MTL: NEON Turns 11 – We Look Back On A Decade of Dance

When I lived in Montreal, a million years ago, I worked at a tiny spot called Jai Bar and on Sundays they did a night called NEON. It was mostly just me behind the bar, a local DJ named Tiga on decks and a few guys who threw the night, one of those guys was John Hatz, and that little Sunday night went on to be one of the most influential dance music party’s since the rave days in Montreal.

This Friday, NEON is turning 11 years old, and they’re throwing a big bash with Toronto’s JFK (MSTRKRFT) and St. Mandrew alongside local, DJ Cherry Cola at Studio Just For Laughs 2109 St. Laurent Blvd. Founder John Hatz looks back on over a decade of NEON and shares a little wisdom on what makes a banger from a dud.

Knee Socks Beat Cleavage:  How did the idea for NEON come about? What was it exactly that made you want to start throwing parties?

John Hatz: Well Tiga & I co owned a small record shop called DNA where we were into minimal techno, electro house & new school electro – which was Dopplerefekt, DMX Crew, David Guetta, Hell, Anthony Rother, Kittin & The Hacker etc. We were at the end of minimal hard techno + after hours where things had become a little boring (in our opinion) & formulaic, there was no glam, no conversation, no songs – everything seemed to dark & ominous, we wanted something where people could dance on bars + get drunk again, so NEON was born. We teamed up with long time friend & designer Justin Dallegret, who came up with the name I Love NEON & we started doing events. Since we were all graphic designers & visual artists we tried to build something around this new sound that integrated visuals + motion graphics, something that had a different look each time you went.  We did some small nights with Thomas Von Party & Tiga DJing and one day the sound we were all into just blew up internationally and NEON got hot – since then it’s been on. Over the years Tiga dropped out of the company to devote time to his own music career so Mark Dillon stepped in to take over bookings.  Over the next 10 years we worked and produced some great events. In 2008 – we merged with HIGH FOOD – another local promoters & started doing live acts as well as parties, then last year we hit our biggest amount of shows to date, doing 50 shows – this year we’ll do 80.

KSBC: How has it changed in over a decade?

JH: Wow – when we started I didn’t have email – that gives you a huge idea right there, things came and went – genres, people, bars, clubs, concert halls, pretty insane. It has changed a lot and not at all – full cycle from minimal to maximal & back with the sounds. With Facebook & Twitter, cell phones & texting, everything is direct to client now, and people know things a lot faster since the source is the internet not little music shops. When a party is good – people text each other + it gets better – when you have a lemon, people text each other and tell them to stay away – I think the biggest difference besides how the music has changed is that, how the “fan” can really influence the outcome of an event because of how many people that one person can reach.

Photo: Lucas Shumacher

For us – we’re still operating under the same mandate – makes sure the room looks sexy + the sound is good – use interesting venues + work hard, and people will still come & they still do – 90% of our events are still sold out or close to selling out. People come to our events to dance & forget about life, that  will never change, and as long as theirs that one constant – we’ll keep on going strong.

Photo: Lucas Shumacher

KSBC: What are some of the best NEON moments you can remember from the past  11 years?

JH: Wow, so many, was a fun ride, but the best moments were watching a room fill up, hearing your favourite DJ, listening to Tiga play for hours… My ultimate favourite night was TIGA + JORI HULLKONEN in 2002 at the old sat, Jordan Dare at Voyeur & NEON 2001- present, most of all the music, we’re fortunate to have been there for the beginging of many musical movements, we witnessed RAVE, MINIMAL TECHNO, DRUM N BASS & ELECTRO.

Hearing Waldorf’s FASHIONIST on a dance floor for the first time, hearing FISHERPOONER’s first album, hearing MISS KITTIN’s Stock Exchange, all first moments I will never forget, great soundtracks & even better memories…. Lastly I’ve met some of the most interesting people ever, that I would have never gotten to meet if it wasn’t for NEON. For all that I guess Im pretty lucky. Why do I still want more?

KSBC: If you had unlimited resources, who would be your dream artist or dream NEON?

JH: Aphex Twin, Jeff Mills, Autechre, I would take chances on old school artists more, now that times have changed a lot of people don’t know who they are but they shaped everything…. Also would do more visuals – more physical transformations to the rooms, create a crazy physical environment where people could interact with art & technology. Really fuck with peoples heads to make the experience as surreal as possible. Again people come to events to forget, to take a few hours off  & dance, so I would just do more of the same but do it top top quality + having unlimited resources would mean I would not have to compromise on my vision.

KSBC: What’s next for NEON?

JH: Not sure – tough question, we’re doing more real live shows & would like to be viewed as a legitimate show promoter & not a club promoter, also would like to integrate art & design more into each event, something were not doing as much as we used too. I would like to work on our festival,  I would also like to put NEON on the road & do packages for other markets. Generally I would like to re define NEON & find its new direction, to be honest I don’t know – but these things just happen when they happen. The natural progression is to simplify & generalize the events, but Im sure Ill find a much more complicated painful way to grow.

All photos by Karel Chladek from 2010, photos by Lucas Shumacher from NEON’s of the past.