A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH JOHN DIGWEED


Is John Digweed the best DJ spinning today? No question. How can hundreds of baggie pants wearing, pacifier sucking, glowstick carrying ravers be wrong? Digweed sat down with the Roadshow on his one day of rest before he was jetting off to Ibiza or was it Hong Kong? Never the less, it's brought to you with no interruptions, unedited and in his own words.


FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.

JOHN DIGWEED: Well, I was just really into the music and some friends of mine, actually, some friends of my brothers, who were a couple of years older, they were actually the ones that got me into it. One of them was a deejay and I just kind of picked up from there, seeing his decks and the mixer, and how he would put two records together. And that kind of made me think, "Hmm, I would like to do that." Yeah, so it all started there and I got hooked on it at a really early age and just kind of never looked back. I then got my own decks when I was about fourteen and everyday after school, would just come home and practice on them. I knew since I was about ten or eleven basically. I always heard and enjoyed the music. That was from the really early ages and since I was fourteen, all I wanted to be was a DJ. I thought that if I couldn't make it as a DJ, that I wouldn't make it in anything.


FJ: Why electronica?

JOHN DIGWEED: Well, it's all just kind of club music really. I was always into the early hip-hop, electro, and from there, it just kind of progressed into the house sound in about '87 or '88. So, that was when it also went to rapid house and it was from those early stages that I just got really interested. You know, it's been about ten or eleven years since.


FJ: Listening pleasures?

JOHN DIGWEED: Well, I grew up in a really small town, so there weren't too many clubs I can just go to and listen to the music. A lot of it was just me going to the record shops, and buying the types of records I liked. So, I'm just kind of self taught and that's how I put my sets together. I'm sure that's how a lot of deejays do it too.


FJ: You are the deejay of the moment.

JOHN DIGWEED: (Laughing) Well, it's nice that people actually look at me that way, but I don't think that it really affects me. I just carry on doing the job that I do. Yeah, I know that I travel around the world and stuff, but I'm just playing the basic club. But you know what, my main attribute and goal is to just play the best music I can and give the people a good night. I mean, I am really happy that I climbed up the deejay ladder and I'm working my way up to the top, but I still know why I got into deejaying and it's because I love it. And that's more now than when I first started. Well, the shine hasn't wore off yet, let's put it that way.


FJ: Comes with perks.

JOHN DIGWEED: Actually, I always wanted to travel the world. So, I kind of lucked out big time (laughing). Ever since I was young, I always wanted to go to places like Australia or America, but they just seemed so far away, you know, impossible to get to because of the finances and stuff like that. So, I consider myself really lucky to have fulfilled so much of my ambitions. It's great.


FJ: Between all that traveling, spinning, and trying to get a couple of winks in, where do you find QT?

JOHN DIGWEED: Well, I have a girlfriend so on the nights off we try and go out to the cinema or grab a meal and you know, just spend time in front of the tele. Well, that's what I do on my down time, but I don't get a lot of it. It's pretty much hectic all the time. You know, and she's just very understanding.


FJ: Do you venture into clubs on off nights?

JOHN DIGWEED: Occasionally, if I get to a city a bit earlier, I'll maybe stay out. But my gigs are on the weekends, so I usually don't have time to go to them and if I do, there isn't much time afterwards. I mean, I like to get some sleep before I get on the next plane and have to travel for another six or seven hours. So, I try and do as much as I can, but it is really hard with the time schedule that I run on.


FJ: Favorite hang?

JOHN DIGWEED: I would say Twilo in New York.


FJ: You have a residency there.

JOHN DIGWEED: It'll be three years this coming April. I also really like Spundane in San Francisco.


FJ: You spin with Sasha at Twilo.

JOHN DIGWEED: Yeah, we do that night together. You know, we do a bunch of things together. We enjoy doing gigs together, just as much as we like playing apart. You know, we get this real buzz, when we're doing that sort of one on one thing together.


FJ: When did Northern Exposure get off the ground?

JOHN DIGWEED: That was basically in '93, or '94. I went out to a lot of clubs in the North of England, when I was in the South and I just said, "Look, let's do this Monday night in Brighton," which is in the South. So, we bought down the sounds from the North, where we were better known to the South and called it Northern Exposure. We call it that because of the northern sounds and it's been going since '94. Right now, it's just really sporadic. There are a lot of albums out, but there aren't a lot of nights we went around performing as Northern Exposure. It's kind of nice like that though because it makes Northern Exposure kind of special. It's also nice to kind of keep moving on.


FJ: Anything set for release?

JOHN DIGWEED: Well, I'm in the studio right now, working on a remix for York. I'll probably be finished with it by tomorrow, so after the record company gets to it, it should be out in a couple of months or so. We've got a couple of Bedrock singles which should also be coming out within the next six or eight weeks.


FJ: Sasha has his own thing set for release, any plans for a solo Digweed project?

JOHN DIGWEED: Well, I'm just kind of happy with what I'm doing at the moment. I mean, I don't want to have to feel the pressure to do one. If I say I'm gonna do it, then I'm going to have to do it (laughing). I don't want to have to feel the pressure. If it is going to happen, I want it to happen for the right reasons and not because I was forced into it.


FJ: Bedrock is an audible journey.

JOHN DIGWEED: Yeah, I would like to take them on a musical journey. Though that's sort of a cliché thing. I just want the people to get locked into what I'm doing. I want the people to listen to the music as a whole, rather than a track to track sort of thing. I want the records to really compliment each other, and make the listener feel like there's something really happening.


FJ: Any points of concern?

JOHN DIGWEED: Yeah, traveling and all, when I see homeless people that I find definitely hits the spot. I mean homeless people, it's a sad thing to see in this day and age.


FJ: Being on that podium, you get your share of fairer sex, any tips?

JOHN DIGWEED: (Laughing) I don't know. It's like, I want to act natural, but at the same time, I don't want to sound like an idiot. That's quite a clever question. Yeah, but I don't know, because I've never been in that kind of situation. I don't know. I figure that you'd talk quite normal to famous people. If you can treat people normally, I'd guess I'd respond normally.


FJ: Sell that to someone else.

JOHN DIGWEED: (Laughing) Well, the thing is, basically, a lot times when I'm deejaying, I end up deejaying all night. I'm just so focused on what I'm doing, I'm not really looking around you know? I mean, I have a really nice girlfriend, so I'm not interested anyway. One thing I've learned is that when you find a nice girl, you certainly should not let her go. So, I'm very happy with Justine. She's a very great girl. So, I'm not really interested and that's good, so I can just focus on being a DJ.


FJ: Has it been a difficult road?

JOHN DIGWEED: Not really, except for all of the hard work and dedication. Obviously, it's an industry where it's all about building up contacts and knowing people. Sometimes things don't even work out so well, but I think that I've been around long enough to have worked my way up, and built my talent to get there. That's the main thing, if you talk the talk, but can't deliver, there's really no point. But, if you're hard working and really dedicated that's another story. I'm really appreciating the fact that the people were really willing to work with me, talk to me, and help me a long the way. They set aside a lot of time for me and that counts for a lot. I was just really careful not to rattle the other people's cages and just do as much as I could.


Fred Jung is the Editor-In-Chief and is the voice of South Park's Christmas Poo. Comments? Email Him