Oh yes, the good old CD days. If your first purchase was from the HMV bargain bucket, rugby legend and MMA Heavyweight turned DJ James Haskell has your back. When he’s not spinning the decks with the likes of Carl Cox, his tracks, which embody the push-pull tension of well-crafted tech-house, are pleasing crowds from Ibiza to Dubai.
But James wasn’t always the guy with the visceral edge. The first CD he ever bought was Brimful of Asha and his first rider after becoming a DJ consisted of a pot of Pringles and a chewing gum.
“I was quite late to music, to be honest with you; I wasn't particularly cool,” James confesses to me as I set about learning what goes into commanding the world’s biggest rooms. His technical proficiency is blowing the industry away, his sense of groove and momentum proving he knows how to work a dance floor like very few do. “When I was young, the first CD I bought was Brimful of Asha,” he continues. James’ raw honesty and self-deprecating tone compliments his mild, modest manner- rare qualities for a bloke of his prestige.
“When I became a professional rugby player, I worked with a psychologist to utilise the power of music,” he explains. “You know how it is, if you're in a positive mood, you listen to a great track that makes you feel good, and especially if the sun's shining, you feel brilliant. Equally, if you’re in a bit of a bad mood or you've had a breakup, and you listen to Magic FM and Sinead O'Connor comes on, you could well up with tears and drive into a wall. You know what I mean? That's how powerful music can be.”
When James started going to Vegas and Ibiza, he fell in love with different genres of music. “I was a big fan of EDM to start with, and used to enjoy Tomorrowland,” he says. “Then I did a couple of sessions with Simon Dunmore, who was a rugby fan, and he taught me about soul and funk. I started looking more into the history of music. I was very lucky in those early days to get some DJ lessons from Jaguar Skills, and Seb Fontaine as well. All these people either gave me a lesson or an hour of their time, and I just really loved it. I loved how the blending of music worked, and how emotive it made you feel. My taste changed well away from EDM into more tech house, into deep tech house, but I still have a passion for soul, funk and other genres of music. I’ve always loved classical music. I used to listen to that when I worked.
“My first ever gig was at Harper Adams University. My rider was pretty basic. It was literally six Coronas, a pot of Pringles and some chewing gum. The students were quite excited to tell me that I hadn't really gone for a big rider, and I said to them, “Well, what is a good rider then?” And they went, “Well, we had Scouting for Girls come in and they asked for a puppy. And I said, “Well, what did you do?” They said, "Well, we had to give them a puppy, it's contracted.” So I obviously said I wanted a puppy, and my ex-wife was like, "You're absolutely not having a puppy,” which has turned out to be pretty sensible.
“Then I found out that Blondie, who played before, always asked for a framed photo of Desmond Tutu. So I updated my rider. So, my rider as it stands now is a bottle of tequila, ideally Patron or Don Julio 1942, a six pack of Corona, a pot of Pringles, a bottle of my Black Eye Gin, (I’ve got my own gin and with every bottle sold, a donation goes to help injured men and women across the world who play rugby). I also have a towel and a framed photo of Alan Partridge. I have about 800 of them lying around the house. In the background of every photo and video of me DJing you can spot a framed photo of Alan Partridge.”
Unless you’re going for the “one and done” approach, it’s normally useful to have a vested interest in new projects.
“I’m a massive attention seeker, hence the deck thing,” says James, putting his modesty aside for a minute. “I love performing, going to Ibiza, and looking at people. When I’m in Vegas and I see a crowd in front of me and I’m the one controlling their vibe it’s so rewarding. Building up an amazing atmosphere was what I always wanted to do. With rugby I was performing as part of a team, but this is just me.”
In his rugby days, James said he continuously updated his pre-game playlist because “songs lose their power.”
“When you first hear a song, it sounds amazing, and then you listen to it so many times it loses its power and you become sick of it,” he says. “My playlists probably lasted me two months before I had to change them up.
“My very first playlist was made up of bands like Coldplay and The Wanted and songs like Walking in Memphis. By the time I finished playing rugby, it had morphed into the likes of Michael Bibi, Dennis Cruz and Mark Knight. Towards kick-off, I would flick between some feel-good, emotive house music with lots of vocals to some pretty naughty techno.
"To be honest with you, I gave everything I had to my rugby career. I couldn't have done any more. Music for me is much more of an attractive proposition. There’s more of an allure to playing as an individual and being up there creating a vibe for people. I think I'm a natural performer. I love the idea of blending and using three decks with different effects to really create tension.
“Sometimes there are moments where you are so full of elation that you feel like you're going to explode. I'd love to play at Hï in Ibiza. It's the number one club in the world for a reason. You know, it's a nightclub with an incredible toilet. It would be a dream to play three hours there.”
James has teamed up with house music veterans Mark Knight and Gene Farris to create a series of releases for 2025 that will push his sound into even bolder, more experimental territories.
“The collab with Mark Knight came about because Mark's been an incredible mentor to me,” he says. “He's become a very good friend, a best mate of mine really. He is somebody in this music industry that I related to straight away. I'm not everybody's cup of tea. I have a certain type of personality that sometimes can alienate, but Mark and I got on brilliantly. I told him I’d love to collab and we got Gene Farris to come in and do the vocals, because he’s just a legend in the game. Gene’s got such an amazing voice, he's an incredible producer and DJ, and it was the perfect storm. Our new track Dig Deep, came out of a lot of hard work sitting between us and vibing. We wanted to create those big moments, we wanted the hands in the air stuff. I'm really pleased with the result. I think people are going to absolutely love it.
“Music-wise for me, 2025 is going to be a big one. I'm rebranding myself because I've got James Haskell that I write books under and I've got my podcast, The Good, The Bad and The Rugby. Sometimes, I feel my music can get a little bit lost among my other projects, so I'm going to release music under Haskell as of next year.
“I've got six tracks signed already that I can't wait to share. I'm hoping to get more DJ gigs and to be able to play, travel and really focus on DJing, because it's my passion. It’s what I want to do more than anything else and I hope this track with Mark and Gene will be really well received, because it's a proper dancehall weapon.”
An advocate for mental health, James is an unapologetically strong male podcaster. And he’s bang on when he says you can control four things that usually can help change your circumstances for the better.
“You basically control four things: How you treat your body, how you treat your mind, how you treat other people and how hard you work,” he says.
“It’s great to talk, but it’s important to match talk with action and address the issues that are affecting you. I’ve been seeing a sports psychologist since I was 17. Over the years I’ve discovered things that I needed to work on, like self-confidence and dealing with criticism.
“It’s about understanding that you are responsible for yourself and only you can fix the things that get you down. You can't blame other people. Life is full of excuses and people are full of excuses, but ultimately you control the majority of what happens in your own life.
“I've put a lot of tools in place to fall back on, because mental health is not just about not having good days or bad days. When you have an issue, it's about recognising it and getting back on track. Somebody who doesn't look after their mental health might take two weeks, a month, or even a year to recover, but someone with self-awareness might be able to snap back within minutes, because they recognise it and they tackle it.
“As a wider population, it's about actively addressing the issues causing mental trauma, particularly with men. The biggest killer of men under 40 in the UK is suicide. So talking about it is fine, but we have to match that with action. We also need to change some of the things that are negatively affecting men. Some of the family court laws and bits need to change to help that, because we can talk all day long, but if we don't match it with action, it's pointless.”
