What’s to be said about John Digweed that hasn’t been said a million times before? The man’s undoubtedly still one of the key figures in the global electronic dance music scene, with an unmistaken talent to keep reinventing himself and dropping the one hot tune after another. Ever since the end of the eighties, John has been carving a niche for himself as one of the most prominent and forward-thinking electronic music artists of our time, with numerous tunes, remixes and compilations on respected label such as Global Underground, Renaissance, Ministry Of Sound and of course his own Bedrock imprint. The latter is widely recognized as both a valuable resource for stunning tunes from the biggest artists around and a breeding ground for hot new talent.
After shooting himself to stardom as a Progressive House DJ in the 90s (your dance music collection isn’t complete if Global Underground 019 is missing), John went on to turn himself into one of the most in-demand electronic music producers of the 00s with the release of the Transitions and Bedrock 10 compilations, which both stand out due to their innovative sound and spot-on production.
For over two decades, John has managed to rock floors across the globe, making himself one of the most sought-after DJ/producers in the field of innovating dance music. July 12th sees the next landmark in his impressive discography: the release of his new mix compilation Structures on which he redefines his sound with the craftsmanship that reveals years of experience, talent and a true passion for dance music.
We teamed up with John for first-hand talk on Structures and the complimentary DVD, the future of his Bedrock label, and more exclusive info…
John, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. How’s life? Life is good, thank you!
Your new compilation Structures is about to be released. What is it you wanted to express with this compilation? For me it`s trying to push myself and the label forward with every release trying to find unique tracks and remixes that will showcase the sound I’m playing now.
How did you go about track selection? What criteria did you use? I spent a lot of time contacting artists and producers for original tracks and also getting some of the Bedrock label’s tracks remixed especially for this album.
For the gear geeks among us, what gear did you use for mixing? I used Ableton 8 to put this mix together while at home, on planes and in hotel rooms. It’s a great way to work now as you can maximise your time fully while on the road.
Next to seasoned artists, the release features tunes by ‘new kids on the block’ such as Sian, Rowdent and Ian O’ Donovan. Can you tell us more about these new Bedrock artists? Well, if you go to the Structures section on the Bedrock website, you can look at these guys and all the other artists biographies, which is a very rewarding experience. What I can say about them, is that they are making some fantastic house and techno music and it`s great to get them on the label!
‘Structures’ features a documentary filmed by Pablo Casacuberta. Can you tell us more about this documentary and how the idea was conceived? Pablo is good friends with my agent and had suggested working on a project with me, so we chatted and worked out that it would make sense the next time I came to South America for a tour. Everything worked out really well.
The documentary was filmed by famed director Pablo Casacuberta... How and when did you guys meet up? I met Pablo through my agent and we hit it off straight away - he has great vision about how he wants his films to look and feel, it was a lot of fun working with him and i hope people like the documentary.
The DVD contains footage from your last South America tour. Did you specifically chose for South America as the doc’s setting? Well, Pablo is from South America so it made loads of sense to do it there with him and his film crew and he knew loads of great locations.
In your opinion, do you think that including audiovisual content (such as a documentary) with your CD could be the solution for dwindling sales of physical CDs? Or do you look at it as being an ‘extra’ for fans? Sure, these days you have to offer as much content as possible and by adding a DVD with a documentary and live mix gives the fans a whole load of extra content. The live mix as part of the ‘Structures’ release is your first live mix to be made commercially available? Why have you never released such a mix before? Has this been a deliberate choice? I never really thought about doing one before as you aways end up with problems trying to get the tracks licensed after you have done the mix, so I have always done studio mixes up until now. But with this one, hopefully, people will get to feel the vibe of the amazing Vagabond night in Miami.
Can we expect more of such CD/DVD sales packages on the Bedrock labels in the future? Lets see how this one does first and how the reaction is!
Speaking of Bedrock, what do you have lined up in terms of releases for this year? We’ve got loads of releases planned for the next 5 months but at the moment the focus is the ‘Structures’ release.
What else are you working on at this moment? Any scoops? Myself and Nick Muir have just finished remixes of Marco Bailey, Mr Fogg and Tom Middleton, plus a new single called ‘Satellite’ which is out Aug 2nd.
Summer’s almost here, and so are this year’s festivals. Any gigs/travels you’re specifically looking forward to? Well it’s festival time now, so loads of outdoor gigs and beach parties across Europe! It’s a busy, but fun time to be playing out when the weather’s so glorious.
