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Having arrived in Ibiza in 1975, Spanish DJ Jose Padilla is without doubt an Ibizan institution. The spiritual father of chill-out has been DJ-ing on the Island for over 30 years, during which time he helped to establish Ibiza’s, now legendary, Balearic sound and his overly impressive discography which includes the iconic Café Del Mar series.
It’s with no surprise then that Jose was asked by the award-winning Café Mambo to curate the venue’s 15 year anniversary compilation, a venue at the heart of Ibiza’s notorious club and beach culture. We caught up with the man to talk about his experiences with Café Mambo, the compilation, life in the sun and his plans for the future.
In his outspoken and candid best, over to you Jose…
The word Balearic means many things to many people. But what does that word mean to you?
(Laughs) Ha! Everybody is asking me the same question! Well it’s not that simple. A few years ago I wasn’t even clear myself about what Balearic meant, but basically, ‘Balearic’ was born in and grew in Ibiza over 20 years ago. It began as a word to describe the way of playing records. As DJ’s, we didn’t have much choice in Spain and we didn’t have a lot of records coming in, so we’d have to play for eight or ten hours every night to keep the crowd going, playing lots of different styles, sometimes we’d have to play the same records two or three times. That developed into a way of playing, it was very eclectic - Tamla Motown, Reggae, Rock etc… But with the beaches, the weather, the Mediterranean and when House music came in, people started to pick out house records, and when they merged it and mixed it with these styles it became known as the Balearic sound.
Balearic should be any track that’s played in a nice environment which put’s a fucking smile on people’s faces.
Do you live in somewhere really beautiful in Ibiza? What’s your typical day like?
I live in the countryside in San Miguel, right in the middle of the country, there’s lots of fucking flies and mosquito’s there! My typical day, when I’m not at work, is spent just leading a normal life. I get up at 9.am at the latest, have some fruit, a coffee, then I go for a swim. I get back home and then I do some stuff like listening to some of my music, I’ll maybe work on some of my projects, take a look at my emails etc…
It sounds like you have a beautiful life out there…
Well yeah. I mean I work like everybody else, I’m not on holiday. The only difference about living here is that I’ve got access to the beach, and I can be isolated from everybody and have a lot of privacy if I want it.
It sounds really tranquil, but is there anything about the Island that particularly stresses you out?
Yes, the traffic in the summer ha! That’s why I try to avoid going to Ibiza town, I try to avoid going to public places in July and August as there’s just too many people.
You’ve lived in Ibiza a long time now, but where are you originally from?
I was born in Girona, which is near Barcelona, it’s between Barcelona and France. I grew up in the south of France.
Let’s talk about your Café Del Mar series. Obviously you’re famous for producing that, but how does it feel to be invited by Mambo to do their 15th anniversary after you’ve worked with Café Del Mar for so long?
I feel great! I wish I did it before. I didn’t have to wait long before I was asked to do it because the owner had asked me to do it so many times. There’s better guests and people now at Café Mambo, and all I want at the end of the day is to play my music, so it’s great that I can do that and have fun.
So essentially it’s exactly same vibe at Mambo and Café del Mar?
Well the times are very different now, you wouldn’t be able to have everything the same now as it was back then. It’s a different year now with a different crowd, but the sunset and the smell and the view is exactly the same. And for me, that’s very important and it really inspires me.
With Café Mambo, do you have any particular memories or experiences of that place over the last 15 years that you would like to tell us about?
I remember when Javier was building Café Mambo and he wanted me to play there but at the time I wasn’t very happy with Café Del Mar because I was working there for 5 or 6 hours a day with 1 day off, no guests or anything, and they were paying me 100,000 pesetas a month (about 500 euro’s). So Javier came to me and he said ‘I’ll give you a blank cheque for anything you want, I’ll build you a DJ booth, whatever you want’ and I was so fucking stupid for turning it down! But fifteen years later I’m there.
How would you feel about owning your own beach bar one day?
Yea it’s actually something that I’ve been thinking about lately because, for me, there’s not many places that play the quality stuff in the way I want it. At the end of the day, because I’ve been DJ-ing for so long it’s very important for me to play sets which are of really great quality and to play what I want to play, so that’s why I’ve been thinking about having my own place as I would then be able to do just that. So I’m hoping that it will happen soon.
How do you come across your records now? Do you still do it the old way of searching through vinyl’s or do you do it with digital downloads?
I do both. I get some promo’s because of the radio show I have. I buy some online and I go to vinyl shops- I’ve been to the Indygen which is one of the best vinyl record shops in Europe and I went fucking mad-ass, I went crazy man! There’s another one called Ultrasuoni record shop, I must say that the owner is nuts- he starts work at 7am and leaves at midnight and his wife says she’s going to leave him ha!
Tell us about the album, what is the mood of it? And have you managed to get any exclusive records for the album?
Well I managed to get some really rare records, such as ‘The Canyons’ from Australia, which in the beginning they didn’t want to give to me. The record is quite Balearic and also a bit down tempo - kind of like ‘Lounge(y) Balearic’. It’s very eclectic and the way I approached the compilation was to make it appeal to the biggest ranging audience as possible, from 20-40 year olds, but maybe for 20-80 year olds to! That was the idea for the compilation.
Is it very much your style? Is it the kind of thing we would hear when we come and see you live?
Yes, if you came to a bar on the beach I would start off by playing that, and then I’d raise the tempo for the last two tracks and play something like ‘Jellybean’, and turn it tribal(ly), jazzy and Balearic!
Are there any specific tracks on the record which you’d like to tell us about? Any ones which you’re very passionate about?
When I do a compilation I have to like all the records on it, sometimes I grow tired of certain tracks more than others, but only sometimes. Amy Canbe’s ‘24 Hours’ is a very beautiful record, its a proper electronic chill-out record and I love it, it’s the kind of record I can play 20 times in a row and not get tired of. There’s a very good quality down tempo house tune of about 120bpm by Sis N Jones, its South African house and they’re two guys from Johannesburg and you wouldn’t be able to tell that they’re from Johannesburg- it sounds like it should be U.S house.
Finally, where can we find you playing in Ibiza this year?
This year I’ll be in Mambo every Sunday, I have my program ‘Ibiza Sonika’ at 5pm every Tuesday and on Thursday’s I may be playing the ‘Usuisa’ night in Playa d’en Bossa- this is yet to be confirmed, but I think it will happen.
by Defected Recordings
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José Padilla
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