Cally Gage

In a short space of time, Cally Gage has become one of the biggest names in Hard Dance. Since winning the Tidy Summer Camp DJ Competition in 2004, Miss Gage has gone on to achieve more than most DJs accomplish in a decade, being famed for her DJ sets and stage presence. We catch up with the princess of Hard Dance.


For those not aware of you, please give us a brief introduction to who you are.
Hi guys, I’m Cally Gage and I’m a hard dance DJ. I am currently signed to the STRIKE agency along with other DJ’s such as Lisa Lashes, BK, Andy Whitby and Anne Savage. I play everything from bouncey hard house to filth, with a bit of hard trance and some good old hard house in there for good measure!! I like to play everything really – I like to put a whole night into my set and take everyone on a journey with me.

What is your opinion of the hard dance scene in 2008?
Very exciting! I feel that hard dance has really turned a corner this year, which is fantastic. So many new DJ’s, producers and promoters have come through recently and have been given the recognition they deserve. They have all given hard dance a big kick up the backside. Everything needs to evolve and change to keep alive and move forward and I really feel that hard dance is achieving that this year.

What inspires you to do this?
The clubbers! Having them follow me to my gigs each and every weekend is such a fantastic feeling and seeing them go absolutely mental on the dancefloors is so infectious! As a DJ you really feed off this and that’s what’s really inspiring, It’s what it’s all about for me. At the end of the day without the clubbers, we all wouldn’t be here anyway!


You’ve recently been selected for the album project 'BK Presents 'The Nu Wave’ - how did your collaboration with BK come about?
I’m not really sure to be honest! Both BK and I are signed to the massive STRIKE agency, so they put me in touch with Ben (BK) as I had been talking about dipping my toe into the world of production and who better to do my first track with, other than the man himself! I knew that Ben was doing an album with a lot of the leading DJ’s in the scene at the moment, but didn’t for the life of me think he’d ask me to go into the studio! So, we got chatting, came up with a date and that’s it really – it was as simple as that!!!

What’s the inspiration behind the track?
As it was my first time in the studio, I didn’t have anything to compare it to and didn’t really know how prepared to be! I just went along with a bunch of samples that I had found, played a few tracks that I liked to Ben and we took it from there really. I am chuffed to bits with what we came up with to be honest, and can’t wait to go into the studio with Ben again sometime soon – I’ll definitely be a lot more prepared this time though!

What’s it like working with BK?
Amazing! I learnt so much from him, not just on the engineering side of things but just generally chatting to him about his career and taking advice on mine. He was probably bored stiff from my relentless questioning, but it isn’t very often that you get the chance to spend 2 days with someone as talented as Ben and I took full advantage of that!

What is your dream gig?
Oh god, this is a hard one – I haven’t been all over the world yet to be able to decide, lol! Maybe somewhere very exotic and in a far-flung place! I’d love to play on the main stage of a huge festival on a beach somewhere, with the sun setting in the background of it all. Now that would be a dream gig, I’m sure.

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing?
I’m not really sure, as this is all I’ve wanted to do. I haven’t really thought about it not working out and having to look for something else. Maybe I should start thinking about a back-up plan then?!!

You’re organising the 'end of the world’ party, who’s on the guest list and who’s not coming in?
Well I don’t think I would have a 'not coming in’ list really, as the people I wouldn’t want to be there, just wouldn’t be invited - bit of a copout I know, sorry! The guest list would have to be quite large as well though please? I would obviously invite all of my friends and family, my dog Henry would be there and I would definitely invite Jeremy Kyle too!

What’s next for you?
Lots, I always like to keep busy and I’m always thinking about the next thing I need to do! Since being in the studio with Ben, I have made a couple of other tracks – one with Klubfiller and another with Tom Parr (I’ve got the bug now you see!), I’ve also been lucky enough to go to Ibiza a couple of times this summer, as well as play over in Tai Pei, Taiwan. I’ve got a few big gigs coming up in the next couple of months that I’m really looking forward to – the massive Q-Base in Germany and also Hard House Academy’s 8th birthday. That’s about it really, that should be enough to keep me busy for now!


BK Presents 'The Nu Wave’ is out on Riot! Recordings.

http://www.riotinlondon.com/
http://www.myspace.com/djcallygage
http://www.bkworld.net/