The Parklife Interview: Eats Everything

One of our favourite DJs, Eats Everything, has been one of the most-hyped acts to appear on this year’s Parklife line-up.

Having made a host of appearances at The Warehouse Project (even becoming a resident at last year’s season), Dan Pearce returns to Parklife this year with one of the biggest sets on the WHP Presents arena line-up, going back-to-back with regular collaborator Justin Martin. We grabbed Dan for a quick chat about what he’s been up to, and how his 2013 is shaping up.

How are things? You’ve just come back from Miami recently, right?

It was quite hectic, as it always is. I played eight shows, although I didn’t turn up for the last one because I got sunstroke. I played three shows on the Saturday; I played a boat party, which basically was the one that gave me sunstroke, and then Get Lost and The Treehouse back-to-back for four hours with Catz n Dogz.

The boat party was on an open-top yacht, no cover, and I’m sunstroke waiting to happen so I knew I was going to get it. I drank six bottles of water but it wiped me out. I couldn’t even move. Couldn’t eat, couldn’t do f***-all. I didn’t leave my bed for the whole next day. I tried to go and do Circus, for Yousef, back-to-back with Catz n Dogz again but there was no way I was going to be able to do it.

Heidi got quite ill in Miami last time round, didn’t she?

Me and Heidi are like the terminal illness people! And I’m ill now, just drinking water. I’ve gone from having sunstroke, to norovirus which stopped yesterday, and now I’ve got a cold. It’s literally gone “slap, slap, slap, there you go”.

Tell us a little about some of the parties you did manage to play while you were in Miami

There was DJ Mag on the Wednesday, which was me on my own with Zabiela, Dennis Ferrer, people like that. Thursday was Dirtybird, which was a bit of a shambles. Because of Ultra, when the screen fell down and killed some people, the city were really hot on afterparties, closing down clubs. They tried to shut down the Dirtybird party before it had even started, but Dirtybird managed to get a permit and get around it. Friday was a Pete Tong party and I played back-to-back with Skream, and then Saturday was this boat party.

Pete Tong and Dirtybird are two of your main support networks as it were – you’ve done a lot with them in the last few years

Yeah, PETS and Dirtybird are where I’ve released equally the same amount of music – I’ve released two EPs on each label, two remixes on each label. Pete Tong has been a supporter of me since the beginning. He’s very good to me, he’s sound. He’s always on the phone to me and always asking for more.

Barclay [Claude Vonstroke] is brilliant. He gets the best out of you. He’s totally honest, if he doesn’t like something he’ll say “I don’t like it”. I’ve had four tracks signed to him and the rest – I’ve probably sent him 40 records – he’s been like “No, I don’t like it…”. I’d rather have it way, otherwise I’d have a load of sub-standard music out there. At the end of the day, if Claude Vonstroke isn’t going to sign it… 90 percent of the time he signs what I think is high-quality music, produced well and is quite innovative and different to anything else. Whereas a lot of other labels sign f****** anything.

Are you intending to return to those labels this year with more new material?

To be honest, I’ve not really got any singles of my own coming out this year. I’m doing a collaboration album with Justin Martin this year, we’re writing it this year and it’s going to come out early next year hopefully if everything goes well. We’ve got one track coming out mid-May and then I’ve got a collaboration EP with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs coming out on Crosstown Rebels, and a collaboration with Catz n Dogz coming out on PETS. And that’s pretty much it, really. There probably will be other stuff but at the moment that’s all I’ve written.

Release-wise, that’s still a pretty busy schedule

I’d hope so. And it’s still three different labels, three different avenues, so it should be good.

We’re looking forward to having you back at Parklife this year. You were here last time round

Yeah, it was great. I played really early, second or third. It was wicked. It was rammed within 10 minutes of me starting, it was absolutely jam-packed and it was going off at half-past two or three o’clock in the afternoon. It was going mad. I was really impressed. And now this year, I’m playing back-to-back with Justin quite late. It’s going to be really, really good I think.

I’m in America until the Saturday morning and then I’ll come straight here I think. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve played The Warehouse Project six times now and I love it. England on the whole is pretty good at the moment, there’s nowhere really I’ve played in the last six months that hasn’t been amazing. I’m not lying, every gig I’ve played has been pretty mental. But up North… Leeds, Manchester. And Bristol. Manchester, Leeds and Bristol are the three places for me that are a bit crazier than anywhere else. Which is a good thing, definitely!

Eats Everything returns to Parklife with a back-to-back set withJustin Martin on the WHP Presents line-up, which includes sets from Julio Bashmore, Tiga and a live set from Scuba.