Tim Deluxe: Stepping off the Hamster’s Wheel (extended interview)
Click on the picture to access Tim's new label Get Human
“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what happened, but I’d say internally there were issues I hadn’t dealt with on a personal level. This then began manifesting in a negative way and resulted in me drinking more and not really enjoying what I was doing professionally. For sure it was hard to take a break, but in the end I needed to for my own sanity.”
Headlining Ministry of Sound’s main room aged 17 and releasing one of the biggest club records of 1997 soon after (speed garage anthem RIP Groove (with Double 99 co-producer Omar Amidora), Tim Deluxe epitomised overnight success.
Following up with a string of high profile (and highly lucrative), gigs, releases and remixes (including hits for Black Grape, Robert Miles, Mighty Dub Katz and Ultra Nate) he raised his game still further in 2001 with radio hit We All Love Sax and 12 months later “’It Just Won’t Do’, a worldwide club and chart hit that cemented his superstar DJ status.
Picking up weekly residencies at Pacha Ibiza soon afterwards and travelling non-stop, he appeared to be living the dream, though chatting about the period in an interview with Trax Source two years ago, said life soon became ‘like a hamster’s wheel’. (Trax Source: http://bit.ly/gPOeen )
Also confessing to collapsing on stage (‘it’s not fun or professional’ he recalled) he’s similarly candid talking to Skrufff today.
“I needed time for myself,” says Tim. “There I was having worked obsessively from 1995 to 2008 without really taking proper time out and it was scary,” he admits.
“I was earning serious money and ‘living the life’ in most people’s eyes but in reality I was ready to walk away. And though it took a lot of courage to do so, once I’d done it, it felt amazing.”
“This was the moment when I decided I needed to look inside myself so I stopped drinking and smoking. I changed my diet to a vegetarian one and took up long distance running.”
“Running has helped me massively, physically and spiritually. I completed my first marathons last year and will be running the Tokyo marathon and the Berlin marathon again next year. There’s nothing like 26.2 miles to find out about yourself. I’ve learned a lot about myself on those runs.”
