NEWS
EVENTS
Bill Patrick's bullshit-free guide to life on the road, Seth Troxler, hating Ibiza, and Ru Paul's Drag Race
House | Friday 21st November 2014 |
You may not have heard of Bill Patrick yet, but over the past 17 years he's worked quietly away to become what I would call the "DJ's DJ" - he's never produced a single record, but has acquired something of a cult following for his skill and experience on the decks. He has many high-profile fans and friends, including Seth Troxler, Guy Gerber, Marco Carola and Ryan Crosson. We caught up with the expert over Skype to get his thoughts on the mad industry he's been in for so long.
Ok so you're originally from New York, so what was the scene like when you first got started and how did it inspire you?
When I started I was going to punk and hardcore shows in the East Village, and there was this very similar crowd that was going to raves at the time. Back then it was mostly raves and not so much clubs, just warehouses in the city of Brooklyn, like Frankie Bones did his Storm raves. There was this weird connection between the punk scene and the rave scene, so once I got introduced to the rave scene it just took off from there. There was a lot of amazing clubs that were going on, but the rave scene was kind of like what EDM is like today, I guess, in a lot of ways - it was a lot of people's introduction into dance music so for me that was how I was introduced, and then from there it was clubs like Tunnel and Vinyl and Limelight. There were so many amazing clubs open at the same time, and I don't think any city has compared since then.
Yeah, so do you feel quite lucky to have been around for all of that - right place, right time?
Yeah, in a lot of ways I was super lucky because I saw a lot of DJs coming into their own around that time: Richie Hawtin, Sven, Sasha & Digweed, Carl Cox... they all had residencies in New York at that time, including Danny Tenaglia, and they were all coming into their own or at their peak at the time. Tenaglia was incredible.To witness that every week was definitely inspiring.
Yeah, definitely. So obviously back at that time New York was amazing, but what made you decide to then relocate to Berlin?
I had done a lot in New York, I was a resident at Vinyl and Arc, I threw my own parties called Robots with two other friends, and we felt like we had the best thing going in New York at the time - we were bringing in a techno sound that was not being brought in anywhere else in the city. So we kind of carved our own path and had an amazing four years, but it gets to a point where you ask what you're going to do next. I wanted to focus on DJing, I was getting booked more and more overseas, I had taken a couple of trips to Ibiza, and a couple of my friends like Seth and Ryan Crosson and the Wolf & Lamb guys, they were all in Berlin. So I spent a summer there like a test, and I loved it! i actually had a very interesting conversation with Sven Vath of all people, in Ibiza, I had played DC10 in like 2003 and I remember he had mentioned to me that if you really wanna make it as a career and take the next step, you have to be in Europe. There's only so far you can go in America. So I always kept that in mind. The thing is I didn't wanna leave my home, I wanted to make an impression in New York, and I always felt like if I could make a name for myself in New York then I could make a name for myself anywhere. So once I felt like I'd done that, I felt like I was ready to head over to Europe and start over.
Yeah, its always good to keep things fresh!
Yeah, actually a lot of it has to do with being with your friends, and for me it was really important to be around my friends. Seth, Ryan, Shaun, there were a lot of North Americans in Berlin at the time including the Canadians, people like Konrad Black, Mat Jonson and Mike Shannon... that helped a lot for inspiration, so that was a big reason to come.
So are all those guys still based there?
No! Well, some but most have moved on to other cities.
So you decided to stay there by yourself basically?
Well, I'm not actually here a lot, its just an easy place to have as a base. A lot of friends have moved to London but they're paying 3 times the amount in rent. Tegel airport is actually the best airport in the world... so it does have a lot of perks. For me it's just good to have a base and I do still have a lot of friends here, but you know, I won't be here forever.
So I imagine you must know Berghain pretty well, living in Berlin now?
Nah, I don't go, I mean, after a long weekend of gigs, its the last place I wanna be. I go twice a year maybe, if I play, but if I'm not... I went there last week so I think I'm good for a couple of months. I can't do that every weekend!
Yeah, I guess you're just waiting for the right moment?
Yeah, I like to just let the experts do it. Just like I don't think that everyone should be DJing, there are plenty of producers out there who shouldn't be behind the decks.
Yeah. I think the dance music community is catching onto that more at the moment, as you said.
Yeah, so speaking of the longevity aspect, over your time you've obviously played some of the best clubs in the world - you obviously mentioned DC10, then there's Fabric, Panorama Bar, Rex in Paris... so those are just a few European ones, but are there any that are still on your hitlist in Europe or even further afield?
In Europe, I would love to play Robert Johnson in Germany, haven't played there yet. In the last 2 interviews I did recently I mentioned Japan because I've never been there and I have a friend who runs a club there called the Womb, and whenever he sees me he's super cute, apologizing, saying we wanna book you but we're just trying to find the right time! And I'm like hey, it's completely cool, I understand how these things go. I'm not one to bug about it, if it happens it happens. I mean the thing is with me is that I know my role and I understand where I sit within the DJ levels... I know I'm not a superstar, I have no following in Japan so why would they book me! You shouldn't ever let your ego take over and get really fucking upset because you don't get a booking here or there. I think it was Colombia in South America that we were talking about... certain DJ's that are huge here have absolutely no draw and no one really knows about them - people wouldn't necessarily go out to a night to see them. So DJ's that are big in Europe don't always have a pull in places like Japan.
Yeah, completely. It's a fair point. Yeah, so obviously you mentioned hanging out with Seth a bit, I thought his bio for your page on Resident Advisor was brilliant...
Yup, that's my actual bio.
Yeah, when I go to research you that's the first thing that comes up! And he calls you a demi-God, so he must think pretty highly of you!
*laughing* Well we've been friends for a looong time. I was sitting round his place one night in Berlin, back in the day, I don't know how I get round to reading DJ's bios, but I was like these bios are fucking terrible, this is so boring... "I opened up for this person, I played this club"... so I needed a bio for something at the time, and I said Seth, do me a favour, can you write my bio? Just do something ridiculous but keep the key points in. 20 minutes later he's like here you go! I feel like it's a good representation of my personality, and the way I go about things and not taking life too seriously... he summed it up perfectly for me. It’s good to have someone like Seth whose mind can just run wild and put it down - perfect!
Obviously you don't wanna be famous by association, but I do find it interesting on what your opinion would be on how Seth for example, has become a superstar DJ in a way, a face of the scene, and at the moment there are quite a lot of guys out there who are getting kind of a cult following and huge fees... obviously EDM slightly more so, but what do you think about the fact that we now have that in the underground scene? Because it seems slightly paradoxical.
Yeah, I mean it seems crazy to me. I'm not saying this about Seth but in general most underground superstar DJs, their egos are worse than the EDM DJs. I have a bunch of friends that work closely with some of these EDM guys and they tell me that they're actually super sweet and humble, people like Steve Aoki and Skrillex... all these guys are actually quite down to earth. I hung out with the Nervo girls in Ibiza and honestly it was so refreshing. They were super cool, we didn't talk about music at all. They had no attitude, no ego, its ridiculous because yeah a couple of our superstar guys seem to think they're better than everyone else.
Yeah because quite often they're the ones that criticise the EDM DJs.
Yeah, I mean the criticism is based on insecurity. These EDM guys are making millions. When you're at a certain level it all turns into this fucking disgusting business, where its like chasing the charts, chasing the polls, chasing the fees... I hate that side of it, its so transparent. I've never been attracted to that side of the industry and just happy to be doing what i'm doing and not have to fear that I'm gonna drop in the polls or the charts... so I think the EDM scene, its like yeah, the music sucks but it's like I said before, there has to be some kind of entry point, a gateway for people to get into dance music.
Yeah, leave him to it! So on that subject, you hear stories of all these DJs... I heard somewhere that Swedish House Mafia arrived for a gig on 3 separate private jets, but obviously you don't really do that, no frills or entourage... so travelling a lot but without that protection must've thrown up some interesting or weird situations... you must have quite a lot of pet peeves by now! Obviously on Twitter I saw you said that taxi drivers keep playing their productions to you, haha!
Yeah, I was just doing an interview where they asked about life on the road... the most entourage I get would be if I have a girlfriend, I would take her on the road with me. it's great to do that because it is exhausting and depressing at points but there's the moments where the promoter wants to play all his tracks, and you have to go to this dinner, and the promoter doesn't speak English, and it's just you and him, and its so awkward... and you don't wanna order food at the hotel because the food sucks, and you're like I wanna go to dinner but I don't wanna have this awkward conversation... I make an effort, I try to ask questions, but everything gets lost in translation... there's definitely moments where you're like jesus I just want to go back to the hotel and sleep... it's a real life Larry David moment most of the time. The traveling is the one thing which will eventually bring everyone to walk away, at some point. The passion for the music is always gonna be there for most people, but the traveling can suck, that shit is going to get to you. Like right now I'm terribly sick. I was in Paris and Moscow this weekend... Moscow was a crazy 16hr party, it was snowing, the planes and the connections, the recycled air... and now I'm sick, and I have to go to Italy tomorrow... so the last couple of days I've just been trying to bombard my system with anything that's healthy like tea and vitamins... so yeah traveling definitely gets to you!
Yeah, it really did seem good-humored to me, how important do you think it is to keep that sense of humour in what can obviously be a completely mad industry? Have you ever met any other DJs, where you feel like they need to bring that back a bit and chill out?
Yeah, there's so many that you just are like, dude, come on! At the end of the day we have it pretty good. Just have some fun! Yeah, its super important just in life to have a sense of humour and really be able to take the piss out of yourself. There's definitely a balance of having respect for yourself too and to know the line, but come on... we have a pretty good situation, learn to laugh a little bit! There's things that are beyond our control but if you know how to handle them it'll be a lot easier. Today, for instance, I was dealing with all sorts of technical problems, I was ready to smash my computer against the wall! I've met a couple of DJs, I won't name names but I think their ego's get so mad... they're surrounded by people that are constantly telling them everything they wanna hear, that they're the best, they're the funniest... every joke gets a laugh. So I come around and we sometimes have headbutts because I don't give a fuck about your status, so if I come and make a joke or tease you a bit and you come back with this "how dare you" attitude, it's like fuck off! At the end of the day you're just a nerd that plays some records and became successful, just like all of us. My friend Todd (Konrad Black) said it best: A lot of these guys came into "cool". They were never cool when they were younger and only recently became the popular guy through DJing.
Yeah, so onto more positive subjects... Obviously the travelling is a grind, but do you have any parties on the horizon that you're particularly looking forward to?
Yeah, I’ve got a party at Art Basel in Miami which is always fun, that'll be a good weekend with friends. A lot of parties going on smack at the beginning of winter in December, the weather's great over there. And then BPM festival in Mexico, Playa Del Carmen.
Yeah, the lineup for that looks incredible this year
And they're still adding people, it's gonna be crazy! Another great location and a great place to hang out with friends in the middle of winter.
Yeah, I don't blame you! So as an A&R for Guy Gerber, you must have got sent quite a lot of cool stuff. Have you got anyone new you think we should be looking out for?
Yeah, I would definitely plug Archie Hamilton, he's from London. There's Nu Zau, who's from Romania, and another Romanian guy I can't remember right now, um, Little Hado, yes!… there’s loads but in interviews my mind always draws a blank!
Well, if you only had a 5-spot guestlist for a party, who would you put on there, and why? They can be dead or alive.
This is a hard question! I don't want to be too obvious, I need them to be interesting but these people are going to be in a party situation with me!
All the people I chose are alive... Louie CK and Larry David - I completely worship their sense of humour and personality, and I think they would be so awkward at a party, it would just be amazing to watch! The situations they'd get themselves into... they're the top of the comedy world right now.
Richard D James obviously - Aphex Twin - because I think he's a lunatic. All of these guys I've chosen just cause I wanna see how awkward they'd be! I really am drawn to awkwardness, I find it amusing. Even with myself, in any awkward situations I always think to myself that its gonna be an amazing story to tell someone one day! Again it's to do with being able to laugh at yourself.
Alejandro Jodorowsky, he did Holy Mountain and El Topo which are two of my favourite movies, and he's a lunatic too. The last one was Neil Degrasse Tyson who's a physicist and scientist, and he's kinda got this sassy little attitude... Actually, no, take that back! I'm going with the winner of Ru Paul's Drag Races here, Bianca Del Rio. I love her and I love Ru Paul's Drag Race.
https://www.facebook.com/billpatrick.ny
Words by @MiriamEJohnson
