The frighteningly competent young man pictured below is Paul Woolford, also known as production whizz Bobby Peru. Wooly's impeccable credentials include being signed to Ralph Lawson’s 20:20 label, remixing for Damian Lazarus’s City Rockers and this summer he’ll be part of We Love’s full court press at Space on Sundays.
We badgered him about "megamixing" and whether Radio One ditching their big San An weekend might actually be a good thing for Ibiza.
How's it going Paul? Have you just flown in from anywhere interesting we should know about?
Paul Woolford: Very well thanks. I played in Barcelona on Friday at City Hall for 20:20 Vision's residency. They love the music!
Where was the last place you djed?
Back2Basics in Leeds on Saturday
How was it?
Excellent as ever.
How long did you play for?
3 hours.
Who else was on the bill?
Tom Middleton & Ralph Lawson.
How do you decide who gets the best slot? When is the best slot, usually?
For how I'm playing at the moment I get more pleasure from playing later on into the night. You can play both the more intense things and also the edgier material in amongst the main program so there's a touch more freedom I feel.
Ever been reprimanded for getting everybody too excited too early?
Not really, I don't think you can argue with a club that's going crazy. I've always played my sets with space between the larger momentous records and the other stuff so that's never really been an issue.
Spanish producer Dr Kucho has said "I think using various names is very stupid. Think about this: if you release three records each one with different names you have nothing , but if you use the same name on all of them you have a career" Do you agree?
Well it depends what you want to achieve. If you solely want to be as big as possible then yeah use the same name on everything. If you want to indulge your more creative impulses without confusing your audience, then there are other avenues. Personally I'm in the studio nearly constantly so for me to release everything under one name would be ridiculous. Also I work on a variety of projects that vary in their style, so to use the same name would be too much. It's an artistic thing.
Do you feel threatened by new talent coming up? Has anyone ever felt threatened by you?
Not at all, I welcome it. There are new djs and producers that are amazing and they inspire me so much - it's healthy! Also I think it keeps those who feel threatened on their toes. Ultimately if you're doing your own thing then there's no one in your way.
Is there enough business to go round?
It depends what your business is! I'm not the type of person who accepts everything they get offered as sometimes things are unsuitable, whether it be a gig, a remix or an offer to record for a label. For my situation there most definitely is!
Do you save for your retirement or just blow it all on drugs and loose women?
I think save for your retirement and never retire - the best of both worlds!
I read you won a "megamix" competition on Leeds radio when you were 13. Is that true? Was you mix Jive Bunny-esque? How does a 13 year old know anything about dance music?
Yeah, sounds like you don't believe it so I'll tell you the exact details. Radio Aire in Leeds had a guy called Carl Kingston on their team of djs who also did a dance show every Saturday evening between 6-8pm. At 6.45 there was a guy called Sheldon Lazarus who did what he called the "Soul News" (remember this was years ago when 'Jack Your Body' was in the charts!). He organised a mix competition and said that whoever got the most tracks into their mix would win. I had been recording DMC megamixes from Radio Aire and from Jeff Young's Big Beat show (Pete Tong's pre-cursor on Radio 1's Friday dance show). These mixes were 8-10 minutes long and had typically about 10-14 tracks in layered over each other. I made my mix for the comp out of snippets of loads of these mixes on my tape-to-tape hifi and sent it in. I never thought that I would win, but because I had a mix made out of loads of other mixes, it had like 30 tracks in or something daft. 2 weeks later they announced the winner and I couldn't believe it. They sent me a load of promos (about seven 12"s) and some stickers and stuff including a personal message from Carl saying (I still have it!): "Paul, My Main Man! Keep listing to the tunes and keep up the good work! Carl & Sheldon". It blew my mind and made me devoted to music. Sounds mad now doesn't it ? I was so made up.
You got a high profile Radio One slot courtesy of Yousef. What kind of reaction did you get? How many people listened to it? How important is Radio One to dance music?
Yeah I have to take my hat off to Yousef for that, it made a huge difference in terms of people knowing my name and the reaction was really positive. I think Radio 1 supports dance music well. I know that some people vehemently disagree but at the end of the day they will never be playing cutting-edge tech house at lunchtime. That is not their job. Pete Tong's show is a cross-section of dance music and I think he's great at what he does, he's also supported me loads and that support has been a huge help. I do feel that Radio 1 is lacking a show that represents the underside of electronic dance music, especially the more cutting edge house & techno that's around. I think this part of dance music is re-shaping the whole thing and they should recognise that. At the end of the day when you watch adverts on TV these days there's watered down electro-influenced music in the background constantly which shows how much the underside has it's claws in popular culture. Radio 1 are savvy enough to represent this properly - maybe they should be doing so.
Do you think their decision to pull their big Ibiza weekend will have a negative effect on the island, or will there just be fewer pissed yobs on the streets of San Antonio?
It's a positive thing. A few less nutters is better.
Is house a spiritual thing, or is it just a way of having a good time?
It's a cliché, but it can be a spiritual thing. I went to a club in New York a few years ago called Body & Soul and there it certainly was a spiritual thing for the regulars. The djs were Francois K, Joe Claussel and Danny Krivit and they played across the board. House to funk to soul to whatever else and it was most definitely a spiritual thing!
When was the last time you had a transcendent experience on the dance floor? Who was playing? How drunk were you?
It was in Fabric in January after I'd played. D’Julz was on and he was firing on all cylinders. It was a mixture of the excitement at finally playing in Room 1 and the system and D'Julz's music… and a few drinks.
Want more? Check out the rest of the interview on www.Space-Ibiza.es.