Max HeyraudOur Local Focus series returns for its second edition, this time we take a look at the Limerick scene, with a birds-eye view. Through the help of some of the cities most pivotal contributors to its ever growing dance music domain, we deep dive into the unrestrained waters of Limerick.
Limerick City – Home to Éamon de Valera, Dolores O’Riordan, Terry Wogan, Irish Coffee, the longest footbridge in Ireland & some bloke called, Aphex Twin. Limerick boasts the third largest city on the isle of Ireland and is non-negotiably, home to the loudest people on the Emerald Isle. The people of Limerick love verbalizing their infatuation for their hometown, which I find quite perplexing as someone from Dublin, who may be invertedly jealous of the cities patriotism.
Limerick has a rich musical history and embodies a liberated city, that enjoys letting loose from time to time. From show bands to Ceilí dances, Limerick City has always danced to the beat of the drum. Whether it be Bodhrán or a 909, the people of Limerick are utterly consumed by rhythm.
Dance music has been a fierce driving force of Limericks deep-seated music culture for over three decades. Venues such as Dolan’s, The Library (previously Trinity Rooms), Pharmacia and more have hosted some of electronic music’s most coveted names. A Limerick party goes beyond the headliner, a Limerick City party is proverbially known for the people who lie on the dance floor – a city that is bursting with an impetus for movement.
I spoke to some of the cities most influential patrons in order to find out what Limerick is really all about. Read on to hear from Dan Sykes (D.I.E / Macrnoite), Chaz Moloney (TOT), NiKi K (Macronite), Shee (TOT), Maedbh O’Connor (DIE) and Jon10 (Izotope).
You’re one of Limerick’s longest running promoters. Can you give me an insight into the history of some of Limerick’s most significant DJs and promoters, that have helped influence the city over the years?
Dan Sykes [D.I.E.]: Ok I’ll try my best here. Apologies to anyone I miss out or forget to give props to. So Limerick has a very rich musical scene, across the board. It’s not a big city so you know all the heads who are into it. You grow up there being proud of what is from there. You heard the infamous stories of when Diana Ross & The Supremes played there and what went down afterwards, that the House of Pain played and were chased out of the Theatre Royale by an angry crowd, and that `Laurent Garnier played there on a Tuesday night. It had a history when you listened to stories. Also, we were just up the road from Cork and a LOT of people would have been into deep house and spent their weekend at Sir Henrys, I managed to catch the tail end of this but not the actual vibe that was so inspirational. Anyway, there was a lot of history. That probably added weight to when you wanted to put something on. I remember when I was younger there wasn’t a dedicated dance scene so to say, things would happen but not on the reg. I think that was something that made me and others want to try and get stuff going. So shout out to everyone from Limerick, everyone who does or ever puts anything on. Also, massive shout out to the people of Limerick who are doing stuff, the level of gigs, events etc going on is mind-blowing and there are so many nights, etc it’s amazing to see.
After years of putting on parties in Limerick, can you describe the energy of Limerick City and how does it differentiate to other cities?
Dan Sykes [D.I.E.]: I think it’s the fact that it’s a small city, it has a limited amount of venues that cater – massive shout out to Dolans here for pretty much helping music in Limerick since its inception. When something is on, then you’re going. Also that the music heads in Limerick are a diversified bunch. So people are into music overall as opposed to genres. You’ll meet the same people at whatever gigs are going on. Right now Limerick is on fire with some outstanding hip hop with PX Music and others, they’re flying the flag. It’s a very exciting time, I just wish I was younger lol.
What is your mission for D.I.E. ?
Dan Sykes [D.I.E.]: To keep going and developing, we’ll have some interesting projects coming up, it’s a total balls for everyone, globally, right now who is into music and having the craic, but we’re working away in the background on some new ideas. I love being part of DIE, I get to work and hang out with exceptional people. Shout out to DIE fam past and present. Also when we do turn the speakers back on and the 97’s get taken back out of retirement, then we’re going to focus fully on Irish and Limerick acts. Everyone has been hurting the past few years and the level of talent this country has to offer means we don’t need to bring people in to entertain us. We’ve always tried to support Irish acts as much as possible but we will completely focus on this once we can resume business.
You’re one of the most eclectic promoters in the country, bringing over the best of hardcore, drum and bass, electro, techno, and more to Limerick. Have you built up a certain amount of trust with your crowd, in terms of booking acts that they may be unfamiliar with ?
Dan Sykes [D.I.E.]: I think we have yes, variety is the spice of life as they say. I think really whatever you put on or whatever is playing, once it’s good people will vibe with it. Keep it D.I.E. (DUB/INDIE/ELECTRONIC).
You’ve been responsible for some of Limericks leading parties over the last few years. Can you give us an insight into the Limerick crowd and the uniqueness of the energy they carry?
Chaz Moloney: For sure, I think what makes Limerick dance floors unique is that there is a lack of judgement and a real sense of fun at the nights down here. From the outside looking in, it may look that we are all very serious heads putting on these big techno parties, but that’s not the case. Anyone who’s making music or running parties is doing it for the right reasons in Limerick. Likewise, social barriers are completely removed once you step out onto the floor down here and I think that is really telling when you actually take a look at who is dancing beside each other. For example, it wouldn’t be out of place to see a primary school teacher dancing with a sculpture student and a guy training to be a dentist haha. And I think this is further reflected throughout our creative community down here too. I think Limerick is one of the only cities in the world where you can walk into a bar and find the goths, rappers and techno DJs all sitting around having a pint together. This all adds to what you’ve called our unique energy, and, I suppose this is really illustrated when we do our 3 room shows at TOT. We like to programme as diverse a lineup for the 3 different rooms as possible and it’s interesting to see the crowd that ends up at the night. We like to keep the main room to Techno/Bass/Breaks but when it comes to rooms 2 & 3 we try to test the limits for sure. There is a great creative community here outside of the electronic scene and it’s nice to try to represent that on some level as well. I suppose what is conducive of the unique scene we have here, is that barriers that exist elsewhere just don’t exist in Limerick.
You recently ran a pretty adventurous festival ‘SIONNA’, during Corona times. How was this received in the wider Limerick community?
Chaz Moloney: Ya SIONNA was great man! It was probably the most difficult project we’ve ran given the ever evolving parameters of the pandemic but at the same time it was definitely the most rewarding. It was 4 nights (one of them being a collab with Culture Night) across a month in 3 different venues. The idea of the project was to try cover all corners of Limerick and Ireland’s urban art with the main focus being on electronic mediums. The festival opened with Blindboy interviewing Give Us The Night about our licensing laws and I think that set a really good precedent for the rest of the nights that followed. I think the project was received really well by the wider Limerick community as we have all these artists on our doorstep and they had nothing to do but create over the last however many months of lockdown. And so, as our festival was one of the first to come back, we saw so many projects being performed live for the first time. Off of the top of my head Strange Boy performed his recently nominated ‘Hip Hop album of the year’ by Hot Press for the first time ever at our opening night. Likewise, Hazey Haze wrote his latest album “Epitome” specifically for his performance at SIONNA. And so, in that sense it really made the whole thing very special and we are truly grateful that we could develop and give this platform and outlet to these artists after such a long and painful time in their lives.
Another part of the festival which I think was a talking point amongst the community here was the DJ’less dance floor that we built for the warehouse party for the last night of the festival. [I must take this moment to shout out the amazing team at ‘Visual Spectrum‘ they were an absolute dream to work with on this and without whom our vision would not have been realised!]. We have had a no phones policy at our club nights for the last couple of years. It was something we felt compelled to introduce after seeing the direction dance floors were going in. People just aren’t dancing any more man. Everyone is so caught up with taking videos for their socials that I feel they’ve almost forgotten they’re out at a rave. And so, when I booked DVS1 to play in Limerick I had a great chat with him about the concept behind his ‘wall of sound’ nights and thought that we would try to do something similar here. The warehouse had a grilled mezzanine floor that allowed us to put the DJ booth above the crowd so the only part of the DJ the crowd could see was his/her feet if you stood directly beneath them. But the results this had on the dance floor were absolutely amazing. Think Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage! There were no phones out as the crowd had nothing to record and everyone was dancing together rather than all facing the DJ booth. It was one of the most social dance floors I’ve ever seen.
A sense of community can be instrumental in any healthy scene. What’s the community spirit like within dance music in Limerick ?
Chaz Moloney: Yeah the community is absolutely amazing down here! Limerick is such a tight knit space that everybody knows everybody. I think you’ve gotten an idea of how would I word it haha “the cross genre mixing” that goes on already down here from the answer to my first question. But ya it’s really great the support all the different collectives give each other down here. We all play at each others nights and give a hand to one another if needs be. Free parties are a big thing in Limerick too. And, I think in recent times the pandemic has pulled us all a lot closer together, as we have had to think outside the box with how to do parties now as our governed dance floors are not readily available to us due to the ever evolving restrictions, in addition to there actually being no spaces left to throw legal parties. A few us have pulled off some amazing free parties over the summer and coming into winter that just wouldn’t be possible to do without the amazing community we have here pulling together to do something for the greater good. A new community space has opened up here recently too “Club 061”. And I think this space epitomises the collective spirit that exists in the city here. Senan Moore [Room Two] is the driving force behind it and I must say he has done a great job at rallying everyone together to buy into this space and develop it from this bare hole in the ground to the amazing creative outlet that it is today. I think small spaces like this are what every city needs to keep the real gritty culture alive. It allows us to put on riskier and more out there shows and these are ultimately the shows that open our creatives minds and lead to inspiration.
Do you feel somewhat responsible for showing the next generation of Limerick DJs and promoters what can be achieved through your own successes?
Hmm, its a big thing to take responsibility for haha. I guess we could have showed them that you don’t need much to start a collective. We started out with no money, just throwing free parties for the craic and developed a following that way and eventually got into a club and got to where we are now. But I’d like to think that those guys would be doing some sort of parties and DJing now whether we were running nights or not. I’m sure we could have influenced them in terms of their music taste by exposing them to different types of music and the tougher side of electronic music through our own international bookings and hopefully showed them what a proper underground dance floor should look like.
I remember going to DIE in my earlier years and that had a big impact on me cause’ Dan and the crew were really pushing the limits and exposing us to all sorts with their bookings. I guess subconsciously it all sticks in there somewhere whether we know it or not! It’s funny now because I’m actually getting really friendly with a lot of these guys lately. Myself and Dave have been in to play at their club nights over the last few months and it’s great chatting to them and getting to hang out with them. I found a shocking revelation in how similar the ‘Kemmy Gaff’ lads story was to our own in regards to how they set up their collective. It’s great seeing these guys do their thing and being able to relate to them as we’ve been through it all. Not so long ago one of them rang me up asking about an accountant and how to set up their business and I just remember us trying to do that and not having a clue what we were at haha, so its definitely nice to be able to give a hand and guidance where we can.
You’ve run some of Limericks’ most forward-thinking parties in the city’s history. How receptive is the Limerick crowd to new and perhaps more left-field sounds?
NiKi K: It’s super nice to hear that Macronite is thought of as one of the most forward-thinking nights in Limerick. Even though it’s been a while, I still look back on that part of my life as some of the best years I have had. It really was such a special time, as things progressed there was an indescribable feeling and collective presence of excitement. We all – the crowd, the Djs, our sound engineers, lights engineers and Vjs, graphics designers, the volunteers, people working the venue, the whole lot became a small community of like-minded people, who felt like we were a part of something special. Each of those elements made it what it was, we all felt very lucky and inspired after each night and it was as if we had found our place.
From the beginning of when I first started going out in Limerick, it became more and more prominent to me that the city was oozing with artistic talent. Something I am still continually reminded of every time I go home. People are being inspired and encouraged in every corner which is a total attribute to the city.
I’ve been living in Berlin for almost 9 years now, so I haven’t experienced fully how the crowd is nowadays, but from what I have experienced, I can see that people are not only being receptive to new sounds but are actually setting the pace.
There’s a severe lack of venue protection in Ireland and this means that cities and scenes have to reinvent themselves quite often. Limerick however, has been lucky to hold onto Dolan’s Warehouse for over two decades. Can you give an insight into why the venue is so successful?
NiKi K: Dolans is ran by some very dead honest and lovely people. I think their success comes down to the fact that they firstly love music themselves, they have a drive and genuinely want to provide an experience of good quality music done right. While always being open to diversity, giving opportunities and direction to many, they continued to treat people with respect, and some like family. I think because they were always true to those aspects and doing their own thing, as they visioned it, they provided a space for a lot of different types of people over the years, which I think has made it a staple in the city.
What promoters and DJs were influential in getting you involved in promotion early on in your career?
NiKi K: To be honest, when I first started getting into the scene I didn’t know who any DJs or promoters really were, my inspirations and influences were from my friends, who were showing me music, lending me their iPods, bringing me to festivals, and nights out that were so spot on and that resonated with me massively.
Some of these were promoters from the start, some became promoters over time and some were in the middle. I knew I wanted to be a part of it and worked my way in, starting off by putting up posters, then working on the door, then being the artist liaison, pushing for my residency, and then being a part of the collective that was Macronite.
I think from us influencing each other then stemmed further to wanting to put on gigs. There was a constant flow of showing each other new sounds and speaking about them passionately. What we were listening to was always evolving and changing. We wanted to put that out there and hear it big! Hear the sounds that were happening in other cities, but we didn’t have here. I can’t tell you how many aux cables we would go through taking it from each other’s laptops, like “listen to this” “have you heard this” “here I found this”….. back and forth.
I was very lucky to be surrounded by the most encouraging and beautiful people I’ve ever met, we collectively thought big and it wasn’t just talking about it and dreaming, it was talking about it and let’s make it happen.
My main influence was from good people, being sound.
You’ve been based in Berlin in recent years. Is there any aspects of the Berlin club community you would like see implemented in Limerick ?
NiKi K: I think what’s here and not there is what Give Us The Night are projecting in all aspects. Nightlife isn’t just “let’s get drunk”. It’s peoples livelihood, it’s where people let go, find themselves, meet their best mate, sing along to something that touches them, feel a collective presence, be inspired, the list goes on and on. I think Limerick and Ireland should just be allowed to be treated like adults, that don’t need to be restricted but need to be more free.
You’ve been one of the countries biggest break through house music producers within the last few years, but when I think of Limerick, techno comes to mind. Is Limerick generally a techno fuelled city or is that misconception?
Shee: Ah, thank you!
I wouldn’t say that is a misconception at all, matter of fact there is a lack of house music producers and shows in Limerick at the moment! Techno has really taken the reins in Limerick which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all, but I would of course love to see more house/disco around Limerick. I’m quite lucky to a certain extent, I have my SHEE project which is of course house/disco, and I also have my MIDWEEK project with my best mate Charlie Moloney – which gives me a platform to express myself through genres such as techno and breaks, so I get the best of both worlds! When I was getting into the Limerick scene, house music was definitely more prominent however, with some great nights around. I remember playing one of the first CABAL’s in the upstairs of the Blind Pig, which was so rammed that the floor nearly caved in! Good times.
I still want to shout out how sick the techno scene is in Limerick though. The younger guys such as Kemmy Gaff, Izotope, Room Two and more have been putting in work to make Limerick a great place for it. Us at TOT have really tried to take our shows to the next level too. We are always trying to think bigger every time we put on a show. SIONNA Festival was our project this year that we really focused on. For our last day of the festival we threw a party in the very centre of Limerick, with Sunil Sharpe, Cailín, IMNOTYOURMATE, Shampain, MIDWEEK and Maedbh O’Connor which personally I thought was one of the biggest events to happen in Limerick since I’ve been involved. People came to dance to techno all day long from all ages, which really showed first hand how big it is right now in Limerick.
In the future I do hope to start booking house music again here, when I think the time is right. For now, we’re going to continue to do our thing over at TOT and try to bring the biggest techno DJ’s from around the world to Limerick. When I was starting getting into DJ’ing and producing, I used to play Killarney House Sessions (such a sick night). They gave me some really good advice about how music goes “in full circles” in Ireland. A couple of years ago it was all house, now it’s all techno, so that circle will come back around again, and house music will be popping once again in Limerick.
You ran a production workshop in a Limerick College Of Further Education a while back. How was the class received and do you think there is a hunger for more of this community driven approach to learning in Limerick ?
Shee: This was a really enjoyable experience, and something I took pride in doing. We sat down and talked about our experiences in starting and building an event company and how we learned how to make music. It was relatable to the people in the room – college students just like us who wanted to make tunes and throw parties – which I felt was a really important aspect of the whole class. I want to shout out Dan Sykes (founder of Macronite and DIE and A LEGEND of the Limerick scene) he has really been pushing for this community driven approach to learning here. He got us in and also other collectives who were doing bits at the time to share their thoughts and lessons they picked up along the way too.
In the future I definitely would be very keen to do more of this and get people down from all around the country to talk about their productions and collectives. There are so many talented producers and event promoters in Ireland it’s crazy and it would be sweet to give them a platform to talk about their productions and events and the tips and tricks they collected along their journey.
What DJs from Limerick are you exciting you right now?
Shee: Ahh so many. I’m not going to name out everyone in case I leave someone out, but the DJ scene in Limerick right now is really on the up. I think 2022 will be a big year for Limerick DJs and producers.
What can we expect from Touch Of Techno when dance floors reopen ?
Shee: As I mentioned, we are always trying to think bigger at TOT. Our plans are to try and move away from club shows and do large scale events twice, maybe three times a year. Working with Darragh and Chaz has always been such an incredible experience. We all share the same thought of wanting to make the scene in Limerick and Ireland better. We want to contribute all we can to growing this relatively small yet incredible scene that Ireland has to offer. Of course, we still plan on doing our small shows such as IMNOTYOURMATE in Pharmacia on the 26th of Jan (quick promo there lads sorry!!) and other shows too, but our end goal is to make TOT into one of the biggest events in Ireland.
You’ve been one of the countries most in demand techno DJs in recent times. Has Limerick city been instrumental in your success ?
Maedbh O’Connor: I definitely believe that it has. I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I remember that it’s been 10 years since I first started gigging. I remember being 17, so naive playing my first gig and to be honest, if it wasn’t for the Limerick collectives at the time, I’m not sure I’d have ever been able to establish myself, especially at that age.
I count myself incredibly lucky. I fell into the scene by chance and in return was able to firmly concrete myself into the core of the Limerick scene in quite a short space of time. I think the Limerick Collectives (Macronite, D.I.E, Bunga Bunga to name a few) really saw a determination and drive in me, and gave me a chance, they pushed and encouraged me and I definitely owe my career to those collectives!
I grew up as a young adult heavily involved in many nights in Limerick. I joined the D.I.E collective in 2012 after meeting local legend Dan Sykes at a gig where he asked me to get on board. Needless to say I was absolutely chuffed! Being a resident at one of the best underground student nights in the country was such a big deal for me. Being trusted to curate line ups alongside the crew for monthly D.I.E nights was huge, and it felt dream-like to be able to book artists I loved, while also getting the opportunity to support them! I still remember the first time I played that warehouse – a literal dream come true, and from there it really blossomed! The people of Limerick were all so supportive as well. The gig was always made up of familiar faces and it really felt like a massive family. You could literally feel the love ooze from the dance floor when you played that warehouse – it was so special! I owe a lot to D.I.E, Dolans, Dan Sykes, Macronite and the rest of the Limerick collectives.
Now fast forward 10 years and the scene here is still very much alive, bursting with enthusiastic promoters, great DJs and producers, and a huge gig following. I’m still heavily involved with D.I.E and there’s some other massive collectives making waves across Limerick, Ireland and further beyond. The great thing about the scene here is that every collective supports every collective. We all really push each others gigs whether it be locally or further across seas, we play each others nights, fill support slots, play cross collective b2bs and have the best craic together while doing so. The likes of Touch of Techno, Room Two, Wanz, PX music, Izotope, the list goes on. Each promoter, DJ, and party goer encourages the next, and makes Limerick a very appealing place to gig and party. I think when people think of Limerick, the DJs/producers and promoters, we’re very distinguishable and I do think that is because we’ve all worked very hard at our craft and I’m very, very proud to be a part of such a vibrant scene here.
How do you feel Limerick compares to other counties in terms of club spaces, venue support and overall amenities for DJs, producers and promoters ?
Maedbh O’Connor: I feel like Limerick has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. I’ve heard people say its their one of their favourite places in Ireland to attend/play a gig at the moment and I can definitely see why. The crowd here is second to none, it’s always a good time. We have some really great venue spaces and they’re utilised to their potential. We’ve really been fortunate that a lot of the best venues in the city are hosting the gigs. Of course we’ve the infamous Dolans Warehouse, which for me is probably my favourite venue in Ireland. We’ve the great Pharmacia which also recently got renovated and is looking out of this world! Mindscape take care of the sound and lights in there and it’s top! We’ve got the newly refurbished club061, which is a tiny little hidden gem in town, proper sweaty club vibes! So there’s really a great pick in the city at the moment and the atmosphere in these venues are very special. In recent times Limerick has also hosted events in more peculiar spaces. The likes of King John’s Castle and The Wickham Way which Sionna Festival hosted 2/3 nights of their festival in, were super different and added a much needed flare to the scene in the city. The Wickham Way is essentially a warehouse nestled in a lane way in the centre of town and its an absolute treat of a venue. Sionna Festival had a day party there a couple of months back, and it was nothing short of class! A well received twist to the usual club experience and such an excellent vibe!
Of course, when we compare the likes of our archaic club opening hours to the likes of our neighbour clubs in other countries, the early hault to the gigs is really laughable, but for me it definitely doesn’t take away from the overall club experience, and some of the best nights I’ve ever attended have been in Limerick.
Many scenes and communities within music have sound that is synonymous with the cities history. Does Limerick have a sound ?
Maedbh O’Connor: I don’t think you can put your finger on an exact ‘Limerick’ sound because it genuinely has such a wide tapestry of music. The core of the music scene is everybody in the music scene, if that makes sense? I suppose promonanentely techno would be the main soundscape, but hip-hop is just as popular, with local label PX firmly holding the rains on Irish hip hop at the moment, the likes of Hazey Haze, Aswell, Denise Chailia, Citrus Fresh, Krome are all names that spring to mind. Doubling the talent – names like Paddy Mulcahy, Chaz Moloney, SHEE, 40hurtz, Dan Sykes Jon10 to name just a few are all core LK producers and DJs – each having a very distinctive sound!
The sound of Limerick is demanding in quality, and extremely diverse!
Was there any club nights or DJs in Limerick that helped shape your sound over the years ?
Maedbh O’Connor: Definitely the names I referred to above. I owe everything to Dan Sykes and D.I.E, and I couldn’t have gotten to that point without the crew at Macronite, BungaBunga etc.
Now in 2021, I couldn’t do it without Touch of Techno, Room Two, Wanz, Izotope – again the list goes on! TOT’s Chaz, dave and Keenan are my brothers in arms, and it’s been such a buzz to run gigs alongside these guys. They’re bursting with talent and are so professional in the events they execute. The last few years running and playing gigs with everyone here has honestly been pinch me moments.
These days things are heavy! And i mean HEAVY! Everyone is playing faster and harder and I think over the years it’s really shaped a lot of producers and DJs styles. Of course, sticking to your roots is super important, but so is going outside your comfort zone and I feel the thirst for heavier faster rhythms has made a lot of us step outside of what was once our ‘subtler’ style and experiment with different genres. I feel along with that, you grow personally, sometimes in a very short timeframe. With gigs being so regular, styles are experimented with, b2b sets are played and mates are collaborating on tracks and music is more accessible. The sell out gigs and the quality and atmosphere of these gigs reflect a genuine hunger for what is happening here at the moment, and I think the sheer excitement in that itself definitely adds a punch to the gigs I play here, in turn really helping to shape my own sound personally.
It’s a never ending journey, and it’s just the beginning.
Izotope have been one of the breakthrough promoters of the last few years in Limerick. How did you find trying to first navigate your collective within the scene?
Jon10: All plans of trying to make a name for the collective in Limerick was thrown out the window due to lockdown, but with all the spare time on my hands because of it, I thought hard about how I can still build the collectives name along with my own. This came in the form of a mix series and livestreams. There were another group of lads who at the time were in the same position as us (Kemmy Gaff), looking to make a name in the scene here. We networked with one another online during the depths of the lockdown and once it was safe to do so, we all moved out together into the same estate in the summer of 2020. At the time, there was a group of us all passionate about DJing in the one place. We all decided to run livestreams in our sitting rooms with a webcam and a green screen when it was safe to do so. Everyone was so supportive of what we were doing, constantly sharing our content, which really got our names out there.
We then got to the stage of booking acts from around Ireland for these livestreams which began to start spreading our names nationwide. As a result of the lockdown, it was hard to navigate our way into the scene, but we made it possible with what we had.
Once restrictions lifted in September, I was itching to run a party, especially after being in lockdown for two years. I got in contact with Pharmacia to see if we could run a seated event in accordance with the restrictions in place at the time. Thankfully they welcomed the idea with open arms, the event was a huge success. We ran this in collaboration with Kemmy Gaff. At the time, events were almost alien to people. We were the only ones doing events of this manner at the time in Limerick which really established us on the promotional side of things. Once again hungry for more, I really pushed the boundaries on the events frontier, with the brilliant Mindscape (Sol Barnes) supplying us with an excellent production for each show and helping us level up each time. All of these events being supported by other local collectives made it easy navigating my way in the scene by being welcomed with such open arms.
Overall, I found it hard work navigating my way into the scene here, but as a result of everyone being supportive, the hard work paid off making it enjoyable. Things are still in the beginning stage for the brand
and I still have a lot to learn and am nowhere near where I want the brand to be.
There’s a perception of scenes in Ireland being quite cliquey at times, is this the case with Limerick ?
Jon10: Limerick is unique in the sense of that everyone involved in the scene is very helpful and supportive of one another. IZOTOPE was welcomed with open arms by people in the scene here. Consistently sharing one another’s content, offering advice where necessary. We all have our own unique brands, but they all bind together as one which represents Limerick.
What younger DJs from Limerick should I be on the lookout for?
Jon10: The standard of DJing in Limerick now is at an all time high in my opinion. I could be here all-day mentioning names but to name a few, Dj Raguel, Llukk.e, Mark Cloonan, D.N.T, Taggy, Magoo, Op.dj, Kenny and Wallace.
There are plenty of others, but these are the ones who have really stood out to me with the progression they have made over the last year.
What’s your vision for Izotope’s stamp on Limerick city?
Jon10: The vision I have for the brand is constantly changing. I really want to create an extremely vibrant and visually appealing brand that differs from everyone else, something with a very unique vibe. At the moment the stamp I want to put on Limerick city is that I want the collective to be representative of the club culture that is prevalent across Europe at the moment. There is a new wave of artists in Europe and they are all making huge waves. I really want to promote this new era of techno as this is where I draw most of my inspiration from. A focus on actual local acts is another big thing. I also want the brand to feature very unique and interesting line ups. I’m fascinated by the 90s/ early 2000s techno sound, this is the sound I want associated with izotope. Along with music, I also want the brand to be an outlet of high quality digital art, this expressed through our event posters and visuals used at events.
