Many of you may or may not know I hit a major milestone this past August – that’s right – I’m halfway to 70! What? Ok, more like five years from hitting the big ol’ 4-0! For those of you who can’t count – I just turned 35! Honestly though, I feel a lot younger than what that awkward number depicts.
This past August was also a time for my wife and I to finally celebrate our much deserved, needed and very delayed honeymoon. The two of us married back on 10.10.10. Unfortunately, due to our hectic schedules, we decided to postpone our trip to the following year. So why not kill two birds with one stone by celebrating both occasions?
Our 10-day excursion kicked off with us departing Dallas and flying into Heathrow – London. After an amazing couple of days through the wonderful city, we took a two hour flight south in to Barcelona where we spent a day or doing some amazing sightseeing, bus rides, endless walking, and documenting our trip with hundreds of pictures. Our real journey truly began when we delved into the Balearic Island of Ibiza.
Many know Ibiza to be the party island of the world. Some know the beautiful island as a Mecca for world class DJs. Regardless of what your perception is o the island, it truly is a place where endless nights can a provide core-thumping beats, littered with beautiful people dancing to a conglomerate of beats that pepper the sound waves with grooving melodies.
In Ibiza you can find just about every flavor of music available to mankind. Genres include anthem-driven trance all the way to hard, progressive house and techno beats. The musical landscape remains the same as it was 40 years ago. When I first learned about the island 12 years ago, my intentions were much more different than today. This day I was eager to explore the music and to truly experience up-close the very bleeding edge of the DJ art form.
The “glory days” of the 90s and early 2000s are somewhat of a distant memory. The cost in visiting and staying in Ibiza has increased substantially, thus making it financially compromising if you’re working on a tight budget. It was refreshing to see that the relatively young were working professionals, in the same age group, who shared that same passion for music.
Our journeys took us to the infamous venues of Space, Pacha, Café Mambo and the glorious Café Del Mar. Venues like Space and Pacha were simply massive warehouse-like environment that offered steep drink prices, overcrowded floors… but needless to say – amazing music, lights and laser shows! As far as sound systems go – it’s very clear as to why places like Space and Pacha are a haven for DJs like Carl Cox, Erick Morillo, Harry “Choo-Choo” Romero, Funkagenda and Steve Lawler.
Venues like Café Del Mar and Café Mambo provided a different atmosphere. Located on the other part of Ibiza, this is where couples or even the single soul lands to capture what is considered the best sunset available in this world.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson I took away from my visit to Ibiza were to experience the impressive and dynamic sets of each DJs like Umek, Remo, Lucca, Tiefschwarz, Nic Fanciulli and Carl Cox to mention a few. Throughout different instances, I truly came to understand how the natural progression of highly packed lineup could make or break an evening. Granted, I experienced this years ago while seeing DJs such as Kazell or Jimmy Van M open for main events like Sasha & Digweed. Either way, in Ibiza, this particular format made a lot more sense. It appeared that each DJ scheduled to play in front of the next DJ, would essentially respect the chain of command. In other words, no DJ ever stole the show… they were simply building up to the main event.
Perhaps this is my attempt to over analyze things, but simply said, my appreciation for the art form has been amplified greatly.
Another important thing I learned while dancing my tukus off, was a very simple lesson – that every track played in Ibiza was as fresh as the next one. I came to realize how deprived music can be in the United States. Granted, these top-flight DJs have access to some of the best producers and freshest tracks readily available. If anything else, I now know where the bar has been raised, and I’m determined to surpass it one day.