Renaissance
Renaissance needs no introduction. One of the larger UK brands, as Australians we know it as a globally active organisation with album releases and international tours that have featured pretty much all of the UK’s biggest progressive DJs of the past decade. But that was the past decade. Today, Renaissance faces the challenge of repositioning itself if it is to survive, and remarketing itself to a generation distrustful of brands. To find out what’s in store for both us and Renaissance, RA speaks to the man at the helm, Geoff Oakes.

Ten years, not out. To what do you attribute Renaissance’s success?
I don’t know really, haven’t got a clue. The longevity is partly due to the fact that I don’t think Renaissance has been overexposed in the way that perhaps some of our competitors have been. I think that we’ve certainly strived to remain true to our values and that all the Renaissance albums have always been a true reflection of musically where we’re at on a dance floor/ club level. I don’t think we’ve taken the commercial route to a degree that some others have and I guess we aren’t in people’s faces as much as some of the others have been (I won’t name any names).

I think you get a shorter shelf-life if you’re in people’s faces too much, so I suppose that to a large degree is probably why. I also think that - particularly internationally - the thing that people latch onto most about a club is probably the compilation albums; that ‘s normally what people associate with the brand. I think that some of the British club brands have sent out pretty confusing signals by putting out albums that are hit-driven and really commercial to create sales, and then some kid in Tokyo or Singapore or New York or Sydney has bought that album and then thought, ‘Actually I didn’t think that this kind of music they played at this club.’

You spoke of staying true to values – what values specifically?
I guess they’re just the values of the people involved, really. What we’re really, really good at is putting on great parties and it’s as simple as that – just striving to do that as much as we can. With Australia in particular over the past couple of years, I’ve felt we haven’t been on the right track and this tour is partly about putting us back on the right track in terms of people’s perception of Renaissance. I think that when we did the big Two Tribes tours in Australia, we tended not to have as much control over the environment, we were just part of a very big thing. Which is great to a degree, and obviously we were exposed to more people, but again, it’s about perception and the way you’re being exposed. I think coming over and doing the tour with James [Zabiela], who from our perspective is a really strong up n’ coming DJ, it’s nice introduce somebody new to Australia and it’s also nice to come over and do some smaller shows as well. In Sydney James is going to playing for what, five hours plus? So it’s a much more focused experience for people, which I think is a really positive thing.

What is Renaissance’s music policy now – with James on tour it’s obviously a bit different to the Dave Seaman days…
It’s really easy to start looking at labels and start pigeon-holing the brand and I think that one thing we probably have suffered from over the last few years – perhaps ‘suffered’ is too negative a word – but one thing we’ve inherited is the progressive house tag, which came along with the success of that sound. It really grew from Renaissance initially – from the Sasha/ Digweed days and Dave Seamen and so on and I feel now that certainly probably the best indication of where we’re at now is the new album – Renaissance Volume Two. There’s a pretty varied scope of music on there and I think that where we’re at musically at the music is a diverse sort of quality house music. I guess here in the UK that’s probably represented best by our residency in the Cross, which has been going eight, nine years now. There are three rooms and it’s anything from breaks, hip-hop, funky house, through to that more tribal sound that we’re better known for. So I would say looking through a track list here for the album and there’s stuff on Fluential, which is the offshoot of Defected Records, right through to a more Renaissance sound, which is reflected more on disc two of the album, with a few surprises in there as well, like the Orb…

Ok, we’ll talk about the album in a minute. So, in respect to genre, Renaissance has now diversified? Because in Australia we know that sound as the progressive, atmospheric Dave Seaman sound and a change of sound for Renaissance over here is akin to a re-branding of Renaissance altogether.
I think we’ve been really aware of that as well, and wanted to change that and it’s very easy to stick with a winning formula and the shows with Dave have been really, really successful. For us it’s time to move on and maybe even for Dave it is as well; I’m sure he needs to break free and do his own stuff as well. Obviously James musically was a deliberate ploy in terms and just mixing it up I think is important. I think the days 1) of the superclub, and 2) of having one solid musical direction are long gone and I think people expect more diversity now and demand it to a degree.

So how exactly do you strengthen a brand globally to an audience of young people, many of whom are skeptical of large brands and opposed to globalisation?
I think the key is not to over-market it, really. For me, it’s kind of a deliberate ploy to go back to try and do clubs rather than big events. Just focusing on the party and the experience rather than ramming down people’s throats that you’re a brand and they must buy you. Yes, we release albums, and yes, we do tours, but the main focus now is the quality of music on the albums rather than putting stuff on there that’s going to increase the revenue of the brand. Getting the message across that we’re about good music and good parties, I don’t think is repulsive to a generation of clubbers so much so as putting on big parties and banging out big hit-driven compilations. Back to basics to coin a phrase [laughs] sounds like a campaign already, doesn’t it? We were really, really ambitious in the mid nineties and the late nineties and we got swept along in the tidal wave of ‘which UK club brand is going to be the biggest in the world?’ We got sucked into that for a while and realised 18 months go that that isn’t where the future is for us.

Did you or will you ever consider setting up in Australia?
There was a time when I thought that was a given, we were sort of coming out to Australia and selling out shows in advance. To be honest, I’ll only do it if it feels right. I guess we’re trying to reposition Renaissance in Australia and see what happens and take it from there… There’s something about Renaissance and Australia that works really well. I haven’t really quite put my finger on what it is yet but the response every time I’ve been out there is phenomenal.

Back to the album – it’s been a long while between releases, was this a deliberate strategy to perhaps give people a chance to lose their pre-conceived ideas about the Renaissance sound, to wipe the slate clean, so to speak?
Very much so. I certainly felt that we got into a position where we were doing the Two Tribes gigs and being a little fish in a very big pond, not really having any control on the output… We needed to get out of that cycle and to do that we needed a bit of a break. It was like: ‘let’s step away from it for a while, let it happen, rethink, and come back with a new strategy.’

And who mixed the album?
Mixed by Marcus James, who was our resident DJs and head of A&R for the label. This is the first fully independent release for Renaissance recordings. We were in a joint venture with MoS for three years, we actually bought out their interest in the label a couple of month ago – we own it all 100% now – which is part of moving forward; we felt we needed control of all elements of Renaissance and gaining control of the recordings business is a big part of it for us.

So Renaissance has gone indie?
Yeah, I guess so, which is not a bad thing.

So if someone’s reading this and borderline on whether to come to Renaissance or not, what will you be offering Australians that they may not get elsewhere?
Without being able to put my finger on it, we really focus on the experience, the quality of music is the most important thing, and the surroundings in general. We’ve spoken to the promoters in each location about getting the Renaissance feel to the night. So people going to each of these venues week in/week out, the venue is going to feel markedly different.

Finally, tell me something you didn’t tell your other interviewers.
Okay. [Thinks]. There’s very big news coming on our Ibiza dates; we’re only doing two dates. We’re going back to Pacha – told you we’re going back to our roots, see? – August 1 and September 5th, for the 2nd one we’ve got a guest that is going to surprise a lot of people and make a lot of people happy, I think it’s something people have been waiting for, for a long, long time.

You’re not going to tell me who it is are you?
No. But the announcement is going to be made in about a week’s time. If you figured out a bit about Renaissance’s history you’d be able to work it out...

Who, Sasha?
Well, someone people have been waiting for a long time. That’s all I can say.

Renaissance tour dates as below:

Renaissance featuring James Zabiela
Sat 31 May : Adelaide
Sun 1 June : Perth
Fri 6 June : Canberra
Sat 7 June : Sydney
Sun 8 June : Melbourne

The Renaissance Web site launches in July, you can check it out at www.renaissanceuk.com.

The album, ‘The Sound of Renaissance Volume 2’ comes out mid-June through Inertia.