After last month's event – which saw Mark Reeve take to the decks alongside some of Beijing's hottest underground talent – new monthly techno night, Back 2 Basics, returns to Lantern this Saturday. This month, Spanish techno stalwart DJ Nuke heads the lineup, so we caught up with him about all matters nuclear.
Why the name DJ Nuke?
[Laughs] the name of Nuke comes from an old videogame I used to play in the arcade when I was a kid. When I grew up I learnt English and I knew that a “nuke” is a bomb… but I got used to the name, so I kept on using it. It’s short and easy to say in almost any language, much more than my own name, so I like that name for my DJ career.
Can we expect an explosive set from you in Beijing?
I don’t know if it will be 'explosive', but I will try to do my best and make people enjoy my music and my set. I enjoy my job a lot and I love to play music, but the best is when the audience enjoys it as much as yourself. That’s probably the best part of being a DJ, it’s an amazing kind of happiness: to make other people happy.
If you could choose one person in the world (apart from yourself) to have control over the world's nuclear missiles, who would it be?
I will tell you a story: I would give a 'uke button' to every bad person in the world, to anyone who hates and to anyone who wants bad things to happen to other people. Tey would probably use that button sooner or later, and launch the missile to a city, country or to a person, I don´t care. The important thing is that I would have changed the missiles – when it arrives at the target, instead of an explosion, the missile would spread confetti all over the place. Instead of killing people, it would start a party, a celebration. Instead of making people sad, that bad person would have made a lot of people happy. Maybe after knowing that sensation of doing good things for other people, that bad person will turn into a better human being.
China needs 1000 new nuclear reactors to fulfill its climate change pledge – what impact will your tour have on this?
I hope that everyone who comes to Lantern club needs a new pair of shoes the day after my set. That would mean that they danced until they burnt their old ones!
You started the popular CODE night in Madrid over ten years ago – did you ever expect it to blow up like it has?
We never thought that it was going to become so big. But probably it’s better this way. We worked hard, step by step, and the success arrived after all that work. When you get your goal after struggling so much, you enjoy it much more
How much has the techno scene changed in that time?
It has changed a lot. I think that the most important change is the information. In the past, to hear an international dj you had to get a cassette from your older brother, who had a friend who had a friend who had another friend… and now in a couple of minutes you can check internet for some mixes, biography, discography, interviews and next gigs of any artist you want.
You own a couple of record labels– do you find you have less time to DJ now?
In fact I have less time for my record labels right now [laughs]. It has been a very important season at CODE and it is my priority. But running a record label doesn’t mean that you have less time to be a DJ. In fact, it’s very important and it gives you the chance of being known all over the world and get more gigs… so it’s good for your career as a DJ!
What's your plan while in China? How long are you here for and what do you want to see/do while you're here?
This is my first time in China, and I’m spending five days here. Of course I want to do a couple of the typical visits like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, but my main interest is to know more about the chinese culture, the people. That’s the thing I most like about my job. It gives you the chance to travel a lot and know many different cultures. Some of them are very similar to my own, like any European country, but I think that what I will find in China will be very different to anything I’ve seen before. I’m looking forward to it!
// For full details see our event listing
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