John Ferris
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Biografía
- John Ferris, DJ, club promoter, radio DJ, occasional producer, remixer and writer is also the holder of the inaugural award for Outstanding Contribution To Dance Music in the 2000 Australian Dance Music Awards.John Ferris, DJ, club promoter, radio DJ, occasional producer, remixer and writer is also the holder of the inaugural award for Outstanding Contribution To Dance Music in the 2000 Australian Dance Music Awards. DJÌing has always been about pleasure and exploration of sounds, beats and rhythm within a created environment. Playing with the familiar without being didactic. New tunes, cool tunes all mixed with odd tunes and some familiar tunes, making more than just a review of whatÌs hot or whatÌs not threaded together with seamless mixes, overlays, spins and dropped beats. Currently DJ resident and promoter at Plastic in Sydney. Plastic is held weekly in SydneyÌs reputed capital of sleaze and retro glam in Kings X every Friday night. A club that cannot be pinned down to one style of music or scene but having grown with the trance and techno of the last few years. Plastic was started with Nervous and created by many people, itÌs a place where many typeÌs of clubbing music can be played without fear. A club that likes to be dark, casual, with no door policy thatÌs kooky as well as energetic. Plastic is now into its 3rd venue in the X. Starting at the Palladium, now demolished, once the venue for the longest running drag show (Les Girls) and drag venue. Plastic started on the middle (or downstairs room) at the Palladium where often the heat would be so intense as to completely saturate and stop the 12"s on the Technics. Many times the upstairs toilets flooded into the downstairs area and people would continue to dance in the tepid water! Plastic events often overflowed upstairs for special events and just plain busy nights. At the same time as the Olympics in Sydney 2000 Plastic shifted to another X venue this time to Bay33 for nearly 10 months. Plastic is now based (from May 4th 2001) directly across in Bayswater Rd road at Zen- previously the legendary Underground. DJÌing for John is the wheel around which all other activities swing. ItÌs a natural progression from an obsession with all types of music set in the post punk, post new wave of the 80Ìs coupled with a very healthy taste for people and parties and what follows. At the same time as playing the new resurge of hiphop, rap and disco sometime in the late 80's, JF would also be playing a somewhat bizarre mix of 60's soul, 70's disco, blakploitation, big band and male vocals from the 40Ìs and 50Ìs as well as reggae in the Carrington Hotel, Surry Hills, to an audience of hard drinking barflys. Transmigrated with house and techno music into more experimental more up front music like acid house (as well as a touch of good time party music) came residences at new sounds DJ nights @ Kommotion Klub, Site, Kinsela's Space, Kitch, Lunacy, Site and many more. Big party promoters such as Rat, F.U.N., 2000AD and Sweat Box all calling on the ÎBig RoomÌ playing prowess, which were held at excellent venues like the Hordern Pavilion, dilapidated wharves, disused office space and warehouse like the labyrinthine Phillip St. Studios in Redfern where Frankie Knuckles first played in Sydney. Which crossed over with and led into what is sometimes called the rave scene. Check the legendary Welsh Embassy raves which came from acid house and ended up in happy hard kiddie core events. DJ sets where the DJ space was on the floor in the middle of an abandoned warehouse squeezed in between thousands of intoxicated people handing out easter eggs with enormous smiles in 60 degrees heat from their stinky sweaty bodies (nothing wrong with that at all). The happy hard core events then became too samey with competitions too see who could play the fastest. Evolving in the growth of the techno oriented rave scene is more the scene that has continued with gigs at events with Gatecrasher, Ferry Corsten, Judge Jules, Paul Van Dyk, The Prodigy as well as the underground acid trance events. Currently playing a diverse mix of harder beats of uptempo 4/4 and electro techno mashed with acid, trance sounds and hard percussion. Anything may find its way into a set. Plastic is a team of people that also organise events and tours with successful Plastic club nights in capital cities outside of Sydney as well as touring Australia and international DJs in Sydney and the rest of Australia. Plastic has been part of the Gatecrasher tours, Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, Timo Maas and more. Prior to Plastic events, John was part of the 2000AD and FUN promotions teams which staged big events such as the ID world tours as well as their own parties. A ten year stint with radio has been with programs that are always looking forward. Fresh and new with no prejudice. This included the long running City Express on 2SER FM (Thursdays 2-4 for over 10 years). A dance music show that started prior to the boom in ÎaspirantÌ licences and dance specialist stations in Sydney and Melbourne. A show that featured all forms of new dance releases as a general club show which then became a show specialising in the more specialist techno and trance forms. Other radio shows have included the weekly program Millenium Madness on aspirant DEXFM (on Sundays) as well as a show on the full time Sydney based Rhythm FM (87.6fm) every Friday night. Head of the dance label SonyDance (previously know as Dance Pool) for Sony Music Australia from 1993-2001. This position is to acquire new dance music material for Sony Music in Australia and New Zealand as well as for Sony worldwide. Then there is the marketing and promoting of the dance and urban music for Sony Music Entertainment Australia. Acts on the roster include The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Bomfunk MCÌs, BeXta, M and S, Chicane and many more. Look out for an increase in Australia acts in 2001. In the recording field there has been single releases (Time To Make The Floor Burn) remix and production (Bellydance, Down Under By Law) and mix CDs like the Plastic Vol 1 with more to come.