We caught up with Ali, aka Dubfire, of Deep Dish at the Mynt Ultra Lounge in Miami during WMC where he was promoting the release of his new Global Underground 31 Taipei mixed CD. Ali is best-known for his grammy award-winning work with Deep Dish, yet 2007 sees him hitting the solo trail with a DJ tour, number one remix (Robbie Rivera "Float Away"), record label and productions. You have to wonder how one man stays so busy and continues to release such incredible music?
DJ Ron Slomowicz: So Ali, how is the Winter Music Conference going for you this year?
Ali Dubfire: Oh, it's day two and it's already off to a crazy start.
RS: Are you playing everywhere pretty much?
Ali Dubfire: Not everywhere, we're strategically playing certain
parties. Tonight's my party, Sharam had his party last night, and we
have our agency party tomorrow. We're doing the Ultra Festival, which
we haven't done in five years and we're playing together, and then we
do Saturday at Space which is the annual marathon.
RS: Wow, it sounds like you are playing everywhere. The new
Global Underground release, why Taipei, did you record this out live
while you were spinning out there?
Ali Dubfire: No, but the set was inspired by a night out there. I
wanted to spotlight Taipei as a clubbing destination because I didn't
think a lot of people realized that there was a scene in Taipei and a
very healthy one. We've had a number of like really great gigs over
the years there, and when it came time for me to pick a city it just
seemed like a logical choice.
RS: When you think of Taipei, what sound do you think of?
Ali Dubfire: A cross of many sounds. They definitely like their
trance out there, so my sound tends to lean more towards the
prog-techno slant than the deeper, housier type stuff.
RS: When you were choosing tracks for the CD was it difficult to
make the lineup with that kind of parameter?
Ali Dubfire: Yes. Ultimately, the CD is inspired by that night, but
since I made it a year later, there were certain tracks that for me
captured the moment of the night which I tried to include. I caught
some for flack including some older material, but I tried to basically
inject the CD with all of my influences across the board. I have a
problem - I like all kinds of music, so I can't stick to one thing.
RS: Very cool. You're doing a lot of solo work right now. One
of the big records of the week is your remix of Robbie Rivera's "Float
Away" that just hit number one in the UK.
Ali Dubfire: Yes, I heard about that actually, it was nice.
RS: What was your take on the track and how did you approach it?
Ali Dubfire: Well I always loved it, and then Robbie actually asked
for a Deep Dish mix. At the time Sharam was busy with all of his solo
projects, so he couldn't commit and we had started to do more solo
work. Robbie's a good friend of mine, so I said I'd take a stab at it
and see how it turns out. The mix turned out unbelievable, and Robbie
loved it. The response has been great and I'm really proud of the mix
because it was very difficult to marry what I'm into right now, which
is the more minimal techno techier type of sound with the vocal.
There are not a lot of vocal songs in that thing, so I tried to bring
the two worlds together and I think it worked out nicely.
