Interview: DJ Harvey

Back in October of last year, DJ Harvey, or Harvey Bassett to his mum, played in the UK for the first time in 10 years when Red Bull Music Academy brought him to back to London to play a  single, specially arranged, one DJ party at the Oval Space in London, the town where he made his name as resident at the Ministry of Sound during the height of its success, as well as at his own nights, like Moist, Beautiful Bend and New Hard Left, all of which have become the stuff of legend.

 

Prior to the party, there was a lot of cynicism, on the internet mainly, about how it may all pan out, but fortunately it proved to be unfounded, online moaning. The space was great, the sound system was spot on, Harvey lived up to all expectations, playing a set that had people talking for weeks afterwards, if not months, and the crowd was like mass meeting of old friends from every strand of London clubland in the last 20 years. Smiling, hugging, and dancing with old friends were all order of the day, on what was undoubtedly the night life highlight of 2012.

 

Before all that though, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to chat to Harvey for the ever wonderful Ransom Note. I wasn’t feeling that great the night the call came but I dragged my man-flu ridden backside from my sick bed, got smacked up on Lemsip and Skyped the very accommodating Mr Bassett in LA to find out a little a bit more about he is all about.

 

Hi Harvey, thanks for talking to us.

 

No worries.

So, the London/Manchester parties, the excitement over here palpable now, there’s people who go out pretty much every week who are counting how many days there are before the night! Are you getting a feeling for that level of excitement where you are? And are you feeling slightly nervous at all about coming back to London and playing here for the first time in 10 years?

 

Erm, I think the fact that a 1000 tickets sold out in 24 seconds, or something really… it was a little bit of a shock actually, I wasn’t quite expecting that sort of reaction and it’s a good feeling you know… I feel wanted or anticipated as it were, so that’s really good, that’s sort of bigged up, it just… makes you feel good, if an event sells out in advance, that’s really cool. I’m a little bit nervous cause I wanna do right, you know what I mean, but I’m nervous before every show, I have the pre-show butterflies or whatever, and I feel you’re only as good as your last gig. I was nervous about the Berghain gigs, the Sonar and the last Sarcastic and stuff like that, as I do honestly feel you’re only as good as your last gig and I always wanna do well. This one I mean is particularly special, I suppose, because of what it is, you only come home or come back, as it were, or return from being 10 years away, kind of once in your career. It’ll be doubtful whether if I disappear for another 10 years whether anyone will give a damn in 10 years time, what I’ve been up to, but I think the climate… the way communication has changed over the last 10 years, you know, the proliferation of things… the internet, facebook and tweeting and all that kind of stuff has added to the, I suppose, [to] the legend... and to the momentum of an event like this.

 

You mentioned the legend there and also the internet - the legend has grown almost, exponentially over the time you’ve been in LA, have you got a view on why that’s happened? I mean, you were a pretty well-established as big name when you left but it just seems to have grown and grown and grown, do you think it’s just a case of ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’?

 

I think, in some respects…. [mobile rings] Let me just grab this a sec, cause it’s probably someone asking me whether I’m speaking to you or not… [pause while Harvey takes an urgent call] Well I’m getting a haircut especially for the occasion! Haha, that was my hairdresser!

 

I actually I had mine done on Friday, but they’ve made a mess of it, anyway…

 

Where were we? Sorry about that…

 

The legend of Harvey has kind of grown while you’ve been away… why that is, if you had a view on why that is?

 

I suppose, to a certain extent, there is an element of ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, I think, maybe things in the last ten years there has been a body of work, you know, there’s been; remixes, original productions, a couple of albums, mixtapes, all this kind of thing... and in many respects it’s only England that hasn’t really had me in the last 10 years, and the legend thing, I don’t know, anyone that has stories told about them is ‘legendary’ and you know, ‘the grass is always greener’ and things appear more glamorous when they’re sort of told second hand, stories are embellished and stuff like that… I don’t know, cause I haven’t been there when people were talking about me so I really don’t know what’s been said, I’m sure there’s some rather nasty things too…

 

I think I’ll touch on a few of those stories later… (laughs)

 

Yeah, go on, no worries. I think with the global communication, that’s obviously a factor, people only have parts of the picture to go on and maybe they fill in the gaps in between and if they’re leaning in my…in a positive direction for me then that bigs me up, you know, so if they see a picture from a club in Japan, or get a bit of a mixtape, or see/read a bit of an interview, they’re gonna have some idea of what I’m about and then they complete the picture themselves - and that makes the legend, if you like.

 

Why did you leave it so long? Why did you stay away so long?

 

Initially, I’d overstayed… I came out to America and was having such a good time, and basically overstayed my visa, and it took me, kind of, 10 years to really get my shit together, or sort of work it out. I hadn’t really thought about it, I wasn’t too desperate to go back to the world… you know, America’s a big place lots of discos, I had plenty to do, I was spending a lot of time in Hawaii, and it’s just gone and turned out that way. There was no big design of like, you know, it was really the American immigration process that really kept me away for 10 years.

 

So, what should people expect musically from you now? Kind of, ‘Harvey, 10 years on’, as you said, people have got snippets of what you’re about - reports back from Berghain and Panoroma, Japan, places like that but is there anything you’ve got especially prepared for London?

No, not really. I mean… I think those who will have heard me before and kind of know me will know nothing’s changed at all really. I’m still playing a very select, modern dance music and that’s basically it. I got a lot of music to choose from, lots of old stuff, lots of new stuff, and I haven’t got any mixes lined up or basic ideas. I can only carry a limited amount of vinyl, you know, a couple of hundred titles at the most, and I’ve got some cd’s, and stuff that isn’t on vinyl, remixes, re-edits, unreleased stuff, stuff that just hasn’t made it to vinyl, and I’ve got some cd’s with that on and I shall, you know, select from that selection to the best of my ability. In many respects, the people determine what is played, you know, I think, as I said before, I’m a bit like a sushi chef, I’ll put down one piece and depending on the reaction to that piece determines what I serve up next, you know. And then I might even throw in a little surprise, if they expect, if they know what to expect next, you know.

 

So there are all kind of stories about you turning down gigs in Britain that weren’t right for whatever reason, mainly around the soundsystem and stuff like that - but a lot of effort is going into the system and production of these parties. What are you doing for the London party, especially?

 

I mean it’s a very, very simple recipe. Again, I sort of… a food analogy… it’s like the best Italian food. There’s only three or four ingredients, you know, you’ve got like..garlic, olive oil, pasta and… lemon juice or something and it blows your mind how good it feels and tastes, and the reason why, it feels and tastes so good is because those ingredients are the best that can be found of those ingredients, and that’s basically what I’m putting together for the London show. A very simple, open space with a beautiful, monster soundsystem and a mirror ball with some spotlights on it and that’s basically it. And, all I’ve got to do is get the records in the right order. Hopefully the people will come with open hearts and open minds and actually, with one thing, when you go to a party ‘it takes two to tango’, you know what I mean, become involved as someone who’s going to the party instead of standing there expecting me to save your life, that’s basically it, you know. It’s a very simple recipe, where the ingredients are the best and the freshest that I can possibly found, so the venue’s great, it’s a very simple warehouse space but it has good bathrooms, smoking area, a cloakroom, car parking, stuff like that, you know. The soundsystem is just a soundsystem, but it’s the monster,best soundsystem probably available in England today.

 

You’re putting in the system especially for this party aren’t you?

 

Yes. I don’t know what they had in there before or whatever but I was given the opportunity to basically install my own system so that’s what’s happening basically.

 

I don’t think you have any worries about the whole party thing, because everyone I know who’s going, and that’s a lot of people, are going to party, they’re not going to stand round, like take pictures and stuff, that’s what’s exciting about it from someone who goes out fairly regularly over here, the excitement isn’t like a ‘this is a spectacle, let’s all look at the DJ’, everyone wants to go and enjoy what you’re about.

 

I think the DJ’s are very boring to look at, they don’t really do that… they just kind of stand there really…

 

And play records now and again!

 

I think, really, the key and the focus of a really good party is the crowd themselves. When you’re watching people really losing themselves in the music, there’s nothing better than watching a beautiful girl in abandon, you know, in orgasmic abandon over the music, and it turns you on and it turns her on and it turns everybody on and it’s fucking epic… you know.

 

 

 

Yeah, I’ve seen some of the pictures (see above) from the last Sarcastic Disco, and I’m not sure if we can promise you naked women in London... but you never know…

 

Well, it’s a bit chilly, I noticed, maybe their nipples will be slightly more erect, but, yeah I did a little weather report and I was, like, thinking to myself, ‘Maybe I should take a sweatshirt’ and then my buddy said ‘Hang on, it’s only like 15 degrees over there, you’ll need your fucking ski suit mate’

 

You need a wet suit at the moment. So, you left in 2002, if my maths serves me correctly?

 

I think so, something like that.

 

The scene you were involved in then, was kind of, the scene from which the Idjuts etc came, the New Hard Left, Leftorium at Smithfields , the 333 Parties & Tommy Touch and things like that, it was all building quite nicely and really developing its own identity around then and you left, so I assume it wasn’t for musical reasons, was it just the time to go?

 

It was a good time to go. Airline tickets to America were cheap after 9/11, I had a whole row to myself (hahaha) and I could stretch out; 4 seats for the price of 1. But, no, I mean I was actually DJ-ing all over the world and had the opportunity to live anywhere I felt like in the world, you know, and it was like ‘Shall I move to Shanghai? Naaa’ ‘Shall I move to Mumbai? Naaa’ ‘Shall I move to LA? Fuck Yeaaahh!’ The sun was shining, sun shines everyday, there’s surf, there’s pelicans, dolphins, raccoons, hummingbirds, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, all this, and these are just the creatures hanging out in my back garden. It’s amazingly tropical, pretty wild place, it’s the edge of the western world, on the pacific here in Venice Beach, with all the craziness with everything from Charles Manson and the Beach Boys and the Doors, and Little Feet, and you know the US punk movement with Agent Orange and Suicidal Tendencies, Dog Town, and the skate scene and hot rods and drag racing, you know, gangster-ism, you know original gang hip-hop crippin’, the list is fucking endless, you know, they’re all the things England doesn’t have, and I’m not saying… England’s got an awful lot, England’s wonderful, absolutely super fantastic, one thing I have found out is that the food and the weather is better in England than it is in Los Angeles, cause the sun shines every fucking day here, and it gets a little bit boring… I left thinking the food and the weather was awful in England, and ten years later, I’d appreciate some jellied eels and some rain.

 

Well, we’ve got plenty of rain to keep you going at the moment. So, LA’s keeping you busy but you’re looking forward to coming back, but you’ve been back before haven’t you, I’ve heard that you were knocking about Horse Meat Disco once not so long ago?

 

Yeah, I popped in briefly just to say hi to my mum, dad, couple of buddies, and just, sort of, had a little sniff around a little bit, you know, without having the pressure of having to do a gig or whatever, actually it was on the back of a European tour, and I had an absolutely wonderful time, you know, people were like: ‘Oh, you won’t recognise London, it’s changed so much…’, I mean Old Street Roundabout is still Old Street Roundabout, you know.. And I had some pie & mash and a curry and a kebab and things, and it all still tasted the same. The only thing I did notice more bicycles, that was probably… the places where I used to go and sort of, sniff glue, now have, like coffee bars and stuff, along by the canal in Dalston.

 

So, when you left that disco scene - I don’t want to use the term nu-disco cause it’s got other connotations now - but almost that disco revival, digging deep, finding old music from that era and that working itself back into a club context, was getting established in London again, and has kind of gone on to grow and kind of become a scene of it’s own, with labels like Claremont 56 and the Idjuts who I mentioned earlier, do you feel that you played a significant role in the formative years of that scene?

 

I would say yeah, but I’ve never wanted to be stuck in a scene, I’ve always played loads of techno music, and those mixtapes there’s techno and disco together, it’s always, just dance music to me. I don’t really feel… a scene is this and that… you know, from the moment I was DJ-ing, in the mid 80’s, I would play classic dance music which might be considered disco, and whatever the latest modern music which might be considered techno or whatever, you know. Scenes come and go and I’d like to think I’m just a man of the moment, and I try to be ‘on it’, you know what I mean. Maybe I was instrumental in that scene, but that scene’s got nothing to do with me. You know I don’t want to be stuck in… do you remember there was that awful thing in the late 90s called ‘Dad House’…

 

Hahaha!

 

If you’re a well rounded DJ, you’ve always played what might be considered disco, and you’ve always played music that might be considered progressive, you know it’s a DJ’s job. The guys that are stuck in one sound often don’t last, until they become marginalised or whatever, you know what I mean?

 

Hmm, yes. They become associated with a sound and fashion passes that sound by and they are associated with something that’s no longer fashionable.

 

Yeah, I’m a personality DJ, and when I DJ you get my personality, nothing more. I’m not stuck in ‘Nu-Disco’ ‘Old Disco’ or any kind of disco. I play records, some of which, might be considered disco. [Harvey puases to answer door and let old friend Heidi in]. Just a mini case in point, back in those days, in the mid 90s, I was one of the few DJ’s, if not the only DJ that played on Friday and Saturday night at the Ministry of Sound. Friday being the opening nights with Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills, you know, all the techno greats, and then I would play Saturday night alongside Tony Humphries and CJ Mackintosh and those guys playing the, what at that point, was probably called like ‘Jersey House’, or ‘Gaararge’ . So yeah, I’m just a DJ who plays a selection of grown up… I don’t know, not even grown up, just dance music, you know… happy, silly…

 

You’ve got a broad palette from which to draw from and you want to draw from it?

 

Yeah. People accuse me of all kinds of things. ‘Reinventing the re-edit’, ‘Relaunching cosmic’, you know, that whole kind of thing, if you want to get into more like than disco, the cosmic madness is something to touch on, you know you’ve got these kids that are claiming ‘cosmic’ and I hadn’t even heard that. We used to call it ‘Sleaze’ or ‘Balearic’ or, there was a couple of names, you know; ‘Funky’, what was played in the Italian clubs in the early 90s; what was left of the cosmic sound. Now you’ve got all these ‘Cosmic DJ’s’, the chin-strokers who don’t even know how to fucking dance. Absolutely ridiculous. You know, whereas there was actually, an awful lot of wonderful music that could fall into that category that’s actually being ruined by the category. I always felt that categories only really helped journalists describe….to make a sort of a relation to a sound to help describe in an article and as far as actually in the real world of nightclubs or whatever, it doesn’t matter.

 

So if you define a night or a sound too tightly, you are inherently limiting where that can go, do you think that’s right? It’s like you’ve fixed the boundaries around it, and that’s it.

 

Yeah, as soon as you say like ‘I am a techno DJ’ you’re wearing blinkers that are definitely cutting out the periphery of all the other fantastic music that you could incorporate.
 

 

You touched on your formative days as a DJ, I suppose that was back with Tonka, is that right? Was that were you really cut your nightclub DJing teeth or was it before that?

 

Hmmm, I’m not sure exactly when my first actual, kind of, nightclub DJ gigs were…Erm…there used to be a place on Oxford Street, god…what was it called [calls out... Hey Heidi, what was the spot on Oxford St where Wet was and where Rakers was?]

 

Spats?

 

Spats!

 

I think that’s where Plastic People ended up, in that space isn’t it?

 

I think Plastic People was in Dalston or Hoxton last time I was in town…

 

Yeah, I think it started there in Oxford Street before it moved. Anyway…

 

Yeah, so my first club gig was in Spats in the mid to late 80s, playing…I don’t know… I don’t think I played disco music to be honest. I had breaks, sort of like, when hip hop was disco, you know. Playing, stuff, it was called ‘Raaare Groove’ (laughs).

 

Was that your sort of introduction to that sound then?

 

No, no I first danced to disco for 24 hours in 1978 at a sponsored youth club dance to raise money. You went round knocking on people’s doors going “excuse me if I dance for 24 hours will you give me 5p an hour?” And you have to sign in and then you’d go round and collect the money afterwards... and then you don’t give the money in, you spend it on Fanta and Embassys... (laughs).

 

Did you dance for 24 hours?!

 

Yeah, there was about 3 of us that made it all the way through. I think there was about 50 who started but only 3 of us made it... me and the DJ’s brother and the one black girl in the village...

 

Ha! So that was the beginning of a long and slippery slope?!

 

Yeah, that was the first time I’d been awake for 24 hours actually.

 

So, eventually you were playing with Tonka - Tonka sprang to mind the other day and I was going through some crates in a second hand shop the other day and I pulled out an EP and it had a picture of Choci on the front at a Tonka party, surrounded by people dancing, his top off, soaked in sweat everyone going mental, and it just looked amazing. And it got me thinking back to my early days as nightclub goer. I was up in North London, those parties wereinaccesable to us and kind of mythical - we’d heard about the nature of the parties and the massive soundsytem. What were those parties like?

 

Ummm... Pretty epic really! Y’know, every one was a winner. We had a great bunch of people around. The idea behind Tonka was that we wanted to create, it sounds kind of cheesy but a ‘sound-system collective’. Instead of just the DJ getting all the glory to have an identity like a Jamaican sound-system. To have that record played, there was like 5 or 6 or 10 people involved. Y’know the guy that drives the van, the guy lifts the speakers, the people that are plugging stuff in, the lighting guy, all this group of people and other DJs that go to make the group identity of Tonka. There’s was a guy that’s now famously known as Tonka Roberts who actually owned the soundsystem. He’d inherited some money and went out and bought a marquee and a Turbo soundsystem... virtually no-one,, I don’t think there was a Turbo Soundsystem in civillian hands at that point. Turbo was originally built for Glastonbury... they’d work in a storm on the beach in Brighton. They were built like a brick shit-house. The parties themselves, there’s little snippets of stuff online, a few youtube things. You can see everybody’s totally immersed in the music, the vibe, the whole. It was a very exciting time. People these days are trying to get jobs so they can go to parties back then people were giving up their jobs so they could go party more. It was a fantastic time. I’m not saying that now isn’t a fantastic time, I think now is really, really good but it was just an exciting period in mine and dance music’s history.


 

You touched on things as they are now. In London there seems to be a little bit of a house music revival. House had been a bit of a dirty word for quite a while, probably flowing out of that Dad-House you spoke about. That’s enough to kill any genre really. But there’s a lot more vibrancy around the music now. Not necessarily great big parties like there were in the late 80’s and early 90’s but lots of small parties and yknow 19/20 year old kids are getting into Strictly Rhythm b-sides and stuff like that. Has that renaisense touched you out in LA at all? Or is it a London thing?

 

I think it’s a natural progression. My girlfriend was born in 1988 and she’ll hear a house record and she’ll be like “Why don’t you ever play this?” and I’m like “Well that’s been rinsed out”. And she’s excited by it. There’s a whole couple of generations that haven’t heard this sort of music. Luckily I’ve got all the records! As with any type of music that’s good, it comes round and round again. There’s young producers that get turned on by maybe a Nu Groove record or a Strictly Rhythm record and they’re like hey yeah I wanna make a record like that. The were producers in the late 80’s, y’know the first 200 house records were just disco based records made with synthesizers. You take something like Love Can’t Turn Around, till I discovered the Isaac Hayes original I thought was an original piece. The flashback as it were happens all the time. As time marches on, music that may have been lost or not so happening is revisited by a new generation. I hear a record from a new producer that sounds like it was made in in 1991. And I’m like well, that’s what’s going on...

 

The cyclical nature of dance music, maybe? On the subject of old records, there’s a remix of a Planet Funk record you did ages ago called ‘Sleepy In Ibiza’, that is pretty close to my heart and reminds me of a fairly special holiday up in hills of Ibiza a few years back. Did you spend much time in Ibiza back in the day?

 

Initially you couldn’t have dragged me to Ibiza in the mid-80s. I had absolutely no interest in going there whatsoever with a bunch of Euro trash and English hooligan types to put it politely. It wasn’t somewhere I had any interest in at all. I don’t know what I was into, I was into Heroin. I was busy catching Hepatitis. So I didn’t get there until like 1990 and then I was gutted. I was like damn, this place is fantastic. And they were like you should’ve been here like 10 years ago mate before it was overrun. And I was like oh shit... so then I went there every season for 10 years during the 90s, DJing and thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s a special magical place. And I went back and played this summer and played at DC10 and none of the things that I liked and enjoyed about it has changed or disappeared. I stayed in Pikes, it was wonderful, hung out with Tony Pike, talked story. Sa Penya is not overrun with lunatics. Went down to D’Hort, which is like a beach where Jules Vern was inspired to write 20,000 Leagues. Everything that I enjoy was still there. (laughs). I rented a Harley Davidson and raced the sunset and went down to Cafe Del Mar as we used to and walked round to the Cafe Del Mar and they’ve built this boardwalk all the way round and there was like ah there’s like 5000 people here when there used to be 500 or whatever and reached the Cafe Del Mar and it was completely empty. And I was like blown away, people have no idea. they’re all sitting on the front there, seeing and being seen and they’re missing out on this little gem. So I sat there on my own in the completely Cafe Del Mar and I watched the sunset and ordered myself this chocolate milk on ice and spoke to the waiter about how I was friends with Jose Padilla and how we used to drink brandy and chocolate milk... and it was magical. And all those people out the front staring at the sun, were looking in the wrong direction not seeing behind them that there was this absolute jewel of the Cafe Del Mar absolutely empty except for DJ Harvey who was having a whale of a time!

 

The last time I was there they didn’t have that boardwalk. It was still packed though.

 

Change is good though. If things didn’t change, they wouldn’t become how they used to be. But everyone there was happy. It wasn’t a shit show... there was lots and lots of people there but everyone was having a really nice time. Which is OK in my book.

 

On the subject of change, what did you think of DC10?

 

I never went to DC10 in the early days. I’d heard about it. 10 years ago, 12 years ago it had only just opened. An old friend of mine Charlie Chester took it over, I think he’s still involved. I had a great night. It was packed out with people. I got two sit downs! Which was something I was unfamiliar with. There was this breakdown in this track and I was going through my records and everyone had sat down. And I looked over to this dancer and said is that a good thing or a bad thing? And she was like oh it’s a really good thing, it’s a mark of respect. And that happened twice during my set. And I thought to myself how the fuck did that become a custom? And I thought it must have been when breakdowns had become so long, that people just go tired and sat down for a couple of minutes and waited for the beats to come in... but it was good to see, it showed unity in the crowd and it was quite a beautiful thing.

 

Funny you should mention Charlie Chester and Ibiza. I heard that you DJ’d on that infamous Flying trip to Ibiza Charlie organised, which probably would’ve been about 1990? I heard that you turned up with like two bags, one filled with music and the another platsic bag with just your pants and toothbrush... you DJ’d and just buggered off into the hills!

 

That was basically it. One pair of clean jockeys and a toothbrush... (laughs).

 

What did you get up to in the hills?

 

I have no idea how long I was there. There was a band called The Farm that came up and I dunno we just had a 3 week long orgy of excess I think!

 

Right, so you disappeared into the hills with The Farm?!

 

Well they came up and visited from time to time. We had this finca on the top of a mountain. It was pretty hedonistic to put it politely! There’s actually a photograph, I’ll see if I can send it to you of me and another lad on the roof of that villa... I’ll try and send it to you. You might get some idea of the exploits... [Disapointment Ed: he couldn’t find the photo... but we found this, erm 'groovy' youtube] 



 

Fast forwarding a bit... New Hard Left, you kind of established yourself playing 8 hour sets and kind of where you got that sort of reputation. You’re playing for what 9 hours is it when you’re here? Does a DJ need to play for that long to really express themselves or can they pack it into and hour and a half?

 

Umm... I mean 9 hours might be a bit excessive! I wouldn’t say I need 9 hours to express myself but an hour and a half isn’t reaaaly long enough to express myself. I could sort of play 5 or 6 records which would take up an hour and a half. 4 or 5 hours would probably suffice as a good time to, y’know. Few people would dance for longer than 5 hours before their knees start to give in, they dehydrate and fall over. But y’know 9 hours, I’m not sure how long it is.

 

It’s actually 7... my math’s is useless. I’m going to blame being ill and not being able to add up.

 

Seven’s great... that’s not asking too much of the crowd. And it gives me plenty of opportunity to get through the warm up section and to go through a range of emotions and styles without having to rush too much. An hour and a half is more like... a lot of the festival appearances can be an hour and a half but that changes the dynamic of the way I would play. I becomes more of a show. The music would become more sonically intense, more ups and downs...

 

Do you think that, that kind of short set culture, jam DJs onto the bill kills the art of Djing? You’ve spoken in the past abbout what Larry Levan taught you in terms of playing - he was used to playing long sets toos. Do you think that’s kind of dying off a little?

 

To a certain extent. Basically I think that originally started with promoters trying to get bums on seats. Every DJ has 10 mates, so if we have 100 DJs a 1000 people will show up... and that’s really what spawned those long line-ups and also nights ending early there wouldn’t really be these long sets in these warehouse parties. You’ve got your resident DJs and you’ve got your guest and there’s really no time for the long sets. But that can be nice to end early on a high, rather than playing till no-one can stand it anymore. So I just think it changes the dynamic of the way people play. It’s not the end of DJing. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon.

 

My friend [Wil from R$N] he reckons that at Smithfields when you did Leftorium, he had to tidy up pints of piss from behind the decks at the end of the 8 hour night. Have you got a portaloo on your rider and if you haven’t, can we bottle it and get it on ebay?!

 

I think bottling some Harvey piss and getting it online might be good. It cures warts! That might be fun. I have pissed in DJ booths. I remember actually Nicky Holloway having a urinal installing one in the booth! Usually though, if there’s a toilet nearby I’ll make a couple of toilet dashes sometimes tho I just sweat it out! If it’s hot in there I might not piss for 7 hours. (Laughs) a very Zen approach to taking a piss. The danger of pissing in pint pots tho is that you’ll piss more than a pint!

 

Or make a mistake later in the night when it’s all a little blurry.

 

Or someone else makes that mistake... “this lager’s warm mate” (laughs)

 

Now you’re back, are we gonna see a little more of you on these shores?

 

I really think that how these gigs go will determine the frequency of my return visits to England. If people express an interest and seem to be having a good time then that’ll give me a good enough reason to come back.

 

I think you’ll be happy with those gigs... the vibe seems to be right in London. If we do see you again will you be playing smaller gigs like a Horse Meat Disco or something?

 

I saw on Resident Advisor there were people moaning that there weren’t enough tickets. I mean 1000 people is hardly an intimate gig. But I think I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that want to go. I thought I might have been taking a risk, that there might not have been enough people who wanted to come. But anyway, who knows... maybe I’ll take on a week long residency at Plastic People! You can still come and see me in Manchester next week too!

 

You’re flying out to Amsterdam to DJ with Mr Weatherall aren’t you?

 

Yup, I’m flying out the next night to do that. I saw Andy in Mexico last weekend and we discussed it loosely. Sort of start slow and see where we go really... Andy’s a great DJ and we’ll have a lot of fun.

 

It will go well, I’m sure. Well, thanks for taking the time to talk to us anyway.

 

Thanks for having me...

 

Good luck on Friday. Look forward to seeing you there.

 

Come down the front and give me a wave, throw a rose! (laughs)

 

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Check the full set of Sarcastic Disco pictures HERE - and they're well worth a look too.