Although they recently finished the night on their 6th birthday, It Came From The Sea have put on some of the most interesting club nights of the last decade. They talk to us about MP3Jing, art projects as clubs and eclecticism.
You’ve always DJed using computers. It’s completely acceptable now, but did people think it was cheating when you started?
Kick: Since we were using D.A.I.S.Y., a fullsize desktop PC (and academic refurb) with a Naked Lunch-style makeover (as monsterized by a set designer friend) people tended to think we were mentally deficient and/or conducting a science experiment.
Nikon: We’d just moved here so we didn’t have money for vinyl and no idea how to use decks even if we did. However, we had the internet which gave us access to all the music and hooky software we’d ever need. It really wasn’t a choice for us. It was the only way ‘it came from the sea’ could ever have been done.
What’s the benefit of laptop DJing?
Kick: You can have other programs running in the background for entertainment or information – I, for example, always have an open word doc with tips to self about how to mix particular songs while drunk. Being drunk, I slavishly follow my sober advice like a frightened child and disaster is mostly averted.
Nikon: Watching ‘The Wire’ during Kick’s sets! Just kidding.
The visual look is very important to the club. How do you go about that?
Nikon: We’ve always strived for a unified aesthetic. So the look of the flyers has always been inextricably linked to the ‘new music only’ policy – especially at the beginning where we would only use imagery lifted from the last 3 months of art and fashion mags.
Kick: We’ve always aimed at creating an otherworldly environment – and we’ve always attempted to play with club staples within that – so, we present sweets in dog bowls ’cause we want people be clear they’re debasing themselves – or, use the scrolling LED to suggest topics of conversation and/or provide frankly sinister realtime subtitles.
The music policy is quite diverse – what ties it together?
Kick: Our music policy – ‘new music only’ – may sound simple, but it’s unforgivingly conceptual – and stops us getting complacent (playing popular tracks interminably, etc). It Came From The Sea could have settled down into playing safe a long time ago, but fuck that – my latest phrase is ‘compassionate futurism’.
Is there a danger to being so eclectic?
Kick: Yes. Constant. Life-threatening. Most clubs work on the principle of giving people what they want, following trends, playing the hits and granting requests. We try to shift genre as often as possible, avoid playing songs – however metaphorically big – for more than a few months and generally refuse to let anyone, including primarily ourselves, get comfortable. In the profoundly conservative and regressive field of nightlife it’s absolutely the opposite of the accepted formula for success – but we maintain that, so long as you come to ICFTHS with an open mind, and prepare to improvise on the dancefloor, there’s nothing quite like the shock of the new.
You’ve both got pseudonyms and shy are from being in the pics? What’s wrong with you, don’t you want to be famous?
Kick: We’re living through a period of unprecedented identity experimentation – everyone is famous, in a citysize way. Neither of us aspire to be DJs, we’re both pursuing artistic careers elsewhere. If and when they take off, we’ll stop.
What’ve been your favourite moments of the last five years?
Nikon: Oddly, one of my favourite moments was when we warmed up for Miss Kittin at the Ocean Rooms before they had the refurb downstairs and they had that really shitty claustrophobic booth. Their audience had obviously been starved of characterful music and they were total dancefloor zombies. Then when we came on the place went insane. They were throwing themselves at the booth, literally scratching and clawing at us through the hole in our tiny booth. It was amazing to see such a transformation within a crowd.
There’s not enough fun in clubbing – what gimmicks have you got going on at the moment?
Kick: Aside from those mentioned above, we’re about to revamp the visuals, returning to slides commissioned from artists, and there’s a bunch of stuff in the lab we’re going to ambush you with soon.
Why do you always do your NYE party in January?
Kick: Originally, because no one would ever give us a NYE slot. Now…because no one will give us a NYE slot. But also because we know what an overpopulated anticlimax the real thing often is, and we want to give people a second chance at happiness.
Nightclub or art project?
ICFTS best gimmicks – past present and future
Dog bowls full of sweets
Scrolling LED readout with conversation topics
Playing from a ‘monsterised’ desktop PC
Commissioned art slides
A “near-psychedelic fusion of smoke and lights”
“Edifying reading material” on the tables
An end of night slowie
