Keisha’s House floats along the Thames!
By admin on Jun 29, 2008 in DJs and Producers, Events
Having DJ’d in and around London for 13 years, Keisha has been fortunate enough to play at some of London’s finest clubs. For Keisha the crowd is the most important thing, and her sets reflect this in the way she pleases them through her tune selection, interacting with the crowd and getting the response that she loves to receive.
As Keisha’s House takes to the Thames, in the form of her bi-monthly boat party, London Club City catches her up with Keisha before she sets sail on Saturday 5th July.
The following is a transcript of selected questions within the interview. To hear the full interview, please download the audio file using the “Quick links” box at the top right of this page.
When you started out DJ’ing, 13 years ago, what were the first steps you took to getting some decks and learning to mix?
Basically the first step was when I used to go to Ministry when I was about 16, I used to go in the VIP room where Stevie P used to play, and I absolutely adored him - like a god. So I decided that it was something that I just had to do. I asked my Dad if I could have a pair of decks for Christmas and he agreed. He didn’t buy me Technics, because he wasn’t sure if I ‘d stick with it, so he gave the money for some Ariston decks. They were quite unusual because they had a rotary pitch control, but they were very accurate and good to learn on, so I cracked away and spent about 10 months teaching myself and mastering the art of the DJ.
You’ve graced the decks at some great venues both in the UK and abroad. Can you tell us about some of the venues you’ve played at and what you remember about them?
One of my fondest memories is getting to play in the Ministry Of Sound, because that was where my clubbing really started. Back in the day it was un-commercial and there was a large group of people who used to hang out together there. Basically that large group of people moved on to a party called Pengeparty. This night started out as a house party, but quickly moved onto clubs after putting the floor through in the house at the second night. As this event grew and grew, they eventually booked Ministry Of Sound and that’s how I got to play there. I’ve played in the lounge, the VIP room and the main room on several occasions. It’s every DJs dream to play the main room and it was absolutely wicked!
What’s the difference playing to crowds in other countries, compared to those in the UK?
I love playing in Spain because the crowd are very, very up for it. They all dress up, even the non-gay guys dress up camp. I think it’s because the sun’s out! I played an outdoor event, where the vibe and feeling just make it something special. You know, you’ve gone there, you’ve been flown over and you’re getting all of the special treatment, so in that way it’s different. At the same time, I can do a gig back here and I can meet the needs of people, absolutely rock it, not play one floor filler, and have people with their hands in the air. I’ll interact with the crowd and you get the same buzz from that too.
Aside from DJ’ing, you also run events called “Keisha’s House”. You throw them every 6-8 weeks. Your next one being on the 5th July and it’s a boat party. Do you want to tell us a bit about that?
The boat party is a boat that goes up and down the Thames and I’ve been hosting them for quite some time. There’s kind of a formula to how it works and I’ve learnt that and made improvements. I used to do the parties with a partner, and we’d throw them during the day, but we’d end up with quite a few no shows as people were having to get to the pier early in the morning. I decided to throw the parties myself, and start them at 6pm in the evening. That meant that even if someone had a late night before, they can still get there as we don’t expect them to arrive until 5:15pm. That gets everyone standing, waiting to get on the boat. Whenever I do a boat party, it always has a theme. The theme for the forthcoming party is “summer”. This means people will come dressed up in anything they relate to summer - e.g. bikinis, big sunglasses, hats, surfboards, swimming shorts, Ibiza girls, etc.. When people arrive and they’re looking at each other and their outfits it adds an element of fun, and builds a nice warm crowd before they even get on the boat. It also makes it nice when we take pictures of the event. The music policy is purely funky house and classic anthems. I play at the parties myself, and there is a really good vibe, everyone has a great time and we all go onto an after party to continue the fun.
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