Superstar DJ Carl Cox lays down new beets in lockdown

British-born Melbourne-based DJs Carl Cox and Eric Powell open up about lockdown life, garden wars and their popular Mobile Disco show.

British DJs Carl Cox and Eric Powell in the garden, ahead of their two sold out shows at Myer Music Bowl. Picture : Nicki Connolly

They, like most good mates, enjoy a friendly rivalry in the workplace.

“We’re in competition, the same way old school DJs always compete,” Eric Powell says. “The competition is to try and find a record the other person doesn’t have, or something that makes them go: ‘That was brave. But it worked!’”

However, when COVID-19 lockdowns hit, the competition took a strange turn. It moved to the garden.

Carl Cox, a superstar DJ who has spent the past 30 years as a headline act all over the world, spent most of 2020 grounded by the pandemic, bunkered down in the spacious Mornington Peninsula home he bought a decade ago.

But, strangely, lockdown unlocked facets of Cox’s rarely-seen home life which he happily shared online: baking banana bread, crafting a shepherd’s pie, playing vinyl gems on Cabin Fever, his weekly livestream show that won a DJ Magazine award last month, and, yes, planting a vegetable garden from scratch.

British DJs Carl Cox and Eric Powell surrounded by Cox’s extensive record collection. Picture: Nicki Connolly

“It was my idea,” Powell says, laughing. “I told Carl, ‘I’m doing a vege garden; and the next minute he’s planted one, too, put it online, and Bunnings sent him a bunch of free shit.”

Cox chuckles: “I’ve never grown anything in my life. I usually kill plants because I forget to water them.

“But I started with kipfler potatoes; a girlfriend said, ‘Put them in the mud and they’ll grow.’ So I planted them, patted them down ... and after two months the leaves died. I thought, ‘Well, that was shit,’ and I started digging up the roots, and I found one potato, then another one, then another one ...

“Out of 10, I got 50 back. That’s incredible,” Cox says in amazement. “And my broad beans were like baby arms!”

“I think I’ve had more success than him, no doubt,” Cox says, pointing at Powell.

Powell responds: “My success is cherry tomatoes.”

Cox, laughing: “You didn’t post anything, so it never happened.”

Powell: “Spring onions”

Cox: “Never saw it”

Powell: “Beetroot.”

Cox: “I had good beetroot, too. I had really good lettuce, parsley for days, and the chillies are going well.”

British DJs Cox, who has Barbadian bloodlines, and Powell, of St Kitts heritage, met in 1986. Brighton-based Cox was already a rising star in the rave scene, and Powell, from Manchester, was building a solid reputation with his techno sets.

“What I liked about Eric is, he had a funk to his sound. I completely gravitated to it,” Cox says. “He was always on the money.”

Powell also started Bush Records, a techno and house label always ahead of the curve.

In 1998, when Powell’s wife scored a high school teaching job in Australia, he asked Cox, who regularly toured Down Under, where they should live. Cox said Melbourne, because of the city’s progressive music and fashion tastes.

A few years later, Cox brought a property near Powell, on the Mornington Peninsula, as a place to rest and recharge every Australian summer following gruelling touring schedules worldwide.

That laid-back window also inspired Cox and Powell to team up as Carl and Eric’s Mobile Disco, showcasing soul, funk, jazz, jungle and house tunes that inspired them, and their journey as techno figureheads.

The first show was at Stillwater, a winery and restaurant near Dromana, for family and friends.

From there, it grew every year, expanding to a national tour, including sold out shows at the Myer Music Bowl, and shows abroad in New Zealand and Bali.

Cox has also played versions of the Mobile Disco set in Ibiza, Miami and Glastonbury. At the latter, Cox opened his set with Everybody Loves The Sunshine, a summertime slow burner by fusion jazz legend, Roy Ayers.

“I had 15,000 people standing there, staring at me, like, ‘OK, Where is this going?’ Cox says, laughing.

Cox adds: “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. I think right now people want to have fun and feel happy. We can play the latest techno records and hardest beats, but I think this is the perfect antidote. Every record I play is chosen, and from the heart.”

British DJs Carl Cox and Eric Powell at Cox’s home studio on the Mornington Peninsula. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Powell and Cox returned to the Myer Music Bowl during the Australia day long weekend to play two sold out shows, capped by COVID safe restrictions.

“I just want people to find the funk and soul again because I think it got lost for a while,” Powell says. “The Mobile Disco has enabled people to see us as music lovers rather than just techno DJs.”

Meanwhile, as Australia adjusts to life in COVID normal, but with international borders still shut, Cox says his heart is increasingly where his Melbourne home is.

“My lifestyle has changed, and it will change for the future,” he says. “I’m happy and grateful to be here. My life has been so unbalanced for 30 years because of the music, and touring, and people wanting me to be out there performing.

“But once you get off that crazy train, you appreciate everything. I love being alive, I love being proactive.”

Of course, Cox will continue taking the initiative to share snippets of his life with his DJ streams, new music, a planned book, an upcoming guest spot on a cooking show with former MasterChef contestant turned restaurateur, Sarah Todd, and tending his vege patch.

“To grow vegetables, it takes at least 10 weeks,” Powell says, then turns to Cox: “How many countries would you normally go to (for DJ shows) in 10 weeks?”

“Too many,” Cox answers, noting his time in lockdown marked his first winter in 20 years.

“I don’t usually do winters,” he says, laughing. “I chase summers.”

Cox says sharing his life online is like a full circle moment.

“I didn’t grow up with much. I grew up making do with what I had. So here I am again, baking bread, planting vegetables and playing records,” he says. “At the end of the day, it’s about adapting to change.”