It's a writer, it's a DJ, it's Philip Sherburne!

A prolific writer, Music critic and DJ, Barcelona based Philip Sherburne is best known for his Wire Magazine column “ Critical Beats” as well as his “Month in Techno” column for the super hot website Pitchfork. Philip is also a regular contributor to print and online publications of URGE.com, XLR8R, and more. As a DJ, Philip gravitates towards slinky, hyperkinetic minimal house and techno. He's played in New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Montreal, Berlin, Chile and Mexico; in Barcelona he’s a regular guest at clubs like the Moog, Raum and Lolita.

I understand that you are based in Barcelona. Is that where you are from (born and raised)? How did you come to settle in Barcelona and what is its best feature - generally and for electronic music?

What should be a simple question is actually a little complicated. I'm currently based in BCN, though for the last couple of months I have been in Portland, Oregon (where I was born and raised) while my mom recovers from an injury, and I may be relocating to the US in the near future, for family and professional reasons. But yeah, I chose Barcelona largely for its techno scene -- not to mention the architecture, the beaches, the weather, and the pace of life there.

You are both a DJ and music critic/journalist. Which of these hats did you wear first? How did you get your start in each? And how long have you been DJing and writing?

I probably started doing both around the same time - '97 - but I was "established" as a writer long before I began to be as a DJ (and was a fairly proficient music critic for years while I was probably pretty crap as a DJ). I started writing about music, largely on Internet newsgroups and for webzines, because I was bored in graduate school (where I studied literature) and I was starting to get really interested in experimental and electronic music after a long period of being bored with rock. (Man, I sound like I was really bored!) I started DJing, or at least tried to, because I was buying all these weird records and it seemed like that's what you were supposed to do with them. But living in places with little club culture, I rarely actually saw people spin records, and besides that I started out on weirder genres, non-4/4 stuff, so I took a really circuitous route to actually playing house and techno. I probably started attempting to DJ seriously a few years back in San Francisco, and in the last two years, perhaps, I've become pretty pleased with it all. My hands sure don't shake like they used to.

What goes around comes around is what they say. Do you agree with the critiques, if any that you have received on your sets? What do you do with that info?

Uh oh, what critiques! Actually I haven't heard very many; I remember that a few years ago Mike Shannon mentioned that a mix CD I had done was a little too all-over-the-place for his tastes, and he was probably right. I was still learning then... am still learning now! If people dance, I'm happy. They usually seem to...

You must have had the opportunity to speak with some pretty outstanding Electronic Music figures in you career. Which conversation / interview / meeting stands out the most and why?

Oddly, I just met Kronos Quartet in the lobby of the hotel where I'm staying in Providence, and I felt like a blushing fan more than I've felt in years. I'd say that the standout recent interview was probably with Ricardo Villalobos in Berlin. In part it's because he gives so few interviews; in part because I think he's misrepresented in the media, and so to have the chance to sit down in his studio for a couple of hours and really get him talking felt pretty special. He's a really intelligent, articulate guy with an incredible musical brain; you can't say that about everyone.

Speaking in Code a film by sQuare Productions, is documentary that follows a global cast of underground electronic music writers, DJs, producers, and label heads as they survive and thrive in the digital age. What is your role in this project?

Officially, co-producer and character "co-producer" really means adviser or consultant, I'd say.

What are some of the issues discussed?

Mm.... community, aesthetics, globalization, electronic music's bizarrely bad reputation in the US, underground, overground, middleground, technology, raving, making records...

And your hopes for its reception by the public?

Obviously, I hope they love it, make the director very rich and all of us really famous--plus decide that they really do love house and techno and make dance music bigger in the US than hip-hop, rock, and country combined.

Who are some of your favorite albums for 2006?

-The Knife, "Silent Shout"

-Various, "Superlongevity 4"

-Ellen Allien & Apparat, "Orchestra of Bubbles"

-Root 70, "Heaps Dub"

What do you have coming up on both the musical and literary sides – any productions?

As for the writing, I'm always doing too much of it, and somehow never enough! And re: productions, I've been starting to make music over the last couple of years, but all of that will remain deeply secret until the day I decide that it doesn't suck, which won't be any day soon. Or maybe it will, but as I plan not to use my own name, you'll never know... :)

Tell us 3 little known facts about yourself?

-I grew up playing piano, alto sax, clarinet, alto clarinet, guitar, and synthesizers

-I dropped out of grad school--or at least took an indefinite "leave of absence" eight years ago

-I was briefly the face of Norelco electric razors

Why do you love what you do?

Getting paid to spend all my time listening to music? You gotta be kidding me!

Philip will be spinning at Academy Club , 4445 St Laurent blvd at DIZZY on Tuesday November 7th, from 10pm - 3am. Cover 6$.