Dave Harvey (Futureboogie) Interview: a massive load of sunshine

The mob runs deep in dance music. But rather than pitchfork wielding aggressors it tends to be forces combining for the greater good of musical enlightenment, and nowhere is there a better example of this than Futureboogie. Their name of the Festival booking arm of the company says it all; Team Love.

We originally tried to pin down Dave Harvey from the collective for an interview just before the Love Saves the Day festival but the speed with which he delved into that meant we only finally got hold of him late last week. The wait was worth it, as the DJ famed for his disco capes was in effusive form about everything from the magic of the city of Bristol to the joys of programming festivals in Croatia. Ahead of him about to head to the Adriatic front line for a Garden Festival review, our editor Jimmy Coultas posed the questions

Hi Dave! For those who don’t know who you are, can you give us a little introduction to what you and Futureboogie/Team Love are about?

Hi there. Well Futureboogie is our record label and club night, which now also extends to the booking agency and management company that my partner Steve runs, we also book all the acts for Croatia’s Garden Festival – Team Love is my festival production and booking company that I run with the man known as the Talent, Tom Paine.

We work for several festivals and events booking artists and running stages, we’re assistant programmers at Glastonbury Festival’s Silver Hayes area, run the Wow stage there and also have our own event in Bristol – Love Saves the Day.

How did those events go then? And is it much of a thrill putting a festival like that on in Bristol?

Well the festival was a massive success this year, we ironed out a lot of the issues we had from last time, the sun was out in a big way and Bristol’s crowd, as ever, were on spectacular form and really made it something pretty special. We had a few technical issues with some of the main stage changeovers but other than that we really couldn’t have hoped for it to have gone any better.  

Getting to put something of this scale on right in the heart of the city is an absolute blessing – we are lucky enough to have a very good working with relationship with the local authorities and they are keen to help events like this happen in the city because of the wider benefits that they bring. There’s really not many places like Bristol in that regard, we’re lucky to be here.

On the topic of festivals you’re also heavily involved in both the Garden festival and Glastonbury. What are your involvements with them this year?

As mentioned Futureboogie handle all the bookings for the Garden Festival and it’s got to be one of the best jobs in the world because we get to book artists we love, on a pure talent basis – it’s not about putting bums on seats as it always sells out so you can program a bit more leftfield than usual.

The owners are great and give us a large amount of free reign on it as well, they are pretty clued up for old fellas anyway ;) And the event itself is just incredible, one of the best settings in the world, getting to put some of our favourite acts on that beach, the boats or the insanely great outdoor Barbarellas club is literally living the dream!

Tom and myself are now assistant programmers for Silver Hayes at Glastonbury which is absolutely amazing and we are constantly pinching ourselves about how it happened. Silver Hayes is the brand new area which replaces Dance Village and it’s gonna be really exciting to see months of Malcolm and the team’s hard work come to fruition in the next few weeks, some of the new stuff that is going in there is gonna be ace.  The festival has always been a really important part of our lives since going as fence jumpers at 16, all the way through till now – I’ve not missed one since!

We’ve already been programming the Wow stage there for the last couple of years and we have got a great line up this year again – it’s been a privelege to get to have an input on the rest of the area as well and we really hope that people will be impressed by its new direction – we’re just praying for sunshine now!

How thrilling has it been to be involved in what is essentially a clubbing revolution in Croatia, with the Adriatic coast becoming a must-do destination for ravers old and new? And how does the new site at Tisno compare to the old one at Petrcane?

It’s really hard not to sound like a twat when talking about it but it’s just one of the best things that I can imagine every getting to be a part of – great event, great team, incredible music, out of order location. And yeah the Garden itself has changed the musical landscape; the guys had a vision, made it happen and look at it now – it’s changed so many people’s lives and culturally its impact is huge. Kids are now heading to the Adriatic in their droves, it’s becoming the destination of choice for a whole new generation.

As far as Tisno is concerned – we bloody love it! It’s a brilliant new site and with a few tweaks from last year really can’t wait! It’s got its own beach and the new Barbarellas is just ridiculous, outdoor all night raving, just out of order it’s so good!

You must get tired of hearing this question, but what marks Croatia out as different from Ibiza? And as someone who has strong connections to both on account of your We Love... dates, including the opening party, how important is the white isle still?

Don’t get me wrong, Ibiza will always be there and they do what they do in a very different way but, for a multitude of reasons, Croatia is now a real genuine alternative. What’s going on in Croatia is a tiny drop in the ocean in terms of what goes on in Ibiza in a business sense, but the parties and events just in Tisno alone offer a real choice of amazing musical line ups, on a more underground tip and much smaller scale than Ibiza and I think for loads of people that’s really appealling.

I never really had a big love affair with Ibiza to be honest, I’ve always had a brilliant time when I go there but I was far from a regular when growing up – but that niche, smaller event that Garden got so right had me hooked from day one and it still retains that to this day, and I think that’s the main difference. But having said that if you want massive club action then Ibiza really is still the place to be and getting to go and play there is bloody great.

Mark (Broadbent) and the team at We Love are a top firm and I still take my hat off to them for putting on what I would consider pretty damn underground names and smashing it week in week out – obviously they mix in the big hitters but their line ups are always proper quality so it’s amazing to be a very small part of that.

Where else can we see you playing over the summer?           

We have a jam packed summer ahead doing label parties at so many festivals – and they all look like they are gonna be amazing so it could be a bit of a long season! We’re starting off at Gottwood in a couple of weeks, Glasto, Garden, Farr Festival, Secret Garden Party, Wilderness, Eastern Electrics – the line up for that is unreal – is there anyone left for them to book ??! – then off to Burning Man where we hopefully have a couple of slots, then back for Festival No6 and then a massive sleep.

We’re also gonna be out in Ibiza for dates at We Love, Sankeys with the Hypercolour guys whose Monday nights could be something special out there this summer, and just trying to lock in a boat party as well so watch this space. We’ve also got Fabric next weekend as well so it’s properly busy and very exciting times!

How has the record label Futureboogie been going? And with the pop charts once again featuring good quality dance music, one of your affiliates Julio Bashmore being a prime example with his work with Jessie Ware, can we see the label contributing to this positive trend

The label is going really well, we’re still a bit taken aback by the amount of love we get on it – it’s amazing and we’re just massively stoked that people are into what we are putting out. We’ve basically been largely pushing new artists this year and the reception has been brilliant. We have loads of exciting stuff coming out for the rest of the year and are constantly getting sent new stuff that gets us het up so as long as that continues so will the label.  

Christophe’s track with Danielle Moore from Crazy P has just dropped plus we’ve got a new Summer Riot EP upcoming very soon with some unashamedly big sunshine bangers on it that we are really excited about. There’s loads more stuff planned for Boogiefuturo, on a slighty more left of centre tip, we’ll be keeping that vinyl only for the moment and the next one drops next week with a beautiful DJ Nature remix of Typesun on the A and a sundrenched peach by Admin on the flip – hopefully you’ll be hearing more of them this summer!

In terms of the charts having decent dance music – great news as far as we’re concerned, absolutely love Jessie’s material for example, so good and she is a massive sweetheart as well. Bashmore is killing it with pretty much everything he does and it’s great to see everyone doing well. There will always be a bit of snobbery but that’s healthy I think – there should always be people who strike out on their own, they are the underground by definition and we need that but there’s room for everyone. I’m not sure we’ll have anything going in the charts anytime in the near future but for all the haters, just don’t get involved!

And finally, what lies in the future for you and Futureboogie?

Hopefully a massive load of sunshine, tops off and dancing – see you in the Adriatic!

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