something of an international playboy, his relentless hard work meaning he owns houses in Ibiza, where he spends the whole season, plus New York and LA, while continually touring the world. And of course there’s his long-standing residency at Pacha, whose nightly shows resemble an Agent Provocateur window come to life for a raunchier sequel to Mannequin.
Setting off under a clear blue sky, Captain Morillo is at the controls, fl icking a few switches before fi ring the throttle forward, the boat’s triple engines speeding us across the water, overtaking every other vessel around us with the kind of energy that seems to propel Erick too. “We usually start working on the season in October as soon as the other one ends,” he says of his relentless schedule. “We really work all winter long throwing ideas around, December we lock it in and January we’re doing photo shoots and deciding what decorations to have. We start planning the DJs and guests from October too.”
It’s via this that Morillo has proved a shrewd talent- spotter, invaluable mentor and powerful kingmaker, booking the likes of David Guetta and The Swedish House Mafi a on the cusp of fame and giving them the push to grow into massive acts in their own right. “Every year it gets a little harder so you have to search further to fi nd people but, you know, it’s a labour of love,” he adds on the inevitable competition that this creates. With good friend Steve Angello opening the season via a back-to-back session, 2010 sees the arrival of many Erick favourites including Lil Louie Vega, Dirty South, DJ Roog from Hardsoul (“he’s the best house DJ in Amsterdam and always opens up for me”), Harry ‘Choo Choo’ Romero, Jose Nunez, Richard Grey (“he has a new album coming for Subliminal”) and Carl Kennedy. But as always, there are one or two names that represent another side to his tastes, including the UK’s Fake Blood. “We have M.A.N.D.Y. from Germany, which is a little bit different from what we normally do, but I love their tech sound. I love good music, whatever that is. I have a pretty open mind about what I listen to. We also have A-Trak. He’s new on the scene but I love what he’s doing, that Duck Sauce track with Armand was a really cool record. For me it’s not so much about having the established guys as having the cool new guys coming up. “To help younger kids coming up, to give them some of my experience is great. Sometimes I feel like their parent,” he says, his 39 years suddenly showing through the usual youthful exuberance. “A lot of people come on a Wednesday night to see me so it’s about putting a little bit of seasoning on that, giving them something they’re maybe not used to with something that they know,” he says, experienced enough by now to know where he can and can’t push the boundaries of expectation.
David Guetta has become the biggest new name amongst the chic and chichi patrons of Pacha, his courting by big-named American r&b and hip-hop stars injecting house with the kind of aspirational
fame and fortune the club represents, but it’s actually Morillo, already the living embodiment of Pacha’s brand values, who set the ball rolling on his 2004 album ‘My World’ which featured P Diddy. “For me, on ‘My World’, it made so much sense to bring those worlds together, especially in America,” he says excitedly when we moor alongside the millionaires’ yachts outside Formentera, drinking beer from his ice boxes as house music pumps loudly and conspicuously from the powerful system which Morillo had specially installed, girls dancing around on deck. “Hip-hop was so huge and dance music, it’s taken a long time for it to catch-up, but now you have Lady Gaga, the Black Eyed Peas working with David Guetta, and Kelis’s new album which is pretty much a dance album. It’s a wonderful thing to see it happen. It’s about widening people’s musical horizons and elevating dance.”
It was this mashing of musical styles that fi rst rocketed Morillo into the higher echelons of dance during his Reel 2 Real days when it was reggae toasting, rather than rap, that stamped his indelible party mark on the four/four. It’s a trick he’s in the process of repeating, informing us he’s currently talking to Shaggy about working together, as well as collaborating again with P Diddy on a new album — which currently has a long list of 38 tracks — and inviting him to perform at Pacha on 4th August as Diddy Dirty Money. “I’ve got lots of collaborations, not just with hip-hop artists,” he points out. “When you’re touring and going to after-parties you bump into all kinds of people. When you hit it off you kind of say, ‘hey, you want to get together someday to do something?’ Most people are open to it. I’m doing something with some fl amenco singers and musicians. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You just roll the dice and see what comes out. But again, it’s about having fun. I’m enjoying music so much right now.”
If Ibiza’s minimal period, with its drug of choice, ketamine, robbed clubs of the shiny, happy, dress-up and even stand-up crowd that Morillo could once rely on, a wave of new releases for Subliminal is bringing sexy back, while the return of his other label, Sondos, is spreading Morilllo’s big room take on tribal house, with tracks already planned from Cevin Fisher and Thick Dick, aka E-Smoove. “I lost interest for a bit when that whole minimal sound was going on,” he admits, but it’s clear from the fast-paced way he outlines Subliminal’s eighteen releases between June and August that after the deep, bleepy years, he’s invigorated. “I’m getting so much good music sent to me and I’m like, ‘How in the hell am I going to be able to release all this stuff?’ Harry’s coming back with a vengeance right now, I have two records from him, and Jose Nunez has got this ‘Dance Again’ disco fi lter record that I think is going to be a huge hit.” Having lunch with Erick and his entourage on Formentera, it’s apparent from the way that he jokes, fl irts and sings at the table as we devour courses of seafood followed by fresh fruit and hierbas that he’s living the life. But behind the good-natured bravado
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of his stage character, there are also glimpses of another side to his personality. “In August I do something like 23 gigs. Sometimes I get to go places where I have friends but sometimes you go somewhere and you don’t know anyone so you spend the whole time watching CNN in your hotel,” he confi des. “I’m not saying that so people feel bad, I love my life and I’m not complaining. I wouldn’t work as hard as I do if I didn’t.”
Yet this insatiable desire to keep pushing things forward, like with his new ‘Subliminal Voodoo Sessions’ compilation (out now) which Erick calls the “sexiest piece of work I’ve done to date, it’s a step up from what I’ve done in the past,” also has its price. “One of the diffi cult things is the lack of stability, the lack of being able to settle down with someone and have a relationship,” he says candidly of the nomadic headline DJ lifestyle that he’s been living for almost 20 years. “Sometimes I don’t want to have a relationship, I just want to have fun. But sometimes I crave it, especially at the end of the summer when I have to go home and it’s winter time. That’s one of the things that working this hard has cost me. But we’ll see, when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I leave it up to the universe.” It’s this fearless nature, and a confi dence in his own abilities, that drives Morillo who reveals his future ambitions lie beyond music. “I’m busy buying a house in LA. I really want to act so I’m going to give it a try. I’ve done stuff for Channel 4 and MTV hosting in front of the camera and it’s always felt really natural so I’m going to go out there this winter and see. Music is something I really love doing and I’m really excited about, I’m going to keep doing the label and producing. I’m just going to go to auditions and see what happens.”
If past performances are anything to go by, it can only lead to good things. “I love this island,” Erick refl ects as we zoom back to Ibiza after an afternoon spent partying onboard, the sun starting to fall into another beautiful sunset. “I’m a fortunate human being to live the life I live.” Having spent a charmed day living it too, we can’t help but agree.
Erick Morillo’s Subliminal Sessions ‘Voodoo Nights’ is every Wednesday at Pacha until 29th September. Tickets begin at €37.
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