A quick chat with Vimo

Originally hailing from the Friendly City of Port Elizabeth South Africa, it’s been virtually two decades of immense success as prolific and respected DJ Vimo (best known for his eclectic sets) continues to blow up dance floors all across the country.

Whilst travelling abroad as early as 1995, Vimo developed his encyclopaedic knowledge of electronic music by befriending the store owner of ‘Vinyl Junkies’ local record store in Soho London. Too impatient to learn through trial-and-error and observation, he was taken under the wing of the established veteran DJ John Paul. In under a year, Vimo got his first break and began playing at a number of trendy bars and lounges in and around London.

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His return to South Africa in 1998 manifested into a two year stint playing in commercial venues which laid the basis to triumph over Port Elizabeth’s renowned and lucrative underground scene. In his hometown he continued to invade Castro’s, The Lennox, XXXtreme and 52 Parliament to mention a few. Heavily influenced by international sensation Armin Van Helden and local PE demigod Munro, Vimo has cultivated and skilled rhythms all distilled down to a pure distinctive sound that never fails to rip dance floors apart.

He was the first ever DJ from PE who, in association with USM Records and The Deeper Sound Series released “Deeper Sound of Vimo.” His second release “Vimo Presents East Coast Flavour” was a successful solo project whereby he collaborated with the likes of top local DJ’s Craig de Sousa and Roger De Lux and was also praised by the masses resulting in his third album from the Natural Groove Series “Natural Groove III by Vimo” again proving to be in the frontline of the music scene with his cutting edge and self proclaimed “Chutney House” sound.

Vimo has held residencies in the most popular and commendable nightclubs and headlined the biggest parties in Port Elizabeth. Not content, he progressed to invade dance floors around South Africa such as Splash, H20, Natural Groove, Sweet Sessions, Nexus, ESP, Tilt, Truth, Sutra, The Fez, Dockside, Pop Art, Tokyo Sky, Jet, Sushi Sunday, Vintage Vinyl. Oolong Lounge, Carfax, The Woods, Sugar, Bang Bang Club, Voodoo Lounge, Groovebar, Stones, News Cafe, Panama Room and Aruba Lounge. He has performed in support of international DJ’s such as Carl Cox, Tiesto, Tom Novy, Sister Bliss as well as top local DJ’s.

Vimo will be one of the DJs playing at set at the Arcade Empire / Griet Halloween Party at the Voortrekker Monument on the 29th of October 2016. I had a quick to him about this and a few other things. This is what he had to say:

How would you say that the SA Electro scene has changed / progressed since you’ve entered it?

Being in this industry for almost 20 years I’ve definitely been through many genres . How things have changed is music has definately gotten more electronical but that’s a good thing as now we have more available as everything is moving to the digital side which also allows for alot more producers hence music is coming out so quickly now and so many tracks . Only downfall with this is , Is that I feel we don’t have classics anymore as music and track selection changes so quickly

What are you currently working on?

My main focus right now is my new label Chutney Records.  I also have some awesome released coming out before the end of the year

What is the funniest thing that’s happened during one of your sets?

Playing at a festival and stepping so far back on the stage I fell off the stage . Worse part is that I was sober lol .

What can music fans expect from your set at Arcade Empire’s Halloween party this year?

A lot of unreleased material coming out on My label and the freshest dirtiest house beats…

I’d like to thank Vimo for taking time to do this interview. I’m really looking forward to his set at the Voortrekker Monument on the 29th of October 2016.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music and Interviews categories on Running Wolf’s Rant.

Henno Kruger

Blogger, Desktop Activist, Twitter / Facebook Addict, Music Festival Addict, Avid lover of South African music, Founder and owner of Running Wolf’s Rant