Looking Into 2011: Rui Da Silva

“Concerning club culture and from what I hear from my peers it seems that everyone is getting fed up with high DJ fees. Usually that indicates we have once again peaked and the next way is down with a new batch of up and coming DJs and talent coming through. That is always great news as it means fresh ideas coming into the scene.”

10 years after his Spandau Ballet inspired single Touch Me topped Britain’s pop charts, Portuguese producer Rui Da Silva has just reinvented himself under the memorable, if slightly strange new monicker of Junkie Wife.

While Touch Me was inspired by Spandau Ballet’s Chant Number 1, ‘Gotta Move On" reworks Lipps Inc’ Funkytown" and is released on Da Silva’s own label Kismet in March. (Junkie Wife: Gotta Move On: http://bit.ly/gP0LJv )

“Junkie Wife is focused on disco, pop, funk hits rejuvenated with re-edits and extra productions for the needs of the dance-floors of today,” he explains.

“I’m also currently running another project called Crazy Love which focuses on chart quality dance music, more collaborations, and you will see the return of CocoDaSilva in 2011.”

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff) What kind of year are you expecting in 2011: how optimistic are you?

Rui Da Silva: “2011 is shaping up to be an amazing year, I feel very optimistic because after finishing building my new studio in Ibiza I'm confident I have the best sounding control room on the island, and the productions the first few productions that we have finished and started circulating are receiving tremendous feedback. We have also re-launched Kismet records and I'm working on new interpretations of Touch Me as we will be celebrating 10 years since the record went to number 1 in the UK charts.”

Skrufff: What musical trends do you expect to be big this year?

Rui Da Silva: “Well I'm no futurologist but I can see that the Swedish House Mafia and Luciano will both continue to build on their deserved success. We will also continue to see the maturation of all the breakthrough artists and DJs that have arrived on the scene after 2001/3 and are now themselves becoming the musical establishment.”

Skrufff: How much, if at all, have you been excited by dubstep?

Rui Da Silva: “I first came across dubstep in 2006 with Hyperdub or was it 2007? It all becomes a blur after so many years listening to music. Yes I do like it but do not follow it that closely, hopefully it wont go the same way as breakbeat and drum & bass did, both seemed to me to end up as one trick ponies. But talking about new genres . . .  should check out witch-house or haunted house (who the hell comes up with these genre names?), there is some interesting stuff going on there at 65 BPM.”

Skrufff: How about David Guetta/ Black Eyed Peas: a good thing for club culture?

Rui Da Silva: “Sure it is. Anything that engages more people to enjoy electronic music is always a good thing, for both listeners and producers. Finally dance music is being accepted by the mainstream in the US so hats off to Guetta for achieving that. Are some of club culture’s core values being compromised by this, though? Of course: they always are when you get into pleasing the masses.”

Skrufff: How much of your time and energy is taken up by web 2.0 stuff now?

Rui Da Silva: “Way too much, I wish it wasn’t so, everyone is so obsessed with web 2.0 so much so that email has become a no go area to reach out to anyone. We are back to the good old face to face contact or phone call ways. What do I think of MySpace? I really can’t remember what that is. Facebook is great for keeping all your friends tidy in one place and helps for logging into lots more Web 2.0 stuff though personally I prefer Soundcloud.”

Skrufff: How important is it in 2011 for DJs/ artists to have an online ‘persona’: eg on Twitter?

Rui Da Silva: “Twitter is pretty important though I think you have to avoid talking too much otherwise people get bored of you. In the end Twitter is really great for hearing from the lion’s mouth when it is needed, everything else is usually just noise.”

Skrufff: Students rioted in England, Greece, and Italy in 2010, how much (if at all) do you feel more concerned?

Rui Da Silva: “I think it’s pretty sad what is happening with the students around the world. I have young children and wonder what will it be like in 10 years time when they need to go to university. By then you’ll need a mortgage and not just a loan to get a graduation.”

Skrufff: How could that impact on club culture? Music?

Rui Da Silva: “The more alienated people become the more music they will need or create so crisis is always great news for music.”

Skrufff: What changes do you anticipate in clubs in terms of CDJs/ turntables/ etc: when was the last time you played vinyl or carried it to clubs?

Rui Da Silva: “In terms of clubs I'm excited that finally I don't need to take a laptop to a DJ booth. A few SD cards and my headphones will do the trick. I have not carried vinyl to clubs in many years apart from my Serato 2 vinyl copies but I still have a massive record collection on vinyl and CDs that I really love. Most people that do carry records to clubs these days are late club DJ boomers that were not around when we started all this and feel that they missed on something.

Playing vinyl does not equate to better sound, it’s actually easier to have a worst sound especially if you are touring these days the SL1200 are usually neglected in the clubs and not really up to scratch to deliver what they should. Plus who really likes to carry so many kilos while travelling? At the end of the day is how you present the music that counts and not what support the music is in. But saying that there is plenty of interesting stuff getting released exclusively on vinyl and a few of those for sure are worth buying. The ease with which you can manage a digital collection of music is really what makes it way much better than a physical collection.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pV5y5GWI5Q

http://soundcloud.com/ruidasilva

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rui-Da-Silva/27532343544

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff