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The Great Aural Interplay 1
A grip of blind dates betwixt a grip of musicians
\[it seemed like a good idea at the time\]
Pete Tong interviewed
_by_
Lady
The scene’s hard. Records spin, new gets old, the best of days are spent in darkness. Clubs close, joy leaves, dawn’s pious light returns. To hustle fast enough, long enough, to keep up with the crowd is a feat when sustained for a couple years. Thus a run of decades in the booth (and in this particular case, the hosting of the globe’s finest dance radio show) bends divine. He’s the reason wannabe lifers cling to their needles. Dawn falls on their temporal glory but they faithfully loop a psalm: “I’m here, I’m staying. I’m gonna pull a Pete Tong.”
Lady_: Why does the caged bird really sing?_Pete Tong: Because she had a sore bosom and wings from crashing into bars.
_Where do you see music going in the next five years?_I think there will be a desire for more organic music. Meaning more real/analogue/warmth/performance/virtuosity/meaning. I’m a huge fan of computers and DAWs; they have opened up a whole new world for so many people. But now’s the time to start to use them in different and more inventive ways. Frank Ocean and Daft Punk could be the tip of the iceberg. Should be exciting.
_Are reality shows our new reality?_Like the bastard child of the fly on the wall, documentary, the reality show engulfed the world! Clever idea 13 years ago on _Big Brother_ but the format is in its twilight hour. There are so many better things to do in life than sit on a couch watching someone else’s non-reality.
_When and why did you decide to sacrifice a regular paying career for your music career?_Aside from serving petrol at a gas station (during school holidays) I have been lucky in the sense that my first real job involved music as a writer and ad rep for an underground soul magazine. I’m a Mad Man.
_What would you go to jail for?_To see my unfortunate misanthrope friends.
_Do you believe in the afterlife and if so where would yours be? If you could pick one artist to jam to while in your afterlife, who would it be?_An island in the clouds with mountains, beaches, and hierbas playing drums for James Brown.
Photographed by Michael Tighe at Michaeltighephotography.com
