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KNOW YOUR LOCAL DJ: PRINCE AARONAK

03.02.10

He never wears shorts, usually dons a hat and along with The Swiss’ Luke Million has the best head of curls in the Adelaide music scene. His name is Prince Aaronak and Onion has nabbed his latest and greatest set at Sugar for ya’ll to enjoy as you find out more about the talented all-rounder of the ADL DJ squad.

Name: Prince Aaronak (this is how its spelt just in case you’re confused).

Style: Depends on what mood I’m in. The venue. Who’s dancing. Who’s not. The music policy. What day it is… what a wanky answer! Basically I play a number of styles, my style is music I like to fit the night.

If you weren’t DJing how would you spend your nights? Getting some order to my record collection so my lounge doesn’t look so bad and I could make my girlfriend happy; sleeping, and maybe finishing all the tracks I’ve half started.

Most memorable DJing experience? Memorable but for the wrong reasons. I was one of the people who played at the ill-fated Live At The Zoo experience. I remember arriving there at dusk on the Sunday after the Arcade Warehouse party (which was a success) with a layer of red dust on my white car and everywhere else for that matter and thinking it resembled a scene out of Apocalypse Now. I spent the majority of my time backstage because when I ventured out front I was scarred Aunty Entity was going to make me fight in the Thunderdome. Anyway played to virtually no one, was tripped out by a circle of people on the dancefloor constructing a pentagram out of twigs and got dust all through the records I was stupid enough to bring with me. When the next DJ (no names) rocked up he asked me if I had a mix-cd. Being the arrogant DJ I am I thought he wanted one of mine, which I didn’t have. However this wasn’t the case he didn’t care what it was, he just wanted something to put on because he wanted to get the fuck out of there. I did… LTJ Bukem's Mixmag Live from ‘94, he (the other DJ) doesn’t play D&B, however, it supposedly did the trick. Something good to come out of the experience was I got to listen to my brother’s band's latest album in its entirety twice on the drive and managed to get an event t-shirt that will one day be worth mad coin….

Best DJ set you’ve ever experienced as a punter? I would love to say something trendy and cool but as I’m normally playing at the gig, or not at the gig because I’m playing elsewhere, technically I don’t get to experience many sets as a punter. So, the best DJ set I experienced as a punter was Carl Cox/HMC at Heaven Easter ‘98. This was when I’d just moved from the country, only learning about this stuff from reading various articles, magazines, listening to mixes and through seeing it on videos. Everybody says something about HMC in these things but I suppose it just shows how ingrained in the history of Australian electronic music he is, and how big an influence he still has on this town. The gig I like to tell the Circus kids about though is when I saw Boys Noize play quite a varied technically flawless set at Rocket to virtually no one (Louis was there though).

Which other Adelaide DJs and acts do you dig? Wolf & Cub, The Swiss, Madness, Brainss, Loot & Plunder, Sanjii, Phildo, The Carter Bros, Japeye, Brother Irwin, Watto, Jose, Eric The Falcon, Driller, Hank & Osk, Alleyoop, Def Starr, Skippy, Joe Miller, HMC, (the real) Kids With Guns, K-Von, Nu Jeans, Adrian Vander Plong, D-Lux, The Adult Arts Club Crew, Hot Fudge Sundae Crew, Arcade Family and shout out to up and comer Bubbles. I can always hear something I like in the sets of these people, talk to them about music and steal a track from them for my sets.

What do you love about the Adelaide nightlife and music scene? The thing I love most is that I am lucky enough to be a part of it. I’m able to go out and play a variety of different styles in great venues, to different crowds with a good sound system. I also love that people I know, and play music with, are making great tracks, which in turn are inspiring others to do the same. Now all we’ve got to do is to get the rest of the people in South Australia to realise there is more to the Adelaide music scene than just the Hilltop Hoods.

Where can we catch you play? Thursdays Adult Arts Club at Sugar, Fridays at Botanic after Madness (10pm to close), Saturdays at Arcade (Electric Circus), Sundays Hot Fudge Sundae at Sugar. And anywhere else I get asked to play and can fit in.

Describe your mix? Sugar has a CD recorder, so I record all the sets I play there, some of them are better than others but don’t tell Driller! No Ableton, mostly vinyl (maybe fourCDs) and live. This is one of the better ones… I think?!

Website: www.myspace.com/princeaaronak

DJ set link: Aaronak at Sugar on Jan 30