“I’m giving this 12 months” Mikah Freeman Interview on Academy Nightclub
“Then all of a sudden this super club just kind of drops and Jim and Chris Fraser are behind it. It just felt like it was something special, but also just like, holy crap, we've got our own super club. How is this gonna be sustainable? It was almost like, I’m giving this 12 months”
Mikah Freeman - Yeah, it's kind of crazy when you broached the idea to me it kind of made me really reminisce and take stock of how influential it was in the early years of my career as a DJ and the various projects and artistic endeavours that I participated in over the years. So many amazing memories. It's been wild. And Jim Medcraft, who is still a very close friend of mine, he's been instrumental in a lot of these kind of artistic endeavours that I've participated in over the years as well as creating content for our shows, and being our tour manager and stuff like that. I'll forever be really grateful for his involvement in my career for sure.
Nic Vevers - One of the things he captured was a 2009 CD launch for The Aston Shuffle. On these old tapes from Academy’s heyday, do you remember that gig?
Mikah - I do, man. That was kind of a moment where, selling out Academy based on your own headline show. I was like wow, I guess we're doing things, we're doing something that's meaningful to your home crowd. I felt like when I was coming up as a DJ a lot of our industry peers didn't really give too many F's for Canberra, everyone was kind of always like, oh, you're from Canberra you know. It was crazy, but it always felt like we had such an amazing scene down here.
“So many great artists have come from Canberra who ultimately probably had their career start in this local super club.”
Nic - So let’s go back before Academy opened. What were you doing before 2004? Were you DJing at that point?
MF When you kind of reach out, it's really made me take stock of my own career in terms of its path and where I've come and where I've gone and crazy enough, I think I had my first gig in the year 2001. That was my first kind of proper gig and it was in an infamous nightclub called Heaven. A whole plethora of DJs, artists and people within the scene all kind of started their clubbing days at this infamous nightclub called Heaven. And that just really solidified my drive and my enthusiasm to want to become a DJ. And then that obviously, transitioned into learning music and music production and stuff like that. But there was a lot of pretty amazing clubs kicking around at that time like Lot 33. Then all of a sudden this super club just kind of drops and Jim and Chris Fraser are behind it. It just felt like it was something special, but also just like, holy crap, we've got our own super club. How is this gonna be sustainable? Is Canberra even gonna be able to deal with having such a massive club? But it really, I think, launched Canberra on the map in the sense that now they could probably start booking those really, really big superstar headlining DJs because you've got the capacity. So it was a really exciting time, but it was almost like, I’m giving this 12 months, man, you know, this is just too big overheads, it must be just ridiculously crazy. How's this sustainable in Canberra?
NV What did it mean for an aspiring DJ to have a venue of that size?
MF It was awesome man, obviously Canberra clubs were a lot smaller, you had those 200 300 capacity venues. So it was all kind of intimate, which is what kind of made those shows kind of special, but as a DJ, to have this platform where you're DJing in front of 600- 700 people, depending on how jammed they got in there at times, it really kind of taught you how to DJ a big room, the sounds just so much bigger. The stakes felt a little bit higher, it certainly taught me a lot about performance and crafting sets that more catered to those bigger crowds and stuff like that. I guess for me, as well, it also made me become more adaptable and flexible as a DJ musically, because while I was more focused on these slightly smaller rooms, I guess my DJing sound on a personal level was probably more underground or left field or was made for those intimate crowds.
“DJing is the passion for me, performing is the passion. I want to be able to play in a room like Academy or play in an intimate venue. So yeah, it made me really develop as a DJ big time.”
NV How about with The Aston Shuffle, what impact do you think Academy had on that part of your career?
MF Yeah, I think it had a huge impact. I think again, it gave us the platform to learn how to perform on a bigger stage, we're doing it in our own hometown. So I guess by the time we were touring pretty heavily, it felt like we could adapt and be flexible in any kind of room that we're playing in, we were so diverse in terms of the music we had to offer. We felt pretty confident being able to walk into any room or any situation or at least be able to perform in a in a meaningful way and connect with crowds and stuff like that. So yeah, it was hugely influential on us for sure.
NV What were the standout memories you have in that place?
MF Yeah I've been trying to think of some and I mean there's so many to bring up but I think obviously doing our own sold out show for that Ministry night was a massive moment in the early kind of part of our careers. I was fortunate but unfortunate enough to have to play after Justice one time which was like peak Justice man. This is like there was arguably no bigger acting in electronic music at the time and I had the very tough task of having to play after Justice. If I had to connect it to something that was similar it's almost like in that movie 8 Mile where the rapper just basically burns Eminem so hard and he just has to drop the mic and walk away. Like he's got nothing you know what I mean? That was essentially what happened to me. Nobody sticks around after that, that was like the biggest tumbleweeds ever. But for me it was very grounding and humbling you know. You kind of go, okay so that's what it looks like when you're a mega superstar in the peak of your career. It's good to have those moments as a DJ. It's humbling but didn't make me feel great at the time, that's for sure.
NV So what do you think generally, the impact of Academy was on Canberra and the music here?
MF It was so huge in a sense. I guess the greatest thing about Academy is it was always kind of adaptable to what was going on. So many scenes and sounds and genres have kind of come and gone during its life. I've seen some of the biggest house acts playing that room, some of the biggest trap artists playing that room, drum and bass artists. Every scene and sound has gone through that room and it all kind of felt like it sort of worked. Like I remember when Jim was even doing live shows there, he was doing bands in that room, and I was like there's no way in the world this is gonna work but he managed to put on some killer live shows. While we might have all been probably tired of the club and the name by the time it finished up, it was so instrumental to the nightlife scene in Canberra and electronic music and dance music. I'm sure we've all kind of got a moment, a standout night. I think it's touched us all as a community.
NV What was it like being a part of the closing night, playing there one last time?
MF I was very privileged to just play a few records at that very last night. Just to be able to just go up there and just play a couple of records to go ‘thanks very much’, it was pretty special to me, that's for sure. And yeah, I'll always be grateful as an individual that I seemed to have had some kind of impact on that venue. It was definitely something pretty special to be a part of for sure.
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