Interview :: Fuzzy director John Wall is (strictly) addicted to vinyl

June 4th 2014

J Wall Black Jacket

If you’ve ever got down with the beats at events like Parklife, Field Day or Harbourlife – you best be getting down to ‘Strictly Vinyl 2’ this weekend. It’s a rare chance to hear a set from legendary festival producer John Wall, spinning wax from his collection that numbers almost a quarter of a mil! He’ll strut his vinyl stuff on Sunday night alongside the soulful sounds of Ariane and Touch Sensitive.

Alex Eugene got the lowdown on old-school DJing and the mind behind the music.

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Where did this vinyl obsession start for you?

I was about 15, and this girl walked into the school disco dressed in vinyl…

What’s your favourite thing about the medium of records?

Nice big covers, which in many cases trigger great memories.

Where were your favourite places to find records before they came back into fashion?

All the great stores in Sydney like Spank, Reachin’, Central Station, the crusty old second hand stores that used to line Pitt Street near World Square…. just to name a few.

Have you bought music that was new at the time and is now old enough to be ‘retro’? (It’s interesting to be getting nostalgic about the 90’s and early noughties for instance, as Strictly Vinyl 2 is)

Yep, 100% of it. These days retro is anything more than a few months old!

SV_vinyl-03

Tell us about one of your techniques DJing with vinyl that can’t be done with a button on a digital set of decks.

To be honest, nothing that matters. Vinyl is great for nostalgia, but people who say it’s objectively “better” are kidding themselves.

With a collection of 20,000 records you must need a system! How do you find what you’re looking for? Would you ever go all out and order autobiographically, John Cusack style?

Ha ha, I’d love to. Actually no I wouldn’t, it would take the rest of my life… They’re actually catalogued on a computer so I can search by artist, title, year, tempo, key and more… took about a decade to do that!

Do you keep them all in a huge room or are they all over your house?

They’re in the Fuzzy office.

We know it’s a killer question – but which record(s) is/are your favourite?

I have hundreds, probably thousands of favourites!

 

 

WHAT :: Strictly Vinyl 002

WHO :: Touch Sensitive (DJ set), John Wall (Fuzzy), Ariane

WHERE :: The Cliff Dive, 16 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst

WHEN :: Sunday 8 June – Long Weekend Special – 9pm-3am

HOW MUCH :: FREE all night!

 

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