Matt and Maxx present Samantha Ronson in Toronto tonight

By: Sheena Lyonnais
December 3, 2008

Matt Sims and Max Tremblay, better known as the party throwing and DJing duo Matt and Maxx (also as Dopplehertz), have another huge gig tonight to add to their ever-growing roster of massive hipster parties in Toronto.

To date they’ve opened for Flosstradamus, hosted Crystal Castles at Circa, Djed with the Misshapes and tonight they’re bringing Celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson (and possibly gal pal Lindsay Lohan) to the Courthouse on Adelaide.

At only 21, Sims is especially known for holding weekly parties at the Social and Circa and was recently interviewed in the National Post.  He met Tremblay about a year ago through a mutual friend when they were living in the same building and Tremblay was working at a tattoo shop.  Sims had been throwing parties for a few years already when they decided to work together to book bigger talent.  They started booking huge names in smaller venues, which directly leads us to tonight’s gig at the Courthouse.

TMS had a chance to fire off some questions to the prosperous promoters.  Here are their mutual answers.

What elements are involved in throwing a successful party?
In order to have a good and successful event the key is to get all the things locked down and organized before even announcing an event.  Then you can start on promoting it to people without having to worry about anything else. I think part of promoting is definitely luck. You have to know the right people and you have to be involved with whom you cater to. It is so important to know what people are into and what they want out of nightlife events. Another key thing would be to keep it fresh by bringing new talent that may not necessarily have been to Toronto before. Last but not least, getting locals involved with events is essential, to make sure to bring up local Dj’s and other promoters involved always improves the turn out.

How did you manage to book Samantha Ronson?
We have some friends that know her and they put us in touch with her manager and then we introduced ourselves and what we are about.  I guess they really liked what we are doing because they let us have the show. I mean Samantha Ronson plays corporate events most of the time and I think she saw this show as being refreshing to get to DJ to a crowd of people that is going to be quite diverse.

Why did you choose to have hometown hero Rob Dyer kick start the night?
I have known Rob for a while now and we did some Skate4cancer fundraiser at my old tattoo shop and things went well.  I’ve wanted to get him involved with some of the shows we were doing for quite sometime now, but he was on the road for the last six months.  When he got back I had slot open and just wanted to get him involved. I think he definitely has a great ear for music and a great selection of music. Rob knows how to get people going and he’s just such a great guy I definitely think it’ll bring great energy to the event.

Is it more important to book events with celebrities or to just throw a party with awesome overall talent?
I think booking just overall great talent is the most important thing. I know Samantha Ronson is an A-list Dj. However, she is an amazing DJ and artist; it’s not just a novelty thing. Booking Celebrities with no talent is sort of like going on a date with someone insanely hot but incredibly stupid: it’s fun for the first 10 minutes, then you’re calling your friends to bail you out. There is no point for us to book celebrities if they don’t have skills.  I think we’d be ripping off our crowd.

How important are DJ-based events to the Toronto music scene?
DJ based events are an important part of the music and entertainment industry. I think people just want to have a good time and sometimes don’t really want to go to a concert; they want to go out and interact. Part of being a DJ is knowing how to read your crowd. When you are part of a band people have to get into what you’re playing. We are here to make sure people are having fun and that is perhaps why doing DJ-based events is way less of a gamble and much more of an appeal nowadays for people.

What do you have in store for 2009?
Parties in Miami and NYC, European DJ tour, Matt Sims in a new reality
TV show called 15 Min ‘til Last Call. Technically last year’s chaos times ten.

To find out more about Matt and Maxx, check www.dopplehertz.com.

There are still some tickets left for tonight’s Samantha Ronson event.  They can be purchased at Lavish and Squalor (253 Queen St W), Rotate This (801 Queen St W), online at http://wantickets.com/samantharonson or at the door.

All photos courtesy of Matt and Maxx.