SameSame.com.au ~ Inside Out Australia

Carl Cox has worked with some of the biggest names in the business – Fatboy Slim, the Freemasons, Fedde Le Grand and Pendulum, and his regular night at Space Ibiza has been voted Best Club Night on the entire island. DJ Magazine named him the first ever number one DJ in the world, and MixMag rated him the number one DJ of the past 25 years. Now he’s coming to DJ at this year’s Mardi Gras Party. He chats to Same Same about digging deep, showing out and staying on top.

How’s life at the moment and what are you up to?
I’m here at my home in Melbourne, and I’m really enjoying it. I bought a house down here about four and a half years ago, on the Mornington Peninsula. It’s a really beautiful place, and I kinda see it for what it is. I live on the border of Frankston and Frankston South and some people think it’s odd, like I should be living in Hollywood or something. But I love it here. There’s great beaches and wineries, and I can ride motorbikes… I have my own recording studio here as well, and I’m in the midst of making a new album right now, with a producer called Josh Abrahams…

So when you’re not spending summers in Melbourne, do you spend most of your life touring?
Yes! In March my first port of call is America, and I’m doing a few parties – Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and then getting myself over to Miami for the Winter Music Conference, which I do every year… After that I end up back in Europe from April to September, and I’m touring all over the place – Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and the list goes on. Then I do my residency at Space in Ibiza which takes 12 weeks. After September/October I’ll come back to Australia via Japan, or Singapore, and I always make sure I’m back here for the Motor GP on Phillip Island. Then I’ll go to South America – to Brazil, Argentina – and then do Christmas back in Australia. That’s the circle of Carl Cox’s life!

Well, that sounds like a pretty great existence. Do you love the travel or is it exhausting?
Yeah, I’m normally relieved by the time it’s over. It’s really necessary for me to kick back at the end of it and gather my thoughts, have some sort of normality in my life. Where I live right now gives me that. Without it, I would have burnt out years ago, which I don’t want to do because I really love what I do. I don’t do anything but this, so I treat it with the respect it deserves. My own self-preservation is really important, it allows me to do what I do at that 100% level.

Is this how have you managed to stay where you are for so many years?
Yes, I really think it’s my attitude to life and to the position that I’m in. If I am headlining an event… the event rests on my shoulders… If I play crap, that’s the last gig I’ll ever do – you’re only as good as your last party. I have to be 100% into what I’m doing, mind body and soul, because people have spent their money, they’ve waited outside, some people have crazy stories of their journeys getting to the party, all because they want to hear 2 hours of Carl Cox’s music. If they’ve gone through that much to get to a venue to where I’m playing, then I can’t disappoint them. So I can’t get drunk, or be overworked – the kind of stuff that some other DJs do. I don’t do that, because I used to be a punter before I was a DJ. I was one of those people – I’d get in my car and it’d break down, or my money would get stolen, or I’d get in a fight somewhere… you know how it goes. Or I’d lose the tickets! I mean, this stuff happens all the time, but if the end result is that you get there in the end, and the night is great once you get there, then I’m on point.

So what goes through your mind when you get behind the turntables? Or, these days, computers?
I see the crowd and then I go ‘right, here we go. I have this music, I want to play it, there’s so much good stuff here, I just have to play it in a way that it makes sense’. I love that position, I love being in control of people’s emotions based on music. That’s what I enjoy. I mean, yeah I could play some popular tracks, and there would be some hands in the air moments, but I love it when a DJ digs deep, because there’s so much other music outside of that to play, and that’s the key, that’s what makes a good DJ – finding that other stuff that you would normally never be exposed to. That’s where the party is at, that’s what I love. Yes, I could play The Presets and The Bloody Beetroots all day long, but that hasn’t gotten me to where I am today. I find those records before they become hits, and for me that’s what excites me, it’s what keeps me on the edge.

You’re playing Mardi Gras this year. Have you played many big gay events like that before?
I come from the 70s/80s era, and I always played a lot of gay events. San Francisco is one of the biggest gay capitals of the world, and I did the Love Parade, which is now called Love Fest, and I just came back from Burning Man. Believe me, it’s a very massive eye opening situation at Burning Man! There are people running around naked, all sorts of things are going on. But I’m not adverse to it in any way, shape or form. The whole house music movement, most of it came from gay clubs.

I feel very honoured to be asked to play Mardi Gras, and to feel part of its history. All the DJs I know who have played Mardi Gras before have all told me that it’s one of the most amazing things you can do. They say the reaction from the crowd is phenomenal, and everyone’s showing out, and I love that. House music has always been about that. And i have a lot of gay friends anyway, and they’re gonna be there, and so I’m really excited!

Where is your favourite place to party in the world, and why?
It will sound clichéd, but I think there’s nowhere else in the world like Ibiza, purely because it’s so concentrated… and everyone who goes there really just wants to have a good time. Ibiza itself is a place that spiritually, it can give you something that you would like to find in life… There are a lot of old hippies, lots of gays, lots of straight people – there are always people who go to Ibiza and it becomes a life changing experience for them, because of the attitude of how people life their lives there. Food is great, beaches are fantastic, and at Space, where I play, it’s fantastic – cos I have a captive audience of people from all over the world. My dancefloor is full of people from all over Europe, Australia, America, Portugal, Malta, Italy, Danish, Finnish… everyone! There’s usually about 30 nations on the dancefloor. You just don’t get that anywhere else. I mean, if I go and play in Bratislava, most people are from Bratislava.

Mardi Gras Party takes place at Entertainment Quarter, March 6, 2010. Tickets available through Ticketek.