WELCOME TO BEDROCK!
With an expansive new double CD compilation,‘Structures 2’, looming on his Bedrock imprint, house and techno maestro John Digweed talks progress…
Words: ELE BEATTIE Pics: BETH CROCKATT T
he word veteran gets bandied about a lot nowadays. Not because there are so many walking wounded on dancefloors at the end of the night; no, this status is strictly reserved for the mainstay DJs
and producers who have stood the test of time — John Digweed being one of them. With a history of music- making that spans 20 years, he is a house and techno pioneer, responsible for bringing us such dancefloor behemoths as ‘Heaven Scent’ and ‘Gridlock’. His Bedrock outfit and label with Nick Muir served up ‘For What You Dream Of’, a track forever immortalised as a sound of the ’90s with its inclusion in Irvine Welsh and Danny Boyle’s cult movie extravaganza, Trainspotting. For many, record collections are incomplete without his and Sasha’s Renaissance compilations — releases which optimised the flourishing of the foreboding, intense progressive movement.
With such wind behind his proverbial wings, that man is in constant demand. And with such demand comes a busy schedule. We caught up with the worldwide legend before he played at the Space Opening Fiesta. “I don’t often get to play the same places. I’ll play Space four times this summer, and that’s probably the most regular club I’ll do in a year. It’s been a good weekend: Fabric on Thursday for the charity gig, Don’t Forget, Friday at the O2 in Leeds, Dublin last night for Life festival and then Space tonight. It’s non-stop!” Despite the constant travel, gruelling schedule and wonky body clock, he still feels pretty blessed to be where he is at today. “How can you get bored of doing something you love?! I have friends with 9-5 jobs they hate... but I’ve got a job that I love.”
His ongoing relationship with the island and long- standing service as a DJ means he has witnessed Ibiza pass through many seasons. “The island is always changing. Over the last few years, you’ve seen the arrival of Cocoon, that whole minimal sound, and now it’s a house sound revival. And the likes of Guetta, and the Swedes and Morillo, have had a massive impact worldwide which in turn has had a big impact on the island. “For someone on holiday, it’s got everything. If you like trance you can go and see Tiësto or Armin, if you like the party stuff you have the Swedes, if you want the tougher stuff, you can go and see Sven, Carl... Even if you want a foam party, or you want to relax on the beach, or go to the West End and throw up in the corner, you can do that all here!”
On the imminent horizon for Digweed is his single ‘30 Northeast’, out in June and named after the address of his club in Miami, Vagabond. “Most clubs in Miami are based on bottle service and VIP, catering for that real high-end crowd. We are the opposite to that, drinks and entrance fees are normal prices and we have classic DJs like Jellybean, David Morales, Louie Vega. It’s got an old school feel about it. Would we make more money if we were doing VIP? Probably. But would we have as much fun? Probably not.”
www.djmag.com 033
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