Zone-Magazine-Wally-Lopez-Issue-040

Apart from the love of an unconditional crowd that has
followed him for the last 18 years, he has been awarded with
the recognition and respect of many professionals in his field
and some brands that currently collaborate and work with their
full support in the creation and promotion of products 100%
Wally. Both Oakley and Vueling Airlines are two of his main
partners with whom he promotes their products or presents
events such as I’m Vueling to Ibiza – which was widely
published in the media in 2008. Wally Lopez collaborates also
with dance4life in their fight against AIDS; lending his image
and total support to the cause as one of the projects he
personally considers the most important and useful.
Let’s start at the beginning and give
the readers a little context… It’s 2000
and dance music is flying high. Tell us
about life in Mardrid back then, the DJs,
the music, the life.
Well, we began a little earlier, so we were cooking
slowly what happened from 2000 in advance. That was the
exact moment when a whole generation was into the electronic
scene and so many of us were trying to look for our space in
this industry. Some exciting times in Madrid back then.
Being a resident DJ has formed a large
part of your career. Residents are the
backbone of the club but rarely get the
praise they deserve, so who have
been your favourite fellow residents
and what set them apart?
In those times there were no guest DJs, maybe once
in a while as a present to the crowd, but was all about the
residents… For me, they are still the most important of the
club, the OG´s. Oscar Mulero in Madrid was the “light to follow”
for all of us with his music… it was as if he was telling a story
from the beginning till the end of the night.
You’ve been quoted as saying “God
may be a DJ, but DJs aren’t God”, do
you think egos have taken over the
party?
Egos are getting so stupid nowadays, I do understand
that it is very difficult going directly from making or playing
music in your room at your parent's house to headline huge
festivals but, besides that, you are just a regular person that if
you don’t take care of the others you won’t headline anything in
9 or 10 years time… so just relax and enjoy!
Your glasses have always been a point
of interest for fans. Where do you buy
them and do you always go for bright
colours?
Not always, I’m wearing black ones now haha! I was
sponsored by brands the most of those years, so I don’t buy
too many, I even released my own collab with Oakley years
ago.
Social media is something DJs our age
have had to get used to, but some still
actively avoid it and tour and work
constantly. So is online engagement
the benefit we are led to believe it is?
To be honest, I’m not sure. Iit is true that social media
is very important now but you must keep it real with yourself.
If you feel comfortable with it let's go! It can be very beneficial
for sure… but also has a potential problem. You will see
everyone is doing better than you and everyone is younger and
super cool and that is why you need to be strong and know that
everyone lies on socials, Nothing is real. So once you know that
you can really move forward with your career.
Production has been important to your
career from the beginning. With sales
taking a downturn for a long while now
and streaming providing little revenue,
how do you regard your releases
today?
Producing was the most important thing that
I’ve done for my career but I had a moment where I
stopped completely because of this decline in revenues
situation. But I'm back again producing as crazy; just do
It to feed my inner voice I won’t stop making music, it’s
too much fun!
Krafted have released a compilation to
celebrate 10 years. Talk us through the
process of release from having the
idea for the track to delivering it to Paul
and the gang…
I have great connections with the gang, I’ve released
already with them and I love the way they push in every single
project. So once they asked me to be part of it, I began to work
on a very groovy melodic song that I hope you like.
38 ZONE-MAGAZINE.EU