’s how I learned to be on stage with J&A and really gives me the time and space to show what I can do as a performing artist. I dance and move around a lot and i love to make interaction with crowds even more than when I’m DJing. That might be one of the most important things I’ve learnt; crowd interaction. It’s the best feeling when I can convey a certain energy and passion I feel at a moment and see the crowd react to that. Don’t get me wrong, I love to be in the studio and feel this transcendental bliss of making music. It’s just more expressive once I’m on a stage.
Over in Amsterdam you run the great Late Night Society club night, tell us about it…
“Like I mentioned before, it’s a night I run together with my partner in shine Boris Werner. We started the night in 2010 at the request of Olaf from Trouw. We’ve had many great editions inviting friends and collegues ranging from Wareikaand dOP to Jamie Jones, Visionquest and Maceo Plex to more recently Mathew Jonson and Mr G Live (who is one hell of a sick entertainer by the way!). For the first three years we had the underlining “dress up chic, act like trash”. Our crowds would come out wearing their 20’s evening attire and look amazing while going all out. Nowadays we exude a more open and fresh look in our artwork in which we take a lot of pride courtesy of our designer Zenderand still tend to look good be it more low profile.”
In a recent interview you claimed that “Trouw is one of the leading and perhaps the leading club in Holland for electronic music at the moment.” We all know how big the festivals and one off events are in The Netherlands, how is the club scene doing, we don’t hear so much about it?
“I’m really surprised you don’t hear a lot about the Amsterdam club scene! There’s so much going these days and I think Holland as whole is doing more festivals per capita in Europe than any other country. That translates back to the club where you see a lot of successful new club nights popping up everywhere. The downside of this is though that some of the crowds here in the city tend to get spoiled and seem to know everything. From time to time they don’t feel the need to be enthusiastic or cheer every time a DJ drops a tune that they might have heard once before or is a bit left from centre. But over the whole I’m very positive. I hope Trouw can change this attitude with it’s following in the final months of it’s existence, cause when people know they’ll lose something they love, they’ll fight for it in the end.”
Which brings us to Carnival at Sankeys, a brilliant night at one of the best venues on the island. What are you expecting from a Summer at Carnival this year?
“As I’ve expressed in several interview before, I’m straight up thrilled to be part of the venues endeavour to bring a down right dirty clubbing mentality to Ibiza. With it’s low ceiling and dark attitude it offers the ideal place to dance around and get involved in strange adventures. I haven’t seen the new Lab reopened yet, which i will this coming Saturday. So I’m very curious what this will ade the atmosphere, but I’m sure it will be big! The Sankeys crew are a dope bunch to work with and they know how to party, so that makes two of us haha.”
You have a night off from Carnival, what dancefloor and DJ do we find you partying at/to?
“I’m still pretty new to Ibiza and still have so much to see and learn about Ibiza as an island and the entire club scene there. What I love is just going out to see what happens on a night and let the spirits guide me. Usually this makes for the best nights. But I’m sure this season I’ll do my rounds by Pacha, Space, Amnesia and a lot of other different nights. You might want to ask me the same question at the end of the season.”
Where are some of the other big parties we can catch you this summer?
“July will be a record breaking month for me with three gigs at Sankeys Ibiza, followed by two more Gipsy Club in Moscow and several festivals in and around Amsterdam like Mysteryland. Also my debut at Rex Club in Paris is coming up which I’m honoured for to have been invited over there as an artist. That place is filled with the legendary aura of iconic artists that have played there. So I would say plenty of options to catch me play.”
Who are the producers around the world you are giving high fives to at the moment?
“What I like in producers is authenticity. Here in Holland I’m surrounded by talented friends like Makam, Tom Trago, Ion Ludwig, San Proper, Awanto3 and Overlast just to name a few. They are all risk takers. Exactly what I love. I’d say they influence and inspire me the most at this moment. But I need to give a special shout out to Matthew Herbert. He delivered a mindfucker of a remix for the title track on my “Man Like Me’ release on Matt Tolfrey‘s Leftroom Records. Being the icon he is to me and knowing was messing around with my track’s stems in his studio, he definitely gets a high five from me!”
William Kuoam Djoko is a resident at Carnival Cities at Sankeys Ibiza and plays on the following dates:
Saturday 13 July (co-presented by Teksupport)
Saturday 27 July (co-presented by Be As One)
Saturday 7 September
Saturday 28 September (Carnival closing party)
Facebook.com/carnivalibiza
Facebook.com/sankeysibiza
