Ivan Smagghe

Emma Warren

Are you ready to start?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, yeah.

Emma Warren

I should actually just paraphrase a little conversation we just had.

Ivan Smagghe

Oh, here we go.

Emma Warren

Which was basically if you don’t want to clap at the end of his tunes, don’t clap.

Ivan Smagghe

No, don’t. Please. You don’t have to.

Emma Warren

You don’t have to.

Ivan Smagghe

No.

Emma Warren

If you disagree with anything he’s saying, feel free to disagree and basically, I think…

Ivan Smagghe

I’d rather you disagree when I say it than save it for the end. That’s what I meant.

Emma Warren

We have a license to be a little bit more interactive.

Ivan Smagghe

Rowdy.

Emma Warren

I was going to say rowdy. You have license to be a bit more rowdy, should you want to. If you just want to ask questions at the end, like before, that’s completely fine.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah.

Emma Warren

If something comes up while we’re talking and you want to ask them, go ahead. Very big welcome please, Ivan Smagghe.

Ivan Smagghe

Right. Now you can clap. Yeah.

Emma Warren

I wanted to start off by asking you about your label, the new one – Les Disques de la Mort.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, Les Disques de la Mort.

Emma Warren

LDDLM.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, which in English, it doesn’t really work. In French, it means “Death Records,” obviously, but it also means killer record. People always think I’m gloomy. I’m dark. It’s not entirely true. It is true in many ways but not totally true. It also means a killer record. That’s what it means really in French, in slang.

Emma Warren

I didn’t know that either. I just thought…

Ivan Smagghe

You’re not going to know everything, huh?

Emma Warren

Of course not. I would not suggest I do anywhere close. The label is quite different from the other label that you’ve been involved with.

Ivan Smagghe

Yup. Yup.

Emma Warren

How many releases through are you now? Three?

Ivan Smagghe

Four. Five is coming. Five, six. Six at the end of the month. It’s fairly recent.

Emma Warren

What would be the thing that would make something suitable for this label?

Ivan Smagghe

It’s a very good question. The answer is nothing. We kind of apply the rule of no rule. I mean, if you have a label, there’s two ways. Either you want to make one style. You want to put yourself in a box, unconsciously or consciously. I try not to put myself in a box, consciously. I may fail. I agree. People may recognize instantly what I want to do but we, because there’s two of us, we’re trying not to do the same things each release or not to stick with one style. I know it’s a bit cliche. The style of no style is now also a style. I don’t know.

Emma Warren

There’s no escape.

Ivan Smagghe

No. There’s no escape. You can try not to make what I would call – we might want to come back on that – “functional dance music,” which I’ve got a lot of respect for. It’s a different issue but that might not be what I want to do as a label.

Emma Warren

What has come out on the label then? Some quite interesting artists?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, I mean they’re not ... The first release which we’ll play in a minute was by two Italian kids called Margot, who’ve got a very interesting story. They used to be, and I like people with interesting stories. That’s also one thing. It’s not only people think it’s only about the music. It’s not really. I like those kids for their music, obviously. I also like them because they used to be commercial DJs in Rimini. I don’t know if any of you have been in Rimini. It’s like playing at Butlins, but in kind of an Italian way.

Emma Warren

A bit warmer.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, a bit warmer, a bit cooler, a bit flashier. They come from there and then they started getting fed up with that and they ended up with James Holden because they released on Border Community. Then James got too busy and they basically flogged them off to me. That’s how it happened.

Emma Warren

He passed them on?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah well you know, that’s how it happened. I’m telling the truth. It’s interesting to have people like the next release is by the singer of Paranoid London… just random people not necessarily famous and with a talent to be, some people would say weird. I wouldn’t call them weird, but interesting people. The music may be boring to some of you but the people are not. I’m pretty sure about that.

Emma Warren

Can we hear something about which you are talking?

Ivan Smagghe

Sure. Yeah that’s the ... I’m going to maybe have to skip through to get to the interesting bit because electronic music sometimes has got really boring intros…

(music: Margot – “Waldorf”)

Ivan Smagghe

I can tell you a little story about this. Does anybody know what language he’s singing? No? Me neither. I think they don’t. I think it’s sang in no language, which is why I actually signed this record. Yeah. I don’t know if it’s half-English, pidgin English, Italian English. No one knows. They won’t tell me. They’re very recluse guys. They fight with each other. There’s two of them. It’s like I don’t know it’s maybe the old schematics of rock & roll bands. They really hate each other. It’s quite funny to watch, actually.

Emma Warren

How do you tend to communicate with Margot?

Ivan Smagghe

I don’t. I don’t any more. Oh God, they’re so hard to talk with. That’s also part of the fun. You don’t really sign people because they’re easy to communicate with, you know? You sign people because you fall in love with that song. Actually, we found that song in a James Holden set. We caught it on YouTube. It took me about a year of hassling him because he couldn’t remember. Then it took me another year, in order to get through to them, because they don’t speak English and they don’t want to do this and they don’t want to do that. One of them is a swimmer. The other one’s a punk. It’s just like a nightmare, basically. It’s like that’s what you do if you’ve got a record label. Nightmare is your life, basically.

Emma Warren

How do they feel now, now they’ve been persuaded into your world, into your realm?

Ivan Smagghe

I think they’ve left now. I’ve got no clue where they are now. Of course not. That was our first release. Of those artists, I think there’s a few like that, that you can catch for a little moment. It’s like a glimpse into their world. James Holden had the same issue. It’s not actually an issue. That’s why it’s kind of nice that you catch them like that and then, off they go. I’ve got no clue. I know they’re doing things with Prins Thomas. I sometimes hear. I don’t think I’ll ever do anything with them again, but that’s not an issue. A record is a moment. That’s it.

Emma Warren

You caught the moment.

Ivan Smagghe

Well I caught this moment. I’m sure they’re going to have many. It’s like going to the dentist and prying a molar. Like to get this was hard work.

Emma Warren

You started, as you meant to go on.

Ivan Smagghe

No, no, no. Don’t get me wrong. No. Some other artists are really easy to work with. There’s no rules, you know. You may also, how shall I put that? That’s going to sound really wrong. You shouldn’t take note on that. I sometimes, you can also sometimes put out music that you don’t really like. Yeah…

Emma Warren

That’s an interesting thought. That’s an interesting thought.

Ivan Smagghe

Why not?

Emma Warren

That’s so interesting I forgot to raise my microphone. Why would you put out music that you don’t really like?

Ivan Smagghe

No, it’s not I don’t really like it. It might fit one of my little boxes. Some people may have one box. I’ve got about 20,000. I get lost in them. Maybe a record I’m going to like more than another one. Then my partner is going to go, “No it’s good.” I’m like, “No, it’s not.” “But some people would like it.” I’m going, “I don’t care. I don’t.” Then I debate in myself. Sometimes, yeah. Some records on the label I like more than others. I’m not going to tell you which ones. But, yeah, why not? I mean a good record, for me there’s always been that thing. There’s two types of music, good and bad. Sometimes you can like bad music or there’s good music you don’t like. As a label manager, you need also to have that weird shift where you go, “All right. This is not totally maybe 100% me or 100% ideally, but I think it’s good.” It’s a bit schizophrenic.

Emma Warren

Really, I imagine what you’re saying is that you can have this conversation about whether something is actually good or whether you like it, but the thing always has to be that you find it interesting.

Ivan Smagghe

Yes. Exactly. That’s exactly that. No and as I’m trying not to pick one genre or one tempo or one style, even though they may be interesting in a different way, in some records I’ll find the attitude interesting more than the production. Like maybe the next one, which will be the next release, I really like the attitude. I was mastering yesterday, and everything was out of phase. I was like, “We can’t do anything with that.” That was probably my favorite release from the beginning and I couldn’t do anything with it. We had to go from scratch. It doesn’t matter because I know the guy. I don’t know if any of you have seen Paranoid London live. It’s the singer. They’re punks. That’s what they are. You deal with it. Not very important. Technicalities. Who cares? You have to care. It’s the other guy who cares, not me.

Emma Warren

You bring in the punk side?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah. I mean yeah. We can actually yeah, it’s called “Sworn Virgin.” A sworn virgin is a very interesting concept. It would take me hours to explain it. You Google it when I’ve finished. This is by the singer of Paranoid London called Mutado Pintado. It will be out by the end of the month.

(music: Mutado Pintado – “Sworn Virgins”)

Ivan Smagghe

As I listen to it, I actually think it’s really weird. I suppose that’s a good thing, right? I can surprise myself.

Emma Warren

It’s a very good thing.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, I can surprise myself, “Why am I putting them out?” It’s got easier remixes, let’s put it that way. That’s also something you do, that we try and do with this label… I mean every release is different but each release, we try to have different sounding things. For instance, this one we’ll have an Acid Arab remix and Fabrizio Mammarella remix. We try, with each release, to have, inside the 12”, different worlds. The idea of having four tracks that sound the same doesn’t appeal to me. Once again, when I say it doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t think it’s bad. It’s just not what I’m into.

Emma Warren

I think one of the things that you do is you expand the edges of where the edges are and make sure that the things that are happening on the margins are as interesting and as varied as possible.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah well yeah. There’s a lot in that question. I’m not sure it even was a question.

Emma Warren

It was more of an observation than a question.

Ivan Smagghe

Yes. Well, the margins. It’s quite hard to describe. Am I really in the margins? I’m not sure where are the margins now. Let’s put it that way. I try not to go for, as I said before, the functional aspect of dance music, because I think, scrap everything you want – dance music is functional music. Its function is to make people dance. End of the story. Then you can stretch that. You can stretch that. Some people are going to dance on weirder things. Some people won’t. Some people, but not only me. People like Andrew or people like Erol.

Emma Warren

You’re referring to Andrew Weatherall?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah. Exactly.

Emma Warren

Erol Alkan?

Ivan Smagghe

We thread in those waters. It’s like the murky waters we call them. It’s like in between. You don’t know. Is it really good? Is it bad? There’s also something I’m very fascinated with, personally – those records, are you sure is it bad or is it really good, or is it really bad borderline records, borderline genres, things that doesn’t fit anywhere… I think for me, these are the interesting records or songs or attitudes.

Emma Warren

Where does the reissues aspect of the label fit into that aesthetic?

Ivan Smagghe

Right. This one, the one we put out, it had just gone from friendship because we did put out a 12” reissue of Israeli music. Right. Let’s be a bit controversial there. Israeli music, and especially Israeli coldwave, is probably the last country or genre-plus-country that hasn’t been dug out by English record diggers. I know that for a fact. I don’t know why. I’m not going to get into the… There is a massive Israeli coldwave of culture. I go there quite a lot with a Red Axes guys and they were playing me stuff. I was like, “Wow this is really good” because all the Belgian stuff, all the Italian stuff, all the French stuff, there’s millions of CDs. There’s a lot of things. There, there’s a gap. Why? I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. I don’t really know. I don’t really know. I think there’s fantastic music. We’ve done a 12”. We’re doing a second 12” and we’ll do a CD by the end of the year.

Emma Warren

What is the music that you’ve discovered, that you’ve dug?

Ivan Smagghe

Actually, I didn’t. They did. They were just feeding me stuff. I was like, “Hang on a minute.” I knew a couple of the tracks, like the Chromosom track that we might listen. They were just like, “Have a listen to that. This is really, really good.” No one has heard it. No one’s heard it. It still amazes me today that whole scene, apart from Minimal Compact, and a couple of other bands who went on European tours, there’s a whole scene that is strictly Israeli and no one there. Those records, like the Tova Gertner that is on the 12 was like a top ten hit in Israel. It’s not something that I went in a car boot sale and found a white label. No, no, no, no, no. They’re famous records, famous bands, just a completely… cool.

Emma Warren

There’s two tracks have already come out.

Ivan Smagghe

Three. There’s three and then there will be three more in the summer and then we’re probably going to do a CD at the end. It’s just also very complicated because we’re doing the re-issues legally. Some people are cool. I actually met Tova Gertner. She was really cool about it. Some people they don’t. I don’t want to go down the bootleg way. That’s definitely not the way. We can have that conversation. It’s not very interesting. Yeah, that’s very, once again, very, very famous Israeli band. If you go to Israel and you talk to someone who knows about music, well I think they know about Chromosome…

(music: Chromosome – “Gazolina (Red Axes Edit)”)

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah. I think you get the gist of it.

Emma Warren

I wonder what your thoughts are then on reissues generally? If people are running labels and they’re thinking about reissuing records, what are the kind of things that should make you want to reissue something? What makes a piece of music worthy of being reissued?

Ivan Smagghe

That it’s not been reissued before is point one. We’re going to put out, I think after the summer, a mixed CD by myself and Nathan Gregory Wilkins, who I did a radio show with. That’s going to be a double mixed CD with no track listing. It will be like the Cycle Magic guys did. That’s another way you can go, the total secrecy.

Emma Warren

This is already a show you do on NTS?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah.

Emma Warren

Is it every other week?

Ivan Smagghe

It’s every other week, Tuesday, 6 PM. Yeah. You can also go that way. I mean to be really honest, it depends on what you want to reissue. I mean I work with a distributor called Above Board, who are the main provider of ’90s house at the moment. They have to do things legally but they’re very clever in doing so. All the reissues actually look like the originals. I don’t know if anybody of you have bought a Ron Trent and Chez Damier [inaudible]. It’s not the real thing. It’s a reissue that is made to look like the original. You can go that way. The thing is, it depends what also you’re going to reissue. I’ve got a fairly good chance that the things that me and Nathan are going to do, put on that CD, we won’t get into trouble with because they won’t be big. It’s a mixed CD. It’s only 1,000 copies. Don’t think too much. I mean I did two CDs for Collette of re-edits of rare stuff or even stuff from now. I just gave the guys a call, the guys I knew. They were more than happy to give me the tracks for nothing because I mean two days. There’s so little money involved in that anyway. There’s small labels like People Like Us… you don’t have to worry too much. I would first think about the idea and the content, then worry about the legalities. It’s not a massive issue.

Emma Warren

In an era of instant information and instant access to knowing everything, what’s the appeal of the secrecy of a no track listing?

Ivan Smagghe

A pose, I suppose.

Emma Warren

Oppose?

Ivan Smagghe

No, posing. Yeah, posing. I’m joking. No, it’s just well it’s actually to say mainly that even in an era of instant information, there’s still a lot that you don’t know. There’s still a lot I don’t know. There’s still a lot that any digger I know, and I know quite a few, and I know quite a few hard cases, that they don’t know. I mean the extent of records you can find that people don’t know about is… I’m not sure it’s limitless. I mean I know some guys who know just about everything but, once in a while, you can…

I know that on this CD there will be a couple of tracks that no one knows or me and Nathan knows or the guy who sold it. There’s a lot of records, a lot, a lot, a lot, and a lot of records that are not on YouTube, a lot of records that are not even on Discogs. That goes back from another era of the way you would buy records. It’s an era of going to dingy warehouses in Canada and talking with really, really boring people over the phone, haggling from £100 to 80 quid for a record.

Also, because that’s very important now, if you like old records, like my favorite old records I bought for nothing. Do not think, do not think that the records are worth a lot of money necessarily, and the good ones and the weird ones. That is a lie. That is a lie. I’ve gone on Discogs and I see an MK record or a Kerri Chandler record going for a £100. That’s an absolute… sorry. You find much more interesting records going for one dollar than those. There’s a lot. I suppose it’s kind of fashion and things like that.

You just got to dig. Some people hate it. Some people like it. It’s just easier now because you don’t get ... When I was younger, you used to have what you called digger fingers from doing that. You do that for three hours and you’ve got… It’s dead gone now.

Emma Warren

Where are your favorite places now to find records?

Ivan Smagghe

Networks. That’s really boring though. It’s just a network of people, of friends, that would point you towards this. You get a phone call or you get an email, “Oh I found that. Do you want it? Do you want to swap?” It’s really geeky stuff. Then there’s actually the people who sell you the record for quite a lot of money, because I mean I’m not going to lie… I also buy records for, if I’m going to buy a record for £80 from some people, I know they’ve bought it for £4 or £2 because some people, that’s their job. That’s what they do. They get up at 5 AM. The go to car boot sales. I haven’t got time to do that, sadly, any more. What you pay is for them to get up early. That’s fair enough, if the record’s good. That’s fine. I’m happy to stay in bed and pay more money for the record. If the record is good, beware, beware – just don’t go at their place because what they’ll do, you’ll have a nice cup of tea. They’ve got really good hi-fi sound system. I got conned. I got conned many, many times. Yeah, I’ll listen to that. They know perfectly which bit to play. Yeah, the best places is a good record shop, normally a good secondhand record shop is where you can have one deck, even if it’s a shitty deck and you can listen to yourself, not have the guy playing it to you because that, they know all the tricks. I worked ten years in a record shop. I know exactly what you need to play in order for the guy to buy it.

Emma Warren

You were a record shop guy for a long time.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, I hated that actually, but anyway.

Emma Warren

You hated it?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, oh God, yeah.

Emma Warren

I just wondered whether a record shop guy can always tell another record shop guy? Is it like you can always tell someone who’s done their time behind the counter?

Ivan Smagghe

No. Just like that? No. No, you can, you can if you start talking with them, because it’s the same. It’s always the same bad stories. It’s always the same, “How did you deal with the general public in the ’90s on a comedown Tuesday?” It’s, “Why do you want to hear this? This is shit. I want to play you this. Why don’t you want to buy that? Why do you want this one?” I suppose I would actually not recommend it for music lovers. End of the story.

It’s an okay way, if you’re a student and you need to make money, but it’s actually not because when I actually did that, because I didn’t have any money and I was a student and I was playing records. What I ended up doing is actually giving all my wages back to the shop. It’s not a solution. If you want to make money, just do another job, buy the records, but don’t work in a record shop. Actually, it’s not fun. It’s not really fun. Sorry.

Emma Warren

What about DJing then? Where does that sit on the fun spectrum?

Ivan Smagghe

That’s not fun either. DJing, no. DJing I think people would know by now that it’s not always fun. It’s not always glamorous and that it’s not always great. Let’s face it, I don’t know of any other job that involves music that pays that well, even in my level, which is not the hyper high level, but two days a week. Let’s put that aside. I’m not going to complain. It is a great job. It is a great job.

After that, sometimes it’s great fun on top of being a good wage. Sometimes it’s not. That’s part of the game. It actually took me, there was a moment… it also depends on the music that’s around. You go through phases. Sometimes you don’t like the music that you can buy that is around. You’ve got to ride it. If that’s really what you want to do, you’ve got to ride it. It’s not always great. No. Most of the time, it’s better than working in a bank.

There’s exciting places. It also depends, I mean I’m talking after 25 years. I’m not a good example. Twenty-five years of doing that. Twenty-five? Twenty-three. I’m making myself older. It’s very, very exciting in the beginning. If you want to go for it, go for it. I’ve got I think it’s also very different now from when I started. I mean the word career was evoked.

When I started, the word career, when I said that to my dad, like that’s going to be my career, basically he didn’t speak to me for ten years. It’s a different thing now. Now, there’s a lot of money. You can go very, very fast. The only advice I would give is… there’s only one I ever give, it’s that if you really want to do that, just stick to your guns because if you don’t, you might make a lot of money very quickly and then you might fade away. It depends. That is maybe what you want to do.

I’m not going to give names, but there’s a very good story about people who the majority of people think that’s always what they wanted to do. They always wanted to do that. Then they made money. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They’ve always wanted to make the money and that was their way. Yeah. It’s not an easy job. It’s not an easy job. It’s a cool job. I like it. I still like it now.

Emma Warren

Can you tell us about a couple of things you’ve done recently, a couple of interesting gigs? A couple of things that come to my mind, but tell me maybe a couple of things that you’ve done or shall I ask you about the ones that I’ve got in my mind?

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, please. That would be quicker.

Emma Warren

It might be quicker.

Ivan Smagghe

Otherwise, I’m going to have to think quite hard.

Emma Warren

The two things I was thinking about was you played at the last night of a very famous Amsterdam club called Trouw.

Ivan Smagghe

Oh, yeah, right.

Emma Warren

Then not so long after that, you played a Bugged Out set, which was a thing Bugged Out do where they ask people to bring their five favorite records.

Ivan Smagghe

Right. Yes.

Emma Warren

Kind of high fidelity thing you might do at your friend’s house versus a classic, dirty Amsterdam warehouse.

Ivan Smagghe

Right. Trouw, that’s a very good example of that actually. That’s what I will always say. It doesn’t really depend on you. It doesn’t really depend on the mood. It doesn’t depend on the city. When I hear Berlin is great, I’m sorry, that’s rubbish. Berlin is not great. There’s great clubs in Berlin. There’s great clubs anywhere. It’s all about the club where you play. Trouw is a very good example. I actually didn’t play the last one. We all did our last one, because they had four months of ending.

Emma Warren

That’s a long good bye.

Ivan Smagghe

It was a long good bye for them because it was becoming everybody’s favorite club. Yeah, it’s all about the club, basically. There are clubs where you kind of know it’s going to be good. Robert Johnson played for years, was for me the best club in the world. People beg to differ. I don’t like Panorama Bar, well that’s my idea. It’s all about the club, not the city, not the thing. With the Bugged Out thing, that was like a wedding. That was pretty weird, that thing.

Emma Warren

So, paint the picture. I’m sure I wasn’t there. Maybe you guys were there because you’re here in Bristol but paint the picture. What was happening?

Ivan Smagghe

You know where a wedding where there’s everything clashes and mixes. Basically, there’s like 40 DJ’s who had to pick out five records… five of their favorite records. That was like that for five hours, which was kind of an interesting car crash, I thought. Yeah, no, it was actually the best moment of that is that Jackmaster playing happy hardcore, which I thought was at least quite ballsy, because after a while, you got literally fed up with things being…Even me, I thought, “That was a bit boring.” No, but it was an interesting thing. I actually thought before getting there that it was going to be way worse. The place was great. It was actually, I don’t know, it was a bit of a reunion you know. It was like an old people’s home. It’s there 25 years.

Emma Warren

I’m not sure if you heard that. He just said it was like an old people’s home. You did kind of mumble that.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah well…

Emma Warren

That’s funny.

Ivan Smagghe

I just don’t want… I’m going to get quoted on that. They know. That was the whole point. It was there 25 years. Everybody who played there had to pick out five records. I thought it was quite fun, interesting, yeah.

Emma Warren

I guess fairly soon we’ll put it out to questions, to you guys. Again, feel free to ask whatever comes to mine.

Ivan Smagghe

Yeah, anything.

Emma Warren

Anything. I wondered maybe if there’s something else that we could hear, whether it’s a remix you’ve done recently or something else that’s going to be coming out or something else that we can hear of you?

Ivan Smagghe

I mean there’s an It’s A Fine Line album which is a project I’ve got with Tim Paris that I’ve been working on now for far too many years. We did loads of things, he and I, but I did other things. It was an ongoing affair. We’ve got a studio together. The album is ready. Sadly, you can’t hear it because we don’t want to leak it now. I’ll play something we did a couple of years back. It was just to say that don’t think ever that it’s quick. I mean it can be. Sometimes it is. You can make a great record in one day.

Sometimes you can make a record I don’t even know if it’s great and it’s going to take you 10 years. It doesn’t really matter. It also doesn’t really matter what the record sounds like, as long as you like it. I mean ultimately it comes down to this: Do you like it? Are you trying to please people? I mean if you do that, you might as well work in advertising. That’s a different job. You need to like your records. They might be a bit shit. They might be a bit weird. You might not even be sure other people will like it. I would say that if you like, it and I’m really the worst critic. That’s quite often the case with artists, they’re the worst. Most of the time, I don’t even play my own records. We’re very hard on ourselves, at least I am, and I know quite a few others that are.

The most important thing, if you like it, it’s good. The rest, it doesn’t really count. I think in all sincerity, if you like it and if it goes to a record, I think people will hear it. Maybe I’m a bit optimistic on that. The same with DJing. You know? If you’re a bit sincere, it helps.

Emma Warren

What are we going to hear?

Ivan Smagghe

There’s a track that was, it was released on Kompakt. It’s kind of representative of where we’re at or where we were at, at that point, which is how to make a dance record that is not a dance record or the other way around. I don’t know how to explain that. I don’t know. You tell me.

Emma Warren

Dance not dance I think is the phrase.

(music: It’s A Fine Line – “Eins Fine Grind”)

Ivan Smagghe

This might sound really bizarre as a record but actually it was like the one we sold the most. It got catwalk. You never know. You never know. Just stick to what you want to do…

Emma Warren

You’re saying it’s a fine line album that will be coming out towards the end…

Ivan Smagghe

September.

Emma Warren

In September is kind of in the realm, not like this but in the realm of the same space?

Ivan Smagghe

It’s in the realm of no realm. I don’t even know anymore. It’s been too long now. It’s not a straight house record. At the same time, I’ve never made a straight house record. Well, I did one in ’96…

Emma Warren

Actually, that would be the most shocking thing you could possibly do.

Ivan Smagghe

I actually did one in ’96, which is that’s quite a funny story that. It was a big hit at DC 10 two years ago. I did that in ’96, which actually kind of made me really sad.

Emma Warren

What was this record and why did it make you sad?

Ivan Smagghe

I’m not telling you that. No, it’s just really bizarre. It was actually the first record I ever made. It was only for one year. It was not in a big hit but it was played on a regular basis and people would sit down on DC 10 on that really bad house record I made in ’96. See, there you go.

Emma Warren

I see you’re covering even the most straightforward on a strange basis.

Ivan Smagghe

As long as you didn’t try, that’s all right.

Emma Warren

Do we have any questions? Is there anything you would like to learn? Where’s the spare microphone? It’s coming up the stairs. So, we’ve got a question at the back.

Audience member

Hi. Apart from Andrew and Erol, who you mentioned, who is your favorite DJ?

Ivan Smagghe

Oh God. Am I going to have to give names? My favorite DJ. Dead or alive?

Audience member

Either.

Ivan Smagghe

Either. Oh. Well I’ll just keep on the dead because there’s too many. I’d say if you want a good quality for money, I’ll go for the not famous one. I think probably my favorite DJ that people wouldn’t think of is Mark Marc Piñol who used to be the resident in Nitsa in Barcelona, who works with John Talabot. It’s a bit like a horse race, a 20 to 1 kind of guy. Really, really good though. You can get him for quite cheap at the moment, but I don’t think it will last.

Emma Warren

Your very own racing tip, there.

Ivan Smagghe

There you go.

Emma Warren

Thrown in for free.

Ivan Smagghe

There’s too many. Also, as I always say, it’s a very hard question to answer that because there’s different DJ’s for different times, moods, eras of my life as well. I mean the guys from the Boccacio when I used to go out there when I was really young, they were incredible for me at the time. I try to listen to tapes now and it’s fairly horrible. There you go. Don’t idolize this or that. Also, there’s always a bad day and a good day for DJs. Funnily enough, it’s not always, it doesn’t always relate. Sometimes people say, “Wow I loved your set.” I think, “I actually hated it.” Sometimes it’s the other way around. Don’t idolize. I mean there’s a lot of good DJs around. A lot, a lot. More and more actually. I’m not part of the pessimist camp. I think there’s a lot, a lot of good DJs, and a lot of good music around.

Emma Warren

You just got to find it I guess.

Ivan Smagghe

Exactly.

Emma Warren

Who else has a question?

audience member

Hi. I just wondered if you had a word for Andrew Weatherall who I’ve always kind of been…

Ivan Smagghe

Again!?

audience member

Yeah, yeah, again. It’s quite a treat for you but between your relationship, I’ve always seen you guys or him as almost like a kindred spirit.

Ivan Smagghe

Yup.

audience member

As far as you’re concerned.

Ivan Smagghe

Yup.

audience member

I just wondered how you guys met and the genesis of your relationship really because I have no idea.

Ivan Smagghe

That’s actually a very good question because it’s not often actually that I talk about it. It’s, weirdly, it’s probably because of the, because of me moving to London. It became a known fact. I actually met Andrew fairly recently, probably about 10 years ago. I don’t come from dance music. In France, it’s a bit different than here. In France, if you’re into music or underground music, and especially dance music, 90% of the people from my age that came from black music, soul, funk, disco, hip-hop, I came from indie. I’m a coldwave guy basically.

Andrew was important in the late ’80s and early ’90s because he bridged the gap for me. I didn’t know him. I mean I remember seeing him. He won’t like it if I say that but the first time I actually met him, you all remember that he had long, blond curly hair and white vest and leather black trousers. There we go. We only met formally and he only became a friend fairly recently. Yeah.

He’s a very important guy for me, to make me understand something that I had grasped but not formulated – that indie, rock and dance and things, it didn’t matter, because in France it does matter. You’re either into rock or you’re into funk and soul. In England, it didn’t. I mean he’s not the only one. Happy Mondays or even Stone Roses or things like that, things that may sound a bit nasty, were really, really important at the time.

Emma Warren

Thank you. We’ve got time for another couple of questions, if anyone has anything to ask, or are you just scared?

Ivan Smagghe

No. They shouldn’t be scared.

Emma Warren

Don’t be scared. If there’s nothing else anyone wants to ask, obviously you can come and ask afterwards.

Ivan Smagghe

Privately. Yeah, private questions. Yeah, sure.

Emma Warren

Come and have a chat. In which case, we should just say a very big thank you…

Ivan Smagghe

No worries. Pleasure. Thank you.