Damo presents In Our Podcast

This is DJ Damo, otherwise known as Damian Holt, amenable, dedicated, entrepreneurial face who brought “Easy” to west Wales. Quite quickly, on meeting him you’ll see how switched on he is, almost hungry to get on with whatever needs getting on with. If he promises to get something done for you, he’ll deliver - early - with bells on.

In the early to mid 90’s Hip-hop and trance was the order of the day for the then teenage west walian, who only stepped up to house music having dusted off his decks at the turn of the millennium. In those days you would have found him almost daily, warring down the carpet at Floorfillers in Swansea, competing and winning for dibs on the latest prommo’s adding to his already overweight collection every few days.

Consequently he doesn’t travel lightly – you’ll see him at his gigs with an arsenal of records capable of bombing any punter hoping to hear the top ten. Indeed Damo, tends to bring almost his entire collection with him. “I never want to be in a position where I want to play a record that I haven’t brought that night, because you never know, I really might want to play it, and it’s sat at home”. He’s always prepared; prepared to play to the spirit of his audience. And that’s his intention:

“I’ll plan the first and last track, everything in-between is pieced together as I play, once you start performing you hit an intensity that you couldn’t achieve playing at home. The atmosphere of a gig influences you like nothing else, I’ll put tracks together that I wouldn’t have dreamed of had I been mixing at home”.

His break came at Indigo’s bank holiday party in August 2002, where he played outdoors to a crowd of 800 people after only six months back behind the decks. On a mid-summer evening after four hours of constant music, Damo effectively kicked off the second half by briefly bringing silence to the venueslowly re-igniting the party with Black Out – ‘Gotta have hope’ the theme to Space Odyssey 2001, with an undercurrent of funky baselines. This bold move earned him his stripes and an invitation from local ‘face’ Ed Kurno to join Easy firstly in Swansea and later establishing and running the Llanelli night himself

As with other creative outlets, the headphones are a gateway to another galaxy where everyday worries and concerns are firmly locked away. “Performing gives you such a buzz, it’s my idea of escapism, using your skills, knowledge and technical ability to create a bond with the crowd, I’m sure other DJ’s get this feeling”.

However on to more recent times and you will find Damo too has progressed, and now can travel lighter..... Well slightly lighter, with the use of cd's and CDJ's. " Even though cd's are lighter i still find myself bringing everything i own just in case, but not only cd's i still bring the odd piece of vinyl that i haven’t yet put on to cd!"

Wow!! How things have changed from my 1st ever Bio!! Things progressed well from when this was written.

I started my own night along with Ed Kurno called Temporary Insanity, held in Cafe Mambo every other Saturday. This went on for several months before I started another night called In Our House with long time friend Steve Thomas. We played most Played venues in Swansea, had bookings in Cardiff, Bristol and Reading before landing a gig at the infamous CroBar!!

This then led to my 1st residency, not at Crobar though, I was lucky enough to have Nic Lawson in attendance that night. Nic was a resident in the mighty Escape Club and within two weeks my self and Steve were residents too at our Home from Home, the Escape Club.

That brings you up to date in the world of Dj Damo. Keep and ear out for him, you won’t be disappointed I assure you.