Saito Nagasaki

Saito Nagasaki (born 22 July 1981) is the founding member of the Singapore Dark Alternative Movement (SDAM), an alternative, non-profit social collective, and a Singaporean Promoter (entertainment) and Disc Jockey. Nagasaki is associated with Singapore's goth subculture and underground BDSM scene in the media and champions alternative culture in Singapore. Saito Nagasaki is credited with starting Singapore's first Goth club night, "Heart of Darkness" (hosted at Gashaus)

Promoter career in Western Australia After moving to Perth, Western Australia, to study in 2002, Nagasaki began his mobile disco / events outfit, Outbreed which was his vehicle for over 20 singular events and club nights, which included fashion shows and raves, in the state.

Nagasaki originally formed Outbreed with Zebedee Paterson and John Webb, two friends who met Saito while they were mutually members of the Perth Order of Gothic Societies (POGS). Another notable event was "Arkham", an asylum themed Gothic fashion parade and art exhibition that Nagasaki conducted in an old church, The Claremont Town Hall or the "old Wesley Church".

Return to Singapore Upon return to Singapore in 2005, Nagasaki rapidly adapted to the thriving local music scene, quickly establishing Outbreed in the city-state as a local independent label / agent and began recruiting Singaporean live acts to commercially represent such as Flybar, Ronin, Project Ultrasound, The Sexies, Bad Obsession, Launchbox and TIEN.

Nagasaki entered into a trilateral business relationship through Gashaus with the iLLers and Projekts as well as sponsors Nokia (presenting Sponsor) and Adidas to create Flow!, the largest indoor music festival ever to take place in Singapore on the 2006-12-06 at Ministry of Sound Singapore. Nagasaki served as Flow's Event Manager and almost singlehandedly executed the production of 20 bands across 4 stages. The event was enormously successful with excess of 3200 attendees,

Saito's Singapore Goth event debut "Heart of Darkness" won critical acclaim in Time Out magazine's Singapore Edition as the Number 1 critic's choice, ranking above Zouk's "Readyset Glo, The Motored Sessions" and Ministry of Sound Singapore's "Godskitchen Presents Les Hemlock".

Musician and DJ career

In an interview with the Straits Times on Razor.tv, Saito revealed that his moniker was an amalgam created by combining the Japanese city Nagasaki as a fictional surname with the family name of Saitō Hajime (Rurouni Kenshin) as a first name. He allegedly came up with the name as both a means of masquerading as an ethnic Japanese to rebrand himself and gain more show opportunities while in Australia. Saito originally used the moniker "DJ Renegade" initially before switching to the present Japanese pseudonym.

DJ Residencies Year Event name Venue Country 2002 Radium Labs Gilkisons Dance Studio Australia 2003 The Haven Old Brizzy Bar Australia 2004 The Adrenalin Experiment Big Apple Club and Bar Australia 2006 Ghast Gashaus Singapore 2006–2007 Heart of Darkness Gashaus Singapore 2007–2008 Alternation DXO Singapore 2008 Dark Friday LEGENDS @ Orchard Singapore 2009 Dark Friday Night and Day Bar Singapore

Saito formed a now-defunct Electronic Body Music/Futurepop outfit Divine9 with Chad Zarkk Ostrowski (guitarist and vocalist) and Glenn William Wallace (bassist) in Perth, that failed to achieve much success. The band failed to pass the first leg of the 2005 "Next Big Thing" band competition. Chad left the band due to a no-show at the competition date and Shane Ross was an emergency stand-in vocalist. The band would undergo a line-up change, adding members of Perth Cover band Airbag; Shane Ross (vocalist), Steve Balaban (guitarist) and Tim Fikas (drummer). Nagasaki brought the new Divine9 on a promotional tour in Singapore for December 2005, playing at Home Club (2005-12-22), IJ Studio (2005-12-23) and a newly opened Gashaus (2005-12-24). During Flow!, Saito brought Divine9 over again as the headlining act for the festival on the main stage of Ministry of Sound Singapore, this time replacing Steve with Shannon Noll's guitarist Leigh Siragusa. Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot (2007-09-20 at DXO during Alternation, Singapore), DJ Panic (Pure Industrial, UK), resident DJ of the world's longest-running Goth nightclub, Slimelight at Bridge Bar on 2008-09-05 as well as a back-to-back ("Versus set") set with Eskil Simonsson, frontman of Covenant (Sweden). on 2008-10-03 at Dark Friday and opening for Angelspit's Zoog and DestroyX. on 2009-12-05

Singapore Dark Alternative Movement