J Maddison the Eclectic Gentleman DJ

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Welcome back home James, so what is your Koh Phangan story?
I first came in 2012 just as a traveller, I was supposed to be here for four days and ended up  staying for two weeks. There was a really good group of people living at Palida where I was staying. They took me to Jungle Experience, Half Moon and Full Moon and I think my last night we did Guys Bar which is when I had to contemplate whether I was gonna leave the island or not.

I came back again in 2013 which is when I met Carl from Ku Club, well I actually knew him from the UK but he had said that if I wanted work in Koh Phangan then to ‘come see me’.
I had the interview and started doing promotion so flyering and posters. Then there was one night at Tiki Bar Beach Village where they had a Dj that didn’t turn up so they asked me to play and on the strength of that they asked me to play every evening for the next three or four weeks.

Just after that Goldie came, they asked if I wanted to pick him up from Samui and then I played a warm up set for Goldie that evening. Then I was added to one of their resident djs so I have played every event since then. It all started at Tiki Bar.

I came back in 2014 as Ku Club’s actual resident Dj, then just due to the number of warm ups I was doing at Ku Club, my djing ability got better and better.

When I went back to the UK I got more bookings there and was recently invited to play at Ministry of Sound which was a big achievement for me.

I’ve just arrived back for in time for the grand opening on the 20th and Goldie and Jonathan Ulysses on the 23rd.

What got you into music?
My mum is an avid Motown Records lover so from the age of six or seven I was listening to my mum belt that out in the car. Again my dad being a lover of northern soul, rock and mod rock, his favourite band is The Who, I was hearing this from a very young age.

I also remember my dad having Paul Oakenfold mixes, he would buy his stuff religiously so this got me into electronic music quite young, probably age ten or eleven.

I’ve always had a very musical family, everyone is very into music. The definitive change for me was a club called ‘Matter’ which is Fabrics sister club but closed in 2010. It was the Sub Focus album launch, it was my first exposure to Drum and Bass and it got me hooked. For the next six to eighteen months we didn’t miss a Fabric Live for seven months! I think it was addiction.

When did you start to Dj?
The first time anyone let me use a set of decks was when I was sixteen, it was a guy called Marc Ballum who is still one of my best mates now. They were all mixing dirty Electro House in the garage of his girlfriend, Marc was the first one to show me how to beatmatch, change tempo and bring in the four by eight structure.

They used to leave me in there for hours at a time, I would bring my own cds, I used to spend hours burning cds at my mums, using all of her cds!

They were a group so it was Marc Ballum, Steve Ellis, David James Bowler and Ashley Elmore who were avid djs and used to play together. Every time they could get a gig they would be there, every Friday and Saturday night. I would go to support them and this is how I met Carl because Carl was their booking agent.

Then it was Bowler, he hosted his own night in Reading UK, who pushed me into being on one of the line ups and I played in the second room which is where I got the bug.

I played to thirty or forty people and it was after that that I wanted to up the amount of people I played to each time, once you did it once then each time you want a little bit more and more.

What styles of music do you play and why?
Predominantly Deep House, House and Tech House. But also I love playing liquid Drum and Bass at any opportunity given.

I’ve just started to try my hand at old school Hip Hop as well like ‘A Tribe Called Quest’ and ‘De La Soul’, that kind of era.

House is what I enjoy listening to when I’m out so it’s easiest for me to take influence from other djs and producers, what they are putting into their sets and also the set structure, that is a big thing I watch, I’m always watching ‘Boiler Room’ mixes, seeing other people mix and what tunes they use first.

What do you think of the Phangan party and music scene?
It’s very, very diverse but it’s changing rapidly at the moment as well. I think there’s a very strong House scene coming to the island as it was predominantly Psy Trance when I first got here and a lot of Hard House as well.

It is still very eclectic, you still have bars playing Indie and Reggae bars, even Sunrise plays Drum and Bass on Full Moon, I dj House at Full Moon then go to Sunrise and listen to Drum and Bass for the rest of the night.

I think also in terms of international djs and bookings it’s getting really good. Infinity have Prok and Fitch coming and we just had Doorly at Jungle Experience. At Ku Club we have some good bookings for the first two months of the season, we try to get them in the peak of high season.

What have been your best gigs?
I would say that my best one here was the ‘Hot Since 82’ night, even though he couldn’t make it I ended up getting his set time, so I think just due to the fact that the club was so packed out  and the crowd was really having it! It was the most high fives and handshakes of appreciation I've had coming out of a dj booth ever, as people were having a good time. I don’t know if that was because they thought I was Hot Since 82 or that they generally were enjoying the music, I think it’s fifty fifty.

On my recent trip to Vang Vieng about four weeks ago, there was a party they host on friday nights called ‘Jungle Party’ and I was playing back to back with one of my good friends that runs the party. It started raining twenty minutes before we opened and didn’t stop until the morning after, it was one of the most extreme storms!
There were still at least sixty to seventy people still having it out until we closed at 5am, I think it was crazy because even I would of gone home!

What are your current and future projects?
I’ve got the season residency at Ku and I should be playing back at Moon House for Full Moon from Christmas day until March, April time.

I’m going to try my hardest to try a set at Jungle Experience sometime as well!

Of course I will be back in the studio when Rory Gallagher gets back, working on new music.

What is the best thing about Koh Phangan?
For me I think obviously the fact that I get to support some of my favourite djs on a beautiful island amongst people from all different walks of life.

Plus the feeling of never knowing who you’re going to meet.

What do you do when you have free time?
Painting, drawing, graffiti, I am getting a lot more back into my artwork.

I like enjoying beaches and different parts of the island and food, I am always looking for new restaurants and new food.

What do you hope for yourself and the island over the next year?
That the eclectic scene of all the different styles of music continues to grow.

That I get more experience and continue to progress with my mixing ability.