Interview – DJ Rousa
For someone who has traveled within Perth DJ circles for longer than most, Aaron Morgan, aka Rousa, still holds a distinguished place in the ears of many as a champion of a genre which has had incredible highs, and incredible lows. From the heady days of large scale events, where it took the forefront of almost every stage, to the sometimes quiet backrooms of the Hyde Park on ROAR Tuesdays with other DJs such as Hutcho, Mental and Kevin, Hardcore has seen its fair share of DJs come and go – many lingering, many retiring, and many moving to the at times affable fields of drum n bass. Yet there is no doubt in anyone’s mind, that hardcore has played a major part in the shaping of Perths club scene – and Rousa has contributed more than his fair share of dedication to keeping the genre, not only alive, but fresh and kicking.
Rousa played his first gig at an skating rink in Geraldton, playing top 40 at the Rollerdrome, and after some time playing various underground gigs scored his first big event filling in for BJam at the Ascii99 event at the Jack Sue Gallery. As he shows me a key ring he still owns from his first gigs, a little worse for wear due to the passage of time, he admits that the event at the Jack Sue didnt exactly go as planned – “I remember that the decks were moving, the records were slipping and I was train-wrecking a lot”, he says with a laugh. “You know, all those early gigs were great, but my memory’s pretty hazy – maybe it wasn’t that bad.”
When Rousa plays, the punters come – and in When confronted by the most obvious question, why play hardcore, he laughingly replies “I know what you’re going to say!” in reference to the mistaken notion that it is a genre past its prime.
“You see, the first time I listened to hardcore was at my cousins 21st party, and Dr Willis, who is now a successful Melbourne DJ, was playing – that was the first time I ever used 1200’s as well – afterwards I asked him for a mix-tape and it just went on from there. I even remember the very first record I mixed – Total Confusion – I actually own it now, I didn’t back then.
“Hardcore went through a bit of a lull for a few years, but lately its really started to pick up – people like Scott Brown say that they are doing more Hardcore gigs now than they ever have been before, and Clubland Extreme, a hardcore CD, is the biggest pre-selling hardcore album ever.”
Labels like Nucleas and Nebulous took over the hardcore niche after Alpha Magic, one of the biggest hardcore distributors, went bankrupt, suddenly finding a void – other labels who had predominantly focuesed on Trance and other forms of hard dance also began to come to the fore, and began pushing an envelope that most had thought had already burst.
“A few years ago, a lot of ravers didn’t really like Hardcore – they were more into d’n'b, but now there’s a lot of people from that genre coming to like it more – its become really popular again – back then, no one thought that a hardcore night at Rise was possible, and now its a regular thing – I still cant believe it.”
“Simon sees the past and how it used to be – he genres were all mixed up at the events back then, it was more the vibe of the music – and that’s what he is trying to reproduce at Rise. The crew there is good like that – one moment they’ll be rinsing out to Greg Packer, and then the same crowd will be dancing to Simon playing Trance.”
“Its that that, as the boss, Simon is a DJ as well – the sound system is always good – its fantastic – and he looks after all the DJs and internationals who come through really well.”
Being a genre that is older than most others, the new success of the style at a club that has seen an entire history of the genre pass through its doors is no surprise. “A lot of people remember the way it was back then, and they come back to try to recapture a part of that past – where they were, the events they went to, a certain girl at a Rave – and of course, there is the new crowd, the younger fans who really love the old sound, they hear the music and try to be a part of something that they never had the opportunity to be a part of.”
“A few years ago, Hardcore went though a stage where it was really monotonous, but in the last year, the quality has really improved, and I’ve started loving it all over again.”
“My music tastes are more diverse now, from trance to hardcore to d’n’b, I actually listen to a lot more music than I used to – if you get stuck in one small area and you don’t look outside of that genre, everything becomes really stale. There are only two styles of music for me really – good music, and bad music.”
Tags: alpha magic, dr willis, hardcore, hyde park hotel, nebulous, nucleus, perth, rave, ROAR, rousa, the rise