If there’s one thing the fun-loving divils of Ireland delight in, it’s getting their fang teeth stuck into a good ‘aul house party. From family gatherings to surprise big birthdays, barbecues in the rain, and the very best after-parties – in squat-like Leeson Lane flats, Tardis-esque cottages in Stoneybatter, palatial penthouses it Smithfield, and even diplomatic residencies in the swanky suburb of Clonskeagh – we really do adore getting together to drink, eat, tell stories, swap gossip, play tunes, sing, and dance all under the one roof.
Over the last quarter century on the sesh, I’ve popped my head into probably more than my fair share of seshwans, so when Fatty Fatty Phonographics decided to throw the first in a new series of super slick, minty-fresh mansion parties in the highly unique setting of Orlagh House in Rathfarnham, nestled in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains with the most spectacular views, I was all over it — and I haven’t missed one since!
The fourth instalment of Ireland’s greatest gaff party – the Dublin Disco All-Dayer – will be held on Saturday 11 October, with Chicago house hero Rahaan heading up a cracker of a homegrown line-up including Ruth Kavanagh (Mother), Honey DJs, Aoife Ni Canna vs. Chord Memory, Belfast Music Club, Groovement Soul DJs, Cleveland Mike (Mission DJs/Backwards), and Together Soul DJs. The multi-talented Ping Pong Disco divas will be popping their All Dayer cherries and, of course, Dublin’s host with the most, Pablo (Fatty Fatty), will squeeze himself onto the ones and twos before the night is over.
Before we delve into what’s to come, 909originals wanted to cast our eyes back to the last dazzling All Dayer in Orlagh House, which was hosted on Imbolg (the Spring Equinox), a celebration signalling the end of darkness. It featured New York’s grandmaster of groove and soulful music innovations, Joaquin ‘Joe’ Claussell. Body & Soul maestro Claussell was thrilled to be invited back to Ireland to grace the Dublin Disco All Dayer decks for a full-fat three-hour set and didn’t spare the horses, sharing the bill with the dynamite dub-house duo, the Idjut Boys, Dan Tyler and Conrad McDonnell.
The bold and beautiful also boogied day and night to an array of Ireland’s top talent, including Ricky Chong, The Board of Works, Will Dempsey, Soul Rotation, Belfast Music Club, and Deeper Groove DJs, not to mention the main man, Pablo, who dished up plenty of gems before us stragglers were shown the door.
The week before Joe Claussell landed in Ireland, he took some time out of his jam-packed global schedule to chat with 909originals from his hotel room in Milan. Unfortunately, due to publishing issues in advance of the gig, this interview never graced the public realm, but it’s far too sweet to sit on. So sit back and enjoy this interesting tête-à-tête.
Joe ‘The EQ’ Claussell, you’re finally coming back to the Emerald Isle after a two-decade-long hiatus. I know you had a great love affair with the People’s Republic of Cork, too, having played several gigs down south back then. What’s kept you away for so long?
Well, that’s a good question. It comes up in my head sometimes – what happened? It had nothing to do with me. I’m always available for Cork or Dublin and Ireland in general. Even now, when I’m asked where my favourite places to play in the world are, I always mention Ireland. Despite not playing here in twenty years, it still holds a very special place in my heart. I was kind of building a family there, almost.
I love playing in Ireland, and I miss it. I miss playing with Greg and Shane in Sir Henry’s and in Dublin. I love the people because they’re really heavily invested in the music.
I saw you play the Sir Henry’s stage at Homelands 2000 festival, with Boo Williams, Erik Rug, and Matthew Herbert, then you booted back down to Cork with Greg and Shane the following night to finish off the epic weekender?
I remember that night. I always remember playing in Cork and Ireland like it was yesterday.
Promoter of Dublin Disco All Dayer, Pablo (Fatty Fatty), recalls seeing you play down there two years later on a June Bank Holiday in a tiny club, where you managed to seamlessly weave in Come Together by The Beatles and All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix into your set. Do you continue to pepper your performances with early ’60s influences?
Well, I grew up as a child in the ’60s, and my elder brother Larry was heavily into rock. We loved The Beatles, The Stones, stuff like that. We were a very well-rounded family, musically. I’m from Puerto Rico – my accent is Puerto Rican. My mother would listen to all kinds of music; she was into AfroCubism.
So, my brother and I were more gravitating towards rock than anything else as youngsters. In my teenage years, I was a modernist skinhead, believe it or not; I was big into Black Sabbath. So, playing those in my sets was a natural thing to me because I loved the music. It wasn’t about playing for the shock factor – it was just typical for me to do so.
I never have a set figured out beforehand; it’s always a more spontaneous thing. I play in the moment when I get a measure of the people that I’m playing with, because I believe it’s a collaboration between myself and the audience.
You are sharing the Dublin Disco All-Dayer lineup with the Idjut Boys. Together, you produced that beautiful belter Dust of Life, featuring the supremely talented Sally Rodgers from A Man Called Adam. So, do Dan Tyler and Conrad McDonnell know you from your record store Dance Tracks, or how were you first introduced to them?
Partly from the music store, partly from my label Spiritual Life Music, and though we haven’t spoken in years, I’m a huge fan of those guys. I think when it comes to disco, they’re really authentic and unique at what they do.
What I like about them is they’re incredibly passionate about what they do; there’s only so many people that I’ve met that I can say that about. We did have a really, really good relationship back in the day, but we haven’t spoken or sent any messages back and forth to each other in many, many years, and I don’t know why.
Dance Tracks closed in December 2007. What led to the closing of this iconic East Village New York institution, and do you miss your shop and the community it created?
I actually gave up my part in Dance Tracks in 1998. I did so to focus more on my label Spiritual Life Music, and I was becoming a lot busier doing Body & Soul and DJing in other places, and I couldn’t really give Dancetracks my full attention like I used to…
You had a share in Dance Tracks since ’93?
The original Dance Tracks opened in ’87, and I became a part of that by default as a DJ. The original owner of Dance Tracks, Stan Hatzakis, is really the reason why I do what I do today.
Are you still in communication with Stan today?
No, in fact, we’re all looking for him; we don’t know where Stan disappeared to. I’m sure he’s still alive somewhere, but we’re looking for him. So I took Dance Tracks over with a partner [Stefan Prescott] in ’93. I was the main curator, I designed the whole store; I was the more music-focused head of the store.
The beauty of being involved with Dance Tracks was that Frankie Knuckles lived right up the street, and I met any DJ you can think of from that era – Louis Vega, anyone who was anyone back in those days, what I would consider the heyday of dance music, all ventured into Dance Tracks. It was a wonderfully special place.
Where do you go to buy your records since?
I have my own store now again, in a community centre I founded called Cosmic Arts in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We’ve been operating for the last four years now. It’s a combination of a record store and a community centre. We’re trying to create a community, trying to get those days back, recreate the heyday, those Dance Tracks moments, where people will come in and converse about music and life or whatever, and so far, we’ve been pretty successful.
Class. Yeah, it seems from videos of you that I’ve watched of you playing at Lincoln Park Festival in New Jersey, that it’s very community-oriented. I saw maybe three or four generations of the same families hanging out together, hand in hand, listening to you play quality tunes. It’s quite unlike most festivals I’ve been to; not sure my folks would understand fat basslines. However, the need for a sense of community is so strong; it seems the music transcends every generation?
Well, absolutely. It’s so important to try to continue to build on that community as well. There’s a lot of die-hard house music lovers in New York City. It’s important to try to connect with them, and it’s important to try to give back to the community. I’ve always been conscious of this community and to keep building it.
You have had several interesting collaborations over the years. I spotted the name Bugge on your Discogs, and I knew it had to be the same Bugge Wesselhoft, the Norwegian jazz innovator that Henrik Schwarz sometimes shares a stage with. You produced the Bugge & Friends house and future jazz 12” called Play It and released it on your Sacred Rhythm label in 2016; do you have any other plans for such live music collaboration, or how do you feel about live performances? I know you play percussion too.
Do you know what, I actually love doing live performances. It brings me a lot of joy, visiting all the different places in the world to do it too. Collaborating with musicians is an incredible thing; it’s very different from DJing. I love it.
Playing live in that way is something I’ve really started to have a sincere appreciation for, and I would like to do more of it in the future.
So perhaps we might see you down at the Cork Jazz Festival this year, fingers crossed?
Oh, I’m trying to get back to Cork for sure!
Shout out to the organisers of Cork Jazz – give JC a gig!
This is funny, there’s a t-shirt that I have of Cork, and I go through a lot of t-shirts as the years go on, but I always kept that one t-shirt. It’s red and white and it states that I am a ‘Resident of Cork,’ so anything I can do to get back there, I will.
Well, listen, if your pal Theo Parrish, who I saw play in that Cyprus Avenue for the Cork Jazz Festival 2024, can do it, I’m sure you can too.
Let’s hope so.
You’ve described yourself as a conduit of music, so you create, release, and move forward continuously, and the depth of your Discogs speaks volumes, with almost 1,300 credits to your name, including eight albums and 50 EPs in the last quarter century. What are you going to do in the next quarter century, I wonder? You must never suffer from creative blockages or procrastination like the rest of us?
Well, it’s one thing I’m grateful for, and I credit that to two things: number one, being an emphatic music lover. I grew up at home with all kinds of music. But at the same time, my brother Larry, who I mentioned earlier, was into rock and he was a musician, and he’d rehearse with his band in the basement.
It was a Latin-rock band, and so we were around live musicians as kids. So I think that helped to spark my imagination for creating things, because I’ve been around music all my life, whether just being around a musical environment or just being alone in my room.
It’s 24/7 music for me, and it’s been like that since I was a kid and still at this point now. I think that lent and contributed to my knowledge of music, where I can legitimately produce any kind of music that I want. So if you look at my Discogs, you can see my repertoire of music and the things I’ve done are vastly different from one another.
I can produce jazz, I can produce classical, and it all comes as a gift from the Creator. That’s why every day, I do deep, deep listening. That’s where it all comes from.
Following on from our call, Claussell arrived in to Dublin early on the morning of the Dublin Disco All-Dayer, making his way over to the venue to lend his dextrous hands and finely tuned ears to the lads for the set-up, tweaking the Klipschorn positions and doing a full sound-check. The ballroom did indeed sound spectacular that night, and every act that played used the system to its full potential. 🙂
With that in mind, tickets for the next edition of the Dublin Disco All-Dayer are now available – don’t miss it, because the vibes of this party are second to none. Secure your place here. Words by Emer O’Connor.