Turn the volume up
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Matthew Chu who is living in New York was once the owner of the Seattle Volume club that is now, unfortunately, closed shares his experience of running and managing a place like this.
So, Matthew, what’s it like to run a night club?
Well, it’s definitely not that fun as you could imagine. Actually, it is fun, but a different kind of fun. When you put a lot of hard work in and then see people jumping high on the dance floor it all kind of pays off.
What else there is to it?
Many people think that owning a night club means that you party day and night and generally lead a pretty laid back life. If you’re a good manager (not that I’m saying I am or was, but you know what I mean) you’ll be spending most of the time figuring out costs and numbers and whatnot.
So, when others are having fun at your club you’re always at work.
Pretty much, yes. But don’t get me wrong, I do like to party and whenever I get a chance I never miss it. It’s just that organizing everything properly so others could have fun at your club and enjoy their time there is really a big piece of work.
And there’s also a part for managing the staff and keeping a place in order, right?
Of course, it’s all there; you make sure the bars are filled with drinks, the staff is happy and that people actually enjoy their work at your place: you wouldn’t want a grumpy bartender serving drinks at a big party.
Have this actually happened to you?
What, a grumpy bartender? No, I always tried to get in peoples’ shoes and if I saw that they are not fit for work on some particular day I’d let them take some time off, sort everything out.
Weren’t you worried that in case of a busy night you won’t have enough people to take care of everything?
There were always hundreds of things to worry about and stuff like this wasn’t really even in the first ten. I’d rather serve drinks myself than make someone who is clearly not going to perform well do it.
Well, that’s the dedication.
You can say so, but another thing is that I really enjoy making cocktails. Everyone liked them.
So, that’s where you were having fun during the busy nights at the Volume. What’s it like to organize and host a night event?
Just like I said at the very beginning, it is a lot of work. The first thing to consider is the place. Well, in this case, as you can see, I got that covered; it was pretty convenient for kinds of parties I was hosting.
The ones where people dance and jump and drink a lot and stuff like that?
Very much like that, right. Big, loud parties for lots of people with uplifting energetic music playing all the night.
Right, the music. How did you get DJs to play at the Volume?
Well, once the place gets some recognition and is more or less well-known it all sort of happens by itself. It’s just a lot of detail, really, none of which, I think, fits the scope of the interview.
Alright, I see you’ve got some professional secrets there. Let’s continue about the party night preparations then.
Sure. The next big thing you have to worry about is publicity, the good kind of it. You’re setting up a big party and it’s going to be cool and awesome, but who cares? You have to let the people know about it somehow.
It must’ve been especially difficult at the very beginning wasn’t it?
Well, it is all manageable; you just have to figure out the way you do things for yourself.
Another secret, I see.
No, I just think that the kind of stuff that worked for me in promotion worked for me and only me. It’s the way I prefer to do things, figure out my own path. All I can say is that social media helps a lot, you can’t underestimate its uses, especially now.
That’s for sure. I’ve just remembered the very last tweet you have posted on the club page, sorry to remind you about that.
That’s fine, don’t worry. We had a great party that night. Besides, you can’t be running a club for your whole life, this kind of stuff can get boring too.
You think so?
Why not? I sometimes met people who got tired of partying, but still visited my club. I don’t know what draw them there; some of them looked like they didn’t seem to know what else to do. I think it makes sense to do something only when you are truly interested and inspired by what you do; if a thing doesn’t fire a spark in you you’re unlikely to succeed in it. When I felt it was the time to move on I moved on.
