The Dawning of Beijing Afterhours - White Rabbit Club Welcomes Zander VT

From the restaurants on Gui Jie to the skuzziest Sanlitun haunt, Beijing
has been a 24 hour city for quite awhile now. Since the law doesn’t enforce a
“last call” time restraint, it’s completely viable for a bar or club to
keep going into the early morning hours and beyond. And as far as dance clubs
go, there’s probably no place more notorious for staying open til way past
sunrise than the White Rabbit Club.

Over the last year, the subterranean dive under Lucky Street has built a
solid reputation for playing quality independent electronic music. The club set a precedent on its opening night in 2007, when it kept its dance
floors packed until well after the jian bing peddlers hit the streets. Given this formula for success, it’s no surprise that the place also seems to be a bit obsessed with Berlin artists and the sounds of what seems to be in many ways, Beijing’s sister city.

Just compare and contrast the history of the two (dance) capitals, particularly in the last 20 years, and you end up with a fascinating result. The relationship between White Rabbit Club and Berlin is quite obviously borderline obsessive. But for good reason. From Martin Eyer to Fairmont to Gebruder Teichmann to the recent appearance by shejay Bloody Mary, the club has rightly justified the bond with its indie electronica counterparts and verified its ode to hosting only the best DJ artists ever.

The parallels and overlaps between Berlin artists, nightlife culture, and
music continues to build and reach new heights. The latest example of
this will be when Panorama Bar resident DJs and producers from Bpitch Control’s sublabel - ZANDER VT - arrive for a debut performance this Saturday
(Mar 14th). The DJ duo is well-known all over the German electronic music capital for playing at several respected clubs, not to mention some of the best after-hour spots.

Gearing up for their big night coming up in Beijing, I tracked them down last night in Berlin and squeezed in a couple questions before they started packing their bags…

TBJ: First off, at the risk of censorship, can you please describe a typical
night as resident DJ at Panorama Bar?

ZVT: A typical night at Panorama Bar is very long. These days it's open from
midnight on Saturday till midnight on Sunday. Sometimes even longer,
stretching into Monday morning.

So you have a lot of time, and you have different peak times. Not just one
between 3 am and 6 am. It's like a rollercoaster-ride of different
intensities. A lot of people don't even go out before Sunday mid-day. It's
quite unique. Depending on your set time you decide what to play (usually
you have a four hour set. Sometimes longer).The later in the day you play,
the crazier and loose the vibe usually is. And the more erratic and
experimental you can get away with playing. Hearing The Velvet Underground
being played at the Panoramabar at 8pm on a Sunday evening to a euphoric
crowd is very well possible.

TBJ: White Rabbit has often been referred to as a "Berlin style club". In your mind, is there such a thing?

ZVT: One thing that makes Berlin clubs "special" is the fact, that they are
open very long. That changes the dynamics of a night a lot. Apart from that, I
am not sure if there really is such a thing a a "Berlin style club" anymore.
In the nineties the interior of a Berlin club was usually very rough or at
least nothing that was build to last. All the clubs were temporary spaces.
They opened in some abandoned building, stayed for a bit and then
re-opened somewhere else. But these days are pretty much gone. It's more
professional these days I guess, more sustained. And the music is still the most
important thing.

TBJ: What is the climate of the Berlin scene and club culture right now? What do you think are the influential factors?

ZVT: The Berlin club scene is still going strong. A lot of new clubs are
opening now. I guess some people are trying to cash in on the hype right now. But there is also a lot of underground things happening all the time. So there
is still a good balance. The most influential factors for the blossoming Berlin club scene are the liberal authorities and the fact that it is still quite cheap to find and rent big spaces in the inner city. Especially in the summer Berlin is still a big playground. You have a lot of freedom to do and experience crazy things.

TBJ: Nice work on your latest single release, "Get Up", by the way! Can you describe its inspiration? What new elements went into the production?

ZVT: The biggest inspiration for "Get Up" was for sure all the house/deephouse
stuff that is coming out at the moment in Germany. We both always loved
and played the deep and housey vibe, but for a long time it wasn't so easy to
play that stuff, because Minimal was so big and the people wanted to hear
it all the time. It`s very nice, that a lot of groovy stuff is coming out
right now. The groove is where it's at!

TBJ: Have you ever been influenced by Chinese music or culture? How do you feel about playing in Beijing?

ZVT: Apart from quite a few great movies we can't say that we have been
influenced by Chinese music and culture yet, but we`re looking forward to
visit Beijing and get to know more about it! [*Sven]* played in Beijing
twice over the last three years and he loved it. We are definitely excited.

ZANDER VT arrives direct from Berlin and plays White Rabbit Club on
Saturday, March 14th. Doors open @ 11pm, entry 80 RMB.