Paul Glazby’s name is synonymous with the global hard house scene. From fast-paced astutely delivered award winning DJ performances, to hard dance chart-topping productions, Paul is to his fans what David Beckham is to football – pure quality - and for good reason too. If you need any evidence, listen to the live recording of his closing set at the mighty sell out Tidy Weekender 15 (available to download on iTunes). Tidy themselves concede that Paul Glazby is the only man who should hold the accolade of the closing set, and the only man capable of pushing a crammed arena full of clubbers to the limit.

Whether it be as head of his own Vicious Circle label, as a producer or as a performer, Glazby has a tough, uncompromising, no-nonsense style that wins him new admirers and keeps his thousands of followers happy. Yet, meet the man in person and you immediately realise how down to earth and passionate he is. 2009 is already shaping up to be busier than ever with residencies at Coalition and Hi Oktane, and demands for his services across the globe. A Paul Glazby set is a work of art, a performance of the finest hard-house tracks, impeccably delivered and never for the faint hearted. Following on from his awesome re-make of True Faith (released as part of the Inspirations for a Harder Generation project from Tidy Trax) and massively popular tracks Kanashimi and I’m Your Nightmare (both also released on Tidy) Paul’s own Vicious Circle label has also seen runaway successes. The powerful New Clear War Fair is an eagerly anticipated production which delivers a euphoric, addictive and brilliantly arranged floor filler complete with a skin tingling breakdown. Also listen out for Megatron, collaboration with Red Management’s own producer maestro Paul Maddox, and a full on monster packed with a massive bass line and haunting synths. These latest releases beautifully illustrate the versatility of Glazby, from intelligent melodic hardhouse to stomping filth (and everything in between), underline his unrivalled ability in the studio.

So we caught up with the man they call the dark destroyer to get his thoughts on his new residency and to see what he has been up to of late...

Hi Paul. How are you? Are you enjoying the great British weather? What are your holiday plans this year?

Well I’ve just got back from the South of France, it was fookin boiling, good though!

Tidy Midlands @ Air, is the new kid on the block. How is that shaping up? What does it mean to you to be part of it?

It’s a great privilege to be asked to be resident for this night, I’ve always been a big fan of Air and now Tidy are at the helm it can only mean good things for the scene.
I’m glad to be part of it from the ground level because when its one of the biggest events around next year I can take some of the credit – lol, only joking Garbles!

You already hold residencies for other nights around the country, and are very much in demand. Your dedication is second to none, but do you ever feel the pressures of such high status?

Not really, being in demand isn’t a pressure, try being managed by Most Wanted and having no work on, that’s pressure!!!!!

Air has held some great parties and been host to some of the worlds greatest DJ’s, how do you find Air and what makes it different to any other club?

Like I said I have always been a big fan of Air but I was playing the second room a lot of the time, with this new residency you can expect me to be featuring in the main room more often so that will be a nice change.
The main difference for me at Air is the DJ set up, if someone plays a bad set at Air there’s no excuses, it’s like a bedroom set up it sounds so clear, but also the layout of the whole club shows that a lot of thought went into it, I just wish the door staff would cheer up a bit!!!! Although I have been informed it’s a brand new door team there now.

On the production side, your most recent outing is the third of The Hardbox Strikes Back, which has already made waves through the scene! What’s next on the production agenda, and who will we see feature on some coming releases for Vicious Circle?

I’ve just finished a remix for Deprivation which I will be debuting at Tidy Midlands next week and I have a few other things in the pipeline, as for our CD releases, expect to see plenty of Jody 6 productions, that boy is on fire at the moment.

Compilation CD’s of new tracks seems to be the new way of releasing music. The likes of Tidy also take this approach amongst others. Is this working well? How do sales compare to how they used to on Single and EP releases?

It’s definitely worth doing but you can’t really compare CD sales to vinyl because vinyl never had to compete with Downloads, the production cost of a CD is much lower than vinyl hence why we have reverted to that medium and the lower units produced allow for a much lower break-even point.
I think these days it doesn’t matter whether it’s me, Tiesto or the Rolling Stones the money is in the touring not the album/single sales, going out doing gigs every weekend is the DJ’s version of touring, the singles/CD releases feed the profile of the artist ensuring a steady stream of work comes in, and also gives us all something new to play, which at the end of the day is what its all about.

Your sets consist of many your own productions, but who else’s tunes are making their way into your sets recently? Who do you see as future stars of Hard House?

As I said before Jody 6 is knocking some amazing stuff out lately, he’s producing more than we can release, other than that Rodi Style is making the best stuff he’s ever done in my opinion, they will be right up there for a long time to come yet.

Yes Australia and New Zealand were particularly good this year, was great to get back there again. There was talk of a trip to Canada later this year although nothing has been confirmed as yet.
The thing I’m looking forward to most this year is a little project Garbles and I have planned for NYD, can’t say too much now but I’m sure Nicholas will release the info when he sees fit.

Thanks very much for taking time out of your busy schedule, and we look forward to seeing you play at the 1st Tidy Midlands on August 30th. One last thing, how is the new look going? Did you get a good response from the clubbers? ;)

Hahaha well I have had a couple of positive comments lately, and the constant wave of people saying ‘you’ve got hair’, like I hadn’t noticed, seems to have slowed down a bit but I think the general consensus is that I should shave my head again – lol

See you at Air ;-)

Q’s by Danny Lee