“This is how you properly celebrity” Global hitmaker Diplo goes jetset for new album launch

He’s been making hits with everyone from Justin Bieber to Beyonce for the past 18 years but now Diplo returns to his “solo” career with new record.

Diplo’s Instagram is a masterclass in how to be a rock star DJ.

His passport, bearing his birth name of Thomas Wesley Pentz but he goes by Wes, copped a workout last week. After a series of guerrilla pop-up gigs in Los Angeles, the 43-year-old relentless globetrotter fuelled up the private jet for a hectic European jaunt to launch the self-titled Diplo album, his first record under his own name in 18 years.

A club show in Barcelona, then off to Paris to join celebrity guests Kim Kardashian, Salma Hayek and Lil Baby at Balenciaga’s Fashion Week 22 show and then onto Givenchy’s shindig. Another gig that night, then over to London to play for a night, completing the mini-tour in Copenhagen before heading back to America for his Las Vegas show yesterday.

Diplo was a celebrity guest at the Givenchy show for Paris Fashion Week. Picture: Getty.

It’s a bonkers schedule full of happy, dancing people waving their arms – and camera phones – in the air, mostly soundtracked by his latest single, Don’t Forget My Love, featuring r&b king Miguel.

And Wentz is loving it all. Particularly when the cops show up. As they did during his pop-up gigs earlier this month with a little PA-system strong enough to push his set out to about 1000 people in east Los Angeles parks.

need locations for the next one 👇 pic.twitter.com/kXpEKlIfXj

— diplo (@diplo) March 2, 2022

“The second one was great. We had like a full-ass helicopter shining on us; they kept saying ‘Just one more song’,” he says, laughing. “The thing about eastside LA, there are so many parks you can play, and if no one’s getting hurt, no one really cares.

“But we want more police helicopters. When I get back from Europe on the weekend, we might do one more to get the most cops to come and that’s the last one.”

Diplo wears many musical hats. He kicked off his career as a DJ while at university, released debut hip hop-influenced album Florida in 2004 but gained notice as a producer after working with British rapper M.I.A. and striking crossover chart gold with her single Paper Planes.

R & b star Miguel features on new Diplo single Don’t Forget My Love. Picture: Toby Zerna

Since then, he has been a go-to collaborator for Madonna, Justin Bieber, Sia, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Usher, The Weeknd and dozens more. He has brought artists into his orbit via myriad side projects. The Jamaican-inspired Major Lazer topped the Australian charts with Lean On, featuring DJ Snake and MØ in 2015 and the next year with Cold Water with Bieber and MØ.

Jack Ü is a Grammy-winning duo with producer Skrillex, generating another Bieber chart-topper with Where Are U Now? And there’s LSD, with Australian hitmaker Sia and Euphoria soundtrack guru Labrinth, and Silk City with that other celebrity rock star DJ Mark Ronson. Electricity, their song with Dua Lipa, topped global charts in 2018.

Barcelona on album release day... Paris tonight pic.twitter.com/aOGCpWMunh

— diplo (@diplo) March 5, 2022

His self-titled “solo” record – which of course features a plethora of guests, is inspired by the house music which made him want to get into DJing as a teenager.

“As I learned to produce, I did everything from reggae and dance hall to hip hop to country. I was like, let me go back to doing dance music again. It’s 2022, we had a couple of rough years, this is the album for your party now,” he says about the stylistic shift.

“House (music) will never go away; it’s been around now for 40 years. It took a while for it to take over the world – it went everywhere, even Australia had its own scene, so did Germany and South America. It’s an easy language for youth to understand; they want to go out to party, they want to dance but what’s important for people like me is to show the roots and diversity of it.”

Superstar DJ Diplo is on a house music mission with his new tunes. Picture: Supplied / Maria Jose Govea

In between the posts of heaving nightclub crowds and flash mobs descending on his guerrilla gigs, Diplo has reinvented his celebrity for the digital age with hilarious results for his 5.8 million followers.

When paps hit him up on the beach, they sold the ubiquitous shirtless shots of the buff DJ striking a muscle pose.

Diplo returned serve by posting the video of what he was really doing while they snapped, lying on the sand with his legs in the air and, as Monty Python might describe it, waving his private parts in their direction. A fan responded: “This is how you properly celebrity.”

For the musician, it’s simply about not taking life too seriously.

“The main thing you can ask for is just to have fun. I think if I lost my sense of humour, I would be sick of it now. You have to find ways to enjoy the chaos,” he says.

While there will be a decent slice of his new repertoire played at the dozens of gigs he has already booked for this year – which he seems to hint may include New Year’s Eve 2022 Down Under – there’s one classic Australian track he’s happily flogging now. Diplo heard homegrown producer Luude’s new drum and bass remix of Men At Work’s Down Under and hit him up for the parts so he could add it to his set.

“Is that Down Under song big in Australia? It’s big in Europe now. You guys have got some pride in that song; that is such a fire song. Men At Work, those guys put you on the map.”

Diplo the album is out now.