Carl Cox: Looking to the Phuture

It's not an unusual question to ask someone during the course of an interview, 'Where did it all begin for you?'. However, there is something rather odd about putting the question forward to Carl Cox. After all, he seems to have been around forever; he's a good, reliable foundation to which a large part of dance music owes debt too. So, how did it all begin for the acid house and techno veteran? "When I was eight or nine, I remember my dad buying records and that was my introduction to DJing. I would select the songs to play and loved watching my family dance around, I enjoyed the control. It meant that during any parties I wasn’t running amok. At the time I just thought it was another chore for me to do but I quickly caught the bug and started going to record shops with my dad. I started following artists such as Aretha Franklin and collecting a lot of records from the late '60s to '70s. Once I got my first set of turntables, I began DJing at a lot of parties."

As someone who has not only been around to witness many eras in the culture of dance music, but has been an essential part of it, what changes has he seen take place over the years? "It was a mystery twenty years ago. Hard trance and acid house was never on MTV or the radio, you only ever heard it in the clubs. I don’t think the next generation grew up with the same ethos of partying, but where we are now is exciting too."

Carl was famed for using three turntables simultaneously during his sets, earning him the title of 'The Three Deck Wizard'. How does he feel about digital DJs who shun the use of records entirely? "I stopped using records back in 2005, it just simply isn’t effective any more. Each record costs around £5000 for a test pressing, so it isn’t an option for most people to let me hear their music on. We’re in the 21st century now, so it’s only natural that we move on to the new. It’s like the mobile phone, people never had them, then everyone had one for calls and now you can listen to music, call, text, email and take pictures all on one phone. I previously used three turntables and when I made the switch to digital DJing everyone said ‘you can’t go to using a laptop, it won’t be the same’. But I’ve been using a laptop for a while now, and people are still really into what I do. I think at this time we have become digitised, it’s simply the next natural step."

This month sees Carl return to Scotland for EH1 festival, where he will appear alongside Altern8, Fabio & Grooverider and Orbital, who will be fufiling their contract to appear at every single festival this year. "I haven’t played Edinburgh in a long time. I used to do the Rezerection parties in Ingliston years ago. Unfortunately I won’t see any other artists whilst I’m at EH1, I’d love to but I just don’t have the time. I’ll be 110% focused on my arena.

"I'm doing a strictly old-school set when I come up to Ingliston. I think a lot of people at EH1 won’t have been around twenty years ago, but apparently there will also be a lot of people attending the weekend who were there all those years back. I’m looking forward to it a lot, it’ll be a chance to bring the old days back in and have a bit of reflection."