Pointblank DJ School- Everybody Still Wants To Be A DJ

Graduating between 50 and 70 new DJs each month, leading London DJ school Point Blank is a highly visible sign of the continuing onwards march of club and DJ culture. Offering beginners' courses as well as advanced lessons, the Islington based school is also closely involved in London's state school education system, running off-site lessons for hundreds of teenagers at schools and colleges, usually funded by government grants.

The school also works closely with Southwark police as the reward side of Carrot, a project aimed at 'bad' kids which aims to steer them away from crime. For school chief Rob Cowan, who set up the school as a one man band in the mid 90s, it's a clear vindication of his belief in dance culture's future; DJing and its place within modern culture has only just started to really make its mark.

Point Blank itself is a state-of-the-art complex with studios kitted out with multiple decks, recording studios and banks and banks of computers and electronic instruments (the school teaches music production alongside the DJ classes). School principal Rob Cowan commandeered one of the recording studios to chat to Skrufff's Jonty Adderley.


Skrufff: Portions of the UK media keep going on about the superclub crisis and dance music struggling or being even dead, what's your take on that-

Point Blank: "It's a load of bollocks, dance music is not dead! Maybe the superclubs are struggling, I don't know. I don't really care about big clubs, what interests me are issues like 'Are people making great records-, are there places that I can go to hear good music-, are DJs out there playing good tunes- That's what it's about and the answers to all the questions are Yes. As long as I can go and see some really funky music, it's not dead at all. Maybe things are changing and it's returning to being a cottage industry again but maybe that's not a bad thing. People have always wanted to dance."

Skrufff: A notoriously cynical journalist in the Guardian also recently suggested that because so many people now know how to DJ, the superstar DJ role is finished, would you agree with that-

Point Blank: "He's got a point actually. Personally, I don't care who the DJ is as long they''ve got good tunes. The whole concept of superstar DJs is about marketing rather than music. I can't remember the last time I heard a big name DJ playing and thought it was fantastic. But I don't go out of my way to go and see them. It's all about tunes and music. From the marketing angle the big name DJs can sell out clubs, though I'm not sure if that's happening anymore. It's not to that big DJs still won't get paid loads of money and still get big gigs but maybe only a handful of the DJs at the top will survive, with a few layers below disappearing."

Skrufff: You started your school years ago, as a small scale operation, looking at the increase in demand over time, has the rate of increase been fairly constant-

Point Blank: "We moved here in January and for the first three months we were developing and building the classrooms so it was quieter but since April it' gone mental. There's also been a new trend from the education system where DJing is now being seen as a recognised skill with qualifications. The government are pushing this trend and lots of the funding we're getting is from them, directly or indirectly. This morning, for example, we had in a group of 12 'bad' 16 year olds, who've done bad things, and we do lots of those types of courses. We're currently working with Southwark Police at the moment on a project called Carrot which involves one of our teachers going in to every school in Southwark, showing them how to DJ.. We're also presently kitting out an internet bus to teach young people how to make electronic music."

Skrufff: Who are some of the more unusual types you've taught at the school, have you had any supermodels coming through, for example-

Point Blank: "Yes, we've had a number of gorgeous models, which is Tags

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