LAST NIGHT IN OUTER HEAVEN
Photos by Dawson Turner and Niles Davis
Interview with club owner Sean by Dawson Turner
[Description of the late disco club, it’s owner, and the night Niles and I had]
How do you want Outer Heaven to be remembered?
I feel towards the end, I sort of always get more perspective of what it meant to people. It’s very overwhelming. Off the top of my head I know 12 people got married from there. Who knows how many people found theirs? Three people on our staff found their partners. I don't know, it's a weird experience to have. I wanted it to be a genuine experience in people's minds.
I think it is. You said your main staff has been there the whole four years?
Yeah. So, essentially, I kind of did everything the opposite of how you're supposed to [make] most bars run. We essentially paid everybody not the $2.13 rate that you can legally pay bar staff on purpose. It wasn't an economic decision; It was a moral decision. I've worked a million service industry jobs; I know that shit sucks. And so, I think because I was so proactive on treating people like human beings, I guess, no one ever left. I think in the total five years, I think we had like 13 or 14 employees, which is probably like what bars go through of just like turnover in a year. So I was pretty proud of that. I think that's huge.
What do you think attracted people to the space?
I wanted to make a disco bar but it was like a secret punk bar [that] just happened to play like, gay dance music, because that's what I like. But it's still like, we have the punk rock ethos.
You did a remix of Bjork’s “Hyperballad” that I’ll never forget. I couldn’t believe it.
[Laughs] You can mask a song that maybe of the crowds gonna know into like an instrumental that 80% of the people know, and then you get like 60% of the people, which I feel like is a pretty good percentage for playing a Bjork song in a dance club. I think that a lot of people won't do that, because they're like, well, ‘we got to have 90% of people like every song.’ And I was like, nah, dude, that's fucking boring as shit. That's a bullshit ass wedding DJ.
Another thing: I like your dance floor photos. I like them a lot.
I mean, I was a photographer for 15 years. I wish I had more footage for actual video footage of the club, but it was, like, almost impossible. It's almost impossible just to get photos. But yeah, I tried as best I could to capture stuff, but usually the best time I can't even walk on the dance floor to take pictures. But those would have been the best pictures. I think about that all the time.
Well, I mean, that’s life. You’re too busy experiencing it, making it happen.
I think there's something to not exploiting the moment…There's something to like when nobody has their phones out and they're just like, in it. It makes you feel like you are successful.
People’s subjective memory of a night is gonna be way better than any photo or video.
Your brain fills in the blanks.
