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Music

Some Questions for the Guy Who DJ'd Outside the Houses of Parliament

He appeared on Tuesday night, after the Brexit 'meaningful vote' result, spinning a special political set.
DJ Brexit SUAT outside Houses of Parliament
Image provided by SUAT

It was a night of records in Westminster on Tuesday. Theresa May’s Brexit deal was voted down by the largest margin of any government in history, Remainers and Brexiteers united over the result – and, meanwhile, some chap was hosting a Boiler Room-esque live stream from Parliament square across the street (watch below).

As the prospect of a No-deal Brexit becomes increasingly likely, the country is collectively bracing itself for a total meltdown. People are stockpiling essential items so they don’t have to walk the post-apocalyptic Brexit landscape alone.

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But one man – the man who DJ'd outside the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday night – seems to be unphased by the whole “we have literally no idea what is happening from one second to the next” scenario. While Corbyn tabled a vote of no confidence in the house, the DJ – known to his fans as SUAT – was on the turntables playing some house. But why? Well, we spoke to him to find out.

Noisey: Let’s get straight to it, SUAT. How come you got on the ones and twos outside Parliament?
SUAT: I thought I'd do what I usually do but at a point in time, and at a specific location, where there's going to be a lot of tension. There was a lot of anxiety about the result and the two major parties and I would like to metaphorically jam my foot right between them and just sort of bring people together with the house and techno that I love.

Uniting all sides of the house with house?
Haha yeah yeah you could say that mate. I know it brings people together when I play out in public and in clubs, I just wanted to unite people at a time where they need to be united really.

On the stream no one is really paying any attention to you. Were there any speakers there?
Oh there are speakers for sure. I've got a 2.5 kilowatt generator, two 1000 watt speakers, and floodlights. I rent it all. We pull up in a van almost like terrorists, unload it, and jog it into parliament square and set it up mate.

Like terrorists?
We move swiftly. We’ve done it so many times now.

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So three chumps in a white van pull up outside Parliament, hurriedly unload lots of suspicious looking equipment, and no one bats an eye?
People didn't even realise I was there initially until I turned it up so loud the police had to turn it off. I worked it up from the start of the stream until the max volume, just before the drop, and the police come over and I had to cut it off. But obviously the audio stays plugged in in the stream, so i just carried on.

So for most of the stream the speakers were off right?
Yeah pretty much. After the streams went off, I was basically like, ‘I'm here, I've got these two speakers I've hired, I'm just gonna go for it’. So I've got a video of me and all my team playing “The Bomb” by Big Miz, which if you haven't heard is an absolutely mad tune – it starts really low, and we turn it up and turn it up and everyone's going for it, then the police rush over and they're like 'turn it off instantly!' So I cut the speakers but Cathy Newman, the presenter from Channel Four news, comes over when the police are there and she's like, 'why did you make them turn it off!?'

Cathy Newman fancied a bit of a rave you reckon?
Yeah mate, she was down.

All that Brexit chat who can blame her.
It was pretty manic there, but I got lost in mixing myself then I turned round at one point and there was double the amount of people there. They were multiplying like bacteria honestly. There was definitely an angry vibe behind me. I'm just standing there enjoying myself. The music… I can't explain – it just dissipates everything. Every sort of mood or atmosphere, it just dissipates it.

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Would you say this is your biggest stream to date?
Yeah, no, it 100 per cent is in terms of the stats, in terms of the results that have come of it, the bookings already. I was speaking to Radio 5 live earlier but it was very brief, they asked what my commenters were saying about Brexit, but I just said people were more infatuated with the music and me dancing like an idiot. They pretty swiftly kicked me off after that. They were having a serious Brexit debate and then some bloke comes on and talks about how he did a live stream.

What's your next streaming plan? You have to top this one, no?
Purely in terms of streams, I have a long long list of places I want to go to. They always have to meet certain criteria and that would be: public, inappropriate, and in a place where there's never any noise. I’m talking library, KFC, tube stations. I'm going at it with a rogue style, I've never got permission to do a stream anywhere and I'm not going to.

What's the ultimate goal?
I want to have such a fanbase worldwide that I can go anywhere on my travels – places I see on Instagram and in films and stuff – drop a pin on my page and say 'I'm gonna be here in half an hour,' and for a flood of people to turn up. Then I stream it, we have a party, then, I dunno, we go to an after-party, I play in a club, whatever. I just want to unite people worldwide by dropping a pin and having a party there. But if we get shut off, then fuck it cause that's just how it is.

I see.
All of the stuff I do is severely highly excruciatingly organised, but I don't want permission. I don't want to be the guy who pays off Nando's to sit there. I'm just going to turn up like I mean the business and rock it out, like I've done so far.

Nice one.

You can find Patrick on Twitter. SUAT is on Insta here.