Subliminal Sessions is sexy. With the most current music, the hottest dancers and the beautiful people of Ibiza, Subliminal Sessions has an enthralling vibe. It is one of the most alluring parties on the island.

“For me it’s really important as a DJ and an events organiser, for my parties to be sexy. For them to have beautiful girls, beautiful people and fantastic music – that’s what makes a great party!”

This is the 8th year running that Erick and Subliminal return to Pacha, and with them they bring a whole group of international guests. The season is launched with Erick Morillo & Steve Angello on June 3rd and then with appearances from Dubfire, M.A.N.D.Y., Dirty South, Mark Knight, Annie Mac and Funkagenda. Subliminal has a varied and exciting line-up for every one of its 18 summer dates.

According to Pete Tong, who spends a lot of time on the island of Ibiza, there is much more to the island than clubbing. So man aspects of Ibiza are amazing and unique; the geography, the nature, the sea…There are “Millions of other things you can do apart from go to a club.”

Pete also praises the Island’s appeal for families with children, as it allows the entire family to chill out and watch the world go by, whilst sitting on one of Ibiza’s many stunning beaches or in one of the many great restaurants. “Enjoy life and just stop.”

The boating culture is also much more exciting in Ibiza than in the traditional glitzy South of France. Boats around Monaco may cruise up the coastline and then return, while boating around Ibiza features many more stops and places to explore. Pete recommends taking boats to Formatera, Mallorca, or even just around the island itself.

Pete Tong has plenty to recommend in the way of beaches, however he would first point to somewhere off the island of Ibiza. The island of Formatera is a hidden gem, and is a great place to get away from the busy life on the mainland. The island of Formatera provides a real insight into genuine Balearic life, and the island’s great beaches can be reached most easily by scooter.

On the main island of Ibiza, Pete appreciates that areas are popular for a reason, and so should not be looked over just because they are busy. Although the beaches are better when fewer people are there, they are still spectacular. Las Salinas and Es Cavallet are two good examples of popular, well-known, stunning beaches on the South of the Island. For a kid-oriented beach with restaurants that cater to children’s needs, Pete recommends Cala Jondall; for a Northern feel with drummers and a ‘hippy-vibe’, he recommends Benirras.

The Island boasts a myriad of beautiful beaches around San Carlos; in fact there are 3 or 4 that one could visit. As the insider’s tip, Pete describes a little-known Paella restaurant on Cala Mastella, where you need to book in person as there are no phones!

Pete Tong first started DJing in Ibiza at Amnesia with Cream in the 90’s. He then appeared regularly at Space with the ‘We Love’ team. However Pete’s Pure Pacha nights started when Paul Oakenfold moved to L.A. and was unable to keep up with his Tuesday night residency at Pacha. He then asked Pete Tong to share the Tuesday night with him. This was so successful that Pete was offered his own night at Pacha – Friday nights.

Pure Pacha was born.

Prior to Pure Pacha, there was no actual night with Pacha in the name;The nights included Subliminal, Ministry, Defmix, etc. Pete also decided to call the night Pure Pacha to honour the glamour and prestige that used to exist in Pacha’s history. The glamour Pete wanted to inject back into Pacha was similar to the ideologies behind Paradise Garage, Studio 54, and St Tropez.

Clubbing had become too corporate, and Pete wanted to dispel this image with Pure Pacha.

Roger Sanchez now has his own record label: Stealth Records. However he has come a long way to achieve this success; Roger was involved with 3 records companies before he started Stealth Records! He gained valuable experience from One Rewards, Narcotic Records, and Arsenal Records, which enabled him to start his on brand.

The most important change that came with the start of Stealth Records was the control Roger had over the business side of things. Now that he has is in charge of the business end, he has control over the most important part – the music. This means he can produce riskier music and experiment with his own sound. Roger Sanchez also had great success with a record in the UK and Europe, which gave him even more experience and notoriety in the record industry.

It is clear that the music industry is undergoing a shift away from record sales, and towards downloads and new media. Roger Sanchez feels he can cope with this because he is very technologically orientated. 

Being a DJ didn’t used to be a full time job, in fact most big DJs had other jobs like record companies; only radio DJs could call themselves professional. In the early 90’s, big names like Cox, Oakenfold, and Sasha Digweed started to apply their trade abroad, and so the professional DJ was born.

The success of a DJ is somewhat determined by the creation of a brand. Nowadays, most DJs do much more than mix music; they publish, produce, remix, and create concerts - like Tiesto. Pete Tong explains that anyone to enter the DJing business now, would undoubtedly be involved in making music in some way – simply because the two activities are so closely related. To get noticed in the world of DJs it is essential to create your own sound; self expression is crucial, and your creative process will put you out there.

Paul Oakenfold claims the most important step in his music career was moving from the UK to New York City when he was about 20 years old. He thought he could “Take on the world”. Although the move was partly due to his boredom with England at the time, it was mainly due to the incredible, inspiring music that was coming from New York. Paul had already completed a wine and cocktail course, and was a qualified chef! This meant he could drop everything and pursue DJing, safe in the knowledge that he had something to fall back on.

Life in New York for Paul started with talking his way into clubs for free; By posing as a reporter from NME or Melody Maker, and using his British accent, Paul was able to get into clubs like Paradise Garage and Studio 54.

Judge Jules initially went to New York in ‘87 to find new funky hip-hop tunes; He ended up finding house music. Although some house music was played at the Hacienda in Manchester, house music was relatively unknown to the UK at the time. The massive sound systems added to the experience, and before Judge Jules knew it, house music was his ‘gospel’. 

Roger Sanchez reveals his break-dancing past! When he was a young high-school kid in New York, he would go to the Bronx and party. At one packed, crazy party, Sanchez was friends with the DJ, and saw how his friend was ‘rocking the crowd’; it was then and there that Sanchez saw what he wanted to do. “It would be really, really cool to influence people.”

Pete Tong saw his first live DJ at a school disco, back in the days. After seeing what DJing was, he “Made a bee-line for it”. Life as a DJ started off modestly; Pete stuck two turntables together and fed them through a High Fidelity mixer, using his father’s records.

David Guetta thinks back to the first time he ever ‘beat-matched’ a mix. Beat-matching is the art of finding two different tracks and synchronizing the beats to one-and-other. He had a ‘Eurika’ moment when he successfully beat-matched two tracks. They were Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’, and Oliver Cheatham’s ‘Get Down on a Saturday Night’. To this day he remembers that first mix.

Renowned DJs Roger Sanchez and Judge Jules tell us what Ibiza is all about, and why it has its party reputation. Roger Sanchez calls it a “Global name for dance music in the summertime, the party capital of the world.”

Despite the possible annoyance of the locals, Ibiza is now a world famous party destination. Sanchez explains that this party culture has given Ibiza a new life and even a ‘free-spirit’.

Judge Jules thinks the definition of Ibiza is simple, and uses a quote from Danny Whittle of Pacha; “If you’re into gambling you go to Las Vegas. If you’re into partying you go to Ibiza.” Although sometimes the press may occasionally divert their attention to other locations like Mykonos and Aiya Napa, Ibiza is clearly the clubbing heavyweight of the world. The infrastructure is set up in a way that the poor and the rich can party together on the same island, which makes the island unique; The great bar culture adds to the party scene.

The arrival of the original Pioneer CDJs was the first step in the revolution that moved away from DJing with vinyl. CDs gave people more control and, importantly, less to carry (which a difference if, like Roger Sanchez, you regularly play 8-10 hour sets). Roger Sanchez applauds the way that the Pioneer CDJs reproduced the tactile feeling of mixing with vinyl. David Guetta is also a ‘Pioneer guy’ using the Pioneer 800 (his favourite toy), CDJ 1000s, and a Pioneer Effects Box 1000.

The next step was the release of a range of programs of the likes of Final Scratch, Ableton Live and Serato, that took mixing into the arena of the laptop and led to many DJs being accused of ‘checking their emails’ rather than responding to the crowd, an accusation that Paul Oakenfold claims has some grounding in reality. David Guetta has made the move to Ableton Live for producing music, on the recommendation from Pete Tong as it allows him to record his radio shows on the plane.

However, for Paul Oakenfold it is about connecting with the crowd and getting them to feel rather than listen to the music. In fact, even being a bit out of time occasionally means that they know you are doing it for real.