Written by Andrew Darwin

Nick Warren is a legend of the scene. He’s been DJing for nearly 30 years, has played clubs and festivals all around the world, released albums on Global Underground, is one half of dance act Way Out West and head honcho of The Soundgarden. He’s also a bloody nice bloke.

We spoke to Nick before seeing him perform on the South Beach Lady Yacht in Miami with Way Out West live during Miami Music Week on Friday 18th March 2016. There were beautiful melodic tracks a plenty and picturesque scenes of Miami’s waterfront and skyline.

Hi this is Andrew from uneekibiza.com and today we’re aboard the Miki Mammoth yacht party on Miami Beach where we’re joined by Mr Nick Warren.

Nick, how ya doing?

Yeah I’m good mate thanks.

You’ll be playing here today on the Miki Mammoth yaught party – a live set as part of Way Out West, what can we expect? 

It’s mainly all music from our up coming album, which is nearly finished. We’ve remixed a few of the classics, and we’ll be trying out a lot of new material.

Brilliant, we look forward to it. We were at your The Soundgarden party last summer in Ibiza, it was one of the success stories of the Ibiza summer. Tell us about how the event started and the background on it. 

It all stemmed from my radio show, that’s how The Soundgarden name started, and then we started to do the branded shows, and Eden approached us and asked if we’d be up for doing The Soundgarden events on the island. Last year was the first year, there was some great successes and also some lessons learnt. We’re back again for 2016 and moving to Sundays. It’s going to be a more varied line up this year which will be great and we’re also going into partnership with cool London promoters Audio Circuit. We’re all really looking forward to the season, 12th June can’t come fast enough!

Fantastic, we’re really looking forward to checking that out this summer. You’re also playing Treehouse tonight in Miami, you’ll be joined by Hernan Cattaneo and Guy Mantzur, can we expect more of the same beautiful and progressive melodies?

Yes! Guy, Hernan and I are great friends, and we all play a similar style of music. Miami Music Week is always good fun, as it’s not often you get to be in the same place as all your mates anymore. In the old days when we played at Cream and Renaissance, The Cross in London and all those clubs in the UK, we’d all see each other regularly, but it doesn’t happen so much anymore. So it’s nice to see each other, and all get to play in the same booth.

It’s great that the whole industry is here in this week, every single major DJ is posting on their social media from here.

Yeah, it’s part of the magic of it, it’s a long way to come, but it’s always good fun.

How many years have you been coming to Miami music week/conference?

This is my 22nd year, which is amazing really. Scary but amazing! A lot of people complain about the scene nowadays, but I think it’s better now than it used to be. It’s a lot more organised, a lot more daytime parties. These boat parties are big now. The clubs can be a bit of an issue to get in to, I remember years ago a club called Cameo, Pete Tong and Richie Hawtin got knocked back on the door, which doesn’t really happen in many places!

It happens to the best of them then! Miami Music Week and Conference is the week where the big tracks for the summer are generally played first. What fresh tracks do you have that you expect to go down well?

There’s a few on my label Hope Recordings. The new track I’ve signed by Black Eight, which will be a big summer hit. There’s new music from Simon Shackleton as well. For me, it’s never about what’s going to be the hits. It tends to be a really obscure track that pops up here that everybody plays, so it’s really hard to tell which are going to be the big ones of the summer at this stage.

You’ve been performing around The Americas since Ibiza last summer, how’s that been, and how does it compare or differ to Ibiza? 

I’ve been in Argentina a lot, and the parties there have been sensational. We also did our first The Soundgarden Argentina events in Rosario and Cordoba this year, and they were amazing. I think if you speak to any international DJ from Sven Vath through to Richie Hawtin, Hernan Cattaneo, John Digweed etc, they all say Argentina is the best. The parties are just on another level, with thousands and thousands of crazy Argentinians. It’s kind of like their football games, if you see the photos of Boca Juniors V River Plate, it’s just like that, crazy and special.

Ibiza still has a special place in my heart. It’s changing big time over there though. Now with Space closing as well, then who knows what’s going to happen next.

Lots of DJs have changed their style for commercial success over the years, but you’ve remained true to a sound which you love – this is clearly important to you? 

Yeah, I think it’s never going to work for you if you just chop and change and think “I should play this style now because it’s successful.” A lot of the trance guys moved into EDM and it’s failed. I think it’s important to just play what you love.

You’ve played some massive gigs around the world, do you have a favourite all time gigs?

Some of the Cream shows in Liverpool back in the day. In the late 90s Liverpool was the best place in the world. Others include Twilo in New York, Womb in Tokyo, and of course, Argentina everywhere. But then, there will be an amazing gig somewhere next week, that’s the great thing about this job. You never know, you’ll turn up somewhere and it’s just an amazing gig. We’re in a very lucky position to be able to fly around the world and play music for people.

Where else other than Ibiza can people catch you this summer? 

I’ll be playing all over Europe in the coming month, and back in the States again in June, doing festivals live with Jody for Way Out West. South America again also. The Soundgarden will be based in Ibiza all summer with events every Sunday from June 12th till September 18th. See you there!

Brilliant, well thanks very much for the interview Nick and good luck with your sets today! 

Pleasure mate, thanks!

Check out The Soundgarden @ Eden on Sundays in Ibiza 2016 from 12th June – 18th September

 

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