Interview with DJ Widenski

Tell us, for those who don't know, who is DJ Widenski?
A regular guy from Estonia who despite to my tender age of 28 years have already been in dance music business for over 13 years and played my funky house sound with a strong disco touch in some of the top clubs on the planet such as Pacha (Ibiza), Turnmills (London), Vertigo (Hong Kong), Vogue (Paris) to name a few. I was also chosen to be the official resident for Ministry Of Sound parties in Tallinn. I love travelling, animals and hate people who think they are more important than others and General Motors who killed Saab.

How is the music scene in Estonia, compared to the rest of Europe?
To be honest it used to be a lot better years ago, early 2000s when people were very open to new stuff. We used to arrange many regular underground parties all over the country. At the moment it feels the majority of new generation who goes out every week has been growing up with commercial media and got therefore a strong music poisoning. We have very many clubs in our quite small capital city Tallinn and thank God a few of them are still hot and into good house sound. But to me Estonia is small, we have just 1,4 million people in total.

On New Years Eve you will begin a 3 month tour, tell us more about it!
Well it all started after me and my wife had decided last summer to have our next winter break in Australia. After I was offered a gig in Melbourne's top venue Alumbra and also in Hong Kong's Vertigo I decided to travel a bit more during that period and create a tour project and here's the result. I am also very excited to play at my good friend Bert Bevans'es club Seduction in Phuket and Copenhagen's best underground club Culture Box, both in March.

The International gigs you have lined up have focused on Asia, any particular reason?
I adore Asia, I have played in Hong Kong and India before, the way people live there and think is so different than in Europe and even if I wouldn't maybe like to live there the rest of my life I still want to get there as much as possible – the climate, the culture, the food and the clubs. But my tour doesn't only take me to Asia, I will be in many amazing places in Europe and Australia too.

What artists have been exciting you the most recently? And how would you rate 2009 as a year in general, musically?
I've always been a fan of Joey Negro and his disco sound and I`m happy he hasn't got bored of producing great stuff. I have been digging in old stuff a lot recently and found many pearls so I guess it reflects that 2009 hasn't offered too much good stuff to me. I have also got into soulful stuff more and more, maybe because I`m getting older and need more beautiful emotions. One of my best gigs in 2009 was definitely playing in South Spain in Andy Ward's Vocal Booth Weekender – 2 days full of the best crowd ever, I will never forget it!

Since we now are close to Christmas, what do you want for Christmas?
A big hug from my wife and 3 years-old son who always asks me before going out if I`m going to spin records. And some quality time with family as the beginning of 2010 will be filled with travelling and parties. Oh and a Jean Paul Gaultier's perfume too.