Carl Cox learnt his trade spinning vinyl in his parents living room, playing Aretha and Elvis to his mates in the school cafe, entering the DMC World DJ Finals combining scratching and mixing before wowing early acid house raves with his three deck wizardry. Today we know him as one of the biggest DJs the planet has ever seen. We check in with the original Mr Nice Guy…
Carl welcome back to DMC. I’m calling you in Australia, I take it you are at your house in Frankston at the moment?
“Hi Dan, yes I am still here, they haven’t kicked me out of the country yet!”
Okay, well I have this idea that this house of yours over there is a bit like The Hamptons in New York with celebrities like Nicole Kidman and Elle Macpherson buying their eggs and bacon at the local grocers on a Sunday morning ?
“Ha ha! Well it may sound like that but it’s not. Frankston is actually quite built up but once you get on the open road it’s awesome. It’s a huge wine region with so many wineries, then you get the mountains and rolling hills. I suppose it’s quite similar to Tuscany. Buying a place in Frankston was a huge decision for me to extend my life in a way, that I’m now looking to make a new life outside of the life that I have. And also to be as grounded as possible by living in such a beautiful place.”
And we all know you are a huge motorbike fanatic which must be great for exploring. The last time I spoke to you at Space in Ibiza you were telling me you had 14 bikes…
“Dan – double that now! I actually think I may have a problem with my spending on bikes, I think might have to go to my doctor and see how he can stop me buying the bloody things.”
What is your most prized possession in your garage?
“Have you seen the film Mad Max?”
Of course…
“Well I collect bikes that are really hard to collect from the 1960s and 1970s, the nicest set of wheels I own is an original Kawasaki Z1 900 from the film. They are known as ‘widow makers’ because most people who buy one die on them. I have some great Honda 750’s too on which Joey Dunlop won 5 TT’s on and that loads of manufacturers then copied, it’s a great collection. But I have to be careful out there.”
I was going to ask you about your health. You had a minor heart scare 7 years ago, you still keeping healthy?
“I am on the whole. I’m never going to be the healthiest person on the planet, I’m still going to have the odd night when I share a couple of bottles of champagne with friends and that will never change. But I’m not going to stay up all night just for the sake of it anymore. When it gets to 4am and I see people around me heading off towards dawn and beyond, I’m off to bed. There will be a flight the next day, I’ll have stuff to do and the only way to keep fresh for the next gig is to get some kip. If I stay up and party I won’t be 100% for my DJ set and I will be crap. I will know it, the promoter will know it and more importantly the clubbers will know it who are the most important factor. So I just let the people rock on to the next house party or wherever and I head home. My DJing performance is so important to me and that will never change.”
Brilliant. Well it was Valentines night last night. How did you celebrate
“I went to see my girlfriend down in Sydney, we had dinner, did the whole exchanging roses thing. Anyway, this interview is meant to be about music so come on!”
Right ok, jeez. Down at DMC and not many of your fans will know this, but once a upon a time you entered the World DJ Championships back in 1987 where a certain DJ Pogo beat you to first place…
“Wow that’s taking me back. Yes it was at The Sussex Arms in Streatham, Les Adam from DMC’s old residency.”
And a certain Norman Cook was one of the judges…
“He was, he actually came up to me after the competition and told me he’d voted for me saying that he’d found my set “interesting, wasn’t one dimensional and well executed!”
Do you still keep your eye on the DMC turntablism scene?
“I did for a while. I kinda had an issue with the competition to be honest, I was divided on it. On one hand you had the beat matching DJs and on the other you had the turntablist wizards. I was always in the middle on this debate when I entered the competition. I would scratch and then blend it in with some seamless mixing which although I knew I was good, I knew I was never going to win. The beat matching DJs were all great and nice to watch, but as a competition element, boring. Then you had the turntablists who were amazing to watch but had it inside themselves that they had to be the best in the world – nothing mattered but being number one. I remember watching A-Trak in the early days, he was mesmerising and had so much attitude. He would walk on like a young punk, rip it up and then walk off with this ‘fuck you all, I am the best and you know it’ attitude. And he still does that today with his sets.”
Speaking of Mr Fatboy Slim, you are DJing with him at his Big Beat Bootique event at Brighton Football Club in June. Massive gig. And a massive mate of yours…
“Norman is one of my biggest friends in the world and is an amazing person in my life. He is a great friend, he really cares about people and we confide in each other all of the time. We have so much camaraderie between us and I love what he is doing with his Brighton event. He has waited so long to put this on in Brighton, he has waited and waited and waited! After the huge Brighton beach event where someone died and then the smaller ticket only events that followed, he has been raring to finally put his home town on the clubbing calendar again. I think this event shows the essence of what Norman stands for. He sees me as a fellow Brighton man as I now have a BN postcode as I have a house there again, and I can’t wait for the party. Saying that though, I will be able to hear the music from my bedroom window and I will be calling the police if it gets too loud when I’ve gone home!”
How did you two first meet?
“I knew you were going to ask me that! I actually met him on a train on the way back from a DMC Mixing heat. He was sitting opposite me and said, ‘hey, aren’t you Carl Cox?’ and we got talking. This was before all of The Housemartins indie stuff that he had a great chat about scratching and some of your DMC DJs like Paul Dakeyne, he was a great DJ. So you could say my friendship with Norman is all down to DMC!”
One of my favourite stories about you is that you took your record player to school…
“My family had all of the finest records back then and when I was about 8 my mum used to let me play all of the vinyl just to keep me quiet. So I’d play these tunes, artists like Aretha Franklin, Booker T and the M.G.’s and Elvis Presley and off it went, my mum, dad, family and friends all dancing around the living room with me sitting on the floor choosing the next record. And I caught the bug. As you can see! The next thing I knew I was taking a box of 45s and my little JVC multi player into school, one of those with am AM/FM radio, a tape deck and record player all built in. The word would get around school that Carl Cox had his records in today and he would be playing some new records in the refectory that lunchtime. So there I would be, buffing out some tunes with the guys in their soul shoes doing their spins, kids scrambling through my box of tunes to see what new records I had. And then bam, the bell would ring and it was back to double maths.”
And your teachers never came in and stopped you?
“No that was the thing, that little sixty minutes was our time. We could do what we wanted, I would always take in a packed lunch as I didn’t want to queue up for school dinners. Before I knew it, all the kids were asking me to come and play at their birthday parties and school discos. And that’s how it all began.”
And now you are talking to me at one of your beautiful houses in Australia! Amazing…
“I have had an incredible ride and I am very thankful.”
You are returning to the UK for the massive Lock n’ Load promoted Revolution night at the Electric in Brixton in April. Have you been to the venue before?
“I haven’t no, my manager Lynn Cosgrove went down there when it was being refitted and she called me and said, ‘Carl, we have to get our hands on this venue’. So we did. I really missing playing in London to be honest with you and I’m so happy that we are doing something in town that is fresh and really 21st century. We have sold out the night on the Thursday already and the Friday is about to go as well and it will be a brilliant two days. I see it as a case of, here I am, this is Carl Cox come and get me!”
Do you miss playing at London clubs, you are never here…?
“I haven’t done the London club thing in years, I played at Fabric for the Japanese earthquake event and Dan, it was fucking unbelievable. I was DJing and looking down at the crowd and their reaction to every tune I was playing and I was thinking to myself, why the hell don’t I play here every week? All the Fabric people were all around me saying please come back and play again and I was like, yeah, you’re right, London is the best when it’s like tonight. Sometimes you forget where you have come from, who supported you the most when you needed it the most. That was London when it all began, the city was there for me when I began. So I said to myself, ok Carl, stop the whirlwind for a moment and let’s do something which could be the start of something really special. What I am aiming to bring to the party is quite simply what I have created with my parties around the world and what I can give to the dancefloor. There’ll be no people like David Guetta as guests – this is me and my line up and my sound. I feel so passionate about these London parties and I know we are going to nail it.”
You are one of the headliners again at the marvelous South West Four – what makes it so good?
“The first reason is that it’s in south London. You have no idea how proud I am when I am DJing at South West Four, playing great records in the sunshine, looking out over thousands of people on Clapham Common whilst in the background I can see red double decker buses passing by. My mum and dad used to bring me and my sister down to the common when we were kids, they had friends who had a pub there and we’d all come down and kick around. South West Four is what epitomises a festival in England. It is so British, it’s not like Glastonbury in the middle of nowhere, it’s not like The Big Chill northside…this is proper London clubbing. And that is the crowning glory of the event. Londoners – you have it all on your doorstep!”
You once said that the sound of the UK “has always been too insular for me as I play beats from all over the world”. What countries are producing the best music at the moment for you these days?
“Germany, Japan and the USA are going great at the moment, but also Italy is right on it at the moment. The new generation of DJs and producers are really coming through which is brilliant to see as I have such an amazing reception when I DJ there. When I put my first record on the crowd give me a reception like I have just won the World Cup or something. If you ever want to see a club going completely off Dan, come down to my gigs in Napoli, Milan or Capri – you won’t regret it. I am also so glad to see Spain finally getting it. For so long they have relied on Ibiza to be their benchmark for music, now all of a sudden Madrid and Barcelona are producing top musicians as well as small towns all over the country.”
Glad you mentioned Ibiza. You have been rocking Space now for ten years and you always say you are keen year after year to push on. So what are the plans for 2012 at one of the world’s finest clubs?
“The idea this year is to continue what we have been laying the foundations for over the last few seasons. We know we now have to nurture the new sounds and the new school of DJs alongside the people who we have put in place such as Umek, Carlo Lio, Nic Fancuilli, Jon Rundell, Yousef and Michelle de Hey. As I see it, I have opened the doors at Space for a new breed of DJ and it’s now up to them to make an effort and make that dancefloor move! We have ten years under our belts at Space and now is the time to start over again, reinvent the party but not lose the essence of what we have created. When I play really long sets at the club and I play a few records from ten years ago, I can see that the clubbers on the dancefloor are hearing these tracks for the first time, if I play tunes from say five years ago though, I can see they recognise them. So that gives me some sort of indication on who I’m dealing with. Ten years is great. Now let’s create some new energy for the next generation.”
It must be great playing in Ibiza when if it’s all getting a bit on top, being able to do a sneaky one and nip over home to bed at your house in Mallorca. One thing I’ve noticed though is that you stopped playing the big superclub BCM over there?
“The idea when I bought my house in Palma was it was going to be a place for me to go there when the UK started to get cold, but now it’s the same weather as Britain. What is going on in the world? It was snowing in Mallorca yesterday! As for BCM, it’s a great venue with a great sound system but it’s just too commercial for me these days. I used to play there when I was able to play underground stuff and the Saturday night they used to have their was unbeliveable, it used to go right off. But in a big club like that will they feel what I do? No. Will they expect me to play Swedish House Mafia? Yes. And I won’t put myself in that position.”
It’s probably the wrong time of the year to be asking you this, are there and big records you have heard recently that you can’t wait to get out there and spin?
“You’re right, it’s too early to know what’s what going on out there. I have just got back from my holiday. I spend three weeks over in New Zealand every year on a bike driving around the north and south islands – it’s such a brilliant head clearer after a year behind the decks. I have two more weeks at home here and then it’s back to nose to the grindstone!”
I see that you are playing down at the High Tide boat parties in Southampton in a couple of months which isn’t too far from your beloved Brighton. Have you never fancied buying your own club, I know John Digweed did and got his fingers severely burnt…
“I have had such an insight into how a club works and how much you have to control it all and I tell you what, I never want all that hassle! Sure, I once had this dream of Carl Cox running the most amazing club in the world, but the trouble you have to go through just isn’t worth it. Overflowing toilets, staff ripping you off, barrels out of date, chewing gum stuck all over the furniture – no thank you. It’s nice having that dream and being able to choose the decor, the lighting, a vision on the music and see people walk through the doors and enjoying the experience, but it really isn’t for me.”
Why do you think America has finally cracked it? The country is just going to take over music again, you are putting on your Carl Cox and Friends line up at Ultra in Miami again next month which is going to be amazing…
“Well it’s taken forever hasn’t it? If you keep on hammering a nut it will finally crack! My journey in America began back in 1986 when the Americans just didn’t get dance music at all, which was so weird because over in the UK, all the music we were spinning was coming from the US. The country had an amazing gay scene but that was all it was. Seeing Ultra selling out a 3 day 65,000 capacity event months before is incredible, and what a line up. The thing about Ultra is that the promoters are the best in the business. For years they earnt no money but now it’s all coming to fruition. They really believed in what they were doing and have always had so much passion, the years have weeded out the guys who were just in it for a quick buck and I think that’s great. You walk around Ultra and every room has the best production, they could have thought to themselves…’right we’ve sold out so let’s only put 5K of sound in there and let’s have 2 lazers in that room, nobody will notice.’ But they don’t. They have 50K of sound in every room and there’ll be five lazers. That’s what makes really good promoters. USA – take note!”
Thank you Carl mate, lovely speaking to you again. I’ll let you get off to bed now!
“Cheers Dan, see you in Miami.”
Carl Cox returns to London this year on 5th and 6th April at Electric Brixton and 25th August at South West Four. For more information on these events www.carlcoxlondon.com and www.southwestfour.com.
www.carlcox.com
