Heavy Innit
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Heavy Innit

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Heavy Innit is one of the biggest dubstep party names in Melbourne and this month they celebrate their third birthday. It brings a new phase in their development and provides a chance to reflect on their vision, the party’s progression and the contributions that Heavy Innit has made to the Melbourne’s culture. Three years is a long time in the context of putting on events like Heavy Innit. Promoting parties, including getting the mix of artists right and finding your audience, is a difficult job at the best of times but they have battled their way through with style.

When Brendan Webb and Graeme Orr started Heavy Innit in 2008, as a monthly party at The Laundry in Fitzroy, there was a sense that the baton was being handed from the previous night on Sundays, Bass High. The Laundry had already been the venue for some big dubstep names but Heavy Innit brought a new focus and a stronger platform to deliver them.The parties ran on a monthly basis for a year and featured some big international names including Starkey, Joker, Joe Nice, The Others, and Harmonic313. It all culminated with a massive first birthday party in August 2009 featuring the UK producer Emalkay who was getting some big attention at the time.

Heavy Innit’s next year started with 6Blocc, followed by DJ Distance’s second trip to our shores. Perth’s dubstep queen Kito graced the decks next and made it two parties in both August and September that year. There was a palpable sense that the energy levels had risen. October 2009 brought the first Heavy Innit rave and a line-up so big that they moved to a larger venue. Having previously played at The Laundry, Miss Libertine, and Roxanne Parlour, they took this one to the Hi-Fi Bar. Featuring four international artists, Nero, 2562, Excision, and Anitserum, it finished off the year on a huge high point and expanded the sounds they were featuring. That party also brought a new focus on doing three or four larger parties each year. Over the Summer that year Heavy Innit branched out and ran a few daytime parties in Edinburgh Gardens. It crystallised the brand and ushered in 2010 on a perfect vibe. Since then, Heavy Innit has featured international guests including 16bit, Foreign Beggers, Pinch, Noah-D, Doctor-P, Addison Groove, Deadboy, Cooly G, Roska, and DZ. They’re all artists at the top of their game and the parties have been huge.

After their first rave this year, Webb stepped down from promoting Heavy Innit to focus on music production but the parties continue under the direction of Orr. They have partnered with Too Much! for Too Heavy! featuring UK DJ N-Type and now they are celebrating their third birthday with an all Australian line-up. Orr reflects on that transition as we chat about Heavy Innit’s history. “It has been a massive challenge for me as I’ve taken on a lot of his responsibilities. He was looking after international bookings, media, design amongst other things. In taking this on, I originally thought that it would only be a few extra emails here and there. I’ve come to realise that isn’t the case!”

Some new help is around though: “At the moment we have Matt Bonner aka Bass Bin Laden looking after all the international bookings and touring, Adam Joseph aka A13 helping out with promoting and booking suggestions, and myself looking after local bookings, promoting, media. It is a lot of work, but the end result makes it worthwhile. Of course, the door is always open for Brendan to jump back on board if he ever feels like it.”

As for what defines Heavy Innit nowadays? “There are a lot of bass music parties popping up now and I find a lot of them stick to a particular sound. We’re not in the business of pigeon holing ourselves. I guess you could say Heavy Innit is one of the few parties in Melbourne hosting international artists that cover all sounds within the dubstep and bass music genre.” here’s something for everyone: “Whether you’re into tearout, deep dubstep, grime, UK funky, garage, or UK house I like to think that our parties offer something for everyone. We developed a past reggae/jungle, present dubstep/grime and future UK funky/garage/house theme for our 3 room parties and it seems to work really well.”

Differentiating themselves from the other Melbourne parties like Too Much! and Espionage isn’t a concern. “I don’t really think it’s much of an issue,” says Orr. “We are all friends and have collaborated on gigs together in the past. We all help promote each other’s parties as much as we can.”

For their third birthday Heavy Innit have 15 producers from around Australia; Filth Collins, Sook & Boot aka The Abyss, Spherix, Droid Sector, Chewie, Arctic, Ac23, Donalds House, Dysphemic, J.Nitrous, Mirror State, A13, and Affiks. “We wanted to make this party a big one,” says Orr. “Then we can celebrate with a lot of the artists and crews that we know and have played with us before to create a proper birthday vibe.”

The rest of 2011 is looking busy: “Things are pretty hectic for the rest of the year. The next big Heavy Innit rave is on October 14. We have a few international artists already locked in so keep an eye out for that one. I’m starting a new Grime night called 50/50 along with Fraksha & James ‘Arctic’. The launch party is on September 2 and features London grime producer Teddy aka Silencer. Also in September, A13 & I are taking the Heavy Innit sound to Parklife which we are both excited about. We will also be running the free Summer Innit park parties again.” There’s no stopping this three year old.

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