Interview With Gaz Williams, Founder of Now Defunct Shelter, Curator for Douban Wetware Festival Lineup

Gaz Williams has been at the forefront of the Shanghai’s rising electronic scene for well over a decade – cutting his teeth as a promoter in his early days before cofounding the now defunct Shelter, a underground club that became something of a milestone venue for our sister down south, and more importantly a breeding ground for an array of labels that have put the city’s electronic scene on the map, including Gaz’s own SVBKVLT.

Well, most folks might have taken a long vacation after seeing their baby stripped away from them, Gaz has kept active as ever since the closure of The Shelter, including lending a hand to the upcoming Wetware Music Festival from Douban, helping curate much of the electronic lineup alongside some of the other industry tastemakers. Before he pops over to Beijing next week to reap what he has sown, I asked Gaz a few questions about the festival, his label, and of course, the possible return of Shelter.

Almost a week away from what is arguably one of the most ambitious music festivals to hit China in quite sometime – are we in full on panic mode yet?
[Laughs] Yeah, kind of a combination of panic, fear and total excitement. As my role in the festival was mainly curation, the bulk of the more stressful work has been down to the Douban team, so really I kinda got the fun job and got away with not dealing with a lot of rough stuff.

First up – a little background on how you got involved with douban in organizing this festival? What was the initial pitch?
Towards the end of last year Hanhan [of Duck Fight Goose] told me that Douban were planning on doing a festival but wanted to do something a little different than what the majority of festivals here attempt. Something in some ways more serious musically, but also fun and interesting. I think initially they approached him for the role of curator but he recommended me. I went up to Beijing to meet with Zhao Yue and Xu Bo and they explained the kind of thing they were after and it was definitely something I could go with. Zhao Yue is a big sci-fi fan and so this combined with the artists I wanted to present made the 'theme' of the festival come together pretty naturally (she also nailed it with the name straight off the bat, choosing names is one of the most difficult things and something I'm terrible at).

In many ways, this feels like the anti-thesis to Strawberry, MIDI, or the clusterf**k of EDM festivals across the country. Was that always the intention? How far did you want to push it in terms of lineup and international acts? Was they ever any pressure to make something more perhaps mainstream?
One of the most enjoyable things about working with Douban/Wetware was the amount of freedom and trust they have given me when choosing the artists, I pretty much got away with everything I suggested. There were talks early on about bringing in a few more mainstream acts, but as the lineup was coming together it became obviously apparent that these acts just wouldn't fit. For me this is one of the main issues of many festivals here, the approach of trying to please everyone’s tastes. On the surface this makes sense as you would think if there was something for everyone then more people would go, but in reality it means that most festivals have three or four acts that you want to see and the rest isn't really your thing. It's either this or just choosing mass appeal, boring music that all sounds the same. There are huge financial risks in doing festivals, especially in China, so I totally understand why most like to try and play it safe. I don't feel Wetware was an anti-thesis to this, it just chose a certain direction and stuck to it.

What was the first big catch for the festival that got you fist pumping? Or perhaps the catch that required the most reeling in that left you ecstatic by the end?
When I first met up with Douban I asked boss man Xu Bo which acts he would personally like to bring. It would be easy for me just to book everything i wanted to see but I wanted to find some acts that would also excite him. The first person he mentioned was Tim Hecker, who I am also a fan of, and so he was pretty much the first person I contacted and straight away I got a reply and it was confirmed. That was really exciting. Evian Christ took quite some time to confirm and at one point looked like it wasn't going to happen so finally locking him down was a big relief.

With festivals being cancelled left and right, and Beijing’s nightlife scene in a constant flux of cynical uncertainty what are the risks of putting together a massive scale multi-day festival like this?
This is the first festival I have properly been involved with, and as I said before, I mainly just helped put the lineup together, so all the logistics and legal stuff has been up to Douban. I guess one issue is there are a lot of gray areas and rules/regulations can change very quickly so it can be hard to keep on top of everything that is needed and how it should be done. You should ask the Douban people this question, I'm sure they would have a lot more to say [laughs].

What are some of the acts you’re most excited about? Any surprises we can expect?
There are a lot of acts I'm looking forward to, but one that I'm most excited for (and one which may not be on people's radar) is Amnesia Scanner. I love their music and their live show is meant to be fantastic. In fact, the Friday night lineup of Stephen O'Malley, Amnesia Scanner, and then Evian Christ is going to be super intense and quite an experience I think. I’m also looking forward to Kode9 and Lawrence Lek's live set. I’ve brought Kode9 to China numerous times and he's a good friend, but I've never seen him perform live.

Also the after parties are going to be great and something people shouldn't forget about. Do Hits on the Friday night will be crazy (as all their parties are) and I am bringing Yen Tech for the SVBKVLT party on the Saturday. Yen Tech played Shelter last year and was incredible; he's such a good performer. I’m not sure what he has in store for this show but I know he's going to be an act that people will remember for a long time. Hopefully the after parties will have a few secret guests too

Besides the big names acts, there seems to be an array of obscure Chinese acts, like Hong Kong folk artist Wong Hin Yan and Inner Mongolian avant-garde artist Hai Qing. When did they enter the picture?
These acts were Douban's input into the lineup. If it was all down to me the lineup may have been a little too focused on certain areas of music so it's great they have added something a bit different.

READ: Live Beijing Music’s Top 10 China-Based Acts Playing at Wetware Douban Music Fest

I was lucky enough to catch the SVBKVLT crew in Shanghai a couple weeks back – seems you’ve been particularly busy with the label since the closure of The Shelter. Besides being present at the festival this week - what’s on the horizon for SVBKVLT?
Yeah label plans have been coming along nicely and I'm excited for the releases in store for the rest of the year. The next release is Faded Ghost's (Cha Cha) debut album Moon Mad. Her first EP was the very first release on the label and this album has been like four years in the making and both her and myself are really happy with how its turned out. She will be premiering her new live show at Wetware and the album will be released a couple of weeks after, although limited advance copies together with a zine designed by Nini Sum with individual artwork for each track will be available at the festival.

After this I have a bunch of releases lined up but I'm not sure what order they will arrive, I'm just waiting for final tracks and masters to come back. Osheyack, Prettybwoy, Hyph11e, 33, and Gooooose all have releases planned this year, as well as a single from Swimful which is a bit different to his previous releases.

Kind of a follow up and a question I’m sure you get asked all the time – but I gotta know – is there another Shelter on the way? Blink once for yes.
*Blinks five times*

Tickets for Douban Wetware Festival, which runs May 18-21 in both School and Tango, can be purchased here. Read more about the lineup here or see the event listing here.

Photos: courtesy of Gaz Williams, Tracy Van Oosten