Cool Cleveland People: David Christopher and Amy Dana

With releases supported by Sandra Collins, Nick Warren, Jerry Bonham and Kasey Taylor, they’re backed up by renown DJs of the house industry. Toes’ first release Bound for Ascension by Michael Lanning was mixed by international DJ luminary Anthony Pappa, and their second release, Even Flow by Brahma, reached #12 on the prestigious Balance Record Pool Chart. Their record label, Toes in the Sand, was reviewed by notable online alt site Progressive-Sounds, and the Balance Record Pool, widely regarded as the premiere record pool in the world, just invited David for membership. This invitation-only position puts David in charge of receiving pre-leases from record labels, where he'll be screening DJs, as well as playing and reviewing them to determine charts of the best records which become the "tastemakers," defining it as the most sought after music in its genre. Senior editor Tisha Nemeth spoke with them about their experiences in NYC, Miami and Cleveland, as well as techno culture and its committed community.

Cool Cleveland: You’re working with artists from across the globe, bringing international flavor to Cleveland’s house music culture. How did you initially develop this?
Deviant, aka David Christopher: I’m originally from New York City and it all started there. I wanted to DJ when I was younger; I bought turntables and made demo tapes and realized that I had to throw my own events to get everything going. So I quit my job in management consulting to do it; in the beginning it was great and I did really well. This was before 9/11 when the economy was strong and the tech bubble was still happening. When 9/11 happened and the economy crashed, it changed everything and made it difficult. I continued DJing even after 9/11, but there was no work in NYC during that time. Then I met Amy at the Winter Music Conference in Miami, Florida. She lived there, and was from Ohio, and I still lived in New York. Amy is really passionate about the music and so we began jointly throwing events; she is the one who pushed me to take the plunge and get big DJs to spin for us at our shows. So I moved to Cleveland.

What were some of the challenges starting out?
DC: It was very challening in the beginning, but there are some benefits to DJing here; I learned that when we booked DJs in NYC, it was very expensive; in Cleveland it is less expensive; learning that was a revelation. We're able to book DJs that are the very best, in NYC it would've been costlier to do this. But I also wanted to produce music, and I got into that later. As it turned out, I was quickly signed by labels in NYC, but they didn’t end up releasing, which is common in the industry. So I had to do it myself, but starting a record label seemed insane. We did sign local DJ Chris Eberhart who had a great unsigned track, and we then managed to find distribution. From there the music sold itself; Nick Warren [established U.K. DJ and producer] really supported it and that helped. Anthony Pappa [world renown Australian DJ] wanted a track for a mix CD and he contacted us, which was huge for us at the time – Amy just worshipped him - and we began receiving amazing support from important DJs all over the world.

Amy Dana: The one thing that’s great about the well known DJs is that they’re real people, they’re like your friends and even though they’ve reached a level of success they don’t forget where they came from. Like last year, after we did a show at Moda with Sandra Collins, we invited her to our after party and she hung out with us till the wee hours. All the DJs we’ve brought to Cleveland have been down-to-earth.

It’s an opportunity to cross-pollinate music, community, entertainment and culture...
AD: Tech/house music deals with universality, there aren't language barriers when you’re part of this movement and this culture; it’s like we are all on the same page.

Does this encourage you to pursue and bring music from other cities around the world to Cleveland?
DC: Yes, because it’s like a global underground, everyone who’s a part of this and supports it is on the same wavelength. International music is a product of technology, and so is the culture it creates - a global village brought together by technology. We receive emails from people all over the world, even in third world countries; technology has the ability to send music all around the globe, and the music blossoms because of it. It also surpasses boundaries; there are not many music genres that can accomplish this level of connection, and it’s an amazing experience.

It delves into sociology: why people seek out specific social groups, what are the dynamics that keeps them engaged in one group as opposed to other groups. It addresses the need for people to seek out alternative cultures that are not mainstream, since mainstream culture does not satisfy all of us.
DC: Cleveland has a strong mainstream community, it’s a very beer, baseball and frat boy mind set, and we’re competing against that mainstream. I think the “rave” stigma of the ‘90s is still attached to house music and culture; people talk over music like it’s interfering with their conversations. It’s like the music is not the feature, it’s an interruption. The music is actually very detailed and complex in composition, and I don’t think that aspect of it is appreciated by the public. The majority of people in this city are not looking for alternatives, they want to be mainstream and they embrace it; they want to be where everyone else is, and they think that’s a really “happening” thing. The underground scene does not provide anything that appeals to the mainstream masses.

How is the climate for house music in Cleveland, what’s your professional experience been?
AD: I’m wondering, do other people who create here in Cleveland feel drained like we do? We’re doing so much with our events to bring world-wide culture here, that we end up feeling drained. Our successes have been noticed world-wide: Japan, Australia, the UK, etc. so, we’re well known around the globe for what we do. But it's draining because in Cleveland, no one on the east side knows who we are or what we do. I think people here need to step up and get more involved with supporting underground music.

DC: Our music and our work means different things to different people, and I realize not everyone can appreciate it, for example, like Classical music, it’s something that you have to have an aquired taste for, by learning what's good about it and then adapting to it. Cleveland has more of a dance music following; our songs do not have lyrics and are much longer in length, this is not the type of music that local radio stations here are going to support.

What about college radio?
AD: Our music gets played on WCSB, but it's not getting the rotation that other radio stations provide. Miami, Florida has 93.1, a radio station that features famous producers of house music on the weekends, and they air the show from some of the best clubs in Miami...

DC: There isn’t even a station that does that in NYC. The question is how do we get radio stations that are really singles-focused to air house music, rather than commercially appealing music. You can get really good electronica on the music choice station if you have digital cable, or satellite radio which has a lot of it on Sirius. They play really great music; I’ve a friend in back in NYC who does a mix show for Sirius. The big frustration is getting people into it and giving it the exposure it deserves. I don’t feel that we’ve the right channels here in Cleveland to get us into radio play. But I think house music is managing to do well within the underground here, even with the stigma of the rave culture, which provided an alternative experience for those outside of the mainstream. Nerds and geeks just created their own counter-culture where there’s a whole other world with different standards and mores with a higher quality.

AD: People who are involved in this music and its environment are not as self conscious because the community has a different public dynamic, people are accepting and behave as they should on a dance floor. In Cleveland, it’s a little different with the clubs here. I can be dancing and a guy might come up and begin grinding or something; they don’t come for the music and the community, they show up to hook up. That’s not what our music community is about. You can go to clubs around the U.S. and across the globe and where there’s house music, there’s respect for the music and the people who make up the community and support it. They’re there for the music, not to get picked up.

When I clubbed in the east coast during the late '80s, it was about experiencing the music and atmosphere; hooking up was not central to the experience, it was secondary and did not take precedence over the music.
DC: Music is the focus and I remember my most memorable experience with it, it was in NYC at [famed and now defunct] Twilo where I saw Sasha and Digweed.

AD: With incredible sound systems, like Phazon, the listening experience is perfect because you can hear the nuances - the subs and dubs - and each individual sound floats and enters into you. It's transcendent. You're not just hearing the music, you're in it. In certain tracks you can have wind sounds, and combined with a specialized sound system, you feel like the music is actually touching you. You are not just standing around the club waiting for something to happen; you enter into the music and participate in the drama around you. People who are really into the music are the ones who are having a really good time because they're interacting with the music.

What are some of the newer events you’ve got coming up?
DC: We’re starting 18 and over events in October at Moda that will donate profits to charitable groups like Move On, or any group that can help keep Bush out of office for the next four years. We want our music to be affiliated with an actual cause.

What about branching out into a tech/house music festival?
AD: We’ve been involved in a few and the ones we’ve encountered, egos got in the way as well as lack of planning, so we ended up doing excessive amounts of work. We can’t be the only ones spearheading the events, if other people want to do this type of stuff they need to step up.

DC: I’m also really impressed though by the amount of DJs Cleveland has - there are so many - and its community is very involved in the nightlife. You can see a list of the best in Cleveland at http://www.clevelandnightlife.net where you can find events and interact with the diehard DJs here. The audiences are diehard also and really support the events, they come to every one and are passionate about it.

So the culture is perpetuated by word of mouth...
DC: Yes, advertising really never helped us much, or any other DJs here, and then there’s the problem of large corporations trying to get on our bandwagon.

When King Britt was here last year, it was sponsored by Salem cigarettes; you could see packs of them everywhere, that and Red Bull. It was obvious who the sponsors were.
DC: Cigarettes are so antithetical to what we’re doing. I’m not into corporate sponsorships, no matter how much we need the money.

Eventually you’ve no choice, the best you can do is pick the lesser of two evils.
DC: It’s one thing to just take the money in order to keep the underground music going on, event wise. But we’ve had opportunities to advertise a pop event, and that would’ve diluted our brand, because we won’t push products or represent things that we don’t agree with.

AD: We’ve gotten criticized by promoters for not doing “theme” parties here, with girls in bathing suits or slutty models; that’s not what our music is about.

Yes, because it’s not representational of what you’re trying to do musically. If you resort to having a female body push your event, you’re sending a strong message, and it’s not a good one.
DC: It’s not hard to make money in Cleveland, you can do really well making money with gimmicks at your events or parties, but that’s not our goal.

AD: Our record label is doing well, and we know we are making an impact to audiences across the globe with our efforts.

DC: We’re just the messengers of music; it's great there are so many DJs and producers who are unknown and they’re already on the verge of becoming big names. We’ve gained a lot of respect for doing what we believe in without making lots of money; we like to focus on our music. Coming up we've got Balance 006 that's available in Europe and Australia, it's not out in the U.S. yet, but should be sometime in September. You can order it through the internet at BarnesandNoble.com at http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=Mo5n6zt91V&ean=823867667915

Editor's note: David referenced "global underground" not only as a phenomenon, but also as the name of a mix CD record label. To explore their world, visit http://www.GlobalUnderground.co.uk

There's also a message board linked off that site at http://www.GlobalUnderground.co.uk/forum/index.php where people from around the world interact and connect.

Read a review of the Balance 006 CD mixed by Anthony Pappa and Bound for Ascension, by Michael Lanning featuring Charity Havens here: http://www.residentadvisor.net/review_view.asp?ID=2006 An interview with Anthony on the CD can be found here: http://www.ResidentAdvisor.net/feature_view.asp?ID=488

Read more about the DJs and the pool, at http://www.TheCollectiveAgency.com

Interview and image by Cool Cleveland Senior Editor Tisha Nemeth