Anthony Pappa owns 3 records for every day he's been a DJ, and with 34 years in the industry that adds up to a whole lot of vinyl. Roughly 35,000 records, to be exact.
After noticing our shock at the magnitude of his collection, Anthony has a laugh. "I love my vinyl," he explains."It means a lot to me because I can pick up a record and immediately be taken back to a place and a time when I played it."
This form of mental teleportation keeps Anthony connected to his roots as a DJ, and those roots run deep. He got started at an incredibly young age, winning an international competition hosted by Mixmag when he was just a kid.
This led 15-year-old Anthony from Australia to London where he played at Ministry Of Sound.
From there, his love of vinyl only grew. "I think as a DJ, mixing vinyl keeps you on your toes. It keeps you sharp."
Though he's a big fan of modern technology, Anthony feels like it makes things a little too easy sometimes.
"You'll work that little bit harder when mixing records." Of course, it's also nice to be able to carry a laptop and some USBs to a gig instead of lugging heavy cases full of records.
Modern technology has opened up a new world of possibilities for Anthony, allowing him to reach fans with live streams throughout the pandemic and collaborate with other artists on fresh tracks and remixes.
"I've probably done about 60 or 70 livestreams over the last year or so. They're a wonderful way to connect with people since we haven't been able to go out. And music-wise, I've just finished some tracks – 'Here We Go' and 'Where We've Gone' – with Jamie Stevens."
Though these won’t be officially released until later this month, you can catch them at the end of the set Anthony played at Burning Man's 2021 virtual festival.
If the idea of a virtual Burning Man sounds odd, Anthony can confirm that you're 100 per cent right. "Obviously it's Burning Man, so it's a huge platform and great exposure, but the whole virtual thing. . . is it great?"
Anthony takes a moment to collect his thoughts. How do you express the complex mix of love for the music, appreciation for the audience, and sadness at not being able to connect with them in person?
"There's nothing like being on a real stage playing to real people on a real dance floor, but coming from Melbourne where we've had the longest lockdown in the world so far, it's been amazing to be involved with something like that.
"It's also taught me so much. I bought a green screen, and my partner and I have been learning about filming and lighting, and the visual side of things, which is a whole new world for me."
Whether playing in his lounge room or on a festival stage, Anthony feels the role of a DJ is to absorb the environment surrounding your set and allow everything from the weather to the crowd and the other performers to shape the direction you take with your music.
"You've gotta work together with the whole line-up of the event to ensure that everything just flows. There's an art to that, but it also involves a bit of discipline to play the right thing at the right time."
What does this mean for Anthony's upcoming set at Elements Festival? "It's gonna be summer, it's gonna be day time, you want happy uplifting vibes but you also want a bit of balls and energy behind it."
In the happy medium of those two energy states, Anthony will find his flow at Elements.
2021 will be Anthony's first time at the much-loved Queensland festival, and the recent change of dates from October to December has been a positive in his books.
"With the October dates, I had a Melbourne gig on Friday night and another one on Saturday night, so I was going to be flying up early Saturday, playing at Elements in the afternoon, then flying straight back to Melbourne for the second gig.
"I wasn't going to have any time to hang out. With the new dates in December, I'll be able to stay longer and really check it out."
Attendees at Elements Festival will be treated to an early taste of what's to come next year for the rest of the world.
Anthony will be heading to Europe in April, playing everywhere from Scotland to Serbia, Italy to Ibiza. From there, it's off to the US where he'll be hitting Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Chicago, and other major cities. After that, he's hoping to be able to make it to South America.
If this sounds like a lot, it's nothing compared to Anthony's workload from just a few years ago. "I lived in the UK for 20 years, and at one point my schedule included 200 flights a year, playing in 3 or 4 countries a week."
This love for hard work is evident in everything Anthony does, but he says it was a near-death experience that taught him how to find a healthy balance.
"Five years ago I had a head-on accident, and at the time I thought 'this is it, I'm not going to survive this'.
"It was probably the worst thing that ever happened to me, but in some ways, I also see it as the best thing that ever happened to me. It stopped everything and made me reassess, reevaluate, rebuild, and really appreciate what's important."
Post accident, Anthony was taken back to the fundamentals we all learn before we're even making memories.
Learning to walk again as an adult had the interesting effect of creating a sort of rebirth in the middle of his adult life, and when he finally found his way back to music, he fell in love with it all over again.
No one would ever choose to go through something like this, yet Anthony sees it as one of the most transformative experiences of his life.
"You can always take a positive out of a negative. In fact, I think you have to. If you let yourself get dragged down, you're only going to make things harder on yourself.
"Negativity is not what you need when you're trying to move forward in life."
The years since Anthony's accident have been far from easy, but his simple formula of hard work plus a positive attitude have guided him through. "I feel like I've got a new lease on life and I feel blessed and grateful to be here. I'm loving everything I'm doing and I'm on a happier journey than I think I was prior to the accident.
"Life is good. I can't complain!"
Elements Festival takes place at Landcruiser Mountain Park (Sunshine Coast) 16-19 December.
