You don't know if it is all the multicoloured fermented-fruit based drinks or the residual fumes you may have inhaled but you can feel the beat, and it feels good. You are standing on the dance floor and the rhythmic thumping has moved up from your toes and you can feel the escalating beat become one with you and you are in the groove.
DJ John ‘00' Fleming has been called a “national treasure of trance music.” After 25 years of proving his mettle to the world, Fleming was in town to prove that music is beyond Bollywood. He was in town courtesy D:U:M or Diesel U Music, and Bangalore was base one of the two city tour he was doing.
“When I was younger and my friends went to play, I bought records,” says DJ Fleming about his early days. It was when he was 15 years old that his headmaster asked him if he would DJ for an event in school. “The night was a success and I kept playing one song after the other and that's where it all began.”
Most DJ's have a stage name, a concept, Fleming explains, that began with the disco DJ's, a more flamboyant and glamorous lot. “In the early days I needed a stage name to be recognized and hence I chose John ‘00' Fleming, stealing the ‘00' from the James Bond series which were written by Ian Fleming, a sort of play on words almost,” he says laughing.
“I was lucky, work sort of followed me, which wasn't too great for my social life as I had to work on weekends,” he says, but his course had been mapped out and it continued through the music he recreated.
Ironically Fleming had a case of parental concern to deal with as well. “Back in those days DJ's were associated with druggie clubs and raves, and my parents always thought that it was a phase which I would grow out of,” says Fleming. But when Fleming started remixing songs that they recognized and proved that what he did was art, his parents could not have been more supportive,
Fleming who was also on the panel of judges judging the “Burn MTV ultimate DJ Championship” was impressed by the talent that the country had to offer. “There have been competitions, but nothing like this one. It is a fantastic idea, especially for club owners to listen to other DJ's and find new talent.”
The DJ has several nice things to say about the crowd in Bangalore. “The crowd in Bangalore is very educated musically and all they want to do is come out, have a good time and go crazy.”
About the 11.30 curfew he says, “In England we have similar licenses but what you do then is you leave your house earlier so you can spend more time at the club; the no dancing in clubs law however, was ridiculous.”
The scene is constantly changing and what Fleming played when he first started his career as a DJ at 15 is not the kind of music he plays now. “There was house music and now trance and around 50 sub genres. There are no rules which is brilliant,” he says about the kind of music he plays now.
