Entrevista parte I

In previous years, you have used other pseudonyms, like “DJ Supreme” and “Loop da Loop.” At what point did you decide that you wanted to be “Space Cowboy?”

Well, my early works were done when I was in college. At the time, I was trying to enter engineering college – much to my parent's horror. But I went to work in a studio and the senior owner called me Space Cowboy all the time. He was crazy about my work and kept me on. So that's how that name came about. And from that, I was always interested in futuristic stuff, and I always thought that Space Cowboy should make music that sounded like they came off of a spaceship.

Multiple sources cite you as being a protégé of Norman [“Fatboy Slim”] Cook. In fact, your first album, Across the Sky, was released on his label, Southern Fried Records. When you look at the early years, is there a specific influence that he had on your career?

Norman is a special guy. I learned from him that evolution is good and it’s OK for a man to change his style, so he can go underground and go over ground, and go underground and come over ground again. It’s all about coming with a fresh sound. He's a master at that, and I learned that from him. He has been very successful for many years doing that and has had a great number of smash records. And I admire him greatly. He also experienced the darker side of celebrity and fame, which was very good for me because we were able to talk about that. I saw what could happen for me down the line when you experience a great deal of success in a short amount of time, which was a very beautiful thing. Norman has experienced a great deal of success worldwide. So, he explained to me how people change and how people lifestyles change and the way that the people around them change. He really taught me a lot about relationships, and how they change and evolve.

Your father was a guitar collector. How did his love for instruments shape your early musical interests?

When you’re little, you don't usually do what your parents want you to do. He loved guitars. You know, and I love guitars. I like rock music too, obviously. But my main passion is hip-hop. So when you're really young, that's kind of what you’re trying to do. However, opposites shape and interest you later. So it was quite influential on me. For me, you've got to listen to the style of the music, not the words. Now that I’m older, it makes sense — like you re-evaluate. I listened to stuff from the past and present and try to make music for the future. I know those experiences helped me to do that.

Over the years, your music releases have been very popular in Japan. In the early years, how did you go about developing a presence and audience with Japanese music lovers?

I have a label called Tiger Trax in the U.K., and we got distribution for my early work in Japan, and basically the people at the record store put it at the front of the line. And so out of nowhere, people just started getting into the songs and started spinning a few tracks on the radio. Soon enough, we were pretty much playing throughout the entire country and became a part of the music scene. We played at AgeHa, which is a wonderful club in Tokyo with like 5,000 seats. It was one of the first projects for Space Cowboy. I was deejaying at the time – I wasn't even really singing. So I think it's helped me evolve into what I'm doing now. It's one of the pieces of the puzzle. It was quite an experience, and I hope to expand my audience with this new album. This album is really a diary of the past year – not just with Lady GaGa, but a wide range of experiences.