We had the pleasure to meet and interview Eric Leiper (Pappa Hawaii) during our House of Frankie and Double Cheese meet and greet at Toms Flagship Store, one of the events of the ADE‘s extensive five-day program.
Eric is a never-aging person and the living proof that it’s never too late to express yourself, spread your passion for music and become a dj.
House of Frankie, Amsterdam, we’re very honoured to be here with the senior deejay Pappa Hawaii. Thank you for being with us.
It’s always a pleasure being in Amsterdam. I come here every year and it’s just fabulous! I really enjoy it and this year we’ve had a great time. We’ve played with our radio station and we’ve been with our Steven Stone, Gigi and Guido and all the crew from House Station Radio, we’ve been with Quintize Recordings, with Tracy Hamlin and of course I’ve played here at TOMS which was really good as well. We’re packed here at TOMS; I love its little venue. There’s people who likes the music and love the music, it’s really good.
Yes it’s really great this year. What do you think about this 21st edition? It has been a long time now that ADE has started, maybe you’ve seen it changing throughout all these years. What do you think about it?
I think it gets better every year. I started coming here 3 years ago and just the first time after I came here I said “I’ve got to come here every year!” it’s better than Miami, it’s fabulous. I really enjoy it and everybody is so friendly, it’s a friendly convention so it’s always a pleasure to come over here and it’s only 40 minutes by plane from England so it’s not a big journey. This year we came over, Scott and I, because we wanted to see Victor Simonelli; we are going in the studio in two weeks with him, so it’s going to be good. I’m looking forward to that as well.
Would you like to tell us something about your story, your career, something that really needs to be told?
When I retired I wanted something to do, I was in Mallorca at Café Cappuccino, a very famous coffee house but they also do deejays and Boris Cantero a deejay from Germany, who lives in Mallorca, was playing there and I went up and asked him about a couple of tracks. I said “What was that you were playing? It was fabulous!” He answered: “Oh that was Saturday Night”. And I replied “That was a fabulous track!” Then he played something else and I went over again asking about the other track and he told me what it was. So I asked him to come over once he would have finished and hi did it. We had a drink at about midnight and then we stayed at Café Cappuccino until 4 o’clock in the morning talking about music. At the end Boris said to me “You should become a Deejay” and I said “Why?” he answered “Because you now so much about music!” he told me to go back the week after, he wanted to give me some music. We went back the following week and again we sat from 12 till 4 in the morning and he gave me some music. At that point I went home and I said to my wife that I was going to become a Dj and she was incredulous; but I was retired, I really needed something to do and I decided to go out and learn how to become a Dj. I’ve been doing it for three years now, only three years since I retired and it’s been fabulous. This year I’ve been to Milan at the Circle with Mark Di Meo and Gerardo; then I played in Tenerife. It’s been fabulous, absolutely wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for more! If someone had told me three years ago that I’d been to Milan, to Mallorca or to Amsterdam to deejay I wouldn’t believed it. It’s an amazing story actually.
Absolutely amazing, I think it really keeps you young.
Another thing is that since Dj Derek, who used to play reggae, since he died I am the oldest Dj. So every day is a bonus and I say that to everybody that I meet every day, because you don’t know what’s around the corner.
Thank you so much to Pappa Hawaii; it was our pleasure having you here.
Thank you for listening to me.
It was an honour.
