When Martin Novosel aka PhDJ plays he mixes a most unlikely spectrum of non-typical club music together to create the most unwieldy and exciting party environments. His mutated DJ style leads a new school of Australian DJs who insist on mixing album tracks and singles rather than traditional and somewhat typical club mixes. “Rather than a deep electro or minimal house beat the onus is on a pure pop appeal of whatever genre. It doesn’t matter whether it is rock, indie, girl-pop, hip hop, soul, electro, punk, or just any popular tune from the last 40 years” says Novosel.
“Expect to hear The Ronettes mashed into Le Tigre, Iggy Pop mixed into Spank Rock, and Jimi Hendrix, Outkast and DFA 1979 doing it in a big indie-pop threesome! Oh, and Belinda Carlisle too, she rocks!!!”
Put simply “It’s just party music!! I beat match whatever I like and whatever I know will get the crowd reacting. And if I can’t beat match it then I just jam it together and hope for the best”. This emphasis on ‘party’ has seen PhDJ become one of the highest profile indie DJs in Sydney and has seen his club Purple Sneakers become one of the biggest weekly indie clubs in Australia.
After living in London for three years, overstaying his visa and getting fired from a string of day jobs for DJing and partying too much, Martin moved back to Sydney to avoid extradition. A few mishap attempts at regular jobs and another couple of firings later Martin established Boundary Sounds – an independent recording label and music events company responsible for the two biggest indie club nights in Sydney: Purple Sneakers & Rebel Rebel.
Inspired by the UK indie club scene, Purple Sneakers is basically like a big house party in your living room. The unpretentiously sweaty night out is always packed with over 700 kids dancing to indie, pop, rock and the occasional guilty pleasure. It’s a big weekly hit, and has had stacks of huge bands come down and spin some tunes as guest DJs: Broken Social Scene, The Zutons, The Cribs, Mates of State, and Pony Up alongside high profile local acts like Howling Bells, The Morning After Girls, The Presets, Youth Group, You Am I, Dappled Cities Fly, Faker and more. Purple Sneakers goes till daybreak every week, and every week resident DJ PhDJ is there to close it down. He is often known to invite the party back to his place for more.
