"We were looking for ways and spaces where all our different musical pursuits could coexist and combine…" Connor D’Netto on NONSTOP

When I hear the words ‘live classical music’, I think of old white people obediently filing into QPAC’s sold out Concert Hall. I think of ticket prices passive aggressively informing me that me and my student income should seek live music out elsewhere. 

The last time I engaged with classical music was in a school assembly, when a musical wizz performed Adele’s Hello on cello and it blew my socks off. When I go to local indie gigs (where I feel welcome in the dingy basements filled with poor students like myself) they’re fun for sure, but my socks have always stayed firmly in my docs.

The idea that there are two distinct ways to engage with live music (sitting in stilted seats in an air conditioned auditorium OR rocking recklessly on a sweaty dancefloor) is held by those both in and around the music scene. Then in comes Dots+Loops…

“An irl mixtape by your chaotic friend” is the tagline for Dots+Loops next event, NONSTOP, which is taking place this Sunday at Newstead Brewing Co, Milton. I chatted with Dots+Loops Co-Director Connor D'Netto in the lead up to NONSTOP to hear about what is in store for this Sunday.

The Dots+Loops trio: (L-R) Keiran Welch, Connor D’Netto & Flora Wong. Image: George Levi. Cover Image: Reuben Fenemore

But before the juicy tagline was explained, Connor told me of Dots+Loops’ origins. Founded in 2014 by Kieran Welch (trained classical violist and self-taught DJ ), this one-man collective became a trio in 2019 with the addition of Flora Wong (musician, educator and curator) and Connor D’Netto (composer, producer and visual artist), who had believed in the work of Dots+Loops since its inception. 

Like so many others in our community, we were looking for ways and spaces where all our different musical pursuits could coexist and combine; where a string quartet playing something new written by one of our friends could sit right at home next to some experimental electronic music, next to a band, next to a DJ set. So that’s what [we] created!

A big part of the ethos of Dots+Loops is finding ways to intersect classical music with indie culture, a traditional classical concert with a live art show. Given Connor’s insider knowledge of the music industry, I was keen for him to explain why Dots+Loops believed this intersection was so important.

It’s easy for people to assume certain types of music to exist in a certain place, presented in a certain way, and maybe even listened to by certain people. That’s so limiting on every level. It limits the kind of art artists feel comfortable (or are even allowed) to create; it limits whether people feel comfortable in certain spaces and therefore whether they are able to experience different kinds of art; it limits how people are able to come together, connect and interact.

Dots+Loops’ rule bending disposition is what makes them so interesting. They ask “why can’t a violinist play at a bar, or a band on a concert stage?”. To Dots+Loops, the classic things are the way they are because that’s the way they’ve always been is not a sufficient answer. This kind of lazy discourse just adds further fire to their flame.

Our goal is to bring together a mix of things in a way that shows how these different worlds are connected. Hopefully, each event will give each audience member something comfortable and familiar, something that’s a little outside your usual realm, and something that’s totally unexpected. Maybe you came to hear a prog/metal band, stayed for the experimental electronic artist, and then were totally surprised by the “chamber music” by Bryce Dessner or Louis Andreissen.

Cameron Bower. Image: Kelsy Muhleisen

Connor went on to explain this connection on a more personal level, talking about individual artists’ simultaneous connection to various different parts of the music scene.

Take Cameron Bower, one of the artists you can catch at NONSTOP: a guitarist, pianist, composer, producer; solo he creates rich dense ambient electroacoustic music, but then has multiple bands like Cowbird, Milk Buttons and Big Dead just to name a few, all spanning a whole range of things. So we want to give audiences the chance to discover those other sides of the artists they might already know and love, and hopefully discover some new things they love along the way.

At this point in the interview, I was well and truly understanding that when Connor said intersectional, he meant intersectional, which made me curious about how this intersectionality be distilled into a festival bill. 

Each year we put out a public Call-For-Artists, so anyone in the community can tell us what they’re up to and express interest in being involved in future shows. It’s always such an amazing experience getting to learn about artists we didn’t know, and so we stow those responses away until it comes to curating a concert bill and try to find opportunities that really celebrate the artists out there. Also, we are incredibly grateful to be partners with the wonderful local First Nations owned and operated organisation Cre8tive Nations, who guide us in all aspects of our celebration of and collaboration with First Nations arts and artists – each year they curate artists from their roster to perform at NONSTOP, and we can’t wait to welcome Poji and Sela Mahe to the stage this weekend.

Finally, I asked the question that if you’ve made it this far into the article, you’re also probably wondering: what type of vibe can we expect for Sunday? Chill? Rave? Somewhere in between? Connor was quick to alleviate my confusion.

[It will be] a little bit of everything! The night will start out a little more chill, with some lush ambient and contemporary classical acts, getting a bit of a groove with some soul/RnB, building into toe-tapping goodness with some upbeat folk, jazz and alt-rock, and finally descending into all-out rave with a techno/deep-house DJ set to set us going into the night.

NONSTOP functions on a pay-what-you-can basis (minimum $20), which is a pretty generous arrangement for a six hour long show where at any point, you have access to two stages featuring the previously mentioned smorgasbord of genres, plus gallery spaces and an immersive installation. And of course, Newstead Brewing Co.’s great beers, social spaces to chill out, and food downstairs in the brewery pub. So up yours QPAC, we don’t need your Concert Hall to experience classical music. We’ve got Dots+Loops and Newstead Brewing Co, which is enough+more.

Nonstop by Dots+Loops hits the Newstead Brewing Co in Milton, Sunday 12 December 2021 from 4pm.