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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
94
James Zabiela
45

This year, remarkably, was James Zabiela's 10th summer playing as a resident at Space in Ibiza. An unexpected milestone for the rest of us perhaps, but not really for him.
“I started playing there when I was 21,” he says. “I guess I've started to shave and stuff now. So things are moving on for me. I sort of grew up with that club. It's where I learned my craft. Now I've been there so long, it feels like home. And the promoters are like my family.”

They let him invite his own guests for his 10th anniversary party, so he brought in Ramadanman, aka David Kennedy, and Apparat. After the gig, he found himself in a field in the hills with a soundsystem having an impromptu afterparty.
“David was playing a deep house set,” he says. “It was 40 degrees. There were actually sheep and a shepherd. He was OK with it. The sheep were a bit freaked out.”
He's planning to launch a label later this year too, called Positronik. “There's people I can talk to, to help me, like Will Saul and James Holden, but it's all pretty new to me. I really don't know what I'm doing!” he says, all modesty. He'll work it out. Of that, we are sure. BEN ARNOLD