Ahead of Carl's appearance at Space Opening Fiesta and his 10th consecutive season of his own Tuesday party, we caught up with him last week in Australia to talk motorbikes, his new album and of course, Space Ibiza 2011 plans.

Hi Carl, what have you been up to in the winter? I know you like to get out on your motorbike a bit…
Yeah basically, I am in Australia at the start of every year, well from December time actually. My circle of life is that around this time I go to Miami and then work all the way through until end of November, start of December, when I'll go to Australia, do all my parties here, but also use it as some downtime. I've got quite a few bikes here, in fact i'm a bit of a collector and obviously love riding them, so I actually put together a ride that we do in New Zealand, along with some gigs, and then when we get back to Australia, we ride some more. We've just been to Tasmania with people I've met here down the years.
In the midst of me riding around Tasmania, I actually have just got back from Korea, which was for the launch of a new car by Hyundai and I've also just had a gig in Melbourne, which was the the live performance of my new Carl Cox album. For me it's been something I've been working on for a year and a half, so it was great to see it come to fruition, but more than that…….to do the whole album live for an hour and a half with vocalists, singers and musicians who've collaborated on the album was great.

Is that the plan for the album then, to perform it out live?
Yeah, I feel really strongly about it, because what I didn't want to do is spend all this time and money and energy to put it out, then it's on Beatport for a week and that's the end of it, it goes viral and that's it. I believe it has to have some kind of sustenance because all of the artists that I've used on the album are really talented and they can all perform as well. So I wanted to put a live show together so people could see the music I created in the studio and they'd be hearing it 'now, live' and knowing that these are people who helped make that music too.
Surely when people make music, that's the way [playing it live] you get your point across, in the sense of getting your album understood. My album has latin house on it, drum n bass, dubstep, house songs, it really is a journey of everything I enjoy and love. I want people to feel it and the only way you can get that across is to go live. That way my passion, my energy and what I bring to the table, is able to be represented, so that's what I'm looking to do.
The idea is bring this to as many festivals as we can or parties that I create, like Carl Cox and Friends, but I'll be incorporating it with the DJing. I think people get too scared with 'what is live all about?' but I just incorporate it with what I'm already doing, because as I have a captive audience, they're interested to see what I'm offering. I've actually road-tested all the tracks live in the past year to see what does and doesn't work, so I've kind of fine tuned the tracks as well.

You're back headlining Space Opening Party, you've obviously been a regular down the years, haven't you?
Well I played last year and yeah it's one of the parties I tend to play most. For me, I'm trying to support Space as much as possible, it's my spiritual home and where I'm really able to represent myself, which is one of the reasons I've been there for so many years. So it's important for me to support the club and it's a celebration of the joy the club has brought to so many people over the years. This year I'm doing the Opening and Closing parties, as well as obviously my Carl Cox 10 Years parties.

Tell us a bit about playing out on the Car Park at Space?
The car park was something I was able to be a part of in terms of its conception as part of Space Opening Party. I was there right from the beginning when it wasn't as big as it was now, but it was also different set-up, as Space was obviously just the Terrace and the Discoteca. When they opened the car park, it was like having a mini-festival all within the confines of Space. I really enjoyed the fact you had more people to play for but also that these people were there under the sun or under the stars, it's an awesome thing to feel free and dance in the open air. So all of that has developed into something very special and much bigger too; in the early days you had 7 or 8000 people in the club, that was it, whereas now the car park allows a lot more to get in and enjoy the party.

Obviously it's 10 years at Space for Carl Cox. I bet you weren't thinking about 10 years later when you started?
Haha! Yeah, I mean when I started to branch out of me playing there on a Sunday, Space was never really known as a nightclub, it was known as an after-hours club and the Sunday parties. It'd had never really had a nighttime situation until I decided I wanted to do something special and different. So it was a challenge really and we didn't know how it was going to go. We did the first year on a Thursday and then moved to do Tuesday and even at that time, I was thinking 'if I get a good 5 years out of this, that'll be great'. But as the night has developed, so has the club…….and it's just phenomenal, there's nowhere else like that club in terms of what it stands for. You know, I've grown with Space and it's somewhat of a match made in heaven, to be able to do what I want to do wholeheartedly and meanwhile the club has become a musical institution. Now, we're reaching a substantial time in both our histories, it's just an amazing feat, because a lot of people thought that this music and DJs and the island had had it……..not a chance!!!! It's much better now than it's even been.

Anything else planned for this summer?
I'm very much behind my record label at the moment, Intec Records, to try and nail down the new artists and music that is coming out on the label. I'm going to be bringing the live show around Europe, I feel really compelled to do this and show people that there is real creativity still out there.
So many artists spend so much time working on their albums, put them out and then that's it, very few of them, maybe Richie Hawtin or Laurent Garnier, actually perform it or tour it or tell a story live with it. Especially now, when it goes viral, it's harder for people to attach themselves to your music, people can pick out single tracks and you've done a whole album just for them to only like or listen to one track. When people hear the tracks live, they're more likely to become endeared to the music. I'm really excited about this concept and really looking forward to this year.