That someone is John Digweed. I could mention a few things— such as the legendary partnership of Sasha and Digweed and their early American forays at Twilo in New York, their game-changing mix CD Northern Exposure, the founding of Bedrock Records with Nick Muir — but if these things mean nothing to you, then you should probably go get yourself an education. Pronto.
It’s morning in England when Digweed picks up the line. He’s just outside London, where it’s a “cloudy, grey and miserable day…as per normal.” Especially when you’ve come from sun-drenched Ibiza, where Digweed has an upcoming residency at Pacha throughout the summer.
“We had a party on Friday for all the workers and the locals, which was really good,” he explains. “I’m playing in Denver, Vancouver, Los Angeles and then fly down to Australia to do a few the shows there and then back home via Hong Kong. Then it’s full-on in Ibiza through the summer.”
That’s a decent whack of US dates in there. What are Digweed’s thoughts on the States’ current obsession with “EDM”? “You’ve gotta be positive about the fact that there are a lot of young people who are into electronic music. A lot of it may be more on the commercial side of things, but I’d rather that they were getting their heads around a 4/4 beat and the whole festival vibe than being into hip hop or grunge or rock’n’roll. It’s a great way to introduce them.
“There is an explosion out there, and you’re seeing a lot of clubs opening up that are focusing on that. But then you look at Brooklyn, where they’ve just opened a club called Output. No VIP, no bottle service, no cameras — it’s just like playing at Twilo all those years ago. As much as you’re going to see the clubs that try to be like Vegas, all show and champagne and over-the-topness, you’re going to see people trying to create the polar opposite to that.
“I’ve been going to America for over 20 years and I’ve trudged around all those clubs and thought the potential for it to explode is here, it just needs the right thing to make it happen. It’s blowing up with the more commercial sound, but that’s not to say that there isn’t a knock-on effect for the sort of more underground scene as well. I look at it as a good thing.”
Digweed is hopeful that some of America’s new generation of clubbers might even rediscover the roots of Chicago house and Detroit techno. “A lot of these kids are following all the latest stuff,” he continues, “but you will find people that will want to delve a bit further, a bit deeper, and try to find out — where did this music actually come from? They’ll be surprised to find out it was actually on their doorstep all the time!”
As for Digweed’s roots, his formative days involved gigs at dingy warehouses and muddy raves — beginnings that seem worlds away from his current tour schedule of huge festivals and packed megaclubs. While he’s moved on to bigger things, Digweed insists that elements of rave culture still can be found today.
“I mean, you go around the world, there are still a lot of events that remind me of those days. It hasn’t disappeared completely. But you’re right, at some of the huge festivals, it has become quite corporate and it’s more about the show than the music. You’ve just got to move with the times. For me, it’s about playing every different kind of place. Sometimes it’s going to work and sometimes it’s not, but unless you get in there and play you can never really tell. I’m lucky, I would say that 99 per cent of my gigs I come away with a smile on my face. That’s all you can ask for, really.”
On the releases front, Digweed mentions a few treats soon to be released on Bedrock. “I’ve got a new album called Live in Slovenia, which is released this Monday. It’s the third part in a series of these live albums I’ve been doing around the world. I think, even though we live in an era of everyone expecting things to be free on Soundcloud or podcasts, there’s a bunch of people that actually like physical, well-presented mix album that represents a special night somewhere in the world. We’ve also got artist albums from Electric Rescue coming up in June and also the Japanese Popstars have something coming out in July. We’re trying to get a balance of doing a bunch of good singles and album projects as well.”
What about a reunion tour with Sasha — is that out of the question? Digweed is non-committal. “At the moment there’s nothing planned. He’s been doing his Never Say Never parties and I’ve been focusing on Bedrock releases. We did do a lot of shows for about 18 years, so it’s been quite nice just focusing on our own solo careers for a while. But as they say… never say never!”
BY MORGAN RICHARDS