Crossing over with John Landry
DJ has mastered the art of pleasing his crowd, and educating it too
I recently re-read the essential Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, and it led me to a search for the local personalities that, like Larry Levan or David Mancuso in New York, helped forge the dance scene in Calgary. This proved decidedly difficult, although it’s not an impossible chore. While a small slice of clubbers could name five of the city’s resident DJs – with quality names like Rice, Wah, Clarke, Pump, Wayne B, Emes or the BeatMatrix instantly coming to mind – few could name the founders of Calgary’s DJ scene with the same ease.
However, there is one beat-slinger looking out from the DJ booth who has seen the faddish nature of Calgary nightlife morph time and time again. John Landry (a.k.a. Jon Spade) is the closest thing Calgary has to a dancefloor guru – after devoting 20 years of his life to the music, Landry has a wad of wisdom, although his style might not appeal to any of the self-proclaimed underground connoisseur DJs with 50 records and a set of turntables. Landry says he prefers to stay within the margins of what he describes as music with soul.
On any given night during his current residency at Pandemonium Nightclub, you’re likely to hear Landry nimbly running the gamut of dancefloor material. Ranging from more popular dance tracks through to the music’s underground leanings, he also incorporates urban, hip-hop and retro to seamlessly blend sets of music that reflect his personal taste without ignoring the crowd's cravings. His mastery of the craft is attributable to a quality that few club DJs take the time to develop – the ability to cross over. Many DJs cater to the marauding masses with a sumptuous buffet of overplayed radio shite or they decide to play exclusively for themselves.
"I’ve seen guys just show up at gigs, whether raves or clubs, and just play their thing," says Landry. "But most of the big DJs know – they’ve done clubs – they know that they have to move the crowd, that they’re going to rock a party and play the key tracks that people recognize. In part, that’s why they’re famous – because they entertain."
This is an important fact that seems lost on those looking for the underground – few DJs with a dancefloor have played completely unrecognizable music. Every genre has its trigger tracks that ignite the interest of the patrons, and DJs must meet their crowd halfway, either by providing the established hits of a genre or by breaking future hits.
For Landry the emphasis on the next big thing is key to maintaining his own interest in the music.
"I’m always looking to see where the music is going, interested in the development, which means I change my style every few years."
Perhaps it’s his mutable style that confounds patrons, club owners and rigid adherents to a particular genre, excluding him from the canon of underground legends or the hype of a much ballyhooed resident night.
Despite this, his progress during his former residency at Solé Luna, one of many venues Landry has played at, saw him spin everything from anthems to obscure Brazilian tracks by Jorge Ben. That was, and still is, a huge coup for a dancefloor DJ – lighting up a crowd with a track that Calgary has no history with. This is one musical feat that has remained unmatched in crossover clubs, especially in a city where the club world constantly romances the lowest common musical denominator.
"Club owners don’t seem to want to let a night or a style happen.... They see other venues do well, so instantly they think emulating that style will make them as successful as another venue, not paying attention to the details that make a particular venue successful."
Landry sees this mentality as the reason Calgary is still suffering from an extended Electric Avenue hangover. The difference is that bars are now just spread out across the city, with many like-minded venues all bellying up to the bar for short term gain with little long-term vision.
"The crowd gets a raw deal, because nothing really happens on a large scale.... People get jaded because only a handful of people are dictating what your nightlife is going to be comprised of."
Playing music of the day, crossing genres, blending past and present with the next step and developing a style that is neither exclusively underground or completely Top 40, John Landry is dedicated to a vision of a proper musical night out. You can visit www.jonspade.com for details on his next gigs. |
