This post is also available in: Nederlands (Dutch)
We met during ADE 2014. Paulo Pereira a.k.a. DJ/producer A.Paul often played in The Netherlands, so we share some friends and we became friends. By now, I’ve stayed twice at his home in Lisbon and he stayed at my place. In 2014 I interviewed A.Paul a.k.a. mr. Naked Lunch Records about his first gig. “For a moment, I was horrified.”
“My first gig was in 1998 on a student party. That gig wasn’t as easy as I thought on beforehand. I was already playing in my bedroom for a few years and technically I was all right.
No monitors
“The planned location had a considerable size. It was filled till the roof and the speakers were place a long way from the DJ booth. On top of that, there were no monitors. Therefore, I feared that I wouldn’t be able to mix. Or not until I knew how I could compensate the delay of sound in the booth.”
Quite frustrating
“It was quite frustrating, because I myself believed that I was already a pretty good DJ, and this technical issue totally sabotaged my set. In the end, I succeeded to mix. I tried to do it via my headphones and that worked. All fell into place. For a moment though, I was horrified by the idea that my set would go wrong in front of this many people.”
My poor neighbors
“Soon after, I met the promotor who was also a DJ and later became a friend. I bought my first Technics decks from him and the speakers from that first gig party. This way, I was able to play more and better. My poor neighbors weren’t always happy with me, but it was important that I practiced with a system that had a little more power.” (laughs)
“I didn’t take long, until I could start playing at a small bar and a few months later my big chance came in the Portugese province Alentejo. I played in a huge club there, named Arrepios, which means ‘goose bumps’ in Portugese. This residency changed my life!”
This interview is originally published in August 2014 on DJMag.nl.