Alisson Gothz: “Vegas is dead! Long live Vegas! It’s a sad day when a club dies. Especially one which was responsible for not only many emotions and memorable moments, but also to change the complete landscape of a region.

Yes, because the (in)famous Rua Augusta in Sao Paulo can have its history marked in red ink as “before Vegas club and after Vegas club”.

The club was responsible for turning the street into a sensorial experience. Walking down Augusta, you could find the most diverse fauna of gays, straight dudes, skaters, fashionistas, whores, trannies, dealers, underground artists, trend setters, preppy girls, high fashion models, old ladies carrying grocery bags and executives sporting the most expensive cars in the market.

Nowadays, they are still there. But they look lost – which is unforeseen, since the number of clubs in that street is increasing all the time.. Nevertheless, the entire quarter is changing a lot due to gentrification and property speculation – old historic buildings are being replaced by big apartment buildings, cool bars are now expensive stores selling silly stuff marketed as “alternative”, and so on.

Vegas, by the way, will probably become a huge supermarket or a fancy restaurant. The soul of Rua Augusta is hanging on by a thread and something must be done.

Boy, how we danced at Vegas. The club was one of the first to have nights for alternative rock and electronic music all in the same week. One of the first places in Sao Paulo to have dubstep parties and to make disco the biggest hit in town. Established worldwide famous DJs and newcomers shared the booths in harmony. It was always fun.

But enough with the tears, and hooray for new adventures. Vegas said goodbye to its fans with a simple, yet touching open letter, stating the club has completed its cycle. Everything has to die one day, and Vegas is going away with a big smile of “mission accomplished” on its face.

Gee- click on the picture for more

Launching daytime party club Bora Bora in ‘an old run down empty beach bar’ in Ibiza in 1996, Gee Moore is famed for routinely playing 12 hour sets each day throughout the summer season, gradually transforming it into one of the wildest- and best- party spots of the whole Ibiza scene.

Squeezed out by the island’s often internecine clubland politics in 2006, he quit and set off on a global DJing tour that last year saw him reinventing Bora Bora as a premium destination on Brazil’s luxury costal clubbing area of Santa Catarina. Chatting to Skrufff this week about Bora Bora’s successful progression he’s clearly happy in his new home, though sensitive about the reasons he ended up leaving Ibiza for good (he was last there in 2007 for a visit).

“I felt when I left that the unique sprit and general feeling of the island that was so strong was evaporating very fast, I believed that once that was destroyed it would never come back or be the same,” he sighs.

“The island had become a parody of itself, packed with real-life Kevin and Perry’s running around desperate to be a DJ and play one record to nobody just to say they were an ‘Ibiza DJ’. (

Ibiza documentary film Kevin & Perry Go Large:

“Some people that I mistook as friends, that I had given a start and many opportunities to, started to show their jealousy and their true pathetic egos to be DJs at any cost,” he sighs.

“But it was good to know as actually it was a plus in the end, like getting rid of the dead wood. If I had taken those people and their problems with me things would not be good as they are now.”

That things are good, is clear given that as well as running his Brazilian beach club he’s also shortly setting up a Bora Bora in Tunisia, hosting an open air venue in the Mediterranean city of Souses from June 16. Though sensitive, he’s also philosophical, and upbeat about his new life and direction since leaving Ibiza six years earlier.

“Many people told me not to go at the time but I know I made the best decision, I didn’t want all those fantastic years of memories to be tainted with any bad ones,” he says,

“I feel I stayed there a year too long anyway, but I was always the last one to leave a party,” he laughs.

Bora Bora needed to progress and it was not going to if we stayed there any longer. I had done all that I could do on the island. Including being resident Dj in all the man venues.”

Bora Bors Brasil

He’s also firmly committed to Brazil and the nightlife community he’s found more than welcoming.

“Of course with any business there is an inherent rivalry and competition to survive and make more money, and that’s true all over the world. That’s why the monetary system is such a bad and outdated one,” he says, “But the differences between here in Brazil and Ibiza are many.

I know that the other club owners here are not so stupid and understand that Disneyland with only Mickey Mouse is not a good enough attraction.”

Instead, he says, clubs including Warung club, D-edge and Sky Beach all routinely swap DJs and help each other out, to the extent of cross promoting parties in each others’ venues.

“To give you an example we had Nick Warren play as our guest DJ on New Year’s Eve,” he recounts.

“We booked him through a friend of an agent and so didn’t realize that he was also booked to play in Warung club as their headliner only three days later. We had posters, billboards etc printed before we found out about the Warung club date. Their contract was in fact made before ours and so could have meant that we had to cancel the date, loosing a lot of money and not having a guest for the big day and night of the year.

But Rassi and Conti at Warung club were fantastic in their response. They understood the mistake and what the consequences would be for us and said that we are friends and that it was OK. That would not have happened in Ibiza! And that’s the big difference I’m sad to say.”

The only place I see a real rivalry, is between the commercial clubs and the good concept and underground ones, because those clubs and their followers know that the commercial venues have nothing to offer for the progression of the scene and are actually killing it, as we have seen everywhere else.”

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): It’s the 2nd year since you officially opened the new home of Bora Bora in Santa Caterina Brazil: How much has this year gone to plan?

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “As you can imagine, an immense amount of hard word and dedication has gone into getting the new home of Bora Bora up and running. Now after the end of our 2nd year we can really get some perspective on how things are. We are very happy to see such great improvements and progression, which have surpassed our expectations.

Last year was really all about getting people to know we are here. We were quick to see where any problem areas where and make corrections and changes as fast as possible. The venue is so unique and beautiful that the word soon spread through the close season and the scene was set up perfectly for our 2nd year.

What was most impressive was to see so many people returning many times, this was a great indication that we were doing things right and that people liked the experience. Actually daytime clubbing here in Brazil is a relatively new concept but they are catching on fast. There are some other great beach clubs here as well so we are very happy about also. We had some fantastic guest DJs, including Nick Warren, Layo & Bushwacka, Ricky Ryan, Christian Smith, Ernesto Ferreyra as well as some great Brazilian artists such as Anderson Noise, Fabricio Pechanha, Emmy, Aninha etc ..

Skrufff: How much is the concept the same as in Ibiza (ie daytime beachside clubbing for free)

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “The main difference is, of course, the fact that the people are not contained inside a relatively small distance on an island, even though in this area alone we have something like 26 major club venues, some of them holding up to 13,000 people. They are open all year round and very popular. There are some weeks in what’s known as the summer season (new year and Carnaval), where the people are in full on party mode, so we are mainly open at the weekends for parties and the week days for lounging around the pool and beach.

Most of the day-clubs here are free entry, or like us they adopt a system called “consume” This is where you pay a small fee to get in but are given vouchers in return for that same amount to spend on drinks and food in the venue. Once the customer has spent the value of the vouchers they continue to buy drinks and food as normal. It’s a good deal for the customer as the guest DJs and venue running costs are not cheap, even here in Brazil.”

Skrufff: Bora Bora in Ibiza started very low key in ‘an old run down empty beach bar’: how much does the new Brazilian club share a similar low key, underground ethos?

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “I conceived Bora Bora as a music concept rather than a regular club set-up that just brings in DJs and promoted events. Being the owner of the concept as well as the DJ playing sets of 12 hours a day for 4 months each year in those first years has meant that I have been able to develop and keep the music style and its progression under control. Over the years I’ve heard people talking about, and asking for “that Bora Bora sound”. So as far as the concept, the vibe and sound are concerned it’s of course the same. That’s the whole point of Bora Bora. Basically Bora Bora is me and I am Bora Bora, Music, heart and soul.”

The guest DJs that I choose add another dimension, and are chosen to be in keeping with my music structure. The venue and its construction itself is a massive progression. I have made notes of all the things that I considered needed improving and changing over the years and now I’ve had the chance to make them right.

The first thing was to position the DJ stand so that everyone facing the DJ and the DJ had a good view of the sea. I mean that’s the whole point surely, we were very restricted in Ibiza as we never had a music licence and so I as a DJ was forced to be tucked away in a corner and the people were always facing those ugly apartments, I was the only one with the good view and that always bugged me.

The DJ stand itself is also a massive improvement. It’s large and fully equipped including Traktor sound card so there’s no need for DJ’s to start messing around pulling cables in and out of the mixer. The stand also has a private DJ lounge off to one side. We have an infinity pool mostly at a depth of 30 cm, perfect for dancing in.

The whole construction and furniture are made of wood. The decking is great for dancing on; it has a good spring to it. The wooden structure vibrates a nice warm sound and the furniture is strong enough to dance on, of course. There’s a lounge area full of Jacuzzis and a very large restaurant. Three large toilet areas, the women’s have a lounge area with mirrors and sofa.”

Skrufff: How conscious are you of being an outsider ‘gringo?’

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “I am conscious of it only when asked about it, after all it’s not the first time I have lived in a country outside of the UK. I like to think that the world is one, we are only separated by nationalities, invisible boarders and crazy traditions that are all man made in the first place, so what’s to be concerned about? I have a lot of friends here that I made in a short space of time. They are all very cool and I have learnt a lot from them all.

They like English speaking people here for some reason and always try to speak it however little they know. In Brazil there’s the largest population of Asians outside of China, and in this particular area most of the people are 1, 2, or 3 generations away from Italian and German decedents. The woman that helped me with my papers here told me that in this area 300 or so people from the UK move here each year and with this being the number one destination for Argentinean holiday makers it has pretty much a cosmopolitan feel to the place anyway.”

Skrufff: How good is your Portuguese?

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “I do speak the language now but I still understand even more than I speak. I have for the last year tended to become a bit of a recluse as I love the nature here as well as making music in my studio most of the time. So I’m now making an effort to get out a bit more. I also started to surf now and so that helps to meet more people to converse with.”

Skrufff: Why did you pick Brazil as opposed to somewhere closer to home? (eg Croatia? Italy? Or mainland Spain?)

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “I had considered places like Italy and Croatia at first, but maybe I felt at that time that Bora Bora and I needed a real change. I don’t think anywhere else around Europe would have been enough for me at that time. I was fortunate enough to have a Bora Bora world tour set up that continued for a couple of years. It allowed me to spend some months in places I thought could possibly be right for Bora Bora. I also stayed longer in places where I got to do other things that were on my wish list, such as exploring and even acting, which I was fortunate enough to get a taste for in Hollywood. I spent almost a year in the USA altogether.

Once I arrived in Brazil, there was never any doubt it would be here. I remember being on the beach in front of Warung club, within half an hour, four different people from four different directions came up to me and asked me what I was doing there. ‘Was I going to make Bora Bora there?’ etc. That kind of sealed the deal in that one afternoon. I’m happy that Brazil was the last place on the list of realistic locations for Bora Bora that I had visited because I had a lot of adventures in other parts of the world getting there, I saw and I learnt a lot.”

Skrufff: When was the last time you visited Ibiza? What do you make of the island today?

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “The last time was in 2007, I did not want to go back at that time as it was too soon after leaving but I had a new girlfriend and other friends that I’d made here in Brazil that wanted to go as they had not been before. So I rented a house for us all to stay in and spent my time throughout the summer at my friends’ recording studios making music and hanging out with people I knew at each other’s homes. I didn’t go to many venues except to Underground, KM5 to see some people I knew and to see my girlfriend briefly a couple of times, as she was a dancer in most of the clubs as well as a Manumission girl. I was in great company with my friends so it was good, they got it out of their system and I made some good music.

I’ve not been back since so I don’t know what the island and the clubs like Ushuaia are like. There are some old friends that I have not seen for some years on the island so maybe I’ll pop over sometime . . ..”

Skrufff: Anything else to add?

Gee Moore (Bora Bora): “Yes I have some very big Bora Bora news. – We have a Bora Bora tour going on here in Brazil and are starting to put some dates together around Europe. The Bora music label is ready to start releasing loads of new tracks as well as putting together a couple of compilations to add to our long list in the series.

We have a Bora Bora radio show team including Dave Gallier, Alan Prosser (SLR), Dan Ferritto (SLR) and myself making shows for Manchester Global (MGR) and Pulse. But the main news would be that we are about to open a new Bora Bora venue in the Mediterranean City of Sousse, Tunisia on the 15 June 2012. Yep time to dip our clubbing toes in the Med again…It’s a big venue in a great location. Our partners there understand perfectly what Bora Bora is about and we have a great wish list of DJ’s to fill the summer weekends with”.

www.boraborabrasil.com

www.boraborabrasil.co/tour

www.boraboraworld.com

www.boraboramusic.com

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

Alisson on Flickr (click for more)

Alisson Gothz”: Sashay, shantay!! Since last March, the city of Santos (located in the south coast of Sao Paulo and famous for its beaches), is being the set of a – let’s call it that way – “Charm School for Drag Queens”.

The course started as an idea from actor and dancer ZéCarlos Gomes a while ago, and provides several different classes for the budding disco queens: make-up, vocal techniques, dance, acting, etc.

The course functions as a vocational training, which means that, by the end of each semester, all students will be professional drag queens and fully prepared for the job market. But the most curious thing is that a lot of the students aren’t drag queens, or even gay: the success of the classes and the eternal search for glamour are attracting several married, heterosexual women and men to the school. Everybody wants to be fierce!

Alisson and Lady Bunny (New York)

Actually, most of this “unusual” crowd is attending the classes to learn how to deal with personal issues like extreme shyness and so on. But others go to the school because… oh well, they are curious about how drags really are behind all the glitz and feathers.

For those, make-up classes are a ball: learning some of the most best kept secret drag tricks (like applying red lipstick on your face before the foundation so you can hide the blue shade of your beard) is for them an amazing experience.

The whole idea about the course is to provide more information for the artists to better develop their talents and help them put out a great show. The drag culture is inherent in Brazilian history and pop culture, where men usually dress up for Carnival and other festivities without worrying about sexuality issues.

With the awful rampant taking over of conservative religious groups  inside Brazilian politics nowadays, efforts like that are totally worthy of applause.

click for more on the Marquee

Vegas/ New York bottle service nightclub organization the Tao Group are opening a new superclub in Sydney Australia next month, taking over the entire upstairs floor of the new gambling/ dining complex the Star.

Announcing their plans, Tao boss Noah Tepperberg was upbeat.

“Our team is looking forward to bringing the Marquee brand to Sydney while creating a venue with a distinct Sydney style and personality,” he said in a statement.

“It’s been great to see The Star unfold into an impressive casino and hotel, and now dining and entertainment complex, and we are excited to work with the talented Australian based team.“

The three room 20,000 square feet club will include a separate VIP entrance, unisex “bathroom lounge” and a ‘stylish library-style room will offer an intimate lounge experience, accentuated by a working fireplace’ with the main room being ‘voyeuristic by design’, said Bob Shindelar, Director of Nightclub Marketing.

Chatting to Inthemix.com, he said the club experience will be distinguished by ‘strategically situated live art and performance vignettes’ though sounded an impressively realistic note of caution.

“We are relatively new to Sydney and have not experienced enough of the nightlife scene to know if our new venture at The Star will change things,” he said (Inthemix: http://bit.ly/yZ0n0G )

In more US club news, Miami’s Ultra Music Festival announced this week they plan to stage six festivals outside the US this year, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Warsaw, Poland, Seoul, South Korea, and Ibiza, Spain.

The most interesting one is likely to be Ultra Music Ibiza which takes place on May 27^th, two days after David Guetta opens the season with an open air set at the castle in Ibiza Town, and one day after Space launch their traditionally beyond road-blocked opening party.

http://umfworldwide.com

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

Alisson Gothz: “The Municipal Chamber of Sao Paulo will discuss over this next week a bill which will force clubs and venues to provide breathalyzers (yes, “breath analyzers”) to their clients.

The idea, proposed by city councilman Floriano Pesaro, intends to work as an alarm to make people aware of the amount of alcohol present in their blood before leaving those places.

In case this bill passes, every club will also have to put a sign on its exit door telling people to test their blood alcohol levels before leaving if they have consumed any amount (or any kind) of alcoholic beverage. Of course, this test it’s not mandatory, and it’s up to the client to decide.

Driving under the influence of alcohol is a serious offense in Sao Paulo but, at the same time, it’s one of the most frequent causes of accidents (and deaths) in the city – mainly because the laws to judge these cases are very questionable.

Drivers caught with over 0.6 grams of alcohol per liter of blood can get arrested and serve up to three years, but a lot of cases end up with just the payment of bail and the loss of the driver’s license.

People frequently use social networks to tell others about police raids on the streets to catch, among other things,  drunk drivers. There’s even a special Twitter account which provides real time information about where the raids are taking place so you can avoid getting caught.

There has been a big discussion about whether Twitter should ban this account or not, with some people accusing it of promoting drunk driving, but also with a big number of people defending it as a “their right to freedom of information”.

The venues which do not respect this new law will have to pay a fine going from 2,000 to 10,000 Brazilian Reais (in case they do not provide the breathalyzers) and from 1,000 to 5,000 BRL (in case the sign at the exit is missing).

In the newspapers and web portals, most people are still unsure about the efficacy of this law. The anti-smoking law however, approved in 2009, surprisingly proved to be a success and it’s still going strong.

Torture Garden comes to Latin America for the first time this January; they’ll be doing two parties at the end of the month: January 27 in Sao Paulo and January 28 in Rio. And if everything goes right, this could lead into a monthly event.

In Sao Paulo the party will be hosted at Blue Space, one of the most legendaries gay clubs in town.

Sao Paulo is watching a new wave of burlesque and fetish performers attracting a young crowd looking for something cool. In several parties and even cabarets tattooed girls wearing vintage lingerie and pasties are dominating the spotlights.

Amongst the Brazilian artists performing at TG Sao Paulo you’ll find Giselle Kenj, a master in Egyptian arts and culture who uses her knowledge to perform the most amazing shows in clubs around the country.

Her fellow mate, Thot, a real albino snake, enchants the audience in every move she makes. She’s like a modern age Cleopatra. Also, Victor Piercing, who’s also been known as one of the most famous performers in Brazil.

His works are provocative, sexy, playing with androgyny and S/M imaginary, sometimes looking like a sexy cyberpunk, and others like a goth unicorn.

His electric chainsaw routine is a trademark of Sao Paulo’s effervescent nightlife.

The tickets can be bought online at http://www.torturegardenbrazil.com.

Click on the picture to buy Aladdin Sane

Alisson Gothz: ”Do you know that awesome feeling when you hear a song and you get chills down your spine? I get that in every Bowie song, even with his most underrated works.

He is – to say the least – my biggest inspiration, the one who shaped me for life. I grew up listening to him and probably will have “Heroes” playing on my funeral. My mother’s still not sure if I’m a boy or a girl, and all I know is that I like dancing and I look divine.

I’ve found him through my teen idol (Boy George), who’s also one of his biggest fans, and “Aladdin Sane” was one of the first records I ever bought with my own money – despite the fact that by then it was already more than 10 years old.
I’m glad to see that, even though “The Man Who Fell To Earth is now relaxing in his Golden Years” and living a modest life out of the limelight, his works and his influences are widely recognised and celebrated by everyone.”

Click for more Alisson

Click for more (youtube)

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Sao Paulo has the biggest Japanese community in the world living outside Japan. The first Japanese immigrants came here more than 100 years ago and, after living and working as farmers in the countryside, they chose the centrally located neighborhood called “Liberdade” (“freedom”, in Portuguese) as a home away from home.

The neighborhood has been for decades a very popular tourist spot, with streets all decorated with Japanese sculptures and gardens, but now it seems that it’s time Liberdade rejuvenates itself and maybe steal the spotlight from some more famous neighborhoods like Baixo Augusta or Barra Funda.

One of the first spots to be adopted by intrepid clubbers was the karaoke bar inside Choperia Liberdade. In the olden days, the place was a traditional pub for the Japanese community to enjoy a fun weekend, but then it got discovered by accident and soon became a place for a more ‘alternative’ crowd to hang out during the week. As it always happens, it was a great place to be before it got too popular.

The square in front of the main subway station attracts a very young crowd every Saturday and Sunday, big anime/manga fans who also dare to dress up in very fashionable outfits – it’s not rare to spot a “gothic lolita” or a “punk rocker in a bear costume” parading amongst them. At the main avenue, will find the most interesting gift shops ever – places where you can shop for all kinds of crazy things, from plastic Buddha statues to real ninja swords. And also, of course, amazing Asian food markets.

Once located at the famous Rua Augusta, the art gallery Mezzanino has now moved to Liberdade and may soon turn its quiet street into a new place for alternative arts. The gallery is specialized in photography and Modern Art, and features both established and new artists on its cast (me included!).

But the main new attraction is Cine Joia. The place was one of the first cinemas in town, and used to show Japanese movies for the local community. After being closed for years, the venue got in the hands of Facundo Guerra – the King Midas of Sao Paulo’s nightlife and owner of several clubs like Vegas and Lions - who got together with DJ Andre Juliani and music journalist Lucio Ribeiro to turn the place into the coolest concert house ever.

The new Cine Joia had its world debut last Thursday with a DJ set by James Murphy (former LCD Soundsystem) and will start its glorious journey with a concert by Ladytron this week.

The arrival of these new places will shake things around and maybe we’ll be seeing new clubs opening there in a few months. Liberdade is the best proof of how culturally diverse (and cool) Sao Paulo is. Or as the people who live there would say; “tanoshii!!”.

]]> http://skrufff.com/2011/11/alisson-gothz-sao-paulo-reports-turning-japanese/feed/ 0 http://skrufff.com/2011/11/moving-to-berlin-petduo/ http://skrufff.com/2011/11/moving-to-berlin-petduo/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:08:20 +0000 skrufff http://skrufff.com/?p=11255

Pet Duo: click for more

Six Berlin residents; Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew, chatted to Skrufff last week about their experiences moving to the German capital. See below for Brazilian techno heroes Pet Duo’s comments in full.

To read the full feature: click HERE

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): How much did moving to Berlin march your expectations?

Pet Duo: “We moved to Berlin from Brazil 5 years ago, and the city really is so different from our hometown. There’s cleaner air and streets, better public transport, loads more parks and trees  . . . On the other hand São Paulo has better weather: MUCH better weather: As well as a lot more 24hour shopping options and more choice. When we lived in Sao Paulo we’d usually go to the supermarket at 3am. But for us the food factor is not so important, because here in Berlin we can find many Vegan/Vegetarian options for restaurants and markets.

Berlin matched our expectations in the way that is a very Europe-centred, geographically speaking, because this way we are so much near to any city in the continent. Living in Brazil would take longer to go to any gig, it just made sense to be here, closer to producers, vinyl shops, and the cities where we play.”

Skrufff: How necessary is it to speak German?

Pet Duo: “We took German classes for 11 months and it helps a lot on our everyday endeavours, even though what we know is still very basic. We think it is necessary to study for at least 2 years to properly speak it. But because we have a very international job, and we speak English almost fluently, for us it is not so necessary to learn it. Of course we will return to German classes, we cannot miss this opportunity. After all, where is the best place to learn it?

In Berlin part of the population speaks English, so we kind of find it hard to practice the little that we know and now that we stopped going to classes for 2 years, we have already lost a part of what we knew. It’s a hard language to learn. With English you must have at least a 600 word vocabulary to have a proper conversation, while with German you need 3000 words, but it’s a very exact language.”

Skrufff: How different are Germans from Brazilian culturally?

Pet Duo: “Brazilians are generally much more open for meeting new people, they are really easy-going and laid-back, whereas Germans are more closed and introspective. But in other ways, when the Germans open themselves they can be great fun to be with, and they can certainly party as hard as the Brazilians do, no doubt about that.

Also Germans are some of the most focused and professional people we have ever worked with, matching the Dutch and the Austrians in this matter.

But there’s a lack of improvisation, which is something that we Brazilians have a lot; maybe Brazilians have that quality a little too much.

We have also learned that there are three things that Germans ask from anyone: To be on time, to wear clean clothes, and the third we’ve forgotten because we are Brazilians. Ha ha. No, we think the third thing you must remember is to pay your taxes. Please correct us if we are wrong.” (They’re right- Skrufff).”

Skrufff: What advice do you have for getting into clubs (eg Berghain); have you ever been refused entry?

Pet Duo: “We’ve been lucky because we have never been refused entry at any club. Yes, we heard that some clubs such as Berghain have a strict policy regarding entry. But what we would suggest is to go to the clubs wearing clean clothes, and not so fucked up. Then when inside, get dirty and drink as much as you want.”

Skrufff: How should a DJ coming to Berlin aim to find gigs?

Pet Duo: “Send mixes to promoters via websites dedicated for their nights, find an agency that can arrange your gigs in town beforehand, get in touch with a DJ who has a residency at the club you would like to play and make sure he has the liberty to ask the promoters/club owners to book you.”

Skrufff: What are the most common mistakes incomers make?

Pet Duo: “If someone wants to be in Berlin they need to be aware of the strict policy regarding immigration. The best thing to do would be to arrive in town and try to find a day job straightaway that could justify your stay, or, even better, come with a job already lined up beforehand. Otherwise you’ll be in trouble after your visa expired.”

http://www.petduo.com/ 

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

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The Brazilian Committee for Education, Culture and Sports has just approved a bill that regulates the activities of DJs and producers. This bill will make it mandatory for a DJ to have a professional certificate in order to perform in public places, clubs and events. To get the certificate, the artist must have concluded a professional course in a DJ school.

With this certificate in hands, DJs and producers will be able to get a professional registry at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. This bill also determines that the work load for a DJ must be six daily hours and/or 30 weekly hours.

This bill, however, doesn’t apply for foreign DJs and producers who come to Brazil to perform –  as long as they don’t stay in the country for more than 60 days. Also, every public or private event with international DJs must have at least 70% of their line-up filled with local professionals.

Although sounding extremely beneficial, not all DJs are totally happy with this new law for a number of different reasons. For instance, they complain that DJ courses in Brazil are still very expensive and not available outside big cities like Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Also, it’s not very clear what DJs who have been performing for decades will have to do to get this certificate – should even they get back to school?

At the same time, most people see this as a great opportunity to stop the current wave of “celebrities pretending to be DJs” that is growing fast in the country, taking jobs from real DJs and, most of the times, ruining the image of their profession.

The bill is needs to be voted by the Committee of Social Affairs and the Chamber of Government before it becomes a law. Let’s see what happens!