He’s one of the world’s premier DJs, Damian Lazarus exuding an air of confidence from behind the decks—but when it was time to find his role as the leader of a live band, Damian Lazarus was, perhaps, a bit less sure of himself. “I play a few instruments…badly,” he admits. “I was having trouble trying to figure out what to do. All I knew was I didn’t want to be the typical DJ in a band, hiding behind a laptop. I want to actually be doing something. So, among other things, I’m using modular synths—which is probably the most stupid thing to be doing when you are playing with a new band. They are the most unpredictable instruments you could possibly imagine; sounds that you’ve never heard before can start coming at you. But I really love the challenge.”

“I want to create some kind of legacy for people, when they think back to their parties that they went to over their lives, the best ones that they can remember are ones that I was involved in in some way.”

You were once a clubber and are now a DJ and label head playing all over the world at some of the biggest parties and clubs in the world. From fabric to Watergate , from mulletover to your rebel rave tours. Which side of the decks is better and do you ever go out as a clubber these days?

I took last weekend off actually and went to see Koze play. I broke my golden rule of not going to clubs when I’m not working in them but there some DJs who Ill break this rule for.

You’re playing DC10 in Ibiza a few times this summer, are you now a resident there?

It’s an odd one with DC10. They’ve had their ‘residents’ ; inverted commas, for many years, and they tend not to add or detract from that list. However, I’ve been playing for them for three years now, and the deal is that they kindly offered me the opportunity to play whenever I liked, so at the beginning of the season I gave them a list of dates that I would like to do, and we’ve taken it from there. So this year, I’m actually going to be playing, with the exception of July; twice a month. I guess I’m considered a resident by the punters because I’m there quite often, and I tend to play a similar time slot each time as well as only inside, so I’m quite well known for playing there, but this year I’m also playing at Space a couple of times.

How important is Ibiza for you these days?

I’ve been going for some time now, but from a label perspective in terms of it being consistent place to be and an important place for our records to build, it’s been about three or four years. There was a moment in 2001 I think, when I put together the Thin White Duke mix of Felix The Housecat’s ‘Silver Screen’ when that I realised the real power of Ibiza and especially a club like DC10. We gave a couple of characters that record first, and to feel the energy of that being played as a last record out on the Terrace was pretty special. It showed me that actually Ibiza does have a lot to say for what’s going to happen in dance music for the rest of the year and on into next year. So Ibiza is a very important place, for me personally and for the business because there’s so much new energy flowing there at the moment. There’s only a couple of clubs that I’m speaking about specifically, but it’s pretty special place.

Obviously you’ve got a busy calendar DJ’ing around the world, how have you managed to organise an event of this magnitude?

I’ve put a really good team of people together basically, that’s the secret. I couldn’t have done this on my own and this is essentially a dream of mine. I have to find the right people that understand my dream and have the ability to make shit happen. I’ve found some really great people along the way, very good friends of mine. I tend to only work with friends; producers, press, sound engineers, it’s like a crew you know, so I’m very fortunate. With the wonders of technology I can have regular meetings from anywhere in the world at any time, day or night. It’s added a huge amount to my workload this year but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I guess by not producing you’re taking a longer route for developing your DJing?

Absolutely. Many years ago, quite a well-known DJ said to me You’re never going to make it as a big name DJ unless you’ve got a track out there that everyone else is playing’. I thought about that and I thought that doesn’t say much for the art or skill of being a DJ. That really made me aware that it was going to be a longer road to get to where I could potentially go to as a DJ but I thought it would be much more rewarding if I could get there without having to put my name to a track that I may not necessarily deserve to reap the benefits from.
Of course I think it’s really valuable experience to actually be in a studio to see how the whole process works, but like I say, I run a record label and I spend all week working with artists and looking for artists and trying to help develop artists, from the perspective of someone who loves the music and is totally immersed in the music, as well as from a business perspective.

21st Century Bodyrockers will always be one of my favourite clubs of all time. What do you think made it such a special night… aside from Cynthia and her robot?!

The atmosphere we created was thrilling; a perfect combination of danger, edginess and feeling. We were pioneering a new sound for London, bringing in the freaks and oddities of the London art scene, inviting the most cutting edge djs to play (plus the residents were 2 Many DJs and Erol Alkan along with FC Kahuna and myself). It really was a special party.

You’ve played for mulletover before, can you tell us any – printable – stories about your experience of their/our parties?

Nothing printable, but I’ve always left with a smile on my face.

All your artists are really interesting, have different sounds and different vibes.

Yeah, but they all fit into this kind of X factor category of being fucking cool and making amazing music. They kind of live and breathe in this world and I’m lucky enough to work with these people.

How do you think that realization manifests itself in your current music?

I think it freed me from making music for those dirty after-hours, and also from trying to throw all my influences and inspirations into the pot in one go—which I think I had perhaps done before. I established that I wanted to make music that just felt right for those times when you’re watching the sun rise, thinking about the universe and beyond. That’s when the penny dropped. I started thinking about the wider picture of dance music, and how I could bring outside voices—world-music influences, different kinds of musicians and collaborators, different instruments—into this project. It felt right and natural to me, which I guess means I took the right turn.

You have so many amazing performers on this album, from so many different worlds. Was it hard to put this all together?

It actually happened quite effortlessly—there was a lot of serendipity involved. It was as if the universe was saying, “Okay, this is supposed to happen. This is the right direction to be taking.” And that gave me a lot of positive vibe to move on with the project. At that point, all I needed to do was to find someone who would help me take this project, with all these different people and sounds and ideas, and make it a cohesive body of work.

https://soundcloud.com/damianlazarus/sets/damian-lazarus-the-ancient-5