Dick 'Magik' Johnson tours New Zealand

Dick 'Magik' Johnson's Cardboard Journey has received overseas airplay but Johnson says making the album was nerve-racking.

It's cold and wet in West Auckland today, and Dick Johnson can't get through to Telecom to tell them the phone lines are down. Not that he's complaining.

"I love the lifestyle," he laughs down his cellphone. "I'm applying for residency."

The house music DJ, aka Magik Johnson, moved here from Blackpool in 2002 and owns property in Titirangi, where he has green views, all the space he needs for his studio and is not too close to the rat race.

The irony is not lost on him that while he makes his beats in the bush, it's punters in city clubs who will hear them. The next batch will be released on Cardboard Journey, his first album as a producer.

Featuring Kiwi vocalists Sandy Mill, (a previous Subware collaborator), Ruth Carr of Minuit, and James Dansey of the Sneaks, it touches on 80s electro, deep house and synth-heavy acid house, the grooves he is likely to drop during one of his DJ sets.

"It reflects what I play but I also wanted it to be a producer's album. A lot of dance albums are very narrow in the way they're made. It's quite easy to write house music that will sound really good in a club. I wanted this one to sound great when you play it at home."

Fans will recognise Rollergirl, released on his Kingsland Dubs' EP two years ago, and Dusty's Problem that "slipped out" and has been getting airplay on George FM.

Feel Alright, the album's most handbag-house moment, has received support overseas from big-league DJs, including Ben Watt, Laurent Garnier and DJ Sneak.

"That's what makes it all worthwhile," says Johnson. "It's quite nerve-racking making music. You listen to it that many times in the studio you get sick of it, really, by the end of it. It ends up not meaning anything to me for quite a long time."

It's an especially nerve-racking time for producers such as Johnson, who says DJs have saturated the market, dance labels are finding it hard to stay afloat, and clubbers are looking for new ways to entertain themselves.

It's part of the reason he moved to New Zealand, after establishing a successful career that included a residency at Manchester's famous Hacienda nightclub, releases on influential labels including Manchester's Paper Recordings and New Order's Pleasure Recordings, plus remixes for Crazy Penis, Joey Negro and Human League.

When he left Manchester he was forced to shut his own label, Shaboom. Now, he says, the best way to get your music out is not necessarily in clubs but on the radio. And it's influential spinners such as the BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong who are helping him to get heard.

"House music is really struggling globally at present but New Zealand has always kept itself at a level, rather than some places where it has really died a death.

"In England, the club scene is completely different. People now just go to bars and drink and the night ends at 2 o'clock. In New Zealand I'm actually DJing a lot more.

"So it's inspiring to be able to travel around and do gigs every weekend. There's a different theme in every city. I get a lot of inspiration from meeting people every week."

Performance

* Who: Dick "Magik" Johnson
* What: National tour: Morrisson, Auckland, tonight; Subnine, Wellington, April 30; Debajo, Queenstown, May 6; Bath St, Dunedin, May 7; The Loft, Hamilton, May 13; Buddha Lounge, Tauranga, May 14, 55, New Plymouth, May 21; Zinc Bar, Christchurch, May 27.
* Album: Cardboard Journey, out May 11