Early afternoon in a hustling and bustling Ibiza Town and the conditions couldn’t be more perfect. The sun is out, but the temperature is just right as we find ourselves sat outside island institution Croissant Show.
Back in the day, this was the pitstop between Pacha and Space - a meeting point where weary-eyed clubbers congregated, refueled on breakfast and coffee, and recalled stories from the night before only to do it all over again.
In the present day, Croissant Show remains as popular as it ever was, but the port area itself is facing mounting challenges. It's one of the many changes faces of Ibiza lamented by the old guard. Today, that feels particularly apt.
We’re here to meet Man Power to discuss his new monthly residency OFF BRAND. Taking place at Akasha once a month from May to September, host duties for the party are split between him and Ewan McVicar - sometimes together, other times not.
Geoff is only a few days out from a minor operation, but unless he had told us beforehand, we’d never have known. Certainly, his recovery has not put paid to waxing lyrical about the things he feels passionately about. There’s no need for us to massage answers out of him.
It was going to be an interesting chat…
OFF BRAND: Man Power goes on the record
Let's start with OFF BRAND itself. What's the story behind the name and what is it off-brand against?
"I've got a history of being anti-branded culture and generally speaking out against it. A lot of what I got into was counter-culture. It was life-changing stuff for me. I've always harboured this view, but now clubbing has been repackaged and branded like Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
The idea of doing something in Ibiza has been on my mind for years. I'm very good friends with Mark Broadbent and Andrew Livesy who used to promote We Love Sundays at Space and did Pikes after that.
We've been doing work in the background to redress that balance, doing things with a bit more intent and offering an opportunity for people to go out and change their lives rather than just interact with a brand. Then I started speaking with Ewan McVicar.
He's always struck me as being an amazing character from this new wave of DJs. He comes from a similar clubbing background and approaches things in the same way as me.
When it started to become something we were all doing something together, it felt like an amusing idea, because it is an "off-brand" party.
I guess it's a joke in-and-of-itself, because as soon as you call something “OFF BRAND”, it becomes a brand anyway, but at least you can approach it with a sense of humour. It’s basically a load of mates doing something they want to share with other like-minded people."
Partner in crime: Ewan McVicar
Tell us about Ewan. He'll be familiar to lots of people through Tell Me Something Good, supporting Calvin Harris and having dates in Hi Ibiza's Club Room this year. Can he switch it up and do the commercial thing, but also take it more underground as well?
"Yes, absolutely.
He's somebody who I've really hit it off with. I love spending time with him and I really like playing together. Mainly he's just somebody who shares a similar love of music the way that I do and the way that Mark and Andy do - and all the people I surround myself with.
Just because you are introduced to somebody through a particular thing, that doesn't necessarily represent everything they do.
Ewan has been in it since he was so young. He's so schooled. Yeah, you might’ve been introduced to him through one window. But recently, he’s released on Erol Alkan's Phantasy label, which is the complete opposite end of the scale to most people who follow Trick."
"It's not that he can switch it up, it's that he already does. You see the footage of him playing these mega venues, huge things like back-to-backs with Paul Woolford and he's playing stuff like Los Hermanos or really old Detroit records.
Ultimately, he already exists in that space. It just depends what window people are viewing him from."
Community-focused, barrier-free clubbing
I suppose you come from similar backgrounds. He's pushing the local scene in Ayrshire, the same as you are doing in Newcastle. What can you tell us about that sort of community-focused, barrier-free clubbing with accessible pricing? That's a huge part of this, right?
"My background was always in throwing weird parties in weird spaces. I'm from a north-eastern town; he's from south-west Scotland, there's a lot of post-industrial similarities there.
In these type of places, people tend to behave the same way, do the same things and like the same stuff. It's just a throwback to being in the grip of industry and the politics and social mechanics that surround it."
"House music or House music culture, and people who, like myself, felt a little bit weird, can go off and find a place to express ourselves and grow as people.
I realised that the things I was enjoying were the things that were about the people on the dancefloor and the interconnectivity of building a community, rather than the people on the stage or paying for a product. Essentially, that is what you're doing when we're talking about a big act.
The other thing that occurred to me is that I like small spaces - grassroot spaces.
In the post-pandemic era, a lot of this new wave of clubbers have been brought into loving spectacle. When you were trapped inside your house, the only way you could engage with dance music culture as a young person was through a drone or a pyrotechnic show.
If they're only going to go for a big name, you can't compete with that as a promoter in a small space. Instead, you have to offer the actual experience. That was what drew me to this in the first place. The experience is meeting other people. That informed my world view.
Ewan is from that background too."
"I took over a social club in the north-east of England at a time when nothing happens. The fishing fleet is nearly gone, the shipyards have all gone, the coal mines are gone. North Shields has had a rough 50 years or so at least.
I've done loads of parties, because I felt like I could. We did one party with Optimo and me and my business partner Gabriel, felt like it was the first party we had ever thrown because we should. We actually felt like it had a social benefit. We could feel the difference.
We built something from the ground up. Fast forward three years and some of the best artists in the world actively sought us out to come and play, because they've heard our audience is amazing.
We're actually attracting people through our crowd, rather than the people who are being attracted to the venue. It's proven that this approach can work. Not only that, but it's helped change the fortunes of the town. I wanted to bring a similar ethos to Ibiza.
Somebody said to me, 'Ibiza was always €8 for a bottle of water even in the '90s.' And, 'does it really represent club and culture?' Well, it really does."
"My version of Ibiza from when I was young, was the place where my cool friend would move because he couldn't find any satisfaction in the UK. It was always about creating a space for people to exist, who didn’t feel like they belonged anywhere else.
It offered an alternative to otherwise living in a major city.
You can talk about Alfredo and Pippi and Leo Mas and all of those guys with their music. That's been a massive influence to us. But really, Ibiza is the place where people from where I come from, went to engage in culture for the first time. It was accessible.
Yeah, maybe you were on the Amnesia terrace to start with. But that was a gateway. Maybe you go with ten of your mates on a package holiday, but you're the one who breaks out. Then you end up at Time Warp festival or visiting South America or going to Berlin to see DJs.
I don't want to take a big dump on Ibiza. I still love lots of things on the island. But there's definitely been the shift towards becoming a luxury destination and a place that isn't music-led. That's fine, as long as the other thing exists too.
Because if it doesn't, then people from similar backgrounds to myself are missing being able to interact with something and change their lives. Nobody's life is being changed by hooking into a mega brand."
"Having access to go to something with a small group of like-minded people, that's where conversations, behaviours and aspirations all get amplified in a way that can change your life.
Perhaps I've got a habit of talking about things being more important than they should be, but it fulfils a vital life function for me. It’s literally the thing that changed the absolute course of my life and other people I know.
I have no problem with the bigger places. I have no problem with mainstream culture. I think mainstream culture is great. I'm happy to watch Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Take Away back at home. All that stuff is fine, as long as it doesn't exist at the expense of everything else.
We talked about the ways we can do something that redresses that imbalance.
Even if it doesn't work, it at least shows there are alternative options. For instance, it's €15 or €20 in pre-sale. Drinks are reasonably priced once you're there. We're not making any money out of it. Ewan is doing it out of the love for it, because it's something we believe in.
There has to be more than only valuing something based on the income you can make from it. Otherwise, we're buying into that same corporate mentality. That’s the long answer to a very simple question."
How does Akasha facilitate those goals?
"Akasha has carved out this fantastic, loyal crowd for its corner of the musical universe. I think it's wonderful it exists. The team there have been amazing.
Everything we're talking about, Akasha already does. We're not changing what Akasha does at all. But they gave us a space to be able to do it for our audience; our community. I mean, we're very different from other parties that take place there, which is the big strength of it.
These conversations have been going on for about eight months. We've talked at every stage to get it over the line and see it come to life. They understand why we're doing it and they're willing to make it work as well. They just get it.
Until the opening party, I'd never even been in the club before. Obviously, I did my due diligence, but I had to trust my partners and other people I know. Johnny and Keith from Optimo messaged, saying how much they love it. They're a good yardstick for something I would enjoy.
300 people in a room is just very, very exciting to me. 300 people who know why they're there versus 5000 who don’t. It's a really distilled thing.
We started with an all night long. Ewan knows what he's doing. We get each other. It always sounds different than the pair of us playing on our own. It amplifies it. Often, back-to-backs can be less than the sum of their parts. But sometimes it takes you to a new, more exciting place.
It's a lot to do with trust. I trust him completely."
And what about the club itself?
"It's the other end of the island, where there's a whole different vibe. There's no phones out. It's more for people like you and me. It's just people enjoying themselves and dancing. It comes so highly recommended by everybody who goes there.
We've got three audiences, if you will. We've got an Ibiza audience through Mark and Andy. We've got a weird audience through me, I guess. Then you've got Ewan's crowd. I think there's probably a portion of his audience who will be intrigued.
On top of that, you've also got the locals, the Akasha regulars - people who just go there anyway. For like 300-person space, it's just trying to get the right alchemy of all that.
You want enough wide-eyed youngsters who've never been before, so you can change their minds. Young people bring the energy and old people bring the experience.
I don't know. People will either buy into the idea or they won’t.
Starting the conversation around it is almost as important as how busy the party ends up being. I don't want to single anything out in particular, but with these mega-sized venues… for every Disneyland, there needs to be a dive bar, you know what I mean?"
Making the pilgrimage
Obviously, a lot of tourists who come here will know where to find the super-clubs already. And even if they don't, those places are located in the tourist resorts or on the main road. Akasha is that bit further off the beaten track.
How would you encourage people to be a bit adventurous and jump in a taxi there and back?
"I honestly think that if you are into something underground, that instantly makes it more appealing anyway. If you're into underground dance music, the thought of having to go that extra yard to find it has appeal in itself.
It's a taste filter and there's going to be a certain type of person who puts a bit more work in. Any travel expense is mitigated by the fact that it's so cheap to come in. So I don't see the taxi fare being an obstacle. The only thing is the distance.
I've always been attracted by going to spaces that were off the beaten track.
If something's presented to me on a plate, I feel like I'm being sold it. If it's something that I have to search out, then that's the layer of underground that you're looking for, isn't it? You're either going to get it or you're not.
I used to hand-write a flyer with a pen and paper that said 'If this flyer puts you off, good' Because a certain number of people would get why a hand-drawn flyer is better than a printed one. That's what you're looking for. You're looking for a taste filter.
If I see something that I really like the look of, I’ll go. That's who we're aiming for: the people who are adventurous enough to go. 'I've not heard of that. That's exciting' as opposed to the people who go, 'oh, I've heard of that. That's why I want to go.' That makes it less exciting to me.”
Leftfield bookings
After the opening, there are four more dates, who else can expect to see?
"The next date (20 June) is with Josh Caffé and Lex Wolf. Lex is somebody who I have been aware of for ages. We’ve both recently worked with the Make A Dance Label. He's a stalwart of the island, but also very much represents a sound that I'm into.
Josh is one of the most exciting acts out there. I first met him as the vocalist for Paranoid London.I played with him a few years ago and he blew my mind. He was always on the forefront of who we wanted to book.
Following that, we have Budino. She was a resident at Cocktail D’Amore in Berlin for years. She's very much responsible for bringing that Proto House, Italo sound that I absolutely love back into fashion. She's going to blow a lot of minds.
We've got Rosie, who is a sterling talent. She's got such a musical background. She's one of those people who's really cool, really tasteful and just seems to be good at everything. She reminds me of DJ Harvey. Some people just get it and Rosie is very much like that."
"The month after is a really big one that I think will probably sell out very soon. That's me, Ewan and Roman Flügel. I've been very vocal about how I think he's in the top five DJs in the world. I'm super excited about that.
Then for the closing, we have Sound Metaphors. If you ever go to Panorama bar, everybody's wearing a Sound Metaphor t-shirt. They're like Berlin's secret weapon that the rest of the world is only just starting to cotton onto. When we came up with this idea, they were always number one on our wanted list because they're so unbelievably cool.
I think that by the end point, we'll have set our stall out enough that we can say: these are the artists you need to be listening to. If everything goes right, we're going to build up trust and actually have a bit of agency. So in year one, we got our dream line-up.
We're pushing something that isn't represented far and wide on the island and certainly isn't represented in a proper club space. I couldn't see the point in doing this unless it was different from what was already going on elsewhere."
"The line-up speaks for itself. I feel really good about it. We'll see how things pan out, but I'm sure it's going to be fantastic."
OFF BRAND continues Friday 20 June with Man Power, Josh Caffé and Lex Wolf playing Akasha, while The Brothers Grim and Andy Kidd play the free pre-party in Las Dalias Café from 19:00.
Come along and join the counter-culture movement.
Tickets for the remaining four dates are on sale now and available to buy below.
