Paul Harris: Proves there is life after Dirty Vegas

It’s less than a year since the boyishly good-looking Brit first graced our shores, blowing venues off the richter nationwide and clocking up more fans by the mile than Paris with a new tape. Now less than 8 months later it seems he’s in desperate need of some more Australian loving, as he gets set to land on our shores for part two of his disco journey. ITM’s Semone Maksimovic caught up with a delightfully talkative Mr Harris from his London home, just a few hours shy of take-off for his upcoming Australian mini-tour. As he chatted about the last 8 month blur of DJ shows, remixing, new projects and a hotly-tipped scoop on his new label.

After getting his most highly-noted beginnings on the international scene with his work in Dirty Vegas and travelling around the world in high-style after their Grammy win, he decided that world wasn’t for him. So he stripped away from the band and began that lonely journey back into solo-mode, going back to his club roots, a difficult prospect for any 33 year old whose tasted the sweet nectar of success. But the last year has proved to be nothing less than worthwhile, as his DJ schedule has kicked up ten-fold, his production and remix roster has never seen more light of day and the future has never sounded so hectically frantic. “At the moment I’m making more records than I’ve ever made in my life!”, exclaims an enthusiastic Harris, happy with all that’s come his way since taking that difficult first step.

One of the things that’s been getting most of his attention of late has been a hot new project by the name of Superbass with his new collaborating partner Jay P, the two have already gathered a truckload of interest around the industry, without even a first official release yet. “The Superbass stuff is all going really well at the moment, I haven’t been this excited about a project for a long time, but the stuff we’ve been coming up with and the interest we’ve gathered tells me we’re onto a good thing. I’d have to tag Superbass as being my favourite project to work on at the moment, cause it could end up being another band for me. Which obviously I’ve done before, but this is all new and full of promise and freedom still, so it’s hard not to be excited about it and what’s around the corner for the project” shares a quietly chuffed Harris of the new endeavour.

Apart from that, Harris has been steadily booked studio-wise on a bunch of work with Mark Knight and the Toolroom clan, a seemingly endless list of tracks and artists requiring his remixing sheen and working on a new collaboration with ex-Dirty Vegas partner in crime, Ben Harris. “We’ve just done a few new tracks in the studio together for another project we’ve had going for a while. From that we’ve had people like Deep Dish going mad over the project, so things are also looking quite positive on that front.” But that doesn’t mean that things are likely to change on the Dirty Vegas front, the three are all enjouing their new-found musical freedom, doing things on their lonesome for the moment, but that doesn’t mean things are likely to stay that way forever. “We might do a reunion gig, I wouldn’t be surprised if we do something like that. But as for getting back to the band, I’m not sure at the moment, I have too much on my plate and just enough extra time to produce a couple of bands at the moment.”

The two bands in question are more electronic-based outfits, something that Harris is happy to be working on with a new lease of life at the moment. But in future he hopes to get a chance to work with something a little more like our own Melbourne trio Cut Copy, production-wise. “I think what they’re doing is fucking amazing, I’d love to work with them on a future production, my door is always open for those guys” hints Harris with a smile. Apart from the brimming studio schedule, which he manages to keep under control on the road with his laptop. He’s been recently in talks about making his first official mix cd in the next couple of months, “There’s been talk of me possibly doing the next United Nations of House cd, which I’m really excited about, so that’s what looks like it’s in the works for me in terms of a mix cd. But in terms of an artist record, that’s still somewhere down the line at the moment.”

One thing that he’s had a hard time keeping the word in about, is the start of his own label over the next few months, something he has until now kept tight-lipped about. With the name tipped to take after his hot new studio effort Superbass and the first releases all set and ready to go, there’s nothing holding him back now. “I’ve had lots of meetings about it, so it’s all ready to go and I have the first seven records to be released on it already, so it won’t be too far away. We’re looking to release our own material and some material from other artists as well, the first six or seven releases will just be stuff we’ve been working on and other people’s remixes of our stuff. But after that I’ll look around for anything else I think is good enough and get a roster happening. But for now, it’s easier just to release our own records in the initial stages” reveals a confident and anxious Harris.

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