The Flat Celebrates 20 Years Of Keeping Houston Grooving

For the past 20 years, The Flat, a Montrose staple, has served as a gathering place for Houstonians and visitors creating an international hub within their beautiful lounge. During daylight hours, patrons can visit the gorgeous patio for coffee and meals. At night The Flat serves as a great place to kick back and enjoy live music often put on by DJs from Houston and beyond.

The Flat has been owned and operated by Houston’s DJ Sun, Andre Sam-Sin, since 2013 when he took the struggling bar. DJ Sun has made a name for himself globally with his DJ skills which he continues to show off on a weekly basis.

Sun knows a thing or two about dedication. “Jasmine always refers to me as a beacon of consistency,” says Sun about the description coined by his partner in life and in running The Flat: Jasmine Richardson.  

This week all of the consistency and hard work will culminate in a five day celebration marking their 20 year anniversary. “The common denominator was for me to be able to connect with my community,” says Sun.

“My community extends from here to other cities like Chicago and other markets that I’ve always had a connection with through my network.”  

The party kicks off today Tuesday, October 14 with their signature Sunny Coffee and music by DJ Archaix, in the early afternoon.  

The festivities run all week with The Flat incorporating their neighborhood businesses and friends throughout the celebrations with guest DJ set from Light Years Wine who will also provide the wine for steak night Tuesday evening.  

Wednesday night, Sun and some friends will be featured in the Drop The Needle series at Hotel Saint Augustine where they will be spinning and sharing the signature vibe of The Flat. That same night, their weekly reggae spinning session will be going on back at home base.  

Thursday night will bring The Flat’s Chicago based buddy Demuir back to The Flat to get everybody on the dance floor. This will be followed by two more days of coffee, food, special guests and music culminating to the big party Saturday night benefitting Art League Houston.  

“They’re right here in our community,” says Sun of Art League Houston. “They host Little Dreamer Coffee and even though we have coffee here, we wanted to collaborate with Matt Toomey and with Little Dreamer and Art League Houston to contribute to our immediate community right here in Montrose.”  

His journey to owning The Flat officially started in 2013 but the seeds had been planted even before then.  Sun had a Monday night Soular Sessions residency at Cafe Brasil, also a staple in the Montrose community, starting in 1996.  Soular Sessions ran for eight years and featured himself, DJ Melodic, the late DJ Chicken George along with a number of other artists and musicians who would join them on their six turn table set up. 

When Cafe Brasil wanted to make some changes, Sun was asked to move the party over to The Flat, turning Soular Sessions into Rock Steady Mondays.  The new venue allowed him and his team to continue with their vision adding a bit more of a party element with the dancefloor.  

“That’s what I did with the format that to me has been successful since 1992, an open format style of DJing that featured all non mainstream music, playing all underground music so never playing commercial tracks and that’s where I found my niche. So Rock Steady Mondays were very successful, it took us two weeks to build up an audience that would sustain for eight years.”  

Sun and The Flat’s aesthetic and sound is a direct reflection of his life and influences as he and his collaborators have created a cozy, groovy and international spot in the heart of Montrose where on any given night on the patio a wide range of languages can be heard.  Sun describes how the doorman once observed to him that he checks more passports than state ID’s leading the venue to call their Friday night DJ series Flight 1701, combining the travelers with the venues address.

“I grew up listening to music since I was a kid and my influences are disco, soul and jazz from a standpoint of soul jazz period from early to mid ‘70s. Then I came into that era where I was really drawn towards East Coast Hip Hop and the house music scene that was happening,” describes Sun.  

“I’m really an open format DJ who is attracted to the aesthetics of a good soulful bass line, a good groovy bass line. I like disco elements in my mix, it’s stuff that really has a great swing to it. If it’s too static in terms of what the drums feel like, then it’s probably not gonna work and that leaves a wide open pallet but it’s specifically curated by my experience and my experiences in the world and that comes from several continents,” says Sun citing being born in Europe, growing up in Surinam and his many years here in the South and in New York as direct inspirations and influences.  

Another core element to Sun’s identifiable way of connecting songs and samples as only he can is his experience on KPFT radio running his weekly Soular Grooves show which stayed on the air for 20 years.   

“That was basically setting the standard for some of the music that I was attracted to that you couldn’t hear anywhere else. Soular Grooves is kind of the definition of my aesthetic. I still go back to what it meant to be on Soular Grooves in terms of the music and that still carries forward and this legacy that we’ve created that also goes through amazing bands,” says Sun referencing many local bands that have blossomed out of the scene like home town heroes Khruangbin.  

When naming his top five memories in The Flat, the conversation quickly turns to Khruangbin and the joy he has felt seeing his friends blow up globally. The band has consistently returned home throughout the years with Mark Speer hosting packed DJ nights at The Flat, including one earlier this year.  Sun describes seeing bassist Laura Lee’s first gigs with the band when they opened for Houston born and LA based artist Yppah.  

Whittling down 20 years of memories to a top five was hard for Sun as the memories of late nights with a wide range of friends and special guests triggered only more memories. He audibly smiles recalling time with Solange, a DJ set by Win Butler from Arcade Fire with the surprise attendance of Willie D from The Ghetto Boys and late nights with Vincent “Maseo” Mason from De La Sol among other fun nights at The Flat.

Combining his knowledge and interests as an artist, his business degree from the University of Houston, his admiration and respect for other artists young and old and most of all his love and desire to connect with his community, Sun has created a staple for Houston.  

“That’s what I mean about community,” says Sun. “Our community is strong. Montrose has a very strong history and community and it thrives and it continues to thrive.”   

The Flat is located at 1701 Commonwealth and will celebrate their anniversary starting on Tuesday, October 14 until Saturday, October 18. For more information visit theflathouston.com. All events are free to attend.

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