Slinky resident Dav Gomrass gets interviewed by Frenzy16th August 2008 - interview copyright of Frenzy Dav Gomrass is well known as a Slinky resident where he provides the trance soundtrack to many Opera House gigs. However, on the 5th of September he will be making his debut for Frenzy at Dusk Till Dawn in Bournemouth where he will be playing a retro hard house set for us. We caught up with him and had some words before the event.. 1. Hi Dav, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by Frenzy. We like to start by asking the following: Where are you at the moment, what’s currently on your iPod or car stereo, and finally your favourite TV program? Hello there Mr Frenzy... I’m very happy to be talking to you on this very typical shitty rainy day. Currently I’m sat in my room debating what to play at my forthcoming gigs, one of them being Frenzy.
This is a gig I’ve been after for quite some time and I’m very much looking forward to. I can’t remember how long I’ve been nagging you to let me play... I’m seriously excited about it! I am listening to Paul van Dyk’s Essential Mix from Coloursfest this year. It's an amazing mix and has some serious bad ass trance on it. It’s an hour long and it really is an epic journey. I admit I watch some seriously sad TV. Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Top Gear, Friday Night with Jonathon Ross, Desperate Housewives, Friday Night Project, The F Word but I suppose my favourite at the moment has to be Smallville. I told you it was a sad selection. 2. You’re renowned as a trance DJ, but we don’t want to know about that because you’re going to be playing a retro hard house set for Frenzy. With that in mind, what type of tracks can the Frenzy crowd expect to hear from you? Yes the trance scene is obviously my first love musically... but the older style of hard house has always had a big place in my heart with so many memories. People can expect to hear some old classics with some remixes and tracks from the one and only Tony de Vit. I’ll also be dusting off some old Tripoli Trax and some other older gems. I have one track for the Frenzy Crew and I’m sure you know what it is! Frenzy says : It'd better be the Bush Babies track, Delicious.
3. Many people might be surprised to hear that you’re playing a hard house set, but those who know you will be aware that you’re a fan of the older tracks from the genre. Have you ever had the opportunity to play it out before? Indeed, anyone that knows me really well will know that I’ve been clubbing and DJ’ing for many years now and I originally played hard house before moving onto trance. Since making that change I’ve ended up on line ups where I’ve been able to play hard house again. I’ve played on line ups with the two Lisas, Lashes and Pin-Up where I’ve had to warm up and also play sets in between them. I enjoy playing all the older stuff still so this gig I’m playing for you is going to be great for me. 4. So how how exactly did you get into DJ’ing in the first place? Were you a clubber first, then DJ... or the other way around? Back in th day the weekend was all about getting to Friday and going out with my mates to The Venue at Tower Park in Poole to a night called Obsession. They used to have wicked DJs pretty much every week. Jocks from the likes of Tony de Vit and Tall Paul to Graham Gold, LuvDup, Pete Wardman and Jon Langford. It was these guys that made me want to become a DJ. Then obviously when I started going to Slinky and The Manor my musical tastes changed to trance. I still love to go clubbing whenever I can. I’m not a big fan of hanging out back away from the dance floor so like to wonder around and meet the clubbers and just party in general. I could never spend all night back stage at the Opera House when I’m playing at Slinky as all my friends are out front having fun.
5. You’ve been on the scene longer than most DJs, and hold at residency at the south coast superclub Slinky. How did that residency come about? I’m sure most people will know that I won my residency back in 2002 along with Jon Gurd. Slinky were running a DJ competition for a new resident and I entered at the last minute when I came home from Ibiza after 4 months of carnage working the season over there. I got home and all my mates told me to enter but I wasn’t too sure at first as I didn’t think I was good enough. In the end I thought ‘Fuck It’ what harm can it do so I sent my demo in. A few weeks later I had a call from Clare Hore who was promoting at the time and she said that I had been selected to come play as one of the final 10 they had selected from all the demos. I was like 'oh my god' and all my mates were going ‘told you so’. Then we had the competition and I played the first set of the day at 11:30 am. I hung around for the whole day to check out the rest of the competition, the standard was very high. Anyway next day Clare Hore rang me and told me I was one of two winners and the rest as they say is history.
Since then things have just got better and better for me. I’ve landed on the same line up as pretty much all my fave dj’s over time, its been a crazy dream come true. I have so much appreciation to everyone who put faith in me over the years. Clare Hore, Dave Lee, Alice Favre and now Lee Haslam, Richard Scaife, Amadeus Mozart and everyone else connected to Slinky down the years. I think this year has been the biggest year for me so far playing so many varied gigs with the likes of all the Slinky Trance line ups, Slinky Leeds, The Sanctuary Festival, Frenzy (Finally - Woop) and there’s still more to come (keep your eyes on my Facebook Fan Page & Myspace for more info and updates). It really has been a wicked year so far. 6. The event you’re playing at for us is cunningly called Frenzy’s “Inflation Buster” and it’s free before midnight which is our little payback to help clubbers with the credit crunch. If you were PM for the day, what would you do to help the ordinary clubber survive the daily grind of Britain in 2008? I’m not very good at these questions but... You gotta have some sympathy (but only a little) for the PM really. Whenever it's voting time they have all the backing of their parties then things start to go tits up and everyone jumps ship. Even if I was PM for the day and legalized all the crazy shit that goes on in clubland I’d still get something wrong, even if it was to save people money. NEXT!
7. As we’re in the midst of the 2008 Olympics, another topical one for you. Is there any sport you’d like to see sanctioned to become part of the 2012 events when it comes to Britain? Ladies Synchronized Chin Wagging would be a good one but I think it would have to be Cow Tipping. Now that would be a wicked event. Could you imagine the view through the night view cameras of a load of Olympians running through fields trying to tip over as many cows as possible whilst trying to avoid cow shit? Would definitely be an interesting sight. 8. Could you give us a typical rundown of a Dav Gomrass day and possibly an insight into the weekend if you’re feeling generous? I lead a pretty basic life to be honest. I work usually about 45 hours a week so when I’m not working I’m usually socializing with friends as much as possible or at home chilling with some TV or on the internet looking for tunes. At the weekend I think most of Bournemouth’s clubbing community knows my general movements. If I’m out then I’ll be usually hopping from place to place around town ending up in Dusk Till Dawn. That place is dangerous – You walk down those stairs and then there’s no escape until they’re throwing you out at the end or in my case when I’m being thrown out for falling asleep. If I’m DJ’ing then I’ll be at the event all night partying hard with Beers, Sambuca, Sambuca, Sambuca and more Sambuca. And I’ll fit a Dominos in there at some point as well. The guys at my local Dominos probably put the ‘Missing Posters’ out with my face on if I don’t go in over the weekend.
9. The World is awash with up and coming DJs. They are like a plague. But, there are some good ones out there. Who do you recommend and why? I don’t really have much of an opinion on which DJs are up and coming as I don’t really see myself as up and coming or even being an established DJ myself so it would be hardly fair to comment on who’s up and coming. I just have DJs I like personally. Within the hard scene but there are two guys who have caught my eye. Obviously Alf ‘Technikal’ Bamford gets the nod from me, as I like his style. I’ve seen him a few times now and have enjoyed his work each time. And recently I’ve seen Rodi Style play and I was pretty impressed by what I saw and heard. I saw him when we did the Slinky Leeds gig and I was actually dancing to his set. I only usually dance when the old skool guys play, people like BK, Ian M or Farley but Rodi deffo impressed me that night, a very good DJ. Then there are all the obvious guys like O’Callaghan, SvD, Sean Tyas and Jon O’Bir who seems to be making himself heard again with some great tracks coming out also on Vandit and he’s also had the honour of playing at Amnesia in Ibiza this year. There are other DJs out there that I’ve heard of but never had the chance to see them in action like. I could go on all day but think I’ll stop there.
10. You’re a frequent visitor to the Frenzy dancefloor as are many hard dance stars, but you’ve never graced the decks before. For someone who’s not been before could you give us a quote on why you like coming to Frenzy? I can’t really think of a quote to sum it up but for me I think Frenzy is all about the people. You guys have a really good thing going on down there and the atmosphere is always so friendly, it’s like one big family with all the same faces. As I’ve mentioned I’m not in to the hard scene much these days but do like a night out at Frenzy. I think anyone with any musical taste could go there to be honest. They might screw their nose up at the idea but once they get down and party I’m sure they’d have a wicked time.
11. And finally… tell us an embarrassing secret about yourself, or something that might shock and surprise us! Now I could go with the ‘I’m really white but don’t tell anyone joke’ but I’m sure I’ve used that in an interview before so I’ll skip that. Off the top of my head I can’t really think of anything, nothing embarrassing anyway. Anything that is embarrassing would probably be too rude or just too BLOODY embarrassing to disclose. What you see is what you get with me to be honest – Short, Brown & Gobby (I bet One Million Quid that at least one of my mates quotes that last comment and adds Chunky to it). Dav Gomrass will be appearing for Frenzy alongside Helen G on September the 5th 2008 at Dusk Till Dawn nightclub. Check out our forthcoming hard dance events for more details. Photos courtesy of Charlie Raven, Michael Azzopardi, and Anthony Davis. |
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