DJ Paul Harris on vinyl and Vegas
PHUKET: DJ Paul Harris, a member of British house music group Dirty Vegas, was in Phuket last weekend for the official opening of the Xana Beach Club on Saturday (June 30).
Claire Connell
Saturday 7 July 2012, 04:50PM
Dirty Vegas formed in 2001 and are best known for their hit single and video, Days Go By, which was awarded a Grammy in 2003 for Best Dance Recording.
Paul lives in London, and forms the band alongside Ben Harris (no relation) who lives in Los Angeles and Steve Smith, who lives in Boston.
“We Skype each other a lot and speak to each other all the time. I spent a lot of time alone in the studio in London, doing things with other people, so it’s nice to have the variety.
“You can get bored doing the same thing all the time. [That’s why Dirty Vegas] has a remix album coming out in the next few months, along with maybe an extra track or two,” he says.
“We were originally called Dirty Harris – because two of us were called Harris. But after our first record, we got a court injunction from Warner Bros, because of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. I’m a bad gambler, so “Vegas” was added because of my gambling,” he said with a laugh.
“I was always into dance music. When I was very young I was into pop, that’s what I grew up with. But that was very dance based too.
“As you see in the charts now, dance music is pop music, there’s no denying it. It took 10 years though – dance music started coming into the charts around 1991, that’s when dance kicked off in the UK anyway. But now, songs like I’ve Got a Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas – it’s like an anthem.”
Paul says there has been a big change in being a DJ over the years, through the era of vinyl, then CDs, and now laptops.
“I used to love vinyl, it was great. But at one time it was very expensive – 20 pounds (B990). Now the kids moan today about paying 69 pence (B35) for a track.
“I think the main thing for me is that before, I could look at my record box and know which was which by the way the corner or the sleeve was bent.
“Now everything is just a file name, and there’s so much more music out there. But this means there’s also so much choice – you have a whole library rather than just 50 records. It’s nice in some ways, but not in others.”
