Music Production & DJ Tutor with 20 years' experience in the music industry.

Find out more about Pablo

• When did you first develop a passion for music and your favourite instrument?

  I grew up in a very artistic family, back in Argentina where I'm from. My granddad was a theatre director and my dad a musician, so it all started by having fun with them either performing or playing instruments that were in my house. Soon enough I started piano and guitar lessons, but I was more passionate about playing the drums. Then my friends in high-school were looking for a singer and I cheekily started screaming on the mic! Which led me to get some singing lessons and also recording 2 albums with them. When I moved to London, almost 20 years ago, I studied Music Production and became a DJ which has been my profession for around 15 years already.

• Is there a particular type of music or artist that you listen to on a loop without it driving you crazy?

  When I started DJ'ing I got heavily into house and disco and began buying records. My choices as a DJ have to be super groovy but also need an uplifting factor. My sets are a bit eclectic and I listen to so much different music that I can go on for a while. Just to drop a few names... Kerri Chandler, Jimpster, Ron Trent, Chez Damier, Bicep, Eli Escobar, Soul Clap... and so many others as well.
  Besides house or techy stuff, I still listen to some older records that influenced me heavily... Every now and then I can have Prince on a loop. Also, Smashing Pumpkins still is one of my favourite bands and I could listen to any of their albums non-stop. I used to be a huge fan of rock and grunge, so from Nirvana to Tool and everything in between. I was also heavily into hip-hop, especially the soulful, funky, jazzy style. But if I have to name an artist that I found only a couple of years ago and I can't stop having his albums and productions on a loop, it has to be Blood Orange. Bloody genius!

• Explain to us the most difficult or riveting course you could personally give to a student of music.

  Define difficult? I think that the level of difficulty varies depending on how talented every person is. As we know, some people are just born for some things and everything is just an extension of their being. That said, I feel that with perseverance and hard work, everybody can learn and make progress.
  The most difficult bit I found for myself is to turn your skills into a money maker. There is always a fine line between being an artist and a business person. You need to be a bit of both to be successful at making a living out of your craft. This is of course if you want to make money out of it because learning music or any art as a hobby is also very valuable.

• What do you think is the most complicated instrument to master and why?

  Any instrument could be hard to master, even turntables or any DAW. When do you know that you've mastered something? There's really no end to it. All I can say is if you keep doing what you are doing, you'll become better and better at it. In my own experience, the hardest thing I had to face was to finish my own music. Mixing and mastering is a huge part of your final product and I consider it to be as important as any other player in the band. If you know nothing about this side of things, you are risking that other people will make your music sound in ways that you might not like. So you lose control over your creations.

• What are your keys to success?

  To me, success is when you spend your time doing the stuff that you love the most. What do you do every day? Ask yourself this question and you might find that you are already successful at so many things. I don't like thinking of my career as something separate from my everyday life. We are used to asking around 'what do you do'? I'd say be careful with what you give as an answer to that. I don't like defining myself by any specific activity or just what I do to make money. There's so much more to life than your career.

• Name three musicians you dream of meeting in your favourite bar in the early hours of the morning. Explain why.

  Well, I guess when being at one of my favourite bars and at that time of the day, I would only be there to have a laugh.
  So I'm picturing Daft Punk wearing their helmets, Moodymann with the girls doing his afro and Marc Rebillet wearing his robe.
  Throw me in there and I won't stop buying rounds.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to music or your days at music school.

  OMG. We are entering dangerous territory here! Like many of us that worked as DJ's for many years, you can only imagine the number of anecdotes that we can tell.
  So I'll go with this one... I was playing at quite a big club in Berlin, closing the night from 6 am till 12 at noon. So I slept a few hours before getting there. Quite a contrast to arrive after having just a coffee and a banana, as you can imagine. I start my set playing some banging house and techno and there were around 500 kids roaring on the dancefloor. Really full-on, I was so happy and really into it. For a DJ there's nothing like that feeling of having so many people rocking to the music you are playing. The booth door was open and a couple of my friends were there but also some randoms. This sometimes can be fun but it really depends on how cool these people are... All of a sudden, I see this French girl, dancing next to me. She seemed to be having the time of her life but she had some headphones on! So I turned around and asked her 'what are you listening to?' And she puts one headphone on my ear and she was listening to some funky music!!! I couldn't believe it and started laughing so hard. I told one of my friends and he was like 'let's kick her out of here!'... and I was like 'no, just leave her there'. She stayed for like another hour dancing to her funky music and every now and then she'll show me the tune she had on with a huge smile on her face. It was unique.
  You asked for a 'valuable' anecdote. Well, you tell me what's valuable about this. I leave that to you. But ever since, I left the DJ booth door open every time.

• What are the little touches that make you a Superprof in music?

  I think a good teacher not only must be good at passing on knowledge and experience but also we must care deeply about the students' success and progress. I like creating a nice relationship with my students. I stay in touch aside from the scheduled lessons to make sure they are moving forward, listen to their music or for instance if they have technical issues to sort out. For this, it's very important that students show passion and interest in learning and also that they have objectives. I've always been good at setting out aims and hopes for myself but also I wish I've had someone to challenge me and push me even further. So I'm a total believer in 1-1 tutoring as you are not only learning but also you get to have a mentor that keeps you going till you get there. And that's something that you rarely get when studying at big schools.