The Urban Nerds burst onto the London underground music scene in 2007 with a residency at Brick Lane’s prestigious 93 Feet East. 2 years on, the boys are growing from strength-to-strength having just put on a monster warehouse party for London Carnival ’09, as well as hosting the World DMC Champs’ 25th Anniversary after party at IndigO2 in September. Brainer caught up with the Nerds for some industry insight.

Introduce yourselves! Tell me who the Urban Nerds are and what each person does.

There’s three promoters behind Urban Nerds, commonly known as two James’ and Mark! It’s not so much a case of set roles, more us working as a team and tackling the ever-growing Un to-do-list as a team.

What are your backgrounds? What inspired you guys to start the night back in 2007?

Mark and I are both born and bred in London and James number two hails from the outskirts and met Mark a while back studying in Bristol. We’re all young, pushing the music that we’ve grown up to know and love in the best way we can. The night kicked off because we were sick of the same old trendy offerings in East London and felt there wasn’t an outlet for good, underground ‘urban’ music – be it Grime, Dubstep, Garage, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Jungle or whatever. We didn’t see any reason why all these genres, offshoots of each other, couldn’t be played on the same night, under one roof, so that’s what we did!

What’s your objective, or mission statement if you will?

The objective is to keep it rolling, upping the tempo with bigger, better parties that continue to embody the Urban Nerds way; that is, DJs who know their way around a needle and who love their sound, played on a solid system that’s guaranteed to get your belly rumbling! That has to run side by side a wicked party atmosphere & good vibes, all of the time.

2 years on, do you think you’ve achieved your goals?

With every event we get one step closer but you know what, the goal posts are always changing. It’s always good to have something to aspire to. Even after 2 years it’s all still a learning curve, we just do our best to throw the best parties we can. Eventually a label’s on the cards, plus some stupidly big humungous plans that are best not spoken about until they’re in sight!

Is there any advice you wish you’d been given when you first started Urban Nerds? What choice words do you have for budding promoters out there?

It’s the very simple things that at times we’ve overlooked because we’ve been too caught up in the hype. Basic rules of business such as making sure you get things signed on the dotted line. In this industry a lot of money can change hands in a short space of time and unfortunately some people can turn when it’s not all going to plan. Just make sure everything’s black & white and be careful who you put your trust in. Just don’t get carried away and remember it’s a business, not just an excuse for a party. We’ve learnt that a successful promoter must find a balance between the two.  It’s not all doom and gloom though!

What’re the best and worst things about your job?

The best thing, hands down, is standing in front of a packed house and watching 700 odd people go nuts, knowing it’s all a direct result of the non stop work you’ve put into that one night over the course of a few months. The worst thing is standing outside a club at stupid o’clock in the morning flyering, only to watch all your good work end up on the floor just a few seconds later! Priceless.

What are your thoughts on the state of the music industry at the moment – where do you see it going? Have you noticed a shift in the success of the Urban Nerds night recently due to the current economic climate?

In terms of the industry at large, musically, it seems to be a very exciting time. More and more underground UK talent is breaking through, following in the footsteps of the likes of Dizzee. Tinchy Stryder’s absolutely killed it – only a year ago he was on the mic at Urban Nerds in room 3 at Fabric and now he’s a steady chart topper! Likewise Chipmunk’s going from strength to strength and we still remember him tearing the house down at 93 Feet East! These people deserve a hell of a lot of respect for how far they’ve come. Props are also due to Bashy, Skepta & Professor Green who are all on the constant grind and undoubtedly the next wave of hit makers! On the more electronic side of things it’s great to see genres like Dubstep and DnB breaking through with producers like Rusko, Skream and Subfocus really driving things forward. It’s nuts!

Saying that, of course we’re on the tail end of a serious recession and times are hard. Luckily, as predicted by some of the biggest players, the clubbing industry seems to have soldiered through and in fact, Urban Nerds is going from strength to strength. Young people with disposable income are still going out and looking for a good time and arguably, particularly more so these days to escape the misery of holding down a 9 to 5 in this tough climate. As a promoter it’s just important to watch your pricing and be wary of costs and on the back end, yes I guess there’s noticeably more amount of work on the back end to really push your night.

And finally, can you give us a little preview on what you’ve got going on in the near future?

This weekend of course is the DMC World DJ Championship World Finals at Indigo2 (The o2) and we’re hosting the official after party of Saturday night! On October 9th you can catch us in room 2 at The Arches, London Bridge, running alongside Chew The Fat on their massive 12th birthday. Stay tuned for a surprise on Halloween then folks it’s destination NYE! This year we’re coming back strong and teaming up with London graff crew, ATG and their Do One night to bring you Urban Nerds ATG NYE! It’s going to be a ridiculous Shoreditch warehouse rave and we’re doing our best to make it one of the biggest parties of the year. Keep your eyes and ears open…


The Urban Nerds boys are currently planning their New Years Eve party in conjunction with ATG’s Do One. Check out their website for more info: www.urban-nerds.com.