James Zabiela finds his inner Joy Division

James Zabiela finds his inner Joy Division

23 April, 2009 | 11.13AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: depeche mode, james zabiela, joy division

A happy experiment inspired by music history is a suitable explanation for how James Zabiela’s new ‘Darkness By Design’ track came about. The British deck wizard created the post-punk sounding techno cut after being inspired by the 2007 Joy Division biopic film about Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the famous band.

“I was really inspired by the film,” he says, “My iPod is filled with Joy Division, Depeche Mode and Nirvana and I just wondered if I could put some of those elements into my own track.”

“It was basically an experiment to see if I could pull it off. I surprised myself, but was further taken aback by the reaction it got on the dancefloor!

“Even then, I still had no plans to release it, but after I put it on my MySpace I had a load of messages asking when it was due out; I had no option but to change my mind.”

Despite Zabiela’s wish for discretion, fate had other plans for ‘Darkness By Design’. When you first hear its deep vocals and emphasis on dark synths, you actually believe it to be a lost Depeche Mode classic. It’s amazing to find out then that Zabiela himself sang the lyrics, and used technology to reach the necessary deep monotone frequency for the vocal.

After many months of positive dancefloor feedback, Zabiela decided to include the track on his Renaissance ‘Master Series’ mix compilation, but he hit a snag. “Try as I did to work it in, ‘DBD’ just didn’t fit with the general feel of the mix. So, with a bit of time in hand I decided to remix myself and ‘Darkness 2’ was born,” says James.

Zabiela’s ‘Darkness’ EP goes to prove that experiments in the studio can lead to great things.

Video: Joy Division ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart

One of the Joy Division songs that inspired James - ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart, Again’.

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