Paolo Mojo interview: new DJ technology

Paolo Mojo interview: new DJ technology

18 February, 2008 | 3.31PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Technology
• Written by: Terry Church

In our exclusive interview, British house DJ Paolo Mojo chatted with Beatportal today about new technology and how it has completely redefined dance music.

Using the example of a recent mashup he did with Loco Dice’s ‘Seeing Through Shadows’ and River Ocean’s classic house cut ‘Love & Happiness’ - Beatportal has an exclusive audio clip of the bootleg - he argues that technology has rewritten the DNA of music production and DJing.

It has made “quantum leaps” he says.

“This is a very exciting time for dance music,” Paolo Mojo tells Beatportal.

“Technology has totally changed the production, distribution and performance of dance music.”

Last night, Paolo had a romantic night in with his new Arturia synths.

“They’re soft synths, but they sound so realistic,” he says.

Producing dance music is becoming easier thanks to faster processors and more complex software.

Playing dance music is also becoming more exciting: Paolo is currently speaking with Native Instruments about taking the digital leap and adopting their Traktor 3.3 system, which allows up to four virtual decks played through a laptop.

He’ll use timecoded CDs to control Traktor.

“I’m getting a MIDI controller from FaderFox which allows you to control everything in Traktor very easily without using a mouse or keyboard.

“Customization is a God send,” he says.

Then there’s the distribution channels - the digital world has totally changed the way we sell, buy and find music.

Whilst the vinyl Vs. digital debate is over, digital downloading has caused some unexpected trends.

“At the moment there’s a bit of a fascination for classic house music,” says Paolo.

“This might be because digital download sites are allowing people to rediscover old classics as well as new music.

“I’ll give you an example.

“Recently I was browsing Beatport and found River Ocean’s classic house record ‘Love & Happiness’.

“I’ve got it on vinyl, but I thought it would be useful to have a digital copy too.

“After I downloaded it, I dropped it into the Mixed In Key program to see what key it was.

“And then I worked out it was the same key as Loco Dice’s ‘Seeing Through Shadows’.

“I put both the tracks together in Logic and they worked together perfectly.

“So I made a quick mash-up and sent it out to a couple of DJs.”

‘Seeing Through Oceans’ (Paolo Mojo Edit)

As you can hear from the clip above, Paolo’s mash-up sees the synths and vocals of ‘Love & Happiness’ dropped over the top of Loco Dice ‘Seeing Through Shadows’, and the end result is an exciting musical montage.

The digital world, Paolo believes, is being pushed forwards by a few innovative companies that have changed the way we produce, distribute, discover and play dance music.

“The change of events that led to the creation of the mash-up is exactly why digital is making dance music exciting,” he says.

Has the digital world opened up creative possibilities? Let us know what you think below.

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• Check out Paolo Mojo on Beatport