Posted date: April 2006

CARL COX talks to Onbeat about his new album, responsibility and girls.

By: Thomas Cesa

Carl Cox is excited…and he should be. One of the top dogs in DJ culture, he consistently fills tents and clubs all over the world. Cox’s label 23rd Century has a solid track record for turning out quality techno house floorfillers, both by the man himself and artists who share that similar punchy, infectious sound. On April 4th, he released his third artist album, Second Sign in the States. When touring the US, he occasionally travels in a posh tour bus that would make even Mötley Crüe jealous. And just to fill out his resume, Coxy hosted his own stage, Carl Cox and Friends, at Ultra 08 for the second consecutive year.  Quit a good run for a guy who started out DJing his parents’ house parties.

OnBeat: Your new album Second Sign was in the making for a while. What took so long?

Carl: A lot of it has to do with who was going to take it on board. The album was done (pause). There’s no record label on this apart from me setting up 23rd Century Records. So that was the first thing I had to do. Once I set the label up, we had to get the imaging right, so everything you see—with Carl Cox, the head, the logo, the trade marking of the whole thing—we needed that put in place. Then we had the marketing idea of the cover and the colors and everything.

It took a year to do all of that before we licensed [the album] to anyone. We did the whole thing in Europe first, so it had to piggyback. There was no way I was able to promote the album in [both places] at the same time.

There wasn’t anyone coming forward from a [U.S.] label point of view to take the album on, so we waited. Koch eventually came forward. They liked the single (“Give Me Your Love”) and wanted to help get it to some sort of interesting place. At the moment it’s on the Billboard Club charts, which we are really happy with. It was a laborious process and it was frustrating to get to this point. But it’s been well worth it.

Onbeat: Let’s talk about collaborations. We get Norman Cook, Roni Size, Kevin Saunderson and Josh Wink. How did they help shape the sound of Second Sign?

CC: I made the last two albums on my own and I decided that I wanted to do collaborations this time. With each person, I wanted to learn how they make music. They could also see where I’m coming from.

Between them, there would be a clash and hopefully something interesting out of that clash. So when you hear the Roni Size track, which is called “Open Book,” you hear that it’s not truly drum and bass. It’s more Latin, more techno style but with his double bass overtones, or his soundscapes, and it really works. It’s a track that he would never have made, I would never have made, but we made this one together.

Like Josh, with Kevin, you hear [parts] of their sounds and [parts] of my sound, in between them. It just made it much more interesting as a concept of something which you are working for. Rather than me just sitting there making 10-12 tracks worth of progressive house, breaks or techno, it was the idea to see what would happen if I worked with these people. Itt took nearly two years to get everyone, eventually. I took one year just to get with Norman Cook.

We are all busy people and we are always in different countries. But it was like, for one time in your life, spend two or three days around my house relaxing, enjoying yourself and in the end the idea is to make tracks or an album based around how we feel about music. This is what came out.

Onbeat: Let’s talk about the first single, “Give Me Your Love.”

CC: The original track was put to bed in 2002. I had this concept from a track called “Hustlin’” by The Players Association. “Love” derived from this track. I had all the parts replayed so I could get their vibe with a Carl Cox energy. So I had trumpet parts, piano parts and guitar bits all separate. I could really get into the track and create something unique.

It stayed instrumental for about 2-years and then a young vocalist called Hannah Robinson, who can write tracks and sing, came along. So I asked her to write something nice. She came up with hook for “Give Me Your Love.”

The way she sung it was really sensual and infectious and I was like “ah this is great.” The version that came out is a remix by Valentino Kanzyani from Slovenia. He is normally a techno producer, but he heard the vocals and found them very interesting. I think the two have worked really well as a song. That’s the interesting thing. While techno sounds scary to some people, this track isn’t scary at all.

Onbeat: You’re hosting your own stage, Carl Cox and Friends, at Ultra 08. What made you want to take on the responsibility of hosting your own stage?

CC: That’s the key word right there, responsibility (laughs). Oh my God yes.
I mean, have you seen the lineup for Ultra?

Onbeat: Yeah.

CC: There’s thousands of DJs! How am I supposed to stick out? There’s so much going on at this event. It is incredible. I would hate to be dealing with the payroll on that (laugh) because someone is going to miss out on some money. Did you play? Oh and how long did you play for? What’s your name?

The last few times I played Ultra, I have had to push my sound. People book me because they know I can rock a crowd. They know I can take care of a room and turn it into something great. I go in there with a positive attitude and I have this energy I want to get across to people.

Even if it’s for an hour and half, you are going to hear Carl Cox. But with such a massive lineup, I felt that I was getting swamped under everything else. People go to Ultra and they go “I saw Tiesto” because he was in the biggest room. His name was massive at the time. They don’t care what else is on to be honest, because he was the headlining DJ.

I didn’t play Ultra in one sense, because I felt like I couldn’t make a difference. Rather, I’d make a difference and basically take some responsibility and put on what I think should happen at Ultra and can happen at Ultra.

My test of what can happen at Ultra was last year where I initially had my own arena but people saw the lineup, that I was involved with it and came and rocked out at my tent the whole day—which was brilliant. Ultra saw this and it’s their decision to come to me and say “would you like to host your own arena? Because we feel you can make a difference on our event.” Of course I said yes.

By saying yes, I was able to get Danny Tenaglia, who I haven’t been able to work with in a long time. Danny Howells—who played with me last year and was absolutely amazing—he’s back. Josh Wink—he was the king last year at our tent—he’s back again. Darren Emerson, we got him for the first time playing from Underwater.

And each of these DJ’s get to play between two and a half to three hours each. With that, we can give people more. I feel that I can make a difference by having that and I will take responsibility [for] what music is played. I want people to hear Tenaglia at Ultra. I don’t want any of them to just be another DJ on such a huge heavy lineup.

Onbeat: Taking into account the “massiveness” of Ultra, how do you see its influence on the dance scene in America?

CC: I think there has to be a pinnacle that makes sense of the dance scene in America.
There are parties and clubs going on all over America, but not in the way that it goes on in Europe. The essence of the party is different. With Ultra, they are showing Americans by the DJ lineups and the music that they have, what music is going on out there.

All the parties I did last year in Europe, Russia, Croatia, Italy and Spain, the Ultra guys were there. They saw exactly what I was playing and how I play it and what I can do to a dancefloor in all these different countries. To be honest, they went away and did all their market research to come back and say ‘OK, I want this DJ to play here, this one play here. I want this to do that and that to do that.’

It’s not like ‘OK, we want to book a bunch of DJs and there you go.’ They really spend a year on going to all these different places and knowing the reasons why they book these DJs and artists. I think by them doing that they are setting a precedent, raising the bar by showing Americans what I can be like and what it should be like.

If you are into dance music, you should be getting into these people. I think a lot of people go there just to be enlightened by what is going on and what can happen on your own doorstep. Especially in Miami, because after the conference everything goes back to normal. It shakes up Miami, three or four months after the conference, the DJs play differently, there’s different artist and attitudes.

If you didn’t know some of the DJs before, you certainly know them after they play Ultra. We do have another festival going on with the Global Gathering event. This is kind of crazy to have two such significant events, but Ultra was the first one there, and it will always be the one that people will go to see what’s up with the music, DJs and performers. Ultra is as important as it is for us to have Glastonbury in England. There is no other event like it in the U.S.

Onbeat: You mentioned that Miami goes back to normal. We know you’ve got a bus; you brought it last year. Any chance of us seeing it again?

CC: (Laughing) No, not this time. I’m flying in from Australia, possible limousine. I don’t even know where I’m staying yet. Last year was hilarious. We had it outside the hotel last year. It was classic, walking by and seeing your face on a bus.

Onbeat: You have any rock ‘n roll bus stories that you can share?

CC: It’s always girls isn’t it? (laughs) It’s like: “Girls, we can’t take you anywhere. We don’t even know if you’re old enough.” But we do have a girl problem with the bus because it can be quite endearing having this kind of vehicle. When girls and guys get on the bus, they can’t believe how luxurious it is. It’s kind of like your own forty-five foot house. You can pull the girls with a bus like that.

Onbeat: Where do you see DJ technology going with all the new software now on the market?

CC: At the moment, technology has a lot of influence on dance music. But you also have a backlash against it as well. The essence of DJing can be lost if you just play from a laptop. This is where a lot of people are not happy with people playing with Abelton Live. It’s like you are home, you can build your set at home, take it to a club, plug it into a mixer and for the whole duration of you set you are looking at a screen. From a musical point of view, you’ll probably hear some of the best music you will ever hear. But from a performance point of view, it’s probably the worst thing you will ever see.

I cannot get involved in utilizing a laptop, to incorporate that into what I do as a DJ. To be honest, over the last year or so, I haven’t used a piece of vinyl. I’ve used CD players, but you still have to work the player. You can loop, trigger, sample; you can spin back; you can still scratch. You can do all those things that you can’t do on a computer, unless you’re using FinalScratch, which goes back to vinyl spinning. For me, I want to push my whole set forward purely—based on technology—with Pioneer making these players.

I have been able to do a lot more than I ever could with the turntables. So I am really happy that CDs are in the fold, where DJs do have to perform to the highest level. It’s much trickier to play the CD players than it is the turntable; there is more artistry in that. But playing from a laptop, you find that a lot of people are not too happy about that, purely on the fact that the art of the performance is lost.

Onbeat: How many towels do you go though in an average set?

CC: (laughs) I go through about three towels. Like the set up at Crobar for instance; you are kind of up, so the heat rises from the dancefloor. I’m surrounded by light controls, amplifiers, my own energy and pumping adrenaline. But I’m not one for sitting down when I’m up there. It’s like a cardiovascular workout. Sometimes, I get to throw the towels out because people are screaming for some element of Carl Cox sweat. So that gets interesting.

For more information, please visit www.carlcox.com