newsic:MIX:2 | Stretford Dogs Club

“The promo mix has a track from each part on it so far, I guess if people like it they can look at downloading the whole series from www.stretforddogsclub.co.uk”

newsicmoos (ns): Hello! Please introduce yourself to the world and let us know what’s been going on in the past week.

Stretford Dogs Club (SDC): I’m Andy Proctor aka Stretford Dogs Club – the last week or so has been a bit manic, on the Bank Holiday we had a party called The Jamboree at Kro in Manchester which was extremely good fun playing with the Development lads, Moodymanc, Andre Lodemann and Alex Barck from Jazzanova, really good party and fully enjoyable.

ns: Could you best describe your sound for any newcomers to your music?

SDC: It’s basically house music, suppose you could say it’s Deep House which seems to be the buzz word at the moment – I’ve been playing at and running nights over the past 10 years and it’s pretty much always been House – just different interpretations of it.

ns: When and how did you start producing? What gave you inspiration?

SDC: Believe it or not, I don’t actually produce. It’s just something that I’ve never really found the time to get my teeth stuck into, maybe one day – who knows ? I do run a label called Development Music, it’s an offshoot of the club-night I ran in Manchester for the last 6 years. Our latest offering was from an Argentinian producer based in Berlin – Roman Fleischer. That came out on vinyl about a month ago and is just starting to hit the download sites now.

We’ve got a few things coming out for the rest of the year as well that involve local producers like Moodymanc and Mr Scruff. (Beatport page)

ns: Tell us as much as you can about your Stretford Dogs Project and what you’re aiming to achieve.

SDC: Having ran Development for 6 years at various venues across Manchester, we decided to knock things on the head – mainly because we found that our crowd was getting a little older and not going out as much so we thought it best to end it on a high which we did in May of this year with a sell out final party with Rahaan, DJ Spinna and Halo at Mint Lounge. Chris & Tom who were the residents were great residents as well, and 2 residents is more than enough for a monthly clubnight, we always focused on giving the guests a good 3-4 hours to work with as well.

The Stretford Dogs Club name came about as tongue in cheek really through living in Stretford and having a fondness of dogs – think at one point through 1 way or another I ended up living with 3 dogs and it just became a running joke amongst mates.

Through the way social media has gone now as well it makes it a lot easier to get your message across to people wherever they are in the world, I’ve stepped it up a little bit this year and started producing a 2 hour mix every month as well as a fortnightly podcast series that started in June called The Dogcast.

ns: You know we’re based in Manchester and love it. In what ways, if any, has Manchester contributed to your music and music memories?

SDC: Manchester’s always been ever present in my life in terms of music as far back as I can remember – DJs like Miles & Elliot when they were at Hard Times in Huddersfiled, the amazing label Paper Recordings. Club-nights like Bugged Out, Electric Chair and Red Light and even now it’s still creating magic at places like Content who have a fantastic night down at Joshua Brooks. The good thing about Manchester is, it always has an up for it crowd wherever it might be – like nowhere else in the country, some of the nights we’ve had at Development have been absolutely immense as well.

ns: What’s your earliest memory of Manchester raving and raving in general?

SDC: We used to go over to Back 2 Basics a lot in Leeds, used to love it over there and always had a good laugh – remember seeing Oscar G from Murk there back in around 94ish I think – kind of reeled me into it still now 17/18 years later. Manchester wise, the nights at Bugged Out at Sankeys were always legendary – remember one night with Armand Van Helden and Ian Pooley, that was ace. I remember going to the Hacienda just before it closed to see Dimitri from Paris, enjoyed it and could well of envisaged what it would’ve been like when it was in full swing.

ns: Name 3 tracks you’re feeling right now.

SDC: Tomson & Benedict feat Bantu Soul – Blind on Tone Control. Brawther – Do it Yourself ( Alternative Mix ) on Sundissential, pure stripped unadulterated house music, deep and simple and so effective. And Luca C & Brigante – Different Morals (Clockwork Remix) on Southern Fried, absolutely ace little deep vocal number – almost west coast sounding – love it !

ns: Finally, tell us a little bit about the exclusive mix you’ve so kindly done for newsicmoos.

SDC: The mix I’ve done for you guys is promoting the project I’ve been working on in 2011. It’s called ‘A Day in a Dogs Life’ and is a 24 hour mix project split over 12 months. I’ve been doing 2 hours each month with each month joining onto the previous months so it all joins up once it’s completed in December. There’s lots of new stuff on it as well as old stuff I like covering House, Techno, bits of Jazz and Disco. I’ve tried to make it a interesting all round from this year and before. It’s more of a personal project which hopefully in a few years time I can look back at 2011 as a good year for music, especially when House seems to be back in a big way.

We’d like to thank Andy Proctor aka Stretford Dogs Club for providing an in-depth, informative interview full of music passion. Keep an eye on him, download and share the mix via social buttons below.