“We Live And Breathe Dance Music—We’re Not Interested In The Money Or Fame”: An Interview With CamelPhat

Pacha, one of Ibiza’s longest-running institutions (founded in 1973 by Ricardo Urgell), remains, for a lot of people, the apex of White Isle culture. For DJs, it is hallowed ground, a club steeped in history and an unpretentious appreciation of the fundamentals. Securing a residency at the so-called ‘cherry club’ is accolade to be cherished above all.

This year’s season is in full swing right now with a summer of specially curated nights from Black Coffee, Solomon, Bedouin and, returning for their second year, Liverpool-hailing duo CamelPhat, aka Dave Whelan and Mike Di Scala.

Their summer series at Pacha has already proven to be a popular one with tickets selling out well in advance. Their own pulling power as a duo with a broad and eclectic appeal is no doubt central to that, but mention should also go to the roll call of A-list talents they’ve brought along for the ride. Among the names joining them this year are Pete Tong, Miss Monique, Mind Against, ARTBAT, Agents of Time, Alfa Romero, and many, many more.

As their triumphant second year rolls on, we caught up with Dave Whelan of CamelPhat to talk Merseyside, Noel Gallagher and the benefits of exercising self control in the land of hedonism.

COMPLEX: We’re here to talk about your residency at Pacha Ibiza. How’s it all going?
Dave Whelan (CamelPhat): Amazing, really. This is our second year, so it’s actually been easier to promote the event because we could use last year’s footage. The year before, obviously, it was a bit more of a difficulty because we had nothing to show; well, we had from other clubs, but not from Pacha. So it’s nice to be able to programme the events with the line-ups that we’ve got. I’m really happy with the mix of house and melodic techno artists.

There are quite a few high-profile residencies at Pacha. It seems to be the one that everyone wants! How much attention do you pay to the other programmes that are going on there?
For us, our hero is Solomon—we look up to Solomon regardless of what club we’re playing at. We always go out of our way to go to his events on the Sunday. We don’t compare ourselves to him, musically, but he’s got years of experience of Pacha. We like to see the similarities of the clientele, the music maybe. And I think we do align ourselves with him more than any other artist at Pacha.

Is there an element of keeping in mind what people are doing so that you don’t repeat it?
Yeah, of course. We tend to want to be our own artist. We do a lot with Afterlife as well, but we’re very conscious of that being Mateo and Carmen’s baby, and we want to do our own thing. We want to make our own sound and our own destiny so we’re conscious of trying to be as independent as we can. I think we’ve always done that anyway. We’ve never really had one fixed style of music, whether that’s playing or producing; we’ve always just done what we want, really. We’re not worried about what people think.

What is it about Pacha that makes it such a revered space for clubbers and for the DJs?
It’s just its charm. It feels original and unique—it’s got character. You can spend millions and millions on a nightclub, but if you haven’t got that charm about it, it’s not the same. As a DJ, that’s what you want. Maybe as a customer as well. If you take away the smoke and mirrors, it’s literally down to the DJ, the music, and the people. So that’s what it feels like: like you’re going back in time. Right now, dance music culture is heavily influenced by TikTok and social media and Instagram and LEDs and visuals. Well, at Pacha, it’s just the bare bones of clubbing and that’s the best for us as purists of dance music. We live and breathe dance music. We’re not interested in the money or fame. We just want to play great music! And this allows us to do just that. Pacha is the perfect platform to deliver that night, if that’s what you’re into.

One thing that I always see brought up in your interviews is your Liverpool roots. So, I have to ask: is it as big an influence as people make out?
I guess it’s our personality. We tend to talk a lot to people. We’re quite friendly; well, I’m definitely friendly [laughs]. Our sound has moved away from [the typical] UK sound, not just the Liverpool sound—it’s now become a more broad, more global. So I guess, from that point of view, there’s no real connection with Liverpool. Our sound now allows us to get gigs globally rather than regions, so I think the Liverpool thing is more about our character than anything else.

I saw an interview where you said that 2022 was the first year you actually stayed on the island rather than airlifting in and out.
It was killing us doing the whole back and forth every week to the UK and to various other gigs. So, this year, we decided to stay on the island and just enjoy it a bit more. We have a nice base here.

Has living in Ibiza this season affected your experience as clubbers and as DJs?
There’s more opportunity to ruin your life! [Laughs] There’s more opportunity for hangovers. But to be fair, this year, in particular, I’ve made a point of being quite healthy. I joined the gym, I’ve been going for runs, going hiking and doing stuff and seeing parts of the island that I’ve never actually seen before. I consciously made an effort to do all the stuff other than partying.

Have your goals for the residency, and what you want to provide with the residency, changed over the years?
We just want to have a successful night. We want people to go away and think they got their money’s worth because, obviously, the tickets are super expensive and we appreciate every single person who buys them. We want people to go away and feel happy with what they’ve seen, and the performance and the experience. We want them to go away and tell their friends and for it to grow from that. Ultimately, we want to be the biggest night on the island and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that eventually happens. Because the other artists that have got the big nights—Marco Carola, Solomon, everyone else—these people have been doing it for years! This is only our second year in residency, so the fact that we’re competing already with these people and the numbers, it’s something that we’re quite proud of.

As well as being top DJs, you guys produce as well. There was mention last year of an unfinished track with you guys and Noel Gallagher. Has there been any movement on that at all?
I speak to Noel all the time, but I can tell when he’s busy in the studio. Everything’s about timing. With artists who are that big, they’ve obviously got their own thing going on. When he’s got downtime, I’ll pop the question and say, “Hey, look at the second track we’ve completed. What do you think?” We’ll do something like that. He’s still very open to getting back in the studio and doing more work, as are London Grammar, Jake Bugg... Noel’s coming over in August; he messaged me saying he’s coming and he’ll be attending to one of our shows.

You just mentioned London Grammar and Jake Bugg. What is it that you look for in a vocalist to work with?
We don’t really like club vocalists, like the big, almost trance diva stuff. We look for the soft, indie vocals. I don’t know why, but it just seems to cut across better on the dancefloor. There’s a bit more feeling. Like Yannis (Philippakis) from Foals as well... These are all different indie artists you wouldn’t usually hear on a dance track, and we go out of our way to find them. It’s getting more difficult, don’t get me wrong, but when it works, it really does work.

Does that come back to the Liverpool connection, that meeting of indie and dance music?
We work with Miles Kane and he’s from Liverpool. He absolutely loves it! He’s the most infectious guy ever in the studio—he literally bounces off the walls! You’re exhausted when you come out [laughs]. He’s a very talented musician and a super writer as well. Maybe, subconsciously, there is some Liverpool indie/rock & roll connection with us. That’s what we grew up on, I guess. My mum and dad grew up on The Beatles. I grew up on The Doors.

Are there other things beyond the residency that you want to let people know about that you’ve got planned?
We’re going to start our third album soon. We’ve been in the studio and we’re just starting to put it all together now. That will be for next year. There’s not much to shout about right now, to be fair, but we are consciously working on the third album. That will probably come out on our own label, When Stars Align. Other than that, it’s just business as usual. Just touring a lot, trying to stay healthy, trying to be clean and not get fat! We’re just super happy to be selling tickets; we’ve actually been getting a lot of online ticket sales. It’s good to know that people are planning so far ahead. We’re very greatful to be here doing what we do.

For more information about CamelPhat’s Pacha residency, head here.