“I was living in Berlin and I played a five-and-a-half-hour set,” he continued. “The organisers were so stoked with the sound and the vibe and said just to keep playing.” It’s easy to tell that he is as captivating an aurator as he is behind (and around) the decks. Dividing his time between Australia and Europe, when he’s not touring elsewhere, he is currently running the LAB day parties at Section 8. The free, monthly events attract big name DJs and allow him to push minimal tech-house back into the conscience of the local club scene. “As long as it’s got the right bassline and you mix it well together people are into it.” As a sound scientist who likes to get bodies moving, it’s all about the bass and BPMs for Scott. “You know really deep and slow. That influence and sound, I brought it back with me from Berlin this year.”
He will be bringing the bass and more as he returns home just in time to celebrate Melbourne Cup day. Rather than having a BBQ or boozing it up in a cheap suit, the charismatic DJ will be partying in style at the El Caballo Loco event, held at the Robbie Burns Hotel. “It’s gonna be unreal. It’s a free event, we’re not trying to make any money out of anybody, we just wanna create a good vibe and play good music and that’s what people really go for, I feel.”
Joined throughout the day by the likes of Camilo, Scott Dickson, Brendan Jones and Lord Neill, the centrepiece of the event will be the joint set between Uone and longtime collaborator James Cooper. Perfect foils, the DJing duo have been staging events together for the last eight years, including Lab parties in Berlin, and have developed a hyperactive chemistry when on stage. “We gel with each other really well, mainly we just have a lot of fun and people see that behind the decks and they’ll be like, ‘Look at those two guys’. We’ll be carrying on, having a party basically, we like to bring a party vibe when we play.” The tremors created by Scott have clearly been felt abroad as he prepares to head to Turkey for an outdoor festival and South Africa for the AfrikaBurn festival, the second biggest Burning Man event to be held outside of America.
“Internationally things are really kicking off. I’ve gotten into this outdoor festival niche. I like to call it ‘festival tech-house’, it really makes people buzz.” With these opportunities opening up, the potential is endless for this tireless globetrotter. “There’s a festival probably going every weekend in the world somewhere and if you can pace yourself like I do, like four months in Europe and then the rest of the time in Melbourne, you’ve got something good.” Now a well-rounded party starter, he has experienced the differences firsthand between the major music capitals, from South America to Europe and back home. “In Brazil they really like to be entertained, they like it to be high impulse, ‘boom boom’. Whereas in Berlin it’s all about the stripped-back vibe, people like to enjoy the sound coming on to them and they don’t want it to be in their faces. Coming back to Melbourne recently, like Killing Time and the Lab Section 8 parties, we’ve got world class people playing in Melbourne, we always have.”
While he is loyal to Melbourne, Scott has discovered a newfound interest in the Sydney club scene. “They’re doing some really cool parties in Sydney finally. There’s one party called Strange Fruit when I went there last month. It was like going into somewhere in Berlin. It’s really strong in Australia, it’s really competitive as well, artists are super-competitive in Australia. You just need a solid little crew who come to the parties and you’ve got something.”
BY ANDREW ‘HAZARD’ HICKEY
