Jo Mills Interview

Jo Mills Interview image

We manage to get hold of ex-Circo Loco diva / original record-shop-rookie Miss Jo Mills driving between gigs in Bournemouth and Cardiff whilst co-navigating her partner in crime, and in love - husband to be - Charlie Chester. "L’America’s been going quite a long time, it’s really good" she beams about the welsh club night from the slighty fuzzy mobile connection.

Jo Mills is a favourite on both the UK and international club scene, where she whips up dance floors from Paris to Puerto Rico. Her reputation as one of the nicest lasses in the business is not only down to her talent and ‘no-nonsense’ attitude, but also her ability to get right on down and muck in with the rest of us on the dance floor!

Jo's love affair with music began well over 10 years ago when she worked at Flying Records in London’s trendy Soho alongside X-Press 2's Ashley Beadle and Rocky, and Disco Brother Mark Wilkinson. Jo got the DJing bug and Mark was only too happy to play mentor. "Initially I just wanted to learn how to mix, I never thought it would lead to djing" says Jo. "I was always into my music, if I followed my childhood dreams I would have been a female jockey, I don’t know if I’d of got in to that in my twenties - you never know!"

Fast-forward to the present time and Jo Mills is one of the busiest DJ’s on the worldwide club circuit. Jo Mills can be found playing to crowds as far as Argentina, Moscow, Singapore, Italy, Ibiza, South Africa, Germany, Australia, America, and China to name only a few. Jo has firmly established herself as one of the top successful female DJs in he world. "I always enjoy playing in Italy.. Cologne is brilliant especially cause I get to go record shopping as well, really good city, it’s got a lot of culture to it, brilliant restaurants, brilliant clothes shopping, brilliant music (home of the Get Physical gang) and my favourite record shop (Compact Records), Ibiza of course (can’t beat Ibiza), Singapore’s great to play in, oh and Sydney, there’s loads I love everywhere."

It’s plain to see how Jo has gained her reputation and respect throughout the industry. Her trademark sound of underground quality house music has gained recognition from both music fans and DJs alike. Her credible fan club includes Radio One’s Pete Tong, who bestowed her the honour of an Essential Mix on Radio One whilst Danny Tenaglia personally invited Jo to guest at his night ‘Be Yourself’ at New York's Vinyl Club.

In Ibiza this summer, Jo has guest at Azuli at El Divino, Pure Pacha at Pacha, and Cream at Amnesia, all of which she has been invited back to next year. Did the death of a clubber at the DC10 opening reflect current drug trends on the island I asked; "One person died at the opening, he was an old guy, in his seventies… an old hippy of the island."

Jo also played at We Love Sundays at Space on the new glass enclosed terrace as well as in the Red Box for Dave Beer’s Back to Basics; "been playing in Ibiza, I had a few weekends there which was good, rounded off the season, played at Space a couple of times on the new terrace - phenomenal sound system, really classy, all the faces and the Ibiza posse were there - I played there again the week after in the Red box, for the closing party with Dave Beer’s Back2Basics and it was also a joint Attica party (the club we’re working with Singapore)... Dave runs his night there bi-weekly and so we did it with him, he came and played for us at Attica and he really loved it and so it just fell in time that we said 'can we do it together cause the guys from Attica was over from Singapore' for a little launch?" she explains. Which leads us onto some exiting news...

Ibiza wouldn’t have been complete without Jo Mills playing at the legendary Circo Loco. Each summer Jo has wooed the hedonistic party crowd of Circo Loco (aka DC10), giving clubbers the ultimate Ibiza experience. Circo Loco is Ibiza's most talked about underground party. Jo and her partner, (and Circo Loco promoter) Charlie Chester (yes the very one!), worked their magic to make Circo Loco one of the most successful nights on the island, bringing DJs, workers and other like minded party enthusiasts together each Monday morning to dance underneath the airplanes coming into land. However, after many successful years at DC10 where Jo and Charlie have achieved all that is humanly possible, they have shocked all involved by fleeing to their next exciting venture.

"We’ve been there five years, through the various ways we were being treated and financial reasons we decided to move on".. Welcome, Attica - Singapore’s newest and most stylish venue and where better to be than in the hands of Charlie Chester and club resident Jo Mills. "He’s promoting Attica and fronting the club, he’s got lots of DJs coming up, it’s been going really really well. Future guests to include Lee Cabrera, 'We Love Attica' with Paul Woolford, Karl Kennedy (NYC), Kings Of New York party" confirming it's all about to 'go off' in Singapore.

"Singapore is an exciting vibrant city and Attica fits the bill for me. The venue is sleek and stylish with edgy design and a great sound system that’s good to play on, and the top of it all - a crowd that appreciate good music"... But will the new sleek and shagadelic venue make her change her beloved style of deepness? "It will affect the way I play for instance if I play in Bournemouth (where I’ve just been), Bournemouth is not gonna be the most massive underground scene, most clubs you can’t go too electronic or too over peoples head, it’s all house music and as long as it’s got strong bass lines and it’s put together well, good melodies it’s gonna make people dance. I can’t start being too experimental..." she pauses "then again, what I’m going to be doing is I’ll be resident on the Friday, but I’m also gonna do some Thursday nights where I play downstairs. The club is on two levels, and four areas to it, so when you walk in to the first club area it’s a bar and a dancefloor behind (usually where they play the R’n’B stuff), probably do on a Thursday my deeper house stuff and really nice tracky stuff I pick up along the way, more experimental really. I can play nice background music and also something a bit more different without the pressure of scaring them."

Before Jo heads off to Asia to escape the bitter English winter she can be found spinning at various London hot spots - "The nice thing is I’ve got a lot of gigs in London actually, it’s nice to have these gigs in England before I set off back to Asia. I’m doing Birmingham on the Friday, Rebellion (a new night) at HQ, the Key on Saturday in London, Electric Sex (16th) also London, Ministry the weekend after, I’ve got Neighbourhood a party called Somewhere (alongside Argie on Poker Flat Records), I’m then playing at the Mansion House in Glasgow, then I’m playing one of my favourite’s which is Vertigo at The Cross in London. Then I’ve got a big party, I’m not sure what it’s called but it’s in Napoli, one of the biggest promoters there a big Halloween party on the 31st, nice big bunch of gigs there ready before I shoot off." And what of the festive and New Year's Eve season I hear you beg? "Christmas eve we’ve got a party on with Danny Rampling, with myself at Attica", one of his last ever DJ sets in Singapore and Asia I imagine. "New Year’s Eve I will be in Thailand at Ko Sumui, playing at Gecko, I did it last year and it was fantastic, it was great fun. I always find it’s a real anti-climax in England, all your friends are spread everywhere - but a lot of people come over to Thailand for New Year, there’s nothing like it on the beach and of course he’s gonna be with me" ahh how sweet. Check out www.geckosamui.com for more on that NYE party.

What about that deck and chain, tying the knot business then have the dates been set? "We’re gonna get married in May (06), we keep saying it but we are gonna do it. We’ve found the venue now in Ibiza. We’ve been saying it for years, we put it off cause we were so busy, we didn’t want it to be like organising a club event, it started off large scale and then it just scared the life out of me and I knew it would be stressful so we’ve gone small now, small and easy." Just the 2000 capacity venue then Jo?

Jo's work schedule doesn't just stop at the ones and two's, Jo is a dab hand in the studio having previously released material under the moniker of Pyroclastic Soul, Ginger Groove, and with Steve Butler to form remix outfit Hill Sixty. Jo has previously mixed and compiled Circo Loco’s summer compilation with DJ Cirillo. Jo’s rubbed turntables with Steve Mac on ‘House Arrest’ - a pumping jacking tribal number, and had the pleasure of working on Azuli Records and Junior (Boys Own) Records.

Along with studio partner Matt Schwartz, 4tune 500 is one of Jo’s most successful production outfits. Their first track ‘Dancing in the Dark’ was signed to over 30 compilations and sold 15,000.00 copies worldwide. Jo and Matt had the privilege of performing this live on the Radio 1 stage in Ibiza. The follow up to this titled ‘Strung Out’ is already floating around as a one sided piece of vinyl and has caused much a stir amongst the likes of Pete Tong, Tiga, Trevor Jackson and Seb Fontaine that a full release with mixes from Jon Carter is due for release any time now... "I have a 4tune 500 track called ‘Strung Out’ coming out at the moment, just been bubbling along all this year, we’ve got a Jon Cater mix done as well so it’s all ready to go. I haven’t got anything in place at the minute but I will be working on stuff while I’m away." keeping a modest outlook on things...

Leaving behind such a legacy on the island of Ibiza was never going to be a permanent break "Look out for us with our own nights we will have in Ibiza next year - We’re gonna call it Xola, can’t say where or when yet." Jo exclusively reveals "we haven’t told anyone yet".

Our thanks to Jo and Charlie and best of luck to them with their many new exciting projects, not to mention a hedonistic wedding all coming up on the horizon, one that stretches from London to Singapore via Ibiza - what a lovely view they must have from there!

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