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Introducing: Feelings Worldwide
For several years, Feelings, led by DJs the Menendez Brothers and Karl Karlson, have been putting on cosy parties in the capital with a classy music policy, employing classic house DJs alongside a new breed of producers and selectors. Now, they are looking to go global with their movement. Ahead of their Feelings Worldwide label launch party at HiFi with Kasra V (who provides a wicked first release for the fresh imprint) this Saturday, we spoke to their seasoned party-thrower Karl (real name Karl Fuller) about the brand.
How did the Feelings night start in London? What was your vision in the beginning, and what do you think sets you apart from other parties?
The party started 2/3 years back and at the time started as more of a get together for some mates to play the records that typically we weren’t getting to play at other parties. Although it is typically house / disco leaning, the point of the party was never be confined to one particular BPM and sound, something we found at the time of starting the party not very common anymore. Some of the legendary parties in history you hear about at places like Paradise Garage, Hacienda, Amnesia, The Warehouse etc pre maybe 1990, listening back to the mixes I’m always super excited to see them weave between, disco, house, acid, hip hop, electro and more and that’s something we try to reflect at our party.
Who is involved in running and DJing regularly at your parties? What does each member bring to the project?
The party is run by myself (Karl) plus Eniz & Deniz (The Menendez Brothers) then our good friend Brian Summers taking care of all of visuals. Us along with Kasra V, Gustave (DJ Niçois) and a few other regulars play pretty much every single party we have done since the beginning.
It seems from your bookings and posts on social media, your tastes err towards the classics. How did you settle on this style? I commend you for booking Joe Claussell recently and other acts of that ilk. Do you feel you are introducing these vintage sounds to a younger audience?
As mentioned above, the blueprint that was laid by some of the pioneering parties mentioned above really inspired us to keep the selectors we invite to be as varied and eclectic as possible, for the most part this just so happens to be a lot of the older heads. That being said we have also had some of the most incredible new acts join us The Black Madonna, Pender Street Steppers, Dan Shake and a bunch more all of who we feel keep that same spirit alive on the dance floor.
How will your label differ to the way you run parties? How will the two projects speak to each other musically?
I don’t think it will differ a great deal, we will still be looking to release music from pairing new artists that keep the spirit of those original parties alive along with those who laid that blue print.
I’m interested in the name of your label. Along with Rhythm Section International, you make a nod towards an awareness of the global. Why is this? Do you think there is something special or difficult about putting on events and releasing music in 2016’s globalised world?
Well we had our London parties under the name Feelings, after London the next logical step is world domination so it didn’t feel like it could be called anything else… No, but honestly it was just a play on a joke we had on going and of course with our first release having ties to Iran, NYC and London it made sense. Onto putting on events and releasing music in 2016’s globalised world it seems like there is special and difficult things about it. Obviously with things like the internet the reach you could get is ridiculous but at the same time things often don’t have the time to grow and develop in their own way. Things are often caught up with trends the world over meaning ‘scenes’ and ‘sounds’ seem to die a lot quicker than maybe they would have previously.
Tell us a bit about your first release, and what you have in store for us with other releases.
The first release comes from Kasra V (mentioned above). He is an Iranian-born, currently London based super selector & producer. He has taken heavy influence from his home town and country on this release and delivered three original middle-eastern inspired house bangers. The A1, Fantasy in particular has a very ravey feel combining the breaks with the middle eastern vibes, I can imagine it wouldn’t sound out of place at old Dreamscape party! As well as that we have legendary NYC producer, Ben Cozmo D, the man behind seminal 80s electro act Newcleus providing a remix under his Dream 2 Science alias. If you don’t know about him, get to know! For our other releases it’s early days, we’ve got some things in the work within the inner circle plus we’re in talks with some of the other more heritage guests we have had join us over the years to perhaps have some involvement in the label. As I said though, early days so I won’t say too much for now!
As a group operating in London, what is your take on the closure of fabric and the state of the capital in general?
Well you could say this is the nature of things, one thing closes and another thing opens but the forces seemingly pushing this closure on fabric makes the whole scenario very very different. If the council, authorities can be pushing a closure this hard on such a well run and important clubbing institution in the capital, things don’t look so sunny for everyone else and we I can imagine we will all be effected very deeply. This is a place where most of us earned our clubbing stripes, so to see the place go will be very sad! They have an appeal hearing in late November… we’re hoping they live to fight another day!
https://soundcloud.com/kasra-v/sets/kasra-v-the-window-ep-fling001
What do you like about putting on parties in other cities?
In terms of putting on Feelings parties in other cities ourselves it’s not something we’ve done a whole lot but we have hosted takeovers, stages etc at other parties in a decent amount of places across the UK and Europe. The main thing we love about it is meeting new, like minded people who are up for having all night as much as us!
What has been the most memorable party you have ever put on?
This past summer we did a boat party during Dimensions Festival with Mood II Swing. The twins (The Menendez Brothers) weren’t actually playing the boat but ended up hosting the thing and well… I can’t really say too much but let’s just say a few words were had with us once we got back to shore! As for our own parties – in London especially – it’s hard to pinpoint one, having taken over churches, strip clubs and a bunch of other mad spaces with some incredible selectors they have all been pretty memorable.
The launch party is happening this Saturday at HiFi. Click here for details.
Oliver Walkden