CoolJunkie Interviews James Zabiela

March 2, 2009 5:17 PM
by Marcos Colón & Michael Maryanoff

When it comes to performance value as a DJ, James Zabiela is definitely in the top five around the world. He’s able to turn the biggest or smallest of crowds into one universal dancing machine just minutes into a start of his set. He nearly spent the entirety of 2008 preaching behind the decks around the world, and it looks like this year’s not slowing him down either. He’s just about to release a two-disc mix-compilation featuring the sounds of his touring, literally, the man walked around with a microphone and a recorder. Not to mention that famed artist Scott Pagano has created some visuals for Zabiela, which will be showcased throughout his touring this year.

CoolJunkie recently caught up with James Zabiela for a special pre-Winter Music Conference interview where he chatted to us about his new mix-compilation, the relationship between the DJ and the equipment, and his thoughts on WMC.

CoolJunkie: How’s the new year treating you so far?

James Zabiela: It’s been great, I mean, I traveled last year for 11 months, probably, so I took most of January off. Took time out and went snowboarding, and just chilled out really.

CJ: That’s in the UK right?

James Zabiela: Yeah, yeah I’m in the UK now but I went snowboarding in France.

CJ: Can you talk a little bit about the new compilation that’s about to come out?

James Zabiela: On the first disk, I was touring so much last year so I married the touring with making the CD. Also, I recorded pretty much everything that was around me most of the tour. I just got everything from people in the street to the baggage belt in the airport. Basically, I looked like a bit of a lunatic walking around and recording things. (laughs)

CJ: Yeah, I just read that on your blog right now.

James Zabiela: Yeah, with my headphones and my microphone, so it was kind of a task. I tried to make sort of an audio diary of my travels and put the sound to listen to on my iPod together with all of the sounds that I was hearing and just told a bit of a story with the first disk. With the second disk, it’s much more of my comfort zone, it’s just a straight up mainroom DJ set. It’s sort of trying to capture the bootleg recording that happens when I DJ all over the place. They capture the energy of being there. So it was a good idea with separate CDs. They’re two totally different styles.

CJ: On this compilation you also have tracks with Boards of Canada and Trent Moeller. What would you say you admire most about artists like these?

James Zabiela: Well it’s music that I actually love, I mean it’s just great electronic music. It’s not necessarily music that you go out dancing to, but it’s almost the same sound that you get in an awesome techno record but put into more of a traditional song form. It’s nice to listen to something that’s not rave music the whole time. When I finish a gig and I’m at the queue at the airport at 7 AM in the morning, having just played all night I don’t want to listen to any more acid house. (laughs) So it’s really a representation of what I listen to outside of a nightclub.

CJ: Next weekend you’ll be launching the new residency at Matter in the UK. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

James Zabiela: Well, the first one we’ve got Joey Beltram, Christian Smith and John Selway, who are all favorite producers of mine. I grew up listening to Joey Beltram. I would hear Energy Flash and stuff like that when I was 12 years old when my dad would bring it home from the record shop that was massively into the whole techno thing. It’s kind of been a dream of mine to be on the same lineup as him, so that’s one of the reasons I got him. John Selway used to work on the Deep Dish recording stuff for their first album, so he’s been a hero of mine for many years and Christian Smith, again, makes great techno music all the time. They’re still very relevant today, making great techno music all the time. So that’s the main room and then the second room we’ve got Spektre, I have one of their tracks on my CD. They’re sort of these hard house DJs who have become very trendy. (laughs) And I’m bringing friends as well, so I’m looking forward to it, I can’t wait. It ‘s a really great venue as well.

CJ: What do you have on your iPod right now that people wouldn’t guess that you have on there.

James Zabiela: Oh, I’ve got all sorts of heinous musical crimes on my iPod. (laughs) It should never fall into the wrong hands, let’s just say that. But, there’s all sorts of terrible 80s pop music. (laughs)

CJ: What’s your favorite gadget that you currently own right now?

James Zabiela: I’ve got an R2D2 projector, that’s pretty cool. It’s got an iPod dock in it, and you just put a DVD in the front and it projects the film on the wall.

CJ: I’ve seen a lot of videos of you demoing equipment. How critical do you think DJ equipment is or should be? I mean you have the purists who don’t even mix and then there are the people who use a bunch of effects. Is it good to have a happy medium?

James Zabiela: For me, definitely. I like to mess around and check what things are possible, but I also love the traditional beat matching thing, which, you know, from growing up playing vinyl and using Ableton, Traktor and CDs and everything since, I try to stay old school and new school at the same time. I think it’s important that for the performance level you need to be doing something and have some sort of skill. I think a lot of energy gets lost when you’re just looking into a laptop. I think there’s a fine line between doing it wrong and doing it right.

CJ: Is it true you’re traveling with a VJ now?

James Zabiela: Actually, not yet. I’ve got some visuals made by a guy called Scott Pagano, and found by watching BT’s Binary Universe surround sound DVD that came out about three years ago. I was just like, ‘Who did these visuals??’ They were so good. So I got a hold of him, and got him to make me some visuals for me.

CJ: Will you be using them when you’re on tour this year?

James Zabiela: Yeah, I will be.

CJ: Winter Music Conference is around the corner. What are some shows that you’re looking forward to, other than your own?

James Zabiela: I usually go to see Sasha and John and pay my respects to them. I always end up in really random places. I never plan because I’m pretty busy when I’m there, especially with the CD this year. So, im not sure where I’ll end up, but the good thing about WMC is that there’s always something going on at any time of the day.

CJ: What’s been your favorite Conference moment so far?

James Zabiela: Let me think…probably the first time I played at Space. There was a Balance party at the time that had a massive line-up. Sasha and Digweed, Dave Seaman. It was my second year there so it was a big deal for me.

CJ: How would you say that Conference compares to other events? Or do you think it’s all on it’s own?

James Zabiela: Yeah, I can’t really compare it to anything. There’s this thing in Ibiza, the Ibiza Music Summit that Pete Tong coordinates, but that’s more of a business thing than WMC. It used to be a bit like that, but now it’s a bunch of parties. (laughs)

CJ: What do you think of the scene in England, as far as electronic music goes,, compared to the one in the US?

James Zabiela: They’re a bit different, but I don’t think they’re that different. I think that London and New York are very similar scene-wise, but in the North of England we have a pretty enthusiastic crowd, much like you do in LA and along the West Coast so I think it compares in that way. But I would probably say that if you consider other countries in Europe or Asia and Australia, then you start to find that the crowds are very very different. Yeah I think it’s important for a DJ know their audience and notice the changes in them.

CJ: What can we expect from you for the remainder of the year? A lot of
touring still?

James Zabiela: Yeah, I just started again. Back to the 9 to 5.

Click here to hear more from James Zabiela.