“It’s easy to emulate people. Being yourself and being honest in front of a crowd is, for some reason, harder”
In your Mastermix 2014 you featured Frankie Knucles’ remix of Don’t Walk Out On Love by Gallifre and Mondee Oliver. What’s your relation to the track? Is it your all-time favourite Knuckles production?
It’s probably my favourite Knuckles production yeah. One of my favourite DJs, Martin McKay used to play it down at 69 quite a bit, which is where I went pretty much every Saturday night. It’s a great track to start or end a mix with, and a perfect tune to end a special party too, of course.
You will play Amsterdam Open Air Festival on June 6th, what is your relation to the city of Amsterdam and its nightlife scene? Do you have a particularly memorable story you are willing to share with us that is Amsterdam-related? This could be either professional or personal…
Amsterdam has to be one of my most visited cities in the world alongside London and Barcelona. The Colors guys started booking me to play Trouw like 5 years ago when I was completely unknown outside of Glasgow and have supported me ever since then. The first time I came to Amsterdam I actually didn’t like it. I would smoke to much weed and become super paranoid, getting run into by bikes everywhere and almost killed by trams! The first time I visited I fell asleep on the train back to the airport and my wallet was robbed from me. I didn’t notice until I got to Schipol, then had to turn back and sleep in a shitty hostel with loads of drunk English dudes for another night – it sucked! But after my first visit to Trouw I was totally in love with the city.
How do you approach a festival performance? Not only from a musical point of view, but what kinds of activities do you engage in when not performing and are still on-site? What is your favorite aspect of the festival experience, aside from actually performing?
I definitely play bigger tracks. Not bigger in terms of more known necessarily, but certainly bigger in sound. It’s harder to draw a connection with the crowd otherwise. They’re usually far away, the roof is really high or non existent which all affects the vibe hugely.
One of the greatest parts of your job, you once said, is that moment when two tracks mix together so perfectly that the hairs in your neck stand up. Which two tracks made this happen recently and resulted in you mixing these two records on a regular basis now?
I had a really good blend with the Streets and Kolsch – Der Alte on a mix I did a few years ago. I think that’s my favourite blend I’ve done.
Finally, I read the interview you did with the journalist from the Guardian, who followed you and Oneman on tour for a weekend. He found it hard to keep up with you guys, to say the least, with little to no sleep and constant pre- and after drinks during gigs.
Do you think that this lifestyle will catch up with you in the coming years, or is it relatively easy for you to have these kinds of weekends?
That guy was just a pussy! It catches up with me once every year or something but that’s it. That wasn’t even a particularly hectic weekend and he just drank water the whole time. I didn’t see him with a beer once.
Jackmaster | Tensnake | Black Coffee | Culoe de Song | Claptone | Maribou State | Madeon | Shonky | Breach | Catz N’ Dogs | Noir | Tom Trago | De Sluwe Vos | Shadow Child | Alex Niggemann | Kim Ann Foxman | & more
6 & 7 June | Amsterdam Open Air | Tickets | Gaasperpark |