Miss Kittin
Posted by ariadna on Tuesday, November 30, 1999

Miss Kittin actually sounds like Miss Kittin. How cool is that?

As a DJ you are constantly working at night. It must be difficult not having a daytime life.

I have a daytime life when I´m back home, when I´m not playing, you know. But, my body is used to switch. Sometimes I switch instantly, like, I know Friday, Saturday I´m going to go to bed very late and sometimes I take a few days to recover. But I´m used to it.

It must be worse when you are switching timezones.

Yeah, but, when I was young, I mean younger and not DJing, I mean, I was going out anyways on weekends so it´s nothing new. What is difficult is the traveling, the waiting time, the hotels; that you can´t stay in bed as much as you want. You know, before I would go and party and go to bed and sleep until six in the afternoon if I wanted and when you DJ you have a plane to catch or hotels kick you out at 12.00 or 13.00 and then you have to wake up so that´s the hard thing about it. Besides that everything is cool.

Do you tour very often?

For DJs, you know, it´s not like for musicians. It´s not like, ´OK, I released an album and I´m going to tour for six months in a bus and I´m going to do rock shows´. DJs work every weekend so it´s like being on tour all the time and not being – and never being on tour at the same time; because I´m going home normally on Sundays. I leave home on Friday and I come back on Sunday. It´s like, people go to work in an office from 08.00 to, or 09.00 to 17.00 and I don´t work on weekdays but I´m putting all my energy from Friday to Saturday.

And what do you do in your spare time?

Well, well, taking care of all the things. Like my health, the decisions to make for the future projects and beside job I love to meet my friends, have lunch, talk and exchange ideas. I love to watch movies, I love to read, I love to, I´m ... but I´m constantly creating something. I´m always keeping myself busy with ideas things and I´m always, like, sewing something, drawing something, doing music... It´s, it´s, it´s never ending, you know.

How long did it take to finish your i.com album?

I don´t know, I think it took more or less a year but if you, if you reduce it to the actual time we spent in the studio it´s probably only three months. Three months spread on a year or so.

Are you going to be playing much in Ibiza?

Three times.

At Wildlife?

Yes, I´m looking forward to it.

I think that´s going to be the best night in Ibiza.

Yeah?

Yeah, totally. What do you think about Ibiza?

Ibiza is, like, such a legend, you know? You have such high expectations when you go on this island that the first time I went there I didn´t get it.

As a DJ or as a clubber?

As a DJ. As a clubber I´ve never been before because it´s not the type of clubs that I´d go. I prefer to go to a warehouse where it´s dark and it´s dirty... I was invited to play at Pacha and I didn´t like it at all.

No?

No, because I was treated really bad by the people at the club. I mean, the audience, they loved what I did but Tiga and me played in a small floor and we were kicked out by the security because apparently we were partying too much in the DJ booth. Everybody else is doing cocaine on tables but we couldn´t dance in the DJ booth and I said ´Never again I will be involved with Ministry of Sound and never again I will ever play at Pacha... and if Pacha one day calls me they have to apologize for the security. This was my experience in Ibiza and I was like – I was not as famous as today, you know, today I would go at Pacha and everybody would polish my shoes and lick my ass - like in the song - but I never forget things like that because you are an artist, you deserve respect, you know. And that was like, with Sven, when Sven asked me to play at Cocoon I knew I will be treated good because Sven treats artists with respect. I don´t know about the club outside Cocoon... Maybe it´s the same, maybe they treat people like shit, I don´t know, but to me I was always treated good and I always gave something extra special to this place. For Sven, for respect. For Sven to bring me and make me like me Ibiza and to understand the spirit of the island, so now I go to Ibiza and I, I – it´s one of my favourite place in the world because I start to know, to know the... this energetical field you have on this little island which you can feel when you are on holidays somewhere and you don´t party, and that´s great. And Sven showed me this – bringing me to Cocoon and that´s great.

I think Cocoon/Wildlife is going to be the only party on Ibiza where they actually introduce new music and the audience isn´t just there to get high and party all night and all day but they actually want to hear interesting sounds and interesting mixes.

Yeah, well, that´s due to the amazing team that this Cocoon, like, it´s a family, it´s really a family and when they invite you, you are part of that family and this spirit - that´s what people want to see when they go to clubs. They don´t want to feel, ´OK, I´m going to a club, I´m paying a lot of money to see a guy who´s going to get twenty thousand euros, a flight in a private jet and play all the hits. That´s not enough anymore. Especially in Ibiza because there is such a big war between the clubs: Who is going to get the best crowd and stuff and Sven always manage to make the people feel like a family and that´s the difference because people come to Cocoon, Amnesia – they have the feeling that they are part of the show, you know. That´s it. Because Sven is really communicating so much with the audience and most of the DJs he books are like that. I think.

Is that the same relationship you have with The Loft in Barcelona?

Yes. But in The Loft the difference is that it´s not Cocoon, you know. It´s The Loft itself, I really get on well the people. They are friendly, they are enthusiastic, they follow me in every move I make and they make me feel like home and outside personal, this personal emotion you can feel; technically that´s one of the best sound system and best atmosphere in the place I´ve experienced. And, yeah, I love The Loft.

I love how they´re so organized and professional. I think it´s the most respectable club in Barcelona.

I think people are sometimes - in everywhere around the world - the big mistake of clubs is to think ´O, I´m legendary, I´m big, I am a big name and then people should be happy to come to my place´, you know. No, it´s not like this. You have to... people are the kings of the night, you know . It´s not really the DJ or the club itself or the people in the club. So you have to, you have to spoil the audience and make the party happen.

So, Barcelona is still one of your favourite places to play?

Yes, definitely. Because, because I can always play what I want, I never have the feeling that I am trapped into a style. I mean, everywhere, around the world, I never say ´O, I can´t play this´ or ´I can´t play that´. I hear a lot of DJs that say ´O, I can´t play techno there, it´s too hard for them´ or ´I can´t play more house´ or ´I can´t be crazy´, you know, and it´s like you put your own barriers, you know, but, it´s true, in Barcelona, for me, it´s easy. I´m like, it´s going to be cool and people will enjoy and it´s going to be crazy and how, and how can I make it even more crazy than last time and how can I make it even more surprising? It´s amazing at The Loft,every time, yeah, last time was crazy but it´s even more crazy and more crazy and more crazy and it, it became a joke. Like ´OK Caro, what´s going to happen this time´? That´s amazing!

Ok, here´s my last question. When you were growing up you were exposed to all types of music by your parents. Do you parents care for electronic music?

O yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My dad not too much. He´s more, actually, into hip hop because my brothers are; they are ten years younger than me and they are really into hip hop and so my dad had to bear hip hop so he, he liked, for example, things like the last Madonna album that is really electronic, he liked it, you know. He´s really aware. They are young, my parents. My mum, yeah. She´s such a big fan of Laurent Garnier. She´s like, he even calls her when he playing, he puts her on the list... She drives to see him in Spain - she lives in Spain. It´s funny, my parents are big fans, you know.

Do they understand or do they think it´s even right how you´re so important to so many people, like, you´re such a big celebrity but you just play music?

That´s a good question. Well, I think my mother always knew that since I started she, she saw me many times so each time she saw me she saw the evolution and she understood, she was like, ´Wow, that´s crazy.. how much you can touch people´. She´s even more conscious about it than I am because she, she, she can watch it from a distance. I´m not, I´m part, I´m into it. My dad - it´s another story. I think my dad didn´t really understand until he saw me live and then, and since then now, you know, he, he, I think he´s more crazy about Miss Kittin than Caroline which is a bit bizarre to me, so.... he´s really proud of my success and he, he still lives in a little town so for him, he likes the idea of being in the jet set, because he is the father of someone famous and, you know, my mum is proud because she is my mum, because I am her daughter, but for my dad it´s a little bit more superficial.... I think my dad is not involved, he never experienced techno music the way my mum did and I was never that connected to my dad as I am with my mum so that´s probably the reason.

He probably just doesn´t know you as well as she does.

Yeah, that´s it. Yeah, so but these things, now he wants to know me more because of that and I don´t need it and so it´s very strange. But it´s good, we are on good terms but I am totally aware of what´s going on so I can deal with it.

You seem very, very intelligent.

No, I´m not intelligent. That´s, that´s, no, that´s... no, no, but I realized the other day, like, like, if I would do a test for intelligence i would fail because i have zero mathematic intelligence, the logical - the logic - you know when you do tests on magazine, try to find the solution to a problem, I never make it. I think it´s more the sensibility, the intuition...

That´s part of intelligence.

That´s part of intelligence, maybe, but that´s more the intuitive feeling than, you know I try to play chess against the computer and I´m very bad... genius are supposed to be super good in that. So, I don´t think I am technically intelligent, intuitively, yeah, maybe, but I don´t think that´s intelligence, it´s more emotionally.

Http://www.misskittin.com
http://www.cocoon.net
http://www.amnesia.es/
http://www.salarazzmatazz.com/
http://www.tiga.ca/
http://www.thecloudmakingmachine.com
http://www.pacha.com/
http://www.ministryofsound.com/home/

Read the review for Sven Vath and Miss Kittin playing together at Cocoon at:
http://www.djvibe.com/news/news_details.php?topicid=235

Interview by Ariadna Peretz