Page 66 - DemoZone Magazine Issue 003

So, tell us a bit about yourself; who you are where you DJ and have you got some production of tracks out.
Hello. Raymond Studden, DJ under the pseudonym of Serotonic. I live in Greenock, Scotland. I'm 39 and have been DJing for 10 years but have been involved in making tunes and organising parties since I was a teenager. DJ'ing was the last thing I got into, a late developer on that front.
Just now I'm playing various places, including The Club(69) in Paisley where I have recently started a new night called 'System Crash' with fellow DJ Changy. I've been doing other nights in The Club for about 6 years now along with some other fellow DJ's. Also I did a few nights in the legendary Glasgow Soundhaus, now closed down. Those have been the main ones, but there have been others scattered around Scotland over the years. My other main current projects are the quarterly Live and Underground events which include the Loch Lomond Boat Party.
You run the 'maid of the loch' boat parties can you tell us more about this and where it all started and why?
I can't take all the credit for the Boat Parties as there have been many others involved along the way. The first ever Boat Party was 'Rock the Boat' back in 2010 and this wasn't my idea. I heard about it from Stevie Wilson when we were DJ'ing together at The Club69. He knew Alex McNally, the guy who was running the event and said Alex was looking for some guys to do the DJ side of things. Together with Stevie, Kenny Marshall & Robert Friend from Diversify, which was the night we did together in The Club, we, along with a few other promoters, did the dance music for the first ever Boat Party. This was the only one of the Rock the Boat events, but Kenny, Rob and myself continued for the next two years as the DC69 & Diversify Loch Lomond Boat Party.
Then in September 2012 I did one with my missus Gill to celebrate our wee lassie being born. We had Mark McGhee from Traffic Cone Records & the Girobabies in to stage manage and book some of the live bands for this one. This was to be the start of what is now the Live and Underground Loch Lomond Boat Party and has been for the last three years. Mark, as it happens, was also involved with the first ever Boat Party in 2010, so it has all come full circle. He deals with the bands and Hip-Hop, bringing together line-ups that would grace any festival in the land. I do general organising of the boring stuff behind the scenes and book the Techno DJ's & live acts. It works well, we are a good partnership and also have done other Live and Underground events in Glasgow together with the same idea and vibe as the Boat Parties with some Live Bands in one room and Underground DJ's in another. It makes for a great night where there is something different on in two rooms of the same venue. Our crowd love this as we are all mainly festival types who are after the little something alternative from the typical City Centre night out.
You have been spinning tracks for a while where would you say has been your best gig so far and why?
I think that would be the Soundhaus closing party 3 years ago. It was the end of an era when the place closed down due to redevelopment of the area. The place was absolutely rammed in every room that night and had that "back in the day" kinda feel, it was an unforgettable night in so many ways. The icing on the cake was playing the last set of the night in Padded Cell Room as part of Kalision Kalektive with Pete Mullen aka Kabel & Darren Corbett from Technogramm. The last tune in the Soundhaus that night was a remix we did of 'Happy House' by Siouxie and the Banshees. The manager Lynn had asked us to remix the tune for the last night and it went down a storm.
RAYMOND STUDDEN
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT [U..K..]