| Rafi Levin |
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| Friday, 11 November 2011 23:12 |
 Rafi is one of the DJ’s playing at the Music Travel Earth 2011 event. He’s an interesting character so I have no doubt his set is going to kick ass! This is what he had to say to Mr Spencer… Welcome to SA Rafi! You are playing at the Music Travel earth event this coming Friday. What can our SA clubbers expect from your set? Thank you very much!!! I am very excited to come and play here....you can expect lots of twists and turns and lots of movement on the dance floor! Do you play a variation of genres in your sets? How does this contribute to the overall journey you are creating? Yes...I do try to incorporate a few different genres to keep the sets more interesting. I like to keep the crowd guessing a bit ...this way they don’t get to bored with you and wonder off the dance floor. I like to throw in some older timeless tracks and always try breaking a track or two and see how the people react. At the end if you can dance to it..I am playing it:) Tell us about your brand “Quartz People”, what’s that all about? What are you producing at the moment that we can look forward to? Quartz People started in 2009 when DJ Vernand and I decided to start fusing dance genres with some rock and punk.....out came this mixture of techno fueled with deep bass lines, psy melodies and heavily processed vocals...right now we are working on a couple of more minimal tunes soon to be released on Quartz Lock Records. What’s the international dance scene like at the moment? Are there still up for it clubbers all over the world? Which country has in your opinion the best party people? I think the scene in general is bigger than ever. I read about new artist and DJ's on a daily basis and it appears that they all manage to show their talents on one platform or another, so no shortage of venues or people to fill these venues. If I would have to choose a country with the hardest party people I would have to say Miami. Given the chance they will rock out for days and then show up to work on Monday like nothing happened. We know the digital versus vinyl debate has come and gone but what in your opinion is the ideal platform to DJ on at the moment and do you know of any other cool technologies out there for DJing? Well given today's choices I would say CD's. The quality of the music being played through the MP3 platforms is really poor and with CD's you can still play quality WAV files which makes a BIG difference to your sets. Yes using these other platforms gives you a chance to be very creative with your sets and could leave quite the impression, but in context of pure music quality I would have to lean toward using wav's :) What is your opinion on the future of live DJing like the Beardyman for instance? Do you think that’s where it’s going? I hope that future DJ's start adding more live elements to their sets...guitars, wind instruments, even live drums(not perc). In my opinion it would add more depth to the everyday two dimensional DJ playing the same top 100 tunes. I very happy to see more DJ’s making Live sets because you can always expect some interesting new tricks and additions in their mixes. Where is it going...we will have to wait and see:) You are obviously one passionate DJ, how did it all start and what are your plans for the future? It all started with a John Digweed CD, Global Underground. After listening to it I was blown away by how carefully the tracks were picked to take me on this unforgettable journey. In the future I hope to spend lots more time in the studio defining my sound, twisting and turning melodies into tracks that hopefully one day leave the same impression on someone else. Who in your opinion is a good producer and/or DJ to watch out for internationally? Besides the many choices on Quartz Lock Records:), Someone to look out for would be Contraband. These guys are producing top quality music. Their production is superb and with every song original or remixed they seem to be able to deliver the goods! Already making a name for themselves these guys are a force to be reckoned with. Do you have any advice for bedroom DJ’s who want to make it to the top? YES!!!!...Make sure you don’t forget why you started to DJ to begin with...lots of people do and it shows in their sets. If you could get a residency at any club in the world where would it be? Panorama in Berlin What do you think of the whole music piracy issue? Record companies hate it but individual artists love it because it gives them more freedom. What is your take on it? Piracy is never a good thing. Speaking as a label owner I would rather people buy music from us instead of stealing it, but I can also see through the artist eyes. What to date has been your best moment behind the decks? I would have to say at PULP SYNC winter music conference in Miami 2011. Unforgettable party:) Thank you Rafi. Do you have any words for the Mr Spencer community? Thank you guys for having me in your beautiful country and I hope to see you guys Friday night on the playground! Check out the event here: |