039 WOULD YOU SAY [UNVRS] IS A NATURAL EVOLUTION OF PARADISE, OR IS IT MORE OF A COMPLETE BREAK FROM THE PAST? Definitely an evolution, DC10 to Amnesia was an evolution, bigger space more scope to be creative with production, and [UNVRS] is just the next step on that journey. It’s still the same core team as 2012, we still love planets, ancient civilisations and galactic journeys, it’s just now with the help of the incredible team at [UNVRS] we are able to make our imaginations come to life. Musically, it’s still me playing sleazy grooves with some vocals and heavy bass lines, new and older artists bringing their flavours, from deep, tech or garagey house to indie dance and all the rest. Nowwe have this killer Soundsystem to hear it on! IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY AND AUDIOVISUAL EXPERIENCES ARE SHAPING A NEW CHAPTER IN CLUB CULTURE.HOW HAS THE SEASON BEEN, AND WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING FROM THIS LAST MONTH? Yes, the idea for Paradise was always to be an immersive experience. That’s why we have performers coming out of the roof dancing on the stage and everything is supposed to feel like you are partying in a galactic temple at warp speed heading to a majestic party sand planet. Honestly, this season has been really amazing. I’m still in shock with how successful it has been. The feedback, attendance, the production everyone involved behind the scenes have been incredible. The summer has gone so so quick probably one of the quickest I’ve ever had. I can’t believe it’s September already. I played a lot of back to back’s this summer mainly because we went from having two big rooms in Amnesia to only one so we had less space for artists, we wanted to make sure everyone was involved so I played a few more B2B’s than I normal ly would which has been epic, but I’m looking forward in September to doing some solo performances. Other than that, we have more wonderful guest DJs playing in the main room, Wild Comet and the Bunker and I’m actually looking forward to hanging out a bit more as the season comes to an end and my insane August tour schedule is over. IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE ONE ICONIC PARADISE MOMENT THAT DEFINED YOUR LIFE, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE & WHY? Wow, very good question. 13 years of absolute incredible magical memories, it’s so hard to pick one. It’s almost like picking your favourite song of al l time. Funnily enough, I was discussing this with someone a few weeks ago at the Paradise London festival . I think this party is considered by many to be the best Paradise party we’ve ever done, one of the reasons for this is because it only happened once in this venue, it was so crazy that the police never allowed anyone to do a party there again. It was so epic that there are videos of someone proposing to their girlfriend on the beach which was a few metres away from the side of the dancefloor. The party went on until midday and the sunrise was unforgettable. The location cannot be matched. It was Paradise at Blue Venado, playa del Carmen, Mexico, as part of the bpm festival in 2015. The party was so good Lee Foss had a $60,000 red video camera stolen and didn’t care because we had such a good time… I think he cared the week after but at the time we were on such a high from the event, it didn’t matter. I said to someone would this party be so special if we had done it there for the next 4 years? I think it would have been but it because it was a one time event definitely solidifies it as truly legendary to anyone who was there. NOW IN 2025 YOU’RE PRESENTING A NEW CONCEPT WITH [UNVRS]. HOW DOES THIS CLUB DIFFER FROM EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE BEFORE? Honestly, I love [UNVRS] . The thing I love the most is the sound, L’acoustics is my favourite sound system and the club is fitted with a top of the range model that’s custom built for the space. The night league team who are behind the club spared no expense on making sure that the sound was warm inside this huge space. The first thing I noticed was that the crowd could really feel the warmth of the baselines something that’s rare and hard to achieve in big rooms. I think Ibiza really needed something fresh, a state of the art venue with the best of everything. Ibiza is expensive, We all know that, but at least when you go to UNVRS you can hear, see and feel that that money has been reinvested into an experience that’s unmatched. I think it’s an exceptional addition to the special group of clubs that you can only find here in Ibiza. I’ve been lucky enough to play to probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of people over my 20 years touring the world. In the last 10 years I predominantly played large festivals and big venues. It’s not easy to make a club that has such a huge capacity feel intimate. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t feel like a 300 person basement club but it also doesn’t feel like a huge soulless warehouse. It still feels like a club, not a venue, which is a huge achievement considering the capacity. When I play I feel like I can play deep music. I feel like I can play disco edits or groovy old school house which sometimes doesn’t translate or work on big stages or rooms. This is because of the sound and the way the club has been designed the energy from the music does not always have to fill the room. People can be grooving without their hands in the air the whole time and the vibe and energy still feels epic. And then of course there’s the windows, when the sun comes up looking out over ibiza. I mean I saved the best till last with this answer, that is the icing on the cake, truly magical when this happens. It really is the moments we live for when we come to party in Ibiza.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk4NzM=