Max HeyraudAs Club Comfort turns eight, co-founder Roo Honeychild reflects on the party’s journey and community.
The party arrived in 2017 at a crucial intersection for Dublin club culture. The Twisted Pepper had recently closed its doors, a space where Roo Honeychild, Baliboc, and Selky, who would go on to found Club Comfort, had cut their teeth listening to left-field, non-four-to-the-floor music. The venue had been instrumental in creating a place that felt like home for the city’s outliers. When it shut suddenly, Dublin felt like it was missing that home.
Two years later, Club Comfort took matters into its own hands. Almost out of necessity, they created the space they wanted to call home.
Since then, the party has remained a home for its community, a space that has grown, shifted and evolved over the years, but where many of the same faces from the early days are still part of the story. Cultivating a warm, loving glow on the dancefloor has always been the goal.
The soundtrack has consistently leaned left of centre: experimental club sounds that sit on the fringes of dancefloor functionality, music that can feel as if it’s fresh out of a lab, alongside classic off-kilter cuts, from hard drum to Jersey club and back again. From day one, the party spirit, musical ethos and DIY energy have all been intertwined, and eight years on, it’s still moving with that same charge.
You’re celebrating eight years of Club Comfort this Friday at Tengu. How does it feel to be reaching such a milestone, a landmark birthday that most club nights never get close to?
Kinda ancient hahaha…But seriously, though, time is a flat circle. When I think about it midweek, it feels like forever, but then my shoes hit the dancefloor in Tengu or the Rowing Club, and the excitement kicks in, and I’m 21 again. I’m proud we’ve kept it going, and we’re not out of steam just yet.
How did Club Comfort originally start?
Co-founder Baliboc and I spent a year and a half talking about starting a club night after we left school. We’d sit in a room in his parents’ house, mix tunes, shite talk and write vibey sounding nonsense on a whiteboard, but we were too procrastinatory actually to do anything. Then we linked up with Selky, who’s a bit older and has the practical experience. Naturally, we thought it was really funny (and still do) to call him dad because he would drive us around to festivals and stuff. Once the synergy between the three of us was manifest, we just hit the ground running.
At the beginning, what did you feel Club Comfort was adding to Dublin’s club culture that might have been missing from the scene at the time?
I would situate our origins in a brief interim period for Dublin. We had started sneaking into the Twisted Pepper in its last year, and we were really into Jersey Club, Grime, and the kinds of music you’d only regularly see programmed there. Once it went, there was a year or so where there was fairly slim pickings beyond the house and techno mainstream. We were kind of anti-four-to-the-floor at that time, which is funny to think now, but it was just a reaction to the moment. We were also really influenced by a lot of trends in queer clubbing in New York that I’d been absorbing from the dolls on Tumblr for years– so we were anti Berlin too. It’s funny looking back.
Building an engaged community has clearly been central to Club Comfort. How has that community changed or evolved over the years?
We’ve always had a really great regular crowd with a lot of continuity back to the start. In a city like Dublin, you’re always dealing with turnover as people move away, but we’ve had some really strong die-hards that are still with us. There’s also a kind of layering of different eras.
I imagine some of the people who were deeply involved at the start might not party as much anymore, while new people have come into the fold. How do you maintain that sense of community over nearly a decade?
At this point, though, the real story I’d say is how we’ve found ourselves part of a wider community that is the scene in Dublin. Being embraced by DDR and Jigsaw early on really transformed our mindset from being against things. Then we were just part of something, and that was way better. I have to shout out all the amazing people we’ve worked with over the years, DJs, venues, other promoters- too many to name, but a special shout to Emma, Vicky, James and all the other staff at Tengu who have now been looking after us so well for years. I’m not sure we’d still be doing this if it wasn’t for everyone around us.
Your bio describes the party as a “spiritual community.” Can you expand a bit on what you mean by that?
Lol, I think it’s actually always been that, I kinda forget since it’s been so long since we’ve changed it. I think it means that we’re a loose gathering of people who like to meet in high spirits.
Looking back over the past eight years, are there any particular moments that stand out as real “wow” moments?
Too many to count, to be honest. Manara in Fibber’s basement. A Sinn Féinn senator dancing to Helix in the Commercial Rowing Club. Both of the massive Carnival day festivals we did with Dublin Fringe in the National Stadium. Publishing a book with Kate Butler in 2023, still loads of copies of that in my bedroom if anyone wants one lol.
Have you noticed changes in Dublin’s club culture during that time, for better or worse?
Yeah, there’s been a lot of change, for the better in the most important ways. The vibe felt really macho when I first started DJing a decade ago. Now there’s a big slice of the scene where that couldn’t feel more true. I want to think we played a part in bringing out Dublin’s softer side. I think the evolution of Tengu’s policies, spearheaded by Emma and the team after the lockdowns, was also a real revolution in establishing kindness and comfort as standards. We’re honestly so lucky to have that place.
Running club nights in Dublin isn’t easy. Why do you think Club Comfort has managed to last eight years despite those challenges?
Yeah, there are some stressful moments. It’s hard to say. But I think the main thing is just that we really love each other and enjoy each other’s company. Old friends and new, that stay steady. Love is the engine of most great things.
Looking ahead, where is Club Comfort heading next? Are there ambitions to push the concept even further or explore new directions?
We’re always gonna put on exciting shows and program the kind of music we like to dance to. And who knows, we have a couple of long-standing ideas that have never been played out yet. At the moment, I’m really excited about the new avenues Selky and I are pursuing in our individual lanes, and Baliboc, too, now that he’s not active in Club Comfort. Selky is working on a new musical project, and Baliboc is doing all this really sick experimental stuff, working with dancers and choreographers, along with teaching teenagers in Tallaght to DJ. I’ve got a new curatorial-party project on the go, Glór Ga Gréine. It’s been great to see us all evolve and grow, to have full, well-rounded lives in our own lanes and together. That‘s key.
