When I began DJing a few years ago I came to realise that to feel fulfilled I needed to be playing music that I loved, but to also be playing to a crowd that also appreciated these sounds. Building Good Clean Fun alongside Gary Lawson has allowed me to do both. Below, I reflect on just how much it has meant to me to play to dancers who are so engaged.
One-genre sets never interested me much. As a dancer, I’d get bored, and as a DJ, I’d feel unchallenged. When I started learning to DJ around 2021, my ultimate goal was to be able to jump across genres and moods in a way that felt exciting and wild, yet still coherent. Giles Peterson, Optimo!, Theo Parrish, Rebecca Vasmant and Mr Scruff were all early inspirations who inspired this approach. Funk then jazz then house then techno – then back to jazz – then pop then disco. The best nights and DJs made me feel like anything could happen. It kept me engrossed and kept me on my toes.
All of them seemed to possess a depth of knowledge coupled with a bold energy and love of risk-taking that kept things interesting. It reminded me of the best house parties. A lot of these nights happened in my late teens and early twenties where I didn’t even know what a DJ was. But all these parties had a mad energy and music that travelled a mix of genres, tempos and feelings where you never knew what was coming next.
In designing Good Clean Fun I knew I wanted to re-create that same house party feel, the nights you had when someone’s parents were out of town and everything and anything was getting chucked on the speaker (as long as it was good).
As a DJ, finding a crowd that is receptive to what you want to play can sometimes be challenging. For a while, I used to worry that there were only two types of crowds: the fun ones and the music heads. Both had their positives, but I’d often feel a bit unfulfilled after playing a set or dancing at a party that catered solely to one or the other. Sometimes it felt like the fun ones would dance to anything (especially if drunk) and the DJ’s job could feel almost redundant. And – although it gave me the opportunity to test my depth and breadth – sometimes the knowledgeable crowds just weren’t that much fun. I like seeing people dance and letting loose to music.
I have found the Good Clean Fun dancers to be the best of both worlds. They love their tunes, but having a good time is just as much of a priority. Again, the crowd and energy that Optimo! cultivated over the years have been a big inspiration for this (and more recent parties like Hot Towel, Another People Place in Glasgow and Touching Bass and Studio Crumb in London being others that straddle this line well).
So to the dancers of Good Clean Fun: thank you very much. It is an absolute pleasure and honour to play to a group of people who are so locked into the music, the party and the community that’s growing around it. It has been a beautiful thing to be part of.
“It feels like this crowd has a lot of energy to give,” Ross – a regular attendee – said to me at the last party. They are right. And I’m the same. There’s a lot of emotion and energy inside me that I don’t always get to express in everyday life. DJing and dancing at these parties has been a way for me to explore and release those feelings in a healthy and sustainable way (after a lifetime of experimenting with less-than-ideal ones). I’m so pleased to hear the party is helping others do the same.
Thank you to everyone who comes along and gives it their all.
Sebastian Rodgers is founder and a resident DJ at Good Clean Fun.