With a career spanning over twenty years and touring all continents, OXIA is one of France’s most respected DJs and producers. He has built an impressive discography appearing on imprints such as Kompakt, All Day I Dream, Hot Creations, Sapiens, Knee Deep In Sound, and Bedrock… In addition to his own label Diversions Music. The Frenchman signed numerous remixes, notably for Moby, Agoria, Joseph Capriati, JohnDigweed, Butch, and Popof.
2024 starts with a remix of the track ‘Kilamba’ from Dorian Craft’s album on Diversions Music.OXIA continues on Diversions, with a new two-track EP, ‘Runway EP’, out in early June
Interview with Oxia
Hello Olivier, how are you and where are you spending summer right now? 😊
I’m answering this interview from my home in Grenoble, France. I’m going to divide my summer like this, between home and the places where I’m going to play, sometimes staying a few days. For example, next week I’ll be in the USA and then spending a few days in Ibiza.
Could you give us an insight into your new ‘Runway’ EP? What inspired its creation? Do you have a favorite track from this EP?
It’s always a bit difficult for me to describe my tracks, but I can say that in these I’ve put a bit of everything I like in electronic music, namely groove, melody, emotion, and energy… So it’s a mix of all that, especially on the track ‘Run’ which is perhaps my favorite for all those reasons. It’s also always difficult to say what inspired me, especially when you’re working on tracks over several weeks, but I think my inspiration comes from everything I listen to or have listened to, and that happens naturally, without really thinking about it…
Listen to Runway EP
About Domino!
I have to ask about the track, that everyone knows – Domino! Did you expect such success with this amazing tune?
When you make a track, you can never really know whether it’s going to be successful or not, even if on some tracks you think it has a lot more potential than others. And that’s what I thought of ‘Domino’, I said to myself, I think it could work well, but of course, I didn’t imagine that it would become so big. I was the first to be surprised. And the fact that a lot of DJs still play it sometimes and that it’s still getting a lot of streams after all this time, that still surprises me 🙂
How do you spend your free time when you’re not producing music?
To tell the truth, I don’t do a lot of other things apart from music and traveling for my gigs. I spend a lot of time in the studio because I work very slowly and I need a lot of time to be really satisfied with a track 😀
So that doesn’t leave me a lot of time to do other things, but I still like spending time with my friends, often without doing anything in particular, just having a drink and talking rubbish 😀 I also really enjoy watching movies.
What’s your opinion on the current evolution of electronic music? Where do you see its future?
I am often asked this question in interviews, I think that everyone does what they want to do, and so even if there are lots of things that I don’t like, I respect them. But there is still plenty of good and interesting music at the moment for me. Technology has brought new ways of producing, which has made productions evolve, with new sounds and new ways of processing them.
And to tell you what his future is, it’s difficult to answer this question. Who can say? Especially with artificial intelligence which risks taking up more and more space… But I dare to hope that it will never replace the sensitivity and emotion of humans.
OXIA’s Plans, Projects and Future
What can we expect from OXIA in the future? Are you working on any new projects?
I’m currently finishing a new album, which will hopefully be released at the end of the year if all goes well. I also did a remix for one of the tracks from Teho’s latest album, which will be released in September.
Where can we see OXIA this summer, and which event or festival are you most excited about?
I’m always excited for all my gigs, for different reasons, so it’s hard to tell you one more than another 🙂
So you can see me in different places all over the world. This weekend I’ll be in Los Angeles, and after in San Francisco, then Ibiza for a gig at Akasha with the SXM festival which is doing some dates in residence there. I will also be in Portugal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Hungary, and Switzerland…
Thanks for your time and have fun there! 😊
Thank you too, it was a pleasure!
