Artist Interviu - Tom Ellis

Pocas veces en Guatemala logramos ver los Dj´s que mueven a los Dj´s de renombre.  Siempre hay un Dj´s Dj, Tom Ellis es uno de ellos.  Invitado especial de SMA y uno de los artistas principales de la fiesta de cierre, Tom viene por primera vez a Guatemala.  Les dejamos una entrevista que le realizamos recientemente.  Perdón por la falta de traducción pero preferimos no perder la escencia de la las palabras de Ellis.  

1.  Your career has seen a widespan in change of technology in the past years.   What did you use before performing live with a lap top and a controller? 

I played vinyl when i was around 18-20, until i began mixing my own productions on CDs. Then i moved on to performing live with Leif, using a couple of laptops and midi controllers, yamaha rs7000, bass guitar & kaoss pad etc. I started playing solo live sets and I tried a few different combinations of bass guitar, sound modules, midi controllers and fx, but got tired of dragging loads of equipment around, so i decided to find one controller that will do everything i need.

2.  You eagerly support free music as we can see through your Minordurst label, do you think in general music should have a price?

In a perfect world, no, it shouldn’t have a price. I would love to share all of my work for free, but unfortunately the world we live in demands that i make an income from what i chose to do with my time.
Plus, these days, there seems to be a weird psychological effect that occurs when you try and give things away for free; people automatically value it less.
So yeah, in todays world, i think it’s become important to pay people who create nice things for society. Because if we don’t, we’ll end up in a world full of insurance brokers and salesmen, and the only thing to dance to, will be adverts and jingles ;-)

3.  We hear many Dj´s talk about Tom Ellis, however what Dj´s or performers do you like?

Maybe it sounds cheesy, but my friends are my favourite DJs and performers. My brother Joe, and my good friends Leif and Steevio, never fail to impress me when i hear them play.
And all the residents at the Freerotation festival, here in Wales, they all have so much soul and passion for good music. 

4.  Eventhough Deep House hasn´t always been in fashion, you have always support it, why do you think the underground has leaned a lot more to this sound in the past 2 years?

I think it’s probably a natural response to an over saturation of minimal. And maybe driven by a new generation of clubbers & DJs discovering the roots of house and techno music, too.  
But my friends have played amazing deep house music since i can remember, so it’s not something i noticed so much until recently. I don’t really look at charts or read magazines, so i’m usually the last person to know if something is in or out of fashion, haha.

5.  Next month you jump over to America and make your first appereance in Guatemala.  What are your expectations?  Have you heard any music from Latin America in general?

Yeah i’m looking forward to the trip! I try not to hold any expectations and just enjoy the experience as it comes, but i’m hoping for some good local espresso, some smiling dancing people and some beautiful scenery. I think most of my music collection has strong roots in Latin American music, and probably wouldn’t exist without it. Even down to the instruments... I’m not sure house music would be what it is today without Latin percussion ;-)

+ info Tom Ellis

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