Q+A: Dinky

You’ve been at Panorama for 10 years now. It’s a long stretch; has the club changed much in that time?

Yeah it has changed, but I don’t see it as a negative change. A lot of people say it’s not as good but for me, I’ve been having great gigs there recently. It has changed, the world has changed, everything should change, but it’s not changed for the worse. It’s just different.

Are there tunes you played 10 years ago that you’re still playing now?

Yeah, but I tend to change my set-up. There are classics though, Carl Craig remixes, or a bootleg of Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’ that I’ve played since I first started – I played that again last month.

You’ve trained as a dancer, and you’re often seen dancing behind the decks. It must have been really frustrating
to be in that wheelchair.

I realise that when I’m not dancing while I’m DJing – which doesn’t happen very often – it’s because things aren’t going well in my set. I have to come back to feel the music again, to let it tell me why I’m not dancing. It’s very important to feel the music and to want to dance to it, then things go well in your set. Once, when I’d had a weird gig, I was confused and saying ‘I don’t know if I’m doing this right,’ and Villalobos told me, ‘You’re very good, the only thing you have to do is dance with the people!’ And I never forgot that. It’s very true: if you’re not dancing you need to change and find the rhythm.

As someone trained in both music and dance, do you get frustrated when writing dance music that everything is locked into a 4/4 time signature?

Yeah, it’s my biggest struggle. The kick always gets in the way of the voice – if you take it out you can hear so much more. The 4/4 kick is necessary of course, but I’m always trying to fight it. You can dance without it, it’s totally possible! But DJs and producers are very scared to make or play something with a broken beat or without a kick – I have to admit that I’m also sometimes a bit scared to leave the kick out too!

It’s definitely there on the new album...

Yeah, I think this time I needed it there. My last album, half of it was without the kick. This time I felt more comfortable going back to it, especially as it was for Crosstown Rebels. Damian Lazarus wanted something that was more in a dance direction, and I wanted to deliver something we’d both be happy with. The kick was a good choice for this project.

How much input did Damian have on the project? Did he request many changes?

He was very happy with it as it was. I didn’t plan it for him, but I thought in my mind it could work for Crosstown as we’d had a plan to do an album years ago. So as I was writing it, I felt like it could work for them, and when I sent the finished project they accepted the whole thing with just a couple of minor edits – it was very, very easy, so it was a good choice to work with Damian.

The first single has already been getting some attention in the USA. They might market you as a pop star –
how would you feel about that?

[laughs] Well at my age I’m a bit old to be a pop star! Whatever happens I’m fine; I’m quite relaxed about performing, I don’t have any fear of the stage. I’m a bit different to someone who gets success when they’re young as I’m not so interested in fame – I never was really, I just do it because I like to, and I’m lucky that it pays the bills.

‘Valor’ is out on Crosstown Rebels on September 30