A New Looking Glass: White Rabbit's New Hole in Sanlitun

If you’ve ever tumbled down the wee hours of a Saturday night in the last couple of years, you may have found yourself on the dance floor at Lucky Street’s White Rabbit. But when that infamous Beijing after-hours party spot shut its doors back in July, the city felt its consistent electronica supply fall into a black hole.

But no more. As club owner and self-professed disco lover Thomas Gaestadius explains, a new White Rabbit is now open in Sanlitun, stepping up to fill the void, and then some.

How is this new place be both like and unlike the old White Rabbit? What kind of changes/innovations do you have planned, and what things do you hope to preserve?
The new place is very different compared to the old White Rabbit, mainly because of the nature of the space. The old White Rabbit had this perfect warehouse kind of feel because it was just a box and it was also located in a basement and far away from other nightclubs, which made it possible to have this unique underground vibe. We will try to keep this vibe for sure with the music, but Sanlitun is a different game and this space is more like a tunnel, with a totally different feel, so of course we can’t do the same decoration as before.

The new space is great in my opinion. It’s really well suited to be a cocktail bar, but also good for dancing in the late hours. The old White Rabbit was strictly a dance club, but with the new location I think people will come a bit earlier. So we want to be able to give them a warmer atmosphere with good drinks and tapas. Since I started White Rabbit, I have developed new passions within the nightclub – the music is not only the thing on my mind anymore. Now I am into making drinks, making the design of the bar, marketing, etc.

The old White Rabbit was infamous for its electronic music, and in particular being a drum & bass haven. Is there a certain philosophy behind the new joint? A particular genre or niche you’re looking to fill?
I would say it was more focused on techno than drum & bass. The new space is more suited to not only heavy dance music like drum & bass, techno, dub step, electro, etc. I am really into disco right now, and I am hoping Beijing is ready for this on a larger scale than before. There is so much good dance music, and it’s constantly changing. I want to offer people something new all the time … so who knows [if] next month there [will be] something new out there that will blow your mind? For sure White Rabbit will give it a try. But the nature of the new White Rabbit is that it gives us the opportunity to have more lounge, nu jazz, indie, disco and deep house kind of stuff earlier in the night, and then move onto the heavy dance stuff.

As one of the purveyors of the music, you’ve been able to see the local electronic scene develop and grow. What do you see for the future of electronic music in China/Beijing?
I don’t think there have been enough new DJs coming to the scene as I had been hoping for. I thought with all the new equipment like Serato and Traktor, it would make it really easy for new DJs to learn to play and more DJs would enter the scene, but unfortunately this has not been the case. Right now the electronic scene is very anonymous compared to, for example, hip-hop. Hip-hop has found a very clear position in Chinese society, but the house and techno scene is lagging behind. This was also the case in Europe in the ’90s, so I think China will go a similar way. I hope soon the electronic dance scene will become more mainstream.

What are you three favorite albums?
The Posies, Frosting on the Beater; Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians; and Miles Davis, Kind of Blue.

What can you predict for 2010?
A more relaxed Beijing, since there is no huge event this year like the Olympics or 60th Anniversary… so hopefully some nice parties and a growth of the scene in general.

Do you have a New Year’s Resolution?
Exercise more, eat more healthfully, watch fewer bad cheesy movies and bad TV series, and go on more hikes with Beijing Hikers.