Pablo Del Monte

Huge new tune smashing it on East Recordings

Interview by Rob Chadwick


Hey Pablo – welcome to DMCWORLD! Let’s kick off with where it all began…

Well I grew up in Ireland, back then techno was the very popular in Dublin, but house was more my thing.

What were you into before house? What was your entry point to the music?

I’ve always been into electronic music in it’s different guises. Growing up I listened a lot to The Human League and other synth-pop bands like Eurythmics. Then it was early hip hop like Public Enemy…so it’s always been electronica and beats.

Were you always into underground house and techno then?

Yes, from the get-go really. I loved the early Chicago house even if I was a bit young to truly appreciate it at the time. It’s a little bit ironic that the current deep house sound has been at the forefront of dance music for longer than its original inspiration, Chicago house, was – it really only had a couple of years before the sound became acid house.

How did you start making music? And how your set-up evolved since then?

I moved to London in the early 2000s and was working in a dance music record store when I was offered a spot on a pirate radio station where I met Caspar Kedros, who was in a successful breaks act at the time called the Headrillaz.  We hit it off and started making breakbeat using the name Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT). We were using an earlier version of Logic, an Emu sampler and outboard synths like the Korg MS-20.  Nowadays I’m all ‘in the box’ with Ableton rewired into Logic X and Maschine for beats.

What would you say is your greatest achievement from a musical perspective?

ECT had a number of records that did well on Carbon Records and then more tech-house stuff on Eukatek, and we we did a DJ mix for Annie Nightingale on her BBC Radio show that was repeated in her mixes of the year show.  But, if I’m totally honest, Caspar did all the programming and engineering.  It has only been in the last few years that I have got my head around the technology and been able to produce without the help of a collaborator.

You have a release due out on your own label soon. How did that one come about?

Yes, “Glide Over Here” is in stores on 15th September.  I set the label up in February of this year and this will be our 6th release already.  We’ve got Julius Papp on remix duties…Julius is an all time house legend through his releases on Nurvous Records and the stuff he did with Kenny Dope so I was over the moon when he said ‘yes’ to the remix.

So how would you sum up the EP? Is it a typical release from you?

The lead track is super-house-y so, yes, it is typical.  There are 3 remixes (Julius Papp, dj-Vox, and Thallulah, Jose Maria Ramon and William Medagli) covering styles from house through to techno so we’ve had wide support from DJs as varied as Andre Crom through to Judge Jules!

What was the inspiration for it?

The track is heavily influenced by Maya Jane Cole’s “What they say”, which is a modern house classic dripping in that indefinable ‘house is a feeling’ vibe…I like to think that I’ve got a touch of this into the record.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a part of the UK house scene these days?

The UK house scene, and London in particular, is vibrant at the moment. The downside is that everyone is a DJ and producer nowadays!

Outside of the UK, what’s the coolest place you’ve played at and why?

Barcelona. I’ve always had an affinity for Spain and its culture…and I speak Spanish.

Lastly, who came up with your alias and what’s the thinking behind it?

I jokingly call my studio ‘Montana Vista’ (‘mountain view’ in Spanish); whereas, in fact, it looks out on an east London estate.  My real name is Paul and, as above, I speak Spanish so I thought Pablo del Monte (‘Paul of the mountain’) would be a good tongue-in-cheek name.  I use Google Alerts to keep track of any mentions I get on the web and through this I later found out that there is a famous American race horse with the same name.  Funny!

Pablo’s ‘Glide Over Here’ EP is out now on East Recordings