The Mood Records head honcho gets set for a massive Circus at Egg
Interview : Dan Prince
Hey Nicole welcome back to DMCWORLD and DMC were in attendance at the mighty Drumcode Halloween party at The Great Suffolk St Warehouse in London a few weeks ago…what an incredible night huh?
“It was amazing! I love playing warehouse parties and especially warehouse parties in London, it’s always great to play in my hometown.”
You readily admit that in the early days you were quite shy when it came to your DJing, but quite quickly “the beast came out!” How hard was it for you to be able to communicate with your audience and immerse yourself with them?
“I only had to forget that people are in front of me staring at me all the time…the way I trained myself was to look but not see. At first of course, I wasn’t used to being in the limelight…as such. I focused on the music and I was playing more than the staring – but now with experience I have become much more comfortable with it. I don’t have a problem with eye contact anymore, on the contrary, I love reaching out to the ones in the front going bonkers to my beats and baselines.”
Another massive weekend looms for you with your show at Yousef’s fabulous Circus party at Egg…you love Yoss’s events right?
“I LOVE Yoss!! His parties are always great. I played his party in Liverpool a few months back and it was mental! I’m really looking forward to this weekend.”
London is flying the flag for clubbing yet again with so dozens of great clubs all over the capital, none more so than Egg – why do you love this venue?
“It’s underground and very intimate but there’s more to it for me. It’s Laurence Malice, who is the man behind it and the man behind the night, Trade. I was a very big fan of this night and I practically grew up in it and opened my eyes to British artists that revolutionised what has become the norm today.”
You learnt your London disco boots whilst over here studying – where were some of the underground clubs you were hanging out back in the day?
“Trade – as I mentioned before and I used to go a lot to Strawberry Sundaze and also an underground party called Coalesce…there were many more and I have a mental block right now, but I was religious about all of them…DTPM, major FOMO!”
What have you in store for us next from your label MOOD Records?
“Currently we have Richie G out and it’s doing very well in the techno charts, after that will be Etai Tarazi. I’ve been hammering his productions lately and next year we will go with bigger releases, remixes from Gary Beck, Guiti and a collaboration with Carl Cox, to name a few.”
You have had a memorable year spinning around the globe, talk us through some of your favourite sets – your 9 hour set at Stereo inMontreal was unreal!
“When I play Stereo it’s very magical. I also did an all nighter at Output in New York back in September and that was unreal. Space Ibiza is fantastic too. There are so many incredible shows around the world, its all down to the crowd really, they make the party and the location is secondary.”
Anthem of the summer?
“There are too many to mention…I’m not sure I like the word ‘anthem’ but I’m very much into Guti’s productions. They are very summer and work every time in my warm up sets or pool parties.”
I know you don’t miss your promoting days, what was the worst aspect of that role you undertook for services to dance music?
“It’s a financial headache but when its good it’s addictive – hence you prepare for the next party and so on but it’s a bit hit and miss. And I do feel for promoters, I’m always on their side. I do miss programming nights though, that’s what I enjoyed the most and I will get back to it next year – I have plans to do more parties worldwide.”
Now that the dust has settled on your debut album ‘Believe’ which came out earlier this year, what are your thoughts on the reception it received and also, looking back are you satisfied with the end product?
“I’m very satisfied. It was in Number 1 position for weeks not only in the techno, but deep house and tech house charts. And this is exactly what I wanted to achieve. I’m known for my techno obviously but I also like music across the board and having this album with Drumcode, helped showcase the musical spectrum I’m into. I think Drumcode never had a number 1 in the deep house chart until I released this album which I think is fantastic.”
What is coming out next from your own studio?
“I’m working in the studio on lots of original material before the year ends and I’m very inspired at the moment – stay tuned!”
How did you enjoy Ibiza this summer, what were your highlights?
“My B2B with Carl Cox was definitely a night to remember!! Marco Carola’s Music On parties were great too. Ibiza was fantastic this summer, I got to stay there for a longer period than I normally do and this allowed me to chill and experience other parties around the island.”
Who are some of the young up and coming producers we should be looking out for in 2014?
“I’m really into a Spanish producer called Felipe Cobos, this boy has some groove that gets me every time!”
And finally, let’s get the Circus faithful excited for your appearance at Egg next week – what is the one song you can’t wait to drop?
“My collaboration with Cox as well as all the original stuff I recently finished. I can’t wait to test them out on the new system they just had installed.”
Nicole Moudaber joins Monika Kruse and Yousef at Circus this Friday November 29th, and all info on…
