Cape Town’s premier alternative dance music club is about to get a major facelift courtesy of its new owners Ebenhaezer Smal (Haezer) and Dominique Gawlowski (Griet). Together with Rob Mulholland, they’re about to usher in a new era of events and promise to restore the club to its former glory days.
I meet Haezer downstairs at Lolas’ on Long Street for a quick coffee to chat about their new business venture. I half-expect him to look worn and frazzled but he’s fresher than I’ve ever seen him.
Give me some background about how the opportunity of buying into Fiction came about?
We came in with the intention of changing the event side of things and the programming of the nights, so changing the atmosphere for Fiction. Because I’m a DJ I’ve been given free reign of the dancefloor and we’re all working together on the overall look of the place for the new Fiction.
But the reason I bought into it is because I started DJing here, it’s always been a home to me. It’s the one place I’ll always come and play even though I’m not on the bill – just for fun. And even when Skrillex and Boyz Noize and all of the big guns are in Cape Town they also come here to play because it’s so much fun because it’s intimate. I remember coming here all the time and then I just stopped coming and it just kinda lost its flavour. And when Rob [Mulholland] offered me the 50% share I was on my way to Berlin to pursue my DJ career. Dom and myself always said that the one thing that will keep us here is if we can buy Fiction, that’s like the one club that we’d love to buy. And then a week after I sold my car Rob asked me, “Do you wanna buy Fiction?” And I was like, “Arrrgh no goddamit, I sold my car! But yes, I’ll buy it.”
Our mission is to make it a DJ bar. Already Narch [PHfat] is coming here to test out his masters and Jake [Jakobsnake] comes and just DJs to himself to come practice and that’s the atmosphere that I want to create. I want all the DJs in Cape Town to feel like this is their home and they can come practice and they can always have their usbs with them…
I’m very – what’s the word for doing things in the moment?
Spontaneous?
Yes, and impulsive. I’m very impulsive. When I wanna buy a car I’ll go to Google and buy it in 10 minutes and that’s what happened with the club – he said, do you wanna buy it and I said yes.
That’s mad. But obviously, like you said, you wanted to go to Berlin and you and Dom had already discussed that the only thing that could keep you here was if you could buy Fiction. So it wasn’t really spontaneous, because it was in the back of your mind, it was something major that could change your trajectory.
Yes of course.
You also don’t wake up one morning and decide to buy a club if you don’t have some sort of business acumen, obviously you’re both very well-entrenched into the scene, but was there ever any point where you thought that this was crazy, uncharted territory?
The first month [after buying Fiction] I learnt more about people and business than I have as my whole career as Haezer or as an editor before Haezer. And we had to learn so quickly. But that’s what’s rad about our team, we have the perfect synergy. We have Dom who owns a festival and knows almost everything about eventing. I’m in touch with what’s happening in the music scene and I’m friends with all the DJs and I bring that family vibe for all DJs and promoters to bring their events to Fiction. And then Rob is the bar guy and he does the cash-ups and he knows the bar like the back of his hand. So he can take care of that, we can take care of events and it just works perfectly.
You’re like the holy business trinity.
[Laughs] Ja ja ja. Everyone has their own responsibilities and it took us about two months to iron out who was doing what and how to pursue it, but now we’ve gotten to the point where we feel confident. For example, working with staff – the only staff I ever had was my PR lady and booking agent, so that’s something that I learnt a lot about. I learnt a lot of about people too which is super rad and how to be a mentor and not just a boss.
There have been so many venues in Cape Town that have closed over the last 4 years and with the musical climate changing quite rapidly there’s space for Fiction to fill that hole. Like you said, you used to go there a lot and it was this mighty institution – and then you stopped going and you didn’t know why. It did peter out a bit and I’m not sure if that’s because its popularity decline or because the people who were going to the club got older? Maybe both. But I think that with your knowledge of the scene you could bring something that’s sorely lacking at Fiction and make it a hub for DJs again.
Exactly, make it a late night DJ bar. And what’s so rad is that because I tour so often I have so many friends that are high profile international DJs who now all wanna come check out my club, you know? And that’s cool to bring back that international element because we had so many international artists at Fiction 5 years ago, it was intense.
And now with the climate of our industry and what the kids are willing to pay and how many kids are coming out, its been very hard for people to bring out internationals because you just lose money, it’s not viable. But if I have this friendship deal where I’m like, come over, hang out with me for 4 days and we’ll pay for your flight and then they’ll come and play at the club, which creates quite a nice family vibe again and a cool roster of different artists.
You’re basically reinvesting in your scene, which is amazing.
We don’t wanna be a genre-based club. We want to be an alternative dance music club. That’s what’s important to me, not to play 5FM commercial hits. We want a club where you just know, it doesn’t matter who’s playing, you’re going to Fiction. You’re not going to Fiction for a specific DJ because you know the music will always be good.
So from an aesthetic perspective, what’s going to be different at the club?
So if we start with the dancefloor, there wasn’t really one. I mean, the space was there but there was no lighting. The sound rig is amazing, I don’t want to touch it I just got Golden Circle to recalibrate it to make what we have sound even better. Thing is we had no lights and now we’ve done a light fixture of 10 hanging bulbs of sound to light. For me that was very important because when you walk into a club and it’s 9pm and you have moving heads and scanners and smoke machines, it’s so awkward. You’re like, it’s 9pm I just wanna hang out at the bar and have a few drinks and then I’ll go jol. And that’s why this light fixture is so special and awesome– the lighting is for the bar but it’s to the music, so it’s got a bit of both elements.
Then we had a board over the back of the bar which we ripped out and the windows are exposed again. We just put new racking on which we’re lighting beautifully and then the rest is sanding and varnishing and new light fixtures. We’re replacing almost every single light in the club with warm lighting because we’re painting everything black. So wanted to have warm welcoming highlights in contrast to all the black.
Then outside we have the lady’s touch with Dom hanging plants over the whole balcony roof to bring some greenery.
Then in the bottom balcony by the fire escape, we’re doing something called a Mystery Bar, which is really small, it’s about the size of a restaurant table and each week a brand comes in and serves one type of drink. It’s a space for independent distillers and brewers to come and show people what they are doing and get creative wit their products.
We’re also redoing the bathrooms and then Tyler Murphy is doing a mural piece across the dancefloor. He’s also doing a piece in the girl’s bathroom.
So with all of these renovations, there’s quite a bit of money to spend on all of it –
And also we just bought the place so we’ve really ran our accounts dry. And it’s worth it. You know Tecla on a personal level, I just want to invite my friends and be proud. I have this vision of standing behind the bar serving my friends having a big smile on my face. We will never stop working on it, it’s important to change and keep improving. I’ve travelled the world going to clubs and bars and the best places are always the ones that keep evoloving.
So when’s the official opening?
On Friday the 4th of December.
What’s on the cards for the evening?
I just basically asked all my friends to DJ. And everyone that doesn’t have a show in Joburg or Cape Town that night is playing. It’s a monstrous line-up and also I get to play [laughs]. Because I don’t want to overplay myself at my bar that’s not why I bought the club. I wouldn’t want me every night.
And instead of giving every DJ a slot, we’re all going back-to-back. It’s basically just rocking up and going by ear. So now you have a drum ‘n’ bass DJ back-to-back with a techno DJ for fun for like 20 minutes and then Sideshow jumps in and joins. We just wanna do that the whole night and have fun. We never get to do that and that just sums up exactly what I want Fiction to be, this fun, awesome nightclub for DJs and music enthusiasts.
Check out all the details for the event on Friday here.
