August 7, 2024 |
Rally Festival is a double threat. Aside from boasting a hefty programme built from dance and live music’s most exciting upcoming names, the Southwark-based event, which this year marks its second edition, has its heart in the right place. Inspired by DIY culture and the impact of boundary-pushing on London’s music scene, Rally is poised to become the next must-have ticket for the capital’s keenest festivalgoers. Organised by the team behind Peckham’s Gala Festival, in collaboration with independent event company Bird On The Wire, Rally is a one-day event on August 24, occupying a desirable slot as the perfect precursor to Carnival weekend.
A space that promotes collaboration, progressivism, inclusion and diversity, founder Giles Napier places South London’s musical community at Rally’s heart. “There’s some incredibly hardworking and passionate communities helping to boost the cultural ecosystem system down here,” he says. “Venues like Jumbi, Corsica Studios, The Carpet Shop, Venue MOT, Ormside Projects and Avalon Cafe, who we work closely with, deserve huge recognition as they’re so much more than just spaces – they’re the lifeblood of south London’s music scene. It’s well documented that nightlife is having a tough time right now and these venues are all doing amazing things in supporting newcomers and emerging talent while helping to bring through the next generation of dancers and alternative music fans. Their dedication to the scene is very inspiring.”
Platforming what is already there is important to the founder and the Rally team, but so is creating opportunities for grassroots talent to flourish. “This year, we’re collaborating with south London-based curator Haja Fanta, who has a deep connection to the grassroots arts scene,” Napier says. “She’s pulled together a wide range of artists working across various mediums to respond to Rally’s ‘art of gathering’ theme. We’ve more than doubled the number of artists and collectives exhibiting work this summer, making it a more collaborative and inclusive space. It definitely helps to elevate the vibe at the festival as well as fostering a greater sense of togetherness.”
With a line-up that emphasises multiple artistic disciplines from electronic music to spoken word, Rally is unlike your bog-standard music festival. “We always want to create the most visually stimulating experience possible for the audience and a site full of art certainly helps deliver that,” Napier explains. “We’re also seeing more and more cross-disciplinary artists producing work that we absolutely love. On the line-up this year Anu and Call Super, will showcase their art as well as DJ, and James Massiah is bringing his spoken word concept Adult Entertainment after performing live. There’s also an innate desire to kick back against an industry that’s becoming ever more commercialised and sponsor-heavy. Art installations over brand activations is the Rally mantra.”
Armed with an honourable mission statement and a passion for making a positive impact, Rally’s sophomore outing will hopefully mark many years to come. Speaking on his hopes for the festival in the next few years, Napier says, “Each year we get to do this is a blessing, so simply continuing is contentment enough. However, when the time is right, we would love to expand the programming across multiple days, similar to what we’ve achieved with Gala. It’d allow us to deliver even more diverse and boundary-pushing experiences while opening up space for collaborations.”
Keen to find out what we can expect, we sat down with three performing artists – Call Super, Mount Kimbie and Danielle – about why festivals like Rally are so important and what they’re most looking forward to about the incoming festivities.
Call Super
1. You’re born and raised in London – how has the capital influenced the music you play and produce?
Hugely. I’ve always been a fan of almost everything musically (literally) and this city will often give you all of it in the highest quality it exists. It’s taught me to take what you please from what you love and not to ever be conformist when it comes to genre and style.
2. Why are festivals like Rally so important for London’s music scene?
Without things that cater to niche audiences we end up with a one dimensional mono culture scene. This is where life should be thriving and where our energies should be, otherwise you’re just in it for yourself.
3. Collaboration is at the heart of Rally and also a regular feature of your career – what impact do you feel collaboration has had on your career and the wider electronic community?
Honestly sometimes it can just help share the workload and allow people to play to their strengths. Beyond that yes, of course, it can be a path to learning from each other and maybe a new vibe from the alchemy of it, but it really depends! I would say that so much of my creative process is spent feeding back into friends’ music and having my stuff dissected and that feels more crucial to the idea of collaborating than the things we publicly present as collabs.
4. Rally roots itself in the intersection between music and art – how does it feed into your role as a DJ and producer?
I’ve always seen writing music in the same way I see painting pictures. Guess that is the norm for people who come through a mix of creative pursuits. I was at Camberwell School of Art and my parents taught at art schools so this was all just in the nature of my upbringing. I’m grateful for it!
5. Who are you are excited to share the bill with at this year’s Rally Festival?
I’m most excited for the live acts if I’m honest. ML Buch and Alabaster DePlume probably top that list. Lots of great DJs but I haven’t had a chance to see those two and I loved their records last year. So yeah, excited!
Mount Kimbie
1. You’re now a four-piece instead of a two-piece – how has that influenced the music you create?
At it’s best, it’s just the great side of collaboration where all of our individual personalities are there but the end result is something greater than the sum of those parts.
We’ve built up a great creative relationship with Marc and Andrea over several years of playing live and the experiences of playing with them definitely influenced the ideas we would come with as a duo. Writing and working on music with all of our voices present was just the most fun way of working on this record.
2. You recently released your first album in seven years – how was the experience and what are you most looking forward to about performing it live at Rally Festival?
It was a very fun record to make. Quite early on we found a world we wanted to work in and then it was just a case of exploring and learning new things while trying to bring all of our experiences along. We’ve been in tour mode and played a lot of festivals already so really looking forward to being able to bring the best version of the band to Rally and London.
3. As a group, collaboration is a key aspect of the music you make – why is it important to you to champion festivals like Rally which has collaboration at its heart?
We’re very happy to be playing an independent festival in London whose focus is so clearly on quality original music. In terms of collaboration from an organisational side, it’s essential that people who want to create a healthy culture around music do this work together as it’s the only way to stand against more commercial, aggressively homogenous events that are really only here to extract.
4. Who are some artists you are excited to share the bill with at this year’s Rally Festival?
Genuinely too many to mention, it’s my favourite line-up we’ve ever been on! I’ll pick out three in Chanel Beads, ML Buch and DJ Marcelle but there’s so many.
Danielle
1. You got your start in electronic music working in Phonica Records when you were 18 – how have you seen the capital’s electronic music scene change from then to now?
There’s certainly not as many HMV’s! I’m kidding, but it definitely has changed a lot, but that’s London after all, it always has been and always will be ever-evolving. In my opinion, the biggest difference is the amount of so-called ‘institutions’ that are left, and especially not in places like the West End. There’s a handful of record shops and clubs that are still going or thriving as much as they were back then, but not compared to the amount there used to be. Over time though, new record shops, clubs and venues have opened up and are doing things in a fresh, new way, and currently there’s a ton of great stuff going on. Lots of these new spots have also popped up in areas which were lacking in that department and are also often very community driven, which is great.
2. You have a lot of international festivals lined up this summer – what makes London festivals like Rally special?
For me, playing in London is special, firstly because I am from there, and no longer live there so I always like to have an excuse to visit! Secondly, because as you say, I play internationally a lot more now compared to when I first started out, and when you don’t play somewhere as often, it makes it all the more notable when you do. Rally is special for a few reasons, firstly its not solely a DJ-focussed line-up, there are less DJ’s than there are live acts, and I feel very lucky to have been included in the selection. As a north London gal, I’ve only been getting to know south in the last few years as my brother and most of my friends live there now, and it’s so great to be playing locally to my friends in a city such as London where the location of a show can make all the difference to whether they come out or not!
3. Rally roots itself in the intersection between music and art – how does that feed into your role as a selector?
The two are closely linked for me, as I view my job as a DJ as a kind of art-form in itself. Like with art, it requires skill, taste, hand-eye coordination, requires a lot of practice and training to get good at it. Plus, when an event, a record label, a sleeve etc has good artwork that can make all the difference between something being listened to or attended or gaining the interest or reputation it deserves.
4. How do your selections change when working out a set for a club night in comparison to a day festival like Rally?
I am very much generalising here, and as I haven’t played Rally before it’s hard to say for sure. But, there are a few reasons that club sets differ from day festivals. For festivals I think as a DJ you have to be conscious that the crowd is going to have a much broader and perhaps less niche interest in the electronic music scene, there will be a lot of people that don’t know who you are, and who are discovering you for the first time. There will also be fans there purely to see you! For this reason, it’s important to showcase what you do, to be authentic and also make your fans happy. But you are perhaps not necessarily going to be the full version of your DJ self, as you’ll more than likely have a shorter set there than at a club, it’s daytime and outdoors, instead of inside in a dark room, there is more competition for attention during your slot etc. You may be having to read the crowd a little more and respond to what they are really enjoying in order to keep them with you and not give them any incentive to go to another stage! In a club, they are often more ‘locked in’ with what you’re up to and that gives you slightly more freedom with what you can deliver to them.
5. Who are some DJs you are excited to share the bill with at this year’s Rally Festival?
Lots of friends are playing including Call Super, Ogazon, Lena Willikens, Moopie, Two Shell and Pearson Sound so naturally I’m excited to see them all do their thing! I will be going b2b with DJ Fart In the Club for the first time so that is very exciting! I saw ML Buch play earlier in the year and it was great, I didn’t know her music at the time, but I do now so I’m excited to watch her performance again and for it to be more recognisable.
Top Image courtesy of Seb Gardner.
