The Legend of Digweed
It’s not everyday you sit down with a DJ that was at the front of the movement for quite some time now. I was quite in awe when I first received the email that I was going to interview John Digweed at Electric Zoo. I took a deep breathe – I was giddy with excitement. It took me back to a memory, not particularly that eventful, but it is forever ingrained in my mind. When I was say twelve or thirteen years old back in suburbia, there was nothing ever to do except drive around in my friends’ cars around town blasting music. But before this turns into a suburban teenager angst novel, we were speeding down JFK parkway heading home and ‘Heaven Scent (Bedrock Remix)’ played from the speakers. Its delicate chords sent me into a feeling of awe and goosebumps even at that young age – no drugs, no party, just pure musical bliss. I told myself to remember the track name but as short term memory goes, as soon as I entered my front door the name left my tongue.
My friend whose CD it was had already gone to bed, so I enlisted the help of another in a desperate three hour search for the name of the song. My feeble attempts at describing the tune had narrowed our search somewhat. ”Heaven! It had something heaven in it…” But in those days, every happy hardcore and Eurodance song had the word ‘heaven’ in it. Finally by some chance miracle, and late in the night, we stumbled upon it. Never had I experienced such a feeling of gratefulness and appreciation of search effort for a track. Needless to say, I had the track on repeat for quite some time.
As I said earlier, nothing momentous. But the Digweed’s track was so well done, it was very well worth the search. And through all the years of finding and listening to electronic music, for some reason that memory stuck. The work Digweed has put out before that track, and now well after, is seeped in quality. He is a man with EDM flowing in his veins, a passion born at that first club he went to. For the new DJs that hop on to the scene recently, they forget there is the “art of a set.” They are foolish to disregard that and should take a leaf out of Digweed’s book. Look to him, young ones, look to him and learn how he keeps people with him for those twelve hour sets at Twilo. He pulls his audience through crest and troughs, carefully measuring energy making sure there is enough left for the general buildup and progression of the set.
This is a knowledge that becomes second nature, but it is only earned with experience and practice. Humble down, young ones, because although you are taking the world by storm now, who knows if you will still be standing after your own aftermath years later.
Needless to say, I felt privileged to be able to sit down with Digweed. It is not just the fact of his fame and talent, but the shear breadth of memories and experience. He’s been through it all, always involved in the EDM scene as it has come to be today. While there are many now who think electronic music was born yesterday, I am sorry to disappoint them that no, Avicii or Guetta did not start this movement. If you care to dig deeper into the history of EDM, you will find that Digweed’s name was making waves years before Avicii was even born. I will venture to say that the EDM landscape may have been very different if there was no John Digweed. And that’s just a thought…
John Digweed & Sasha – Heaven Scent (Bedrock mix)
John Digweed & Nick Muir – Bilder (King Unique Rebild)
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