After nearly 40 years of DJing, Carl Cox has become an undisputed legend of the dance music scene. His fifth studio album, Electronic Generations, is out next month (December 2), following a hybrid live-and-DJ show at Wembley Arena last month. Here, he reflects on a life in electronic music, jamming with machines, and how he fell in love with making people dance as a child…
I wanted to be a DJ from the age of eight…
“My dad got me into music. He’d take me to the record store when he was buying 45s. We were blown away when he first got a stereo system because you could hear so much more than in mono. I was fascinated: at home there was Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Elvis, and country, and Perry Como. There was reggae and soca and calypso, music from the West Indies. I was writing it all down and soon it was me taking my dad to the record shop. One night he was hosting a party and I was told that I could go to bed or stay up and be in charge of putting records on. I wasn’t going to bed. Seeing my family, my dad’s friends all up and dancing… That’s when I became a DJ.”
They call me the ‘three deck wizard’...
“I started DJing with three turntables because I couldn’t afford a reel-to-reel tape deck. At the time, DJs in New York were playing exclusive tracks from reel-to-reels and pitching the speed to match what they were playing on the turntables. I didn’t have the money for that and didn’t have any exclusive music either. Throughout the late ’70s I did nothing but cut the shit out of Chic’s Good Times. So it was just going ‘good times, good times, good times, good times’. It’s a miracle I didn’t get kicked out of home. I learned to cut, to scratch, to mix on the beat. Once I’d done all that I applied a third turntable and it worked. People thought I was a wizard.”
People say, ‘You’re a DJ, why make music?’...
“I’ve done five self-proclaimed albums now. People think DJs are all about just playing other people’s music, but I’ve always wanted to remix or reimagine or blend it together to make my own sound. And I still enjoy that, that’s creative in its own way. My schedule was such that I didn’t have time to make music. The pandemic gave me space to sit in the studio. So much music I’ve loved has been created by machines, but the machines are not just going to sit there and create music for you. I was able to push them together and see what sounds were produced. I was jamming.”
I’ve now been signed to Perfecto twice…
“[DJ and producer] Paul Oakenfold signed me back in the day. He had this deal with BMG where he found the artists and they provided the backing. But then... 30 years later little old Carl Cox gets re-signed with a three-album deal because they like the way I’ve put these sounds together. For this album, I decided I didn’t care what anybody thought and, as it turned out, that has produced some gems.”
I saw into the future of dance music when…
“I watched Alfredo [Fiorito, DJ] in Streatham in the 1980s. At that point, he was at the pinnacle of DJs, the best that people had seen and heard, and it was because he was so eclectic. So, perhaps he wasn’t the best mixer, but he was a great programmer and he could create a feeling. He believed in every record equally, and it was everyone as one. Black, white, LGBTQ+. Anything. Anyone. Alfredo is a legend.”
I love how music can make people feel…
“That can be on the dancefloor with thousands, or just five people who’ve come round to my house. It’s about giving people the best experience you possibly can. If I was a chef, a steak and kidney pie from me would be the best pie you’d ever eaten. A good DJ needs to read the room. People have saved their money and queued, so I’m going to deliver what they expected and then take it beyond that. With great power comes great responsibility.”
