Non-DJ Electronic Musicians of Melbourne began as a Facebook group dedicated to strengthening the electronic community, catering to those who aren’t DJs. Not that they have anything against DJs, they just want to bring together electronic artists who want to play with similar acts. Two years on and with a free event to mark their success, the organisation has gone from strength to strength.
“It was a group that started in 2015. At the time, a lot of the Facebook groups were made up of DJs,” says organiser Thom O’Leary. “Live electronic acts were looking for other live electronic acts to connect with. We tend to play in the bar and pub scene. There was already a community but it was about building that community up, developing better connections.”
To be a non-DJ electronic musician doesn’t mean DJs are entirely excluded. “It’s any kind of creation or production of electronic music that involves either musical instruments or launch pad, different hardware devices,” says O’Leary. “There are even acts that have a DJ but then they’ll incorporate live instruments. That’s the basis of the whole thing, about having a live performance aspect to the act.”
In the two years since the organisation began hosting these events for the electronic music community, O’Leary says they’ve put on roughly 16 events, with around 70 different acts involved. “There’s a broad spectrum of acts involved,” he says. “Some might be electronic acts that have world music influences, some are more industrial type acts, some more synth pop. Anything electronic goes.”
O’Leary has witnessed some obscure musicians come on the circuit in NDEMM’s time. “One of the acts we have playing at our two-year celebration, Zen Robotic, are a three-piece band with a sitar player and saxophonist. They’re a really interesting act.”
The two-year celebration of the more underground side of electronic music has drawn a variety of interesting acts, sure to further diversify the group and Melbourne electronic music. O’Leary has chosen these acts for their creativity, enthusiasm, skill and willingness to broaden the community.
“For this particular event, the artists have been chosen because they’ve been good contributors to the group, people I’ve noticed have stuck their neck out, not just been a great act musically but have made a great contribution to what we’re trying to achieve.
“One of the acts, Brkn Fixie – a guy called Gerrard Jenner–he’s been putting together a weekly non-DJ electronic gig guide on the Facebook group. A guy called Kable54, he’s made one-hour podcasts to promote four of our events. Simon [Quinn, organiser] has done more than anyone in terms of putting on and promoting events. Elenor Rayner [Sobriquet Nation] she’s from New Zealand and really wanted to come over and play one of our shows. Over time, we’ve had five or six acts come down from Sydney and at the most recent event, an act came down from Queensland.”
Being such a broad community, this is a great opportunity for people to expand not only their network but their understanding and skill in electronic music. “It’s a really eclectic community,” O’Leary says. “It’s based on trying to help others. If everyone helps each other, we’re stronger as a group than we are as individual acts. It’s not my group, it’s our group.
“When I started this, I had no expectations whatsoever to have done as well as it has. I’m really grateful to everyone who has participated and contributed to the success of the group. But it’s not about me, it’s about us.”
Because of its members’ unwavering commitment to their craft, the NDEMM will continue to grow. In just a few weeks after the two-year anniversary celebration, the organisers will hold an open meeting to discuss the possibility of podcasts, radio programmes and more.
“We were discussing how there’s no particular radio programme out there that fits us as a community. There are electronic shows that can be very dance orientated. We’re going to expand, keep on doing two events a month and keep doing things like the weekly gig guide and continuing to branch out and make a stronger network that’s all about supporting each other.”
