Paul Enamu
Let us introduce to you Paul Enamu, an Artist, Producer, Remixer, Brand Entrepreneur, Loving Dad, Doggy Enthusiast (especially ones with human names), and DJ of 30+ years, frequently playing shows in Ibiza and the UK. When Paul agreed to play the first episode for our rebirth of Sunday Café Radio, we were beyond stoked and just wanted to take the opportunity to dive a little deeper into his world, both personally and musically! Be prepared for a beautiful conversation about life, love, and all the above. Check out the interview below and click the link provided to listen to his latest Sunday Café Radio guest mix!
SC : Hey Paul! thanks much for taking the time to sit down and chat with us. We've been playing your sunday café radio show on repeat and absolutely loving the vibes! To start with, how are you? Are you currently in Ibiza?
Paul : No not at the moment, it’s not for the want of trying, but I have commitments in the UK
SC : Any new projects that your currently focusing on?
Paul : Well….funny you should ask, I’m also 1 part of a duo called PEPP (UK) we’ve been working on some Housey stuff, most our releases have been remixes for the label 13 Records, so keep an eye out.
SC : Can you tell us a bit about No Way Pedro and your involvement with loopradio.uk? What inspired the No Way Pedro brand? And the name? We would love to hear a bit about how it all came to be.
Paul : Ahh No Way Pedro, this may take some time, NWP was created in 2010 with a friend, we gathered a group of local DJ’s and started putting events on, we wanted to create an experience of traveling through era’s and genres in one night, it worked well for a good while, but the team separated and my friend chose not to continue.
I wasn’t prepared to let it go, so in 2013 I took a trip to ibiza and met up with a great inspirational DJ to me, his name was Dave Booth, locally to me he was a legend, unfortunately Dave has since passed, but he gave me my 1st chance in IBZ, I then decided NWP would be a great platform to give undiscovered DJ’s the chance to play in the clubbing capital of the world, each year I would take a few up & coming DJ’s and we would play venues, which in turn would help them launch their career, and the story continues, NWP has now been established in Ibiza for 8 years, this year was special as we played Es Paradis, one of the most beautiful clubs in the world.
Now as for Loop Radio, the station was set up by accident in the Pandemic, why not see if we can set up a station, we did a months trial, threw a few mixes on and shared it, but we forgot to cancel the free trial, and that was it, we knew a lot of DJ’s struggling with their mental health and we thought, let’s see if we can give them an outlet to play and within 2 weeks we had 26 DJ’s, now we raise money for Mental Health charities, and we have recently opened a studio where we will be teach the local youth how to DJ and produce music……..phew told you it was long
SC : Looking back on the journey of No Way Pedro and your DJ career as a whole, what would you say are some of the biggest tips you can give someone when developing a brand in the music industry? How have you been able to sustain the health of the brand over so many years?
Paul : You know, there is one simple answer to this, well it’s at least how I’ve been rolling…….BE NICE, that’s it, when I meet people e.g venues I’m nice to the owner, I offer support, I don’t over exaggerate my ambitions, I share their other events, and I get to know them. I have been visiting Ibiza since 1998, and I’ve made a lot of friends, they appreciate my support and honesty, and I think because of this because I work with friends, they find NWP to be trustworthy and sustainable.
SC : You've been a DJ for 30 years now, so i'm sure you've seen tons of massive changes in the music scene take place. Can you tell us a bit of your perspective on where things have come and where they seem to be headed?
Paul : Music is my love and my life, I use music to express and fix things in my mind, but where it’s going, this is not a good answer, from back in the 90’s when there was a feelgood factor about the music, it was euphoric and melodic, then the 00’s came along and introduced us to Tech House with the likes of Stefano Noferini and the likes of him, it went underground, it was amazing, but now we have DJ’s living in the past saying that 90’s was the best, yes it was good at the time (it’s called old school now, and should be called ancient school) but people need to move on, I love music that gives me goosebumps and hits me emotionally, example Tim Greens remix of Satellite Girl by Lee Burridge, it’s on my mix, that’s what music is about, it speaks to you, and unfortunately I think now we are at a standstill, we now have celebrities making music just to make money, celebrity DJ’s eg Joel Corry, Paris Hilton, what the…… so I am sad for where we will go with music now, so we need lots of remakes and re-edits, I know I don’t, but this is the industry now.
SC : What initially got you into DJ'ing?
Paul : I was a breakdancer I used to make mix tapes using a dual cassette recorder with my electro tracks, then I was bought a pair of belt driven decks for my 18th birthday, that was it, no looking back.
SC : What would you say is your biggest source of inspiration at this moment in time?
Paul : You know this may sound somewhat cheesy, I am inspired by my 12 year old son, he loves making music he has started producing himself and now is also learning to DJ, sadly he won’t let me teach him 🤔 but he inspires me as I can see in him what I had in the beginning and it shows me that music is a constant and will never stop being it’s for all ages and walks of life.
SC : How did the track Xsyla come to be? Was it one of those tracks that just fell into place in one studio session or was it one of those projects that kept you coming back time after time?
Paul : It was exactly that, I fell into it, it was just something that came to fruition when messing with samples and sounds, excuse the pun but it struck a chord, and I felt it inside, I love the downtempo vibe, my favourite producer/DJ is Eelke Kleijn and I want to create more stuff at the level of his music.
SC : What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
Paul : Toast, Coco pops and a good old builders cup of tea (dark and strong in colour) what do you have?
SC : haha we had a smoothie and some organic coffee! Delicious!
SC : Ok, we’ve made it to the best part of the interview! Let us now introduce to you the Rapid Fire Intuition Round. Just let your intuition guide you and say the first thing that pops up.
SC : Coffee or Tea?
Paul : Tea
SC : Vanilla or Chocolate?
Paul : Definitely Chocolate
SC : The Earth is round or flat?
Paul : ROUND
SC : Deep House or Deep Techno?
Paul : No brained Deep House
SC : play a show to 10 thousand people with phones allowed or play a show to 100 people with no phones allowed?
Paul : 100 definitely
SC : USB sticks or Computer for DJing?
Paul : I only stopped CD’s in 2000 defo USB
SC : Name one random thing that makes you smile
Paul : Animals with human names, our dog is called Gary.
SC : Well done mate! That concludes the end of our rapid fire round, you did incredible haha It’s been an absolute epic time chatting, thank you again Mr. Paul Enamu for letting us step into your world! In closing, are there any upcoming releases we should be on the look out for? Any show dates coming up? What does your holiday look like?
Paul : It’s been ace, thank you guys, I love your work and your vibe! Well, keep a look out for my latest track “To Become A Man” featuring lyrics from an interview called “I am not your negro”. My sons birthday is on Christmas Eve, and he still believes in Santa, because he is real, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, so I’m looking forward to seeing his face on Christmas Day. Then it’s real ax until January then it all starts again, lots more promotion lots more work for the summer and more production.
SC : If you had one message to tell the world, what would it be?
Paul : My message, hmmm, ok World, let’s fix up, stop the hurt and destruction, this is all we have and one day, it’s going to be gone, we’ll look back and say should of, could of, would of, let’s not look back let’s get things right now, peace x
Download Paul Emamu’s latest release ‘XSYLA’ here
Check out Sunday Café Radio Ep. 001 here (link will be available this Sunday 27 Nov 2022)
