"I Gave My Life To Music A Long Time Ago": Catching Up With Guti

With all this talk of the resident DJ of late, those talented people who’re all nice and comfortable in their homely locale week on week let’s not forget about those dealing with the frantic travel madness that is the international touring DJ. These guys do not stop. Ibiza ends, club tours begin and before they know it it's headlong into the festival season once again. There's precious little time for themselves and as Guti spills in our catch up chat below birthdays and family Christmases go out the window. All we can hope for is to make him feel at home as possible when he returns to Room One this weekend joining Laura Jones and Marino Canal at the controls. It seems like you’ve not stopped even since the summer ‘silly season’ – you’ve just been on tour in the US - how’s did it go? It was so good and yes I never stop, but I like to be busy, it keeps me inspired. It was six cities in ten days! Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami & San Francisco. It was nice to be with Marco Carola in New York for his first show at Marquee, and there were great shows everywhere. Especially Miami & Chicago where I feel like home. One thing we’ve had our eye are the amazing photos you’ve been sharing of your travels online – do you always make sure you get to enjoy the places you visit and not just drop in and out for gigs? I always try. It’s a bit frustrating to be in all these amazing places and not always being able to enjoy them. It makes you crazy. I'm lucky that I can come back every year to the same cities. It took me ten shows in Rome to get to know the city! I dream of the day when I retire and come back to every city as tourist and enjoy life in this way. Being on the road, is this something that you feel is natural to you or can it be a bit of a challenge to cope with being away so much and all those other things that take their toll..? It is still weird but also feels natural. I gave my life to music a long time a go. There's been no birthdays, Christmas or new years eve for me in so long. You get used to it being you and your suitcase and it is the price for doing what you love. What would be your best advice for the year round touring artist? Try to go day by day. Try to enjoy and mix with the different cultures and places you are traveling to. I love to learn languages and that keeps me sane. I am decent at speaking a bit in many languages and I’m really proud of it! We had Davide Squillace come play here in the summer – you two have been working together white a lot right? Can you tell us a bit about that? I love him as a person first. He is so sweet and real. Somehow I have something for Napolitanos (Marco. Joseph, Davide) they are so similar to us Argentinians. In the studio he is smart and fun and we make music together more to have an excuse to hang out. It is always good times. What else have you been working on in the studio? Have you even had much time to spend time producing? I finally finished my next album. It is a jazzy emotional instrumental trip to listen to and is coming out in March on my own label Rompecorazones. I’m so excited with this and I spent the last year an a half thinking, writing and feeling it. There’s a record out at the moment right on Defected? Can you tell us a bit about that EP? I always wanted to make a big house song and hopefully this is it. I love to work with defected because they are so good, serious and professional, and they truly love house music. I also love to put myself in different places all the time to keep everything interesting. We know you’re 100% live when it comes to performing but are there any tracks or artists right now that you’ve been particularly enjoying? What do you like to put on your headphones to relax or get inspired? I rarely listen to electronic music during the week beside mine. I always end up listening to the same guys over and over - my favorite artist is Oscar Peterson - he recorded over 200 albums so there is so much to discover all the time. And you’ll be with us in Farringdon soon – what do you like about visiting us in London? It is always a deep strong feeling to play in room 1, for what it means, for the room itself. I remember many of the great shows I played in room 1 with Raresh or with Dice but I also remember more than these the countless times I’ve been there on the dancefloor listening to all those amazing artists that today are colleagues. It’s a nice feeling.