60 seconds with Hydra
Hydra has become one the of the stalwart figures in within the London music culture. Now laying their hat at studio spaces to sold out crowds each month. We chat to promoter Ajay about the year ahead and their inspiration behind the brand.
Its been a huge vocal point recently that London has been seen to have a resurgence, but a lot of folk disagree that its actually never needed one, whats your take?
Peaks and troughs, 5 year cycles, Haley’s Comet! There’s always a reason as to why things move in waves but it’s often just a case of a lot of scenes and musics that have been there all along having their moment. That said, I do feel like there is a very welcome amount of great music out there right now…
Did you ever look at other cities like Leeds, Glasgow and Bristol and think that London needed a kick up the arse or did that never really come into it?
The Warehouse Project in Manchester definitely inspired our initial conception.
Tell us about one of your current homes, Studio Spaces, what makes the venue stand out?
Sound. Right now the rig in there is, in our opinion, as good as anything else that London has to offer.
And in 2015, you have some heavyweight line ups in place, can you tell us your ethos in the programming?
Mainly we endeavour to book artists that we like and consider to be the best at what they do.
London, like any other city always rears its head into club politics on bookings and venues etc, you seem to have swerved that scenario?
I guess we’ve had our own politics to deal with in securing the license on the space, but it’s a very congested market right now with a handful of venues (as well as independent promoters) all vying for a chance to book many of the same people. It’s not ideal, but it’s workable if common sense prevails (not that it always does!).
And anyone you’re looking forward to the most?
The Easter weekend has a little bit of everything so it will be good to get stuck in to that.
What have been your highlights of the past year?
The whole team always feels a real sense of achievement when we get to the end of a series. There are a lot of really dedicated people who have invested a great deal of tie and effort in helping to make thins work. It’s a great feeling when we collectively realise our goal ending series three with three events over NYE, NYD morning and NYD evening was a definitely something.
Festival season is also once again nearly upon us at a rapid rate, where can we see you guys at?
Lovebox, Dimensions and also a very special Lost in a Moment party at a unique location with the Innervisions guys. More on that to follow…
See here for more information: http://the-hydra.net/
