interview: javi p3z.
"I personally feel that a DJ needs at least three hours to get his message across". Javi P3z is rushing around the office at Novophonic as he tries to tie all the last details up. The fact that they have to contract the groups in Summer doesn’t help as most of the artists are on tour.
That’s true, but Summer is chock-a-block with festivals. And electronic music is really good for Autumn, añthough not too many people think that way. People automatically label eletronica as dance music and that’s not exactly the truth. I mean, when people first started playing this type of stuff, it wasn’t dance music at all, and it wasn’t until we got to the 80s. Of course you have electronica you can dance to but there’s no need to mix the two different concepts here. There are many years of research and culture behind electronica.
Did you have too many artists on the line-up last year?
Perhaps. Having too many people on the bill is not good because people can’t go along and take their time to watch the musicians. A couple of the concerts last year coincided time-wise and you had loads of different styles in one small space. I personally feel that a DJ needs at least three hours to get his message across.
How do you decide on the line-up?
We basically take a look at what have been the most important releases of the year, and what the public’s response has been. When we get down to work, we’ve cast our lines everywhere this year: DJ Shadow is an example of this, everybody is on about him because of his brilliant new release. The problem is that when an artist starts selling by the truckload, it’s almost impossible to get in touch with him. There are a couple of acts we aren’t bringing because we’ve had no way of contacting them.
Is Elektronikaldia only for those in the know?
No, not at all. There’s no way you can do that. Most of the groups we bring are either quite or very unknown. The festival is for the curious type, for music lovers. The funny thing is that those who lump electronica in with dance music don’t find that much dance music when they come along. Other times, the visitor comes across new forms of musical expression in Elektronikaldia that they’d never seen before and they go then and do their own research, they start buying records and so on.
What was it like for Elektronikaldia to take the step to a venue like Kursaal?
That was a huge step for us. That’s where going: we want the festival to spread into the heart of the city. Holding everything in Egia was a bit of a drawback insofar as this type of festival has to be where things are happening, you know, movement. It also gave us the chance to do things during the day. Night doesn’t come before day in Elektronikaldia.
Jazzaldia is starting to become more interested in the world of electronica, what do you think of that?
It was had to happen. We’ve gone to the Jazzaldia organisation with quite a few proposals over the last few years but nothing has ever come of them. It seems that that could soon change.
Jazzaldia had Hip Hop on the bill a couple of years back...
Yeah, on and off to be more precise. There are two types of Hip Hop: one that’s more developed musically and another more linear type that is more for a clichéd singer to spout on about how he’s being beat up on. That can get boring to the fan, and probably even more so to a fan of Jazz. We’re still way behind as far as Hip Hop is concerned, although there are some exceptions... it shouldn’t be like that, there should be some really good stuff coming out of the Basque Country.
Because of the language?
Yes, the sound of Basque is really appropriate for music. It’s as flexible as English. As well as that, it’s also got the tradition of sung verse, that’s bound to help. To come up with words that exist nowhere else and fit them in with the metric and the music... that’s amazing and it’s ours.
That’s true, but Summer is chock-a-block with festivals. And electronic music is really good for Autumn, añthough not too many people think that way. People automatically label eletronica as dance music and that’s not exactly the truth. I mean, when people first started playing this type of stuff, it wasn’t dance music at all, and it wasn’t until we got to the 80s. Of course you have electronica you can dance to but there’s no need to mix the two different concepts here. There are many years of research and culture behind electronica.
Did you have too many artists on the line-up last year?
Perhaps. Having too many people on the bill is not good because people can’t go along and take their time to watch the musicians. A couple of the concerts last year coincided time-wise and you had loads of different styles in one small space. I personally feel that a DJ needs at least three hours to get his message across.
How do you decide on the line-up?
We basically take a look at what have been the most important releases of the year, and what the public’s response has been. When we get down to work, we’ve cast our lines everywhere this year: DJ Shadow is an example of this, everybody is on about him because of his brilliant new release. The problem is that when an artist starts selling by the truckload, it’s almost impossible to get in touch with him. There are a couple of acts we aren’t bringing because we’ve had no way of contacting them.
Is Elektronikaldia only for those in the know?
No, not at all. There’s no way you can do that. Most of the groups we bring are either quite or very unknown. The festival is for the curious type, for music lovers. The funny thing is that those who lump electronica in with dance music don’t find that much dance music when they come along. Other times, the visitor comes across new forms of musical expression in Elektronikaldia that they’d never seen before and they go then and do their own research, they start buying records and so on.
What was it like for Elektronikaldia to take the step to a venue like Kursaal?
That was a huge step for us. That’s where going: we want the festival to spread into the heart of the city. Holding everything in Egia was a bit of a drawback insofar as this type of festival has to be where things are happening, you know, movement. It also gave us the chance to do things during the day. Night doesn’t come before day in Elektronikaldia.
Jazzaldia is starting to become more interested in the world of electronica, what do you think of that?
It was had to happen. We’ve gone to the Jazzaldia organisation with quite a few proposals over the last few years but nothing has ever come of them. It seems that that could soon change.
Jazzaldia had Hip Hop on the bill a couple of years back...
Yeah, on and off to be more precise. There are two types of Hip Hop: one that’s more developed musically and another more linear type that is more for a clichéd singer to spout on about how he’s being beat up on. That can get boring to the fan, and probably even more so to a fan of Jazz. We’re still way behind as far as Hip Hop is concerned, although there are some exceptions... it shouldn’t be like that, there should be some really good stuff coming out of the Basque Country.
Because of the language?
Yes, the sound of Basque is really appropriate for music. It’s as flexible as English. As well as that, it’s also got the tradition of sung verse, that’s bound to help. To come up with words that exist nowhere else and fit them in with the metric and the music... that’s amazing and it’s ours.
