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The so-called 'Portugal connection' in Amsterdam is clearly present. Since 2014, I've been friends with some of these DJs and producers. In 2022, I interviewed photographer, DJ, and producer Salomao Nunes about his debut. "You want to make sure everything is set up properly and all the wires are in place, so it's: check, check, and check again."
“I partly grew up near Lisbon in Oeiras with my grandparents, at least during the week. My father wasn’t around, and my mother had two jobs and thus little time. When I was with her on weekends, African music was constantly playing from the speakers. A legacy from my mother who had lived in Angola during her youth.”
Punk and ska bands
“In the nineties, I often listened to the radio. My first encounter with electronic music was 2 Unlimited. I recorded tracks from them and other dance acts on cassette tapes to listen to later. I also listened to bands like Simple Minds and Genesis. Essentially, I’m a true ‘techno-head’, but I also love good music in general. By the end of the nineties, I worked with a friend for concert venues. He had a small audio company, and I was the lighting technician. We mainly worked with punk and ska bands. Quite different!” (laughs)
Vinyl was tricky
“By that time, I was more involved with dance music. We often had school parties where trance was played. I also wanted to become a DJ at that time, but unfortunately, I failed. I found vinyl quite challenging. However, I was the one who filmed everything. So, in 1992 or ’93, I was at a party where I recorded everything with my small video camera. It’s not surprising that film and photography eventually became my core business.”
Hard rock
“At that time, dance music wasn’t very popular in Portugal. Hard rock dominated, think of Iron Maiden. Sometimes I sneaked into a club, but you mostly heard commercial house there. A track that often played was, for example, Katana with Feels Like Magic. None of my friends had a DJ set at home, so I couldn’t really practice either.”
Psychedelic trance
“What happened then? Well, Amsterdam happened! In 2006, I moved here permanently from Portugal. Not because of the music, though. By that time, my dream of becoming a DJ had been thoroughly crushed. Also due to personal circumstances, like a relationship and my changed musical interest. I listened a lot to psychedelic trance.”
Connection
“In 2007, a few colleagues took me to the Melkweg for a Mason performance. I was incredibly impressed by the energy of that man and his style of playing live. That evening, I reconnected with electronic music. This outing was the beginning of a new start. Not that I revived the dream of being a DJ. No, I just started going out again!”
Traktor
“The turning point regarding DJing came when I saw Richie Hawtin play at Paradiso. The venue was set up in such a way that you had an intimate setting and could get close to the DJ. When I saw Richie at work, doing everything with a computer, I thought to myself, ‘This actually seems very easy.’ Not long after, I bought Traktor and started downloading music to work with myself. Then I played a few times at friends’ homes, but I’m quite modest and found it quite exciting.”
Self-taught
“No, I didn’t have a mentor to learn DJing. I’m self-taught. Three people have had a big influence on how I DJ today. First of all, Richie Hawtin, who inspired me enormously in terms of technology. The other two are Alex Under and Paco Osuna.”
Organizing parties
“At one point, in 2011, a few friends and I came up with a concept called MIDi-Club. The party took place at Café Batavia in Amsterdam. Because I had been working in the showbiz for years, I had an idea of how to organize such a party. The line-up included, among others, local event organizers Der Process (Pablo), Ludwig Rausch (Trip to Bermuda, DOTS.), and myself, of course.” (laughs) “Pablo is now a diving instructor in Indonesia, but Ludwig is still busy in Munich, where he currently lives. Others on our line-ups were Amsterdam artists who have made their mark on the legal and illegal scene. You can think of Dante & Sep, Jhon Spark, and Tziano Sterpa. As we organized parties more often, we booked more well-known names such as Ici Sans Merci and Nathan Surreal.”
Pre-gig nerves
“I was so nervous for that first gig in front of an audience! Such typical pre-gig nerves. You want to make sure everything is set up properly and all the wires are in place, so it’s: check, check, and check again. Of course, I had prepared the set at home down to the last minute. I started with FM Radio Gods – 333 (D-Nox and Beckers Remix) and I still remember what I ended with: Dubfire & Oliver Huntemann – Fuego (Original Mix). Yeah, I was all about the ‘heavy preparation’. In my heart, I knew I would perform well. No, I don’t meticulously prepare like that anymore. I do pick out a few records beforehand, but eventually, I discover on the spot where the moment takes me.”
Drunk compliments
“I was the closer of the evening, and afterwards, I was ecstatic because it had gone so well. Of course, you make a mistake now and then, but mistakes are natural and part of the process. At the end of the event, the drunk compliments flew around: ‘How amazing!'” (laughs) “I myself was very satisfied with the whole thing. After all, I wore three hats: those of organizer, photographer, and DJ. It was our first party, and it went great! The tent was well-filled, and the bar staff was extremely satisfied because there was heavy consumption. After that gig, we organized many more parties and I played in various Amsterdam venues, such as Cue Bar, Korsakoff, Barkode, Club NL, Sugar Factory, Radion, VLLA, and the iconic Paradiso. I have also played internationally in Greece, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Japan, and Cyprus. I now have my own intimate venue at NDSM in Amsterdam.”
Minitech Project
“Around 2014, DJ gigs decreased, and I got more and more photography assignments, often for smaller dance organizations. That way, I kept a foot in the door of the dance scene and came into contact with talented artists. Someone who helped me enormously is Faroukh Hasham from Minitech Project. We met when we were both on the line-up for Techno Tuesday at Sugar Factory in 2014. Then we met again in 2017 and renewed our contact. Faroukh booked me for one of his events, and that’s how I made a comeback as a DJ. I have been helping him with his Minitech Recordings label and events for years now. “Not only as a photographer and artist, but also with the A&R aspect of the label.”
“Due to the coronavirus, everything naturally came to a halt for a while, and there were few gigs. Furthermore, I experienced a burnout last year and was out of commission for a while. Since February, I’ve been slowly picking up everything again. For my peace of mind, I’ve decided that 2023 will be the year when I fully get back into the swing of things. Yes, I will also resume producing. I have my own label and have released some records in the past, but producing takes a lot of time, which I don’t have right now. However, I’m already working on plans for ADE. It will be the first post-Covid ADE, so finally, there’s time and opportunity to reconnect with old friends and acquaintances.”
This interview with Salomao Nunes is originally published on This Is Our House in October 2022.
Who is Salomao Nunes?
Fame, fortune and excess weren’t why Salomao Nunes (in the club scene better known as sa.lomaonun.es) decided to give DJing a go. No, his partying career had much more humble origins: his love for friends. If it wasn’t for his fun-loving, life-embracing amigos and his desire to entertain them even after the clubs’ closing times, he probably never would’ve touched a set of turntables himself.
That said, Salomao Nunes has always had an affinity for danceable music. Electronica has been a staple of his musical diet since day one. In his earlier years he even listened to a lot of rap and hip hop. It’s when he started going to clubs as a young adult that he realized that he didn’t just wanted to consume music, Salomao Nunes wanted to be an active part of it. Unfortunately, it was almost as if the universe was trying to stop him from doing exactly that: not only was beat matching with CDs and vinyl proving to be a more arduous task than he initially imagined, but his mother also threw his prized vinyl collection out the door one day. At that point, it was easy for Salomao to think that, maybe, he just wasn’t meant to be a DJ.
Salomao Nunes stopped pursuing the DJing business for a while, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still regularly fantasize about it. After all, partying was in his DNA, since, ironically, his mother used to give parties at their house all the time. Once an inhabitant of Angola, she enjoyed playing music with very distinct African roots at those parties, which helped shape Salomao’s relationship with ensnaring rhythms and immersive beats (even if he wasn’t particularly fond of his mother’s choice of music back then).
Always hungry for more music, Salomao Nunes discovered psychedelic trance and goa in 2002 and became instantly infatuated. This spurred Salomao Nunes to attend the Boom Festival, which he calls a “true turning point” in his career, after which he was 100% sure that he absolutely could not live without electronic music in his life.
The lack of dance events in Portugal was still being a major problem, though. Furthermore, he was in a steady relationship at that time that almost forced him to settle down. So despite his newfound determination to become a DJ, in 2005, Salomao Nunes got the feeling that his partying life was coming to a sad halt. But then Amsterdam happened.
The country’s capital turned out to be such a fantastic breeding ground for his passions, that, within a year, Salomao Nunes decided to stay there for good. On a fateful night in 2009, he decided to go clubbing in one of Amsterdam’s most well-known clubs, where, all of a sudden, he found himself standing in the DJ booth. He decided to use that opportunity to study the DJ’s actions. He kept listening to the music and the changes that occurred every time the DJ touched a button, knob or fader.
Finally, Salomao Nunes immediately bought some DJ software. He started making mixtapes and really long mixes for the sole purpose of seeing how long he could work the decks without needing a break.
His first real gig took place in November 2009, when a friend asked him to show off his new skills at a birthday party. “I’ll happily do it, but if you think the music sucks, let me know and I’ll stop”, Salomao Nunes said humbly and nervously. But he didn’t need to worry, as he played a fantastic two-hour set that flew by and got everyone at the party in a fun frenzy. The feedback was amazing. It was time to step up his game.
Confident that Salomao Nunes had finally developed a unique mixing style, he started giving parties of his own and accepting gigs at small venues, with varying degrees of success. After acquiring professional gear and throwing some well received Queensday parties, he realized that there was one more thing he needed to focus on if he truly wanted to DJ on a satisfying level: organizing his own events.Luckily, Salomao has always had a knack for organizing events, but this time around, he wasn’t alone. He found some like-minded people with good organizational skills and an insatiable appetite for parties. Before he knew it, MIDI-Club was born.
And MIDI-club is going strong. Having thrown an array of successful parties in the hottest clubs in Amsterdam ever since its conception in 2011, MIDI-club is now more than just a way for Salomao Nunes and his friends to contribute something to Amsterdam’s riveting nightlife. It has become a seal of quality; a name that people ‘in the know’ flock to whenever they want the best percussive house, techhouse and techno have to offer.