In My Shoes: Switchst(d)ance
An interview with Marco Antão resident DJ’s at Lux Frágil, Lisbon.
Photo by Tiago Reis
My name is Marco Antão, I was born and raised in Lisbon and I am one of the resident DJ’s at Lux Frágil. As a producer I am associated with the German music label Beachcoma. I am something of a collector of synths and admittedly it’s been a growing obsession of mine over the years. The name "Switchst(d)ance" came from my longtime love of skateboarding. If you remove the letter “d”, it’s the name of a trick that i spent my teen years mastering. When you add the letter “d”, the word gains new meaning and symbolises the start of something new, a game-changer as it were, when I started DJ’ing.
I started spinning records at a friend’s party almost ten years ago, basically to keep the thing going. The feeling I got once I was behind the turntables was a turning point (excuse the pun) for me; it was a wicked experience, watching people dance to the music I was playing. After that night, I began playing in the bars of Lisbon and five years ago I became a resident DJ at Lux. I consider myself very lucky, since it only took me a couple of seconds to realise what I wanted to do with my life.
Photo by David Tutti dos Reis
Of course, it wasn't always easy. Looking back, the most challenging phase for me, artistically, was around 2008, when I was having a hard time finding gigs. This was because the kind of music that was popular in Portuguese nightlife at the time was really different from what I was playing. However, the pursuit of new and original sounds always kept me going. And it was rewarding because now I have the privilege of playing for and connecting with some really great crowds, which for me is, hands down, the best part about making music. The beauty of music is that it is very communal, yet at the same time a hugely unique experience. Transmitting emotions and feelings through sound in a way that every single person can feel and interpret into their own private experience is a totally unique way of communication. It leaves me both proud and humbled to enable this and it is a big part of what inspires my style.
For me the most important element to making music is creating something intelligent and, above all, something sensory. I like music that gets inside your head because it has unique textures like interesting synth sounds, twisted arpeggios, off-key notes, that kind of thing. I like rhythm patterns that don’t sound like they were rigidly quantised to a grid, but help distinguish a track from your straight up "four-to-the-floor" dance floor fodder. Personally, I don't really rationalise my music and I try not to overthink it. Instead, I focus on mixing sounds that come together in a good way and I like to think I am always pushing the boundaries of what is already out there in order to create something distinctive and different. Even though the general opinion is that everything has already been created, composed, written, spoken or sung, I believe that the possibilities to create and grow remain infinite. And that's the really exciting part about doing what I do.
