Promoter Focus: We speak to Freeze's Rob Casson

Liverpool promoters Freeze have certainly whipped up a storm in the seven years they’ve been around. They almost singlehandedly kept one of the city’s monument’s alive with their infamous rave in a cave parties at the Williamson Tunnels, and then took the ‘Liverpool Landmark’ ideology to an unfathomable pinnacle when they put on a party in the gothic gargantuan that is Liverpool Cathedral in 2011.

Since then they’ve had another successful showcase in St Georges Hall, and embarked on a 2013 that has balanced events in the most exciting ‘traditional’ venues Liverpool has (Camp and Furnace and The Kazimer) with the more exotic locations the city can boast, adding the St Luke’s’ (Bombed Out) Church to St Georges for a series of summer parties.

They also recently announced plans for a live music wing, adding to a fervently exciting summer for the promoters. We decided to speak to one of the men behind it all, Rob Casson, to try and get the inside track on what makes the clubnight tick.

Hi Rob. Can you let us know what plans you have for Freeze coming up then?

We’ve got a busy summer ahead of us, first returning to St Georges Hall with Luciano and friends in June. That show will be huge, he’s bringing Reboot, Argy and Andrea Oliva with him, it’s easily the biggest event we’ve ever done in terms of line-up. Our last event there was probably the best we’ve ever done so to be back in the venue will be awesome. It’s unreal that gaff!

Then we've got two shows in the Bombed Out Church, with Kompakt and Innervisions, the two best record labels in Germany. Gui Buratto is playing the first, and then Michael Mayer is djing at the evening event at the Kazimer. When he played for us in November last year it was probably the best we’ve had musically at Freeze. And I’m really excited about Dixon and Ame as well, who very rarely play in Liverpool.

After that there’s a show in October with our old friends Dig Deeper, and then in the Kazimer with Border Community and James Holden which is by our other promotion Little Sister in November. We might try and squeeze another party in as well. Watch this space…

What makes you pick the venues you do?

Stupidity! In all seriousness we’ve always had to do something that little bit different to stand out in Liverpool. We were packing our events out for the first couple of years we started through a really loyal following but we knew that if we were going to get any bigger we had to do something completely different to anyone else. We’re not going to be a monthly event where we’re built around a certain venue, so we decided to go for something that little bit out of the ordinary in where we put the parties on.

The Tunnels was great for that, the rave in the cave was a special period for us. But we always wanted to do something big, and then the Cathedral happened, almost by accident in a way, and it provided a big platform for us. Now we just want to do events that are outside the box, and the venue needs to reflect that.

Even if we do something in a club, it needs to be a special one, like Camp and Furnace and the Kazimer. Both are amazing spaces, and we don’t want to be involved with something that doesn’t have that extra factor.

Is there a clear musical philosophy with the club?

Initially we did have quite a clear sound. It was tech house, maybe in the early days leaning towards the progressive side of things, but now we are much more diverse. We want to put on the best DJs possible, whether it’s Greg Wilson playing disco, Luciano bringing techno sounds, or the housier flavours of Danny Howells, and 2013 we’ve really opened up musically.

That’s why we’ve got the residents we have. Our main resident Jemmy is so versatile, he can play a main room set for Cream in Liverpool or Ibiza, play techno alongside Richie Hawtin, or warm-up for John Digweed with some trippy vibes like he did in February. Great DJ, and it’s no surprise he’s working for a record shop with that musical diversity.

And then there is Adele Moss who is really talented and definitely going to be big. She looks after Little Sister, one of our side projects, and is also resident for mUmU. She brings that underground flavour to Freeze.

What have been your favourite memories of the club over the years?

There’s been so many. Obviously looking out onto packed dancefloors in the Cathedral and St Georges Hall will take some beating, but the little moments over the years have been great too. Claude VonStroke in the Lemon Lounge in 2007 was amazing, we got him just before he went really big and the place was absolutely heaving, 200 people crammed into that tiny room.

I can also remember coming out of a meeting in the Cathedral when we realised we’d finalised being allowed to use the venue, that was a good memory. We walked out after what must have been our fifth or sixth conversation over about nine months and as we left the office a choir started singing. I can remember this unbelievable feeling, I was genuinely honoured to be part of something like that. I can’t commend the management team there enough for believing in what we could do, it really was a huge risk on their part. Fortunately one that paid off brilliantly for both of us.

Over the years as well Freeze has been more than just an event. There’s people who have fallen in love at Freeze, friendship groups formed, and even couples who have ended up getting married. We’ve been lucky to retain this core group of people who for the main always come to our events, and seeing the same faces, part of a bigger group now of course, means a lot. As cheesy as it sounds I think away from all the spectacular moments, that’s what stays with me.

What else have you got lined up in the future?

We’ve got some big plans. We’re going to be running a live music wing of Freeze shortly, basically the same principles as the club events but with bands and musicians. Anyone who’s been to Freeze knows that we really make the most of the amazing surroundings we’ve been lucky enough to put parties on in. We go the extra mile with sound and the visual side of things, and this will be even more so with the bands we’re booked. Name wise; these will be a big step up on who we’ve gone for previously.

The last couple of years have been about us going to the next level with our events and just as the Cathedral was a step-up from the Tunnels, and the line-ups this year have really gone beyond what we usually do, the live music is the next stage with that. We don’t want to rest on our laurels at all.

It’s been a crazy few years when you look at how far we’ve come in the second part of the Freeze story compared to the first part, but you can’t let that momentum slow down. We’re going for it, big time.