You might expect to meet a DJ in a nightclub or at a festival.
But I meet rising star Jordan ‘Van Damn’ Wyness in the garden of his mother’s cafe, Papa J’s, which is based in the bus station, just down the road from where the former Arbroath High pupil grew up.
And the first thing that sandy-haired, smiley Jordan says to me when I sit down is: “Look at that cute wee dog!” (It’s a cockapoo puppy, and is very cute.)
As well as being a DJ that “pretty much doesn’t drink”, the 34-year-old dad of one is refreshingly down-to-earth for someone whose career is on the brink of blowing up.
After playing every Cultivate festival (Aberdeen’s massive electronic music event) since its inception in 2018, he’s on the main stage for the first time this weekend.
And he’s set to release new music on Southern Fried, the label belonging to dance legend Fatboy Slim, early next month.
All of this after being signed by Radio 1 DJ Jaguar Bingham to launch her new label, Utopia, with his now-acclaimed track, ‘Can’t Grumble’ earlier this year, and playing Big Weekend on his home turf in Dundee this summer.
“It’s mad,” laughs Jordan ahead of Cultivate. “It blows my mind that that sort of stuff is happening.
“You’re sitting in the car and your song comes on and you’re like: ‘What is going on?’
“It’s mad to think a couple of years ago, I’d be choking for that, and now it’s regularly happening every weekend.”
Raving about the Big Weekend show, he adds: “I was so nervous in case nobody was there. That was my biggest worry, I was like: I’m here with my nice new clothes on, I’ve got loads of new songs, what if no one turns up?
“It was banging in the end though!”
Reading Rooms was Van Damn’s school
But it’s not been an easy ride for freelance graphic designer Jordan. Revealing that he wasn’t allowed to take music as Arbroath High “because I was a little bit disruptive”, he says he learned to DJ the old fashioned way – by hitting the books.
“My godfather KB, my auntie’s ex, used to DJ back in the day and he was quite well known in the area,” he recalls.
“Back in the day the Internet wasn’t like what it is now, where you can just go on your phone and get any information you want, so I wasn’t sure how to get into it.
“And then he gave me this book called ‘How To DJ Properly’, which sounds totally bizarre but it’s actually a really good book! And that’s how I started learning, when I was about 15.”
After school, a stint in Ohio to pursue a career in basketball saw Jordan spending more time on the decks than on the courts, and he returned to Scotland with a clear goal in mind.
“I thought, ‘I want to be a DJ’,” he says. “And I want to play the Rooms.”
Reading Rooms, affectionately known as ‘the Rooms’ until the club closed in 2019, was Dundee’s dance haven, and housed Jordan’s “coming of age”.
“Mind you, I was probably there when I was a bit underage as well,” he chuckles. “When I was in sixth year I’d be going out on the Thursday night and then poking school on the Friday because I couldn’t do it!”
It was during his time going out to the Rooms ‘religiously’ that he first saw his hero Paul Wolford play live, and started his first party night as a promoter – Smash ‘n’ Grab – which Jordan himself admits “was crap”.
“It was my first foray into promoting and I wasn’t getting booked by the people I wanted to get booked by,” he explains. “So I was like: ‘I’m just going to do my own night then’.”
Tragedy as All Good got off the ground
From there, Jordan teamed up with close pal Scott Williams to create All Good, a night which went on to feature at the Rooms for around a decade until the club closed, and still continues in Dundee now.
But the success of All Good is bittersweet for Jordan, as just as the pair were getting started, tragedy struck.
“We made a list of all the DJs we wanted to get,” recalls Jordan. “We’d only done two or three nights when Scott sadly passed away in a car crash.
“After that I started working with another friend, Scott Forrest. And together, after he passed, we managed to do it. We got every single act on that list of dream acts.
“I was so lucky to get to nail the list for me and him.”
Topping that list was American act Green Velvet, who Jordan admits he never thought they’d get because of the “insane prices” of such high-profile acts (some of which can be more than £10k a night).
And where before the pandemic, he could count on ticket sales to account for the fees, Jordan says that the post-Covid changes to the nightlife scenes have turned dream bookings into big-risk gambles for local promoters like All Good.
“We’re in a funny position in Dundee,” observes Jordan.
“We’re not Edinburgh or Glasgow. And if people are going to spend money an event, they would rather leave Dundee and go to one of those places. But people don’t leave Glasgow or Edinburgh or Aberdeen and come to Dundee for a wee night out.”
‘You can carve out a career in Angus’
But despite the “funny position” of being a Arbroath DJ, Jordan’s determined to stay where he is and raise his 10-year-old son Reuben in Angus, insisting: “You can carve out a career here.”
“Just look at Hannah!” he exclaims, referring to Dundee DJ Hannah Laing, who has stormed dance charts and racked up award nominations over the past few years.
“She’s still based in Dundee and she’s flying, she’s probably the most in-demand DJ in the UK for sure, and maybe in Europe at the moment.”
Asked if he thinks she’s one to watch, Jordan quips: “One to watch?! She’s done it!
“I’m the one to watch!” he adds playfully. “She’s carved the path and I’m just wanting to try and do the same.”
So far, it would seem he’s succeeding – which he partly puts down to his quick reaction to the Covid lockdown situation.
“I was bricking it,” he admits, recalling those first weeks of cancelled gigs and uncertainty. “Because before it, I felt like my career was going somewhere.”
Downing tools at All Good and embracing the solo project of Van Damn, Jordan picked up a green screen, mic and stand from Amazon during the first week of lockdown.
Using YouTube tutorials to learn how to livestream using streaming platform Twitch, and inspired by the Joe Wickes workouts he was doing in the mornings with his son, he launched a Friday night live ‘party’ for people to tune into.
He couldn’t have imagined the near-overnight success that it brought him.
“It put me on the map with bigger DJs,” he explains. “So Ewan McVicar, who is massive now, was tuning into the stream every week! Another guy, Elliot Adamson, a big DJ from Newcastle, tuned in. Hannah [Laing] had been on.
“People would just sit on a Friday night and get blootered and tune in!”
Van Damn released tune on Jaguar’s label
And the momentum from his streaming turned into a perfect storm for success when his pre-arranged release on Jaguar’s label finally came out after being pushed due to the the lockdowns.
“I met Jaguar the New Year before the pandemic at SWG3 in Glasgow, I supporting her,” Jordan reveals.
“And she was like ‘send me tracks’ so I sent her a bunch, but Can’t Grumble was one I wasn’t really sure about. So when she was like ‘I want that one and I want to sign it’, I was buzzing!”
Of course, it’s not all glitz and glamour.
Even though he’s making his own music, releasing on major labels, co-hosting a podcast and headlining mainstay events, Jordan still uses his graphic design business to support himself, and spends his spare time teaching DJ skills to school pupils through Skills Academy, which he thoroughly enjoys – even if working in his old high school was “a bit weird”.
“I’m currently working in Rossie, up by Montrose, which has been really good,” he says. “The kids are unbelievably responsive.
“I think the DJing thing is quite popular now,” he continues, adding that DJing is an accessible way for kids to get into music without being classically trained.
“Especially with the access to information – YouTube, TikTok, things like that. Kids nowadays are interested in things if you put it in front of them.”
In terms of his own work, Jordan’s looking forward to pushing himself when it comes to production, even experimenting with putting his own vocals on songs.
“So many DJs would never get on a mic,” he laughs. “And I’m the same, I’m not a cheesy wedding DJ. But with the ways you can mix audio these days, I’ll probably try my own vocals – you can make it sound good!”
‘One degree of separation’ from collab of his dreams
But the dream for him is to go back to where his inspiration began and collaborate with his DJing hero, Paul Wolford.
“He played in the Reading Rooms when I was about 18/19 and I remember being like, ‘He’s cool’. To this day, I look up to him loads,” says Jordan.
And as of about a month ago, that dream may be closer to becoming a reality than Jordan would’ve dared to imagine.
“He messaged me on Instagram maybe like three weeks ago,” Jordan says, giddy with excitement.
“It was a Sunday night, I was sitting with my girlfriend Amy [Cramond] and Paul messaged me! He’d heard one of my unreleased songs and he was like: ‘Mate, can you send me it?’
“And I was like ‘Are you kidding me?!’ I was freaking out.
“He said it was a banger, it was cool.
“Just one degree of separation now!”
Van Damn plays Cultivate in Aberdeen this weekend, and is set to release new music on Southern Fried early in October.
