On the phone from Manchester is the Eddie Halliwell, master of the decks. He’s just back from Malaysia and about to leave for Canada, such is the life of an international superstar DJ. He took some time out to chat with OUTinPerth about his busy schedule, the music he makes and the influence technology plays, especially considering Pioneer used Halliwell to help develop the DJM-909, the world’s first digital scratch mixer.
How do you find the audiences down here in Australia? Absolutely fantastic responses. For me, as a DJ, I love crowds that are really interactive and give you that feedback because it gives you more enjoyment when you can see it visually; see people enjoying what you’re doing. I feed off that. I think the Australian crowds are amazing for their interaction and feedback to the DJ and it’s one of my favourite places to get out to, purely for that reason; because the crowd’s so responsive.
Do you have an all-time best summer festival story? I suppose one of them, from the festivals is a stage dive that I did in Perth; I jumped into the crowd and it was quite a distance. If I’m being honest I think I’d had one or two too many drinks because if I’d been able to see how far the gap was I probably wouldn’t have jumped in, but that’s one thing that springs to mind, is my jump into the crowd. That was in Summadayze in Perth.
And then on the flipside, do you have an all-time festival horror story? One time, I was playing in England, and as you can imagine in the UK, it’s always raining; there was torrential rain. And is started raining on the DJ console while I was playing and they had to move the whole DJ booth a few feet back, so it wasn’t raining in. But then it didn’t really stop it, so then they got me an umbrella while I was DJing. I looked like Mary Poppins onstage, DJing under an umbrella. Obviously, as well, with the equipment getting wet, all the DJs were concerned about getting electrocuted, because all the equipment was soaking. But I suppose it looked pretty strange DJing under an umbrella.
People laud you for embracing technological advances; how would you say that you approach technological advances, in your DJing? Obviously, with new technology, there’s so much of it you’ve got to be aware. I mean, I’m interested in all sorts of new technology and what can help you become a more creative DJ or more creative artist; whatever allows you to move things on. Technology is a main thing for getting into DJing, because I’ve always been intrigued by what you can do with your technology. But as things develop you’ve always got to take into account when you’re going from club to club the equipment and what you can take on the road and what you can set up easily. You always have to be aware of what you can get in the club, because there are so many different things out there. But we’ve actually just set up a new platform that allows me to work with new technology, to work it into a sort of stage show, as it’s called. Its roots came from my interest in technology but it had to be set up as a separate platform because you’re working with exclusive products – like the company Pioneer, who just developed new DJ equipment – because when it’s specialised equipment, promoters can’t get their hands on it, so it’s difficult to get into events. But if you could, in an ideal world, some of the equipment that we’re using now I’d like to be in every single club that you play. But obviously that’s not feasible. But back to your question, I’m always intrigued with new technology and how it can better what you do, basically.
Eddie Halliwell will be appearing at Summadayze on Sunday January 3 at the Supreme Court Gardens. Tickets are available now. www.summadayze.com.au
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
