Other Pavel
PASHA : Parlour : Sunday Night Tales

Opening set from the Sunday Night Tales project I've started with some friends at Parlour here in Toronto.

Our musical focus was to explore the ‘live’ side of house music. We've been talking about the state of house here; how unless you're in a dark club listening to really loud tech / techno, or at a regular club listening to more mainstream stuff / EDM... There's no where to go that has that authentic, feel good house.

You know how some tracks have really amazing percussion and instrumentation or great vocals. I rarely hear tracks like that these days. We want to avoid the typical deep house / tech house / techno that everyone else plays and showcase that really fun, creative and artistic music that exists but takes a bit more effort to find.

It’s a night that's focused on the spirit of the party, not on the DJ because everyone goes to see “the act” these days. That’s the business model. We want to create a vibe that’s worth attending regardless of who’s playing which why the DJ is always a surprise to those who come.

So we look to book DJ's who understand this concept. They know the kind of tracks to dig for; what ever the genre — Deep, diva house, fun, techy, lyrical, old school, undiscovered, instrumental — it just has to make people dance. Without the need for heavy inebriation or the cult like worshiping of the DJ.

I’m looking at this as a creative challenge for us as DJ’s / performers. Because honestly we’re really good at playing what we play normally. We play that everywhere and that’s our brand name. That’s cool. But here we have the opportunity to play the stuff that we’re too scared to play elsewhere because we’re afraid we might get a bad reaction. Or that it doesn’t fit the programming or the venue we’re playing. We all have an appreciation for a wide variety of dance music so this is a chance to show it off.

Sunday's are usually industry nights too; for people who don't have to get up early on monday so the crowd is a bit more discerning and laid back. And that makes for great chemistry on the dance floor.

/essay :)