Interview: James Zabiela

Tuesday, 20 April 2010 04:32

James Zabiela [a] released his brand new Renaissance mix compilation ‘Life’ today, which the British DJ and producer believes is his strongest mix CD effort to date.

Unlike previous mix CDs, James compiled and mixed the compilation as one single soundtrack, rather than two separate mixes, and although the mix had to be divided onto two CDs, James feels it plays out like one single “epic mix”.

We caught up with the technical DJ whiz to find out more, and we’ve linked up the tracklist track-by-track to make it easy for our DJ readers to listen and buy the tracks James used for his compilation.

‘Life’ is the follow up to your Masters Series from last year. There is a marked difference with this release as it’s a single piece of music, rather than two separate mixes. Did you plan that or did it happen organically?

As a whole, the mix formed itself pretty organically but the plan to make this one continuous journey (I hate that term) was there from the start.

I didn’t want to make the mistake I made previously and have one disc outshining the other so much, so in order for them to be able to compliment each other I decided to make them flow and treat the whole thing as one epic mix.

In fact if I wasn’t restricted by the medium of CD for the physical retail market there would be no part 1 or part 2 even mentioned. It’s because I approached the mix in this way that I think I really improved on my last attempt.

The way in which the album is distrusted is also different, with it being given away at your gigs as well as being sold in stores; how do you feel this is going?

Yes that was totally the idea, to get it to as many people as possible. Especially to those that aren’t fortunate enough to have good internet connections to purchase legal or even illegal copies (I do not condone this).

I doubt my CD will be on sale physically in many of the places I’m going to tour this mix. There are lots of places where my music is only available on import so to be able to give something to those who pay to see me play is a good feeling.

At first I was against giving it away, not for the reasons you may think though. I was in the mindset that if something is free I’d assume it’s probably not that good, but I think that stigma is being broken by bands like Radiohead.

‘In Rainbows’ was one of their strongest albums to date and being such a fan I ended buying it three times! Not that I’m expecting people to do that for me of course, although I personally feel it’s my strongest work.

What have you got coming up for the rest of this year that you’re excited about?

Well the album is out Monday so I’m looking forward to everyone finally being able to hear it, so that’s the most immediate thing.

It seems like an age since I started this mix so I will be relieved once it’s out there properly for all to hear.

I really put so much love into this mix that it has been quite stressful if I’m honest, despite it being organic and falling into place it required a lot of time and I even cancelled my holiday to get it completed to the standard I was content with.

It wasn’t like making a regular mix CD with a bunch of club tracks, this was really a studio creation.

DJ mixes are a synch these days if you want them to be, given the technologies available. A lot of the production on this mix wouldn’t have been possible without as much.

So, I’m mostly excited and relieved about this coming out. I’m also looking forward to my residency at Space in Ibiza this Summer as last year was the best ever for me.

What do you think is the most exciting thing happening on the scene at the moment?

Outside of what seems like the richest availability of electronic music in quite some time, probably for me, as a gadget fiend, the amount of ways you can now perform as a DJ or electronic artist is amazing.

It’s like an ever expanding universe of potential midi Controllers like the iPad and purpose built media players like the CDJ2000s.

Are we going to hear you sing some more at some point?!

Well, on my two productions that appear on the mix, particularly ‘Burnt Bridges’, I used my voice quite a lot.

But more as an instrument which I effected to sound like one. I do make a cheeky karaoke appearance at the end of my mix. Hehe.

‘Burnt Bridges’ was originally intended as an LP track so when I finally got around to making an artist album of my own I’m sure I’ll use more of my limited voice in other ways.