Q: WHAT WAS IT THAT DREW YOU INTO ELECTRONIC MUSIC?
A: Initially I ended up exploring electronic music in the form of IDM and glitch because the music of my teen age years (rock/punk/industrial) had started to feel a bit stale and there was some totally mind melting music coming out from warp records and rephlex and schematic at the time. Eventually this led to techno and rave as it was at that time I could start going out to venues. The music has always been a strong focus for me but I think it was the parties and the people that made me absolutely fall in love with electronic music. In a way it's hard to separate the music from the context it's experienced in and once I was in, I was in for good!

Q: YOU'VE BEEN A DRIVING FORCE IN THE SE/QLD MUSIC SCENE FOR OVER 2 DECADES, WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU NOTICED AND A: WHERE DO YOU THINK OUR INDUSTRY IS HEADED?
A: Just like fashion, music goes in cycles. Things can become flavour of the month then become uncool and around again. There's always people moving away from the scene and new people coming in as well as those that stick around the long haul. When I first started going to parties it was quite raw and fresh and some of the production tech was pretty basic, but the vibes were off tap and there were no phones or cameras on the dancefloor. These days we can do so much more in terms of creating amazing and beautiful party spaces, and social media and phones are quite a thing, but there is also an increasing movement to get back to the roots, focus on the basics, and put the immersive vibe first with some parties embracing no phones policy which is pretty awesome. I think especially since the pandemic, the essence of rave is back and people want more dancing, faster tempos and less social posing. Also as cost of living considerations become more of an issue, I think we could be headed to a phase of 'less is more' .. embracing a low cost, raw and basic approach to events.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT LIVE ELECTRONIC HYBRID SETUP?
A: I use the Play Differently Model 1 mixer as my main tool .. it's just an incredible mixer. 100% analog, lovely filters, send fx, and the best summing. To unlock it's full potential with Ableton as the audio player, I use a 16 channel UAD card so I can send 6 channels of balanced audio out to the Model 1 inputs, as well as the sends and returns. Sometimes I'll add a launchpad or small drum machine depending on the type of techno and the available space. I'm experimenting with adding in a small acid machine at the moment also.

Q: WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST SPECIAL PERFORMANCE AS A DJ SO FAR?
A: Closing the Eclipse 2012 festival in Cairns on the main techno/trance stage is hard to top. This year's Earth Frequency was also a really special vibe, going between 4 hours of Fcking Serious and Metodi Hristov .. vibes were incredible !


Q: WHAT'S IN THE PIPELINE FOR PAUL ABAD?
A: It's a big year working on the 20th anniversary of Earth Frequency so that is kicking in gear already. I have a few nice festival and club bookings coming up in the second half of the year and hopefully trying to squeeze in some days for production work amongst the busy life combo of being a dad, husband, festival director and dj! Joining up with the Outra team as a resident DJ is an exciting progression also and I am seriously looking forward to collaborating with this team to create some more outstanding events in South-East Queensland.