Once a regular face on the Melbourne club circuit, a noticeable absence was felt in the local progressive house scene when wunderkind Kasey Taylor decided to pack up his tent and re-pitch it in his new hometown of Lisbon, Portugal. As the head of Vapour Recordings, he’s got a huge catalogue of storming progressive house to his credit, and having taken 2.5 years away from the studio while he sets himself up in Europe, in 2007 he’s got his sights set on returning to the production game. In Australia for the Rainbow Serpent Festival last weekend, he’s got a few gigs still to go, so ITM caught up to find out how the scene in Portugal compares to Down Under.

Hola thanks for the interview, obrigado! How is your Portuguese?

Multo bom, obrigado.

Happy New Year, hope it’s a great one. What did you get up to NYE?

This year I did absolutely nothing. I had my first new years eve off in 20 years! I was supposed to play in Brazil but the gig got cancelled 2 days before, so I ended up staying home with friends in Lisbon and having a laugh. I was actually a nice change to be honest but I would’ve preferred to play of course.

You’re back in Australia at the moment, visiting from your new home in Lisbon, Portugal. What do you like to do when you are back here?

These days the good thing about coming home is that I can appreciate it a lot more than when I was living here. Sometimes we take things for granted but Australia is such a great place and I really enjoy it more cause it’s like a holiday for me when I come back now. I really enjoy my time with my family and friends, and the fact that I don’t have the added pressures of having to work in the studio and my day to day running while I’m here anymore, makes it more enjoyable.

Apart from football, kangaroos, and bushfires, what do you miss most about Melbourne?

Well I can tell you that I don’t miss football much cause the Dons suck at the moment, but lets hope this is the year! I say this every year though… Apart from the obvious, friends and family, I probably miss my favorite restaurants, but saying that I’m quite spoilt for food over in Portugal so I’m making up for what I’m missing at home but in a different way. My first stop when I come back is always Squires Loft Steakhouse or Kanpai. They really are the bomb. I also miss Rhythm and Soul and crazy Steve too. It’s the best record shop on the planet so I look forward to getting in there.

You are very popular at the big events such as Two Tribes and Summadayze in Australia, as well as the Voov Festival in Germany and Tribe in Brazil. There must be some craziness going on backstage, especially with so many prominent DJs and acts getting together. Got any interesting backstage stories or gossip you can share with us?

Haha, you’re fishing aren’t you? Well it’s always a good laugh when you do these festivals. I always seem to end up playing with familiar faces most or the time. I’ve been playing lots of festival over in Brazil, as well as the Labyrinth Festival in Japan and Rainbow Serpent [last weekend, in Australia]. All the people I hook up with are generally quite close to each other, so It’s kind of like meeting up in Miami or Midem or something like this, but on a smaller scale. I’ll leave the drunken details for your imagination…

It seems many Australian DJs eventually make that move to Europe to take their careers to the next level. What was your motivation for doing so? Is it difficult to remain on the forefront of the underground music scene staying in Australia?

The problem I faced is that I just needed to be more in the thick of it. I felt I did everything I could living in Australia and just felt it was time to take the next step with my DJ career. Anthony Pappa did it in ‘95, and realistically I should’ve done it then as well, but I just wasn’t ready at the time and things were going really well for me at home, and I guess I was in a comfort zone. The thing that finally made up my mind was that I was spending more time overseas, in particular Europe. It got to the point where I was doing 4 to 5 Australia to Europe trips a year, which was just getting too hard for me to do. Considering most of the work was in Europe, it made sense for me to make the move. I chose Portugal because I got booked for a gig there and totally fell in love with the place. The people, the food, the weather, everything about it just felt right straight away, so I went for it.

Do you think your fans will notice any differences in your style?

Yes I think so. At the end of the day you will always be able to hear my style when I play, no matter what genres I throw into the equation, but I guess I’m playing a lot more German influenced now, throwing in a lot of tech house, techno, and a few progressive things too. I’m playing a few minimal things as well, but at the end of the day I feel some of the minimal stuff is basically what I used to play at Q Bar on Sunday night, just with more of a German flavor. For me, it’s gone around in a cycle a bit I think.

For around 18 months you had timeout from all studio work – why such a long break?

It’s been 2.5 years actually. One reason was because I was relocating over to Portugal from Australia, and let’s just say that it’s not the easiest to relocate to another country. It takes time, patience and money. I was staying with friends for the first year over there and never really had a place of my own until about a 1.5 years ago, and in this time I’ve been trying to make the place feel like home, which I have now done. I have been playing almost every weekend and it’s hard to find the time to get in the studio as I’m flat out playing all over the world right now. Secondly, I did so many productions with Chris Meehan and on my own up to June 2004, all in a short space of time, that there was not point in doing anymore stuff for a while, because by the time it would’ve come out it would’ve been about 2 years old. As it has turned out, this has already been the case with some of the things we did. The last thing came out about a year ago, which was 1.5 years after completion. It’s just way too long these days. I also planned on having a break cause I spent about 6 months in the studio, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and I just wanted some time off to freshen up. I wasn’t expecting it to be 2.5 years! Saying this, I have almost finished building a studio over in Portugal, and the last couple of pieces that I need I’m picking up now when I’m back here. So when I get back to Europe in February, it is full steam ahead. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s been killing me lately as I have lots of ideas in my head and I’m sure 2.5 years worth or ideas is all going to come out on the next couple or records I do. Let’s just say I’m looking forward to returning…

You have Vapour Recordings and 2 years ago set up a sister label, VapouRise. What different purposes does each label serve?

At the end of the day, Vapour Recordings is known as a progressive label and I was wanting to put out a few more housey, funky, electro things. Like the Can Costa and D Nox & Beckers kind of sound. I could’ve put them out on Vapour but because the label is so strongly known as a progressive label and it has it’s dedicated followers, I didn’t want to upset the flow of it and risk losing some of them who might not have been into the sounds that I was wanting to put out. I just though it was better to do another label. Another reason was that I also had lots of stuff coming my way that I wanted to sign and had I put it all on Vapour, the backlog would’ve gotten too much, so I needed another avenue. I’m also considering a third label this year, but this one wont be associated with Vapour at all and will be a pure tech house, techno, minimal label, away totally away from what Vapour is known for, so stay tuned.

You once said your claim to fame was “pissing in the wind” – that’s quite impressive assuming you mean you can do it without getting yourself. Any other party tricks you care to share with us?

I remember this quote, but did I really say that or did someone make that up for me? I really can’t remember, but I try to piss in the loo most of the time now…

With the New Year just in, what resolutions did you make? Any hope of sticking to them?

To have the Vapour website online by March 1! It’s been the running joke of the last couple of years but unfortunately almost all the problems have been out of my hands, but it’s in the last stages of development now. The pages are up, the back office is complete, most of the information is already up too. We just have some PC/MAC viewing compatibilities to work out and then we’re live!

What defining mark is Kasey Taylor going to make on 2007?

Apart from continuing with my DJing, which is getting more hectic by the month, I just want to focus on the studio this year and producing music again. You should be hearing some new material from me by the time the European summer kicks off with any luck. I’ll be going for it this year, but another thing I’m really going to concentrate on now is doing clips and scores for TV. I have a friend who has inroads into CSI Miami and CSI Vegas, so after I get a few club records out there again, I’ll be concentrating on this, but this might realistically be a question for 2008. But you have to plan ahead..!

Kasey Taylor plays two more gigs before heading off back to Europe, don’t miss out!

Sat Feb 3 – Electric Light Hotel, Adelaide
Sat Feb 10 – Famous, Melbourne