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 “You want a quote? I’ll give you a quote; I respect the woman for being around for quite a while, not many people could do that, but it all seems a bit shallow to me and a bit tired. On a personal level I actually feel sorry for her because I’ve seen a couple of interviews and she seems to be a woman who doesn’t know who she is. That’s the price of success, I suppose."
Chatting down the line from his Azuli headquarters, Dave Piccioni chuckles as he outlines his views on Madonna though admits he’s never met her or even come close. The topic’s arisen from discussing the tracks on Azuli’s latest compilation CD Club Azuli- Future Sound Of The Dance Underground. Though the first CD sits firmly within straight-ahead mainstream house, CD2 is more interesting featuring gems like Layo & Bushwacka’s excellent new single Life 2 Live, Lindstrom’s electro-disco anthem I Feel Space and Depeche Mode’s A Pain That I’m Used To (remixed by Jacques lu Cont; aka Madonna producer Stuart Price). “I don’t know if I’m qualified to speak about Madonna, I know how much people love and adore her; a lot of my friends do. I just think it’s all about hype gone crazy to be honest,” he continues, “I don’t mind her – I respect her longevity but enough already.” Moving on rapidly, he’s marginally more comfortable talking about Madonna’s ex boyfriend Dennis Rodman (who he’s also never met) though enjoyed watching on recent UK reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother. “I hate to admit it but I did watch a lot of it, there’s something quite addictive about Big Brother. It’s interesting when there are lots of people together like that, to see how the dynamic works between them all. You can watch it on different levels, can’t you? You can just get amused by the back-stabbing or you can watch how personalities interact with each other and see the people that rise up to the fore and become controlling and dominant,” he says. Celeb tittle-tattle aside, Dave’s primary focus remains music, specifically club music, of the kind that’s brought him a 20 year career at the top end of the music business. The UK educated entrepreneur first broke through in New York in the mid 80s as one of the first big name house DJs (courtesy of a residency at The World), returning to the UK in 1989 to set up Azuli and take on the business. Still an active DJ and still a leading player in the UK dance scene, he retains an enthusiasm for both music AND business, that’s immediately apparent from his new CD. Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): Is it easy to get people to licence tracks to you? Dave Piccioni: “It can be a struggle but this is another goal that we are trying to achieve with this CD, one that I’m convinced we will achieve; we expect companies to want to come and have their product on there, because it’s a showcase album. We’ve already achieved that with our Miami compilations: now people do want their tracks on there because it’s good for them to have the profile. We are good predictors of taste, so we expect through putting out this CD that companies will say: that’s a good compilation to put our tracks on.” Skrufff: What kind of audience are you targetting? Dave Piccioni: “Two really, it’s a dual approach. Firstly we’re after the more discerning clubbers who want a straightforward mixed album, say the kind of people who may want something a little more edgier than a Hed Kandi or a Defected album. In other words a CD that’s a little bit cooler and slightly more underground but not way leftfield. Then we’re aiming at the DJs; both the prospective DJ and the bedroom DJ. That’s why the second CD is unmixed, it’s specifically for DJs to use.” Skrufff: The compilation uses the word ‘underground’ in its title – a word with many meanings: what does it mean to you? Dave Piccioni: “I suppose it means it’s not mass market. Sure the market is never particularly clearly defined ever, but what I’d call mass market is that TV advertised dance album market, whereas the more underground market is where people have to a little bit more research to know what to buy or the buyers are a little bit more discerning and well informed.” Skrufff: When I talked to you last time you were talking about loads of outside interests and hanging out with people in all sorts of different environments . . . Dave Piccioni: “I think I’d just come back from Sri Lanka. You shouldn’t be writing about this . . . I have lots of diverse friends. I like meeting different kinds of people. I like to work out how people tick.” Skrufff: Were you in Sri Lanka after the tsunami? Dave Piccioni: “Yeah. I did three weeks volunteering in the 30 degree heat, which was a great experience.” Skrufff: Are you going back there again? Dave Piccioni: “No, because I want to go somewhere else and do something else with someone else. I did think of going back to Sri Lanka but there’s a couple of other things I want to do in different places. The particular project I worked on there was really good. You’ve got to be careful when you do those volunteer jobs because there are a lot of people out there waiting to rip you off and just take your money and make money. It’s interesting because it’s very hard to actually help people, you’ve got to watch what you do because you can end up f++king it up.” Skrufff: Are you doing another Miami CD? Dave Piccioni: “Yeah we are doing a Miami cd, we are getting that together at the end of the month. That’s going to come out at the end of March, beginning of April.” Skrufff: Is that going to be a similar thing with an unmixed version as well? Dave Piccioni: “I don’t know if we are doing an unmixed on that one. We might. We were worried about getting it confused with the Club Azuli thing. The following year we will probably just ditch it and bring it into the Club Azuli format.” Skrufff: Azuli have released a Danny Howells retro CD last month, Danny Rampling has done one and Pete Tong recently, what do you make of all these retro cd’s? Is it a new cycle beginning? Dave Piccioni: “I think it’s only normal. Dance music has been around a long time, but this current cycle, the one that started with the rave scene has really now matured. New people entering the scene want to know about its history so these compilations are relevant and you’ve also got younger DJs coming along now bringing their own different histories. So there’s enough room and I think there’s a demand for these CDs definitely and they are interesting albums. Though in some ways they’re a labour of love, because we don’t make a lot of money off them because all the tracks are licensed from major labels, and are really a nightmare to put together.” Skrufff: I read about you being stung by jellyfish in Ibiza last year, what exactly happened? Dave Piccioni: “It was f++king serious shit, I was worried for a while; I have to be honest, I was f++king scared, even though my first thought was ‘I got stung by jellyfish in Ibiza, no big deal’. What happened was this: Everybody was saying beforehand ‘you’ve got to watch out for jellyfish’, and as soon as someone tells me not to do something or tries to make me scared or feel insecure, it’s just my personality but I always do the opposite. So whenever people tell me to slow down on my bike, I’m like ‘fuck off, I’m off even faster’.So I went swimming, got stung, and initially thought it was no big deal, I thought I’ll put some vinegar on it, it’ll hurt for an hour or so, then I’ll be all right.” Skrufff: Where were you in Ibiza when you got stung? Dave Piccioni: “It was at Beniras beach and I was way out. I went swimming and got stung and thought ‘that hurts’ and thought I’d better turn round and head back to the beach. I looked around then got stung again and thought ‘oh fuck’. I’m a long way from the shore, it’s about a 20 minute swim.’ Then as soon as I turned round I got stung again, one stuck on my stomach and another across my back. I had about six stings. I swam back literally chewing on the snorkel because I was in shock and I really did have the thought that I wouldn’t make it back. A guy then pulled me onto the rocks and I walked to the rocks and there were the most gorgeous girls there but I was in such pain I couldn’t even get excited about a stunning girl rubbing vinegar on my back, which she did. I was fine after that, it just hurt then two days later I developed a rash all across my body. The doctors said it was an allergic reaction and then it didn’t go away. I was in bed for two or three days, I couldn’t do anything then it faded but kept coming back, three or four times a day. I was in Ibiza throughout all of this, I was supposed to do a gig, which I cancelled and also attend a friend’s wedding which I also had to cancel. I checked out my symptoms on the internet and was really worried because I found out that these problems can continue for years and keep coming back. But as it’s turned out, I haven’t had any more problems. The rash was in blotches all over my body. I couldn’t sleep and for about 36 hours I didn’t get more than an hour’s sleep at a time. I had to go and stand in the swimming pool every two or three hours throughout the night as it was the only thing that could cool me down. I was stung a couple of weeks before and it had been no big deal but this time there were six of them. I’ve got a nice little scar on my back.” Club Azuli- Future Sound Of The Dance Underground is out now on Azuli Records http://www.azuli.com Article by Jonty Skrufff (JontySkrufff.com) Subscribe to skrufff music newsletter at www.skrufff.com |
