A week before the opening of the new party season, MEOKO had the opportunity to have a chat with Dan Perrin, the manager of London's biggest dance space: Studio 338. This venue will be hosting parties for the second year now and the future looks brighter than ever before. An awesome agenda is already announced and magical times will definitely be experienced in the forthcoming months.
Perrin is a friendly and passionate guy, who took us on a tour throughout his amazing venue, which was still in a state of decoration when we passed by. With the creativity and passion Perrin is talking about the project, Studio 338 will look amazing when the new season kicks off next weekend. The venue comprises an indoor dance floor, a huge outdoor terrace and a new chill-out area. The seventh of February Italojohnson and Fred P will be opening the cool Terrace of Studio 338, whereas Cartulis Day will host the Loft.
In the media, your space is often compared to a typical Ibiza-venue thanks to your infamous terrace. Do you think this is true? Is this what you also envisioned when you started?
Yeah I see that quite a bit in the press! I guess I can definitely see their point. Studio 338 certainly has a more open air feeling than any other venue in the city. For me it feels more like a festival type vibe than Ibiza really but for sure it has echoes of Space in particular with the transparent roof.
What is the ethos behind your venue?
Good music and programming, which I try to focus on new concepts and fresh ideas. A strong level of attention paid to who gets into the venue to protect the right kind of atmosphere on the dancefloor and also a constant evolution of the space itself. People who come regularly will tell you it changes quite a bit in terms of production and new additions. I think that’s something that will become a big part of our identity over time…the ability and desire to keep changing the space so its exciting every time people visit us.
Greenwich is a bit off the beaten track as venues go – have you found this a help or a hindrance?
I have to be honest and say that on the whole our location has been a very positive factor! Firstly it is one of the only places in the city where we could operate a venue like ours and still be relatively central. Secondly it means the place is a ‘destination’. We don’t get any passing trade at all, so everyone there has made the journey for a reason and that creates a special type of anticipation that doesn’t happen so much in places where people can just pop in more easily. I think also one of the biggest benefits of the location is that we are safe away from the regeneration and redevelopment of areas which can be a constant danger to the longevity of music venues.
Studio 338 kicked off in 2014. Was the transition from the previous space, called THAT, to the new one, Studio 338, difficult?
We closed for 5 months at the very start, which was obviously a very costly and risky thing to do! If it hadn’t worked right away once we started, we might have been in trouble. I thought it was important to do this though, because a big investment had been made by the owner, transforming the space into something very special and there was no point in just opening the doors and continuing with the same type of route as they had been on before with THAT. Besides that, it takes a long lead in time to get the right acts and parties so I wanted to use that period to build a very strong calendar that represented what we were about. All in all, it hasn’t been too tough. Studio 338 and THAT are different places in every respect except geography and I think people have come to see us as what we are…a totally new venue.
How many people comprise the team of Studio 338? What are the main duties of your team to organize the perfect night?
Well for a long time it was just me and one or 2 others. So the running things well part basically involved taking around 5 years off my life every weekend! Recruiting the right people is difficult because in a tiny team one wrong or incapable member can make a serious impact. Also of course its hard to put aside the time to find people when you are also trying to run the day to day activities of the venue! Now we have a great little team and things are finally starting to progress the way we want them to across the board. We have a growing marketing and design capability, a nice crew to look after the artists and a really special production department who have been working some miracles over Christmas and the January break!
Did you make some changes during the recent winter break?
So we took a break from the parties immediately after New Years Day and have spent the time developing a brand new space in Studio 338. One of the things we’ve been aware of is that there was really no place for people to chill out, socialise and take a breather, which obviously is something that is welcome during the longer events and nice during the summer months in particular. That is why we came up with the idea of the light lounge and garden, which are being built right now on the second floor of the space. It is looking truly amazing up there so we can’t wait for people to experience it for the first time at the opening party.
Studio 338 is described as a Music and Arts venue. Can you tell us more about the Art-section?
I don’t like the word ‘Nightclub’. For a start a lot of what we do happens in the day and the whole vibe of the place just doesn’t seem to fit the term. The ‘Art’ comes from our emphasis on the visual aspect of what we do: the special production sets, the video projections and mapping and also more recently the installations we will rotate in the new garden space.
Why did you choose the Void-sound system?
We tested all the usual suspects. Funktion one, Flair, DnB and a few others and VOID just had the right character for us. They are also a great bunch of guys who really get what we are trying to do with Studio 338
What are your favourite venues you visited yourself during the years? Have you been inspired by any other party destinations?
There are lots! In Berlin you have Salon Zur Wilden Renate, Watergate and of course Panorama/Berghain. Chalet also was a lot of fun. In Ibiza Dc10 back in the mid 2000’s was an amazing place to be and of course Space is always a good experience on the big occasions. Back home Fabric is a real inspiration for their impeccable organisation and great programming. I also really miss The End! That was a big loss when it went!
Studio 338 has always a nice selection of promoters such as Half Baked, Secretsundaze and Kehakuma. Why have you chosen for these promoters instead of other ones?
We will only work with promoters who we feel connect to us and share the way we approach a good party. So that means a great care for bookings, production and also promoting and attracting the type of crowd we like to dance with ourselves. I have a huge respect for Half Baked, Secretsundaze, Unleash and Krankbrother and would always go to their parties myself. So I guess that’s maybe a good place to start with the programming. If you would go to the party yourself, then it is probably a good one! Like everything some of that is a learning curve but I’m confident we have got it just right going into 2015.
Where does your love for these promoters come from?
I think they just do things in the right way. With love invested, a commitment to cutting edge booking policies and a care for the people they attract. This is exactly the way I approach 338 so naturally, they are the right people to partner with.
Studio 338 almost exists for one year now. How did you manage to attract these promoters to organize a party at your venue?
I have known all of them for a few years now from various other projects and also from the party I run with my partner Colin ‘Art of Dark‘, so I think even before they could see the venue developing they knew we would share the same standards and that what I was telling them, would become a reality. They also knew about the in house stuff we had planned like Cocoon, Watergate, Home etc. and they could tell they would be in amongst a great program of events from us too.
What are your favourite upcoming parties in 2015?
That’s a really tough question! Every Saturday seems to have something to get excited about. Loads of things happening for the first time ever in the city and lots of them which have really strong concepts to them. If I had to pick a few I would go for the return of arpair and their crew for the second edition of our Home party. Also Visionquest with a very special guest who’s a real favourite of mine. Than you have Kehakuma for the first time ever in London, which will be amazing and of course our opening with ItaloJohnson and co. Best of all they are all 338 shows which is the direction I want us to be headed in!
Can you tell me something about your most exciting party of last year?
It would be a close run thing between Home with apriar, Crew Love with Soul Clap and Wolf & Lamb or VIVa with Steve and his gang. The ViVa crew are great fun to be with. This also applies to the Crew Love artists. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them as they were on a real high from their world tour. I guess though there was no beating Home with the Romanians just for the sheer magic of their music and the vibe when they are playing.
What is up until now the most challenging event you organized? Can you tell us something about it?
To be honest, in comparison to the myriad of problems Colin and I have to go through putting on the Art of Dark warehouse parties its very easy doing the 338 shows! We have a top production team who work for us full time so all that side of things is a dream nowadays.
What are your future plans for this exciting project?
We have a couple of new projects we will undertake in the near future but we cant discuss them just yet. We’ll have to chat again soon when I can tell you a bit more.
Thank you for the conversation and the tour around Studio 338. We wish you a very musical and successful new season!
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