Your career streches over a decade now...so where does the music come from for you and how did you get inspired to be in this business?
Well it's been a bit more than a decade, I just counted and it's around sixteen years that I've been dj-ing now, like properly getting bookings and travelling somewhere. It changed a lot you know, in the begining I used to play a lot on big rave parties and that was really typical for the 90's and nowadays I travel round Europe and play mostly in clubs like the size of Gallery and bigger, alwasy between lets say 400 and a 1000 people that kind of capacity and yeah in the last decade you can see the difference that the music scene has moved in a lot of different directions. In the begining everybody did the same thing and nowadays there are so many directions, latin house, electro, deep, vocal house...whatever, you know (smijeh...)

 
Where has your music taken you recently?
Well many places, at the moment, for the last two or three months I played in Europe mainly, so I played in Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Russia..all over the place and I'm doing the overseas tours like America, New Zealend I'm starting in April again. So from the begining of April to middle of July I'll be really busy, so I'll be traveling a lot.

 
So what's big at the moment on the house & electronic scene in Germany...in what way is it different from the rest of the Europe?
Well Germany is...if you would compare it to a place like Italy, in Germany there are loads of different things happening. So I used to play not so much in Germany and for the last two or three years I played much more often and I can see that in some towns I play a bit more funky and somewhere else I play really hard, so it's really a mix and for me it is exciting beacuse every weekend I can take different records and it's mostly in clubs where I go regularly so I know the crowd, but to sume it all up in Germany it's very good at the moment. I enjoy it a lot, it's similar to how England used to be in the 90's.

 
How would you describe your musical style and what makes you special as a dj and what can we expect when we come and see you?
Well it's always hard to say. In general, how a lot of people describe me it's the Ian Pooley sound, it's like playing whatever in style, but at the end when you listen to the whole set it kind of fits all together. I pick up my favorites out of each style and then I mix them together to make it my own sound.

 
What would you consider yourself as a dj or producer at heart?
It's really like being two persons, you know it's two different careers. It's funny beacuse I started both at the same time and not a lot of dj's know how to produce, so for me I taught myself how to produce at the same time as I learned scratching, mixing and so that's why I evolved at both, but for me djing means to be a fan of other peoples records, to go in the record shops and check out what's going on and as a producer it means like to do my own thing, to go in the studio and to try to do something new and something that fits my style.

 
You made your last album in New Zealend, can you tell me about that...
Hehe, well I have a lot of friends in New Zealend and I knew...that was three years ago already (smijeh)... I knew that I will have a tour and a long holiday over there, like almost a month and I rented a house there. So I thought it would be great to take some machines and start working on tracks just to see how it feels to be in a different place and start some new music, that was the main reason for it.

 
Have you reinvented yourself with „Souvenirs“ in any way?
Well the main concept that souvenirs were is to bring musical souvenirs from all over the world, like for example starting tracks in New Zealend, than going to Sydney in Australia and have a lot of guests musicians play over there. I had a lot of sessions there and then inviting people like Marcos Valle who's from Brazil and inviting Terry Callier who's from Chicago and that means like ok, souvenirs from all over the world (smijeh...) and that main concept is having lots of guests on the album

 
Yeah in your last album you had a lot of guests involved...so how important is live music and interaction with live musicians for you?
Yes, back than it was really important for me, but nowadays if you would ask me I cant imagine myself doing something that may be different. I've been asked when I would start my new album, at the moment I'm in the middle of moving to Berlin, I lived in my hometown all my life and now I'm moving there so this is something fresh for me now and maybe the next album will be just me again alone, just sampling...why not (smijeh...) I always keep it open for me beacuse in the end if you sit down and write a concept about the album it never turns out to be your thing, so I think it's best just to let yourself go and see how it works out.

 
As well as djing in 2003 you started your own label „Pooled“ can you tell me about that and how is it going now? Any sucess?
Well funny enough I started pooled music when the whole business was going down like crazy, you know people started downloading tracks in big amounts from the internet for free, but I wanted to do it any way beacuse I met a lot of people that had music finished and asked me if I would ever do a label for myself and I thought ok. It was mostly new artists, I thought ok I'll start this label, I will put out music by myself and by other people and those fresh, new people, I would help them in the studio, I will hear them, do a remix for them or go to their place and say you have to do this like that...and that's how it goes and nowadays pooled music is doing fine, it's not doing a big profit but for me I enjoy doing it and that is really important for me.

 
Do you have any tips for us, what artist will make it...who has the potential but is not entirely there yet?
Well I cant say the names but I can tell you there are loads of good music coming out of Stockholm, Sweden and Norway, people like Lindstrom & Prince Thomas, Zoo Brazil from Sweden and John Dahlback. The swedish people are very hardworking and I really enjoy the music they are doing and some stuff from Germany as well.

 
Do you have the feeling you got more freedom working independently now with your own label than you used to have with V2 Records?
Well with V2 I split a long time ago, I mean last time souvenirs were licensed to Ministry Of Sound in Germany and for me that doesn't contradict each other. I enjoy doing pooled music for the more clubbier stuff and I know that when you have an album out you need support from a bigger company and that's totally ok for me, there is no collision for me you know, both make sense.

 
What music are you making now...I heard you're doing an exclusive track for the next „Brazilution“ compilation, can you tell me about that?
O yeah (smijeh...) well it's not a super clubby, it's a bit more laidback but I'm really happy with it and it's kind of midtempo, brazilian sound but with very tight beats. It's really hard to describe it beacuse for me, I cant think of any track that I can compare it to, for me it's something really new and I did it a couple of weeks ago and I'm really happy how it turned out.

 
Yeah, but aside that you also have another project with Boris Dlugosch?
Well that's a bigger project, it's not with Boris only, it's called Ian Pooley Returned and it marks the 10th anniversary of some of my releases and the first in that series is the one I did with Boris. It's a track called „Higgledy Piggledy“

 
Yeah I didnt know how to pronaunce it really, so I didn't mention it...
Hehe yeah it's a funny name but I think it really fits the track. I released it already in 96' and it's got that funky disco house kind of beat to it and I did the remix with Boris and I will have three more coming out in this kind of series, there will be the track called Celtic Cross that I did in 95', All Night which I did in 96' and one more, but I'm not sure what to do with it (smijeh...) And the concept is that I'm not just asking people can you do a remix for this track, it's more like let's do a remix together. So with Boris, we did it in my place and I'm doing one with DJ Tonka at his place and probably with some guy from Norway (smijeh...) and yeah the original will be also on it.

 
Do you think house music can progress any further than it has in the last 15 years? And what's your opinion on the whole digital revolution and is it going to change the way you perform as a dj?
Well I'm not trying to be old school like, ok I'm only playing vinyl. There are a lot of dj's out there that say they will only play vinyl. I play half-half, beacuse it changed really...funny enough...one or two years ago it changed from one form to another, cos' record companies dont send you vinyl promos anymore, they only send you cd promos and ok as a dj if you want to play it out you have to play cd's. I dont mind, I'm not a big fan of final scratch beacuse for me that's just too much laptop, look for track, ok, right...and with cd's you're in between, you still look through, you still look for the cd and say ok I'll put this one in, you know. And the cd players are great, the Pioneer cd players, they are really reliable so I think it's a good way..but I'm playing half-half and I still take a lot of records.

 
What about this years WMC in Miami, are you going there this year?
I'm going every second year. I went last year, I played three times and this year I didnt want to go, so I'll go next year again (smijeh...)

 
So what were the impressions from last year?
I liked it last year, I think it was really cool, maybe...a lot of my friends, dj's from the States and England told me that the years before, the last two years have been bad but the last year it was really funny actually...I mean I just had a really good time. I didnt go to many parties in the evening, I went mostly during the day for pool parties and parties for my friends and taking it really easy and I think that's the best way to go, beacuse othervise in Miami if you go to clubs you spend most of the night waiting in the cue to get in.

 
Finally...you've done deep house, tech-house, broken beats...what's next for Ian Pooley?
I dont know (smijeh...) I really dont know, for me it's a big change that I will move to Berlin now and that will be a new environment and a new studio...so I never know, but at the moment I see there is a revival of early 90's house and early 90's techno, but actually what you can hear at the moment there's a lot of...the record before which played is an old alternate record from 91' and they just sampled it and put house beats under it.

 
Yeah, Jazz'n Groove did something like that with Jamie Lewis and his Be Thankfull. They took the sample from Crystal Water...
Yeah excatly...and that's beacuse the kids nowadays dont know about the old records, so I think this will be the next big thing.

 
So in a way the house music is begining to recycle itself...
Yeah yeah...I wouldnt say recycle, that's always a negative word, I would say a kind of a return but with a new touch, a new flavour in to it.

 
So you've been playing here in Zagreb and on the coast for the last couple of years...so how do you like it here, the place, clubs, the people, women...and can we expect you again in the summer?
Yeah I've been playing in Croatia for the last ten years and it's been always great. The people are always so welcoming and they...on one hand they know good music and on the other hand they really know how to party like crazy, so yeah I'm definetly doing the tour on the coast, I'm not sure if it will be July or August, one of the two months and I will do at least 4 or 5 gigs.

 
So what's your favorite place...maybe Zagreb or somewhere on the coast?
The coast is great! Really excellent parties (smijeh...)

 
For the end I'm gonna leave you to say, to add a couple of words...
Just watch out and check my web page. Where I'll be around in the summer, beacuse that will be decided in the next two or three weeks. Bye!!

Interview by: Alen Spiler