DJ Harvey Lives in LA Now But Still is Feeling the UK Love

To those that know, DJ Harvey can be summed up in two words: The Greatest.

Harvey Bassett has had the kind of life that most of us yearn for. Born and raised in the dark heart of the Fens, he traded his early career as a teenage drummer in a punk band for a spell as a B-boy and graffiti artist in New York during the mid-80s, before going on to start the now legendary Tonka parties in Brighton at the dawn of the acid house revolution. Since then he's had a residency at Ministry of Sound, started the incredible Sarcastic Disco series, single-handedly brought Balearic back into being, put out fantastic records as Locussolus and Wildest Dreams, run a hotel on a Hawaiian beach and played at every single good nightclub in the world. He is a modern master, a man who makes DJing seem worthwhile, an unparalleled technician and selector.

After fifteen years away from the UK for visa-related reasons, Harvey's been making intermittent trips over to our side of the pond. Now, he's back in Blighty on a mini-tour this month and we were lucky enough to chat with the main man just before his all-nighter at Fabric.

THUMP: Two years ago, Red Bull Music Academy brought you over for your homecoming show at the Oval Space. How was that as an experience?
DJ Harvey: To be perfectly honest, I was very concerned about it being a good gig and it meant an awful lot to me and I was actually quite stressed out for most of the gig for a few reasons. I wanted it to be as good as possible and our audio concept was a little too high and we had some acoustic issues and then a thousand people turned up and five hundred of them wanted to say hello and give me a hug and that put me off my stride a little bit. Personally, I made it through the night and was delighted that it went really well and it was a great party. It was basically a seven hour panic for me. All's well that ends well, as they say. I just wanted it to be great – I know that some people say that they don't give a fuck but I really do give a fuck.

How excited are you for this mini UK tour you've got going?
I'm looking forward to kicking off at Fabric because it's home ground, in many respects. All the old gravers – as I call them – the silverbacks of acid house, will come out with their Zimmer frames and we'll have a right old knees up. Hopefully, the newer generation of clubbers will be out there as well putting some energy into it. I'm playing all night and it's a very professionally run club with a great sound system and that all makes my job so much easier. I'll be bringing my own mixer and EQs and stuff but I'll be working with the engineers there to make it sound as good as possible. I've got seven hours to tell a story, playing music that I want to hear and hopefully that an audience wants to hear. A captive audience.

The big question is: what can we expect you to be wearing tomorrow night?
I really don't know. When I'm on the road it's a little more difficult to dress well because I've got to carry everything around… will it be the lucha libre wrestling mask? Will it be a leotard? A tutu? I think at Fabric I'm going for the 1976 geography teacher chic. Tweed, maybe a cravat. Something like that. Could just be jeans and t-shirt.

Is it difficult being known to the world as DJ Harvey? How often are you recognized?
I'm actually surprised because I'm recognized absolutely everywhere I go. And I didn't think I was that well known. I can run but I definitely can't hide. It doesn't matter if I'm in Tokyo, or Jakarta, or Reykjavik, or wherever it may be – somebody at some point walks up to me and goes, 'Hey DJ Harvey, how's it going?' I'm honoured that anyone would give a damn and I'm always happy to take a picture with them. It's usually guys who come up to me and their girlfriend is forced to take a picture of us together and I'll usually catch the eye of the girlfriend who does a sort of raised eyebrow that screams 'my boyfriend is an idiot and I'm utterly embarrassed by him'. It's nice to be appreciated. I respond to the roar of the crowd always.

Where's the Harvey resurgence come from?
I suppose that in the modern age there's access to lots of information on the internet and I'd like to think that maybe I'm not bad at what I do and that if people come and see me they might hear some music that's not quite as minimal as what they might be normally listening to. Stuff with more melody, more emotion, more range than what the lauded DJs of contemporary times play. I'm very happy… I'm glad, it pays the rent. It's very important to me that there's a younger generation who're interested in what I do, people who are interested in the longevity and scope of dance music.

Where's home these days, Harvey?
Home is Venice Beach, California. I live by the seaside. I've got to say that I find London very exotic these days. There's very little in California that's over sixty years old. Yesterday I went to a church in St Pancras that's been a holy site for over a thousand years. The force that runs through that place was palpable. To be able to walk around a capital city wandering in and out of buildings over five hundred years old is spectacular to me.

The first time we spoke your vices were steak, cake and violence. Is this still the case?
I'm trying to cut the cake out these days. I'm just carving up big slabs of meat instead. The cake was just making me chubby.

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