Despite last minute venue changes, technical upsets and a fraught few months in the Buenos Aires scene, Pete Tong recently played his first club night in Argentina before heading off to 60,000 fans at Brazil’s Skolbeats Festival. In an exclusive interview, Ryan Gawn managed to speak to him about Miami, South America and his future plans.

Pete Tong, this is your third time here in Buenos Aires – you’ve been here for Creamfields and the South American Music Conference. Can you tell me a little bit about those events and Argentina?

I think Argentina is one of the main destinations in South America. A load of my friends were coming down here and just raving about Pachá in particular. I felt I knew a lot about here before I ever came here and it’s quite ironic that I’ve never got to play the club that everyone’s talked about, but that’s just the way it’s been so far - I’ve never played Pachá Buenos Aires. I also think that I knew about it through my experiences in Ibiza, as there are a lot of people from South America there and just getting to know different characters helped me get to know the place. I kind of felt that I already knew what I was getting into when I first arrived in Argentina. Creamfields was great, I got looked after really well and played before Hernan Cattaneo.

Was it what you expected?
Pretty much, yeah. I think out of all the places in the world I’ve played, the Argentinean crowd is the closest to the Spanish / Ibiza crowd. And then when I played South American Music Conference it was great. It was well attended, and I thought that in their first year it was great. I had a few issues with the technical way it was set up - for some reason, even though I was top of the bill, I ended up playing the side room instead of the main room, I don’t know why that was, but other than that I thought the event was good.

Pete Tong

What do you think about the South American music industry? What are they contributing to the international scene?
I think at the moment it’s still quite limited. I think that events like the South American Music Conference give more exposure to what’s going on down here, and the first successes are obviously Marky from Brazil and Hernan from Argentina. They have definitely been contributing and providing more talent to the world stage, given the size of the market. It’s early days, it’s a positive start. It’s an amazing destination, I love Argentina and fell in love Brazil as well. They really are great places to play.

Why do you think Radio 1 chose Skolbeats and Brazil for their first live Essential Mix from South America, instead of perhaps the South American Music Conference in Argentina?

I think it’s a very expensive thing to do when you take the radio station abroad like that and I think, first and foremost, that it’s a public service radio station funded by the public and every time we go abroad we have to feel that it can really be justified. I think it’s simply a thing of merit and the right time in the market for Skolbeats. It’s been running for six years, and so it has the right to be covered in the same way as Sonar was in Spain. I think English listeners want the kind of romance and journey of going to exotic places and I think it takes time. The South American Music Conference was the first one and it’s currently in its formative years, so who knows what the future holds.

You are aware of the nightclub fire here in Buenos Aires in December and the subsequent clamp-down by the authorities on venues - can you see how that has affected the industry here?
Yeah, massively. I think it’s devastating. Obviously there are issues that needed to be tackled out here. It’s not that Buenos Aires has been singled out or victimized, I think that any city in the world that had to encounter that kind of incident, would respond the same. It doesn’t really matter whether one person dies or it’s as horrific as it was here where 200 people died, but it does take something like that to shake people into action and sort things out. I remember growing up in London and probably one of the most notorious fires was actually at a house party in South London, and that changed a lot of things concerning how clubs were licensed, fire limits and fire law etc. What Buenos Aires is experiencing now is probably a very severe knee-jerk reaction to try and correct things. I’m sure most people that go to clubs in Buenos Aires would feel that 90% of what’s being done is unfair, but that’s what happens. It’s tough. I didn’t realize until I got here that Pachá was still closed.

Pete Tong

Do you feel that the city’s measures will deter international DJs from coming down to Buenos Aires?
Well if it’s empty tonight I’ll be peeved. If it’s busy, then not really. They knew weeks before I got here and they still had me here, so I expect a good night. Hopefully it’ll pass, it’s still only four months ago, but it is a serious thing that happened and you can’t expect it to just blow over. Some venues have got to be made safer, people have got to adjust the way they run the events, and there are things to be done. What they’re saying to me here is that one of the ridiculous measures they’re talking about concerns the space available. I think that’s going to be the biggest battleground out of all of this. People are talking about the number of people allowed per square metre of space. But the problem is that obviously you can’t have a club that in the old days could hold 3000, and now can suddenly only hold 500 people.

Talking about safety and security, what happened at Red Bull Mansion during this year’s Miami Winter Music Conference?
I think it’s quite simple. What happened was that during the build-up to the conference, a lot of people maybe got a little bit overexcited and a bit greedy about renting out places for throwing parties. I think that the people who were renting them out didn’t have the licenses to do what they said they’re going to do. So what happened with Red Bull Mansion was that they put a few parties on the day before our party, and that flagged up a whole bunch of problems – sound levels, time they were running, amount of people going there… They had some very heavy hitting residents around living in very expensive apartments who had a lot of clout with the police, and so it got shut down. So we never really got started. They were trying to shut us down before we even opened. There’s nothing you can do, it was just the wrong venue and I feel sorry for Red Bull who paid a fortune to pull it off. It’s just one of those things – it all went Pete Tong!

A lot of people commented that at Miami there was excessive security, and that it had a negative impact on the experience. Do you feel that Miami is going downhill, maybe the novelty has worn off?
I don’t think you can say that. Given that it’s now 20 years running. I actually thought this year was really good. I had problems this year that were probably more dramatic than I can remember from any time I’ve ever been there. Having said that, you know, it happened at Spring Break, it happened at Easter, and that was the city’s choice and they wanted to do it like that. It’s very rare that they’ve done it like that, and that causes problems in itself, as they put so many people in one place at one time. You’d think that anybody really smart would think, we have this event that’s going to attract these people, an event that’ll attract these people, we’re going to milk it, and put everybody on different weekends, and make Miami spread over 6 weeks. What they did was try and put everybody there at one time. To be honest, I think it’s so successful, everywhere was full, whatever party you put on was full. There’s usually so many parties that there’s not enough people to go around, so from a sheer attendance level, every single club I went to was packed. Every single one - I didn’t go anywhere where it wasn’t busy. But the side effect of that was that any of the legalized spaces were completely inaccessible - they all got really full, so not everybody could get in. The problems all came from the one-off places like the Garden. The hotels were actually ok, I didn’t hear of any problems with the hotels. It was the mansions, the houses, the Versace house - they were the ones getting all the hassle.

Back to South America, any South American artists or DJs that we should look out for?
No, I’m hoping to discover some tomorrow. Marky and Hernan are the big ones, but there’s a few new guys that people are talking about... …I’m very interested to hear Patife, as everyone’s talking about his sets.

Pete Tong

Expectations for tonight?
They had to move the venue at the last minute, and I think they’ve managed to move the entire sound system from Mint into Museum. This is my first actual club gig, so I’ll be peeved if it doesn’t go well. Should be good.

On to your new movie, “It’s all gone Pete Tong”, can you tell us a bit about that?
It opened in New York today. I’ve always been involved with movies, I’ve been involved with Human Traffic, and the producer of that always wanted to do another film. They came up with this concept one day of doing it about a DJ and they came up with the title. It took a couple of years to get a director and a story together and then shoot it in 2003.

Did you have any input into that?
Yeah, I had input into the scripts, the music, my name obviously, so I get an associate producer credit, I did a few tracks for it (Pete Tong & Chris Cox – More Intensity, Lingua Franca – Serendipity) and I’m in it at the start. I’m also involved quite heavily in promoting it and I’m quite proud of it. It’s won lots of awards already, it’s pretty good and I really enjoy it. I think it’s very unusual, really funny, fu%&ing funny, and yet it’s also quite touching as well with a bit of dark side to it. Paul Kaye’s performance in it is unbelievable, total method-acting for the part, which really comes out on screen.

Any other artists that you’re really enjoying?
Cassius’s Phillipe Zdar has just made a brilliant solo album, and I think that everything that Fanciulli’s doing on his label Skylark is really good. There are so many people. There’s a lot of good music out there and it’s a really exciting time. Also, the Silicon Soul album, “Staring into Space” is great.

Any comments on the tracks you’re doing with Chris Cox?
He’s a lovely guy. He lives far away from me, and it’s tough to get together. We did a little session in Miami, then New York and he’s coming to London to work with me next month. We just did vocals before I came down and we are working on another track for the summer. To be honest, we didn’t know each other before, and got put together by a manager and we really hit it off. He’s a very talented guy.

Any thoughts on your coming residency at Pachá Ibiza, Friday nights?
We’re on our 3rd year, and it seems to get better and better. We’ve been working busily all through the Winter getting the campaign together and booking the DJs. Last year we took it to another level and I think we’re going to do it again this year.

Can you tell me about how you like to orchestrate the night, how involved you get?

It’s a better way of affecting what’s going on - - it’s a good way of being involved at every level, Pachá has given me the opportunity, and I can’t really complain. I’m booking all the DJs and it’s a better way of expressing yourself really. It’s like a family over there and it takes time, they’re quite old school, a very Spanish way of life and you have to really earn the right to be there… It’s actually my 4th year there with them, the first year I was with Oakie on Tuesdays, but this is my 3rd year on Fridays coming up.

Your Essential Selection broadcasts around the world online and here in Argentina on Metrodance and in the US on XM radio. Any progress on your vision for a global radio show?

The way technology’s changing, the question is whether it’ll come via myself from a website or whether it’s going to come via syndication and through radio stations. Radio 1 is the most amazing platform to be on at the moment. No one comes close anywhere around the world where I’ve been in having the impact globally that you can have by being on Radio 1.

Last one. A fight between Carl Cox and Brandon Block - who wins?
Cox, easily. He’s in training!

Photos courtesy of Marissa Seamans