If you're not familiar with Mr. Zabiela, it's time we bring up you up to speed.  At the age of 23, James has already garnered the respect of veterans such as Carl Cox, Lee Burridge, & John Digweed.  Sasha even fondly refers to James as the Guv'nor, in reference to the young DJ's wizardry on a sound system.  Mr. Zabiela is known for his unique blend of breakbeat, tech-house, and all-out assaults on Pioneer CDJ-1000's.  This past summer he held a residency at arguably the best club in the world: Space in Ibiza.  In a recent tour through the southern part of the U.S., James was kind enough to talk to NOLAED about his rapid rise to the top, his infamous scratching on CDJ's, and where he goes to get his fix of Forum Crack.

You’ve turned some heads over the past year by incorporating scratching on CDJ-1000’s into your sets.  Did you first learn to scratch on turntables or did you jump directly onto the CDJ’s?

I learned on turntables.  The CDJ’s are great.  You can do all sorts of different scratches, like cue scratches where you loop the record and hit cue.  You can use different patterns and just get mad sounds.  And of course, a CD never jumps, so you can be rhythmic and quite heavy-handed with it.  In most clubs, the stylus will jump when the deck is on springs, because there’s feedback.  All the scratch records I had I actually burned onto CD’s, and now I just use the CD’s.

As a follow-up, there has been talk of you scratching without the use of the cross-fader.  Initially, is this true and if so how exactly do you accomplish it?

Well, especially in America, there’s no cross-fader on a lot of the mixers, like the Rane mixers.  So I just worked out a little scratch trick that you can do with records or CD’s with certain short sounds.  You go into the sounds and out the other side, so it sounds like there’s a fader where it’s getting chopped.  So it’s just a little scratch I developed to not need the cross-fader.

In some respects, your career was truly launched after you won Muzik Magazine’s Bedroom Bedlam contest.  As such, what are your thoughts on the recent demise of the publication?

It’s sad.  But the magazine went in sort of a weird direction.  I think they stepped away from the more underground sort of thing and went to putting Justin Timberlake & Puff Daddy on the cover.  I think in a way they alienated some of their readership, and that combined with the lack of advertising just didn’t help.  That being said, though, I can’t thank Muzik Mag enough for what they did for me.

In practically every interview you’ve done, you’re always asked about Sasha and how it feels to be his protégé, etc., etc.  However, there is something to be said for the student surpassing the teacher.  So here’s a new one for you:  if Sasha could learn one thing from you, what would it be?

Um, I don’t know.  (pauses) I honestly don’t know.  The other day he got a CDJ-1000 taken to his hotel room and practiced on that for a while.  I don’t know if that’s my influence or not.  I was showing him some of the things he could do, because until recently he never really played CD’s.  He would always just get acetates cut.  But that’s just crazy, getting acetates cut for everything.  It’s very time consuming, and very expensive. And then they wear out!  So I don’t know, I really don’t want to answer that question.  (laughs)  It would sound like I was bragging or something.  It’s a nice question, though.

Over the past two years you’ve had the opportunity to play in several of the major cities in the United States.  From a club perspective, which American city has been your favorite, and why?

I don’t think I have a favorite, because every time I come I have a new favorite.  The first time I came, I think my favorite gig was probably Charlotte, NC.

Really?

(Laughs)  And everyone says “Really?” when I say that!  But it was just ace.  It was a really small room, with a party vibe.  And then the second time I came, I think L.A. or Atlanta was probably my favorite.  So it kind of changes every time.  It really depends on the people, the night, and then the atmosphere.  So I don’t really have a favorite, but I’d really like to go back to Charlotte.  And I’d like to come back to Houston, as well, because it was really awesome, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have because I was so ill.  I’d like to come back when I was feeling better so I could bounce around and have a laugh with the crowd and stuff.  This time I just felt so groggy; it was horrible.

In the past you’ve said that you occasionally peruse online message boards to see what fans and critics alike are saying about the electronic scene, and often-times you.  Which boards do you usually hit?

There’s a load actually. I go to a tech-house board, a breakbeat board.  There’s a message board called Further which is a board for all sorts of different music.  There’s an American board called Skank which is really fun.  They do all sorts of insane stuff on there.  Of course there’s the Global Underground message board, the Bedrock message board; there’s just loads.  If I was really sad, I could sit here and list them all day.  (laughs)  But then I’d never get in practicing in or any production done.  But yeah, I like to log on and see what’s going on and what people are thinking and saying.

The track selection in your performances attests to the fact that you have diverse musical interests.  What do you listen to in your spare time or just to relax?

All sorts.  I listen to the Postal Service, Elbow, Boards of Canada, just all sorts.  I listen to old terrible 80’s pop music like from The Wedding Singer.  You know, it’s cool to have those influences, like Tears For Fears.  The drums in “Shout” are amazing.  There’s a ridiculous reverb on these metallic drums.  So everything, absolutely everything.

Several months ago, when Sound In Motion was released, I read a write-up you put together describing exactly what you were doing on the mixer and CDJ’s to manipulate each track.  What prompted you to put in writing the intricacies of your DJing activity?

Alright, that’s easy.  We were trying to get sponsorship from Pioneer, so I did that to kind of show them how I was using their equipment.  I sent that to them, and somehow it got leaked onto some of the message boards.  Then there was quite a lot of interest in it, so Hooj just decided to put it up on their site in the end.  So that’s how that came about.  I just scribbled everything down.

What do you know about New Orleans, and (most importantly) when are you coming to visit us? 

Aren’t R.E.M. from New Orleans?

Not that I’m aware of, although I could be sadly mistaken and then I’ll get hate mail from all their fans.

I’m not sure if they are, but I know they’ve done a track with the words “New Orleans” in the title.  I’m a massive R.E.M fan.  And going back to your previous question about what I listen to, I listen to a lot of their stuff.  I don’t know when I’m coming there.  I really don’t know that much about it, but then again I don’t know much about Texas either, aside from that they’re big into oil over here.  (laughs)  But I’d love to get down to New Orleans soon.  I mean, anywhere I haven’t been before I want to go there.  It’s all a big adventure at the moment.

Over the next 24 months, what should fans of Mr. Zabiela be watching for in the way of tracks, albums, and tours?

24 months?  Two years.  Well, I expect to put together another mix CD.  I just got this EFX unit which I didn’t have when I did the Hooj CD, so the next one will be even crazier I guess.  I’m always trying to learn new tricks.  So, I’d like to do another CD at some point, possibly early next year.  I’m working with a record label called Hearing Aid.  So I’m going to have some releases out on that.  And I’m actually working on some original material at the moment, but I haven’t finished anything.  It will probably be next year before I have something complete and ready to release it.

And in the way of tours do you have anything?  I know you’re in the middle of a small fall tour right now, but do you have anything on the horizon.

Well, I seem to be constantly going from place to place, so I’m going to end up near you at some point.