// Exclusive interview with Mihalis Safras //
Greek DJ/producer Mihalis Safras has a long history in the electronic music scene of Greece, becoming one of his home country's most celebrated DJs. Over the course of the last decade he has tirelessly established himself as one of the Mediterranean's most promising and hard working up-and-comers; appearing on at least a dozen 12-inches last year alone. Through remixes such as his reworking of Dubfire’s anthemic “Roadkill” Mihalis has developed a proud refined style that is progressive and functional and instantly led to widespread support from the likes of: Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin, Adam Beyer, Ricardo Villalobos and Dave Clarke.
We caught up with the Greek powerhouse for a few cheeky questions...
Hello there Mr Safras and thank you for taking the time out for this interview. Where are you exactly at this time of answering these questions? Actually I am in studio listening to some demo's for my label..so this is the ideal break off.:)
Where in the world do you enjoy Djing the most and why? Well this question is typical but my answer will be typical as well: Wherever it has clubber's that love electronic music and respect their ears So I don’t have any favourite place or so but Italy, Spain, Germany clubbing scene is really hot! Basically the shit has hit the fan and the earth is about to explode . . . you have time to retrieve 3 pieces of prized vinyl to take into your emergency evacuation vessel, what records would they be? You have some point to that since it will happen soon! Gaddafi will rock the world but I would definitely have time to grab my Miles Davis triple pack LP, my Portishead ‘Dummy’ album and greek’s Alkinoos Ioannidis LP. I can cheat and get my iPod and that will solve the problem right?
Your Tresor promo mix is oiling us up and we're feeling loose. Can we look forward to you performing in Ibiza this year, maybe at our favourite party Cocoon? Thanks for the words! Actually I have been playing in Ibiza at the Zoo couple of years. Maybe this year will join Cocoon gig since lods of stuff coming this year! Get ready!
Lets face it, you've been around the block a few times, what two critical pieces of advice would you pass on to like minded aspiring artists/DJ’s/label owners? Advice is really simple! Give me some money and I ll teach ya! Joking of course, I think anyone that is into this business should be themselves with a smile on their face. In every group there is the 1st and the last so doesn’t really matters if you've been around the block or not. What counts is to be happy with what you do! If you could collaborate with anybody in the world right now who would be in your top three? Plain simple: Craig Armstrong, DJ Krush, JM Jarre. Quite ambitious and 100% impossible but that's my top 3.
If we could take care of all your commitments this weekend and you had unlimited funds, where on the planet would you go and what would you get up to? If my good friends would follow I would go to Nepal.. Can I get my iPod this time? :)
What can we expect from Mihalis Safras in 2012? Lots of goodies. In Feb 2011 we had the massive ‘La Samba’ release with remixes from good pals Riva Starr, Wally Lopez and Pig&Dan. We have the fresh Trapez Limited (celebrational 100th release) that includes Butch, Safras, Amir bombs! In April we ll be delivering the Material030 with some hot groovers so get your ears open An exclusive new is that soon we ll be preparing the second album 2xLP with Wally Lopez. Plus lots of good remixes coming up…
Come on Mihalis, Spill the beans for all those tech-heads and fledgling producers out there . . what essential pieces of studio kit, hardware and software would you start getting into a cold sweat without? Do you know the story of me remixing Dubfire in a hospital with my macbook? I think that says everything..it is not about hardware or software..it is about good mood and inspiration of making music. But I would recommended for the tech-heads an Akai MPC 200xl plus a white mini Moogv2 for synth lovers.
Who would win in a dust up: Jason Bourne or Liam Neeson's character in Taken? Chuck Norris would appear out of nowhere and would beat both of them! That’s a surprise!
