Hazy Days: Maxime Bureau Goes Underground

We asked Haze co-owner Maxime Bureau about how the new lounge/club marks a new phase for the former White Rabbit crew.

Have you found Beijing's electronic music scene a tough place to be over this past year?
No, I don’t think it’s tough, like many other capitals Beijing has very eclectic music scenes and many promoters, so there’s a lot of competition. Since 2007, when Thomas Gaestadius and I started bringing DJs over, Chinese people have become more and more knowledgeable about electronic music. The only problem I find is that the mass of expats coming to study or for internships aren't looking too much for music, but mainly getting drunk with cheap alcohol or finding easy girls.

And what are the solutions?
Ban fake alcohol and hookers in clubs!

Tell us what you want do with Haze.
White Rabbit came at the perfect time. In 2008, minimal techno was huge around the world and in underground clubs. Dark, hard music. Maybe the result of the economic crisis, who knows.

Now, we feel people are going more towards happy music, back to the basics of jacking Chicago house of the 1980s and 1990s dance music – nice vocals and grooves to make people smile. We've put our hard techno back at home and kept the tech-house that we spice up with hypnotic vocals, nu-disco and house. We have five local resident DJs and we’ll push the Chinese scene in welcoming DJs from all over China. And, once or twice a month, we’ll continue bringing the best international DJs – trust me on that!

The club itself is a lounge club with a capacity of 400. It’s in the basement of the On the Corner cafe, which we also manage. We kept the concrete and the industrial feeling, but added light wood structures to make it more relaxing. For the moment, Haze is open Thursday to Saturday from 10pm till 5am, though we don’t want to become an after-hours place. We focus on quality service and good proper alcohol and cocktails. Because we changed location from Sanlitun to the CBD, we’ll for sure be targeting an older crowd that wants to find more upscale drinks in a quality club atmosphere.

How is Haze different to White Rabbit?
White Rabbit was an underground techno club. Haze is a house lounge/club.

Haze certainly looks more stylish than either of the old White Rabbits. Was design something you spent a lot of time on?
A lot. Indeed, it was a challenge since we did want to keep an underground feeling but with a stylish, comfortable touch. Thanks to Xiaofei and Markus Schneider, the designers, and all our team, and to Alessandro Vigo for our logo design.

My biggest problem around Dongdaqiao Lu and The Place is finding a taxi. How are you getting around that?
Many clubs are opening in the area, and we feel that it’s getting more and more busy. Taxis will come, don’t worry!

We hear you're opening a club in Chengdu too.
Yes, we transferred the “White Rabbit” name to the center of Chengdu, where we’re opening in a super cool bar area called “Cannes” (like the French city). Still, it’s a different concept to the Beijing White Rabbit. It’s a two-floor villa in front of a very nice river. It’ll be a relaxed place for coffee and food during the week, with cool music and service, and more parties on weekends. We'll bring all kinds of DJs – techno, house, drum & bass and dubstep – from Beijing, Shanghai and all over to play all weekend and relax in this beautiful city. The scene in Chengdu and Chongqing is growing quickly.

Tell us something you'd like our readers to know about Thomas Gaestadius.
He eats McDonald’s every day and his dog looks like Gizmo from Gremlins.

And something you'd like our readers to know about Maxime Bureau?
He ate McDonald’s once this year and will buy a Jack Russell soon.

Give us your favorite three tracks from over the past ten years.
“Dexter” by Villalobos, “Happy House” by Juan MacLean, and “Into The Night” (Prince Language Remix) by Azari & III.

Haze presents "Hazoween" from 9pm on October 29. Look out also for the launch of Dim Sum Disco, a new regular party, on November 5 from 10pm.

Click here to see the October issue of the Beijinger in full.

Photo: Courtesy of Maxime Bureau