CARL COX
EP 001 / 10.03.2021
FROM TECHNO
TO THE TRACK
Part1
Carl Cox: 00:05
There was no template for success, there was no template for making music, there was no template for how to make a party or run a party. It was just how you felt, at the time, whatever you felt that you could basically give is what I had given, it was never about taking at all. And for me, it's never about taking any. And I've always said to myself, if I get paid to do anything, it's an absolute bonus. Thank you very much. If you've enjoyed yourself, and you want to show some gratitude by paying me and then thank you. I mean, it's not the same for racecar drivers, it's the same for horse races. It's the same for tennis players. The same for any professional footballers, footballers get 10 times more money than God, you know, but if he kicks that ball in the goal at a particular time, and you pay your season ticket subscription, and that's all you want to see happen, you're more than happy to go. That's why I pay my season ticket. So for me, the driver has never been about what I'm getting out of it. It's what I can give to it, to what I get out of it. And I think if there was a secret to success. For me, I think it's always been about that because I've never chased anything.
Farah Nanji: 01:14
You're listening to the Mission Makers show, a podcast that inspires humans to get into the mindset of success. My name is Farah Nanji, and I'm the founder of a business in the Motorsports industry that explores leadership lessons from things like Formula One. I'm also a DJ and music producer in the underground electronic scene, and a public speaker on key topics like resilience, building high performance teams, overcoming learning difficulties and stimulating creativity. And to tie it all together, I love writing thought provoking content as a journalist for these industries, which is so unique in themselves. On this show, I'm sitting down with some of the most inspiring and driven people I've met around the world to talk about their processes, their failures, the lessons they've learned, and how they are truly making an impact on this world.
So guys, we are back to season two of the Mission Makers podcast and I am so excited to share that our first episode is with none other than the world famous DJ and drag racer Carl Cox. It's been really hard staying quiet about this episode. But as someone who's been one of the founding fathers of electronic music since the 90s. He is a man that needs absolutely no introduction. For decades on and his passion, his humility, and his hunger shines through so strongly in this episode. And it's easy to see why he's so loved by millions of people around this world. He's genuinely a legend. And our conversation was so good that we didn't stop talking for two hours. And so I have to say a huge thank you to him for being so generous with his time. And as a result, we've decided to make this a two part special. In this episode, we discussed the difficult decision Carl had to make early on in his life between motor sports or music, the defining moments in his career and how he reads energy amongst other things.
Carl, thank you so much for joining us today on Mission Makers, we are so honoured to have you on the show. How is your day going to or should I say your evening? I think you're currently in Australia, correct?
Carl Cox: 03:22
Yeah, Melbourne, Australia, we're in the midst of our summer here. Now. We had a cracker day today, up to I think 27 or 28 degrees. I know you guys don't want to hear that, you know, sunshine in the evening. It's just a sunset, he just started to go down now. And the heat. As you can tell, I'm still sweating a little bit here. But it's like it's nice here at the moment. You know, I mean, Melbourne kind of weather goes up and down, you know, at the end of the day, but when it's a good day, it's really nice and but unfortunately we're still on lockdown at the moment, we had a five day lockdown. So we can go five times around where we live but we can't go out you know, cruising and going to a restaurant and can't do any of that stuff. So, so yeah, so all the stuff we're doing here is in my garden. And you know, to get fresh air and all that sort of stuff. It's not too bad here to be honest. It's, it's actually it's quite something of which we've been through. Obviously we first got locked down for five months, and that was through the winter. So whatever you guys are going through, we've been through that to get to this game. now I've been able to enjoy it. But at 12 o'clock tonight, they're gonna lift the lockdown and we can get back into you know, just basically living kind of hopefully COVID free life here. They sit on top of it at the moment right now.
Farah Nanji: 04:44
That's interesting. So do you have much planned for this evening?
Carl Cox: 04:49
Not really no. I mean, we wait till 12 o'clock comes off all asleep. Wake up in the morning. So yeah, I'm gonna go we're gonna run naked in might down the road or something. Celebrate.
Farah Nanji: 05:03
You had a gig recently, didn't you in Australia, is that right?
Carl Cox: 05:09
Yep, it was to be my first live performance party from a DJs point of view that I have done since this pandemic. And the venue actually has turned itself into a COVID. Free venue. So where we DJ from obviously, well, more than 1.2 metres away from everybody, everyone behind us, our audit staff have to wear masks. But our performers don't have to move around a lot. And then all the public, they have their own little kind of pod areas between the tables between six and 10. And in each individual pod basically gets played out across the grounds of where you would normally bounce, but you can still dance, you can still get out whenever the time is, but you're kind of put into different zones, but it didn't really show the atmosphere that much because he can still get up, you can still social distance, and you can still have a good time. Everyone doesn't have to wear a mask, if you open it, you don't need to wear it. It's mandatory to have a mask if you're going into a supermarket or against a petrol station, restaurant respectively. But apart from that, you can walk around quite freely without wearing masks starting at two o'clock and finishing as well. We finished at nine at nine o'clock. Yes, nice and early. I like the early ones.
Farah Nanji: 06:26
That's lovely. Did it feel quite liberating to kind of be back?
Carl Cox: 06:30
You have no idea what it felt like to me, my whole life's existence has been about, you know, playing my music to people, and people reacting and enjoying the music that I'm playing. And so not to be able to do that. You know, I mean, one day, I'll go say, right, I'm done, I'll walk away and it's fine. But at this particular moment in time, I'm not ready to do that yet. And the pandemic hasn't been able to enable me to do that, you know, to be able to perform in front of people. So you can imagine the first time I went to them and did it and I'll get out there and people are cheering and happy. And just like after the first record, I was just like it was just wonderful to be able to get back to performing again in such a way.
Farah Nanji: 07:11
That's amazing. So talking about your childhood, I know that your love of music, of course started at an early age and this saw you playing music often in the playground, could you ever have imagined it would have gotten this bag for you?
Carl Cox: 07:26
No, not really. I mean, you know, I was just the thing that was about my growing up. It's just my family. My mom and dad were born in Barbados and God rest their souls they are not with us anymore. But you know, there was always love in the family for music and my dad was always playing music in the house. My mom would really enjoy it and she shared it with her friends. And in any given moment at a party downstairs in the front row. You know there will be smoking cigarettes, drinking wine and having rum rum punch and all sorts of things. And that was only like seven or eight years old. And I'll create this frack on downstairs listening to James Brown get up off of that thing, or, oh, I'm not gonna bump into Hollywood, it's a big fat woman with all sorts of records that I was hearing. I'm just like, you know, so I went to bed one night, and I stood in the bannisters. And I was looking down on my mom and dad's friends getting down drinking, having a good time. And my dad was like, right, go to your room, go to bed, or come downstairs, put these records on and don't move until we tell you gotta pay pay records. I'm gonna play some records on my dad's records collection. And that's what it was. That's what it was like. And the player was a, like a single box player with a single mono speaker in it. And basically, you loaded up the 45 inch singles, and 10 of them, and you selected the records that are going to land and play. So I completely selected music from a very, very early age, to create the mood of where you took people. So you have to understand the music you're playing to begin with and as a standalone, I will directly shop with my father, and he will eat and at the time he was basically buying soul music, Riven, Riven and blues, Country and Western, a bit of rock and roll. I mean, he was very eclectic in his sound and reggae and Soca Music, or Calypso music from the islands of Barbados. So we had a really wide varied sound of what my mom and dad were listening to. But I was exposed to that from the right from the beginning. So I think it was almost like a destiny that I ended up being MRM in my life today. But I had to basically choose Crossroads at some point because I mean, DJs in it's a cottage industry that happened to DJ but at that particular time, the only DJs that were reaching out to anybody was radio DJs and he had to have a foster idea. Oh, you had to have that kind of flair about who he was initially about getting the music yourself across to the people with the music that you selected. And I never saw myself as that person but I would always listen to the radio to be inspired by it. And if I could find a station that was playing the music that that spoke to me, and then I would listen to that religiously, you know, from when I was 10 years old 1112, I put my headphones on, you know, go down the dials, and then find the radio station that I would listen to the music now, what would like to follow and fine. And basically, you know, right from the beginning of my life, I would say in my early days, I was always researching music, to know what I was going to buy, what I was going to play, and how I was going to play it. And then eventually, I became my father's son, you know, the son of cops play music, to all of his friends in and around the area. So I uprooted myself, and then took what that record cut box and undid the records, of course, and then propped myself in the corner of someone else's house. And I'll be doing the same thing someone else has asked. So it became very synonymous. Right, from an early age of basically sharing the love of music.
Farah Nanji: 11:04
That's amazing what a story. And I was very curious about the meaning of your name. And it was almost serendipitous to find out that your name means free man. And as we know, in the early years, music gave you that freedom, so has the essence around that freedom in your life. And the relationship with music stayed the same as your career has progressed?
Carl Cox: 11:24
Well, first and foremost, I mean, fantastic research, I never knew that my name is still for free, man. Yeah, that's very subconscious, you know, in the day to find out, you know, that might that my name stuffer so much because I've always felt free in our, in the ideal of sharing music, you know, my music or what I, in the end of the day, wanted to share my style, my dad's style of music was always funk was always soul, jazz, Latin, jazz, and eventually into hip hop, and eventually into electronic dance music from the early 80s, into where we are today. So that's a massive journey of music, of which I do share at the moment on cabin fever, which I basically do my vinyl sessions every Sunday, but you get to hear my, my life through vinyl and my correct collection. So it's for me, it's come, it's come around full circle, end of the day, based on what I used to do back in the day with vinyl, to where I am now, still sharing a lot with that vinyl today. So my enthusiasm from the beginning of when I basically started to collect music, you know, make enough money for me to kind of buy my own records, to where I am now. I'm so happy to share my life in music through vinyl. I think I think what I'm doing now is cabin fever is the only thing I can do to represent myself for who I am. Because what I really didn't really want people to feel that, you know, my holiday Tegrity or my life as a DJ has only been about two things, techno music, and I before I get no so things, but I came from the School of, of music in musicians, bands, and as songs, songwriting, you know, exposed to these elements of people who, who basically, for myself, that I've got infused by listening to these bands, you know, tracks that are arranged, guitar solos, violin pieces, all sorts of things that that embodies my image inevitable sound, to and to go deeper into my total existence of why I'm still here, after all of these years. So it all comes from these humble beginnings to begin with.
Farah Nanji: 13:47
Yeah, well, that's really, really interesting. And of course, what are different different types of sounds that are being showcased in all of those genres. And then it kind of, you know, not not pinning you to that box of just tech can only be so important for you for your musical identity. And obviously, I know you've got 150,000 Records in your vinyl collection. So you know, can only imagine just what how, how interesting that must be when you're record digging and stuff. How much of a defining moment this is going back towards the beginning of your career was the grant that you received from the Prince's Trust back in the day?
Carl Cox: 14:24
Well, the thing was, you know, back in the day, roundabout 1984/85 I knew I wasn't gonna become a radio DJ. As such, I would do some pirate radio DJ, which is a lot of fun. But I knew it early on, I reached out to so many people, it could promote the fact that you know, Carl Cox is playing and he's on at this time of day and you know, in there because of the police or whatever it is coming to, you know, find out areas or whatever this is down all the time. There was a movement in me pirate radio station, and I was involved in quite a few of them back in the day is another story, but it was one leg music out there, you know how I felt about music. And, and that was just one avenue. But I feel that you know that for me at the end of the day, it's all it's always about how I kind of grab the essence of being a DJ that that was always a trade off driven in the end of the day to, to represent myself as an individual. And on the Prince's Trust, it came up as an idea, the idea was in any business, if you could match 1000 pounds, or if you get 1000 pounds, or if you had 1000 pounds worth of equipment that would you you would use for your business, whether you're a hairdresser, wherever your chef, wherever, wherever, wherever business that you you choose to, to professing then they would match what you put into a business 1000 pounds, plus, they had to be on the dole Plus, you have to take 13 week business course to be eligible for that 1000 pounds. So I did all of that. For 13 weeks at the end of it, they said right. Okay, car, you have your certificate for passing the grant for the business trust. And, and I already had 1000 pounds worth of equipment that I've been basically working on collecting over the years as a semi professional DJ at the beginning of my career, which is roughly around about 14 or 15 years old. So I really was. So I started collecting my sound and my lights and everything. So by that time, I had more than 1000 pounds of equipment, by the time I got the grant, because I was around about 2425 years old. But it was something that really helped me, you know, springboard my, my life as a mobile DJ. So, this was the thing about me getting into, you know, people understanding that I know that I have something that other people would enjoy. And at that particular time, I just started to do school discos, friend's birthday parties, and are doing weddings at the same time. So every weekend, I was always doing a party somewhere, some for big money, some for no money, but it was just the fact that I was out there doing it was enough for me to feel that it's possible to have a bit of a messy career out of this. So what happened at the end of the day, because at that particular time to get the money to be able to run my mobile disco, I was always working very hard as a labourer in, in, in, in the building companies. So my first big job was painting and decorating. And then then I was a labourer for a bricklayer, a labourer for plaster. And then eventually I went into labour for a scaffolding company. And then eventually I really enjoyed scaffolding. And to the point that I was basically running two scaffolding games, which allowed me then to supervise those games to turn up the scaffold company into a much bigger business. So I found that my skill set for the library was one thing, but my drive to create a company and to make it bigger, or something else. So as long as I could get a good workforce together, I can build that up. So what I did was eventually, when I had this Crossroads around about 1980 1985, this happened, the princess trust came along for me to feel that I could cross over. So leave, leave the scaffolding behind, and then go and pursue my life as a mobile, self employed DJ. And that was really scary to do because I was doing it for like four or 500 pounds a week at that particular time as a scaffold, working very, very hard. Mind you, you know, to be able to do what I did, to, you know, eventually earning 50 pounds a week. Because, you know, we would never see it as a cottage industry as a whole . It was just something that we did, I did as a hobby, but I took it a lot more seriously than that. So what I did was I used to get like two or three bookings a week through the Yellow Pages. Now I used to put some of that money into the Yellow Pages for advertising. And I had this business card saying astral disco, best in soul funk and disco music, and specialise in birthday parties, weddings, blah, blah, blah, right? And I had it and I had a white card really shiny and blue light blue light writing on it. Now. Now, I've always been into the future and into the styles and that sort of stuff. And ash basically was all about that. But what it was because I've got quite sensitive skin. They had a cream that my mum used to get for me called astral cream. So I asked myself, What name could I have for my astral disco? And I thought there you go and I would love for you to have seen this card. If I still have to add an item, it might be somewhere around. But that was the very thing that kick started me as a DJ and a filter, I had enough confidence to be able to pursue that. But what I did was in the job centre, I then decided that I can't do two or three jobs a night. So I would go out in the job centre and then asked from April would my bar DJs to come to the Cypher basically met them to see if there's any good to take my place as a DJ, in what people are asking for. I know everyone wanted me at the time, but I couldn't do what I owed the trophy at a particular time. So I would want someone to go and represent me in that way. So I would basically sit there, and they will come to my house and I will be like, you know, okay, so it might be, you know, show me what you can do as something absolutely terrible. And I'll be crying. You know, if I pick that DJ and replay what at my wedding, oh my god, he's rubbish. As some are really good, you know, really good on the mic, you know, very fresh pay good sound, and a good sound good, a good sound system and that sort of stuff. So eventually what happened here? I will go out and do a booking on that night and run maybe two or three other mobile discos, which would be under my astral disco banner. But then, but then people believe that I wouldn't give you these DJs. What do you feel very good about? So therefore, I will put them on that basis. And, and this was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So I've had five DJs and an eight DJ, they, you know, mobile discos, on one night. So I will take a percentage from the bouquet because I've got a booking for them. And then there'll be an added DJ. So for me, this was like, This is great. It's not exactly what I want to be doing. But it was something that I knew that I could basically give help to other people, you know, get work and that kind of thing. So I became the catalyst for, you know, getting mobile DJs work. No one else I've guaranteed. No one else ever did that for anyone else. And based on what, what, what I was getting as attention. So for me, this is great. But I had to kind of let that go. So I'm pursuing my own DJing career, which is a bit of a shame, really, you know, I left it will never buy to run, and, and hopefully maybe still running it now, I don't know. But it did work at that particular time. But I've always said I mean, the thing is, with a self employed DJ, you know, if you don't work, you don't get paid. So you have to market yourself. At that particular time, there was no internet, nada, you had to physically go out there and put your cards in pubs and cafes, cafeterias, taxi rates, telephone boxes, whatever you could do to get your name out there. That is how you did it. And then and then reputation if you did a really good job. And people were like, wow, you're great mate. Or like, What's your name? Again? You know, how come So okay, I'll tell my friend about you. And from now on, I'll do that famous party and that famous or that friend. So I was actually getting a lot of work just through Association, not not even just through marketing. It's just that if you do the job, that's what, that's what happens. So and I've always said, you're only as good as your last job. So you did a shitty job. That's your last show.
Farah Nanji: 23:18
Yeah, well, that is really interesting. I mean, you know, one of the things that that said that hasn't changed throughout the years, particularly for for, let's say, up and coming DJs or people in the in the industry in the beginning is is not being able to predict, you know, an income stream and having that sort of reliance on you're only as good as your last gig. And yeah, this yellow pages thing sounds incredible, I would love to see a copy of that, and I hope you still I hope you still have it because that is just a piece of history right there. And, and also just, you know, there is definitely a return obviously, on the investment from the side of the grant and I love the fact that it wasn't just you know, handed over there was this whole business cause that you had to go on. And that's, that's so great in terms of, you know, trying to transcend it and, and and come up with different different ideas. And so moving into the next sort of part of the interview, a lot of people don't know that you had to make a kind of serious decision between music and Motorsports back in the day. Apart from the pure cost of going racing, what made you choose music and which came first in your life,
Carl Cox: 24:32
when what the thing was, I was in the beginning of my career as such, you know, all of my orders, the music that I'm sorry, all the money that I made, at that particular time, went back into my equipment, went back into into buying records, of course, my van that I had and cars that I had to transport my equipment in that it just went into this, but I was also drag racing my cars and you And then Carter I had really old pieces of shit cars that I would kind of take the SAT upon Raceway where I used to do a finger Yeah, the thing that is that it was called run what you brung and I used to take like anything out there and just try and get down that wrapped up as fast as I could. But every time I went down, I kept breaking something, you know, back axles that gearboxes You know, my big ends ago or something and every time I went, and I just thought, this is really expensive. This isn't working, you know? So, I just thought, well, I'll get back to that at some point. But I was always watching welder sports every Saturday morning and I had a sports rally in GP. Well superbikes sidecar racing ILM and TT anything that was like sure I would you know land speed record wish I'd I'd be watching it with just like all I knew I'd never become a writer such in that right in that realm. Like really direct. What scares me about rallying was a friend of mine in Washington. And, he had his awesome red mark one ESCO with an awesome 600 crossflow engine with Twin Twin 4340, Weber's and everything. And it just said a bloody awesome bubble. Archie is big wheel tires. And it's a car. I'm gonna go check my calendar, which will come along. I said, Yeah, no worries. So I checked in the car. And he's like, missing trees, missing trees. Over the jump jumps is key to life. happy to know that the one thing I'll never get to in my life is rallying. You see, trees going past and stuff. I literally had my hands in my eyes. This guy? Nope, nope, nope. That was it into that. But I do like, go around the circuits of brands that's done internet, give me any circuit. I really, really enjoyed that in cars, and also motorbikes as well. I do track days on whatever bike that I choose to ride. I really enjoyed it. I don't have to ride as I fought for, for motorbike riding. I do have a driver's eye for racing. But my profession, as even now today, I am a professional drag racer. I've had my licence now for about eight years. And the car that I'm kind of racing at the moment now. It's called a pro mod from the States and is over 5000 horsepower Hemi. And the faster I've been down, down the street now is 6.1 seconds, at 234 miles an hour. And you can see this on YouTube, you just go on there, Carl Cox Mustang promo code, and you can see me wish going down. How many people don't know that I actually do race these cars. But I've been doing it for a long time. But the thing is about getting into it now that I can afford to do it now. I just couldn't afford to do it then. So if I could afford to do it earlier in my life, what I've been, you know what I've taken up drag racing, or professionally and in a DJ and not so much. And probably the answer to that is what you see now, you know me as a DJ obviously got to the top of the state at the top for many, many years, me as a drag racer. Now, you know, I have to basically now get into as much as I can before it's too late for me. But right now I'm just just getting into the realm of professional drag racing. And you'll see more and more of my cars as we go along through cocottes Motorsports. So it was just timing and the end of the day. But what was the great story is that set upon raceways where I've cut my teeth for drag racing to be able to do what I'm doing now when it's like to be out there. I think the fastest I went at that time and marked one for Capri, which I have here Australian and also here in Australia was I think something like 19 or 18 seconds at 79 miles an hour 82 miles down a quarter mile. So it's considered very, very slow these days. But for me at that time it was very, very quick.
Farah Nanji: 29:09
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It is much scarier being a passenger in any scenario I think in racing I actually really get so nervous when I sit with other people. But yeah, I have no problem in going, you know, super fast myself. And I've seen the videos on YouTube, they look absolutely amazing. So I recommend people check that out because there is some phenomenal stuff there. And you see parachutes and all these crazy things going off. Nuts, just nuts. So it is well, and also just actually, one thing I just wanted to add there was that, you know, at the end of the day, right, like you've you've transcended millions of people's lives through music, and that is just if you have that gift, you know, what, what a privilege to be able to, to be able to touch so many people in that in that way. And it's it's, it's, it's, it's a hard decision to make. But, you know, there's, there's also, I think, something within there about, you know, purpose and, and why you think you might be here and things like that. And so it's not, it's kind of well known that you know, highly, that the arena of the music industry is highly political. And it rarely escapes, you know, any artist, any industry professional, no matter what stage they're at. So what would your advice be to artists and professionals who have to face these tough mental minefields? How have you stayed resilient during these four decades that you've had in music?
Carl Cox: 31:16
I think what it is, for me more than anything else, is the way I grew up in the scene, you know, there was no template for success, there was no template for making music, there was no template for how to make a party or run a party. It's just how you felt, at the time, whatever you felt that you could basically give is what I had given, it was never about taking at all. And for me, it's never about taking any, I've always said to myself, if I get paid to do anything, it's an absolute bonus. Thank you very much. If you've enjoyed yourself, and you want to show me some gratitude by paying me and then thank you. I mean, it's not the same for racecar drivers, it's the same for horse races, it's Same for tennis players. The same for any professional footballers, footballers get 10 times more money than God, you know, but if he kicks the ball in the goal at a particular time, and you paid your season ticket subscription, and that's all you want to see happen, you're more than happy to go. That's why I pay my season ticket. So for me, the driver has never been about what I'm getting out of it. It's but I can give it to what I get out of it. And I think if there was a secret to success, for me, I think it's always been about that, because I've never chased anything. I remember going to a seminar A few years ago, it was in Miami. And, and I've sat there with some top EDM DJs at the time. And they were talking about chart success, and especially in beatport. And I'm just sitting there and I've had chart success with some records I put out, but I've never chased chart success. It just happened because I was there at the time. And the record I made became very popular. And I was very happy with that, you know, the end of the day, but I knew, I knew my second record wouldn't be as big as the first one. And I knew my album would be seminar. But I knew that it would be my opportunity to show people my scope of my music, but I never chased anything. I just made an album abolishment of tracks, which represented me. And then I had to deal with a company called Edo records in Germany that took up the option of my music. So I put out two albums with them. And then then my third album, and I've basically put out on my own independent record label quintet Records, which always leads to the dance floor. But meanwhile, I've always kind of just felt that it's difficult mentally, if you're chasing something. And if you don't get there, you feel like a failure or you feel like, you know, you could have done something different or It feels like that. That may be you know, people don't like you or, or it's not the sound of what I'm like, forget about all of it, the fact that you've done something, you created something and it's yours, he or she doesn't matter the other day, that's a success. Because there's a lot of people out there that are not doing what you're doing in any way, shape, or form. So if you do become successful by being great, you've done something that people really enjoy. And it's not a commercial sellout on anything. It's just, it doesn't matter. It worked. And that's it. And I and I found when these DJs were talking and the media seminar, they were upset with themselves because I think a number one spot, they know they got number four number three or number two, really, you're upset because he didn't get to number one, and number four, number three, not good enough. And for them, it wasn't there had to be number one. So if he got like 20 DJs, or all want to be number one, they didn't have 19 people very upset with themselves, because I didn't make it. So therefore they make another record to see what works make another record disabled. So if that doesn't work, there's more pain, more mental pain, more magnified. Doesn't happen. And that's really difficult. Because if people out there are trying to make it, try to try that, where they really are, if you're trying to make drum and bass and you want to try and be like NDC, well, yeah, right, the NDC is already there. If you want to try and be like the esto, that's great, but yesterday is already there. And that list just keeps going on and on and on. So whatever you do, you have to do because you love it, you enjoy it. And that makes you who you are, no matter what success you're looking for, your success will only come if you just continue to do what you do and be happy by it. You just have to be happy, that's the strength to be happy. But if you're upset and unhappy, unhappy by it, it makes your life a lot more difficult to be understood based on what you're trying to achieve. And for me, I've never ever chased anything. I've just done it because it felt right for me to do what I'm doing is the reason why I play German bass and techno funk. So Latin jazz, truly what you like, you know, end of the day, I will be sharing it with you with the utmost passion, because it just, it just feels right for me to do it. at that particular time. Of course, I'm not gonna play German bass, if it's a techno crowd, I'm not gonna play technocrats or drummer bass crap. But as a DJ, you know, as a nuance to be able to understand and to see how this party is going to go and how it's going to end up. And people trust me to play the music that makes it a cinema, the reason why I bought a ticket on a day with a particular time, I've had to win over so many people so many times, all of the time, even today, it's just incredible. But what keeps me basically mentally sane, is that I know that the music I'm sharing is the best you're going to hear. I believe that you know, wherever it's music, the best you're going to hear is hip hop, the best you're going to hear techno music from you know, real technologies or whatever the best you're gonna hear. And that for me is what gives me my strength to continue to do what I'm doing. Wherever number 120 200 mariquita even hit the charts doesn't matter, the end of the day, it the fact that I'm doing it, and I will continue to do it makes me feel a whole whole knowing that, that that's, that's what makes me who I am.
Farah Nanji: 37:10
Yeah, definitely, I think that's, that's really, really true. And that, you know, you need to stay grounded and rooted to that anchor point of really believing in what you do. Otherwise, you lose your authenticity, if you chase that popularity, to get to a certain benchmark, you know, and then you know, you get there and what happens next, you know, I always feel like the goalposts the journey towards it is far more, you know, fulfilling than actually getting there get and you know, because the next day you wake up, it's, it's something else, you know, so definitely some really wise words there for, for staying grounded in the face of success and, you know, and how to navigate in the sort of highly political arenas. Nikola Tesla once said, if you want to know the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. And it's very interesting how this philosophy could apply to successful DJs like yourself, who clearly have this innate ability to navigate the energy frequencies and vibrations of a space and you alluded to it, just there where, you know, you have to always prove your to your audience that you can take them on this journey. Every time that we're the dance was different, and they have a different energy. So when you add the controls, how do you kind of read the energy of what's going on, particularly in bigger spaces where there is less intimacy between yourself and the crowd.
Carl Cox: 38:29
And the thing is, my growing up of sharing the love of music really started off in my bedroom, we have a couple of mates, you know, I buy these new records, and I was in my mind should be in my bedroom, listen to the music, and I put the record on. And I'd be like, okay, I bought this new record by Sheikh good times. What do you think? And I'd be like, you know, good times. And I'd be down to 29 in a year with my train car. Thank you, because when I bought it, I knew it was a great chair. Now, I know, it might not be everyone's cup of tea. But for myself, I can't kind of have an ear for music. And because I was actually a punter. Before I was a DJ, I would DJ at home with my friends playing music and maybe, you know, a birthday party from a friend's house and, and, and that's the only thing I'll be doing in a particular time. But I was always going to clubs. I was going running on the dance floor listening to this music. So I know what it's like to be a punter. I know what it's like to be a club. I know what it's like to go and hear DJ paid music that you want to play. I know what it's like to be, you know, have that euphoria when you hear a record. And you just go Wow, you look around and everyone's dancing and jumping and going crazy. I know what it's like to be out there. So when I'm DJing now, I transcend what I know what it's like to be on that dance floor. Better myself. I am so kind of gutted that if there was too cold Cox's One could play the music that's dancing to the music back. That would be just euphoric for me. But I'd have to try and send myself to the dance floor. And then the what would I What would I like to hear? What mix do I like to feel coming in? What tract would have my favourite track? Is it coming in now? Or is it Yes, their own kind of elements is, is something of which you really have to feel. And I never ever plan a set at any point in my life, because it just isn't worth doing. Because if you plan a set and attract that you put in doesn't work, and you have to carry on because the next record you've already planned, based on the use in the data flow, or the interest of the public, that's a really tough place to be. So you have to think on your feet really quickly, the next record, and I'm always kind of two or three records ahead of my sets. Because my thinking, if I'm trying to track what the next one is called a lot what I'm thinking, but maybe they're not ready for that one yet. And I'm gonna pay this one, and then I'm gonna pay that one, I wasn't ready for them yet. Later, they're gonna get it on the chin. But you know, some records can be to future for people, some people, it could be too, too heavy at a particular time, or not hard enough. But you have to always kind of juggle the idea of, of how your music is going to be accepted. And I think the only way that you can really get to understand that is as if you are a punter. First, you're on the dance floor. I mean, there's a lot of DJs that just DJ never been on a dance floor, just DJ and when they got their mics behind them, begging them up, and yeah, go on. You're great. Yeah, okay, yeah, I'm great. But the dance floor is not moving. It's like, you know, and the reason why it's not moving, because you don't have an understanding of the dance floor, you know, and having an understanding of where you're putting your music at this particular time. And it's only because of that I would say, it's, it's a talent, it's, you know, you have to grow into this. And I didn't grow into it, knowing exactly what to do. It took me years to get to a point where I can walk away knowing that I did a great set, and I kept him an audience captive for that moment in time. I mean, a lot of DJs these days now, you know, have a plan set over one and a half hours to two hours. And that's it, you know, I was always playing the minimum eight to nine hours, every time I played, I played from beginning to end, every single time it was normal for me to do that. It was abnormal for me to be playing just one or two hour sets. So you know, you have to go on the journey, no matter what if you're going to have people captivated by you the whole time. And that's what it is. So when I did my space set in 2016, and it was 10 hours, it was 10 hours. So you know, and I had no plan I just said, I said I'm gonna play half a bit of vinyl, and the other half half of that digitally, and it's our night, here we go. But I can only do that if I have done that before, or grown into it, because I'm guaranteed that a lot of teachers wouldn't do it. Or they'd have it planned in the sense of where to start wherever they end up. And I'd be stressing, because if you plan your setup doesn't quite work out, you got to change, change it out into something else. So my plan without a 10 hours set was to not go overboard with the bpms. But play all classic records that made that map that made the club I would have many years and hold up. So I started at 10 o'clock at night. And I held him all the way back all the way at 124 BPM all the way to about three o'clock, and then went for a walk in the morning and then from three until eight. And then he went 124 125 and sped it up all the way up to about 130. And that by the end of the night is like yes. So he was at the beginning, it was a different style set. If you got there, halfway through, it was something else ubiquitous or a journey from three until two eight, then that was something else. And that's your journey. And again, that's on YouTube, if you choose to watch it, and listen to but you know, I that was my schooling is the only way how I could justify myself by, you know, the idea of how to basically fit into the realm of being a DJ, you know, me being a pantser first really, really helped me to understand that that
Farah Nanji: 44:07
100% I mean, observation, the art of observation is phenomenal and to feel frequencies and to hear on different sound systems, different environments. is it an absolute must. And also I think there's something within there that you mentioned about, you know, obviously playing really long sets, having that fluidity, then to, to take that, you know, in any environment, but also within those, you know, all those hours, they're not going to be all peak sets, there's going to be a lot of warming up and I think you know, DJs need to know how to warm up an environment because you can't always have it at its peak. And that's never always going to be your role either. So you know that yeah, definitely very, very interesting and talking about, you know, the relationship with space and the legendary 16 year residency that you had five it's been, you know, almost five years. How do you sort of reflect on the opportunities that new beginnings present and almost the unstoppable power of letting go?
Carl Cox: 45:10
Yeah, I mean, I had a residency in London and Charing Cross, in 1996 97, to 2002 to 2000, with Jim masters and treble rockcliffe, at that particular time, Cordova underground, and the night was called ultimate bass. So this is a club for like 230 people every first day and it was amazing. We had some of the best DJs play the best music down there, and every week was just very special. So I know what it was like to have a residency in a club. When I had the opportunity to uproot, from going to London to Ibiza, to start a new club night on the island. I mean, I was always going to the island from 1985, every year, until, until I was able to, to find a home for me in some ways I had, every time I played I was I got the opportunity to play in San Antonio to clubs out that type particular time, and then to play amnesia, and then to play passur. Club, which is privileged now. And then eventually, when the space opened up, I had an opportunity to basically just do the opening parties and closing parties until I eventually ended up in my own residency, we started in 2001. Now, that club, basically that space was never a nightclub, it was always a daytime club, it was always an after hours club. So my night was absolutely created from absolutely nothing at all. It really started off with our first year. I was on a Thursday, and we had a lot of competition the first day. So I decided to choose. It was going to be a better time to do it when there's less competition, but then there's also less people going out. So can you imagine the success of that club at the end was phenomenal, because I felt that we're going to give it five years to see how it was going to really go for me. And then when the fifth year came the anniversary, it was just sublime. And then Pepe, who was the owner of the club decided that you wanted to make the club bigger, more define more people who are like Christ, we just managed to fill the club up, and now you want to make it bigger again. So we had to so we divorced a lot of the rooms, which we did. And about, I was always making sure that a ticket taker was Carl Cox from the church for me at the end of the day. And so we went into year six year seven bigger, bigger, bigger. Yeah, a bigger nine. I'm thinking okay, 10 years, you know, thanks very much. You've been lovely. And we'll move on. And when we probably got to 10 years, that the club was just, just biblical is epic. people coming from all over the world it was, you know, people were like, you haven't been to the island or to been to Kyle Cox's night on a Tuesday night space, like, wow, it's now it's now it's becoming legendary. But it's 10 years, you know, that's incredible. So, you know, year 11 in alpha, okay, we'll tie it off. Now. More people more legendary year 12 1314 are like, Oh my god, he was supposed to get to be data analysts 515. And then we were told that the club we're going to lose by 2016. purely based on ownership of the club and, and the lease belong to another family on the island comitatus family. And, and then pepper had to basically give up at least back to their family, we've reverted back to them. And that's the only reason why the club went down. And for me, you know, space was my whole essence on that island. And I ended the day, he couldn't say space about Carl Cox, or kalkwasser space or Kolkata, Ibiza, without space, you know, it was that it was a connection. It was like, if it were still going today, I'll still be there now, going into year 22, or something stupid. But you know, it was how it was, you know, it was, it was an understood situation between me and the people of Darfur, any Island. And, that was taken away from us by 2016. So you can imagine it's a very sad day for everybody to see that happen in the way they did. And it was very hard to come back from it because we never really had an opportunity to find another space to continue the legacy of space. And for me, it was very difficult to find a club that had that essence, apart from what we did at privilege, which was amazing because people follow what we could create and continue on an island based on my popularity and my team around me at that time, which was just phenomenal. We knew we were our PR team and management team and everyone around us was just on point. They knew how to make a party really happen and market that party based on particular giving people the best time when in a club on their island. But then, you know, things are starting to change, you know, the Internet, and then in social media, it's just starting to change the dial. And anyway, it was, you can see that there was another flow happening on that island. And so for me, I'm just thinking, well, maybe it's a good time for me to just leave that legacy of right where it is, and, and not try to create another space on our island and, and just leave where it is everything go and he wasn't there before and and you missed out on some of the best years in travel history. Ever. He made that club space, I think it always escalates because it was just a nice club. It got those accolades, because it was the number one club in the world for years. And I was a big part of that structure and also that success
Farah Nanji: 50:46
100% I've had some incredible nights, I've been lucky enough to see you at Space quite a few times. And anybody who's there just knows, you know, coldcock space Tuesday nights, nothing more needs to be said, really. Just get on a plane and be there. It's not every day that you get to meet your childhood heroes, let alone sit down with them for so long. So I have to say a huge thanks to Carl for being an absolute legend and also for being so open and honest with us, from sharing what success really means to him and how he stayed so grounded to the incredible journey of space to be there. I hope it's left you excited for what's to come and part two, where we'll be diving deeper into the journey behind his love of motorsport. The values that drive him as a leader and the non negotiable habits that he deploys to being able to succeed as both a DJ and a drag racer. Part Two will be out this time next Wednesday. So stay tuned. Don't forget to subscribe and thank you again for listening. Have an awesome week.
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Part 2
Carl Cox: 00:00
I think a lot of it has to do with my style fight with Somalia. So apparently Leo's are natural born leaders, because of the way the lions were. So maybe it's just me, I don't know. But I've always felt like that. It's not that I want to control anybody or anything. It's just that I want to be able to have an opportunity to even see if, if what I'm doing and what I feel I can do to help others. I can pass that door open, I can basically go right. I think this is really important for us to do that right now. I think in the future of where we're gonna end up after this pandemic, I don't think there's gonna be so many DJs. But that was before the doors were closing every week for DJs. At the moment, unfortunately,
Farah Nanji: 00:52
You're listening to the Mission Makers show, a podcast that inspires humans to get into the mindset of success. My name is Farah Nanji. And I'm the founder of a business in the Motorsports industry that explores leadership lessons from things like Formula One. I'm also a DJ and music producer. Hello, and welcome back to the second part of our interview with the one and only Carl Cox. In the first part of the interview last week, we discussed some of the defining moments in Carl's career, and his views on reading energy on the dance floor. We also discussed how he's managed to navigate the political arenas of dance music, and his monumental achievements with space would be them. In this part of the interview, we're going to be diving deeper into Carl's love for motorsport and the visions he has for his racing team, his values as a leader and his views on resetting club culture during the time of COVID-19. On that note, do you feel that maybe this time that, you know, she can obviously every country, every nation, to a core, and what you sort of mentioned there about social media, the internet changing things, and there's just this culture and being changing so much? Do you think that maybe this time might reset and prepare a lot more unity on the island for stakeholders, and there's not this mad kind of almost vulture ristic approach towards you know, control in a way on the island?
Carl Cox: 02:50
Yeah, I mean, I mean, this goes for everywhere around the world, obviously, as well. And you know, all aspects of, you know, the subculture, festival culture, rave culture, call it what you like, coming together of people who, who want to just have this unified understanding on the dance floor, you know, based on the DJs playing the music, and that has been taken away from us, it was just like, Oh, my God, you know, it's almost like, you know, you've legs have been chopped off right now, you know, it's like, they don't know where to go to at the moment, you know, everything that we just took for granted, is now not there. And I mean, even I can't get to the island from where I am right now. It's not possible. And if I go to the I'm not gonna do that, I'm gonna cancel open. I'm gonna wear masks, you know, the social distancing. He used to get, like, five or 6000 people in amnesia, but it was only licenced for like, 4000. You know, the mean, it was, you know, that tab was packed. You did, that's never gonna happen. It will happen eventually. But right now, you know, the government and what, what's what we feel how we feel ready to weld, it's just, it just can't think of anything worse right now. You know, we can and we'll get back to the, to this at some point. But in this pandemic, of which we're all experiencing, for the first time in our lives, I never saw this pandemic coming. I never saw I never, I never, you know, brace myself for something that's gonna make my career fall off a cliff. Because for 40 years, what I've done is share the love of music to everyone from very humble beginnings to where and to get to where I was at the pinnacle of any DJ success. And in one fell swoop. It just went. And, you know, and I'm still seeing it falling. I'm just like, Lani, is anyone gonna catch us at any point when we have maybe some time, you know? Yeah, 2022 maybe, you know, who knows. But we want to test basically standfast try and do what we can to try and get back on to where we would like to be. But it will change. It will be a different place. It will. It's almost like the great reset. It's almost like we have to adapt to a new world, or where we live in and how we live in it right now. You know, every single time Are we going to a restaurant, you have to pick up your mobile phone, I think actually our cue card, you gotta put your name and address number in there, you've got to put your friend's name in there, you know, they all your friends are telling me, you have to tell them. Because if you do have the virus, and you give it to someone else, and I was and they go off to tescos, or something, petrol station and a friend's house party, you gotta be traced, you got to be stopped, you know, this is, this is the way we live in at the moment. And there's a lot of people who don't like it at all. And some of us have a lot of people who embrace it, because we just want to move on from this. So we are in, in really, you know, an uncharted waters with all of this at the moment. But we just have to basically carry on to doing what we love to do. And I'm just carrying on doing what I love to do. And talking to you today, share the love of music, giving me my story's my history of who I am. And what's got me for everything. Unfortunately, we're in this pandemic, my father has died. And I was basically in this chair, I was sitting there watching my dad's funeral on YouTube, because I couldn't get to see him at any point. The only thing that really got me to celebrate my father's passing, was that I was able to share his music on cabin fever, which went out to the rest of the world, based on what the reason why I'm here is one of the reasons was because of him. Now, can you imagine how hard that really was, after everything has happened to me as an individual there to ensure that as well, and the only way how I could feel that, that I was kind of transcended into a situation where that music is keeping me strong, to continue to do what I did to where I am now, because of that moment, was incredible, a test of my own mental state of mind and my own stamina to continue to do what I'm doing. And to get people to understand that this is not just happening to them, it's happening to all of us at the end of the day.
Farah Nanji: 07:01
Yeah, I mean, God rest his soul, I'm really sorry for your last call. And it's, it's really tough to be in this time where you cannot be there physically. And, and you have to, to be alone in that grief as well. Physically, it's, it's really, really tough. And I do think that you know, moving in the future, that people will have a lot more gratitude for these spaces, and they won't take it as much for granted. And there'll be a bit more of a respect, hopefully, as well, on the dance floor. So switching gears, the switching gears a little bit on the topic of majors, but of course, you have now had the opportunity to kind of go back and explore this childhood passion on a much deeper level. And you've achieved a lot with Carl Cox motorsport in a short space of time, I'd love to know what's your ultimate long term vision for the team for the company, what would you really like to achieve with it?
Carl Cox: 07:59
Again, you know, we've,we've set it up this company, or, you know, the, the idea that if you got kalkaska, DJ, and Kolkata redhead, you know, white samples picture on his chin after you just have to shave, you know, it, people don't understand it, that my passion for for cars, motorcycles racing, is as strong as it is for music, the passion of it. I kind of I'm kind of glad that I'm on the outside of the industry as in some ways, I'm not a racer, you know, because I think you only have a shelf life as a racer, the end of the day, and, and then you very move on to you know, over coaching other people involved in the industry in some ways with running with a certain company or team or, or you, you know, or you're selling motorcycles or selling cars or that kind of thing. I kind of didn't want to be in that position. I want it to be kind of like a jack of all trades in there when it comes to my racing or getting behind something that I enjoy what I like, and what I've highlighted so far, by when I started was sidecar racing. Now the thing is, every time I was watching, well, when I first saw sidecar racing, I was back in the late 70s, into the 80s. And a friend of mine, we were going up to brands, actually bought some bike racing, Berry, Shane, whatever, back in the back in the early days. And in the middle of that sidecar race. It says two guys, or one guy and a woman or two girls, and he got one bike and the other was hanging off the bloody thing. And I go into corners I think
Farah Nanji: 09:37
That's nuts.
Carl Cox: 09:38
Wow. You know, you really need to have some synergy to do this because this is not nothing I've ever seen. You know me inside carves is always like a Georgia military type thing. You've got this striker and he got all the windows and I'm not sure if you know about the Georgia merger. But anyway, he was a comedy programme that came out years ago. And that was the sidecar who'd like little kind of bullet shaped sidecar and his old motorcycle Do you know for all it will be sitting there in the rain and the wind down in any building on the bonus site was taken around and attempt to get motorbikes like this, but with a sidecar is the size is the size of a car. So to write when you're racing the things, you've got to give yourself wide burps to get round or to pass, when it's sort of stuck, and you've got to take care of your passenger can't forget that he or she is there. Yeah. So I did the skill set for that, I think there was a lot more I felt was endearing. You know, when you get a solo motorcyclist, they're like this, you want to buy a past close, you know, the, you know, it's quite gladiatorial, but it's, it's awesome, but sidecar racing, if you touch each other. Yeah, you know, it's always gonna get hurt. So, I always felt that there was a lot more gutsy sidecar. So I really enjoyed sidecar racing. And then I started to watch sidecar racing in Ireland and TT. And obviously should advise lightly. Because it's so low, so close to the road. And when you're when and critical free wheels, the front wheels like trying to steer and you've got the three wheels at the back with the passenger trying to grip and shift the way I would never would have ties to so you can get a good drive. How many nuts No, absolutely. Flying, you know, then as rides, but I've got really into it. So I live here in Melbourne, Australia. And in New Zealand, they do a lot of cycle racing there. And a friend of mine at the time said you want us support in a local SIM card game called spiffing short array. And it was a lot of money for me at the time, I feel like three and a half 1000 pounds at this latest tire, some oil, some some, you know, for fuel, some entry fees. And that was it. And I like my Comcast Cox down the side of the car, I just want to kind of DJ kalkwasser side of a car, it has to be as we relate it to something that I really like, and it can be associated with. So that's our kolkhorst motorsport was born, free sidecar racing. And then I said to myself, I'm never gonna support solo racers, because I just can't do it, you know, enough. I don't want to see him come off already. I've got to tell their family and friends. You know, I'm sorry, they got injured because they're racing for you. So you know, it will decide cars, at least, you know, they get out of them. And they're fine. But anyway, it didn't go like that at all. So I basically had here and in Melbourne, Australia, we have a racetrack here called Phillip Island, which is amazing. And we do historic bike racing here. So I'm fulfilling my dream of autumn on a bike racing order bikes that came out in the 90s, or the 80s. From a classic historical point of view, I get to float my boat, knowing that these bikes are still being written in a way that was nowhere back in the day by people who are still enthusiastic about racing them. So it's gonna be so I am, again, built this race bike in the ga 690 91. And as a 750, and And we have a writer called Michael Neves, who's a test writer for motorcycle news in the UK. I flew him over to ride the bike for me. And the first time we went out and my race bike became third, and the overall in the anvil racer for the weekend. So we actually got a copy and everything about Yes, that's what I'm talking about. So I had Michael write for me on historic racing, and I had to Spearfish auto racing for a psych class. And then I entered the psych class for the automatic TT, which was, I think there was something like 65 entries. And in our first year of being there, we came to a level of place. Now sorry. Thinking about 12 to 13 plays in our first year. And then we went up to 11th place in our second year. So two years, we were up in the top 20. So I knew that you know, what I believed in the team, the bike I bought. And the idea of getting involved in the motor sport that I've added to something and when people see Coco photos for genocide of the bikes or cars, so because nobody believed it was me. Everyone was freaking out because I stopped and I say min ago, Claudia, what you see on that? Yes, it's me. Are you doing it? Right racing? No way. Yesterday's. Oh, and by the way, you know, I've also started drag racing again. No way. Yeah. Why are you so interested in Interest, was becoming almost like folklore. Like when I used to be DJs somewhere I said now, I'm going to be right here at this strike at this racetrack. And, you know, I was already invited to go to Formula One races, well superbikes BSB motor GP all the time, and I love it. And at any given moment, I was able to go and do go to any retreat. So here I am. I mean, the thing is, what I was always told is that we get a lot of celebrities go to these events, but they're not really interested in racing, where the only reason why I'm there is because of the racing. And so I'm in the like, hospitality and everyone's having problems and champagne, and I'm watching the times come in and erasing, you know, I'm interested in it. I'm always kind of like, almost transfixed when I'm there because it's very underprivileged to be there. Be I don't want to be in savages and prawns and all sorts of when Valentino Rossi has just overtaken free people. And on the last lap is like, it's impossible, you know. And that's why a lot of companies like me to be around because of my enthusiasm. But now that I know that I'm also now involved in my own inevitable private scare racing. It's where we kind of picked up a lot of people's ears and it's not my first rodeo. You know, I've had at least three sidecar teams out there doing, they're doing racing in the World Superbike side in the world sidecar racing BSB I said No, man. And I've had 1234 riders in the animated TT, including Michael Dunlop, Conor Cummins, Davey Todd, and David Johnson, racing for me. And, and here in Australia, we have VA supercars in the last two years, I've had countless battles fought on the side of the VA supercar Mustangs here are also an impasse of my own. I've actually built a hillclimb car, in the shape of a 350 GT, nice 55 fastback Mustang, which looks awesome is awesome and sounds amazing, going up through the woods and asked me and, and I'll do historic muscle car racing with that, and also my own drag racing input as well. So there's a lot going on around how I started to where I kind of ended up. And again, this is only the beginning. The next pandemic is, as obviously started a lot of things down at the moment. But some of my guides are at the moment testing. I'm going to be testing my car anytime soon. Now to get back out. Last time I was doing my drag car was a year ago. So I'm going to be a little rusty and want to go back out for sure. But then if I'm getting past, the little niggles of how I feel about getting back in the car again, and I feel positive to better go back to race and again, then I'm straight down a strip and go for gold. So the passion for it is a lot deeper than I thought it was ever going to be. It does cost a lot of money to need a bit of sponsorship help, which will actually collate in at the moment and hopefully that'll cheat me and everyone around me you know there are there abouts when it when it comes to representing Carl Cox Motorsports
Farah Nanji: 18:15
we definitely need to see you doing the hill climate good way to get you back to some of these tracks here in the UK with that. Very, very, very, very interesting. I'm actually very curious to know, do you find it hard to kind of maintain the level of fitness required to be drag racing being a racer?
Carl Cox: 18:38
I've got a spare of two beers. I've got the thing about drag racing and the fingers come I'm not the skinniest guy and I've never been. It's probably the reason why I've never never really seen myself as a racer as such, because of my physique. I've always been big on Remember, you know karting you know go to some of these karting tracks, you know, and I'd get in the car and all my friends get in the carts, and they bother off and I'm like, come on. You know what, once we get it going, I'm gonna keep it going. So scrambled. I hate to cut it because I was too heavy to get round. But you know, be it the thing that I always say in my head is not less weight, more speed. But when it comes to drag racing it I'm almost like ballast in the car. And I've got twin turbos on my car. And if I want to go faster to turn it up, you do have to have a lot of mental fitness in the head. So he can't be drunk he can't you need to sleep. He got to be on the money either. Everything is his reaction when it comes to racing, as you know yourself. And if you if he laps it in any way, shape or form, it's gonna go really bad. real hard, real fast, real quick. So, so, I mean, physically Yeah, I'll go for walks, I have a pretty good diet, you know, I don't eat, you know, takeaways all day long and pies and pizzas all day long. No, you know, I mean to get to this point in my life, even being a DJ, and in having the most unsociable hours of all time, and, and you know, not being able to have that, that, that kind of focus or fitness, to get to the point or having a moment is amazing. So, you know, it's when we talk about a fit to our race, suit, fit, squeeze myself into the car, get into that roll cage, put the six point harness on, you know, the helmet, everything got the hardest device on, and I'm sitting there, right, what we're doing here, but I absolutely love it. But yeah, I'm kind of working towards, you know, getting a little bit more slimmer, getting a little bit more aware of, of my mental state of mind when it comes to racing, keeping that alert, as you can see, I'm like this, this, this, this, you know, you just need to have it, if you don't have that, then there's no point of racing, then you have to have to kill it I instinct for traffic, drag racing, especially circuit racing, not so bad, because you can kind of line people up anything I write, gotcha, you know, but the problem is, I hate being in front of anyone, because I know they're behind me trying to overtake me. And I, you know, and when that happens, I'm gonna make a mistake, I just know it. So at least a drag race and you go to b and it's done. Your, your refund, or you're seeing Do you see him going in front of you? Or behind it? When is the circuit race you to start now. You know, I'm when it comes to circulation, I'm more of a follower than a leader. I just don't have that skill. So I'm faster than you. And I wasn't, I would take it, I'm going to pull away from you. And I believe that you can get by, I mean, I try and cover my lines and everything. And eventually I'm not going to mess up. And then they just go straight underneath me. Jesus, I've got to do that all over again. So I just don't have that killer instinct for that type of racing, unfortunately. But I'll leave that to the professionals, of course.
Farah Nanji: 22:08
Well, there are a lot of mind games, right, when it comes to overtaking and like you said, a split second decision could cost you in the wall could damage your car, it's just, you know, the possibilities are endless. But yeah, but obviously with motorsport, there's so many different types of avenues to explore that, you know, it doesn't have to be limited to, to just the circuit kind of circuit ways, talking about the mental capacity. And in motorsport. Do you find that like, Do you listen to music before a race? Does it help you? What kind of music do you do if you do it? I see you shaking your head? So that's a no, not at all?
Carl Cox: 22:43
No, because we used to do music. And then we like coxy? Did. No music. For me, it's, it doesn't calm me down. It doesn't make me feel like it doesn't do anything for me. And when when I'm racing, I'm thinking racing, in that I almost kind of like retreat to my inner self, I'm kind of sitting there thinking what what can I do to make myself better about what I just did on the last run, because every time we do a run in a drag car, we get what a data, data, data data out of the car, to know what that run was, the last run was like to be able to go smoother, faster, quicker. And But not only that, about drag racing, it's all about getting off the line before the other person, if you can get to that 60 foot mark, if whatever person, you can almost guarantee if you have enough power in your car, that you're going to win that race 64 if you don't get to 64 and other guys, all the women or girls out there in front of you, mentally you're like oh, shit, you know, kind of dry around that person. But if those gamma cars got that much more than you, you're not going to drive around and you lose that race in an instant. Like, you know, 60 foot time, for me is naught point eight of a second to the 60. Yeah, so as soon as that light goes, as soon as I hit that button, go for my transplant, which is holding the car online at that full boost. So gotta go that 60 foot time is naught point eight of a second is he could either win or lose that race. So you really have to have a mental capacity and a killer instinct to cut that light. Now that you have a reaction time, unlike cutting that the least I've got down to it a moment is naught point one. No point one four seconds.good so people can see that they can see What's he doing? Actually, you know, it's really, really important is it drag racing is a very mind over matter type of thing. And anything could go wrong at any time, we just say, if you've got a great team, they can support you in and you know, on your ups and downs and, and all I gotta do is drive that bloody car as fast as I can. And then that's all I need to concentrate on. If I listen to music hanging out, and you know, looks carefree, I'm not gonna win a sausage, and I have won a couple of races already. So I noticed that, but also know what it's like to lose many, many times, very difficult, millions of different variables that can happen off the line. And you know, sometimes you just have to abort half your runs, because there's a feel good. So I'm not gonna go for gold and feet, I'm gonna drive through something that no one could drive for it. And these come up, you know, do I do it? Or do I just abort, to be able to go back again, to, you know, to continue racing at that particular time and what I'm doing, what I'm doing, but you know, I'd really love it. I absolutely love Motorsports and to be involved in motorsports. Now, my level is great. You know, I've always been asked, yeah, what do you have kalkhoff motorsport and a MotoGP bike? Well, here's a story. Cal crutchlow is bike number 35. I'll get on really well, a cow and Honda team and everything of that wonderful, awesome people. It's a car, you know, why don't you have a kalkhoff motorsport stick you on the bike? And I'm like, I said, Well, how much is it? You know? And where would it go? And I said, we put the sticker here. No, no, good, good place. I said, Okay. How much is that? And he said, Oh, yeah, normally, it's like a million euros for the season. I said, Ah, it's a million euros per round. Like, Holy moly. Yeah. bacala television, blah, blah, blah. If they are selling, you know, mobile phones or oil or something like that. I get it. I'm just selling myself as a teacher as a name. What do I get out of it? But you get the association? The association. million euros per round? Oh, like the holy? Okay. How much for a really small sticker? Maybe?Oh my god. So yeah, you won't you won't get me supporting that any Formula One teams or Formula Two, or formula three teams anytime soon. Karthi No, is another story. So who knows? I tell people that every single time, you know, like, you know, because that makes more sense, right? put money into what you're doing. Of course, that makes more sense to me. So it's, it's especially this pandemic now. You know, water people that have supported them all the way through before it. And I had a bit of, you know, disposable income that I was able to support other writers and, and other teams. But I don't have that anymore, because I haven't earned a penny since this happened. So am I going to go and put 50 grand into somebody else's racing, when I'm not even benefiting from it from what it from, from what I put more money to now. So it's actually a good thing for me to pay to wind things down just a little bit, just so I can actually enjoy the fruits of my labour based on what I like to do and how I like to entertain people with why aspects of mind drag racing as well.
Farah Nanji: 28:41
Absolutely. Hey, you, we hope you're enjoying today's episode. We're on a serious mission here to create one of the world's best podcast series. And we'd be so grateful if you could support us in any way by becoming a patron of the show. There's a tear to every level from early bird tears where you get downloads to all my music with some super cool ninja stickers, to our VIP mission maker tears where you get epic rewards like exclusive footage that never gets aired the chance to submit questions to our guests with signed copies of books from them, DJ lessons, one to one coaching and a whole load of super cool ninja measure making merchandise, you can start supporting us for less than what it costs you to fill up your car for a month by simply heading over to www.patreon.com/missionmakers. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the show. So you are at the helm of leading diverse teams. And that's not just in music and motorsport, but also gastronomy. What are some of your key values for leading great teams? And do you feel that maybe the philosophies of Motorsports like you've alluded to there and some of the mental capacities and stuff has made you an even more agile leader?
Carl Cox: 29:46
I think more than anything else I mean, I I kind of everything that I that I have experienced and what I've learned over the years of being a self employed DJ to heaven Having run multiple record labels with staff, and also, I used to run a management team called ultimate music management where I used to run at least 2020 DJs. And for live acts at that particular time, for years, I had about 10 staff and, you know, I was the boss, you know, like, I'll come in, and then I will have the meetings, what we're going to do, how are we going to do it? How are we going to market these things? How are we going to get out to the world? How do we care with how can we, you know, we used years ago, we used to get tapes, and send the tapes out to would be promoters, just so we can get the DJs booked based on the music that they play tapes, like, you know, and the details to get work because they were associated with me. But the music was good, you know, any of the individual teachers he or she and the family ring? Yeah, we can rely on that music on Vine. I think we get them out there. Yeah, no worries, it is the money that, you know, sends us a deposit. And here's a contract and all that sort of stuff, did it for years for you. And it all stemmed from when I was self employed. DJs You know, we've wired the money that I got from the Prince's Trust, you know, going into the yellow pages, and then using that amount of money to go to advertising in the jobcentre. So it all came from that all of it. And then too, to have that kind of leadership into what I'm doing now. And where I'm where I'm at the moment, especially with the new record label that we have out now called also Soundwave, and having the leadership of running that label with another friend of mine called Christopher CO, who is an electronic artist in his own right. The idea that we don't sign anything unless you can basically play the music electronically to a live audience. That's our premise. So that means you can't just come with your music and go Yeah, I want to be signed by you. And my music is great. And I think it's gonna do well. And then the next thing I'll say, okay, your music is great. But can you perform it live as electronic artists? I say no, I say well, we're so it is this level is for you. So you have to have a certain amount of talent to be doing what we're doing. This studio that you see behind me is my recording studio. Behind that is my life set. Now I've always wanted to be an electronic artist from day one. But now that I have the opportunity to do that, already, you can see that that by what I've done already, and it's out there right now and Resident Advisor, I'm going to be basically, almost, so I'm going to be streaming my latest lifestyle set of music is something that I want you to do. So if you're gonna join me on my record label, you have to have this level of where I am at to follow me, you know, based on what I feel is integral to you know, the stance that I'm making right now. And that figure has always been something that I've always driven. I think a lot of it has to do with my star sign is I'm a Leo. So apparently Leo's are natural born leaders, because of the way the lions were. So maybe it's just me, I don't know. But I've always felt like that, if I know that I want to control anybody or anything, it's just that I want to be able to have an opportunity to even see if, if what I'm doing and what I feel I can do to help others. I can pass that door open, I can basically go right. I think this is really important for us to do that right now. I think in the future where we're gonna end up after this pandemic, I don't think it's going to be so many DJs. But that was before, the doors are closing every week for DJs. At the moment, unfortunately, because there's no parties with DJs to do. And when the DJs do go back out, there's not going to be the same as it once was. So I'm already changing my narrative, as an artist to go back out if I'm going to be doing something new and special and interesting because of my life music. And already I have, you know, record companies that are really looking forward to to sign me off as an artist to continue my embodiment of my music that I enjoy making, as you can clearly see by the investment I've made in my recording studio here in Melbourne. So I was doing this anyway before the pandemic. But now it's become more apparent that yes, I can go back out as a DJ playing and enjoy and everyone's going to have a great time. But for myself, I really want to move on from where I am now. So I'm kind of like in and I'm saying who's gonna follow me? Well, if you look at Soundwave so far, all the attributes that we've had out on that label are all unbelievable, live electronic recording artists. We have an on best at the moment from Poland. Her music is just wonderful. He ended the day you know I've never heard anything like it in a sense of the sound of what she creates is amazing. You can hear that music. You know right now if you choose to find it. These are the things that I believe in. These are the things that I feel that I feel compelled to do. I have my record intact running since 1999. We put out some of the most seminal techno records or crackhouse of electronic music over the decades. And I must when I really feel proud about that, myself and John Randell who was also a great DJ and, and a great producer in his own right, we managed to get that label to the top. Now the thing is about about inset records is that the leadership comes from me, or whatever I signed bought it, whatever I choose to do with that, that idea of collaborating with artists and bringing them together is all about what we can do together to be stronger to be able to have this music supporting in such a way that we still have a purpose you feed in the industry, with music. So, you know, I do have this record label sitting there, but also have another record label called 21st century Records, which was basically all about just me putting out club tracks. And, and I've resurfaced that label again, and a club track that I put out, which was over about four months or five months ago, a track called pure and as an inevitable trap by me, and, and I've just had remixes done by collective sorry, remixes by Brendan Brendan grey relies on a failed and, and and these guys have been just slamming this track down. And I've been basically a pioneer before the pandemic, and it will kick you know that without me having that record playing out to a live audience. So, you know, you hear that music in the cola a day, and you have a life that you don't like it is as simple as that, were before you kind of if you see what it could do on the dance floor, that that gave me the opportunity to go, okay, that works, I like that like that track on my follow it copy or, or just buy it and enjoy it. So, you know, we're having to push even harder now, based on what we'd like to still, you know, support and also still have the music still reach you based on what we're still creating. And but for me, as an individual point of view, I have a burning passion: desire to keep that fire burning, just keep getting that music out, still support the artist, try to do as much as much live streaming as humanly possible. Just keep your hand in being Yes, I know we all take now and it's all classic, and it's fantastic. We've got some really amazing new talent coming through, I wish I just cannot ignore the reason why I started the awesome Soundwave record label in the first place.
Farah Nanji: 37:31
That's amazing. I think in a car, what really stands out from you as a leader is that you love to empower other people and you love to nurture their talent. And that's that is it is just an amazing, amazing thing. And particularly now you know it with the times and but you also not losing the quality and the vision that you have as well within it. Which is obviously so important. So going into your daily routine, do you have any non negotiable practices that you that you have to do every day to sort of to keep yourself healthy or just met mentally, you know, happy.
Carl Cox: 38:09
And I think more than anything, is it I do have a routine of, you know, getting up in the morning and brushing my teeth, looking at myself in the mirror. And I'm gonna have a shave, you know, you're having some sort of breakfast deciding what's a half a breakfast, do I go for a walk or not go for a walk, that kind of thing. I mean, my life in the last year has been all about that way before I was flying here, there and everywhere, I knew that next week, I'll be going to Spain next week. And then the week after Italy. After that with Germany, then Prague, they're back to Spain and in the UK. And it was like under their time to think about what the hell I was doing in the morning. I just had to get in interviews, and I'll be in the studio, and then I'll be making some music on my, on my laptop. And then you know, eventually I'll be riding my motorbike for the countryside, and that kind of thing, you know, take my RS gt free Porsche in Iran, goodwill. And, you know, my life before this happened was society, we were just crazy. But I would be there for everything that I choose to do. 100% if I'm going to prop the guy and do a calculus pure festival event in Prague, I'm there 100% you know, for the people for the my reason of why I do what I do and, and and hope that the people you know, that come and pay the money to see me play have the very best time possible. And so, you know, my life is completely understood at that point. But since a pandemic, that handbrake has just gone to full stop. And I've been living in this house for a year. So I've had an actual normal life. I began to go to bed. I've been getting up at like, seven 730 and going to bed at 10 for 11 o'clock every day. And I even say a lockdown. But then my life has been about what you see behind me. Our studio Well, I can create my streaming shows. I've been making a lot of remixes at the moment as well. For dead mouse did one called pomegranate attract with Burrell just finished a mix with Sophie Tucker, or drinkie just be basically just making some nice music for for a company called dancing, then Zan and and I've just done the fame chain for their football team, that they're having a in Spain. In fact, it's an ultra beefin team. And I am doing this documentary, which one if he needed to do and they asked the king of IB for me, okay, I have to do that track. And I just finished that and they're very happy, and I want to take you forever and, and all this sort of stuff. I've been very busy with this. And, and, you know, my idea was to keep DJing to do what I do, but also to have the ability to utilise that this Juliette in a way that if I do have an outro, that would be it? Well, that outro has come up a lot quicker than I thought. So here I am. I mean, we're where I am. But actually, because I've been doing this, a lot more has happened, especially through social media and the media as a whole, in this world have the interests of what I'm doing, and how I'm doing it. And, you know, I have to say, I mean, I love cooking, and I've done a few cooking shows. And growing my garden was just epic, because I've never grown anything before in my life, I normally plan things off. But I've been planning things like growing and they're like, the nurturing of animals. And they turned it up, you know, you know, beetroot and broad beans and, and chilies and, and potatoes alone. So I'm like, wow, if you put your mind to it, you can really, you know, these things can really happen for you. So I've kind of almost turned into a homebody. But you know, but also missing the scene at the same time. But at the end of the day, I feel that, that I can't sit here and keep pining, I have to do something about filling the gap of the gap of which we're not filling at the moment, and may not be out of left field for quite a while. So you know, me and my music has been the very thing that has kept me very busy, you know, in the sense of me getting up in the morning to basically do all this stuff in the studio and to be able to be creative as I have been in the last of well, nearly a year now.
Farah Nanji: 42:28
100%. So we have a question from Neve, who wanted to ask you. You said a long time ago in the early 90s. magazine that you can't DJ when you're 45. Can you have your dedication surprised? And would you say that the only limits in life are the ones that we place for ourselves.
Carl Cox: 42:50
That's correct, is the only thing that we limit ourselves. I mean, look, I went when I started DJing in a semi semi professional, and am 15 years old. There was no way for 15 years old, to 45 I mean that that article came out when I was 2728. And even still, then to think that I was gonna be DJing at this level, even at 45 was still unbelievable. Because even if he was a radio one DJ at the height of your career, your career even at that particular time, and even in the height was only 10 years. So if you Radio One DJ, and you went in at 30 years old, when you're 40, you're done, because especially with the BBC, they want the popular DJ, to connect with the audience, I was listening to Radio One to keep it current. So if you're 40, you're not current anymore. you're seen as an old, an old day, Jay, whichever will go down to BBC Radio two, or BBC Radio. If you're old enough, you can go urban and whatever. But he cosplays classic techno music, and it can be heard on classic FM. You know, kind of like when I made that statement being you know, 45 I'm like, No, why. Anyway, as time goes on, and you know, we have now the internet and now everybody knows everybody everything because of Google. And that, you know that that quote comes up quite a lot actually. Because people don't believe it because they're like, Well, of course Kolkata is going to keep the agenda 2060 that they know that now, but at that time, we didn't know at all. It was just like, let's just keep going until we can't go anymore. But for me it just kept going and go I reached 45 and I just kept going 4647 4850 You know, my popularity was When I was 52, when I started, you know, DJing when I was 15, come on, you know, 5150 250-354-5559 this year, and I still have the same essence to DJ today than I did when I started. So that quote, now doesn't become a realistic quote for me, because I surpassed it, like, tenfold to give me get to, I'm going to be a six year old DJ and still connect with the now generation, you know, as seen as Papa Cox, or whatever you want to call me, you know, I see myself being into a more ever ambassadorial role for DJs. But the thing is, my passion for it will never wane, it just cannot not, it is not going away. Now. He's not gonna do it at all, you know, if I were to 45 sit right next to it stop the jam. And then that quote would have been right on Oh, I stopped before that. It was impossible. You know, everything that was going on around me, was just driving me to do it more and more and more. So it's amazing that that people still kind of pick that up by that quote, but I think it's a wonderful quote, because I've just surpassed it more than anyone's comprehension, and still go 100%
Farah Nanji: 46:29
I definitely agree. And actually another question that came through, which could be an interesting one given what your experience has been like, how do you manage back pain through all this? Do you suffer from back pain? I know a lot of DJs including myself and Charlotte asked this question as a fellow DJ, doing long sets, and touring and all that stuff. Yeah, how have you managed that I've CSC some sort of orthopaedic cushion is that or Yeah. journalist and then industries, I'm sitting down with some of the most, that's what I was driven to talk about processing failures.
Carl Cox: 47:34
records on the floor. See, pending now choosing the record putting a record up play, bending, now choosing record point apply. And then at some point you had a table, which was too low, and a part is guaranteed that they will up. So you're bending now and you've now played around with Oh, you're like getting Africa? Oh, you're bending them. So the thing is, after about a nine or 10 hour set you like or the thing is, when you get older, your bones are not the same as a word like 2005. I've been doing this for 40 years. So if I do get a little bit of back pain is justified. based on how much I put stressors on my, my body in our, you know, a tennis player in the house is free for tennis elbow. And the reason why they get tennis elbow is because every time they can play their life. And eventually they put some strain on their shoulder and they can't play tennis anymore. Again, is the same when it comes to back pain everyone gets because of of what you've gone through in these days. Now I have to make sure that the table is at a certain height. So my back is straight. And I put records on the floor anymore as a table behind me so my back is straight. And that's the only way you can get through this without having to take painkillers in any way shape or form to get through. But yeah, I mean, the older you get these things come up. Yeah.
Farah Nanji: 48:59
I mean, dude, I'm in my early 30s and i and i have regular chiropractic physiotherapy, you know, all of that stuff. It's, it's quite tough. You know, so I don't. I don't see it really changing if you do all these things. But just to keep it at bay is not to is not to, you know, to ever stop. But anyway, I think these are the sacrifices you make, right. So we've got our final, final section, which is a quick fire round. Not more than 60 seconds on each question, and we'll begin with perhaps a question that might surprise you, but it's kind of based on where you are currently in Australia. So neighbours or home in a way
Carl Cox: 49:45
Oh, wow. That's not fair. It has to be neighbours I
Farah Nanji: 50:00
Okay, fine. Why is it not fair, by the way?
Carl Cox: 50:04
Because they're both equally as good. I like homeaway and neighbours and both equally as good, but I think, I think because I know the minnows quite well, I have to go with the neighbours. Okay.
Farah Nanji: 50:14
Okay, fair. Fair. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, so we know that you love cooking. It was Pancake Day yesterday. I don't know if you celebrated but if you did what pancakes were in the mix.
Carl Cox: 50:27
In Australia, they don't they don't celebrate stroke Tuesday. So, I didn't. So I didn't make any pancakes. But if I did do any pancakes, it would be blueberry pancakes. I love blueberries.
Farah Nanji: 50:39
Nice. Nice. On that note, what's for dinner tonight.
Carl Cox: 50:44
So today is fish tacos. So I'm lucky enough we just had them just now before I've got to talk. One more talk after this conversation with you.
Farah Nanji: 51:01
Amazing. Who's faster. You want to call me back. I know she loves racing as well.
Carl Cox: 51:06
I'm faster. The thing is, if the thing is when Nicole , she doesn't like to beat Eva. So she's not, she's not easy to be. But I'm, I'm faster in a different way that she is. You know, she's a circuit racer. She's been driving, you know, really fast GT cars. I have a GT car myself, which is the Porsche RS gt free, which is absolutely amazing. But I haven't ever raced a proper racing GT GT car like she has. She's also never been in a proper dragster. So it's what I believe in faster. And she probably tell you that she is so
Farah Nanji: 51:46
why would you take it to the track then? What is the perfect ride to take to the club?
Carl Cox: 51:54
I really love convertible cars. I mean, obviously in England, it's always raining and miserable and horrible. But I like laughing and feeling the wind in my hair. And if I can drive to the club with a top down that you know, any cover up. I have quite a few convertible cars. I really do enjoy having a top down on cars. So yeah, any car convertible. Okay.
Farah Nanji: 52:14
Maybe a classic then. What song did Naomi Campbell request when she visited space? Can you tell us that?
Carl Cox: 52:26
No, not really. You know, she was basically she came up to me and she's like, you know, I'm playing and everything he does is called Can you? Can you do a birthday party for me? Please? Oh, you play on your birthday. Now me I'm trying to detail. So let me talk to you later. She did. Yeah. But is it my only opportunity to talk to you Nana if I said yeah, no worries. So yeah, she was never No, no request for music. She just wanted me to play a birthday party. That was it.
Farah Nanji: 52:52
Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Um, the last question is calm is, what is the best thing that's happened to you this month?
Carl Cox: 53:00
I think the best thing that happened to me this month is probably getting a recording contract. record deal. I can't say which company it is at the moment. But it's just amazing that I've been able to make all this music and I still have an interest while recording current company to take me on for the next five years making my music. And that happened yesterday, actually. So the company that I was signed to 30 years ago, has resigned me 30 years later. And that is just such a humbling feeling. To know that I'm still relevant in the music that I'm making I've been making over the years, too stupid for that company to be interested in my new music for the future is incredible. So I feel very honoured and blessed that that's happened to me, even in these pandemic times.
Farah Nanji: 53:51
That's amazing. When can we keep our ears out for that release?
Carl Cox: 53:56
Yeah, well, it's, it's all happening. I think sometime next week. It'll be common knowledge. Everyone knows that this has happened and and the company that has picked me up, and the company, I'm really excited, I'm happy by it. I don't think I've ever picked up an artist of my nature obviously seasoned. But they believe that, you know, we might fuse as fuzzy as them.
Carl Cox: 54:20
You know, my passion for making music is still getting out there and still feeding the industry. You know, they were like, wow, we can't believe that he's DJing as much because they can't do both of the elements. But, what I can do is really show you something special based on the new music that I'm making now and what people are really happy about.
Farah Nanji: 54:40
Amazing. Well, by the time this interview comes out, it will probably be everyone will know so that we'll definitely share that on our end. Carl, thank you so much. It's been an absolute honour privilege. Mind blown. And thank you so much for sharing so much of your time and life in your journey with us. We are so grateful. Well, we can't wait to share this with our audience.
Carl Cox: 55:06
That's absolutely fantastic. And it's been a pleasure speaking to you. You clearly have done your homework. And thanks very much also for coming out to the space because it's hope one thing talking about it is so never being experienced in it and you've experienced it so you know.
Farah Nanji: 55:22
Well, guys, it was an absolute honour to speak to Carl about so many things, and I hope he's left you with some great inspiration. You can only imagine just how excited I was to talk to someone who's been an absolute industry hero for me since day one of beginning my career in the music industry. We've got some amazing guests coming on the show this season, so be sure to subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you listen to your podcasts. Thank you again for listening. You can reach out to me @missionmakers or at @Dj.n1nja on Instagram. And if you're interested in supporting the show, don't forget to visit www.patreon.com/mission makers
Lessons To Fuel Your Mission
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There are no templates to success
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Things come naturally when your true calling is manifesting
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The most valuable investment you'll ever make is in yourself
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Every payment is a bonus if you have found freedom in doing what you love
