As the interview Andee Frost did with Waves at Night last year was so fantastic I'm not going to try and bite into any of the questions that have already been asked/answered. But I guess this is some what of a sequel to that interview, as he talked a lot about the scene at the time and obviously the last year has been a great one for his hometown in Melbourne.

So first things first, the Animals Dancing crew has been consistently bringing top notch internationals for a little while now, as well as boasting a pretty spectacular local line up.

Was it a matter of all you guys already being a community and just putting a name/brand to it?

Animals Dancing was originally started by Otologic, Lewie & Daragh. I was helping out with bookings at the Mercat. Since I was hooking up most of the acts for the guys and playing at the party, we thought it would be better for me to just join the team and all work on things together. I guess we have all been hanging around together since the end of 3rd class. We are all pretty like minded in our beliefs and music selection, I guess you naturally gravitate towards people who are into the same things as you.

For me it feels as though the current state of clubbing in Australia has created a new surge or interest in real underground music. For a while there it all seemed a bit of a blur and many clubs pushing underground music weren't doing the numbers. Do you feel there is a change happening already?

I still think most clubs aren't doing great numbers, but that will slowly change as our population grows. It definitely feels like there is a bit of a renaissance in underground music though. I mean 2 years ago it all seemed quite doom & gloom, if you look at the mainstream now I would still say it hasn't moved much further forward but the underground is on the up! I guess some people have just gotten bored of the noisy shit and gone in search of something a bit nicer. I also think with the Animals Dancing parties there is a bit of an older more respectful crowd coming back out of the woodwork, which is great to see. People smiling, dancing and losing themselves on the dance floor instead of in their phones. There is still a risk involved putting on more underground acts but things are definitely on the up.

Arguably you guys have got the underground house sound nailed, do you think this helps when trying to build something different from the norm?

I guess its not really that hard to nail a party. There are 4 factors that make a good party,

• The venue
• The sound system
• The DJ
• The crowd

If you can figure that out you should be on the way, but you also need to do it with a certain amount of conviction so maybe that's where some people fall short.

Do you think that having a good group of people getting releases on labels around the world is that conviction that those people are missing?

Nah not at all, I mean Lewie is the only one of animals dancing who is constantly releasing stuff and I'm sure it helps a little bit, but I wouldn't say its the key to that. Maybe its the depths of our record bags, maybe its that we have been doing the same thing for a long time, or maybe its the attention to detail like making sure the international is happy, that the turntables aren't feeding back and the Soundsystem is at the right level and tuned & not having to fulfill our own egos by rocking the crowd, letting the guest do their thing for an extended period of time, and being able to enjoy ourselves. And at the end of the day we live for the music and the party and nothing else. 

As you mentioned the depth of your record boxes and the attention to detail, this is surely the only way forward for clubbing. Do you ever see that mindset getting out of the smaller clubs and perhaps into more than one club per city?

 I guess it just depends on how many people you have that are pushing good things in your city, there always seems to be the people who break new ground (which isn't really that new at all) and then there are the people who jump on the bandwagon. Every city has both of these people I mean sure its great that everyone's "giving it a go" but there are reasons why some people are professionals at things and some people are part timers, sometimes its better to just leave it to the professionals who dedicate themselves to their cause. Instead of diluting the good stuff with the mediocre.

For most of us we've found that there is a good happy medium reached between punter and DJ with disco records, however there still isn't that "vibe" that I've only witnessed a few people create. You were saying clubs are lacking disco etiquette these days, care to explain?

Just read that link below and the explaining will be done on the etiquette, I think with disco although there is a certain familiarity in disco music that most people can relate to whether its the song has been sampled by someone later down the track and they know the sample or its just that the general vibe of disco music is happy and uplifting. The biggest thing about being a disco DJ is that you need to know your records, anyone with Traktor can sync their beats and mix their freshly downloaded "disco set" flawlessly but even programs like that have a hard time quantizing disco records. You’re dealing with live drummers & orchestras and songs that can turn on a dime, if you're riding the mix and you don’t know what’s about to happen next that’s when you end up train wrecking. Its kind of one of the things I like about it too. You’re always one beat away from everything falling apart and that gives you a challenge as a DJ instead of mixing quantized beats or edits of everything. This is why it takes a great DJ to create a vibe with this music its not the record they are playing but the way they are playing them.

http://idobelieveicamewithahat.com/2011/07/respect-your-disco-elders-our-comprehensive-nightclub-etiquette-guide/

Alot of producers use samples in their records and do it very tastefully making the tracks original. The edits scene has taken a massive increase of popularity recently almost taking over Junos top singles chart. I'm personally getting quite tired of seeing the same old records getting edited repeatedly and still selling wax! What are your thoughts on edits getting pressed to record? I mean I'm all for disco records being reworked to suit a modern dancefloor, but there seems to be alot of mindless diggers out there putting shit up on SoundCloud and seeing it signed to some label a few months later.

I guess when it comes to edits I don’t really discriminate if its a good edit, its a good edit period. I'm not someone who only plays original pressings, I really don’t care as long as it’s on wax. That’s what I care about, owning the track on vinyl.

The thing that annoys me about edits is people editing for the sake of getting a little bit of fame or exposure for themselves. I have heard so many edits/remixes that are totally unnecessary, some of them sound like they have been done just so the guy can mix it flawlessly with the rest of their edits. A lot of the "disco edits" I have heard, even take out the best bits!?!?! One of my friends made a good analogy of it a few years back that some of these editors are taking the gayness out of the disco records which is just ridiculous! As for sampling I think that the music industry has kinda turned it's back on dance music for now as they are too busy worrying about how to make money with all this downloading, but give it a year or two and they will realise that all these kids are sampling quite big records. Sampling a dusty old disco record that comes from a label that only lasted 5 years, and is now dead is fine you probably wont get found out, but when you listen to alot of the stuff people are sampling these days, RnB records and shit that came from major labels, you don't think these majors are still running? Guess what buddy they are, and they are MAJOR labels with MAJOR legal teams and some of these people who are just remixing rnb accapellas and releasing them as their "own" records are gonna come unstuck when the majors start looking for new channels of income.

I dont even wanna start on SoundCloud, I mean its great but if you are looking for a record deal, do it the right way. No-one is gonna want to sign you when you've got your songs up for stealing on SoundCloud.

You don't think SoundCloud is a good platform for sharing music, even if it's just the private sharing function?

Nah I love SoundCloud. I use it all the time to share music with my friends but I do it privately, it’s also great for putting up your mixes and stuff but it’s in no way secure as a way of previewing material, you can rip tracks off there pretty easily I’m told.

What I’m saying is if you wanna go about getting a deal a label is more likely to sign something that hasn’t been sitting on SoundCloud for a year, unless its a masssive tune and then its gonna get snapped up relatively quickly anyway.

Prior to this interview you were telling me about a new studio setup, what's the go with Andee Frost releases?

 They are on the way I’ve just about finished setting up a new studio and I’m working on a few new music projects at the moment that the world will hear soon enough. I'm always working on something, its just a balancing act between running parties, doing my radio show, deejaying, learning how to use new gear and finishing records and I have also just started working on a new webzine video thing too so always working never sleeping.

I take it you're a big fan of analog hardware?

Um yeah I don’t mind it, except for the initial learning curve of each new bit of gear, using outboard gear changes the way you make music I much prefer playing with toys than clicking a mouse.

Do you think that heaps of young people that are taking drugs right now are heading to shit clubs, and those who are heading to the good clubs might still let loose but perhaps not as often as the younger scene? Not sure if this is a a negative or positive thing.

I guess it's a question of quality really.

Quality drugs or patrons?

Or clubs?

I don't want to stay on the topic of drugs for too long, but do you think that it makes a big difference, as you mentioned in your waves interview. Paradise Garage & The Warehouse etc were packing out 2000 people clubs, and most certainly it was a much heavier drug using scene back that, but again it was the best time for club music ever.

I mean some of the clubs were drug dens yes, but then you hear things about the music box where sure Ron Hardy was off his head but a lot of the people who went their weren’t even on drugs. The music was the drug. It was the best time because everything was new and there weren't all these restrictions that are placed on us these days, once again the quality of everything was amazing, I mean can you imagine going out and hearing a house record for the first time when all u had ever heard was disco!? Or hearing a track like “Spastik” or “Acid tracks” for the first time? Everything we hear now is just a regurgitation of what those people were lucky enough to hear for the first time! That alone was enough to make them go crazy, then you throw some flippers in the mix what do you think is gonna happen?

We've heard all about your Bozak at House De Frost, which is professional by all stretches of the imagination. Do you think pushing sound quality to the youngsters and the value of analog is important to keep the scene growing in a healthy way?

I think that the analog way of doing things is something that’s really important in society, not just a club scene. As our lives get more and more dominated by the internet and the iPhone. People need to remember where things came from. You can go to a club where someone is playing top 40 hits off of an iPod through shitty powered JBL Eons and it's not going to change the way the crowd reacts. It may sound selfish but I use the Bozak, the E&S DJR400 and records because I like them! When you have to DJ for an extended period of time you should do it on things you are comfortable with, but I don't think it’s helping the scene grow at all. It just makes for a better night, I know that when I used to play CDs and records through a DJM800 when I first started THDF (the turntables were feeding back for 6 months at the start until I figured out a solution) at the end of the night my ears used to hurt, I play with 4 Nexo PS10s as my booth monitors and I have them pretty loud, yet at the end of the night my ears don’t hurt anymore.

So you don't think there will be a stage where more punters will realise the value of a DJ playing records on a good sound system. As opposed to the iPod on shitty Eons?

 Not really, I mean in an ideal world yes, but in reality playing with records is seen as a novelty to most punters, let alone a rotary mixer that just confuses the fuck out of them. I mean I’ve actually had people come up to me and ask how I’m DJing because I don't have a laptop, no shit!

It’s only scene kids and other DJs who really pay attention to what your doing & using, Joe Blow doesn't care, as long as you play his favourite song. The majority of people who go out to nightclubs go out for two things, to get wasted and to get laid.

I guess having people come to our nights for the music makes us really lucky!

How do you find punters lately? There has been an overwhelming spike in crowd arrogance building through out the clubs we are involved in over here and it seems to be getting worse with people demanding songs and kicking a fuss if you don't want to play it. Do you get that much or are we just slightly behind here?

 It depends on the venue, and the party I guess. No matter where you go you are always going to get some idiot coming up and asking for Black Eyed Peas or Lady Gaga when your playing disco. I think its just the internet generation who are brought up with instant gratification that breeds this arrogance, people are so used to getting what they want right then and there that when they don't  get it, they chuck a tanty. Most of the time DJ's will put them in their place, and you can be nice about it or you can be a cunt, I guess it just depends on how annoying that person is being or how drunk they are. Overall most of the crowd I play to at The Toff are relatively respectful of what I'm doing. Animals Dancing parties are different though, people come for the music they pay to get in and if you do get a request its most likely for something you would normally play rather than BEP.

Do you think festivals have diluted the nightclub scene? I know it's definitely been felt here that all of the people getting booked aren't comparable to a festival so less and less people are getting excited even if someone amazing is coming down to play.

Yes and no, festivals cater for a different crowd, sometimes they allow the bigger acts to be brought out here because they are sooo expensive. Like you wouldn’t see Villalobos out here if it wasnt for a festival, let alone playing a side show.

Festivals used to be competition to nightclubs when they were "raves" and ran through the night, so in a way now they also feed clubs with after parties and such, some of the busiest nights I've had in clubs have been after festivals. You get some secret guests and you might end up having a really expensive DJ play at your party for free drinks. Nothing wrong with that, but the festival mentality is what so many people have a problem with I guess. That and the fact that these festivals only have one goal and its not pushing new music, its making shitloads of money!!

Some people love the whole festival atmosphere and some people like an intimate club setting, as long as there are a balance of both I guess we can all co-exist.

I recently caught word of an event in the UK which hosted Marshall Jefferson in a "warehouse" type party in some underground tunnel. I wasn't around for the "early days" but do you think there will ever be much place for stuff like this in Australia?

Yeah it was great, I started going out when I turned 18. I would have loved to go out earlier but I was cursed with a baby face and no fake I.D. You'd go to shed party's that had thousands of people kinda like a festival but in the dark, I guess if festivals killed anything it was the rave scene or maybe that was the politicians. It’s hard to compare the old days to now because so much has changed.

The Internet was still an idea and social networking was years away.

You said in your WavesAtNight interview something that really struck a chord with me about how social networking has made people want to talk and create cliques via facebook. There is one club in particular like this in Adelaide and it's almost impossible not to see how good of a club it would be without social networks. Can you see this ever changing, and is the only way around it  aiming for an older crowd.

 I dunno I guess I'd love to see it changing. Facebook gives people a different persona, you have these keyboard jockeys who are Mike Tyson behind the screen but bring it into the real world and watch them backpedal. Everyone does it, I'm probably guilty of it as well, I can't say I particularly think about what I write on my Facebook, it’s usually something thats amusing to me at the time. However to 99.9% of the people on there they probably have no idea what I'm talking about. It's really interesting to see how other people interpret your brain-farts! In regards to interacting in a club, I had an idea for a night that I still want to do one day, where people come into the club and they leave their phones in the coat check so they are forced to interact with people. In answer to your question, unless terminator & skynet becomes a reality, I think there is no way we are going back. However if people do want to go back I'm happy to take them there.