John Digweed Reminisces About Performing at an NYC "Memory Club"

John Digweed

Recently, I found notes from an interview I'd done in 2008 with British trance god John Digweed for another publication. Since he's spinning Jan. 1 at Trinity, I figured I'd share Digweed's thoughts on his and his longtime musical partner Sasha's legendary residency at the now-defunct New York club Twilo. Their regular performances during the late '90s at that venue--which was shuttered in 2001 during then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's crackdown on NYC nightlife--are largely credited with bringing progressive and trance to the States. It's the kind of cultural moment whose ripple effects the participants feel in their souls well before the impact is felt by the wider world.

Digweed: "New York was a very tough nut to crack. European DJs didn't really seem to fit in there. It wasn't like [Twilo] was packed from the start. It took five or six months. That's the best way a club grows, because it's built on its reputation. It was so nice to go in there on our own terms and play the music we wanted to. It's a shame the way the club ended, because it didn't really have an ending. There's not much footage of it. It's a memory club. You have to go there to experience it. For me, it's the magical five years. "