I was so nervous about this interview,  it was 6.45 in the morning and Holly had to go to work at 5.30 so I was in that half asleep half awake stage, I hadn’t listened to much of the power album and Boys Noize (and all of his other work in collaborations and solo projects as Puzique, Eastwest, Einzeller and 909 Disco) is one of my favourite artists. I always try and break the ice with some mindless banter, and I started with how he could be bothered to do interviews at 12am on a tuesday morning. He didn’t seem to mind, but honestly if I was an artist I would not sign up for interviews then. You can read the full interview after the jump, and don’t forget you can catch Boys Noize at Future Music Festival (event site here).
Boys Noize – Jeffer
How long have you been touring for the Power! album?
Umm the Power! album tour started in december so I’ve played a lot of gigs!
is that getting tiring having to do so many gigs?
You know on the one hand you get tired from the travel but on the other hand I always get lots of energy when I play out and during the week I have some time off. Well not really off but it’s in the studio. It’s good though, as long as I enjoy it I don’t really get tired.
You’re also in the studio? Is that working on more Boys Noize stuff?
No, I’m working on the new Gonzales album, which is more a collaboration album. Which is probably the most exciting thing for me in my music career. Yeah but it happened to be some stuff with other people. I’m also working on some new stuff with Erol Alkan.
How do you start working with all the different artists you’ve worked with or have on your label?
That’s a good question! Sometimes I don’t really know. For me I don’t really see it as work, so I can do lots of stuff at the same time, I can be in the studio and then talk with one of my artists on the label and ask for some production with them, and then find a new release to do.
With your own music, the sound of the latest album is different, much more melodic, is that something you wanted to work towards?
yeah totally. This is something I can’t really control it, it’s something that comes out really naturally because I think I don’t like to repeat myself too much. The attitude I have is to release tracks that bang in the club, with the sound that is special for myself. Electronic music is about the sound and could easily open an old song of mine “Lover Lover,” and make a new basssline but that’s not interesting for myself. I’m always trying to surprise myself with new sounds, and my main focus in the studio is to try and do something new even if I start with just a snare drum I don’t use it twice. That’s one of the main things in my music, in the end I think because I do that, my music always have my touch to it.
With the work you’ve done with Erol Alkan you had some old disco tracks sampled. Is finding really old disco music something you like to throw into your tracks?
Yeah, there was always in my music dance music that I’m listening to. I’m always listening to old stuff, whether it’s disco or rap or whatever. there’s an inspiration from everything. And totally totally outside of that there’s one track on my new album Trooper which uses a sample from a soul ballad, a very slow track. But it turned out to be this super, like war march beat! If you listen to the rest of the original you would think it’s crazy. It’s so fun nowadays because you can change everything totally and make a brand new concept. With waves it was taking the sample and programming new stuff around it.
With all of the collaborations you’re doing are they outlets to try new things
Well for me, for my own music, I know pretty much for my Boys Noize tracks it’s got to be a track to play in the club that bangs. So i do lots of different stuff as well, so I like to do an electronic beat that is hard, but slower, but then it doesn’t fit with Boys Noize dj world, but if I like it, that’s where different styles and working wiht other peples comes from. Most of the time I’m alone in the studio so I do things how I like it, how I want it to feel. When you go to the studio with someone else you have different opinions and you di things differently and that’s exciting too.
I thought it might be the other way round. I thought you were using these other collaborations as places to test things for Boys Noize. But instead it’s just all the stuff you like and can’t use for Boys Noize
Yeah exactly :)
What about the collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas, how did that happen? It’s pretty different to what you usually do!
It was a surprise for me to, I didn’t now Will.i.am was such a big fan of my music. One day they contacted me and asked for stuff, and I had lots of beats so I sent some over and they picked one. We didn’t really colaborate with each other. It’s not like the stuff with Erol Alkan where we come to the studio together and generate something new. It was more like I’m in Berlin and I send you beats, you do something with them and send them back. So it was pretty easy for me to do!
With all the releases on Boys Noize that come out on vinyl is it dying even more than it was before?
Yeah, it’s nothing new, it’s been going down for the last few years. In the last year or two, it has definitely been more dramatic. For me vinyl is dying as a culture, it’s been a culture that motivated me to become a dj and a fan of electronic music. Back then I was the only guy buying vinyl and being a dj and playing it to my friends. And going to the record store to buy vinyl and I had two jobs so that I could buy the vinyl, and I was spending crazy amounts of money every month on vinyl. I worked in the record shop for 6 years, being in the record shop meeting people, being excited about new records, making mixtapes. I know it’s still happening, but on the one hand with the blogs and the internet there’s a great bigger world to get everything, but on the other hand it’s very limited because there’s no real filter. It’s not like you can go through a record store and listen to records you don’t know. It’s a different world. Of course it’s a little  bit sad for myself because I’m a big fan of vinyl music. It won’t keep me from producing vinyl though. I’m the happiest man when I produce a song and see it on vinyl. It’s weird, for me an mp3 on my computer doesn’t have the same value or the same memories as my records. I can grab any record from my collection (10000 records) and I pull it out and have memories with it, and a little moment :) I don’t know if you have the same feeling with a one year old mp3 on your computer.
it’s a culture and it starts with the djs and their philosophy. Maybe this year I will play some more vinyl.
That’d be cool to see a change back to vinyl.
Yeah I think if every dj started playing vinyl again, then the kids would think it’s something cool. Then 1 or 2 out of 10 would start buying vinyl.
What about the European crowds to the kind of music you’re making. Is there still a big scene around the kind of techno you do?
Yeah it’s become really big. It’s not like it used to be where a dj would decide not to play a certain kind of music anymore, and the style would change. Nowadays with the internet this doesn’t happen. It’s not only the djs who know the music. So it’s become very big with more people knowing it.
Yeah I was talking to Mowgli the other day and he was saying stuff like The Bloody Beetroots stuff, that really ehavy electro is really dying whereas techno is still big.
It’s just all that stuff reached a different crowd. I was thinking the really hard stuff reaches a whole new dimesnion of people, a generation of kids. It’s a different thing to the dj thing. I dunno, ummm nah that’s too deep! haha
Well I’d better stop there since we’re about to run out of time. Thanks for doing this interview.
Thanks bye bye!