Talking Neighbourhoods with John Loveless

Image: Joshua Brooks

We've a soft spot for the city of Manchester, what with it's horrendous weather, sardonic outlook and world class music heritage. Central to that is the legion of musical experts that make up the city's fabric, and they don;t come much more ingrained in the Manc way of lie than John Loveless.

The occasional Skiddle scribe has been a regular around the city's bars and discotheques for a hot minute, and has recently been installed as part of a resident team at Joshua Brooks for their incoming set of Neighborhoods events (check his recent mix above as a flavour of what will go down) - the first with Fatima and Alexander Nut on Friday 3rd October.

We caught up with him to catch the lowdown on what to expect from Loveless and Neighborhoods at JBs.

Hi John, so tell us about this residency of yours at Joshua Brooks, how often will it be and what will you be involved with musically?

Well, it’s not quite my residency, there are three of us in total; Olsen, Guy Richards and myself. I’ve known Hugo, who runs Selective Hearing and is now booking Joshua Brooks, for a little while. He told me the plans he had for refreshing the club, and asked if I’d like to be resident at a night centred around live electronic performances; something you don’t always see enough of.

I agreed, and we talked about who we’d like to see play, then out of a list of about fifteen names, he went and booked six of them; Three shows between now and Christmas. Between that and the new sound system they’ve installed, it seemed like a pretty sweet deal, so we’ll see how it goes.

What guests are you looking forward to playing alongside?

Well, having had an initial say in deciding who to book, I’m fortunate enough to be able to say, “all of them”. But The Field are a really important band to me, and their 2007 record From Here We Go Sublime (stream below on Spotify) is one of my all time favourite albums.

I haven’t seen them live for a few years, and the last time I did was in Platt Fields park at around noon on a Sunday, which in retrospect is completely absurd - especially as they were as hypnotic and absorbing as usual, even when playing to around three dozen people.

They sent me down some great avenues musically, so I’m looking forward to setting the mood with anything I love at the moment that’s somehow rooted in their sound. Although I must add that, to me, they’re pretty timeless.

The best thing about all three nights, and hopefully the residents in general, is that they make sense as a whole, yet they’re all represent something different. Which makes it challenging as a DJ, in a good way.

For someone who isn't aware of your style, how would you describe it?

I’ve grown pretty cold towards the word ‘eclectic’, meaningless as it seems these days, so it’s fair to say I broadly just play good music rooted in house, disco and techno. Manchester has a really strong bar scene as far as DJs go, and I’ve been a part of that, at Kosmonaut, Common, Joshua Brooks itself.

Playing records in a bar, often for five or six hours, is actually a pretty sweet spot if you approach it right. You can’t simply rely on massive tunes and have to avoid keeping it predictable, simply in order to just keep it interesting for yourself and everyone else drinking in there.

I’m not a musician, so I’ve no idea of what makes a record great beyond my own taste, but I like to think I lean towards more idiosyncratic and offbeat dance music, which hopefully Neighbourhoods provides a place for. Then again, there’s a place for everything, even if I’m not invited. 

Where else can we catch you in Manchester?

Well, there’s the aforementioned bars, then occasionally Soup Kitchen, too, and now there’s Neighbourhoods on the rota. I’m currently looking into doing a radio show or a podcast, and I’ve got some records from friends I want to put out too, when the time is right.

I also write about music for The Skinny each month, and for The Guardian each week. Aside from that, on the left hand side of Piccadilly Records, then working clockwise. Or maybe at home? Please, call ahead. 

The city will be feeling an influx of new students shortly, but if you had to list a few essential things Manchester newcomers must get to grips with, what would they be?

Get confident at incredibly dull conversations about rain. After eight years here, I’m absolutely brilliant at squeezing every last drop of life out of them. With that in mind, I’d advise all Freshers to act wise and purchase resistant, high quality waterproofs. Glamorous advice there, from the VIP end of the club.

Staying dry aside, good local record labels to check: Ruf Kutz, Red Lazer, Modern Love, Melodic. 

Finally you've been given the task of programming a full weekend of club events at Joshua Brooks, as well as an unlimited budget and Rufus from Bill and Ted complete with time travelling  phone box, so you can pick any artist dead or alive from any point in their career. Who do you get on?

Interesting you should mention that! I was actually offered the chance to do this earlier in the year, by the good people at Red Bull. I was warned time travel is exceedingly risky, and that the slightest change to the past can dramatically endanger the future of humanity.

Nonetheless, it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I hopped in the machine with my unlimited budget and tuned it to land at the Muzik Box, Chicago, 1985, in order to enlist the services of Ron Hardy. I approached him at the end of the night, and explained my situation. He thanked me for the offer, but said that he was waiting to hear if he was doing The Warehouse Project first. Seemed cool though.

The first Neighborhoods party is Friday 3rd October at Joshua Brooks, with Fatima with a full live band and Alexander Nut joining John and the other residents Olsen and Guy Richards - head here for tickets or follow the box below.

Join the Joshua Brooks group.

Tickets are no longer available for this event