A
pair of special ears formed their way around a small body in the city of Caen, France back in 1964. Was it
their French birthing ground, their Parisian mother or their Zurich-born father that gave those ears a global sensitivity, that would grow them into the stature they have now, near-permanently adorned with a set of headphones? Tey were the ears of Gilles Peterson, one of the UK and the world’s most cherished DJs, a man able to gently push the fader up on the music of different continents, mixing it with our own homegrown. We catch up with Gilles before he comes to Norwich this month for a hugely-anticipated set…
We’re very much excited about you coming to Norwich to play next month… And so am I; the last time I played in Norwich must’ve been about 20 years ago, at the university and I think I was doing a Talkin’ Loud tour - which was one of my early labels – with a couple of bands who didn’t really do anything after that!
Before you get to Norwich though, you’re obviously still a very busy man; you’re going to Austria tomorrow, is that right? Yeah, I’m curating two days at the Spring Festival there; it’s a bit like the Austrian version ofSonar – it’s a really brilliant festival and I really enjoy going there. Tey’ve asked me this year to put on a couple of different nights, so I’m doing a jazz night on Friday and an electronic night tomorrow night, so that’ll be good, then I’ve got to head back on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn. I’ve got to head straight from the club to the airport to get me back to London so that I can do my show on 6Music on Saturday…
Yes, it’s a bit of an adjustment period for you going from having a late night show to an afternoon show at the moment – how have you found the transition? Great, I mean obviously being on 6Music, I couldn’t have timed it better really. Tey’ve spent 10 years building themselves up, they won Station of the Year this week at the Sonys and I’ve managed to sneak myself on there! Te funny thing is that for me, and for the kind of thing that I play and the heritage that I like to play on the radio, I couldn’t have found a better home
20 /June 2012/
outlineonline.co.uk
really, anywhere in the world. I feel very, very fortunate to have got myself a slot on there, especially in the afternoon because in a way, it’s opened me up to a whole new audience.
Do you have to think about your audience in a different way now then, like what they might be doing while you’re listening? It’s going to be different to a late-night crowd, isn’t it? A little bit, yeah, but I’m sort of bedding in at the moment and it’ll take me a little while to get used to it, but I am aware that a whole lot of people are doing the cooking; I get a real cooking vibe going on! I can imagine I’m on in a lot of kitchens, but it’s good!
right? It’s a lot easier. But for someone like me, in a way, I’m in a position where I’m from a more old-fashioned place in terms of arrangements – even though 6Music isn’t even on FM, it’s already more modernised in approach – but I see myself as a channel to really introduce people to the deeper stuff, you know. Te do-it-yourself aspect of it as well is such a great boost for music and for bands though; in that sense it’s brilliant, but then there’s another part of me that’s like, ‘oh, I remember the days when you could buy a record and there was only 15 records coming out every week!’ Before, you may have spent a lot longer getting to that point before, but now, if you’ve got the talent, confidence, or whatever it is, you can really do it yourself, which is quite fun.
All I need is a really open minded crowd who are prepared to go in all kinds of directions, who’re fundamentally there to have a good time… and dance.
When you started off on pirate radio stations, you couldn’t get a more different situation nowadays because people can podcast themselves from the safe, legal boundaries of their bedroom; do you think it’s a whole different ball game now? Yeah, I think that in a way, if you’re curious about music or something and you want to know more, you can get into things a lot quicker now,
You’re synonymous with new music and like you said, if people stumble upon you, they’ll probably stumble upon new artists that they haven’t heard before. I got to hear about Amp Fiddler and NuYorican Soul because of you… Has that always been a trait of yours? Were you always bugging your mates, saying ‘you’ve GOTTA hear this’?! I don’t know, it’s weird; people say I’m a
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