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Secondcity on the Track That Prompted His Ibiza Epiphany

How Marco Carola inspired the Chicago-born DJ to go from Ibiza punter to performer

In the Heartbreakers series, we look at the dance floor tearjerkers that make your night special, whether that's at the height of your high or the plateau. Electronic music has the power to break hearts and this is an appreciation of those songs.

I've played Marco Carola's "Groove Catcher" hundreds of times live. I still play it in 90% of my DJ sets.

I first heard Carola play it back in 2012 at Music On. That was my first Ibiza and while I was familiar with Carola's music – I grew up listening to DJ sets from him, Richie Hawtin, Carl Cox, Villalobos and others – I hadn't experienced one of his marathon DJ sets before.

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Looking at how he performed, how he worked the crowd, was really inspiring to me. That was back before Secondcity had taken off. I had been making music for years before and not doing anything with it. I took a lot of inspiration from seeing other DJs live and then when I saw Carola I came to the realisation that I need to go do this now. I was listening and thinking: 'I really want to be doing this, why aren't I going for it, why aren't I sending music out? This could be me'. So that was the real driving force for me.

It was also partly my mum that put me onto Carola and dance music more generally, she heavily influenced me by playing house music while I was growing up. There were so many records that mum was playing in '93/'94 that I really liked, particularly the percussion and groove of those records. It's something that's dawned on me as I've gotten older as well: listening to house and growing up in Chicago heavily influenced the style of house music that I make. "I Wanna Feel" came from listening to Robin S, Livin' Joy and Pete Heller, those kind of old school house producers. I liked the idea of making something that sounded as if it could have been from the 90s. I can understand why people might expect to me pick a classic Chicago house record for Heartbreakers but I feel that "Groove Catcher" is a more accurate reflection of where I am now and how I've grown over the past few years.

This year was my first Ibiza as a performer and I think one moment that I'll remember for the rest of my career is playing "Groove Catcher" at Ushuaïa. It was amazing to be in the position to play that track having come to the peninsula years before and seen Carola, and other people I look up to, DJ and then suddenly finding myself in that world, on the same lineup. I remember playing it the whole way through, as long as I possibly could before I had to mix it into something else.

But regardless of when and where I hear "Groove Catcher", it's a record that will always have an effect on me. I think it's a record that resonates with audiences anywhere, it's a record that makes an impression on people.

Secondcity's "What Can I Do" is out on November 30th on Ministry of Sound/Speakerbox, you can preorder here.

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