For any club in Ireland to last 6 years is amazing but when it’s a club that’s pushing underground music, it’s all the more impressive. Since they started putting on shows in 2006, !Kaboogie have become one of the most important collectives in Ireland, promoting quality bass music from both home and abroad. Their label has consistently put out good releases out from the likes of Prince Kong, Lakker, 2Bit and A Force and their nights are known as the best in the capital for both atmosphere and music.

Tomorrow night sees them celebrate their sixth birthday in The Twisted Pepper and they intend to do it in style with a line up that includes Ms Dynamite, Lakker, Replete and A Force. !Kaboogie resident and promoter Sixfoot Apprentice had a chat with us about the club and label ahead of the show.

How did you get involved in !Kaboogie and how long has it been going?

!Kaboogie started 6 years ago in January 2006. It started simply cause there were acts we really liked that never seemed to play here (or be booked by promoters here I guess) so we looked into the costs and such. It seemed feasible, so yeah -BOOM – !Kaboogie was born.

What’s the main priority when booking acts?

Simple one there. Just that they’re an act that excites us and that we reckon would do the same for a dance-floor. It’s the same buzz whether it’s a legend who’s been going for decades or a new up-and-coming act.

What’s the deal with the label? How many releases have ye put out? What releases should people look out for?

After a while of putting on gigs we decided that a label was the next step. We wanted the initial releases to be 100% Irish talent that we really wanted to big up, and then after the label gets moving we could ask bigger international acts if they’re up for submitting tunes for us. So that’s how it went.

At first we gave out free !Kaboogie Sampler CDs at our birthday gigs and then had ’em up for free download on our site, then released the Squidge EP (KBG001), our first vinyl featuring four local acts. By the time the second and third vinyls came around we had international talent like Warrior Queen and Mad EP along with Irish acts. Lately we’ve just put out a digital EP by New Zealand producer LRD JXN, and our most recent vinyl featured Kansas City Prophets and T-Polar with unreal vocalists Soom T and Linton KwesiJohnson. We are currently lining up more digital and vinyl releases from local and international acts, and will continue to host regular free content on our site. Big things to come.

Through the six years, what’s been the highlight of the club/label?

It’s so hard to pick highlights. There are new highlights all the time. First gig / first time a gig sold out / first label release / the pleasure of putting out class tunes that otherwise might not see the light of day / bigging up local talent / and getting given cake and booze by strangers at our birthday gigs!

Is there anyone ye haven’t booked yet that ye would like to?

There’s not enough room on the internet to answer that question properly.

How do you approach a DJ set yourself?

It depends on the gig (or radio show, or whatever the situation is) but I guess just to have fun myself, play stuff I like, not fuck up, and hopefully make people dance and have a buzz.

Any producers that you’ve currently on repeat?

Hmmm…. Internationally…. Coco Bryce / DeathGrips / Hovatron.

Locally…. Deviant / Monto / Bantum / My Name IsJohn.

Off the top of my cap, anyways.

 What can people expect from the sixth birthday celebrations?

Mad craic hopefully. Tis a sexy line-up so I reckon it’ll be a great one. Serious dance-floor action I’m sure.

What does 2012 hold for ye?

Lots and lots more releases digitally, more vinyls, plenty of class local and international acts at !Kaboogie gigs, loads more free content for the website and hopefully plenty of appearances at festivals and the like by all the !K residents (A-Force / Eomac / Redmonk / Richie !K / PCP / and myself). Oh and a massive high five to Inge, the unsung hero of !Kaboogie.

How tall actually are you?

Haha, not quite sixfoot – a couple of inches off.

Morally I should change the name to FivefootNineOrTen Apprentice but that’d sound gack. Even more so than Sixfoot Apprentice.  Then again, lies make baby Jesus cry so. Sure we’ll see what happens, eh Kenny?!

!KABOOGIE LINKS
www.kaboogie.net
www.soundcloud.com/kaboogiemusic
www.facebook.com/kaboogiemusic
www.twitter.com/kaboogiemusic
www.myspace.com/kaboogiemusic