Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2011

The brainchild of NGO Peace Boat’s Emilie McGlone, Parties 4 Peace uses dance music as a platform to promote environmental awareness, human rights and sustainability. In recent years, its “Patagonica” contests have seen a flow of DJs traveling between Japan and Chile to raise funds for Patagonia and help the campaign to have UNESCO recognize Patagonia’s magnificent scenery as a World Heritage site. Metropolis spoke with 2011 winner Chilean Francisco Ruiz-Tagle before his upcoming journey to Japan.

Tell us about your first contacts with electronic music and how they set you on your career.

My first experience in the world of DJs was when I was 12. My mother`s friend owned a nearby discotheque. There, I had my first encounter with the Denon 2500F turntable, which was common back then. One day when they were preparing, a friend of the resident DJ put on the track “Pull Over” by Speedy J, and I asked him what it was, and if there existed a place in Chile where they played only electronic music. That was when I first heard about the electronic music collective Euphoria. He told me about a “rave” they were organizing. They opened my mind, and for the first time I saw DJs like Zikuta, Umho, Magi-K (Luciano) and many others from the Chilean electronic music scene.

How do you describe your style?

My style is somewhere between deep and tech house with more texture and very strong bass lines. I like to leave the crowd with the feeling that my style is elegant.

Tell us about your relationship with Patagonica.

I was inspired by the idea of a contest where I could internationalize my work, and anyone who tells you different would be lying. But once I met with Parties 4 Peace producer Emilie McGlone, I realized that there is a very noble cause and they are taking serious action to protect Patagonia.

Tell us how you came to have your residency at Club la Feria.

Club la Feria is the place where I always wanted to play, like any other DJ in Chile, since it is the most important club for electronic music in Chile. I made many attempts to get them to listen to my music, but since I was young and unknown it took time. Then one night, my good friend and colleague Dorian Chavez and I had a joint birthday party where he asked me to play as the warm-up. When I finished playing someone approached me at the club to thank me, and it happened to be the owners of la Feria.

What makes for a perfect night on the dance floor for Francisco Ruiz-Tagle?

I love extended sets! I like to be able to express myself as much as possible, to obtain a real connection with the audience, and to prove that my purpose in each set is beyond having people jumping and shouting, but rather that they listen with their eyes closed and move to a rhythm that is called, “Hips and Shoulders.” I like to take the track to different states, until it bursts in an ascent that can be somewhat strident, or somehow touching melodies that are emotional, then later returning to earth.

Tell us about a new track and how it is an evolution from past work.

My career as a producer began in 2010, after I did several tracks that I consider to be a learning process. This year, I joined my friend Larry Peters to work on music together and we tried some different ideas, which gave us incredible results. Now we already have two remixes by the Italian label Amazing Music, and our first EP together will come out on the Mazoon Lab label in October of this year. Today I am managing to shape what I have in my mind into tracks that are not for the hard dancefloor, but rather music that is created for a personal level and expresses a maturity in the sense that it is perfect to dance to with closed eyes.

Vinyl, CDs or laptop: which and why?

I feel much more comfortable playing with turntables, as I find it to be more precise and it makes me think about the beginning of the art of DJing. Unfortunately, in Chile, vinyl has some disadvantages, because there is not much variety in the record stores here, and the turntables are not always in good condition at the clubs. For this reason, I began to use Traktor Scratch Pro, controlled with vinyls and music in Wav format.

Tell us about your relationship with Japan.

Japan has always drawn my attention, as a place where the mixture of cultural wealth and the technology come together elegantly. I love taking photos and I am truly looking forward to seeing the architecture that is shown in magazines related to Japan. I have had few opportunities to share with Japanese people, but I have always admired their concepts of respect for others, honor and environmental awareness. I think everyone can learn from this.

What are some highs and lows of your career so far?

As for lows, I don’t really feel that I personally have had any. However at the beginning it was difficult to enter the scene because nobody knows you, and in my case I was very very young. Now, I feel that I am living in a constant high. The last two years have been incredible, and already I have been playing in Ecuador, Argentina, at my beloved residency in Club Declive, a mythical afterhours in Santiago where I have gotten to play as long as 10 and a half hours, and recently I became resident of the best club in Chile, La Feria. And now, this year, I won first place in the Patagonica contest and received the opportunity to travel to Tokyo!

What kind of set can we look forward to in Tokyo?

It is going to be a surprise! The truth is that I take all my musical repertoire, that goes from deep to tech house, and I love playing different music at each event and within the new music, I always try to bring back tracks or sounds that listened to in my adolescence. I am counting the days to arrive in Tokyo and to share my music with all of the new people I will meet there.

“Parties 4 Peace presents Patagonica vol 4”@M Bar, Nov 5. See club listings for details. Info: parties4peace.com