work songs:
dj AND club promoter christopher dresden styles

Ask him what he does for a living, and Christopher Dresden Styles may give you one of several answers. ‘I’m a homosexual discotheque facilitator,’ is his first, quick-as-a-flash, tongue-firmly-in-cheek response. 

When I raise an eyebrow, he offers a more prosaic alternative: ‘I’m a DJ and club promoter – mainly catering to the LGBT market.’

Job titles aren’t all they’re cracked up to be though, especially when you have as many strings to your bow at Styles does. He might pay his bills by running half a dozen popular club nights in venues across the city, but he also writes, makes video, builds websites, and is a photographer. Oh, and he’s in a band.

Originally from Blackburn in Lancashire, Styles moved to Manchester in 2001 with a romantic idea about finding his way in the city.

‘I just thought something would happen,’ he remembers, cheerfully sipping a lemonade in a Northern Quarter coffee shop. ‘I’d read so many rock and pop biographies about people arriving in a new town and either being discovered or meeting other like-minded people. I spent about five, six years waiting around to meet those people and for something to happen… but nothing really did.’

Now 36, and still speaking with a soft Blackburn burr, Styles has long since given up waiting. Describing the ‘Catch 22 situation’ of trying to get known as a DJ or a band when nobody knows who you are, he speaks with an affable ‘well-what-would-you-expect’ shrug in his voice which belies the knock-backs picked up along the way.

What eventually worked for Styles was a two-pronged attack: a concerted effort to connect with people on the city’s gay music scene, and the courage to stick his neck out and make things happen for himself. Both demanded a capacity for hard work.

‘I had no experience in Manchester,’ he recalls matter-of-factly, ‘so the only way to get myself noticed was to do it myself.’ Starting your own club night with no reputation, no guaranteed crowd and little experience (bar what he’d learned while DJing as a holiday rep) was a brave decision though. Styles’ first club night, Spending Daddy’s Money, was born in 2008 at The Retro Bar, just outside Manchester’s gay village. The first audiences were made up almost exclusively of family and friends. As one of those friends at the first few nights, two things stand out in my memory: recognising most people in the room, and being impressed at Styles’ bravery. The subterranean space at the Retro Bar was more renowned for metal bands and cheap student nights than it was for chart pop, quizzes and free pin badges on the door, but the nights were fun and unpretentious, and the music was good. Part of the reason for doing it himself was also to get his band noticed. The Imogen Styles has been at various times a one-man band with an iPod backing track, and a three-piece with an electric drum kit, but has settled in recent years around the self-styled ‘electropop combo’ of Styles and co-vocalist Syma (pictured top). Styles does the writing, producing and promoting.

At around the same time, Styles began making himself useful on the wider scene, working the door on other club nights, and picking up a role as official photographer at alternative gay night Bollox. When a new venue called Kraak opened in the city’s Northern Quarter, he was on a much firmer footing to pitch a new venture. In 2012 his monthly club night Pop Curious? opened there – and quickly brought Styles to the attention of the wider Manchester scene. It began to attract clubbers more comfortable with the Northern Quarter’s independent, hip vibe than with the hen parties lurching between gay bars on Canal Street. By the time it had spawned several spin-off nights (most notably Brit Pop Curious? and Electro Pop Curious?) Styles’ reputation – and his new career path – were sealed.

‘When I first started doing Pop Curious? I was still working full time in a call centre,’ he remembers. ‘But eventually every club night was earning me as much as working a week and a half.’

Hang on a minute. How did someone so creative cope with the tedious nine-to-five call centre routine? ‘It was tedious. It was boring,’ he admits. ‘But I’m very good at being able to switch off, so my brain wouldn’t start functioning again until I’d left… it’s quite a useful skill to have.’

When bar and club owners began approaching him to DJ for them, it was enough to finally make the leap and go freelance. Three years on, Styles has no regrets.

‘I used to be quite cautious as a child,’ he smiles. ‘I didn’t really like change – but the older I’ve got, the more I’ve realised: you only get one go. I’d much rather have a go and fail, than wonder about what could’ve been.’ He shrugs modestly: ‘So far, it’s worked out.’

It’s going to be a busy year. The Imogen Styles release their much-overdue debut single this summer, ahead of headlining renowned local venue The Night & Day in July. Styles has been invited to run the lead pop night at a Manchester-themed event in Amsterdam this autumn, and has plans to finish a children’s book he’s been working on for years.

When I ask him what he enjoys most about his working life he’s quick to respond. ‘I don’t answer to anybody. It’s not that I’ve got a problem with authority,’ he adds, ‘but I’ve never really enjoyed the idea that you have to go to work just to earn money, to pay bills. There are many ways and means to live the life you want to if you’re smart about it. There’s a Frank Underwood quote from [the Netflix TV show] House of Cards that I like: “If you don’t like how the table’s laid, turn over the table.” If you’re not entirely happy about how things are panning out, change the rules.’

April 2016