John has maintained a steadfast commitment to excellence in deep trance and house music over the last decade, earning praise from the press and a dance music fans the world over. And his popularity continues to grow, as evidenced by the three-hour line outside the LA club where he played onDecember 17 with DJ partner and pal Sasha.
An affable but driven DJ who truly treasures his vocation, Digweed isn't one to rest on his laurels, though he's certainly earned enough to content any performer. He has performed as a resident DJ at popular London nightclubs (the highly influential Rage and Rennaissance) throughout the 1990s, and he currently serves as a resident at the New York club Twilo (he is the first U.K. DJ to ever hold a U.S. club residency, an honor he shares with Sasha). The Twilo gig is stretching on into its third year, a testament to Digweed's lasting appeal. His monthly Bedrock events, which recently celebrated their one-year anniversary at Heaven, have been the toast of the London rave set, earning accolades for critics and packing the club with scads of Digweed devotees. A double CD reflecting Digweed's set on the night of the anniversary was recently released by Ultra Records to critical acclaim. He has received formal critical notie for his work as well, having been consistently rated one of the world's top 10 DJs by publications such as Muzik and DJ Magazine.
RadioSpy was fortunate enough to pin Mr. Digweed down for an interview during his wildly successful U.S. tour in mid December. This interview, along with selections from the Bedrock album, is currently running on RadioSpy's Interview Spycasts.
Sean Flinn: My first questions have to do with what you're going to be doing in America on the brief tour you've got coming up. What's the motivation behind it and what do you plan to do with it?
John Digweed: Basically this tour is in support of the Bedrock compilation album which has just been released on Ultra Records. I started off in San Francisco on Friday [December 10], did Phoenix on Saturday, and then I'm doing San Diego on Wednesday, LA on Friday.
How have the shows been going so far?
The shows have been really good. San Francisco was mobbed, as usual. It's really good, one of my favorite places. Phoneix was good. It was my first time to play in Arizona, but I'm getting used to it.
I know that you have a pretty well-established reputation in New York from playing at Twilo. Do you find similar responses from the crowds in San Francisco and Phoenix and Los Angeles when you play there?
Pretty much. I mean, San Francisco I've been playing for quite a few years as well, so I've got a pretty good following there. As for, like, Phoenix, it was a new territory so it's something to build on. America's such a big place that it's hard to get to every place on a regular basis, but I think it was a good reaction. San Diego I've played three times, so I'm looking forward to going back there. I'm looking forward to that party. All over on the West Coast is always good. Even when I go up to Victoria and Vancouver, there's always a great response up there. So I'm glad to be here. I have a lot of fun when I'm over here.
Do you ever have to or choose to tailor your sets to better push the buttons of a crowd in a certain geographical location? Do you find that you have to, ever? Or do you just kind of go with your own thing?
Obviously, when I get to the venue I kind of check out what the crowd is doing and how they're reacting to certain records that the DJ before was playing. I never take it for granted that I'm just
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I never take it for granted that I'm just going to go in there and do my thing and everyone's going to lap it up.
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going to go in there and do my thing and everyone's going to lap it up. I think that when you've been DJing for a long time you kind of gauge how well you're doing with the crowd and which direction you can take them in. A lot of it, I tend to play very similar to how I would play in England. But when I say, "play in England, " I play all over the world all the time, so I haven't really got one base really. So it's very much a question of wanting people to experience what I do as a DJ rather than think, "Oh, this is what they're used to in whatever place so I'm going to play that style." It's very much a question of focusing on what I do and trying to make sure that the crowd is getting into it and taking them on that journey.
Now you mentioned that this tour is in support of the Bedrockalbum, and I know that the club in London just celebrated it's 1-year anniversary, and that the event spawned the CD. Can you tell me a little bit about the event, and about crafting the CD itself? What all went into that?
Basically, Bedrock runs on the second Thursday of every month at Heaven in London. Heaven is a pretty big club. It holds about 1,800 people and it's right in the center of London. It's where [other U.K.clubs] Spectrum and Land of Oz were. It's where Rage was. It's a really amazing club, in the way that it's got great circulation. You never kind of have to go back the way you came. You can walk 'round and up and you're always going in a different direction, and there's always something new to see. From that point of view, it feels like a club. You know, sometimes clubs just feel like a big space with a bunch of people in them. But [Heaven] feels like you're actually in somewhere that's got quite an exciting vibe about it. So it's one of those clubs that's very much ... there's good circulation and it always creates an amazing atmosphere. There's always something really, really special about that club.
When they had a re-fit [a redesign] 2 years ago - actually it was about a year-and-a-half ago, and they were gonna spend this money, 2 million pounds - I said, OK, as soon as you've got it finished, let me know, because I'll be interested in doing a night. I was a resident there in '91, when it was Rage, and I've done several one-offs there. But it got really run-down. And basically, the night that I wanted to put on was a night that would attract a good student crowd. It's only 5 pounds for students and members, but also, we attracted a lot of industry. Also a lot of trainspotter-type people as well, because of the DJs we have. We always have very cutting edge DJs. You know, we'll have Darren Emerson [of Underworld] one week, or Sasha. We've had Carl Cox play and Basement Jaxx. Adam Freedland plays upstairs in the second room. We'll have bands like Hybrid, Slacker, The Light, Evolution. So it's very much based on the sound that I enjoy. It's a real way that I can put on a night that's promoting that kind of music. I never anticipated that it was going to take off like it did, but it's been a full house most months.
That's a really low price, per person, to get in. Do you find that you usually make money on the deal, especially with the kind of talent that you're bringing in?
Usually, we break even. Sometimes we've lost money, sometimes we've made a bit more depending, but I didn't put the night on to be a big money-making machine. It's very much a question of, for me ... it's like giving something back. It's like, all right, I'm in a position now where I can put on this night. As long as I'm not going to come down here every month and lose bucketloads of money, I'm going to do it, because [Heaven] was the club that inspired me to DJ. I went there in '87 and I was like, "Wow, this is great." So to go from going there to DJing there to having so many great nights there ... you know, a lot of people, it's just weekend nights now. A lot of the student population has to work on weekends to, obviously, get some money. So basically, their big weekend night out now is Thursday, so they can go out and have a good time and it's not going to break the bank. I mean, it's ridiculous. We don't raise the price, whatever the event. Even when we had the birthday party it was still the same price, and there was one night when we had Sasha, Carl Cox, Basement Jaxx, Grooverider and myself, all for 5 pounds.
That's unbelievable.
But you know, what matters is that we've got good people supporting us now, because they know our intentions are genuine. They know that we're into the music, that it's about putting on a quality night, and I think that's sort of shown through with the way the press have accepted it and everything else. Everyone's just like, "Yeah. This is great." You know? Putting on a night where it's basically all about the music and treating the people right and everything.
Any plans to expand it?
I do a Friday night at a club in Brighton, which is smaller. It's only for 550 people. And I just do the whole night with another DJ, Danny Howser. That's basically a side one. But it's nice also to do a small room. That's basically the smallest club I play, but it's nice to have that kind of intimate vibe and everything.
