INDEX
Unforgettable Impact of Ibiza
– The 1st album was meant to be your first solo, but after that, it was completely dance music, wasn’t it?
Sugiura: Completely, yes.
– Was that a natural progression?
Sugiura: It was more of a conscious decision than a natural one. I thought I was doing something cooler. I decided that I would only DJ at house parties, and I would turn down rock DJ events. So from 2000 onward, it was completely house. Of course, I didn’t get any offers at all at first (laughs). (laughs) I didn’t know many people, but I decided to go for it. Especially after I went to Ibiza in 2000, it was clear to me that this was the way to go.
– So your first visit to Ibiza was in 2000. Why did you decide to go there?
Sugiura: Around the time I was working on my second album “MUSIC IS THE KEY OF LIFE,” I had started checking out the latest house tracks regularly. I began to feel that there was something different between those tracks and what I was creating. It felt like something was missing or lacking. So, I decided to go see the real scene firsthand. Everyone was talking about Ibiza back then [laughs]. It’s been 25 years already.
– That was right around the time that Pete Heller’s “Big Love” was a big hit.
Sugiura: Yeah, I think it was around the time when The Chemical Brothers released “Surrender” (1999), followed by Fatboy Slim with “Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars” (2000), and Daft Punk’s “Discovery” (2001). It felt similar to when My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless,” Primal Scream’s “Screamadelica,” and TEENAGE FANCLUB’s “Bandwagonesque” all came out in the same year (1991). There was a sense of starting a new era around the millennium, too.
– What kind of parties did you go to in Ibiza?
Sugiura: I went to parties every day, but the best party was Eric Morillo’s “Subliminal Sessions” with Morillo, Deep Dish, and Darren Emerson as DJs. I still think it was the best party of my life.
– Was the club Pacha?
Sugiura: It was at Amnesia. That’s where I heard “AC/DC” by X-PRESS 2. On the way back from Ibiza, I stopped by London and sang that phrase at a record shop and asked, “Do you have a record of this song? I sang that phrase and asked if they had a record of the song, and I was able to buy a promo copy before it was released [laughs].
– I was also shocked by Paul Oakenfold’s closing performance of “Cream” at Amnesia in 1998, and wondered how people could go so crazy over music [laughs].
Sugiura: “Cream” in the first half of 2000 was amazing.
– And we met in 2001, didn’t we?
Sugiura: Yes, I didn’t have any friends to talk about Ibiza with, and there was no information in Japanese magazines at that time. When I came back from Ibiza, I got a phone number from someone and called EMMA. I told him I was serious about it and that I wanted him to listen to my track, and that I wanted it to be released on his label, NITELIST MUSIC.
– That’s amazing, you got there completely by your own sense of smell.
Sugiura: Yeah, that’s right. None of my friends from the 1990s understood it. When I came back from Ibiza and went to CISCO in Shibuya, they mostly played New York-style house, not much European house. So, from then on, whenever I went to Ibiza, I’d come back with loads of records [laughs]. Especially those hard-to-find tribal tracks that were hard to get in Japan at the time, I think they formed the foundation for my DJing career.
