Have you ever been to one great night out where the atmosphere and the vibe were spot on the whole way through? Well maybe that was because the crowd had been given what they want. Good, uplifting music combined with 110% entertainment and 0% education getting them in the mood and prepared for the chance to lose it on the dancefloor. Chances are you will have caught these guys in action, ripping it up in the now legendary Queen Vic at a Tidy Weekender, if not you can rest assured, the funkedupdjs, consisting of Kieron Gallagher and Shaun M will blow you away!
They may have only formed just over a year ago, but they’ve certainly been taking the scene by storm. Since their inception, the funkedupdjs’ vowed never to stick strictly to one genre of music, but play everything from House to Tech Trance with some dirty assed Electro and Progressive inbetween – in fact pretty much anything as long as its good, its in!
Now Contagious presents: The Valentines and Heartbreakers Ball @ Club Ice on Friday 8th February, may have a line up packed with big and established names, but of course there is some exciting new talent on offer as well, and the funkedupdjs certainly fall in to that category.
So to find out how they’ll be fulfilling their policy of entertain, entertain, entertain! We sat down and gave Kieron Gallagher a thorough interrogation……
Kieron, the Valentines and Heartbreakers Ball is looking like a very special night indeed. What are you most looking forward to about playing there?
After being invited to play at Escape in The Park in the summer, being asked back to host a room this time was an honour we couldn’t refuse. I have worked with Claire and Gordon several times now and other than them being cracking people to know, the progress Contagious has made in such a short space of time is really refreshing in this day and age.
Some people say that clubs’ don’t put as much effort in to the décor as they should do these days. But Contagious are really going to town on the Valentines themed decorations. Is that the type of setting that you enjoy playing in?
Décor is often overlooked by promoters as it offers no measurable return on it (sorry work hat on!!!) Promoters often forget that Sound and Lights is what people expect as the norm when visiting a nightclub, but it’s the extra little touches that stand out and add to the atmosphere and helps to keep people talking about the event after its been and gone, hopefully setting things up for the next one.
It is always a pleasure to play when you can physically feel the atmosphere in the air and see that the crowd is bang up for it. So any little extra’s that help make that happen is much appreciated.
You’re an events manager yourself, so you know just how much work goes in to putting on a party. Contagious have got a whole load of added extras planned for that night. What do you think of all the effort that they’ve been putting in to this event?
I’ve been known to dabble in events myself yes! Ha ha. I am a firm believer in what you put into an event you get it back in return!
I touched on it before but I think people are starting to look for more ‘bang for their bucks’ and at the end of the day, you can’t beat a bit of speed dating, you can rest assured I’ll be hanging about for that one ?
They’ve also become renowned in club-land for putting on high quality events; what other good stuff have you been hearing about them?
Well, I’ve heard that Gordon has a 13” cock AND he knows what to do with it! Ha ha ha On a more serious note, I’m really impressed with the stages they hosted at Global and Escape in The Park, its difficult for a smaller brand to stand out amongst the big boys, but Claire and Gordon managed it (with a little bit of help from their fit dancers!)
I’ve heard their clubwear is the best around these days but thankfully for you lot I haven’t squeezed myself into an ‘Uber’…yet!
You’re hosting the 3rd room under the name ‘Totallyfunkedup’ Where did the name come from?
After a few cans of Strongbow and a couple of Pints of Jack Daniels and Lemonade, trust me everything gets ‘totallyfunkedup’ Ha Ha Ha! It is actually the name of a weekly themed night that we hosted in Sheffield for a while. We wanted something that would fit with the student way of life as well as coming across as being relaxed and non-pretentious, harping back to the entertainment, entertainment, entertainment ethic
It’s quite an intimate room. Do you have to tailor your set to suit your surroundings?
I actually prefer to play in an intimate room. It’s much easier to get eye contact and interact with the crowd whilst you’re playing. Interaction is something a lot of up and coming DJ’s forget. Whether you’re playing to 10 people or 10,000 being able to get someone’s eye and make them feel like you are playing for them is priceless. With regards to tailoring our set, not really! Out of the 30 or so gigs we did in 2007 I can hand on heart say that we didn’t play the same set twice! We are big ones for reading the crowd and their reactions, if the need calls for it we will whack on a nice big hands in the air remix, or if we have them by the ‘balls’, I love to take it as filthy as we can!
Groovetek, Nick Fisher and Dean H who are playing with us, are all fantastic DJ’s and I’m sure between us we’ll have you all whipped up into a sexual frenzy!
You claim that you got hooked by the Hard House sound after listening to a ‘scratchy global underground’ recording of Tony De Vit, live in Tel Aviv. What was it about that, which really appealed to you? Is that what lead you to want to become a DJ?
Christ! You have been doing your research! Yes, your right enough, my brother had a TDV cassette tape stashed away in amongst his fairly ropey Happy Hardcore collection, how it got there I don’t know, what I do know is it ended up firmly lodged in the player in my first car, a Volvo 340, in red, if your interested! (I can hear the knees of the women buckling as I type!) Anyways, it stayed there for quite some time. In fact I think it was still in the player long after the car had found a ditch!!!!
It was the high energy, harder beats and the uplifting nature that got me ‘hooked’, that in turn lead to me saving up, buying decks then spending every spare penny I had on vinyl! Due to work commitments I decided to give it up for a while but eventually working with DJ’s and music on a day to day basis I got the bug again and I haven’t really stopped to look back!
Why if you have such a strong Hard House pedigree, do you not play Hard House? You have also said recently that it was Electro and Progressive had rekindled your passion. What was it about those two genres that appealed?
More so the Electro! The type of Electro that I buy and really enjoy is the grittier, more driving sounds without getting too dark. Swen Weber’s and Blazerflame’s productions always hit the mark for me. Their sound reminds me of that Harder House sound I fell in love with all those years ago!
You and Shaun haven’t been playing together for that long. Why do you think it is that the pair of you managed to hit it off straight away?
Shaun has been trying to play with me for years! Ha Ha Ha! We actually used to work together when I first started at tidy. I was new into the job and he ran the online store. I used to make a point of dragging his arse out of the office for a cig every 5mins and we quickly began to realise our music taste isn’t all that far apart and to coin a phrase, we just clicked! We had only played together a few times in my garage before I shook off the cobwebs enough to bite the bullet and give it a bash at the New Year Weekender. Ever since our first set we seemed to click, it’s hard to explain but we always seems to know what the other is up to and we get away with some right tom foolery behind the mixer which is fun.
Other than that, we can’t stand the site of each other!
Before you called yourselves funkedupdjs, you very briefly went under the name of ‘Those2DJ’s’. What was the reason for that change and how did you come up with the new name?
We were originally looking for names and I wanted something fairly non-descript, so that we could change things easily if needed! We actually only ever played one gig under that name at Storm, it was then pointed out to us that someone else was already using it. So it was a simple case of back to the drawing board. How we came up with funkedupdjs I don’t know! Sorry!
We know that when you play a warm up set, you don’t bosh out the big anthems to get yourselves noticed, but do a proper job of the getting things worked up nicely. Describe how you feel the first set of the night should ideally be handled?
Progression in a night is essential to any event. It is never about you or making a name for yourself. That will come in good time. We are very conscious that it is about the whole night and contributing in some small way to making that a success.
Dependant on the time of night we are playing and to what sort of night we are playing at, we will play anywhere between 127bpm and 132bpm. Having respect for the DJ following is paramount too, there is no point in setting off hell for leather for 60 minutes, if the guy (or gal) after you is playing a different style of music.
You’ve had a guest slot on Galaxy FM; can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah, we were lucky enough to get a guest mix onto the Tidy Boys Show just before the summer, it took quite a lot of arm twisting and general bribery before Amo would agree to have us on. Thankfully I didn’t have to swallow! But it was a case of if you don’t ask you don’t get!
It is quite surreal hearing your name being read out on the radio then even weirder hearing your mix!
Hopefully it was the first of many…..
During the week, you’re the events manager for Tidy, so that puts you right in the inner circle of the music industry. Do you feel that’s really helped your DJ career?
It helps knowing people, yes, but I have always made it clear that the 2 are very much separate. I made a choice to give DJ-ing a go and want to do it on merit, not because someone is looking for a favour! I have to promote myself the same as the next person.
Obviously being in the inner circle as you put it, makes it easier for me to know what promoters look for because at the end of the day it’s what I look for. Good presentation, good attitude, music that suits the night AND set time they would expect to get is the key!
Be prepared to put the work in too. Too many people sit back and expect things to be handed to them on a plate! Those days are sadly gone!
At the beginning of 2007, you began producing, but you didn't want to release any tracks until you’d built up a bit of a cache of productions. Are they now ready to be unleashed on to the commercial market?
We have a total of 5 tracks that we have worked on to date. Our latest, is a cheeky little remix of ‘Under the Water’ by Brother Brown which is getting some good feedback. I’m still not 100% happy with them but fingers crossed they will be unleashed later this year. I am speaking with an existing label at the moment trying to get them signed, but if that doesn’t come off then I’ll set up my own little digital label and put them out that way.
On those first couple of productions, you worked with engineers like Paul Maddox and Guy Mearns. But is undertaking your own engineering something that you ever want to be doing?
My first trip ever into the studio was with Paul, poor lad, how he didn’t strangle me I don’t know! I’ve never confessed to be the most musically gifted out there, but I know what I like the sound of! Paul somehow managed to rearrange my farting sounds, squeeks and mumbles into a resemblance of a tune and it doesn’t sound half bad! Ha Ha Ha. The others have been engineered by Guy and we are getting some nice stuff together. I’m slowly getting my feet and managing to describe what I’m looking for better now but there is definitely room for improvement.
If you had asked me a few years ago if engineering was something I would have been interested in then I would have bitten your hand off at the opportunity, sadly these days its very much a case of old dog, new tricks! ?
What else has Kieron got up his sleeve for this coming year?
His arms!
And finally, the funkedupdj’s are well renowned for playing several different types of music, but what style can we expect to hear at The Valentines and Heartbreakers Ball?
Prepare yourself for the nastiest, dirtiest, sexiest, filthiest electro to get yourself totallyfunkedup ?
©Greg Lynn 2007
Feature by Greg Lynn
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Remember to catch the funkedupdjs’ supplying nothing but top-notch musical entertainment @ Contagious presents: The Valentines and Heartbreakers Ball @ Club Ice, Friday 8th February!
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