Chus and Pablo have been outputting high-quality grooves for as long as some of their fans have been alive. Forever spreading the gospel with their unstoppable global manoeuvres, Nick Coles catches up with the Stereo Productions bosses, to chat about their nomination for ‘House Act’ at this year’s DJ Awards in Ibiza, their humble beginnings, and the next wave of House music fans.
Hey guys, here we are at the 2019 DJ Awards in Ibiza, how are you? and what’s been happening lately?
It’s been a prolific, intense and good year for us. the summer season was hectic, amazing and looking forward to having some time of this week, because we really need it. We just played last night at Eden with Mark Knight for Toolroom, it was lots of fun, we didn’t get much sleep and here we are. (Laughs)
You guys have had an amazing year, and are up for ‘House Act’, you must be pretty excited?
Yeah, I mean Awards aren’t something we look for, but it’s always very welcome. When you see your name amongst all those other talented names, being nominated is a prize all in itself. We’re proud to be included.
How’s your label Stereo Productions going? Any big news?
Yes lots of news coming, next year it is our 20th Anniversary in 2020 which worked out well. Time flies. We are preparing a series of releases, remixes of the back catalogue, and events all over the world in the main cities. New York, LA, Ibiza, Barcelona etc, with an aim to celebrate and bring together 20 years of dance music. It’s something that is very important to us.
What have you guys been up to on the island this time around?
We’ve had a lot of fun, playing with Claptone at Pacha was fantastic with a full house, Hi is one of our favourite clubs on the island – every time we play it’s just amazing. Last night we did a back to back with mark Knight, which is something we always do at the end of the night and it was wonderful. It’s always fun when you are playing with your friends back to back right?
You’ve been DJ’ing all over the world this year, what’s been the biggest highlight for you?
The summer was very good overall, the festival season was great! We played in Montreal, Tomorrowland, Mysteryland, Dream Beach in Spain, and obviously Ibiza. A lot of people ask us how we do it. We are in North America almost every other week it seems, lots of travelling, but we’ve had a very good time at all of it.
Are you guys fans of Awards ceremonies like this, do you feel they are an important part the calendar for Ibiza?
We think they are good for the industry yes, we are here to support. It’s an honour to have our names included amongst such legendary names. Very happy to be here.
House music has had a monumental rise again in recent years, certainly with the younger generation, has this surprised you?
Actually no, House music was always there! With all these movements and styles, Minimal, Techno etc – House music was always there, never making too much noise but always bubbling away. We are seeing a lot more younger people at our gigs, especially when we play Tech House, as it has more energy. DJ’s are crossing over much more nowadays and introducing the kids to new styles which is great. The good thing now is that the new generation are hungry for more knowledge and they are coming to the parties to discover more about House Music. Another great thing we’ve noticed these past few years, is that the younger promoters are starting to book more acts from the history of the scene, maybe because they realise that they can’t imitate that kind of experience with some of these newer names. It’s very important to give recognition to the pioneers – the guys that obviously do it properly.
If you had to give out your own awards this year, who would they go to and for what reasons?
Wow, tough question! There are so many different names to be honest that we need to personally thank this year. With these Awards today, let’s leave the crowd to decide later tonight.
Finally, as this is an interview for DMC Magazine, what are your own personal memories from the history of the magazine and competition?
Well actually, my first DJ experience as a kid, was actually attending a DMC event. I was 14 and there was a DMC competition in Madrid, I was completely in shock. I was like, “oh my god, what is this!?”. I thought to myself, “this is what I want”, my friends all around me were looking for drinks and chicks, I stayed put and at that moment I decided, I want to be up there!
So DMC has been quite instrumental in your career then?
Yes totally, and in actual fact the DJ that won the competition that year. Dimas was my mentor, so everything is connected. This was back around 1988 – so thanks DMC for everything!
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For all the winners of this year’s 22nd DJ Awards, head over to www.djawards.com
