Articles - Interviews

“The title is an oblique reference to a religious order called the Passionists. I thought the general vibe of our track was quite mystical and connective so I wanted to underline this vibe with a religious connotation in the title.”

Chattting to Skrufff this week about his (fantastic) new single  ‘The Congregation of Discalced Clerks’, Mugwump main-man Geoffroy insists his decision to use the world discalced’ (meaning ‘priests who wear sandals’) has no personal significance.

"I'm always pretty fussy with titles. Do I wear sandals? Sure," he laughs. "With socks? I'm afraid not."

The track itself is masterfully produced baroque techno classic of the sort that Vitalic and Blackstrobe’s Ivan Smagghe do so well in marked contrast to recent Mugwump material, though Geoffroy disagrees.

Articles - Interviews

“Sometimes it’s hard to keep both sides going, to balance the nightlife with the day-life because I’m the sole owner of D-Edge so I have to be there in person to check what’s happened last night. I also like partying a lot; when I go to the club at night, I drink, I socialise and party.”

Sitting in his sumptuous Sao Paulo apartment, Renato Ratier smiles as he outlines the difficult balancing act he maintains running his uber-successful Brazilian club D-Edge against indulging the temptations from being one of South America’s most popular and successful electro-techno DJs.

“For example, on Thursday night I went to another club first, then D-Edge then after that some people said ‘let’s go to your flat and have an after-party there’. So we came back to my house and my friends ended up leaving at 4pm.”

“Then I had to go to the club to take care of some matters immediately afterwards,” he sighs. “That’s the difficult question for me: balancing everything. Of course, business is important and I need to take care of things but I really like the nightlife. So that’s difficult. Sometimes I need to go home early.”

Today it’s Saturday early evening and he’s been out around Sao Paulo again last night though he’s lively and good company, offering chocolates and champagne and apologising for his (actually fluent) English.

Articles - Interviews

“If you run a label these days it’s a lot of work, you don’t make any money and there’s almost no reward except for occasional DJ gigs. The majority of clubbers don’t give a shit about labels any more; the label has disappeared as a factor or relevance. In the 80s and 90s the label was everything and then came the artist.”

Six years after he launched uber-cool baile funk crossover label Man Recordings, Daniel Haaksman remains an outsider on both the club scene in his adopted home town of Berlin and beyond, despite being one of Europe’s key musical innovators of the last decade,

“I realised that in order to find more DJ gigs I had to make my own music and do more remixes to get more visible,” he continues.

Articles - Interviews

16 years after he formed Way Out West with fellow Bristollian producer Nick Warren, Jody Wisternoff remains firmly at the top of the global DJ tree spinning and producing progressive house and trance music for an adoring global fan base.

Describing himself a workaholic, however with more than a few things still to prove, he’s quick to stress he’s anything but complacent.

“It’s extremely important as a creative person to feel this sense of drive and to be achieving things constantly, because in this highly competitive industry it’s the only way to stay relevant. The public are very fickle, so if you want to keep playing these great gigs and living this amazing lifestyle you have to maintain a good profile,” he points out, “Gone are the days when you could have a hit record and then rest on your laurels.”

Articles - Interviews

What a year its been for Steve Angello. One third of house musics hottest trio, the Swedish House Mafia, DJ, Producer and boss of SIZE Records. Where does he find the time? With the Winter Music Conference in Miami, one of the most important dates in the electronic music calendar, right around the corner hkclubbing sits down with him to find out...