Epic is the new event that is hitting town this weekend to bring a slice of New York clubbing to London. QX speaks to promoter Michael Theriault and host Johanna Londinium to find out more. And introducing DJ Serving Ovahness…

Michael Theriault is a new name on the London scene. What’s his clubland experience back in NYC?

JOHANNA: Michael’s NYC club experience comes from living and breathing the ‘Party Monster’ movie for real. An original NYC club kid, when Michael decided to start throwing his own parties he wanted to re-create that colourful, hedonistic, no holds barred environment where people from all walks of life and sexual persuasions could show up and express themselves however they wanted, then lose themselves on the dance floor to the beats of old school NYC house music. He’s most known for his Sunday evening tea dance ‘The Underground’.

Epic is all about bringing a taste of New York’s gay club scene to London. What does the New York club scene taste like?

MICHAEL: It’s like a really good dessert. Nice and rich with different layers of taste that make every bite of this sexy rollercoaster of an adventure. After one bite, you’re hooked. My advice, it’s best served hot!

“After one bite, you’re hooked. My advice, it’s best served hot!”

Who is involved in this event? 

JOHANNA: Flying in from NYC we have DJs Serving Ovahness and Razor & Guido. Club hostess Erica Gabriel will be there to shake things up. From London DJ Dmitry Strigun is providing the tunes. I will be hosting along with La Pequena, Taylor Scott, Le Menor and HRH Minty. Shaun Capewell will be looking after his super sexy team of performers and gogos.

The event is at Pulse, which is a big space and famous for XXL. How will you transform it for Epic?

MICHAEL: You are not lying! When I saw the space for the first time I was like, “Oh shit!!” But I’m not one to just throw a DJ behind a set of turntables and call it a party. You’ll have to come a see what we do at Epic. It will be good fun.

Serving Ovahness

Give us the overview of the Ovahness… 

I am a DJ and Producer born and raised in New York City. I consider myself a messenger of house music and I love being able to share my sound and message through music. London has been one of the cities I have dreamed of playing for years and I can’t even begin to share how excited I am to finally be coming to you.

Describe your sound to us London boys? 

My sounds is percussive house blended with vocals. Whether progressive, deep, or classic, I love to give a repertoire of music that is past, present, and future. That may include old school house, disco, funk, R&B and remakes of classics all packaged in my “signature” way.

Ok, so the name. It’s like soooo NYC. How did it come about? 

My name was actually given to me by one of my closest friends. He would always say, when you play music you always “serve us ovahness”. I started out using DJ Brian D, that name didn’t go too well with my friends and everyone started telling me “No your name is DJ Serving Ovahness”. The rest is history. The name has less to do with me but more to do with the music. I’m just Brian and I’m here to serve my crowd with a great time.

What have been your best gigs to date?

Getting to headline in Tel-Aviv for FFF was one of my biggest gigs to date. The crowd was unbelievable, and it felt amazing to be able to go to the other side of the world and have a crowd that knew the music, the vocals, and gave so much life to the dancefloor. The other was for Black Party weekend in NYC when I did a party at the Underground with Junior Vasquez. I opened that night for him, and when Junior arrived after listening to my set, he invited me to spin alongside him for the rest of the evening. That night I spun with my idol.

How do you think London will take to a NYC sound?

I think London will take on the NYC sound very well, because the music scene in London has always had a major presence in the underground house music scene. I think London will recognize a lot of the influences that have come into NYC house and vice versa.

• Epic is at Pulse (No 1 Invicta Plaza, Southbank, SE1 9UF) on Friday 7th March, 11pm-late.