Eddie Halliwell Interview

"I’ve got told off sometimes for jumping up on decks and stuff but you just think sod it!"

DJ Eddie Halliwell pic Despite having only just turned 26 Eddie Halliwell is now firmly established as one of the most exciting DJs in the world having just been voted 17th in the 2005 DJ Mag Top 100 Poll. Unbelievably passionate about music he infects the crowd with his energy, captivating them with his highly visual performances (his interaction with the crowd has got to be seen to be believed!) and jaw dropping turntable trickery… he really is a "true" DJ. But is he related to Geri Spice we probe? "Somewhere down the line aye, but not immediately…" he laughs

What makes this even more remarkable is the way Eddie burst onto the world stage just three years ago as the highest new entry in the DJ Mag Top 100 Poll. "I don’t know what’s happened sometimes, it’s worked in another way, I used to think you’d have to do something or make a big track, definitely things haven’t worked in that manner for me." Since then his rise has been unstoppable, a fact recognised at the start of 2004 when he was crowned Mixmag "DJ of the Year 2003".

The year has also seen a considerable rise in demand for Eddie internationally with recent tours of Asia "I did Beijing and Shang Hai, it was wicked" he beams, "it’s nine months since I last went and it was just medioca, this year the difference in the change of the scene is fantastic, it’s really bubbling up and seems to be kicking off, you can notice it when you’re playing to the crowd, and the sort of people that are getting in."… He also toured Australasia with Godskitchen during a six-gig tour of Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland and New Zealand and "all the parties were just absolutely rammed". Even the Americas have had the pleasure of his deck defiance on a monthly basis, "I’ve been concentrating a lot on America the past year or so, literally going out there once a month." and numerous visits to Canada, Russia, Dubai and Egypt.

In Ibiza he enjoyed his fourth season as resident at Judgement Sundays (Eden) and also completed his Cream Ibiza residency on Thursdays at Amnesia. Playing alongside Marco V and Adam Sheridan at the start of the season we witnessed Eddie losing it with the crowd slightly and jumping on the decks at one point! "I get a bit over excited" he chuckles. "It’s been wicked, for me four years ago when I first stepped on the island, I thought it was amazing then - you hear all different stories about Ibiza not being what it was ten years or even five years ago, to me my experience on the island that year was an amazing one, from that day all the gigs it’s just got better and better and better, if you see it on a graph it’s just kept rising… it’s not really had any dips or peaks it’s just gone on a steady rise. It’s just been wicked."

They say Ibiza starts with an E but I’m sure they weren’t talking about Eddie, does he ever bosh while working? "The energy from me comes from the love of the music and the interaction from the crowd, if I get the interaction from a crowd that’ll bring out more from me. If you’re not getting the feedback from the crowd, the interaction won’t come from me as much, but once you connect with a crowd... it can send me mad sometimes, as you’ve well witnessed with me jumping up on the decks and all sorts, the more I get back from the crowd the more it brings out in me, some people take from that whatever they will. If I’m loving what I’m doing that’ll bring it out of me. To love obviously, you have to get the feedback from the crowd. Once you’ve realised you’re giving people enjoyment for what your doing, it just brings it out of me more. I’ve got told off sometimes for jumping up on decks and stuff but you just think sod it!"

Possibly the pinnacle of his young and successful career was landing the Radio 1 Residency slots, having won this coveted position following his previous essential ‘Essential Mixes’ (including Miami WMC and Ibiza specials) with a series of outstanding guest mixes on Judge Jules’ & Pete Tong’s regular Weekend shows. "It’s quality to be a part of that, it’s a weekly show but you only have to do it every six weeks cause it’s rotated amongst everybody. It allows you to try something new that I never thought I’d ever do, it’s absolutely amazing, I dunno just strange, you never imagine you’ll do anything like that." He shrugs.

Having been bought up in the north west of England, it is where Eddie made his name and by 2002 held residencies at both Goodgreef (Mixmag Club of the Year 2003 & Runner-Up 2004) and Gatecrasher. Now he is a headliner at both clubs and also makes regular appearances at Slinky, Inside Out, Cream, Godskitchen, Garlands and Frantic to name but a few! Eddie has also performed at Escape into the Park, Tidy Events (Tidy Weekender & Tidy Magna) and Gatecrasher Summer Sound System 2002, where he headlined the second arena. "A gig that’s most firmly lodged in my mind has got to be the Leeds Love Parade, I’d hardly played out at all anywhere and I had the opportunity to play on a float at Leeds Love Parade. I couldn’t actually believe they’d (2 Club) got one of the floats and when they asked us to play - I was blown away by it!" Let’s face it, after this - there was no turning back.

To achieve all this Eddie has spent nearly a decade honing his skills on the decks. Having caught the DJ-ing bug in his teens he was too young for clubs so channelled his creative energies into a Music Technology course, and studying footage of DMC scratch-masters "I was into the hip-hop stuff, watching the DMC Mixing Championships, buying all the scratch tools. I used to love all sorts of elements of music, but I used to be heavily into the hip-hop side of things purely for the technical aspect of DJ-ing. I used to really focus in on that, cause I always like to fiddle with things and whip things out and do stuff (ooh er), as soon as I got decks, I was like ‘what can you do with these?’ I just got on the technical side of DJ-ing and just constantly kept practising, buying different mixes, at one stage I had 6/7 different scratch mixes, spending all my money on them cause they all had different features on them." His ability to adapt these to fit over other genres of music has earned him not only respect amongst fellow DJs but also admiration from stunned crowds. Eddie’s technical ability is such that when he is in front of the mixer he utilises it as a means to create energy and new sounds with rapid cut ups and warped effects.

And it’s not just the dance floor that loves this mind boggling trickery - Eddie is now working alongside leading audio manufacture Pioneer to help develop the next generation of DJ technology! "I’m working closely with them on the new scratch mixer 909, not too long ago I finished a six date tour where I was using two 909 mixers, 4 CDJs and one turntable… it was all put together as a Pioneer 909 Tour and we did dates over here, one at the Skol Beats Festival in Brazil, one in Holland, one in Ireland as well."

While the true "Eddie experience" can only be gained live, he has also mixed one disc of "Judgement Euphoria" with Jules and the Trophys plus two massive Mixmag cover mount CDs in his own name. Forging an exciting, new, tough sound combing tech-trance and hard dance elements. The first "BOSH!", was one of the most successful Mixmag CD’s to date and in 2003 clubbers demanded a follow-up so "Next Level BOSH!" was born. However, with this still failing to quench the public’s thirst, Ben and Barry (Goodgreef) and Si (Halliwell) came up with this idea, doing the first Bosh set live in a few select clubs, all ram jammed for the BOSH sound. "The new tour coming called Bosh Live, the way we’ve got the concept of that is featuring elements from the Bosh 1 & 2 CDs which is re-edits from me of the tracks or re-edits from other artists, future Bosh anthems and also artists like Marco Bailey, Nu Energy, Ronarto Cohen (DJs on the night) and also new artists as well in that style of music. It allows that same style of music and it go any way on the night, and it’s not really any programmed set like the first Bosh CD was."

Despite all this, he’s still incredibly humble and even more excited about the whole DJ thing "This is something I never dreamed, it was a hobby I never thought I’d ever get involved in let alone be able to make a career out of it, I’m doing something I absolutely love. It’s number one in my life, and it was number one before I ever had my first gig. It took over my life. To just keep travelling to new places around the world and DJ-ing at different places." Judging by his 2005 Top 100 DJ Mag position of #17, he’ll surely be clocking up the air-miles for years to come. One of the most passionate and energetic young DJs, Eddie Halliwell is currently leading the way with modern day DJ tools and showmanship that is second to none.