Catching Up With... John Digweed

There really is nobody else out there who does things like John Digweed does. He stands as an independent force in front of not only his own faithful Bedrock family, renowned for their affectionate loyalty, but also an ever growing number of followers around the globe. With a history spanning over two decades – one that’s seen him pioneer the progressive refinement of dance music here in the UK right through to his ambassadorial role for underground house music, techno and everything in between – John is an artist in the truest sense, with a remarkable technical prowess behind the decks. Having played at out Farringdon cave every year since our inception, we’re delighted that John is back this month, returning for an extended set in Room One. As ever the Bedrock don has had a jam-packed year of gigs and releases, but luckily we managed to find time to catch up with him and get the story for ourselves. We’re looking forward to your return to room one it’s almost traditional – what does the space mean to you? fabric as a club has set the bar very high in terms on standards of sound, production and level of service. For me I love the fact that I can play for 5 + hours and really focus on what I am doing while still being in the middle of the dance floor, this club was designed so that the music is front and centre, less focus on raising the DJ up on a stage more about the crowd coming and dancing to the very best underground music. Lighting wise it`s clever use keeps the room dark and underground but reflecting what style of music being played. It`s always a pleasure to play that room and something I will never get tired of You have history in a lot of cities, from Renaissance in Nottingham, Bedrock parties in London, Ibiza and yours and Sasha’s New York residency years ago, here to do you feel any stronger connection to one part of the world over another? fabric feels like a hometown gig for me I have been lucky enough to have played Fabric every year since it opened, With my other Bedrock parties in London throughout the year we always seem to get a really nice crowd coming down who want to cut lose on the dance floor for one last blow out before Christmas. Your ‘Live in..’ series of releases picks out sets from different international arenas – Argentina’s been the latest setting what stood out from this set that made it worthy for release on the series? I never plan where these releases are going to be recorded from infact it took me a couple of weeks after the gigs in Argentina before I listened to them, I knew they were amazing parties but I was not planning another Live in album this year as we had just released the Versus project. I had taken ourmaninthefield with me to film the gigs for some youtube footage but after watching it back I knew we had something really special, I spent 14 hours going through both sets and decided to split the gigs over 4 CD`s. I think the fact that these albums are never planned makes them feel more natural and organic. I am really happy the way these Live in Albums ( Cordoba, London., Slovenia and now Argentina) have been received. In a world were people expect music and mixes for free on Soundcloud etc These albums show if you put out a quality product with nice packaging people still want physical product and collect the series. You look also to have been picked up by what’s going on in the USA now and the EDM culture that’s really strong at the moment, but you’re music is much more deep and understated than the biggest protagonists – what’s your experience of this been? have people been connecting t what you do in that forum? I have been playing in the USA for over 20 years and well before the EDM explosion, just like many other countries around the world the EDM and the underground scenes are both doing really well in there own fields. There are plenty of clubs in the USA that are focused on the underground scene so it`s all good. How’s your year been for the label? It all looks pretty consistent to us but have you felt it’s been a strong year? What can we look forward to for the future from you? Well we hit 15 years this year and had an amazing year with album releases from Electric Rescue , The Japanese Popstars and Nick Muir and my Versus project as well as some stellar single release from Darren Emerson, Harvey Mckay & Carlo Lio just to name a few. Next year is already looking very strong with some great releases lined up.