Page 20 - We Rave You Magazine | July 2022

COVER INTERVIEW > CARL COX AND CHRISTOPHER COE

Carl and Christopher, thank you for the honour of this conversation.
You are artists, you are friends, you are partners, you live in the same
town, and you are a fourhanded wizard in the studio. Who are Carl Cox
and Christopher Coe when they’re together?
COX: Chris is a calm and considered presence, I like to turn everything
on and push all the buttons and he comes with a more technical
approach so we really work well together. I know what I love to hear and
I have no problem articulating it and Christopher never lets his ego get
in the way and is not afraid of working hard to get a result. I have always
loved being in the studio and have done so many records over the
years, but often it’s been hard to do a lot because of my show schedule
and so now I feel like I’ve been able to achieve so much more because
we can collaborate across time zones and locations. If I’m out on the
road, Christopher is often in the studio and can send me stuff to quickly
get an idea of or that I can do a quick edit on which he can then use as
a template for finishing a track or whatever. We have a great system in
place using Splice and Dropbox too and it’s just great! And the studio
is the best sounding room I have ever worked in! It’s so inspiring to be
there and to work there together. We recorded my entire album there
and it was so fun and easy!

“I think we make a solid team!”

COE: When Carl asked me to first help him design and build his studio
on his property near his Melbourne home I was, of course, delighted
to jump in and create something that would work for him and stand
the test of time as a creative space that he would feel comfortable to
work in and that would be inspiring as a place for developing ideas and
finding new directions as well as finishing projects, mixing, mastering
etc.. Somewhere that was comfortable and inviting but also techni-
cally excellent and sonically perfect. I never expected that on handing
the keys to him he would ask me to stay on and work with him as an
engineer and co-producer, artistic collaborator and fellow traveller in
the explorations of techno! But he did and now 4 years and a million
remixes, original productions, mixes and live stream performances later,
we really have created a bit of a monster production team together.

Carl is a highly intuitive, quick-thinking creative who can hear things that
I don’t hear in terms of timing and sonics. I am more methodical (I would
say slow) and I like to hone in on details a lot (some would say never
happy!). But together we really do work well, the workflow when we are in
the studio at the same time is dynamic and fast-moving, which is great,
“We make a lot of jokes together and nothing is too we get the main ideas down fast, we work through mixes quickly and
then, when Carl has to go to a gig or something he trusts me to work on
serious. But we always finish and we always deliver.” the details of a mix or creating more counterpoint or harmonic texture to
a piece. We have a natural working process that is organic and produc-
tive and always fun. We do laugh a lot! I think we are both old enough
and wise enough to know that being precious about the work is just a
waste of time and it’s more important to just get on with it. We make a lot
of jokes together and nothing is too serious. But we always finish and we
always deliver. Carl is such a positive and inspiring chap, it’s always such
a pleasure to work together and I always feel like the result is way more
than the sum of its parts in this creative partnership.

20 we rave you.com PC: SOPHIE HOWARTH @SOPHIEHAWARTHPHOTOGRAPHY july 2022 2121