SPOTLIGHT: GRANVILLE COLLECTIVE
Image: @dan.wlker | Instagram
Granville Collective burst onto Newcastle’s electronic scene last year, meeting the post-lockdown moment with infamous house parties that brought techno to a diverse crowd. With immersive visual effects and professional aftermovies, they established the ‘Granville experience’ that drew All Cane, DJ Streaks and Thelma up to the city to make their debuts.
Constantly scanning for new artists, venues and graphics, the Granville boys aren’t dialling it down anytime soon. Co-founder Aris joined me to look back on a year of sellouts from commercial hubs Cosmic Ballroom and No.28 all the way to the beating heart of the underground - World Headquarters - where they showcased the techno, trance and electronic excellence that was refined in a jam-packed kitchen on Granville Road.
EG: What initially kickstarted Granville Collective and made it expand to what it is now?
AM: So first and foremost, our love for electronic music. Some of our favourite events as a group have been ones with a keen impression of visual production as well as obviously the audio experience. Some of these DJ's not only take you for a journey with the sets they provide, but the visual productions team behind the scenes also take you for a journey - and that entire experience is the gist of what Granville is trying to achieve. We're trying to become an event company that provides a unique experience.
It started off with obviously our love for music, some of our members are producing their own music across different genres. You know, Ayman’s into hip-hop, Chaddy, Temp’s, they've all been DJing different genres across the electronic spectrum for years now; some of them are starting to dabble in production. We used to throw these house parties on Granville Road - these house parties took on a life of their own. They were so big and were larger than life, and we saw it as an experience we were providing. It affirmed that if we set up the way we want to, a lot of people are gonna enjoy our parties.
You’re such close friends from the look of things. Has this made setting foundations easier and more fun?
Yeah, without a doubt.
We've built this community of friends, this network of people that we've met who were always into the same sort of music. We went to the same sort of events, festivals. We're just, with our unit enjoying the same things and music is a matter of inspiration for all of us, not just in the sense of, you know, producing our own music or producing our own DJ sets but also in the sense of just sharing moments with your friends. You know, it was all ignited through music, stuff like sharing your favourite DJ sets, so being able to being able to sit down together and be like yo, you know, we feel like we can start something, that was made so much easier when you're all friends. Now we're a bit more experienced obviously, but we were just students kind of walking into the unknown when it comes to this event, but you know when you've got your friends there by your side? Guess what? That's a whole lot easier. Coming together with all our best people with all the best music to have the best time ever sounds a bit corny in a sense, but it is just having a great time with your mates.We do know how to party and when you have passion for the music and for the experience, you have a successful events company.
Image: @dan.wlker | Instagram
Going back to where it started, you were known for throwing some huge parties back at your student house. Why do you draw such a crowd? And was this a part of the initial growth of Granville?
Last year when we threw the first Granville house party, it was a Christmas party and we just invited everyone we knew. We had this massive Christmas dinner, really decked out the entire gaff, made it look completely different. It was Christmas themed; it was about to be belter right? But yeah, we didn't really think anything of it. We had our Christmas dinner, all the boys and then after the Christmas dinner, there was a lot of waiting around and at one point I remember thinking, like is anyone even gonna turn up? And then you know, as they say, be careful what you wish for because within the space of like half an hour, all of a sudden there’s 200 to 300 people in the gaff again, some of whom we had no idea who they were, but it's just the extended network and yeah, that's part of why we were able to draw a crowd.
People probably thought right, these kids threw some cool house parties last year, let's just check it out. You know, the first event was only £3.00, so it was very accessible for people to just come and check out Granville and we've been able to build a bigger and bigger community and crowd.
What does the brand Granville stand for and mean to you guys and others?
I think Granville is up to everyone's interpretation, but it stands for so many things. It stands for family. It stands for community. It stands for looking out for one another. It stands for partying, like literally. It shouldn’t be an ambiguous word, it's Granville. Let me just compress it for you: we built this party; everybody would come.
I can give you an example of this from our last event, it was weird. There were some international students at the free party. They were following Granville on Instagram and so came to the next Granville event and a French guy came up to me and he was like “bro this is one of the best collective events I've been to. I'm only in Newcastle studying for six months and I stumbled upon one of the events. You guys are a sick collective who's probably about what we are, who we are”. And you know, his interpretation of Granville was completely different from ours. I think it is completely up to interpretation. It is whatever you make it, we're here to throw an experience outside of your day-to-day life. I'm just so proud of everyone. Everyone. It's a brotherhood. And to an extent it's further than that as well. I'm just proud of the collective we've managed to build. We’re cogs in the system. Obviously it's not completely smooth sailing all the time. We have a lot of moments where things go out of plan and you’re learning on the job. But it's like we're literally fresh students in an industry we have no idea about really. I feel like it's connected to people and has brought us together amongst the boys in a more personal way, especially when we're standing there and there's 400 people. One of the pictures we have of the Granville crowd at the Thelma event, it's like a sea of people. you're standing there, Temps is letting off beats, and you couldn't recognise a single person.
Image: @dan.wlker | Instagram
The visual experience plays a big part in the event, does it play a big part for you guys?
Ohh, it's the greatest thing. This isn’t a club night - its an artistic expression from a collective of individuals - its a music event designed to be completely engrossing. We have members in the collective that entirely focus on just the visual experience. I can speak about this part of Granville for days - theres so many factors and so many places we want to take Granville when it comes to this element of our events and we’re only going to get better.
How do you separate the work and the enjoyment?
Because of the stress of putting Granville all together, it does feel like work as well, right? Not like any other work you could ever experience in life, it’s the best work in the world. But it does feel like work and I feel like sometimes it's so important to just not be stressed. On the night sometimes you're running around for the first two hours, and I'm sure you guys would have seen us. I'll be running around like a headless chicken just trying to sort out stuff when there's nothing to be stressed about. I think the best memories for me is when I do have a moment to relax and I'm just there like, yeah we're doing something I'll never forget. So my answer to that is without a doubt, these are memories for life. And I need to cherish them.
Finally, if there was one artist or DJ you could bring to Newcastle, who would it be and why?
Ohh that's a good one. I'm sure the boys will have unique answers, but for me - man there’s so many DJs I know for sure it's going to be a very unrealistic answer, but - Tale Of Us. One of my biggest inspirations when it comes to Granville is the events over the years that have blown me away, and those are by far the ones that provide a heavy visual production, that kind of take you on a journey through the choreography provided through the set and there's a set plan for the journey they want to take you on. Those have really made me really fall in love with the electronic scene.Tale Of Us embody this better than anyone in the scene, they are a melodic techno duo. They own the mass label that is Afterlife, and they're just killing it and pioneering the experiences they provide each time. They'd be my dream booking for sure.
Keep up-to-date with all things Granville Collective on Instagram and get your early-bird tickets now for Granville Collective Presents: Braga Circuit on 5 May.
Keep an ear to the ground for to the collective’s famed after-parties.
