Upon meeting James Zabiela two things struck us: how young and how talented he is. Definitely a winning combination of this so-called "bedroom" DJ whose career skyrocketed in the space of just three years. Our encounter was in New York City, after his performance at Cielo, to promote his recent "Utilities" album. And what a night! Reading the crowd to perfection he layered upon them his signature warped and twisted electro beats which the crowd embraced with open arms and moving feet. After four long nights of performance we met him at his hotel for a quick chat and an espresso --which he found way too strong, but that inspired a lively conversation about his new CD, his ongoing tour, as well as his love for all things high tech...

It was great seeing your performance last night at Cielo.

Oh, you were there! Great! It was fun! I loved the sound system in there, so clear. And when you finish the night your ears aren't ringing. The sound is really nice.

You also played in DC last night, which we also cover. How was that? Was it different from last night?

Yes, last night was a small party with a lot of fun people, whereas DC was a big party, more of a big room, not rave-y, but that kind of vibe. So, there were both very good but in different ways.

Yes, those venues have quite different vibes. So, let's talk a little bit of your new CD "Utilities". You tackle the debate over the future of DJing, which mention promently on the CD sleeve. Why did you decide to do that?

I don't know really. To be honest, it was really just a case of having fun with it. I had never used Ableton, so I wanted to learn how to use it, so the first CD is really the result of that. The second CD is kind of my usual techs and effects thing. Actually last night I did a mixture of both, I used the CDJs, the effects unit, the sampler and the laptop. Actually, it is the first time I've ever done that in a club.

We did not know!

I did not advertise it in case it went wrong (laughs). It was probably mostly CDs and effects but there were a few half-hour sections where I was using Ableton. It was nice to be able to do everything.

So which of the two technologies do you prefer?

It depends on what you are doing. Ableton is good for when you are doing DJ mash-ups and totally re-editing something; when you do stuff like that, Ableton comes in really handy because it frees you up to add more things for effects and really work it. Whereas the whole live techs and effects and the sampler thing, I find that more spontaneous. I guess I do still prefer to beat mix and do the effects, but I just like to inject the Ableton thing in as well.

So is this your next thing?

I don't think I could do entire sets just from Ableton. If I use it for long periods of time I feel like I am sort of cheating myself, cause if you are just going to play one track into another --cause not every track needs to be dissected, effected, and taken apart... some records are nice just as they are-- you might as well just use turntables. Ableton beat mixes for you, so it's like you are not doing anything. So with it you have to be careful to use it in the right way and not to abuse it.

So, what about the DVJ? We heard you use that too!

Oh, yeah! That is fun as well. I have used it a few times, it's fun. I took Star Wars DVDs and started scratching them up and it comes up on the screen, pretty cool. It does not work in every venue, I don't think it would have worked so well at Cielo last night. It needs to be somewhere where the DJ has a huge screen behind him. I did it at Zouk in Singapore which is a long oblong room, but when I was playing half the people were looking at me and half the people were looking at the screen, it was really weird. So it did not work so well there. But then I did it at Wombs in Tokyo which was a huge square room with a massive screen behind me and that worked really well because people could associate the two.

In the “Utilities” CD you also have your first original productions. How do you feel about producing, is this something you want to do more of?

Yes, it is actually. It was Ableton that got me into finally motivating myself to finish a track. DJing aside, the Ableton program is really a sequencer for making music and before I was using that, I was using Keybase and Reason and I find it is a really long process to arrange a track in those applications, whereas with Ableton you just do loops and you can mash them together and do loads of different arrangements in a really short space of time. So I never found myself writing a tune and getting bored of it before it got finished, so it really helped. With that in mind, I think it is much easier to get an idea and get it down straight away.

I noticed you come up with all these very techie names for your tracks. You seem to be very much into sci-fi, the technological wave...

That is precisely it, I am just a huge nerd basically (laughs). I am a really big fan of Star Wars and Dr. Who, which is a UK science fiction program, it is very cool, a huge thing in the UK. Myself and Danny Howells actually are big fans and we are always trading DVDs with each other. I kind of grew up on that, all those sort of things that you love when you are a ten year old kid, and I just never came out of that.

You've stated several times that your style is a mix of styles, so how do you get to pick your tracks?

I just listen to it and if I like it then.... you know I am not going to play gabba or hard-core techno, or anything like that. Sometimes I play the odd DnB record, but not very often. Althouth it is a mix of styles, it's still within certain confines. I like acid-y, well-produced, lots of nice spin and effects, and... just good music I guess. It is hard to describe...

You tend to prefer using not so well-known tracks, as well. Is educating people something that you like to do?

I think even if you are not a DJ, it is always a nice feeling to give someone a piece of music and, if they really love it, have them phone you the next day saying "the track you gave me is so nice!", so it is always great to turn someone else onto a new piece of music they never heard. That is really cool. But, you know, I just play what I like. If people have not heard of it and they like it it's great, and if they don't like it, that kind of sucks but...

I guess that happens. So what is up next, what are your plans?

I am going to finish this tour, I have another two weeks left. It's only the first weekend. I've done four dates already, I did Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So yesterday was my last day until Wednesday. I was feeling a bit tired, but I had a good sleep... you just got me out of bed.

Oh, sorry! Just a couple more questions... Anybody in particular that has inspired you?

There's loads of people... I have to look at my iPod to reference them. All the music I play, all the people that make that music...

But who's had the greatest impact on you?

I don't think I could say any one person. I grew up listening to Depeche Mode and a lot of that sort of electronic pop stuff. All that was so huge in the UK when I was growing up. And my dad worked for a record shop and used to bring home old techno and house records when I was like 12. Although I did not actually like them at the time... I sort of grew into them and got really fond of that sound. DJ-wise, I listen to everyone from Sasha, a huge name like that, to someone like Dennis Rodgers, a guy from NY who gave me this t-shirt last night. Yeah, all sort of different DJs, not just house DJs, breakbeats, just a real cross section of different stuff.

Which do you consider the best venues that you played at? The best audience?

I don't know really, there are so many great places. Like I said, everywhere is different. Nation in DC and Cielo are so completely different and yet I had an equal amount of fun at both, so I don't really have a favorite. But if I have to speak off the top of my head, sort of in the last 3 or 4 months, I did Womb in Tokyo which is unbelievable, and I did a place in Lithuania called Thorn Palace. But it really wasn't the venue that made it good, it was the people. The venue was a kind of concert hall, nothing special, just a space. But the people were really into the music.

Ok, I have this last, sort of goofy question... You have this picture with all these little robots on the CD sleeve. What is that all about?

Oh, well... if you came to my apartment you would see them...

So they are all yours?

Oh, that is not even half of them! (collective laughter), I've got so many! Cause I have just been to Japan I came back with even more.... I am moving into a new place soon so I decided I need to tidy up a bit, and keep all the robots maybe in one room cause people get scared when they come over...

Yes, the one you are holding in the picture seems so mean... it says “kill all humans” (laughter)

That's Bender from Futurama, I don't think he means it really!

Ok, that is it... It was lots of fun, thanks a lot for chatting with us.