Morillo wants to make Ibiza "cool" again
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl...1157955,00.html
It was the disco hotspot that went tacky. Now a top DJ wants to make the island cool again
Lisa Verrico
IT’S THE OPENING week of Ibiza’s summer season, and already Pacha, the island’s oldest, largest club, is packed. In Britain dance music may be in decline — most superclubs have closed and it’s rare to hear a house record on the radio — but at the classier end of the Ibiza scene visitor numbers are on the rise.
In recent years the island’s notorious nightlife has worked hard to shake off its tacky image. Higher door and drink prices have discouraged teenagers, the streets are strictly policed and some celebrities are spending their spare cash on holiday homes here. Ibiza, they want you know, is cool again.
“It’s not the same island it was even five years ago,” says Erick Morillo, the New Jersey-born DJ whose Subliminal nights at Pacha are among the most famous on the island. “There is a lot of new development, the dirt tracks have been replaced by proper roads and the clubs are all regulated.
“When I first came here in 1993, most of the clubs were open-air and there were just turntables behind the bar. Then the place became incredibly popular and got a terrible reputation. Now that is changing. There are still a couple of streets in San Antonio where you’ll see drunken British tourists falling out of bars, but the rest of the island isn’t like that any more. Ibiza is trying to go upmarket.”
The island’s reputation as the Mediterranean’s leading playground began back in the 1970s, when British rock stars such as Pink Floyd and Mike Oldfield bought houses in the hills and spent their nights at newly opened clubs such as Pacha and Amnesia. Before that, it was a hippy hangout best known for its beautiful sunsets and lax laws when it came to drugs and sex.
It was during the late 1980s and early 1990s that the Ibiza scene really exploded. Thanks to a handful of British DJs who came over to its clubs and brought their Balearic beats back to Britain, house music briefly became the new pop, clubbing the preferred pastime of young people, and Ibiza their holiday destination.
By the end of the last century the dance scene — and house music in particular — appeared to have passed its peak. While British kids once begged their parents to buy them turntables, now they want guitars again. And the dance music that most teenagers listen to these days isn’t European house and techno, it’s American hip hop and R&B. Where does that leave Ibiza? According to Morillo, 33, one of the world’s highest-paid DJs, who recently set up home on the island, it is poised to start a new scene. He is hoping a hip new image for Ibiza will resurrect dance once again.
“The Ibiza sound has changed since the 1990s,” he says. “It isn’t soulful any more. It’s tough and funky and a little bit hip hop. But it’s not so much how it sounds as how it’s presented. Dance lost its way because there were too many faceless DJs, too many forgettable records and too many people taking advantage of the scene. When there were people pouring on to Ibiza every summer, any old night would do. It was easy to make money. Now, to pull in the crowds, you have to make an effort.”
Morillo’s aim is to make house music as big as hip hop. While only a fool would bet on that happening, his plan to bring glamour back to house music is a good one.
“What dance music desperately needs is some recognisable stars. It needs personalities and a culture that kids can buy into. There used to be a dance culture, but then the scene became too cool. Producers didn’t want to appear in their own videos or look like they were enjoying themselves. I’m not saying DJs have to become as ostentatious as hip-hop stars but they have to show kids a lifestyle they can aspire to.”
On that front, Morillo is certainly playing his part. He arrives at Pacha’s free, pre-club bash at the beach bar Mambo, where he plays chilled-out tunes while the crowd watch the sun go down. Ten scantily clad girls dance and hand out lollipops while Morillo signs fans’ T-shirts and chests. Nothing tacky there, then.
Acutely aware of the lure of celebrity endorsement, Morillo is not ashamed to use it. His Subliminal nights are famous for their starry clientele; at the annual Miami Winter Music Conference in March, he turned up to his own party with P. Diddy, Lenny Kravitz and Naomi Campbell, while U2 and Kylie Minogue, Mariah Carey and Mick Jagger have been to hear him play.
He began his recording career with those early 1990s chart stars Reel 2 Reel, and made millions from his dance compilations. Now Morillo runs his own New York-based label, Subliminal. His plan to overhaul house involves bringing a celebrity element to his own music. My World, his first album released under his own name, features P. Diddy making his dance debut on two tracks.
“I met Puffy in Ibiza about four years ago, when he came to one of my gigs,” Morillo explains. “He had already decided to make a dance album and came over to research the scene. That was the first time he had ever heard house. Until then, he thought dance music was trance, but when he heard the stuff I was playing and saw the crowd’s reaction to it, he said he knew that was the sort of music he wanted to make.
“Whatever low the dance scene is going through, when Puffy releases his album, people are going to take notice.” So far, Morillo has worked on seven tracks for P. Diddy’s long-promised dance album, due later this year. So can Puffy save house? Well, his recent trips to Ibiza have caused as much fuss as Pink Floyd’s decadent nights out at Pacha three decades ago. And until P.
Diddy goes public with his dance album, Morillo seems happy to stand in for him.
At the opening night of his bash last week, a 4,000-strong crowd screamed and danced as though house had never been hipper. Whether it proves to be just a holiday romance or a new lease of life remains to be seen.
# My World (Subliminal) is out on June 28. Erick Morillo’s Subliminal sessions are on Wednesdays at Pacha
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