text by Lybys Zambrano and Jorge Perezchica
Splash House came back to the desert June 8-10 for its 6th annual of summer fun and let’s just say, it was definitely wet and wild. With the line-up being at its all time best, 40 amazing artists blessed the stages alongside Duke Dumont, SNBRN, The Magician, Chris Lake, and Blacklizt aka Zhu — yeah that one was a surprise for me too.
Split between three luxurious hotels at each corner of the downtown Palm Springs, the Riviera, Saguaro, and the Renaissance, Splash House offers an experience unlike any other. With packages including a 2-night stay at one of the hotels, entry to the After Hours held at the Palm Springs Air Museum, and shuttle passes to every venue. They make it so easy, all you have to do is show up!
This year was an eye opener to how big this festival has expanded throughout the years. Walking into Splash House for the first time 3 years ago was a breeze with no shuttle lines, no wait for drinks and the ability to get so close to the artists you can practically smell them. This year was crazy compared to then, with thousands of festival goers, lively pools, and so much energy the entire city felt the good vibes, it’s a shame it only happens twice a year!
Splash House is a world of adventure and you don’t even need a backstage pass to run into some of the artists. With such a tight knit feeling, you will often see some of the artist walking around. No matter how big Splash House seems to be growing, it continues to have the feeling of a small concert gathering for the chosen few. This June we ran into a couple artists ourselves. On Sunday, I had the pleasure of running into the amazing Chris Lake while walking out of the Renaissance, talk about blind luck; but the real winner was on Saturday when Coachella Magazine had the chance to sit down with The Magician and ask him a few questions.
Coachella Magazine: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in music?
The Magician: I started in the late eighties. My uncle was a DJ, more like a wedding DJ, with the vinyls. I saw him making people dance and I was like, “Wow, that’s amazing.” And then some years after that, he gave me his turntables and mixer and also historical collection full of like really cool disco records from the eighties, Italo disco and stuff like that. But I was really into acid house and UK house, New beats from Belgium. I’m from Belgium, actually.
Slowly, I started to work and buy records. I went to London for the first time when I was 16 years old. I fell in love with the city. I was still living in Belgium, but I went there with the boats and bus to London, so it took, at that time, like six hours to get to London and I was just going there one day because I couldn’t afford a hotel. One day like 100 records, like 60, 70, 100 back home the same day. So I did that, it was like in the early nineties, so the music there was house from America, New York and stuff, but also the garage, which I really love.
That was the beginning of the Drum & Bass scene in England and at the same time in Belgium, I started to play in a bar, a very small bar, like 100 capacity. I was really, really shy. I didn’t want to play in front of people. So the owner told me, if you are shy, that’s not a problem, you can turn. He was telling me, “we can turn the tables and the people will be on your back and sometimes you check but you can play like you were in your bedroom.” And so there I played like three years, every Friday from 9PM until 5AM on my own with my old vinyl that I bought in London and stuff, a large range of music from HIP HOP to Drum & Bass to House, Break Beat, Techno, everything.
CM: A lot has changed over the years too, is there anything that you miss in the beginning compared to now?
The Magician: What I really miss is meeting other DJs at the record shop, you know, that was a really good time. I remember it was on a Thursday afternoon, the record shop seller came from the distributor with this big box of records and we were like in the box, checking the records. But also at that time, if you haven’t got the record you wanted, you got mad because you can’t find it. And then you have a list of records to find — so you do all the record shops to try to find it. It’s hard. It’s hard work, but it’s so cool in the end when you have it, you’re like, “Wow.”
CM: What’s one track you never get tired of no matter how many times you listen to it?
The Magician: There are tons of records like that, but maybe Frankie Knuckles – Your Love. Also, Stardust – Music Sounds Better with You. That’s my classics. Also, Joe Smooth – Promised Land.
CM: When you’re on the road, how do you balance your romance and your relationships? You’re always traveling so how do you balance all that?
The Magician: It’s hard. She (my girlfriend) used to come with me before. We have a little one, a baby. She used to come. Actually my baby came to Coachella when I played in 2014, she was like seven months old. So she did her first Coachella at seven months old. I love traveling. It’s also a passion to travel, you know, besides music, I love traveling, so both are the dream, I really love it, but I love my family as well. So, I had to make some compromises, I decided to keep one weekend of every month to spend with them. And that works. I mean it’s hard. It’s really hard when I come to America. I come always for minimum two weekends, so it’s 11 days, 12 days, so it’s hard, but we are always in touch now with technology.
CM: How’d you get the name of The Magician?
The Magician: I do magic tricks with music, I transform music from other music into something. But my girlfriend thinks I have magical powers.
CM: Last one. In your music, you can find multiple genres. Do you have a favorite that you like to work with?
The Magician: Well actually, I play mainly house music, but I love it when there is a melody, when there is a vocal, when there is like nice chords and emotion. But also, I like the energy of the house, the four, four beat. So my set when I DJ, I play 75 percent, 80 percent of house and the rest is a little bit of hip hop. Oh, if I techno track, it has like a funk thing on it or like a soul thing. Today I’m going to play a lot of new music even from me, new new productions, new tracks from friends, like Disclosure. So I’m going to play a pretty fresh Splash set.
Splash House returns again August 10-12. So if you missed out on the fun times with piña coladas and lime, then you must make your way to the sunny desert for an experience that will leave you wanting more.
DETAILS
WHAT: SPLASH HOUSE AUGUST 10-12
WEB: http://www.splashhouse.com
Photo Gallery by Lybys Zambrano and Jorge Perezchica