August 18th, 2009

Erol Alkan

I think it may be safe to say that Erol Alkan is a ‘superstar DJ’. But instead of playing the same back catalogue of post-rave dance  hits with an ever increasingly eleborate laser shows to convince a new generation of impressionable drugged out youth that he is in fact some sort of ‘Ecstacy God’, he releases an album of obscure psych rock re-edits. This interview mostly focuses on his beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve project which is worth checking out. I didn’t include the part of the interview where he gets pissed off with me for asking about his 7 year old Kylie Minogue and New Order mash up.

Winston: What was the idea behind the Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve project?

Erol Alkan: The idea began when me and Richard decided to come together and do a dj set where we played more weird avant garde music which led to us producing music together. We did about a dozen remixes which leads us to this album. It was very natural, jus the enthusiasm for the music that we both had. Just coming together and just putting our creative minds into force and seeing what happens.

W: Did you set out to make a distinct type of music?

EA: I don’t think we set out to make any distinctive type of music; we definitely wanted to re-edit to make old records that worked on today’s dance floor. If we played that music we weren’t trying to make “danced up” versions of psych record. It began quite indulgent just playing in small fringe venues for 8 hours nonstop forcing people to listen to this weird beautiful music.

W: Is there much of a difference between the way you make BTWS and remixes under your own Erol Alkan Moniker?

EA: I try to make every remix different; I try to make all the Erol different. I don’t really have a set way of doing anything. I certainly don’t like walking into something thinking the last thing I did well so I will do it again. I try to do whatever I can to force myself to re-challenge myself every time.

W: Do you most use computers or are there a lot of recorded instruments involved in your remixes?

EA: There is no real set procedure, some have been re-edits some have been entire reproduction, and you have to see what it entails instead of having a set formula. The good thing about the compilation is that they all sound different.

W: How did Trash begin?

EA: I did because I wanted a club where I could play whatever I wanted. It was a constant evolution it began very modest. It was never focused in a careerist sense.

W: Were you an established DJ when it began?

EA: Certainly no one wrote about me. But people came week in week out; there was a circle of people that to me was very important. If you have 80 people, that’s fine that’s your crowd. I enjoyed those times enjoyed as playing to 10 000 people. I enjoyed those times when no one looked at you with some kind of elevated status.

W: Has your approach to DJ changed much over the last 10 years?

EA: I hope it has changed; the nucleus of it is that I do play whatever I want. I think it has to change. You have to annoy people as much as you excite them; you have to clear dance floors sometimes. That’s the sort of thing that shows there is an element of challenge rather than being some sort of vessel for whatever the most populist idealism at the time.

W:Do you feel a bit liberated that you don’t have always be in London for your trash residency and can now go anywhere in the world for as long as you want?

EA: Well I never missed one night in ten years so I think that answers your question.

W: I noticed that you are having a massive 6 hour DJ set at Bugged Out tonight, I think to a lot of DJ’s that would be very daunting, what’s your approach to a DJ set of that length?
Are you sort of trying to take the crowd on a journey?

AE: You have more time to kind of express yourself. I played for 5 and a half hours in Paris the other night and that was the most fun I have had DJing in years. Only because I felt I could get more music into people’s ears. Just playing for 2 hours is great, but it’s more of a performance instead of a DJ set.

I think right now in this day and age the idea of playing a super long DJ set is really un-cool. That’s fine by me; it’s just what I want to do. I love playing music. I do feel limited sometimes in front of thousands of people that want to go crazy. Sometimes I want to build the night up and do things that I used to do at Trash, that I was so grateful to do every week. I want to look back on DJing when I don’t do it anymore and be confident about what I have done. By doing that I have to fulfill all of my aspirations, one of those right now is to not be limited.

W: How did you get into producing bands?

EA: It was really very natural I never wrote to bands trying to produce them. The first one was the Long Blondes, I really liked their music and felt we could do something cool together. We did Forward Babylon, which is still one of my favorite tracks by them. It all came from me knowing the bands and kind of going into the studio and seeing what happens.

W: Are you working on any bands at the moment?

EA: I have kind of retired from it I have made 3 records that I am very happy with.

W: Well it was great talking to you; I’m a real fan of what you do.

EA: Thanks that really means a lot to hear you say that, I hope to see you in Australia some day.

Excerpts of this article originally appeared in Onion Magazine but I thought the full interview deserved a little attention.

Winston | 1 Comment

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