Shampain bubbles over with dance floor success!

Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Under the moniker of Shampain, Inverin native Cóilí Collins is one of the most exciting DJs currently performing on the Irish scene. The 22 year old’s presence has grown exponentially over the course of the last couple of years and as he continues to invigorate venues and storm slots at major festivals, his stock continues to rise.

Alongside filling dancefloors with his own sets, Cóilí has been a major proponent of Galway dance music through his writing for the likes of Mixmag and Four Four Magazine as well as his promotional work with VSN – a collective he co-founded alongside close friend Evan Campbell (Kettama) which has been responsible for bringing a number of high-profile, international DJs to the West of Ireland.

Cóilí’s work ethic and passion for music can’t be disputed and yet for some people there remains an air of inaccessibility about the songs he plays.

“The main reason it seems inaccessible is because it’s done on machines,” Cóilí argues.

“There are no words usually and if there are words they’re really repetitive. The accessibility of dance music is more so in the experience.

“You could hear a Dax J tune on Spotify and it could literally sound like a drum to you for five minutes – but then you could go out to a club where the DJs have really good speakers and you’re there with all of your friends and you hear [the same song] and you might be like ‘OK, now I kind of get it’.”

Dance music has been around for a long time but it still encounters prejudices that don’t exist in much of music.

Cóilí points to skewed assumptions of fans of the genre that fail to represent the music or the people playing it.

“It definitely has a negative connotation that a lot of other genres don’t have,” he insists.

“It’s the same for heavy metal I think. People think that [heavy metal fans] are assholes, the music is aggressive and everyone is really drunk and on drugs…I’ve actually ended up at a couple of metal gigs.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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