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Sean Quinn interview: Thank God It's Over...(School Not Progressive)

Author: Elliot @ Royal Dark
Thursday, October 12, 2006
With a career spanning over ten years, Sean Quinn can lay claim to being one of Australia's hardest working and more diverse DJs. Starting DJing at age nineteen, Sean has witnessed and been a part of the meteoric rise of dance music, firstly in his hometown of Melbourne and later in his career, all over the world. On the eve of his set at the inaugural 'Thank God It's Over' festival in Melbourne, we caught up with him.

You're playing at the Thank God It's Over festival in Melbourne on October 14th. What are your thoughts on the concept of an all Aussie festival line-up-

I think it's a great idea and one that should be more actively promoted by all sectors of the dance music community. Talent-wise the locals are more than capable of holding their own against the internationals that frequently tour. The bigger issue will be in terms of re-educating the punters who have had it drummed into them by promoters that internationals are what makes an event worthwhile. I think it is the responsibility of these same promoters to play a part in ending this myth. For festivals, particularly dance music festivals, to be financially viable with an all Australian line-up, it will take some of our bigger promoters to take an active role and spend the same kind of money on promoting local line-ups as they do on the big international festivals.

What do you think of the current view in Melbourne that Prog is dead-
That old chestnut. The Melbourne progressive scene is alive and well and is actually making up the majority of every house DJ's set in every Melbourne house club.

With the current electro-house craze it is interesting to witness the success of the Balance compilation which you helped pioneer. What do
you attribute this to-

The success of the Balance series is entirely attributable to the dedication and foresight of it's creator Tom Pandzic. He has allowed total creative freedom and has made available, to every DJ he has
chosen, the tunes and tools necessary to provide the series the worldwide reputation it has attained.

Dave Seaman once said, "Australia has the biggest untapped hotbed of talent in the world". Where does Melbourne's untapped talent lie at the moment And how could it better be brought to the surface-
I think without doubt that Melbourne is definitely on the map on a worldwide scale as far as its DJ and production talent is concerned. And to be honest, the people that are doing the best work are being
"brought to the surface" as their reputation and skill-set places them in a position to be noticed.

Your recent 'SQAP' release on Audio Therapy shares a lot of the darker, slightly experimental progressive electro elements of Lostep's recent debut album. Is this a reinvention of Melbourne's progressive sound-
The thing with progressive house is that it is constantly evolving. The current focus seems to be on an electro edge but that has a shelf life. A lot of the music being written currently carries elements of this but the overwhelming sound that still shines through on the majority of these releases is progressive.

Despite the continuing popularity of your Kiss FM show "Space between the beats", you have limited yourself in terms of playing out or holding residencies. Why is this-
For a while now I have been concentrating on the production front and being on Kiss five days a week doesn't leave a lot of time for much else. But recently i've missed the interaction so i've been playing weekly at Snap Crackle @ Candy Bar on Saturdays and GPO Fridays and have been really enjoying it. For nearly two years I played seven
residencies a week and I ran myself into the ground, I needed to take a step back and re-discover why I began doing it in the first place.

Thanks to Royal Dark for providing this interview. Who are Royal Dark you ask- Only the greatest streetpress ever to grace God's concrete footpaths (or so their
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