It's that time of year again! The sun has just about conquered the darkness of daytime in Scandinavia, which makes this weekend the starting point for never-ending festivals and open air season – Halleluja! I personally go to plenty of festivals and those experiences are always the peaks of the year. However, last year's Yard festival was another level. The location was at this huge train yard by the water just outside of Stockholm. The organisers spared no expenses with DJs such as Jeff Mills, Legowelt, Robert Hood and Nick Höppner blasting away all night to what seemed to be around the million of techno kids. So if you're looking for good electronic music at an epic location in Stockholm – this is it. But this year's Yard is a bit different from last year's success.This year, the organisers are making three daytime festivals at Nobelberget, inspired by different locations around the world. The DJs will represent the house/techno scene of their home countries. Despite these changes I'm positive that this year's Yard will be bonkers. I mean with these hardcore organisers' history of good parties and DJs such as Levon Vincent, Jus Ed, and Shonky, playing at the first party this Saturday – you're in for another dimension of fun. With 2015's premiere Yard kicking off this Saturday, which is themed around New York, France and Stockholm, I got hold of Shonky who will be representing France. He seems to be a really nice guy.Noisey: Hi Shonky, what's up?
Shonky: Hey! All good, hope you are too. Not really but never mind. I didn't know if shonky meant anything so I looked it up. The urban dictionary says shonky means poor or low quality, did you know that and does it mean that you are a low-quality DJ? No but seriously, is there a story behind your alias Shonky?
I didn’t know that! There is no English meaning for me, it was a nickname given to me by my brother and his friends. They called me this a long time ago! As it was my nickname, when I started to go out on the Paris scene, everybody knew me as ‘Shonky’ straight away, not many people knew me as Olivier. One time I was with Sofia, our manager, and I’d been booked to play a party with Dyed. She asked me what name to put on the flyer and that was when I adopted it as my DJ name, since everyone already knew me as that. It’s funny, even if you ask Dan [Ghenacia] "Where’s Olivier?" he sometimes forgets that’s my name! Let's focus on the negative – what's bad in your life right now?
Everything is great in my life, I really can’t complain much. I’m so so grateful for the life I have. I guess one thing if you’re going to push me on this, is I don’t get to spend enough time in my house and my city, Berlin. Whenever I come back here I feel peaceful, it has good energy. If I had a wish, it would be for more time, more days in the week! Alright then. What's the best venue you played at?
There are so many, I have a few favourites for sure, but I think it’s unfair to choose just one of those. They all have their qualities and I feel very fortunate to be able to play these places on a regular basis.Continued below….The Yard festival was awesome last year and you're playing at this year's Yard on Saturday, what's your formula for making a venue extra special?
For me it’s not as important if the venue itself is extra special, what matters is a good system and a good crowd in front of me. This is what can make a place special – it’s nice when the magic is there; the moment when two records work together to create a new piece of music. So the location is important, a good sound system, the crowd and being made to feel welcome… when the feeling between you and everything else is connected.You will represent France at Yard, do you consider yourself a good representative of your country?
It’s nice to be on stage representing with D’Julz and Molly, they’re good friends and great DJs too. The funny thing is that I moved to Berlin eight years ago, so most French people don’t even know I’m French. We played in Nice the other week and most people spoke to me in English, so I don’t know if I’m a good representative, haha!Yard claims that a festival is all about a state of mind, do you agree?
Definitely. If you go to a club, you’re going to see a DJ and be in that environment for a night. At a festival you’re more organised, more likely to encounter new artists, you stay there for a day at least, you eat there, you’re more invested all round so yeah… it’s a state of mind for sure.What state of mind will you bring to Yard?
You’re going there to discover, so you need to be open-minded. I’ll be bringing a bit of that to Yard, for sure. How would you define your sound?
Groovy, hypnotic and sexy. The groove is so important for me, so I need that in my sound. And I think sexiness is really crucial too – more sexy vibes in the clubs.Will we see you dance at Yard? If so, what makes you wobble?
Oh yeah for sure, I saw that Fred P, Levon Vincent and Jus Ed are on the other stages, so I’ll be bopping to them excitedly. It should be good weather this weekend, I haven’t been to Stockholm enough so I’m excited about that – I have this feeling before every gig, so that’s what will make me wobble. You’ll definitely see me dancing.Cool – see you there!Check out Yard on Facebook plus get tickets HERE. Keep up with Shonky on his Facebook and Instagram.When Hugo doesn't interview DJs for Noisey Sweden he writes for VICE Magazine. You should follow him on Twitter.
Annons
Shonky: Hey! All good, hope you are too. Not really but never mind. I didn't know if shonky meant anything so I looked it up. The urban dictionary says shonky means poor or low quality, did you know that and does it mean that you are a low-quality DJ? No but seriously, is there a story behind your alias Shonky?
I didn’t know that! There is no English meaning for me, it was a nickname given to me by my brother and his friends. They called me this a long time ago! As it was my nickname, when I started to go out on the Paris scene, everybody knew me as ‘Shonky’ straight away, not many people knew me as Olivier. One time I was with Sofia, our manager, and I’d been booked to play a party with Dyed. She asked me what name to put on the flyer and that was when I adopted it as my DJ name, since everyone already knew me as that. It’s funny, even if you ask Dan [Ghenacia] "Where’s Olivier?" he sometimes forgets that’s my name! Let's focus on the negative – what's bad in your life right now?
Everything is great in my life, I really can’t complain much. I’m so so grateful for the life I have. I guess one thing if you’re going to push me on this, is I don’t get to spend enough time in my house and my city, Berlin. Whenever I come back here I feel peaceful, it has good energy. If I had a wish, it would be for more time, more days in the week! Alright then. What's the best venue you played at?
There are so many, I have a few favourites for sure, but I think it’s unfair to choose just one of those. They all have their qualities and I feel very fortunate to be able to play these places on a regular basis.
Annons
For me it’s not as important if the venue itself is extra special, what matters is a good system and a good crowd in front of me. This is what can make a place special – it’s nice when the magic is there; the moment when two records work together to create a new piece of music. So the location is important, a good sound system, the crowd and being made to feel welcome… when the feeling between you and everything else is connected.You will represent France at Yard, do you consider yourself a good representative of your country?
It’s nice to be on stage representing with D’Julz and Molly, they’re good friends and great DJs too. The funny thing is that I moved to Berlin eight years ago, so most French people don’t even know I’m French. We played in Nice the other week and most people spoke to me in English, so I don’t know if I’m a good representative, haha!Yard claims that a festival is all about a state of mind, do you agree?
Definitely. If you go to a club, you’re going to see a DJ and be in that environment for a night. At a festival you’re more organised, more likely to encounter new artists, you stay there for a day at least, you eat there, you’re more invested all round so yeah… it’s a state of mind for sure.What state of mind will you bring to Yard?
You’re going there to discover, so you need to be open-minded. I’ll be bringing a bit of that to Yard, for sure. How would you define your sound?
Groovy, hypnotic and sexy. The groove is so important for me, so I need that in my sound. And I think sexiness is really crucial too – more sexy vibes in the clubs.Will we see you dance at Yard? If so, what makes you wobble?
Oh yeah for sure, I saw that Fred P, Levon Vincent and Jus Ed are on the other stages, so I’ll be bopping to them excitedly. It should be good weather this weekend, I haven’t been to Stockholm enough so I’m excited about that – I have this feeling before every gig, so that’s what will make me wobble. You’ll definitely see me dancing.Cool – see you there!Check out Yard on Facebook plus get tickets HERE. Keep up with Shonky on his Facebook and Instagram.When Hugo doesn't interview DJs for Noisey Sweden he writes for VICE Magazine. You should follow him on Twitter.