Be A Body on creating your fave club nights.

The resident DJ at Moth Club, Paper Dress, with nights at the Shacklewell Arms, gives us all the details.

If you have been out in East London recently chances are you have been to one of Be A Body’s nights. Running: Nu Waved and Algorithm of the Night at the Shacklewell arms, real name Patrick, can be spotted in the corner tucked behind the DJ decks getting everyone else going. We hop onto a quick call to see what it takes to keep these nights going and how he got to this stage.

Having started out in the music scene through a number of bands and being a promoter, the transition to being a DJ is a little bit more seamless. He explains, ”It's a different feeling to being on stage. You're not playing your own music. You're not as vulnerable in terms of how people react to it.”

Smiling he continues, “I definitely get a buzz off people dancing, and having a good time to the songs chosen. It depends on what night I'm doing as well. There's one night I do where I DJ with a friend, and we tend to just improv the whole set. We have a few songs, and we just play back and forth.”

There is no cult of personality with Patrick, he just cares about playing good music and letting the speakers carry the crowd through the night.

He continues, “It's more of an anonymous thing. It's faceless to me. There's no real personality around Patrick for any of the nights. It's just the club night.”

“Most people don't realise that some of the nights are connected. They just don't put that much thought into it and that's the point.”

“For some people they are like, ’I'm deadmau5, I'm on TV’ and that's fine. But, I think if you're doing that, you're making original music. I just haven't really pursued that personally.” 

“I prefer it if no one gives me attention when I'm playing.”

Laughing he adds, “A lot of people say ’Oh you should be in a DJ booth on stage’ and I'm like ‘No, I do not want to be involved in that’. I’m just doing my thing.”
So, how do you go about curating the perfect set list, and what happens if it absolutely bombs?

He answers, “Sometimes if you pick a song, and you just see that it's killed the vibe, you find a way out of it a lot quicker. You might get the song halfway and just segway into something else.”

“I do an 80s night at a Moth Club and it's hard to go wrong with that, but, when it's a bit more niche, like the ones that don’t shuffle that well it's harder. So the new wave post-punk night takes some risks. They either pay off or they don't.”

“People always request ABBA it doesn't matter what night you're doing.”

Londoners' tastes seemingly always tilting towards a little bit of ABBA after a few pints, Patrick explains how his role as DJ changes with what he's into.

He starts, “DJs are made of song choices and transitions. That's pretty much it. You're being a tastemaker of some sort, so the best DJs are the ones that, go digging for the songs.”

“The nights I do, I love that genre already so they come naturally in a way, an extension of just whatever my taste was before.”

With more than 3,000 clubs, pubs and bars closing in London since the pandemic any nightlife or performer is feeling the pinch, Patrick explains, “It's an unstable job as well. All it takes is a venue to decide that they’re going to do a different night, or a venue goes down which happens all the time. There's no stability, you can only build a wider range of places to play. It's a high risk, high reward.”

His advice for the next generation navigating these turbulent times is, “Put on your own nights where you can have the most control over what you're doing, put your own sort of spin on things, put yourself into it.”

Gen Z being dubbed the sober curious generation, with 61% of Gen Zers planning to reduce their alcohol intake, Patrick reflects this sentiment, “I've heard many DJs play like shit because they're wasted and they think they're great, but yeah, I don't think those two have to go hand in hand with being wasted and being a DJ.”

Patrick is unlike a large number of DJs within the scene, a kind personality and dedication to crafting tune after tune, highlights why his nights are so successful. 
So, the moral of the story, play what you're into, try not to get wasted and DJ and try not to get wasted and request ABBA.