A night in the life

East Coast event promoters JDH and Dave P. curate and deejay the famed Fixed parties at New York’s Tribeca Grand together, which books the cream of dance-punk and techno talent. This month, they release an excellent mix-CD for the Go Commando series and join the Radio Soulwax tour, which stops at Metro on Saturday 21. We had a rather in-depth conversation with the duo in South Beach during the Winter Music Conference. Here are some excerpts.

You guys have backgrounds in punk. How did you two get into dance music?
JDH: I grew up in Texas going to shows. But for our scene in San Antonio, industrial was really big. For me, there was no distinction: I would go to punk shows, and the next night I would go see Pigface or KMFDM. Probably around ’96 or ’97, I really got into it, because it was hitting so hard in the U.K. I would [travel] to London in ’98 and just go to parties, go hear Laurent Garnier and go to the Metalheadz nights.
Dave P.: I used to go to tons of hardcore shows at this place called City Gardens in Trenton. I got more into indie rock in college. That’s what I was listening to until the late ’90s. After college I was going to Centro-Fly to see the Chemical Brothers. In 2000, I started this party called Makin’ Time in Philadelphia—strictly a rock party. I started to get into the electro stuff, that’s where the tables turned for me. I started to notice the connection between all of it. The new punk rock, to me, is techno.

How did you link up?
JDH: I started doing parties at Tribeca Grand in 2001. We brought the 2ManyDJs guys to New York [and for] Makin’ Time. That’s actually where I met Dave, because I was deejaying with those guys. We would play after each other and we were kind of playing the same stuff—
DP.: —sometimes the same records.

Tell us about the mix-CD.
JDH: With Fixed, we record our live sets and we put them online. The way we deejay, we only use vinyl and some CDRs. Everything we do we try to have that live feel. Basically we just wanted it to capture how we deejay and the feel of Fixed. There’s not really any new hot tracks.
DP.: When we play, it progresses in a logical manner. We’ll play more mellow stuff, more minimal stuff in the beginning and bring it up. We’re very into the idea of having things flow really well. There might be a ten-minute lull in our set, but it’s done purposefully, so we can bring it up for 30 minutes. The mix definitely has a slow progression, a dip down and then it comes back up again.

Have you got anything else planned after the Soulwax tour?
DP.: We try go to Europe every three months and really want to start doing that more. It’s hard, with our own party in New York and my own party in Philly. It’s unfortunate, but our own party is the reason this is happening anyway and it’s the best place we play. Our best DJ gig is at our own party.—John Dugan

JDH and Dave P. spin at Radio Soulwax, Saturday 21 at Metro. See listings.