Phil s Skills

First off, the bad news.
Ultraman s dead, Phil Kieran informs us. He was run over in a bad car accident and he asked me to carry on the good work.
Are you sure? No, he died of a drug overdose. Yeah, that was it. He OD ed big-style.
Whatever the cause of his techno alter-ego s demise, Phil has decided to bury the sobriquet once and for all and to tag all his future releases with his own name.
It s a good move. Pseudonyms can be a distraction far better to let everyone know what you re up to. Especially if, as in Phil s case, lots and lots of people are watching out for what you do next.
Over the last eighteen months, Phil Kieran s name has been dropped so often it s a wonder it hasn t been bruised. During a blaze of form that would do Zidane proud, he set up Sector One , Belfast s most consistently provocative club-night, released the blinding RIP EP on Trama, has started working with Bushwakka, TCR, and Kingsize, and found himself on the back of a double nomination at last year s hotpress awards. Not bad. But it hasn t exactly come as a surprise to the man himself.
I ve always been confident in what I was doing, he admits. I remember being sixteen, before I d even bought my first piece of equipment, and thinking I m going to be a world famous techno producer . Like, why did I think that? I ve been producing things for years and people have been going that s crap , and I was always saying I know, I know, but I m only practising. Wait to you hear what I m going to do next.
But there has been a shift in gears recently. Have you pulled your socks up in the last year and a half, become a bit more professional?
Not consciously, Phil shrugs. It s just all come together. People have been phoning me back instead of ignoring me. I think they ve been listening to the CDs and not just using them as ashtrays or table stands.
The joys of July in Belfast. Just before Phil arrives for the interview, one of the barstaff tells me that they ll be shutting down in an hour or so, as an unannounced pro-Drumcree protest march is due through the city centre. This is at five o clock in the evening. In mid summer. That night and for the rest of the week, pubs, cinemas, theatres and restaurants throughout the city either run a skeleton service or close down completely.
I ve no work for a fucking fortnight, Phil reveals.
It is, therefore, a good and apt moment to be talking to him because, if Phil Kieran is to be lauded for anything, there should be a medal minted for his services to Belfast s social scene. Around three years ago he launched his first club Twister , a night where visuals meant more than crappy kung-fu footage, and where the music policy was risky, smart, and defiantly cheeky.
Of course, it sank.
In February 99, he decided to give it another go. This time the emphasis would be on live dance acts, more and more of whom were coming to his attention. The result was Sector One and, since it s opening night when Hedrock Valley Beats, Calibre, and the now sadly departed Ultraman all rocked the venue senseless it s established itself as one of the very few unmissable nights in Belfast s musical menu. However, as Phil is only too happy to admit, its primary function is to give him an opportunity to play his own music.
I ve never turned round and said Oh, man, I m doing this for the scene . I m doing it for me, but in the process it s giving a platform for other people. I m helping them out, but they re doing me a favour as well. But this crap about us all coming together and starting a new Belfast dance scene, it s bollocks. It s just about putting on good nights. That s how I look on it.
Phil thoughts have, at last, turned to the business of recording a full-length album. It s a mark of how far he feels he has progressed that, despite having laid down over 150 tunes in just less than four years, he wants to write the entire thing from scratch.
I m actually trying to work on more musical, experimental stuff, he says. I want to start on an album now because I d hate to think I d be sitting around in a year having to rush one out. If I do an album, it s not going to be lots of separate tracks bunged together. It s going to be something that people can sit back and listen to when they re wrecked. I want people to go into the shops with the intention of buying it.
Given the sheer vibrancy of thought and imagination evident in both his clubs and his mighty recent releases, it s a sure-bet winner, and one with its heart very much in the right place crawling on its belly across the dance-floor.
I just love going out to wee clubs where there s maybe me and a couple of mates Djing, and everybody s falling about, pissed off their faces, playing good tunes and everybody dancing like maniacs. It s good when it gets like that, when it isn t exclusive or trendy, where everybody s getting messed up together.
Some people are born great. Others have greatness thrust upon them. Phil Kieran meets it once a month for a piss-up.

The next Sector One will be at Belfast s Limelight on August 17th with Phil, Welt, Jupiter 8 and many more.