tastemaker, but I know people who’re worse than me, you know! I’ve got my own tastemakers who inform me, but I’ve always been hungry, whether it’s new or old music. I think I probably came more from the old music, in a way. I kinda came from that old tradition of DJs collecting rare grooves and I suppose there was part of me that was in to having the record that no-one else had, and I suppose that continues into new music.
Being an A&R man for so many years, what’s it like recognising that you’ve discovered someone who could be a great new artist? Is there a feeling in the pit of your stomach, and how do you know that you want them on your label? Well with this kind of A&R, signing a group kind of thing, I’m not ruthlessly searching for stuff like some companies might be. I prefer to sort of fall upon stuff and usually the stuff I find hasn’t either been interesting to other labels, so therefore I don’t think I’ve got to fight anyone for it, or it just comes. Like with Ghostpoet, I got the demos and I loved it, I played it on the radio, then we signed it. Te record I’m really looking forward to right now is an album that I did with a producer called Mala, who’s a dubstep producer with his own label, DMZ. He’s not really just a dubstep guy in a Skream way, he’s more dubstep in a roots reggae kind of way; he’s one of the pioneers of the sound and I’m a big fan of his, so I just took him to Cuba with me last year when I made my last album out there, the Havana Cultura album. I just wanted him to be there and rather than him do a kind of remix album of my album, I wanted him to do a reinterpretation. With this album, the Mala record in Cuba, he’s come up with definitely the most amazing record that I’ve heard coming from dance music in a very long time.
You’ve dived so deep into the Cuban music scene – I remember going to Havana and feeling like someone had just
Te Plugg presents Gilles Peterson at OPEN on Saturday 9th June. For tickets, go to
www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk or buy instore at Seven Wolves / Dogfish. Read the uncut version of this interview at
Outlineonline.co.uk
outlineonline.co.uk / June 2012 / 21
given me an extra five senses or something, so vibrant was it as a city – what was it for you about the place that made you want to embark upon this journey? I had wanted to go to Cuba for years and I was interested in Cuba because of the music and the influence it’s had on the world over the years, but I was just fortunate that the people from Havana Club, the rum company, wanted me to do a comp really, to direct people towards their Havana Cultura website. Being a French company, with Havana Club rum being Cuban, to keep a partnership with the Cuban government, they have to kind of put a bit of energy into promoting Cuban culture. Tey have this guy who runs their Havana Cultura website, a guy called Francois Renié who said to me, ‘Gilles, let’s go to Cuba and find out what you can discover.’ Tat led to us producing our own record there and we have this amazing story now and I’ve managed to work with all these young, killer, new generation Cubans and they’re all sort of really appreciating it and we’ve toured round the world.
Yes, it’s an important
heritage, but you have to be able to move it on somewhere as well. Te last thing I need to ask you Gilles, is when you come to Norwich, what do you want from us as an audience? Oh, just bring your dancing shoes and be prepared to listen to and dance to different styles: that’s what I love. With me, sometimes it’s difficult because I’ve been around so long and people who haven’t seen me play for about 15, 20 years still expect me to be playing what I was playing then and some people want me to play jazz, other people want me to play electronic stuff, or the Cuban or Brazilian stuff, so really all I need is a really open minded crowd who are really prepared to go in all kinds of directions, who’re fundamentally there to have a good time… and dance.
Emma Garwood
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