The Man, The Myth, The Magic: A Chat With DJ Harvey

Awarded with only the coolest of accolades, which have seen him dubbed the ‘DJs’ DJ’, the ‘Keith Richards of dance music’ and ‘a living legend’, DJ Harvey has gained the kind of reputation that could easily go to your head. And yet, when we meet him at Pikes Ibiza to chat about his much beloved cult party at the iconic venue and its impending new compilation The Sound Of Mercury Rising, out at the end of the month as the first release of the newly launched Pikes Records, he is as humble and friendly as they come. Also, we want to steal his whole outfit. From the vintage Goodyear cap to the Adidas trainers, the British turntable icon simply oozes cool, even when he is fighting to shake off the tiredness from his last party, where he delivered another of his legendary six-hour sets.

Pottering about in Freddie’s Suite as we chat he looks utterly at home at Pikes, which named him its Cultural Attaché at the beginning of the summer – meaning Harvey has been more involved than ever in creating that special atmosphere that makes people fall in love with the quirky venue. As well as bringing his eclectic sound to the rock ‘n’ roll hotel and party space, he has also used his innate sense of style to help redesign the club and applied his love of food to create the restaurant menu for Monday nights, when Mercury Rising takes over Pikes. He tells us, “It’s an amazing place. I have always come to Pikes on my trips to Ibiza and I thought would love to do a residency. I believe that you manifest your destiny, so I put it out there and that’s what happened.” Here, Harvey gives us insight into a partnership that was clearly destined to be, as well as his treasure trove of a record box…

How has your third season of Mercury Rising been so far?
Amazing. I’m very happy. The party has been going from strength to strength and we’ve done some work to Freddie’ – it’s the same but better – by putting in a new sound system and new lights, so it’s all pretty exciting stuff really.

How did your new role at Pikes come about?
I tend to go above and beyond the call of duty – I don’t just show up and play music. I like to decorate and coordinate, tune the soundsystem and do the lighting and those sort of things, and the Pikes family saw that I was making a little bit more of an effort and created a job for me. It just means that I’m a little more involved than just DJing, both with the space and the new record label. The Pikes family is really cool; everyone from Dawn and Andy to Mika and Sunny are super accommodating and they have really embraced me here.

We can’t wait for the Mercury Rising compilation. How did you choose the tracks?
It’s really just a selection of music that I play. It’s only the tip of the iceberg, of course, because I play every Monday for six hours and the compilation is only around an hour and half, two hours long, so it’s just a little flavour. But it’s a little cross section of the kind of stuff you would hear if you would come to a Mercury Rising party.

Your sets are famously eclectic. Do you even remotely prepare what you are going to play before a set?
No, I don’t really have anything programmed for the nights. Before I came out to Ibiza I put together a virtual record box of maybe 500 to 1000 tunes that I might choose from to play at Mercury Rising – it’s a little stick that says ‘Merc ‘17’ on it and there’s a bunch of music on it which I’ll select from on any given night and at any given time, but there’s no sort of plan for it because it’s difficult to plan six hours. The people determine what the next record is. I’m like a sushi chef if you like, I present them with one piece and the way they react to it determines what the next piece will be.

What we love about your sets is that you don’t even need to bother trying to ‘shazam’ your records, because most of the time they won’t be recognised…
I mean… I like it when that happens. If you really want to know what the record is, the best way to find out is just to come and ask me and I may or may not tell you depending on how precious I am about that particular tune. But yes, I play a really wide range of music – some stuff you might be familiar with like the classic disco and house music tracks, but also brand new stuff that has only been produced in the last couple of weeks. And then I throw in some obscure stuff that you probably won’t be able to ‘shazam’, some real rarities.

We have to ask – how to find these gems?
Just through my network of friends and family… and people who sort of just give me music and suggest things to me. I don’t trawl through Beatport or similar websites listening to thousands and thousands of records. I’ll be in the car or a boutique and a record will come on that I like… I’m just aware of the music around me.

And lastly, do you have a message for your Mercury Rising family?
Love is the message. And, ‘live with aloha’.

The Sound Of Mercury Rising will be released September 29th on Pikes Records. DJ Harvey and his infamous all night long sets for Mercury Rising are at Pikes Hotel every Monday until the 25th of September. For further information head to www.pikesibiza.com.