‘IT’S A NICE FEELING WHEN PEOPLE SAY THEY ENJOYED THE SET AND THAT THEY’VE NEVER HEARD THIS MUSIC BEFORE'

An interview with one of Ireland’s most individual DJs, Ricky Chong

Ahead of his slot at Bullitt this Sat 23rd May alongside Giles Smith, HART, and Bobby Analog, Irish selector Ricky Chong spoke to Bullitt’s Jonny Carberry about confidence, connection, artistic integrity and more…

Hi Ricky – thanks for doing this interview, and we’re all really looking forward to Sat night! You’ve moved to Belfast recently, right? How’s that working out for you, and how does Belfast compare to other cities you’ve lived and worked in, day and night?

Yes I’m looking forward to the Saturday show too! I didn’t move exactly to Belfast but very close by, my partner and I have been searching for a place to live together for the past 7 months and it’s been a nightmare with the housing crisis in Ireland. But settling in has been a joy so other than that, no complaints!

Belfast is a lovely place, dynamic and diverse.

You’ve been DJing out for a few years now – what was the spark that got you into DJing?

So after I finished college in Sligo, I found myself in a bit of a rut, in terms of the direction I was headed in life along with being in a bad place mentally which was a huge factor. I had saved up some money and a very good friend at the time suggested that I should pick up some decks and learn to mix since I was super interested in music and started collecting records even at a very young age.
I picked up this four channel Denon controller, some cheap monitors and threw myself into it. Having a pretty addictive personality – along with a little bit of musical knowledge – I picked it up fairly quickly with all the time I spent at it, but with lots of trial and error of course.

My good friend Gearoid who I met in Sligo in my early years of college, ran the very iconic ‘Faint’ events in the local clubs at the time alongside Tiarnan (Spray) and with him naturally being a good mate of mine, he was looking out for me and got me involved. I had moved back home to Cavan during the summer and he rang me up proposing to give me a slot at their next outdoor event. I think they had booked Green Velvet as headliner for that night. Being in a very anxious state of mind, it was a quite a tough decision for me, but I knew it would’ve been a good thing to try, and to put myself in an uncomfortable situation. It was one hell of a night hahaha! Scary at first but afterwards it became way more enjoyable.

The rest is history really, I haven’t stopped gigging since and built some incredible friendships over the years with promoters, venue owners, engineers and likeminded DJs and most importantly a great connection with the crowds who come to my shows, some who I can happily call friends now. So I guess in a way, the spark that got me started was wanting to be in a better place mentally and to push myself a little. I never knew it would take me to where I am today so I’m super grateful!

How would you describe your current style, and has that changed much over those years?

Good question. My first experience with proper underground music was watching that famous Kerri Chandler B2B Jeremy Underground Boiler Room (back when Boiler Room was actually good haha) in the early days of college, and it was incredible to witness even through a screen with headphones and not in person. I had the privilege to share the booth with Jeremy last year for NYE in Dublin, which was a full circle moment and that was incredibly inspiring to go B2B with him. I’ve always loved disco, soul, funk and jazz music growing up with my dad’s record collection, so it was the first time I had heard this music being played out live in a club. I started off DJing 90s house music as it was pretty straight forward to mix, I even had a little electro and techno phase but it wasn’t really my thing. Later on, I had finally built up enough confidence to venture into mixing unquantized disco and also incorporating mixing vinyl records from my little collection in those early years.

I’m not sure really where to place my style. I play all sorts of stuff, but I do love natural sounding records. Real musicianship, bands sort of thing. I think it really depends on the moment in time. I’ve been exploring a lot of rare gospel music recently and just like diving into any genre, you get accustomed to how things get arranged and certain sound signatures. In a perfect world I’d like to play more disco, jazz and more obscure records. I try my best to strike the balance of sticking to playing out what I like but I do think with being a DJ ,we still have a job to do and that is to make people dance. We need to focus more on how people are reacting to certain records on the dancefloor. So if disco isn’t working then maybe move into another sound profile whether that’s house or whatever. In some ways, if you can grasp the crowd by playing something more acceptable to them, you can generally ‘trick’ them into dancing to some of your more personal selections they might not have known they would like.

It’s always a nice feeling after a show when people come up and say they enjoyed the set so much and that they’ve never heard this music before. That’s another few people converted! hahaha. But yeah, If your collection of music is diverse enough then you’ll grasp the crowd eventually, it’s just the matter of finding ways to get there quicker. I do like risky mixing and I find myself transitioning into different genres quite often in a set. I wouldn’t be a huge fan of hearing or playing a set purely with the same genre, think it can get quite boring so I do try mixing it up and take people on a journey that way. There’s so much music across the globe, so many different flavours of sound and an endless amount of talent yet to be discovered so I don’t see why I should play the same type of music.

I think the only way my style has changed since I started is that I’m way more comfortable making riskier selections. I play a lot more African music these days, sometimes Zouk depending on the situation. I’ve been diving into some different genres too: jazz-funk, synth-pop and gospel which I mentioned already, but definitely I played it more safe in the early days and that felt limiting. For instance, I was headlining a show in Dali Cork a few months ago and generally speaking, you just never know what you’re getting into, how open minded the crowd is, what they like, what are they used to, do they know what music I play etc. But it was such an incredible night, playing private press gospel records and seeing such a young crowd go nuts for it while maintaining that energy from start to finish was extremely refreshing to witness. Big shoutout to Ewan and Conor for having me. If anyone is down South in Cork, lookout for their Funksmack shows please!

Are you ambitious? Would you like to be a ‘full time’ DJ? There is a lot of discourse about the increasing role of social media and self-marketing in the DJ world, but do you think there is still integrity and artistry in the craft? (For me you are someone who plays the music they love, and tries to be individual with it – so huge respect…)

Thanks so much for the kind words! I would say I’m ambitious yes, but only with the things I enjoy haha. Full-time DJing is definitely the goal. Constantly being on the road, flights, late nights and depleting the social battery can be pretty stressful and tiring, mentally and physically if you’re not careful. But some people are built for it. I’m quite introverted so too much social interaction for me becomes tough and tiring. I’m definitely more of a home-body but gigging has been incredible, it’s given me so much in life. Finding a balance is best. Being able to spend every day digging for music and playing unheard records to a live audience in a club setting, making nights special and seeing people dance together puts a smile on my face.

Regarding artistry and integrity, I believe there is. I know many DJs who are killing it at the moment and don’t play by the usual rules of social media. It’s a constant battle especially if you’re just starting out. I try my best not to post too much about me personally, only about upcoming gigs and sharing records online. It’s for sure become a normal thing self-promoting, but to the point where I feel certain folks are putting 90 percent of their work in solely marketing and overdoing it. More like being an influencer type than focusing on the DJing and music part. Maybe I’ve an old school way of thinking haha. It’s not fully their fault either, it’s what’s become the norm unfortunately.
I think the original point of DJing kind of gets lost, which is the music and the people. Theo Parrish has a great interview speaking about this and I completely agree with what he says. There’s many people out there wanting to be a DJ, but for the wrong reasons. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have some sort of content to post, but let’s not drift away from the real reason we’re doing this in the first place. Again, maybe there’s people out there doing it for the wrong reasons, I’m not sure. Let the music do the work. Put down your phones away. Dance.

DJing is partly about turning people on to new (old) things. Are there any labels or artists or DJs you would like to shout out? Can you give us a sneak peek of three tracks you might play at Bullitt?

I absolutely agree. I mainly play and dig for old music, there’s an endless amount out there still yet to be discovered. Yes so many! I’ve been enjoying Bobby and Danilo’s ‘Spacegrapes’ Label out in Netherlands since the beginning. Newly produced take on oldschool disco and jazz-funk flavours. Another one is good mate Sam Dons ‘Sweet Free Association’ Label. You all might know him from the very successful ‘For The Love Of You’ Lover’s Rock/Reggae Compilations on Athens of the North. He’s reissued two lovely ones in the past, including a reissue of the sought after Vincent Arthur & Dagomba LP. I can finally let my original copy rest for now haha. He had a new one out last month, Convertible – Like The Rain EP which is the labels debut release. Super nice electronic stuff from a talented producer. Go check it out!

One of my good friends Rob Marini under the alias MARINI has been releasing some incredible dreamy jazz house that’s influenced by 90’s house but with modern electronic elements. Check out his Winter Moon EP on Spotify and lookout for a new release coming out very soon on a very well respected label.

In terms of DJ’s, there’s so many! But I definitely want to shoutout good mate Joshwha. Extremely great ear for all things Africa. A specialist in these areas honestly. We’ve had the chance to play together in multiple occasions and he’s for sure a joy to share records with. He runs Dublin based party Loose Connections and has brought over the likes of Esa, Rush Hour’s Bonnefooi and many talented selectors in the past. We may or may not be bringing someone special over after summer and throwing a big party together so keep a lookout!

Here’s three records I’ve picked that I might play on Saturday:

Bruno Maia – Sou Do Cais