Desyn Masiello is undoubtedly one of the DJs you have to go out and see. His career has been exploding in the last few months, and according to the music he plays many people has changed their opinion on house.
We met in Warsaw to talk about his compilation for Bedrock, partying together with John Digweed, about Internet and... Luke Fair’s girlfriend.
There’s a story in your biography about one hundred CDs that made you famous...
I did a demo CD just to promote my name, because nobody knew me anywhere in the world, not even in my home town London where I lived. The CD gave me a few international gigs. It was a one small stepping stone.
Is there a way to get it?
I’m going to find it and I’ll put it on my website soon. Yes, definitely. But it wasn’t like the thing made me. There’s been so many little things, different steps of the ladder. I was slowly, slowly, slowly climbing and the demo was just the first step.
What kind of music did you start from? Was it closer to “In House We Trust” or maybe to “Original Series”?
On “In House We Trust” was all Yoshitoshi music, so I can’t say it’s a CD of my sound. But I did like all those tracks. The promo was more Bedrock. More housey, melodic stuff, quite hard at the end.
So you must felt happy receiving proposal to do “Original Series”?
Yes, “happy” is a very good word. But I didn’t go out to celebrate that thing.
Did you know the title before you started working on it? Did it influence you in a way? What does it mean to you?
Q: Has it influenced you in a way? What does the title mean to you?
It meant nothing to me. I just took a chance to put an hour of music that I love onto CD. I could choose anything I wanted.
So it was different from what you could do for Yoshitoshi.
Yeah! But with Bedrock I had a lot of problems with licensing. I put forward 20 tracks, and to 7 of them the labels said “no”. Every time it was a different reason. One French label said “our music is never out on compilations, we save it for ourselves”. This is a French way of promoting. Another label in Germany, Compose, they said “we want to use the track first on our compilation”. I did go for some very non progressive music so there was another reason, that some labels didn’t want their music on Bedrock, I think. Also some of the tracks, or maybe samples in them, were not cleared, so the labels got nervous and they didn’t licensed.
What did you feel then? You wanted to promote some tracks on such label like Bedrock and they refused.
Hurts for about 15 minutes. It didn’t matter, because when I did my Essential Mix in October, a month after the Bedrock came out, I used all those tracks on there. So in the end people got to hear it.
Are you fully satisfied with the album, or would you change something now?
I was only given three weeks by John to do the album. He came to my house and said “I want you to do a CD and in three weeks it has to be ready. Have you got enough music to do it?” So I had no chance to phone people and ask to send tracks. But I wasn’t going to say “no” anyway.
What was the rush for?
Because I was the first one to do it, and they had already the schedule. From the time you hand the mix in it’s still another two months for pressing CDs, promotion, and so on.
For me it sounds like they had a whole plan but they didn’t have the name to do it. Maybe they just decided to pick you up too late?
No, no, no. They wanted me to start the series, but they also wanted to start it soon. They already had a plan: me, Jonathan Lisle and Luke Fair. And John told me that the first day. It was in June and the CD came out in September. The label had three months to do it, so I had only three weeks for mixing. So if I could probably go back, I would spend some more time on some of the mixes. There are some I’m not happy with, but I’m not the best mixer in the world anyway. I can’t mix like James Zabiela or Danny Howells. These people are like computers! So the CD is the reflection of me – I’m not perfect!
I was just about to say that. The track selection is amazing, but the mixing itself isn’t that good. In some parts you mix melodies which in result give the total mess.
Yes, some of them were a little bit hard on the ear. This was because of the rush. If I had more time I would probably reduce some mixes, or even change the order of the tracks. But it sounds good if you’re fucked on drugs.
Can’t deny! [laughs]
I also make little mistakes when I play live, you’ll hear it. But when I did the CD, I listened to it, and I thought “That’s how I mix!”.
So the strong point of Desyn Masiello is track selection, not the mixing, right?
No, wait. I can mix good the whole night. But doing a compilation, choosing your favourite 12 tracks (and you have to use those), it’s like jigsaw puzzles and sometimes they simply don’t fit. You have to force them together. When you’ve got three hours it’s much easier, as you can spread them out more. With one hour it’s tough.
With the music you play, how was it like warming up for John Digweed?
I found it difficult. He’s a top DJ, one of the best in the world, so I looked up to him and felt like I couldn’t be myself. Because if I want to be myself I want to make people go really crazy and I thought that’d be disrespectful. So I had to hold back a little bit before John. I like warming up but I don’t do it often.
Did he ever complain?
Yeah, once [laughs]. It was in New York and I . played too hard too early. He didn’t complain, he just came and said “can you bring it down?”. He is very polite at most of the time. And very funny.
Is he? Did you ever see him smiling during his sets?
Not during his sets. He concentrates on what he’s doing so much.
So you the entertainer against John the Statue. I still can’t imagine how could this work.
He actually once told me that I confused him with my DJing, because every gig I played completely differently. But I was constantly trying to find the right way to play before him. And I’m doubting I did. But he’s a great guy, very nice, still making jokes.
Sell us a story.
I’d get in troubles [laughs].
Do you know how he introduced your mix in Kiss 100? He said you never sleep and that you’re constantly looking for music.
Yes, that’s what he thinks. Sometimes he asks me “where do you get all your music?!”
Actually I want to ask you the same! Where do you get your music from? Does it come from the promos you receive by mail, or you really go out and shop?
First of all, I do sleep. But when I’m awake I’m looking for records. I’ve built up a network of friends in the Internet. I came from computer background, so when the Internet started I was already using it. So I always knew people all around the world similar to me, and we’ve been always exchanging information about music. I have friends DJs, in record shops in every single country in the world. It’s enough when one friend will tell me the name of a track – I’ll get my credit card, I’ll find it and I’ll order it. I’ve no money in the world, I don’t own any property, I don’t have a car. Every penny I’ve earned in the last 5 years I’ve spent on music. Nothing on me, nothing in my bank. It’s an addiction and I’m obsessed.
And what are you going to do when you stop DJing?
I’ll probably get back to computers, because you just sit on your bum all day and do nothing. It’s really easy.
What would you say about Luke Fair? For me he’s like your brother from the other side of the ocean. You both play the same kind of music, I mean the mood, not the records.
He’s similar to me in a way he doesn’t sleep.
He also make a lot of edits...
Hmm... I think he does... Even more than me. But Luke has a big advantage over a lot of DJs – his girlfriend sits at home when he’s not there, on the computer, goes through all the Internet stores looking for records for Luke. I keep telling him “I want a girlfriend like yours”.
Have you got one?
No...
Because it costs too much time?
Exactly! That’s why I don’t have one. From the time I stopped going out with my last girlfriend, my DJ career started going like this.
Do you give away your edits?
Yes, I do. But it’s not my music, I shouldn’t really be giving copies anyway. I’m being a pirate. It happens, everyone does it.
What is sex on wax like?
Oh... it’s... my second label...
I didn’t ask about the label!
Wow! Sex on wax – I’ll have to try it and I’ll tell you then. Myself and Omid were in a 3 day session. Music session, don’t laugh! Me and him and three or four other people. Close friends. We were trying to find a name for the label, just talking. Somebody played a record and someone else just said “oh, that’s sex on wax”. And then we all just said “that’s the name!”. I thinks it’s a perfect name for a label.
No doubt it is!
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