Feature Interview – Paul Hutchinson – Issue 050 –

Paul Hutchinson – DJ, Producer, Radio Host, Podcaster Paul Hutchinson is a DJ, producer, and radio host with over 35 years behind the decks, a true champion of house music for the soul. Inspired by legends like Frankie Knuckles and Masters At Work, Paul was one of the first DJs in Colchester, Essex to bring house music to the bar scene, packing venues for years.

After a break to raise his son, he reignited his career by winning Pioneer DJ’s King of the Decks in 2010 and never looked back.

He’s since played at Fabric, Pacha, Printworks, Es Paradis, Eden, ADE, and Miami WMC, with sets that blend emotion, energy, and connection from London to Ibiza to Marbella.

In 2016, Paul launched Mi Casa Es Tu Casa, hosting soulful house events across Europe, and released his debut album Looking Back featuring Fil Straughan and Paul Hardcastle Jr.

Now based in Estepona, Spain, Paul runs Rockin Social, a social media agency for DJs and creatives, and teaches through his books DJ’s Guide To Success and Amplify Your Brand.

You can catch him every Friday on Beach Grooves Radio, bringing feel-good house to listeners worldwide always staying true to one belief: music is meant to be felt.

Words By Paul Newhouse

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Tell us about Paul the kid, before the music and the man.

I grew up in Loughborough youngest of 3 in a household obsessed with Music and Films. My Dad was an avid Jazz fan and my mum loved Abba and Barry White, thats where my love of music began. I remember driving around with my dad who had 8 track cassettes playing George Shearing Jazz, I loved it. We moved to Essex when I was 7 after my parents split up where I lived until 2023.

When did you first discover dance music and was it your first love?

Dance music wasn’t my first love, it was Jazz, Soul then Rock, I was a huge Guns n Roses Fan and Foo Fighters. It wasn’t until 1988 that I started listening to House music and it was 2 DJs in particular that got me hooked. Louie Vega from Masters at work and Frankie Knuckles. I loved the way Frankie mixed his tracks, so smooth, and Louie the way he moved behind the decks and really felt the music, that’s how I DJ today with feeling, I really need to feel the music to be able to play properly, that’s why I have a slight loss of hearing in one ear from having the booth levels too loud!

There were 2 DJs that played in my home town of Colchester Conan Liquid back then known as Conan Manchester and Gem De La Vibe, who is no longer with us. They played the music I loved Soulful House, Disco and some Hip Hop. Conan later went on to help me with my production and I played alongside Gem on a number of occasions in Colchester. I loved the way he would play a track and if it moved him he would go onto the dancefloor and start dancing with the crowd, just brilliant vibes. I had my first residency at Palms Wine Bar in Colchester, Essex, where I taught myself to mix on Vinyl, just as House music was born in the UK. The bar was rammed with up to 300 people every weekend for 3 years solid Thursday to Sunday. That’s when I got the bug and it never left.

You have been playing for 35 years + tell us about the changes you have seen over this time, good bad, and ugly!

Obviously the biggest change is from Vinyl to CD, to USB and now Digital, so that was a huge transition especially when I started DJ’ing in Ibiza. You just couldn’t take vinyl with you so it was CDs, and I hated burning them off it took ages. Regarding the ugly, I don’t like how some DJs don’t help other DJs who are coming up. We all remember how hard it was back in the day, so I think its important to help other DJs where you can either get their break or just help in other ways like with social media, which is what I do now. The other downside to DJing is the loneliness when travelling to gigs and the constant pressure to drink or do drugs. I know so many of the biggest DJs in the world who struggled with this and now don’t drink at all, it kind of becoming cool again to not drink.

You won Pioneer DJ’s King of the Decks in 2010 tell us all about this please!

When my son was born in 2002 I took some time away from DJing, in 2010 I was back in my hometown of Colchester and walked past the Hippodrome nightclub and saw a sign advertising for a pioneer DJ competition, something told me to sign up so I did. When it came to competition I ended up getting through to the final playing alongside a friend of mine, whatever I did that night impressed the judges and I was selected the winner. I was also entered into the UK final for the same competition and got through to the final stage of that competition as well, but lost out at the last minute due to someone putting their bag down on one of the decks where a track was playing so the music stopped, and this completely threw me.

After winning the competition, I was featured in an article in the local paper and a friend of mine‘s mother-in-law saw it and she said to her son-in-law you should find this DJ and team up with him. This is how I met Darryl Wright and we started the DJ duo Slavziihouse, we went on to play some incredible venues in Ibiza, Madrid, Miami, London and around the UK. We also started producing music together and our first track was signed by DJ International records in Chicago, where we then went on to produce a remix of Curtis McLean’s classic move your body.

Vinyl, digital or CDJ’s or a mix? And why?

For me, it has to be USB, I used to like playing on vinyl, but there’s not much you can do with it. I did go through a phase of DJ’ing on Traktor and really enjoyed creating new versions of songs live but for me now I love the ease of USB just rocking up at a gig with headphones and that’s it.

You have played for a number of big clubs and big brands tell us about your best and worst moments!

My best moment would’ve been playing for Clockwork orange at Printworks in London, where I was joined behind the decks by Todd Terry who said he just wanted to come and see me play. we were chatting together in the green room and I asked him what he was doing next he said I’m not sure we’re probably gonna hang around for a bit. I said I was playing in 15 minutes and he chose to come down and watch my set and gave me an exclusive version on USB of one of his brand new tracks. I was the first person to play that track live. Without a doubt one of the highlights of my DJ career.

The worst was also another incredible event where I was DJing in New Zealand to 2500 people at a club called Xtasy plus when the dancers above me let off flares at midnight to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The flares were dripping down onto the vinyl that I was playing so I was panicking that I had to mix the next track in before the Records would start to jump, a very stressful but incredible set.

Festivals, Superclubs, Clubs or house parties, and why?

I haven’t played at many festivals over the years apart from Clockwork Orange and We Are Festival. I’ve played many superclubs, clubs, and house parties, for me It’s gotta be the club. Some of my best gigs have been where the crowd are really close to you. That’s where you really get that feeling that you can feed off the crowd to perform at your best two in particular that stand out are Digital in Newcastle and Hush in the West End in Ibiza, an incredible venue where Sam Divine was first spotted. The crowd were all around you, 4 decks on a sliding bar and great sound.

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Tell us all about Mi Casa Es Tu Casa.

Mi Casa Es Tu Casa is my brand I created back in 2015. I wanted to start my own events near the local town where I lived and found a great Venue called The Flitch House in Great Dunmow. It was myself and my bongo player Mister Shed and I would invite my Pals to play, like The Driver Brothers, Stuart Braybrooke, Brandon Block and Darryl Wright. I hosted regular parties there and still do today, when I fly backwards and forwards to play. In 2018 when I lived in Ibiza for the summer I was Operations Manager at Es Paradis and a vacancy came up for Thursday nights so I put on my Mi Casa Es Tu Casa party there. Since then we have had parties in Amsterdam, with my pal Yves Eaux and in Italy with Cristian De Leo as well as various places around Essex and parties here in Spain where I now live. Last year I celebrated 10 years with the brand and now host a weekly Mi Casa Es Tu Casa radio show in Marbella on Beach Grooves Radio that has been going for 3 years now.

What DJ gigs do you have coming up, and regular gigs?

I have a few small events coming up here in Spain this year including a new Brunch event with Sober Socials starting at the end of January. Then we will have around a dozen Mi Casa parties in the UK and possibly some in Ibiza as well as some here in Estepona Spain this summer.

When did you move to Spain and why?

I always dreamed of working for myself after being in Retail management for well over 20 years, I jacked in my full time Job in retail to take up DJing full-time in February 2020 4 weeks later covid hit. You couldn’t make it up could you lol. I started talking on Clubhouse which was a big app at the time about social media which is something I had been studying for a while. From this i then ended up writing a book called DJs Guide To Success which was collection of lessons I had learned over the years about DJing and what DJs should focus on during lockdown to be ready for when things get back to normal. At the same time my wife and I started talking about living in another country and Ibiza and Mainland Spain kept coming up. So in 2018 we took a summer out from work and rented a home in ibiza for the summer, this gave us a feeling of what it would be like to live abroad.

Turns out Ibiza wasn’t our choice at the end of the summer as the winters are very quiet. So we looked at the Marbella area where Karen’s Mum lived. We thought we would put the house on the market and see what happens, it sold in 2 weeks. So that was the sign we needed. We came out to the Costa Del Sol met with an agent and spent 4 days looking at around 20 different properties in different areas. On the last day we viewed a 2 bed apartment on Alacazaba Lagoon Estepona and fell in love with it. We put in an offer and within a few months we had started our new Spanish life. Fast forward to 2026 and we are still loving every moment of living here, the weather, the people, the lifestyle is all perfect we love it. I now run my own social media agency from home called Rockin Social Media, where i manage a dozen different accounts for DJs and business owners around the world.

You are left on an island for the rest of your life, what top 5 release do you have with you and why?

There has to be a mixture here as I don’t always listen to dance music at home, I try and switch off from it so lets go with:
1. Masters at Work: Backfired
2. Foo Fighters Best Of Album
3. Frankie Knuckles: Your Love
4. Kings of Tomorrow – Finally
5. to chill out to Georgia Cecile – Only the lover sings Album.

Favourite club/city to play in and why?

My favourite club to play at is Club Joy in Madrid, we held a residency there for a year as Slavziihouse it was amazing 2000 people on a Thursday night once a fortnight. Great memories.

Favourite Place to play is Ibiza, just iconic, different vibes.

Least favourite club/city to play and why?

Probably Wales, way way too mad for me lol.

What is the future of dance music?

I think there is a great future for dance music, people like Black Coffee, Sam Divine, Carl Cox are still killing it and the sound is evolving slightly. For me it will always be Soulful House and Disco as my biggest love and brands like Glitterbox are making it super popular for the Gen Z’s coming through. From there they will always show an interest to where the music originated from and who were the pioneers.

Mental health is a big deal with people who are creative, do you have any experience, and anything to share to help?

Luckily for me I have never been negatively affected by this but i know many DJs who have and have spoken with and helped in the past, people like Brandon Block and Danny Clockwork. My advice is to always have someone that you can speak to a close friend or colleague, and don’t get dragged into the world of drink and drugs if you want to be a successful DJ. You need clarity and you need to be healthy to sustain a serious career. Sam Divine, Brandon Block, Danny Clockwork all of these names are all sober now and still crushing it in their own fields.

Tell us all about Rockin Social.

I am very proud of my social media agency that I built from scratch in 2021 and have now built up into a successful career ,where I love helping other DJs and business owners grow on social media and understand how it all works. I work with some incredible people including Michael Gray, Brandon Block, Ricky Morrison, Bobby & Steve, Ronnie Herel as well as brands Funky Dory, Modern Woman and was proud to launch LFGTV which is a DJ only streaming site which I helped grow from scratch to 8k followers and over a thousand sign ups to their site in 2025.
I’ve been blessed to speak at numerous events about social media also including Brighton Music Conference, Modern Woman Show and various DJ events around the UK.

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