[ Music ]
>> Andrew, I really wanted to
sort of thank you for coming
and performing at Sydney Opera House.
>> I'd really like to
thank you for asking me.
>> It's a huge honour for me,
I've admired your work
for a huge amount of time.
>> Thank you very much.
>> And, it's the least we can do I
think, to offer the studio to you for--
>> Yeah, yeah, no, really
looking forward to it.
Because it's, it's a, you know,
it's a monumental building.
It's nice to be in the bowels
a little bit, you know.
It's where I operate best, sort
of dark, dingy, bowely places.
Almost since I've been here, you know,
they give off, they must you know,
give off an energy that soaks into
the walls I think over the years.
So, hopefully I'll be tapping
into past psychic events.
>> Well you will, the architect
had the idea to sort of design it
around a Mayan temple so that you
can't get into the opera house
without being dwarfed by it.
>> Yeah.
>> And sort of you--
>> Oh yeah, well that's you
know, that's how kind of religion
and worship works isn't it?
You're supposed to kind of feel
bowed in the presence of the divine.
>> I'm interested in your thoughts
on how this connects
to dance music as well.
>> Well, it's a kind of gnostic
ceremony, it's smoke, and it's music,
and it's coloured lights, that
you know, to attain transcendence
through being part of something, a
ceremony that's bigger than yourself.
But it's sort of [inaudible] because on
one hand, yeah it's a big sky, you know,
and you start feeling slightly
pretentious when you start talking
about [inaudible] gnostic ceremony.
But on a real basic level,
it is, because as I said,
there are religious ceremonies going
back thousands of thousands of years
that used smoke, coloured
lights, and music.
>> And this sort of view on dance music,
was this something you had beginning
to DJ or was this something you came
to over time reading very widely, and--
>> No it kind of dawned
on me, you know, I didn't,
you know when I first started
DJing, I didn't think oh yes,
I'm definitely tapping into some
sort of gnostic ceremony here.
But it, you know, over the years,
when you kind of analyse what you do,
you know, you're in that,
you're in a usually square
or rectangular room there's smoke
and there's coloured lights.
You know, to some people, it's
going out on a Saturday night
and getting wasted to
forget their problems.
But to me, it began to dawn on me
that there is a little
bit more to it than that.
For me it's something a little
bit deeper, it's not just DJing,
it's music and music in general.
[ Music ]
>> One of the reasons I've found you
an endlessly interesting artist to sort
of follow and read interviews of,
and listen to your work as a DJ,
and as a producer, is this sort of
combination of great thoughtfulness
and sort of consistent learning,
and it's married to a genuine,
playful original spark for music.
You're a fan, you're an absolute
lover of music, and I'd love to hear
about when that fire was lit as a fan,
and then how that sort of moved through.
>> If you go back right
to the beginning,
so my father had a really
amazing hifi system, he had,
underneath was a cupboard
with all the records in it.
It was usually on a Sunday,
after we'd eaten--
>> Mmm.
>> -- yeah, do you see
where I'm going now?
>> Yeah.
>> Sunday, after the feast, a
ceremonial, almost like an altar,
this hifi system on top of the shelves.
It was a kind of you know, it was his,
or our version of going the church,
you know, sort of quasi-religious.
>> Sacramental--
>> Sacramental [inaudible] thing.
So I think it must subconsciously
stem from that.
I kind of knew music was important.
There was also a playful side to
it, which is probably what I kind
of tapped into, yes this is serious but
let's not be too poke faced about this.
And then when I was probably 9 or 10
years old, so we're talking early '70s,
I was kind of rummaging
around in the garage at home,
and I found a box of seven inch singles.
And I had a little kind of
dance [inaudible] record player
and I just thought oh, what's this?
So there's the joy of discovery as
well right there that, you know,
a dusty box of records
that you discover,
with all these old gems in, you know.
So, I think that's the kind of
genesis of not just being into music,
but finding the artefacts,
finding the you know, the objects.
I never thought I was going to operate
in music, I just wanted enough money
to pay the rent and buy books
and records, so you know,
I've just enjoyed the magic, I didn't
particularly want to be a musician.
You know, I've kind of
ended up as one, by default.
I think any art you know, art and
magic are the same thing really.
You're manipulating images
and you're manipulating words,
you're manipulating sounds to alter
people's consciousness, you know,
that's kind of what magic
is I think really.
But it's, I just enjoy making things.
I think that's what it, that's
what it is, whether it's writing,
whether it's making music, or
whether it's making some art.
I just enjoy that creative process.
>> Andrew, thank you.
>> [inaudible]
>> An absolute pleasure.
>> Thank you, man.
