PATRICK TOPPING: CREAM TOPPING

Patrick Topping first went to Ibiza in the summer of 2008 as a clubber, and straight away felt that he wanted to become a DJ/producer himself. Returning to his home city of Newcastle after the holiday, he set up the Motion night with some pals.

“It was initially to have somewhere for me and my mates to play out regularly,” he tells DJ Mag. From there he started DJing all over the North-East, and the various guest DJs that they booked for Motion helped him in the early days of his productions, he says. “Although Richy Ahmed did play for Motion before I had anything signed by them, my hook-up with Hot Creations actually came about because a mate of mine sent a track without me knowing to Jamie Jones,” Patrick explains.

“My friend didn’t know Jamie or anything, he sent it to the public demo address and luckily Jamie’s tour manager listened to it and liked it. After that I started sending Jamie music directly.”

He says he's been welcomed with open arms by the Hot Creations gang. “Yeah, I was mates with wAFF before either of us had music signed by the label, and now I know all of them and everyone is so sound,” he says. “It’s been such an amazing way to start releasing music.”
The 'Walk On EP' in 2013 was closely followed by the 'Any Amounts EP' for Hot Creations, its lead track quite jacking with a warm, mutating b-line. Straight up funk beast 'Get Beasty', out earlier this year, was also quite feisty for a Hot Creations cut, although Patrick outlines how the label generally releases a whole variety of stuff — against popular preconception.

“Those two are quite heavy compared to some of the tracks on the label, but Hot Creations have been releasing loads of banging stuff actually, like wAFF’s releases and Jamie’s last EP was quite dark too,” he says. “I’ve heard a few tracks that are coming out soon and they are all slamming.”

Also out imminently are Patrick's celebratory 'Holiday' for Defected, and new one 'Forget' for Hot Creations — with its warm, groovy bass and kooky female vox. “I’ve already heard about the likes of Deep Dish and Eats Everything playing 'Forget' at the openings,” he enthuses. He's remixing Deep Dish at the moment, and tells DJ Mag how he didn't believe it when Pete Tong first started playing his music on the radio. “Pete’s such a legend, and hearing him talk about my music on Radio 1 is surreal,” he says.

Patrick scored a gig at Jamie Jones's Paradise night at DC10 in Ibiza last summer, and this year he's returning as a resident — “a dream come true,” he smiles. “Lee Foss is also getting me over to America to play with him, so I couldn’t ask for more really”.