Clive Henry comes to Australia

What have you been up to, lately? We see you've recently played Snowbombing, WMC and matter. Well, I was meant to have gone to Snowbombing, but I misplaced my passport! It's a long story, so I wouldn’t want bore you with the details, but I'm pretty gutted. I did get it back, though—a hotel in Switzerland found it. It's lucky, as I had just received my three-year work visa for the US which was in it. Yeah, also did WMC, where I played Circo Loco at the Eden Roc Hotel which was great, alongside Jamie Jones and Damian Lazarus back-to-back. I did the Crosstown Rebels Get Lost party at The Electric Pickle which was amazing. Tag teamed on the terrace with Dyed Soundorom and Shaun Reeves—the vibe was wicked. I have to say, WMC has come a long way musically in the last five years. Circo Loco at its new London home matter has been phenomenal. It really worked out well for us. Each event has had over 2,500 people, which is testament to the power of the "brand" (for want of a better word). You've been out to Australia a few times over the years. What do you remember about those gigs? I’ve had some great times in Australia—a festival I did with Josh Wink, Laurent Garnier and Doc Martin in a natural amphitheatre in Perth springs to mind. To be truthful, it can sometimes be a bit of an enigma musically. It has some great venues and locations, and pretty up-for-it crowds in certain cities, but sometimes you feel you have your work cut out if you bring something different to what they’re used to. You've spoken about being pigeonholed into a certain genre by fans, e.g. tribal house, and how it can be frustrating. Over the years, have you ever found yourself actively trying to shake certain types assumptions about the Clive Henry and Peace Division sound? Well, I’ve always tried to play tracks that have influenced us in the studio, be it something deeper, housier or tech-ier, but I suppose we became renowned for the percussive sound. Fair enough, as it was something we were into quite a bit before it became the "norm," as such. But once it blew up I found it frustrating that all people wanted to hear from me/us was the tracks and remixes we had made. I was a DJ way before Peace Division had become successful. You've also mentioned the effects technology has had on DJing, and the way it has 'demystified' the art. What do you mean by this, and are there ways to overcome this effect? Due to the internet, it's loads easier for people to have access to, and to share tracks that maybe over five or more years ago only certain DJs would have. Which made it definitely more exciting, as a DJ, knowing yourself and maybe only a handful of others had these certain records to play, which made you stand out from the rest if you were playing records no one could get their hands on. If everyone's playing the same records, then it just doesn’t have the same appeal, right? But, obviously, times have changed and it's either go with it or get left behind. Since Qantas lost my box of records and never got them back (funnily enough last time I was in Australia) as did Air Berlin a few months later, I switched to Serato, which makes me sound like a bit of a hypocrite now! I must admit, I have seen the advantages that the internet brings with this movement; i.e. when I visit pretty isolated countries which have no record stores the only access people have to music is via the web. Not everyone can afford to buy mix CDs every week so the podcast thing is great, which RA have been at the forefront of. I think our Peace Division Ibiza-Voice podcast from about three summers ago had over 15,000 downloads, which is amazing. You’d be lucky to sell 5,000 CDs of the same thing nowadays. So, yeah, since that interview my views have changed pretty radically. On that same note, how selective are you when it comes to sharing and posting mixes online? To be honest, I haven’t really been involved much in posting mixes online other than the Ibiza-Voice podcasts. I’m always amazed when I end up at an after hours somewhere and someone says, for example, "Oh we have your set from The End when you tagged with Jamie Jones shall we stick it on?” and I’m like, "I didn’t even know it was recorded let alone posted online for people to have!" Any chance you may launch another label? Not a chance. I just don’t have the time to do it nowadays.